Carn's mind was still reeling from Alicia's unexpected kiss on the cheek, but the sound of the car honking snapped him back to reality. He turned around to see a sleek black car hovering in the air, with a horse emblem on the front that looked like something out of the pre-mana era.
As one of the windows rolled down, a man with ginger hair and a sharp suit leaned out and addressed Carn. "You're Carn, right? We're running behind schedule, so don't dilly-dally. Hop in."
Now out of his stupor, Carn jogged over to the vehicle and got inside the passenger seat.
“Alright, the test starts in 20 minutes, boss told me you probably haven’t been in a car before so apologies in advance,” The man said as the car floated well above the skyline. The engine roared to life and the car seemed to shake in anticipation.
After a brief pause, Carn felt the car accelerate extremely fast leaving the city behind in mere seconds. Carn looked at the man and saw a wild look in his eyes and a massive grin on his face.
About ten minutes later Carn tumbled out of the car as he hunched over the nearest trash can he could find.
“What a rush! Boss hardly ever uses this thing so I had to punch it you know? It is man’s god-given right after all,” the ginger-haired man said with a jovial expression on his face. Carn gave him a glare as the contents of his stomach were now in the trash can. He secretly promised himself never to hop in a car with this man unless he had to.
“Well just walk into that building over there and register yourself. I’ll be back later to pick you up,” The man said, twirling the keys around his finger before reentering the car and speeding away.
Carn mourned for his future self before collecting himself and walking to a building surrounded by palm trees. The building had tan stone walls and contrasting red shingle roofs. To be honest, Carn wasn’t that impressed as the style seemed quite outdated to modern standards. He stepped up to the doorway and before he could touch the handle he found himself in an entirely different area.
He now stood in a giant grass courtyard surrounded by similarly styled buildings connected by stone pathways. He could see hundreds of people who looked slightly younger than himself sitting in chairs facing a temporary stage. A woman with a suit approached him before he had time to take it all in, “Hello the test is about to start. Please put this on and have a seat over with the other students.”
The woman handed him a thin metallic bracelet before taking her leave. Carn put on the bracelet and words hovered over its surface.
Name: Carn Roswal
Age: 19
Tier: High-wood
Carn hurried over to the seating area as an elderly Indian man on stage began to speak, “Hello students my name is Professor Sundaram and I am the department head of the combat classes here at Stanford. This is the last batch of students for the combat aptitude test. However, this is less of a test and more of a way to determine what you are capable of and what you need to improve on in order to ensure your safety. Even if that is the case please give it your all so that you can be accurately evaluated. I want to see everyone’s fighting spirit so don’t let this old man get bored.”
In his excitement, the man threw some light jabs in the direction of the crowd and they could all feel wind brush by their faces.
“With that said we will split you all into groups of about 100 for a total of 5 groups each starting at a different one of the 5 assessments. Your wristband will light up and direct you to the starting location. Four of the tests will remove your stats and other benefits you gained from God’s Paradise as well as your latent talent. The last assessment will scale in difficulty based on what tier you are and the difficulty will increase until you can no longer overcome the challenge. Your aptitude will be determined with your tier in mind so don’t worry if you fight weaker enemies than others. After each assessment, you will be healed to peak condition so make sure you go all out!”
When Professor Sundaram finished his speech, he suddenly unleashed a fierce punch straight into the sky. The impact was so powerful that it created a shockwave that rippled through the air and caused the ground to tremble. The students couldn't believe their eyes as they felt the force of the punch lift them slightly out of their seats. As they looked up, they saw the punch had created a massive hole in the sky, forming a giant circle of clear blue amidst the clouds. “And that was an advertisement for my combat courses. I will watch you all with great interest and I wish you all the best of luck.”
As the man walked off the stage, the air was thick with anticipation and the students couldn't contain their excitement. Suddenly, every wristband in the room lit up with a dazzling array of five different colored arrows, each pointing in a different direction. Carn's arrow was a vibrant shade of red, and he followed it eagerly through the stone buildings until he found himself standing on a vast, sprawling track.
But this was no ordinary track. Instead of a grassy field in the center, there were strange and complex machines of all shapes and sizes, gleaming in the bright sunlight. Carn felt his heart race with excitement as he wondered what kind of challenges lay ahead.
A short woman with tanned skin and bulging muscles stood in front of the machines and greeted the students, “Hello students my name is Victoria Ironheart but you may call me Mrs. Ironheart, I teach the physical strengthening course here at Stanford and I will be overseeing all of your assessments today. This first assessment will evaluate your strength and speed with a variety of different tests. Your bracelet there will temporarily remove the benefits from God’s paradise as well as the ability to utilize your latent talent.”
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Before she could continue speaking, a female student with a fluffy tail standing beside Carn spoke up, “I’ve never heard of this bracelet before, isn’t this technology really scary if it gets into the wrong hands?”
“That is a valid point young miss. This technology was made in collaboration with our university, M.I.T., Berkeley, and others and relies on the user’s permission to take effect. It is not like it was designed that way, the technology literally can’t work without your permission. It has something to do with the link people have with magic but you would need to ask someone more knowledgeable for a better explanation,” Mrs. Ironheart explained.
“Thank you for explaining,” the girl bowed slightly in gratitude.
“No problem at all. I’d like to explain the scoring so that you all can better understand the numbers you receive. The score goes from 0 to 100. A pure-blooded human at your age who has never made an effort to train their body gets an average of 25 on each test in this assessment while the average pure-blooded beastfolk might get an average of 35. Race will not be accounted for in overall combat aptitude so the score you see is the score you get. Your bracelet will display your score and that number will be received by the school. As a fun way to motivate students we display the school records under the same restrictions next to each machine so do your best to beat them!”
“Any questions?” Mrs. Ironheart asked. Seeing the students' silence she continued, “The bracelets will ask for your permission to block your abilities as I mentioned earlier as well as direct you to the test and give you instructions once you are there. We will know if you don’t accept the bracelet's permission so don’t try to cheat.”
With that said, Carn's bracelet asked for permission to limit his abilities. Seeing no option to click anything, Carn just thought to himself that he would allow the bracelet to limit his abilities and suddenly he felt power flow away from his body. He felt significantly weaker but he didn’t find it too bad as barely a month ago he didn’t have this extra strength. If anything he felt it was more natural.
He looked around and saw that all the other students were having it really rough with some even falling to the floor. He knew that most people joined God’s Paradise the second the game would allow them which was 15 years old so he assumed they lost a lot more than he did. The girl with the tail that had spoken up earlier collapsed onto the floor and convulsed slightly. Carn stood awkwardly around the fallen students and Mrs. Ironheart walked up to him.
“Young man, did you accept the limitations?” She said with a tinge of anger in her voice as the air around him seemed to pressure his body.
“Ya I did, I only joined God’s Paradise like a month ago so maybe that is why it isn’t so bad for me,” Carn said with slight worry in his tone.
Mrs. Ironheart put a hand up to her ear and whispered something and a couple of seconds later the short lady patted carn on the back, “Sorry for doubting you young man, we will have to wait a bit for the other students to get up so just relax a bit.”
Carn let out a deep sigh of relief, feeling the tension in his body melt away as he stretched and watched all the other students slowly stand up. He noticed that the girl with the tail was the last to stand up and was still catching her breath, her hands resting on her knees. Suddenly, a bright wave of green light washed over them all, and Carn felt a burst of energy surge through his body. He couldn't believe it - it was as if he had just woken up from a long, restful sleep.
Also, he noticed that his clothes had changed and he was now wearing shorts and a tight-fitting exercise shirt. Everyone had the same outfit on, men and women included. The only differences were small modifications to the clothing depending on the physical characteristics of the person with holes for tails and wings if the student had them.
Mrs. Ironheart's voice resonated through the air, "I just restored all of your stamina and got you all into more fitting clothes. You should feel as good as new, except weaker than before. This really only happens the first time, after that the side effects will be drastically reduced. Now please head to the location that your bracelet points you to. You will get your belongings back after the test."
Carn followed the bracelet and found himself at a punching machine with a soft surface along with 9 other students. To his surprise, the girl with the tail walked up to the machine. She looked to be about five and a half feet tall, Korean and had her black hair tied in a ponytail. She had a black tail that looked like a cat’s but didn’t have the ears one would expect from a beastfolk.
The girl reared back for a punch and hit the machine with all her might. The screen above the machine seemed to calculate a number for a second before displaying something.
Stephanie Cho - 55
Carn looked at the name in surprise, he remembered that Mr. Cho said his daughter was going to Stanford this year as well so seeing someone with the last name of Cho made him believe that the girl was his daughter.
Deciding to ask her about it later, Carn watched as the other 8 got scores around 15 to 45 with a guy who had wings that resembled that of a dragon getting a 60. Stephanie seemed annoyed that her score wasn’t the highest and was tapping her foot impatiently.
Carn walked up to the machine and glanced at the record which was at 98 and rolled his eyes. No one would ever hit that even if they trained their entire life.
He took a deep breath, centering himself before taking a step forward and raising his fists in front of him. With a quick flex, he tightened the muscles in his arms, ready to deliver a powerful blow.
As he drew closer, he could see the machine's target, a small circular bullseye that looked almost too small to hit. But Carn was undeterred. He pulled his right arm back, twisting his torso to generate more power. His eyes narrowed as he locked his gaze on the pad.
With a sudden burst of energy, Carn launched his fist forward, his arm extending in a blur of motion. His knuckles made contact with the pad, and he felt a jolt of impact reverberate through his body. The machine beeped, displaying a number on its digital screen.
Carn Roswal - 76
Carn was shocked at his own result but inwardly felt proud. He knew how to throw a good punch due to his time on the streets and worked tirelessly to strengthen his body. This was the result of years of training and it felt good to see his efforts weren’t wasted.
The rest of the group looked shocked but Stephanie looked downright confused. She walked up to him and asked a question, “You aren’t a pure-blooded human, are you? You are tall, are you part goliath? Maybe part orc?”
Carn was surprised at the sudden questioning and didn’t know what to say. He knew he couldn’t tell her the truth at least not in front of all of these people so instead, he decided to sprinkle a bit of truth in a lie, “A month ago I was fully human. Unless that changed since then I’d say that is what I am.”
Stephanie looked at him with scrutiny before turning around and looking at her bracelet. “Sure buddy,” she said, the irritation clear in her voice.