The people were rioting in the streets. Moonbeams shattered on broken glass strewn around their feet. Flames were starting up, licking towards the sky as torches were hurled through the air.
It was clear where the center of the madness was. The one figure who stood calmly at the center of it all, having directed the riots to begin, and was now just watching their chaos with a satisfied smile.
She was the vital point. The heart of the riots and the problems for this town – at least, the immediate ones. All I had to do was take her out.
I crouched down, eyes locked on her figure far below. The rest of the world seemed to fade away as my focus zoomed in on her, and her gaze eventually lifted to meet mine. We locked eyes, and her smile widened. I smiled back, and for that second, everything seemed so simple…
“Then I fell off the roof and split my head on the pavement.” Gen finished cheerfully, licking the tips of his fingers as he slid his food tray onto the stack of empty ones by the trash can. “And boom. Simulation failed. Who’d have thought it, right?”
“Well, generally when head meets pavement, the union isn’t a happy one.” Kenox eyed the buffoon with a smirk, arms crossed as the taller boy came trotting over to him. “Doesn’t usually last too long, either. Honestly, I’m still impressed you found the riot leader so quickly.”
“Quickly?” Gen gawked, eyes wide as he walked over to his waiting friend. “I was searching for three weeks sim-time. Didn’t you find her in, like, eight days?”
“Yeah. But that’s me, and I’m awesome.” Kenox grinned easily, patting his friend on the back as the two turned to head out of the cafeteria. “I have lower standards for plebians like yourselves.”
As Gen’s complaints filled his ears, Kenox turned his attention on the rest of the students around them. Most of them were finishing up lunch, just like him and Gen, chatting about the recent simulation exam with the usual mixed feelings that accompanied its results.
His eyes skimmed over the long gray tables, taking in the hundreds of students seated along them or milling about trying to find open seats like desperate vultures. The massive ceiling fan whirred monotonously in the air above them, providing a constant humming backdrop to the buzz of student conversation.
He eyed a few of the louder kids for a few seconds here and there, taking in the various excuses or curses spilling from their lips regarding their failures. Every now and then, one of the loudmouths bragged about how successful they had been, grinning and showing off the sim recap of their victory on their replay wristbands.
From what the braggarts were saying, Kenox knew it was still clear that no one had come close to his score.
A satisfied smirk flickered over his face for the barest of seconds before he turned his attention back on the rambling idiot beside him, the two of them finally exiting the chatter-filled cafeteria.
“And then I ate the iguana with peanut butter.” Gen was chirping cheerfully, shooting Kenox a bright grin.
“Wait, what?” Kenox blinked in shock at the redhead. “When did we start talking about iguanas? And why are you eating them?!”
“I knew you weren’t listening.” Gen sighed, shooting Kenox a rueful stare as he planted a hand on Kenox’s shoulder. “At least pretend to tune back in every five seconds or so, yeah? Makes me feel less neglected.”
Kenox laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head as he offered his friend a guilty grin. “My bad, Gen. I was just listening in on the other testers, is all.”
“Eavesdropping to make sure you’re still in the lead, you mean.” Gen snorted, squeezing Kenox’s shoulder before letting his hand drop to his side again. “Don’t worry. No one’s gonna come close to your score aside from Bunny Boy. And the final solution at the end was clearly leading up to wiping out the rebellion, and he wouldn’t have had the heart to do that.”
“Fair enough.” Kenox sighed, though a frown passed over his face at the mention of his rival.
Gen noticed the look immediately. “Hey, now!” The larger boy skipped with surprising agility in front of Kenox, holding a hand up in the air before him as if to stop him in place. “Hold it right there, bud. No pity parties over Bunny Boy, got it?”
“I’m not throwing a pity party. I don’t do pity parties.” Kenox rolled his eyes with a snort, trying to move around the hand obstructing his path.
“That’s funny, because I’m pretty sure that frown meant you were dressing up for one.” Gen replied instantly, moving with him and keeping the hand in his face. “Of course, you forgot the snacks and punch, but I’m more than happy to provide one of those two things if you need it!”
Kenox glared at the idiotic redhead, only receiving a happy, undeterred grin in response.
The two boys stared at each other for a few seconds in the hallway until Kenox finally relented, releasing a heavy sigh as he ran a hand through his hair. “You’re right. I shouldn’t worry about it.” Kenox grumbled, eyes flicking to the replay wristband on his arm, its blinking clock in the corner reminding him of the time. “And I don’t need a punch to realize that.”
“Well, maybe not this time.” Gen joked cheerfully, finally lowering his hand to plant it on his hip instead. “But remember to send me an invitation to your next party so I can supply one beforehand.”
“Duly noted.” Kenox smirked, dropping his own arm to point at the time shining on the wristband face. “In any case, we’ve got five minutes to Macroeconomics. Got anything you want to study last minute before our test?”
“Nope!” Gen grinned, spinning on his heel and marching purposefully down the hallway. His tall, muscled frame scared most of the students milling about the halls out of the way, the bodies parting quickly as he came steamrolling down shining, linoleum floors. While the pale fluorescent lights lining the ceilings didn’t do his tanned skin any favors, dulling the usual vibrancy of his form with a medical glow, he still made an imposing figure to those who didn’t know him.
Kenox just snorted and followed in his wake, offering reassuring waves and smiles to his frightened peers as he passed by.
Most of them seemed to recognize Kenox, their shoulders slumping in relief as they sent back eager waves of their own, excited smiles coating their own faces at the sight of the school prodigy.
A few of them eyed him greedily, looking like they wanted to grab him and pull him aside to talk, but Gen’s breakneck marching pace deterred all attempts at communication as Kenox simply marched after him.
Kenox was almost thankful for the insanely efficient pace of Gen’s walk as he threw fake apologetic glances towards the greedy eyes, noting in his head that there seemed to be more and more of them as the days ticked by. It made sense, what with the final exam coming up soon. Naturally, students would start reaching out to each other for help, or at the very least, trying to find allies before the exam began. But Kenox certainly wasn’t looking for any allies of his own at the moment, and he didn’t appreciate being eyed like a strategic territory up for auction.
Having the age-old excuse of “sorry, my best friend’s a lunatic and I have to follow him to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself” was a blessing from above.
Gen continued to barrel through the crowds of students, happily humming to himself all the while, until they finally reached a single steel door towards the end of the hallway, closed and uninviting to the entire building as it generally was.
Its status panel lit up as Gen stopped before it, flashing with the brief message [TEST IN PROGRESS] in deep-red letters. After a few seconds, the message disappeared, and a new one scrolled slowly across the panel’s face: [MAXIMUM TIME REMAINING: FOUR MINUTES].
“Dang, that class must be taking their time with the tests.” Gen sighed, leaning against the wall by the door with a huff. “I mean, it’s a three-hour time slot and they’re using up all of it? Four minutes left and they’re still not done?”
“Like you should be saying anything about how long people take, Gen. And besides, you should be grateful that Ms. Tisc can’t grab us and make us start early.” Kenox smiled, leaning against the space next to him and eying the students watching him longingly from down the hall. “Or, you know, review the material.”
He glanced briefly at the beefy redhead beside him, looking him up and down. “Are you sure you don’t want to study anything? I’ve got it all memorized. I could help you.”
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“No thanks.” Gen responded casually, offering Kenox a quick grin. “I’ve already committed to knowing what I know and not knowing what I don’t. I’m predicting at least a solid sixty-eight percent and that’s good enough for me! Last-minute cramming won’t improve a thing!”
“It’s sad that you say that with so much confidence.” Kenox sighed, shaking his head at his friend’s flippancy and crossing his arms. He glanced around the hallways again, checking to see if the rest of their class was going to start gathering with them at the door soon. So far, no one was showing up, which was pretty odd considering how close the class start time was.
Kenox frowned and checked his wristband again, navigating swiftly to his school schedule and double-checking the room Gen had led them to.
501 Macroeconomics Lab. They were in the right place.
Shockingly.
He checked the time next, but he already knew they were on schedule. Class would start in three minutes now.
Where was everybody else?
Just as Kenox was about to begin theorizing about what could have happened to the rest of the class (ranging from class-wide test anxiety causing them all to chicken out to an inexplicable plague), the steel door beside him and Gen swung open.
“For those of you with results lower than a sixty-five, your remedial block is scheduled for three p.m. this Saturday.” Ms. Tisc’s airy voice filtered through the open doorway as student bodies poured out, most of them with faces drained of all life and joy. “Study chapters fourteen through seventeen and prepare for a pre-quiz. As for the rest of you, start reading the next two chapters for our exam on Tuesday.”
“The words ‘exam’ and ‘quiz’ were used so many times there that I think I’m genuinely developing allergic reactions to them.” Gen winced and watched the test-takers in pity as they filed out into the hallway. “Has she no mercy?”
“She’s a macro teacher.” Kenox snorted flatly, peering closely at all of the passing faces as if he could glean an idea of the exam content from the lifeless pits in their eyes. “Mercy probably abandoned her body at a very young age.”
“Thank you to the top testers who stuck around for a few minutes like I asked.” The teacher’s voice dragged Kenox’s attention back to the classroom, and he and Gen both cocked their heads slightly to the side to listen.
“I know I don’t normally do this, but I’d like to recognize that a new high score has been set on the unit three examination by one of you.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Kenox muttered, he and Gen glancing at each other in astonishment. “Wasn’t your score the one holding the record on unit three ever since last year?” Gen whispered, staring at Kenox intently.
“Yeah. I had a 98.75 overall.” Kenox replied, frowning at the idea of someone overtaking the hard-won score. “I’d actually studied for once that time, too.”
“Show off.” Gen flicked Kenox on the forehead, then turned his attention back on the classroom. “Well, if it’s your score being overtaken, then I guess we know who’s in this class, huh?”
“Without a doubt.” Kenox replied, he and Gen tuning back in to the sound of light applause inside the room and the teacher dismissing the final group of students to head for their lunch break.
Figures floated by one after the other, Kenox’s eyes scanning them all with narrowed, eagle-like precision. None of them were quite right, not until the final two figures were stepping out of the classroom, side by side as always, moving almost in sync with each other.
The figure on the right bore a vicious, stormy expression that highlighted the sharp, angular features of their face and body. Blonde hair fell just above tense shoulders, choppily cut, and gleaming under the fluorescent lights like gold. Cerulean blue eyes cut strikingly out of an ivory face, glaring away any attempts at human contact before they could even begin.
It was a glare that only softened for the figure on the left, an identical counterpart to their companion in every way…but completely inverted. The left figure bore an eternal, gentle smile that lit up tender blue eyes right above it, both set in a heart-shaped face framed by short, golden hair. Everything about this figure seemed sweet and inviting, and not an inch of their appearance betrayed the devious mind lurking behind it.
Kenox felt a smirk creep over his face as those sweet blue eyes locked with his, and the gentle smile inched just slightly wider into the barest look of triumph.
“Kenox! Gen!” The bell-like voice sang into the hallway, its owner stopping instantly to greet the both of them with delight. “Funny seeing you here. Are the second-years having their macro unit exam today, too?”
“We sure are!” Gen laughed in response, patting the much smaller student on the shoulder. “But before we do, would you like to tell us how you got higher than a 98.75 on the first-year exam?”
“Oh, was that the previous high score?” The eyes turned to look at Kenox innocently, sweet smile still planted firmly on the delicate face. “Strange. I thought it would’ve been a bit higher.”
“Don’t get too full of yourself, Hidari.” Kenox grinned in response, folding his arms over his chest and staring down at the blonde. “There are only 1.75 percentage points you could’ve had over me, and it’s only one exam.”
“One exam is already way more than most of your other peers though, isn’t it?” Migi snorted sharply, planting a hand on her counterpart’s shoulder as though subtly telling Kenox to back off. “Pretty sure Hidari’s the biggest challenge you’ve had in ages. Rightly so, since he’s better than you in every way.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” Kenox responded immediately, still looking right at those kind blue eyes. “He’s got a long way to go to beat me.”
“But it’s only a short jump to overtake you if you mess up.” The blonde replied sweetly, gaze locked with his.
Kenox could feel his heart pounding with excitement as he grinned down at the first-year student, adrenaline kicking in as he thought of the exam he was about to take. He was going to set a score so high, no one would ever be able to touch it. Not even Hidari.
Man, he did love talking to Hidari. The tiny Bunny Boy was the only thing that could get him so pumped for a macroeconomics test.
Hidari truly was his only rival.
Kenox laughed, glancing at the time on his wristband to note that their exam was supposed to begin in less than a minute.
The other students from their class were finally beginning to arrive, several of them with terrified expressions on their faces and a glazed look in their eyes from last-minute cramming. Ah. It looked like they’d all been off fear-studying, trying to cram as much as they could right up until the last moment. That made sense.
Filled to the brim with new confidence and determination, Kenox lowered his arm and grinned at Hidari again.
“I don’t think you have to worry about that anytime soon, Bunny Boy.” He said with a sweet smile of his own, patting the younger student on the head. “I’d worry more about the people who still think you’re the female twin. Or the fact that Migi probably has more testosterone than you ever will.”
The smile dropped instantly from Hidari’s face, a glare that ended up looking more like a pout quickly overtaking it as Kenox walked happily into the macro room.
“Will you stop teasing me about that?! People know I’m a boy!” The light voice yelled after Kenox as the prodigy laughed and took a seat at the front of the room.
“No, they don’t.” Migi actually stepped in there, shockingly enough, pulling her younger brother away from the doorway. “Be honest with yourself. I’m the one who got sent the male uniform when we applied, and you’re the one who got pegged as ‘gender androgynous’ by our first sim exam. Not even computers know you’re a boy.”
“Migi, don’t take his side!” Hidari whined, their voices fading down the hall as Gen cheerfully waved them goodbye and took his own seat beside Kenox.
Hidari’s echoing complaint was the last sound they heard from outside before Ms. Tisc swung the steel door closed and turned to face them all.
The automatic deadbolt slid over the metal door, and the low buzz that sounded instantly told all the seated students that the panel outside now alerted everyone to the room’s occupancy.
“I hope you’re all prepared for the second-year unit six macroeconomics exam.” Ms. Tisc said coldly, her eyes sweeping over them all as she walked back to the front of the room. “You’ll be attempting to resurrect the economy of a country that bankrupted itself during a war. It owes twenty-three trillion credits to five different allied countries, has a now-failed internal market which was dependent on the war, and its national productivity is notoriously low, alongside country morale.”
She tapped a single button on the monitor by her desk and a low humming filled the room as every headset placed on the desks before the students powered on.
Kenox looked down at his, smiling at the glinting black visor with the school’s logo printed firmly across it, the cushioned ring that would soon cradle his head tempting him to grab it early and get started.
He waited patiently, though, as the teacher scanned the room one final time to make sure all the students seemed ready.
Then she nodded and folded her hands behind her back. “Begin.” She called simply.
Smoothly and adeptly, Kenox grabbed the headset resting before him and gripped the ring in his right hand, pulling outwards so it would widen and slip easily over his head. He released the ring once it was over, letting the band tighten and cradle his head with the familiar, cushioned pressure he was used to. The visor blocked out his vision from everything around him, a mask that thankfully covered up his whole face from the outside world so the teacher wouldn’t see his overeager grin as the simulation began to power on.
His body settled back into the desk chair, the usual cuffs popping into place over his arms and legs to keep him steady as a support cradled the back of his neck to do the same with his head. Held firmly in place, he could hear the high-pitched whining sound as the headset readied the waves that would knock out his active brain signals any second.
He probably only had a few more seconds of consciousness left. This part was always slightly unnerving – the idea of being legally brain-dead for a few seconds as a machine began to merge its own signals with the empty spaces in your mind.
But it would only be for a few seconds, and then his brain waves would come back again, now merging with the carefully designed waves of the headset which would feed him all the sensory input of the simulation.
His body should be disconnected from the rest of his brain, the simulation making Kenox feel as though he was interacting with the virtual world of his exam while his body remained motionless in the real world. But the chair cuffs and neck brace were always good precautions, just in case.
He closed his eyes, the grin still planted on his face as his heart raced faster and the headset’s whining pitch grew higher and higher.
He was so ready for this exam. A bankrupt country? Bring it on. He’d ace this better than Hidari ever could, than anyone ever would.
He was ready to take over. Ready to fix it all. Ready to rule.
He was the prodigy of the W.A.R. Academy, and the one who would best the final exam creeping up on all of them at the end of this year. He’d pass it with flying colors and he would emerge as the victor of the W.A.R. program, the winner of the EON simulation.
And then Kenox Salvosu would save the world.
The whine grew unbelievably high, Kenox’s grin remained wide on his face, until a bright white light burst from behind his eyes, temporarily blinding him.
It was the briefest flash, a blinding white light that stopped every thought in his brain until–
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[WELCOME TO REFORMATIVE MACROECONOMICS, SECOND-YEAR EXAMINATION, UNIT SIX. YOUR SIMULATION IN THE COUNTRY CANNESIA BEGINS NOW.]