9: >1WAY
//
11:22 A.M. // 9 - 4 - 23 // Arc - Housing District
Starring Zendolyn Ato
Featuring Cedrance Manamune
//
It sounded… wrong. The music somewhere in there had this off feeling to it.
Ughh.
This knob,… left, too far left, turn it back a bit more. 30 tempo, right… Doing this with a trackpad felt weird. Really weird.
The music program and laptop I had bought had made my wallet much lighter.
I reached my left hand into the bag of potato chips and popped some in my mouth. Barbecue. Mmm. Crunching more, I zoomed in around the weird spot.
Fake echoed bass, check, fix the beginning rise. Violin lead. I liked it a lot. Piano cue repetition, mmm… I could make it crescendo more dramatically, I guess. Acapella? Iffy. There was something about it I couldn’t figure out. Replay it again.
All together. Click.
…
No, that sounded definitely weird.
Uhhhhhhh…
I tinkered a little bit. Drums, do me well…
Play, click.
…
Improvement. Yes, a complete improvement. I made quick adjustments to the beat, quieter, echoey, stronger, but still quieter, like a creepy noise in a dark room. And I figured out the problem with the acapella, a weird lapse in the syncopation and chest voice. I needed falsetto for this.
“Ahh… mMM—mMM!” I grunted out the mucus in my throat. “Ah-ahh, ah-ehh!—Ahhhhh~…. Mmmmm~—Mmmmm—mMM!” I coughed again. That was annoying. And hard. I sighed. The humming notes weren’t in my falsetto range. Too low. I pinched my eyebrows together. Autotune…? No, no need, I could just—
—BANG BANG BANG!
I almost jumped.
Someone slammed on the door and my watch buzzed at the same time.
[‘Someone is at your front door’]
Well, no duh. A sweat run down my neck. Six days and I’d never had a problem so I always assumed… was the room… not, soundproof?
Oh no.
I closed my laptop gingerly and slid off my bed. Slowly I approached the door. Maybe it could be delivery…? But first off, why, and second, at this ungodly hour of the night? No way. My social battery still hadn’t recharged yet.
—Bang
One knock. Definitely someone there.
And it was probably the person next door.
A thought wrestled into my skull.
What if I feigned ignorance?
I scratched my head and waited for the first ideas to come to my mind.
Okay… good thing my hallway light was off, and my lamp was on low. Taking a few quiet steps back, I turned up the lamp to full like I was just waking up, and ruffled my hair which was already well on its way to sticking up from the hour I spent with my head against the pillows. Then I made a rustling noise like getting out of bed, and for good measure I threw a pillow to the ground and pulled down the blanket near the bottom. Plus I was already tired.
A messy and tired guy still half asleep and annoyed at the person banging on his door at 11 in the night persona.
That would probably be convincing enough, right?
I dragged myself to the door, and then audibly groaned with my best impression of someone who just woke up. That was my one chance at a warm up. This had to be perfect. I stood there for a moment, my fingers around the handle. Deep breath. Exhale. Prepare the yawn.
…
Wait… what if they recognize—I swung open the door, my thought still only half processed.
And in one second it took all of my willpower and self-control not to reel back in emotion. Fear, pride, confusion, awe, anxiety, all of them screamed.
Buff God?
The young man returned my expressions in a two-step order, impatience, anxiety, determination, and then confusion, surprise, hostility, and calm.
—Yaaawwwn. It went through without a hitch.
“Who are you?” Step 1, avoid the real question.
“What are you doing in there, Ato?” Cedrance Manamune asked with a deadly patience, a mercy about to snap. Step 1 failed miserably, target has access to name. I masked my shuddering breath with an exasperated sigh. But it was Cedrance. This couldn’t be that hard.
But it was Cedrance…
“Well, what do you think?” I rolled my eyes. First off, not making enemies was out of the deck now, Cedrance clearly didn’t like me. But why, why, why?
Why me?
But my statement had its merits. He was tall enough to see over my head into my messy room, pillows and blankets strewn everywhere, and well, me. If the walls truly weren’t soundproof, he would have heard me ‘waking up.’ I probably looked like a disheveled goblin next to him.
“Aight, I’ll tell you right now that I’m not in the mood for this,” I said and pointed to my face, bearing an annoyed and mildly apathetic, but mostly tired expression, “but let’s talk in the morning when I can keep my eyes open.”
I began closing the door in an almost relieved state of mind, but then Cedrance stepped forward and caught the door closing in his hand. I was definitely rushing. I tried to pull the door shut but he was clearly much, much stronger so I instantly gave up.
“Zendolyn, are you pretending not to know me?” He scoffed to my great surprise, effortlessly wrestling the door open. “Well, you’re always pretending.”
F-first off—what?!
Stuttering backwards like a dysfunctional machine, I was very confused now. Cedrance wasn’t supposed to be mean, what was this?
And why me? Doubt crawled into my brain, but I kicked the doubt in the face.
“And you better turn down the noise on whatever you’re doing, because you are disrupting me from getting any sleep at all. Seriously, do you have a tuba in your room?!” He had definitely snapped, but then calmed down for a second. No need to be loud in the hallways. I was a bit scared now. A very strong and angry young man just outside my room. He could strangle me right now, and others would probably believe that I started it.
But no. I secured the mask onto my face; I’d come this far. Antagonizing the protagonist would be horrible in a regular situation, but…
I needed to test the waters.
“Look, Cedrance,” I pinched my eyebrows together and looked down, leaning against my wall and completely giving up on the door. “I think I know the problem and I’m sincerely sorry about it, but I also sincerely cannot give this up. Really.”
I flipped the switch inside my brain. What can a protagonist not resist?
“Why? All I know is that you’re being a loud and rude nuisance.” Cedrance was angry and pushed his head into my doorway, and he wasn’t sparing me. It wasn’t bad as far as anger went, but his character was never supposed to come this close. For everything he was, he wasn’t the sin of Wrath. I would play into that, no matter how scared I was right now.
It was the only way, and for Cedrance alone.
Looking up, I stared directly into Cedrance’s eyes with conviction, making him flinch. My eyes were wet, not to the point of tears but the hurt on my face was enough. He for sure was and should have been quite sensitive to it, in more ways than one.
“I don’t know why you hate me.” That wasn’t the question.
But it was the best answer. I was quite sure why he hated me this much.
Cedrance blinked twice, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion, like a misconception was clearing up in his head. He opened his mouth to say something but I interrupted him. Don’t interrupt my monologue.
“Failure, unloved, pitied, disowned, alone, a pretender, I’ve been a lot. And I’m going through a lot right now.” My voice was choked with emotion and my posture was pathetic. You of all people should know. “But you know what? I’m always trying to survive.” My face was full of pain that I had never felt before. Sympathize with me, hmm? The faces, one’s I’d never made before, somehow came to me naturally.
I paused cautiously, certain he understood the message. His face read of discomfort and pity. Clichés can mean nothing without a story behind them, like how a filter can do nothing to a blank canvas.
He didn’t hate me. He projected on me.
Now, what if I turned off the filter?
Blinking rapidly, I tried a smile. “Sorry, Cedrance, I can’t help you with the noise issue. I don’t know how I can get by without food, let alone a mana barrier.”
Step 2. Pivot. Act like what I said was a mistake. Change the topic, introduce the need.
Sympathize with me, you damn protagonist.
You are mine.
I need a—
“… mana barrier.”
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Is that it? I’ll get you a mana barrier.”
…
“Umm, I think I’m going to go now,” Cedrance said cautiously.
I nodded my head, still unfocused on everything except the dream and a wish come true that had just happened.
I was probably staring at him like an idiot.
He began to walk back to his room, and before he entered I called out with a manner of respect I reserved for only my parents, “Thank you so much, Cedrance.” I had to hold back from bowing my head, but I did smile as best I could with my wetted eyes.
Cedrance simply acknowledged me and nodded his head tiredly. Then he closed his door behind him.
I also went back into my room. The door shut behind me quietly, and I lowered the hall lights. The pillow on the floor and the blanket on the ground, I put the pillow back in its place for me to lay down, and pulled the blanket back up.
The light of the lamp returned back to dimness with a melancholic turn, and the laptop still resting on my bed I put on the desk, pulling the charger from the outlet and plugging it in.
I still hadn’t processed what had happened. By the time I was done, the whole room was tidied up and organized.
…
It worked.
Oh, my, bejeez, it worked it worked it worked it worked!!!
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The post-clarity of me lying on my bed, staring up at the dimly lit ceiling.
I just talked to Cedrance Manamune. I just won the favor of my main character. And oh, my, bejeez, I wasn’t going to have to agonize on how to get myself that stupid mana barrier anonymously anymore! Seriously, it’s not like I can just somehow be anonymous, how the hell would I pay for it without the whole world knowing? And it wasn’t like delivery services would just have mana barriers in stock, those things were hard to get! And expensive!
Delight tingled all over me, and somewhere in the deepest dark corner of my mind was the anxiety beaten into a pulp and swooshed into a basket.
My trust in Cedrance was strong for reasons I couldn’t explain. I was so happy I could scream.
And then I screamed, into my pillow and hoping that Cedrance couldn’t hear me.
A protagonist can’t resist problems.
//
10:14 A.M. // 10 - 16 - 23 // Arc - Practical Testing Block, Site B
Starring Serene Goldwin
Featuring Cedrance Manamune and Zendolyn Ato
//
—POHKK. One. My watch buzzed. Headshot.
Aim, focus.
—POHKK. I panted. Damn it! The bullet flew just past the now alert bot. Barely inches away!
My watch buzzed again, and I glanced down. Time was ticking. Three minutes left.
Stowing the gun in the holster I gasped for another breath and stumbled back behind my rock for cover as the last bot began to open fire on me. I flinched and instinctively threw my hands over my head. Those things wouldn’t hurt much, but they would hurt nonetheless, not to mention the fact that I’d lose points. My ponytail was in disarray, and I was constantly eating hair.
It stopped shooting. Was it reloading now? I had an idea.
Scooting to the very edge of my cover, I flung my hair outwards into the sight of the bot.
—BTT BTT BTT
The sound of not definitely reloading and very hostile bullets hitting wood startled me and I flinched in my cover again. Good thing my hair was long. What do I do…?
Unsure of what to do next, I reached for rocks on the ground and fumbled with a piece, my hand shaking. Would this work? Shimmying to the other side of the rock, or at least far enough away from my original spot, I prepared for the bullets to stop. I had to give it a try.
The bullets stopped.
… 2, 1. Now.
I threw the rock onto the ground where I had just been sitting, and a small amount of dust billowed into view. The rock clunked onto the ground, making a noise as if I had stamped my foot. Wait three seconds, feign giving it reload time, or any other misleading idea.
3, 2, 1.
I stood from my cover and opened fire on the bot, which was trained on the spot where it had seen the dust. The distance to cover to swivel to me was too long before my bullets hit their mark.
—POHKK
My watch buzzed. Headshot. Again.
I quickly turned back onto the course upon hearing the sound of metal hitting the ground, sweat dripping down my neck.
Looking at the course ahead, I didn’t like what I saw. It was way too open, yet I still couldn’t see the next bots. I didn’t like this test at all. Glancing back at my watch confirmed that there were only two bots left. Past the huge rock, under the leaves, in the bush, ow ow ow! The shade and sun was dazzling, like a scene out of a book. But this was no silly story, it was a test for my life and my grades.
Panting, I pushed through the darkness of the shaded brush. Ow, ow. Branches sucked. Leaves sucked.
—BEEP
Aghhh! What was… dammit, damn it all!
The little red buzzer with the word ‘Landmine’ taped on innocently popped back up as I lifted my foot.
5 points lost. That was totally all my fault.
I cursed, silent enough so the test examiner couldn’t hear me from her station. “This sucks!” My groaning turned into focus as I spotted the next two dummies from inside the bushes.
So maybe this wasn’t the intended way…? Rolling my eyes, I thought to myself again. Everything always seemed to be intended.
Breath. In!
—POHKK
—POHKK
In two successive shots, I let out a breath worth a whole week of practice.
—BEEP
Time’s up.
The little chicken in my head wondering about the score was too exhausted to poop out any more thought eggs as I sat down hard on my butt. The ground began to rumble, from one end of the massive facility to the other. From what I had seen earlier, it hosted four large platforms like my own. My platform, a jungle arena, began to rise up, and the glass walls surrounding the stages and the audience seated in rows behind them seemed to move down as the very high glass ceiling approached me.
I didn’t spare any looks to my audience. It was way too big for my comfort.
Go watch the other cages, you sick bastards. I’d have enough people watching afterwards anyways.
At the top of the emporium testing cage, I could see the head of the lady in charge peering down at me. We made eye contact, and she feigned disinterest, walking away to an adjacent cage when I waved her hello, still sitting on the ground. Clearly more than just one examiner was watching me.
As I neared closer and closer to the glass that threatened to crush me between the ground and the roof, the glass top began to open from the center and retract outwards. The whirring noise of machine and mana in tandem scraped against my ear, and yet was comforting in a sense that I wasn’t going to become a pancake.
Now I could finally hear the noise from outside. The loudest were the Terrainers, yelling instructions and whatnot back and forth all over from each end of the facility. They were like a construction crew, organized and highly efficient. They had to do this at least a couple hundred times today, and then for the testing session tomorrow, and then the next. I felt kind of bad for them.
A few thuds landed next to me, the crew hopping in from the top and making more sweat trickle down my neck. Sticking those jumps would have resulted in a pancake if I had done that.
The trees all about me fell down one by one, a few disappearing like mirages and others falling and then becoming dust. One by one, and then it was totally flat besides for the occasional lump in the landscape. That was probably going to go soon, once I got off… now. The whirring stopped and the machinery made a huge thunk noise as the platforms reached the top. I glanced around, Terrainer, Terrainer, another one, how many are there? Oh, that’s the examiner. She held a clipboard in her hand.
The woman lifted her hand into the air for me to see and come to her, but yet it felt like some sort of trance was pulling me her way anyways. Well, if that’s what it took to get me to come, sure. I was getting in some good mental resistance practice too.
Apparently, for this examiner it was standard procedure, or so an upperclassman had told me. Directional mind trances. Neat. Disturbing, yes, but cool.
Like a hand grasped around my brain, my feet walked towards her as I helplessly worried with all my might to resist, resist! In my periphery the three other kids, dressed in the same blue and white Arc uniform reserved for outings outside the island and practical exams, were seemingly as entranced as I was. A sudden relief filled me when the examiner let go.
“Your scores will be posted soon on the Arc app, as well as comments from other students.” Her eyes lingered on me for more seconds than I liked, then to the boy on. “To get full marks you must write at least two comments on other students’ exams, the rubric will be on the site. Go on, now.”
She waved us off to rejoin the audience and we obliged. In the very center, between the four now empty and completely flattened stages was a platform which all of us ran towards. When I finally stepped onto it, the countdown sequence initiated. My watch buzzed, as did the others’ and then a green light lit around the pad. I kept my arms well within the safety zone, and then we were suddenly boxed by a quick contraption and then gently lowered to the ground floor. In essence it was an elevator.
When we reached the bottom the doors pulled upwards on all four cardinal directions, labeled by the large neon letter embedded into the Arc logo on the paths. The edges of the path lit green, signaling safety and we parted, a boy and I to the North section while the other two went respectively to the East and South sections.
The instructors called out something as a guy with a paintbrush hair and a crossbow entered, and we exited the path past him and out into the rest of the crowd. Cedrance was easily noticeable in the sea of uniforms, simply the best looking one with a hand in the air that invited me to sit next to him. Walking up the staircase, I slid myself beside him and sighed, resting my head on his shoulder.
“Great job, Serene,” Cedrance smiled, and then returned back to writing on the holographic keyboard.
“Thanks.”
The shape of the stage allowed each section to view two stages out of four, and each stage was currently being set up by the tireless Terrainers. Five minutes until the next four students’ testing began. I had already written a comment before this so one more was all I needed. I checked the unawakened public schedule to see who was next and if they were worth commenting on.
[10:17 — Zendolyn Ato, Denislava Ilieva, Alise Ivanova, Paulo Sousa]
That meant to my right was Zendolyn Ato on the Northwest stage and to my left was Denislava Ilieva to my left on the Northeast stage.
…
Who were they? The first one seemed to grab my attention more, something about the last name.
Ato, Ato… where did I know—oh yeah, Reyenal Ato! That’s the heir of Silverdawn, and… I nervously glanced over at Cedrance's face, but he didn’t seem to react nor have any bad mood at all.
So who’s Zendolyn?
A quick search into the students list and I found his profile.
——
1 2 6 6 0 4 3 9 6 5
Zendolyn Ato | Year 1 | UAH2
Rank 1289 | Rank 7522
Crossbow | Music Composition | N/A
——
His profile’s portrait was the same as the guy I had passed earlier, the same unenthusiastic expression on a pale face and a paintbrush hair, though otherwise he looked eerily similar to Reyenal Ato. She too had that same white-dipped hair and mocha eyes, and features that made them both look oddly serious and calculating. Were they twins?
Even so, there were so many people in the North section now, and many were flooding over into the West section too.
I tuned out the gossip from the people behind me, loudly yappering about the Ato kid. I didn’t like gossip. Instead I brought my attention to the stages. Most of the stages were out of view as they were too high up, but from the edges of them I still could guess what the theme of the stage would be.
For this exam, the overall theme was
From what I figured, this was basically a bunch of assassination missions but with human-like robots.
‘Patterns in familiarity breed habits to break, so always prepare for the expected and expect the unexpected.’ That was level two. We weren’t quite there yet.
Each student was allowed to choose the stage they wanted, and each stage had a different premise.
The Northeast stage to my left seemed to have the same forested characteristics as my own stage, Forest. The premise was simply to take out all the targets, the simplest of them all. It was very popular so far.
However, the Northwest stage… was different. It wasn’t something I had seen today, and from the lighting it looked like there was some sort of show going on. I could see the backs of a few bots from here. On the list of stages, the only thing that came close to what I was seeing was called Auditorium, which I doubt anyone except this psycho was doing at all.
Was he some sort of attention junkie?
Soon the projectors would turn on for each stage so we could get closer looks on the methods each student would take. This brought my mind back to my own test, and then I cringed to myself. Everyone probably heard me curse.
“Hey Ced,” I tried to ask with a straight face.
He turned around to me and smiled radiantly. “Yeah?”
“Did you… umm, when I was…”
My embarrassment flared obviously on my cheeks.
“Serene,” he let out a short and relaxed puff, “don’t worry about it and just ask. I won’t judge.”
I paused for a moment, and then pushed myself up to him and pulled his head toward me, so he leaned in. Cupping my hand around his ear, I whispered scaredly, “Did you hear me when I stepped on the buzzer?” His ear was kind of pink now that I was looking at it up close.
Cedrance caught himself laughing and as I pulled back for a better look at him he was clearly trying to hold one in. “Loudly. Very loudly.”
I fixed my eyes firmly to the stages, and the creeping feeling of embarrassment prodded at my very pink face. “You told me you wouldn’t judge…”
“You think so? I was just thinking about how cute you are when you’re embarrassed.”
That caught me completely off guard.
I sucked in a shuddering and hot breath.
K-keep… staring… forward… maybe don’t be too obvious with that stupid grin…
“B-by the way,” I started, my voice one octave too high making Ced crack up again. Clearing my throat and still completely hot in the face, I went on, “what are you going to do with the mana barrier I gave you?”
“Hmm? You’re blushing,” he teased me, and then interrupted me before I could be annoyed, “but lately, because of it I’ve been having much better sleep. Thanks a lot again, Serene.” He pointed to his face. “Look, no eye bags.”
I nodded slowly, not really satisfied with the answer, but I didn’t push. If he kept smiling like that I think I would actually go blind.
Just as I was about to say something, the projectors turned on and all of the various chatters around me lowered, yet were still quite loud if less obnoxious.
“Oh look, it’s about to start.”
My watch buzzed, and I turned it on. The live footage was being publicly streamed to the Arc app and probably to other online sites, and the past footage for every student was available for download all over the world for everyone to watch and analyze.
The initial nerve wracking phase I had when I learned about this had disappeared quickly, but many students very obviously felt the pressure. Of course, not everything was made public and this was one of the few things that would be broadcasted to the world, but it did its job as intended.
Early advertisement. The instructors had not been discreet about this.
“Serene, are you going to comment?” Ced nudged me lightly.
I closed the app and opened a document in the browser.
It was aptly named [Zendolyn Ato comment - notes].
I pointed to the Northwest stage. “This guy is interesting.”
“Zendolyn Ato?”
“Yeah.”
I looked back to the keyboard that appeared in front of me to quickly type down some starter lines.
[crossbow user, ~ my height, prob assassin-ish specialization (not confirmed ???)
maybe twin to reyenal, high expect cuz popular idk (many viewers), otherwise judge abt/near me cuz marksmen
Chosen stage: Auditorium = difficult, complex, one target only (assassination), many bots]
My thoughts were vague and half-baked, I didn’t know anything about this guy. I backspaced the part about the expectations and then brought my attention back up to the screens.
The test hadn’t begun yet, so the projectors only showed off the stages. I was right about Forest and Auditorium, but in the back two stages were Ice for Alise, a wintry stage with bots using the blinding snowfall to their advantage, and Pier for Paulo, a stormy environment with pirate bots docked at a small pier over water.
Each one was unique in their own way, but Auditorium definitely stood out.
For one, it was the only stage where all the bots other than the target could not be killed.
And two, no one could know the target was dead before the time ran out.
—BEEP
Over the intercom, the head examiner’s voice boomed, “Students, you may now begin.”