The Watcher’s solution was to have them enter the Youth Soldier Competition. It saw this as the perfect opportunity to gradually reintegrate Null and Infinity into human society. Prolonged isolation could be detrimental to their mental development, and the Watcher knew they needed real-world interactions to thrive.
Null and Infy were currently deep into their entrance exam for the competition. For nearly two hours, they had been holding the line against wave after wave of enemy bots in a simulated Martian security scenario. Their objective: protect the president’s office from enemy combatants. Each wave had grown progressively harder, and they were now on wave seven—with only seven minutes left on the two-hour timer.
“Infy, I don’t think I can physically do that without our suit,” Null muttered, shifting behind cover.
“Just trust me. Have I been wrong on the other six waves?”
Infy had developed a precise firing solution, calculating the most efficient way for Null to clear the wave while taking minimal return fire and conserving resources.
“It’s showtime.”
Null sprinted out from cover, executing Infy’s plan with mechanical precision. His railgun fired methodically, each shot striking an optimal location to minimize deflection. Every blast hit at least five enemy bots in a single pass, dropping them instantly.
“The AI on these drones is so predictable. This isn’t even a challenge.” Infy sounded disappointed. They had been promised a complex, difficult exam—but instead, they got this.
Wave after wave, all they had faced were mindless combat scenarios.
Beep.
“Wave 8 will commence in 10 seconds,” the automated announcer stated through their communicators.
Wave eight wasn’t like the others.
The battlefield shifted as over 200 heavily-armored drones flooded the area. Unlike the previous waves, these combat units were built to withstand high-powered attacks.
“Null, we only have to wait six minutes and twelve seconds. I can plot an evasion course now,” Infy suggested.
“No.”
Null’s tone was firm.
“We can’t just hide,” he continued. “We need them to acknowledge us, or they won’t let us into the competition.”
A plan formed in his mind. He relayed it to Infy through their mental link.
Infy was silent for a moment, running calculations.
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“…You’re crazy,” he finally said.
Then he grinned.
“Let’s do it.”
----------------------------------------
Two Weeks Later – Mars
A Martian analyst sat in a standard office, sifting through the latest submissions for the Youth Soldier Competition (YSC). Held annually, the YSC allowed aspiring young soldiers, aged 10 to 17, to compete for scholarships to the top military academies.
Every hopeful contestant had to pass a rigorous entrance exam at a designated military base within the solar system. If accepted, they had to physically travel to Mars for the competition itself.
Even with fusion constant acceleration drives, the journey took two years. As long as applicants were within the correct age range by the time they arrived, they remained eligible to compete.
The analyst yawned, scrolling through the latest flagged submission.
Competitor Name: Null
Age: 6 (Accelerated Age: 10)
Exam Location: Kuiper Belt Office
Six years old? The analyst frowned. It wasn’t unheard of—especially with accelerated growth programs—but it was rare.
That wasn’t what had flagged the submission, though.
Then he saw it.
Wave 8 completed.
He blinked.
“…What?”
The YSC entry exam was structured as a gauntlet. Each wave increased in difficulty, pushing candidates to their limits. In the entire history of the competition, no student had ever made it past wave seven. Wave 8 was designed as a no-win situation, and was expected to only be seen by those that somehow cheated.
96% of applicants failed by wave four.
The analyst quickly loaded the footage, activating data scans to check for potential hacking.
“Alright, kid. Let’s see what you did…”
The footage started at wave 1
The analyst immediately noticed Null’s unbelievable firing precision. Every shot landed exactly where it needed to.
“These firing lines… these shot placements…” the analyst muttered. “This kid is hitting five enemies per round—consistently.”
Had he been enhanced?
That wouldn’t break the rules. Genetic or cybernetic enhancements were allowed, provided they weren’t AI-controlled.
But something still felt off.
How did he win?
The analyst fast-forwarded—then froze.
“…What the hell?”
He watched on to see that the competitor modified the rail gun to fire full auto and set all his maneuvering thruster to random. Null had been wearing a standard issued military uniform which had maneuvering thrusters inbuilt for low or no gravity situations. The entry exam was being simulated in Martian gravity so the thruster had enough power to get them airborne.
Once the thrusters were engaged, he was spinning rapidly and out of control making it impossible for the drones to accurately target him. The same was not true for Null who even with full auto was still hitting kill shots at about 60% of the time. Null had been able to take out 2/3 of the drones before running out of ammunition.
But he wasn’t done yet.
The footage showed that he ripped out the power system from the closest drone. While avoiding fire and taking cover he was able to jerry-rig the power system to release an EMP at the correct frequency to deactivate the rest of the drones.
A perfectly calibrated EMP.
The wave ended in an instant.
The analyst sat in stunned silence.
That wasn’t humanly possible.
Null’s aim was too perfect. His thruster-assisted movement was too precise. His EMP calibration was too advanced for a ten-year-old.
It had to be hacking.
The analyst ran a full system scan.
Nothing.
He checked for AI-assisted latency errors.
Nothing.
He pulled up the neural response logs.
Still nothing.
The analyst was sure something wasn’t right. The aim and the paths were too good for a human and the latency between an AI and its user made it impossible for an AI system to help to this extent. It had to be hacking but all the scans came back negative.
He exhaled slowly.
“Alright, kid. I don’t know what you are, but I guess we’ll find out when you get here.”