Upon being called, Zayden stepped forward and followed Pina towards the testing area, which appeared to be a large spherical structure located on the other end of the room. This made him feel puzzled as he was unsure how he was supposed to be tested there since there did not appear to be any kind of object or space for someone of his size.

Just then, a pair of doors opened from the middle of the structure and swung wide open to reveal something that made him react with surprise.

“Huh? Is that a… bed?” He asked while blinking in surprise.

His reaction made Pina chuckle with laughter before replying, “That is no ordinary bed. It’s the bed that’ll assess your status of being a super human and what rank your power fit in if you are one.”

“What?”

“Surprised?”

“Yes. I was expecting some sort of orb for me to put my hand on.”

“Oh! Those!” She said knowingly and nodded in understanding. “Those are old gen. These are the new gen.”

“I see,” he replied while staring at the bed quizzically.

As the preparations were underway, she indicated for him to head into the capsule and lie down on the bed. Following her instructions, he did so and was remarkably amazed by the feeling of the bed he lay on.

“Wow. This is comfortable.”

“Thank you,” she said appreciatively. “Our team had worked hard to make the most the testing process comfortable.”

This perked his interest and made him ask, “How come? Is the testing process that horrible?”

“Well,” she began and looked wryly at him, “some individuals experienced many great things, including things like vomiting uncontrollably, losing consciousness and sometimes having to be rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.”

He raised himself off the bed slightly to look at her in shock.

“Rest easy. Such things only happened with the previous models and that happened like over a year ago, so you have nothing to worry about,” she assured him with a beaming smile on her face.

“That’s… not exactly reassuring,” he told her with concern.

“Relax and lie down. It’ll be over before you know it!” She told him with a determined smile on her face.

Just then, one of the people wearing a white coat called out to her by saying, “Madam Pina, we’re ready.”

“Alright!” She told him firmly. Then she turned back to Zayden and gave him a thumbs-up gesture and a wink of reassurance.

Still feeling doubtful, he laid back down on the comfortable bed and relaxed as much as he can. Despite trying his best to relax, he was somewhat concerned by the short explanation she gave for the introduction of this bed for the assessment.

“I wonder what kind of test this involves for them to become like that?” He wondered to himself. “Was the Force withdrawn from them by chance to the extend that put immense pressure on the people? Or did they somehow sapped the life force of the person taking the test without knowing it?”

With his knowledge from his world, he knew Force was the substance that keeps the existence together and through that force was the Magic Force, Weapon Force and the Energy Force. This was what defined how users would use the Force within them to utilise their magic, weapons or raw energy.

Comparing what he knew from his world and the knowledge of this world, he saw quite a lot of difference. For starters, the magic in this world seemed to be part of the nature and there was no concept for a Weapon Force other than the utilisation of imbuing energy into tools and weapons using things like engraving ruins and special characters.

“I don’t understand why, but this world feels so foreign and familiar at the same time,” he thought to himself with a disgruntled expression.

Just then, the doors to the outside closed shut and he heard Pina’s voice say, “Zayden, can you hear me?”

“Oh, this thing had a microphone on the inside?” He responded in surprise.

He heard her laugh and say, “I’m glad you can still joke. Now, we’ll be beginning the test. I want you to close your eyes and relax as best as you can. Like I said, those incidents were in the past and haven’t occurred again in the last one year. So, relax. It’ll be over before you know it.”

“That’s reassuring,” he said with a sigh. “Then, please wake me up once the testing is done.”

“You’re going to sleep?”

“Yes. Might as well take a nap since the bed is so comfortable. Far better than what I could every afford in my life,” he told her with in a joking manner.

To that, she smiled understandingly and said, “That’s alright. Get a good rest.”

As the preparations were underway to begin his assessment, Lina walked into the monitoring room. There were people moving around restlessly and people sitting on chairs in front of monitors typing rapidly onto the keyboards with their fingers.

Lina glanced around at the people and as she arrived at the front end of the room, she glanced up at the multiple large screens hung on the front. They were depicting data that made no sense to her, but there was screen that showed Zayden lying in the bed eyes closed and looking completely relaxed.

“Is it…?” She began to ask Pina hesitantly.

“Asleep? Yes,” finished the other girl without turning to her while looking down a set of papers quickly. Then she handed over to the waiting person and gave quick instruction to them before turning to face her, “He said to wake him up once the assessment is done.”

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Lina laughed drily upon hearing what he had told her and said, “I wish I had that kind of relaxed mood.”

“I wish everyone had that kind of relaxed mood,” said Pina while smiling up at the monitor showing him sleeping on the bed. “It would make our job so much easier.”

“True,” said Lina shortly, and she glanced around at the enormous effort being undertaken to conduct the assessment. “I can imagine how stressful for everyone because of the after effects.” Then she suddenly got a doubt and asked her, “Did you tell him about them?”

“Uh…” Pina began and hesitated to continue while looking nervous.

Lina’s eyes widened in alarm and asked, “Why didn’t you tell him?!”

“It’s a very low chance of such a thing happening, so I just hold him that they’d be rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.”

“Even so, he has the right to know,” said Lina, shaking her head disapprovingly.

Some of the after effects that she was concerned about were going into a coma, loosing memories, getting their internal organs badly damaged and loosing memories of themselves completely. Much of those symptoms appeared on those who had no a single trace of a super human state in their existence. As such, there was no way for them to survive against the assessment used by the government to check for their super human status.

Pina looked at the worried look on Lina’s face and asked, “Why did you even bring him here if you’re so worried?”

“I didn’t want to,” said Lina irritably. “Wonder Man forced me.”

“Wonder Man?!” Pina exclaimed, making everyone stop what they were doing and turn towards her in shock. Noticing this, she clapped her hands and told them firmly, “Get back to your work, everyone. Wonder Man is not here, so get back to your duties.”

With an audible disappointment, everyone turned back to resume what they were doing.

“Stupids,” muttered Pina while Lina chuckled with a small smile. “Anyway, why did he want this man tested?”

“Apparently, he saw something tremendous about him.”

“Tremendous?”

“Well, not exactly that word, but he did ascertain that he saw something incredible.”

“Is that so? That’s certainly interesting.”

“Right.”

Pina also knew from first hand experience that Wonder Man had a keen sense of figuring out who had super human status and who did not. She thought back to the first time she witnessed him making such an assessment and the final result from the proper testing came out to prove his claims to be valid.

“If he said so, then I’d believe them.”

“Yes, but the thing was he wasn’t sure what he saw when he checked Zayden out.”

“What? He doesn’t remember?”

“I don’t know, but he was quite confused himself and that had me worried.”

“You don’t think he saw wrong, do you?” Pina asked worriedly.

“I don’t know, Pina,” replied Lina worriedly, “and that’s what’s got me worried.”

There was a momentary silence between them before Pina asked, “You don’t think he saw wrong and now we’re putting an ordinary civilian to go through this test?”

“I… I don’t know,” said Lina in a defeated tone. “If he had been more confident, then I would’ve been more confident, but with his uncertainty on what he saw, I don’t know what to do.”

Pina looked at her distraught expression and said, “In that case, let’s stop this test.”

“No!” Lina said firmly.

“But you said—!”

“I know what I said, but he swore Zayden was a super human.”

“He… swore?”

“Yes. He swore in his name and assured me to take him to the test.”

Pina looked at her in astonishment and said, “T-That’s…!”

“Yeah,” said Lina in understanding with a grim look. “It would look really bad for him if I were to ignore him since he has a consistent record of assessing people’s super human status.”

“But if he’s wrong due to his uncertainty and we’re putting an ordinary person through this test, then the consequences would be bad for Zayden.”

They both remained silent while the people around them continued to go about preparing the equipment for testing Zayden’s super human status. Both of them were in a dilemma on what to do in the tricky situation they were put under. They could follow through with Wonder Man’s strong desire to have him tested, or they could stop the test completely under the pretext that it was too risky to test an ordinary person through this.

At that moment, Pina moved towards the mic and asked, “Zayden. Can you hear me? Zayden?”

The both of them looked up at the large screen only to see him lying motionless like before. He had his eyes closed and seemed to be sleeping peacefully with how slowly his body moved from breathing in and out.

“That’s amazing,” remarked Pina in amazement.

Lina chuckled and said, “He actually fell asleep. That’s truly amazing indeed.”

There was yet another moment of silence between them before Lina broke it by saying, “Carry on with the test, Pina.”

“Are you sure?” Pina asked her seriously.

Lina did not immediately reply and looked up at the monitor, at the sleeping figure of Zayden. Then she said, “Yes. I am,” and turned to Pina before saying, “Something about him just makes me believe he will be fine. Besides, I still have faith in Wonder Man’s ability to ascertain someone’s super human status.”

“Yeah. That’s a valid point,” said Pina, nodding in understanding before looking perplexed and saying, “although I don’t understand about your faith in Zayden himself.”

Lina then began explaining about her experience from having taken care of him throughout his stay at the hero hospital and having spent shopping with him. Pina was amazed to hear how badly injured he was when he was admitted, and then remarkable recover as well as how he began to perform body strengthening exercises daily without break.

“His attitude and behaviour just screamed someone that possessed a willpower that could not be broken under any circumstances,” said Lina with a look of admiration on her face.

This surprised Pina by her statement and she asked with an incredulous look, “You figured all that out by taking care of him and shopping with him?”

To this, Lina looked at her and said, “You know what my super power is, right?”

“Oh. That’s right,” Pina said in realisation and nodded in understanding. “In that case, I understand why you seem quite positive about him.”

“Yeah. So, I think it’s fine to perform the test,” Lina said confidently.

Pina nodded but still wore an apprehensive look as she said, “Let’s pray everything will work out for the best.”

Lina did not say outwardly anything, but inwardly she thought while looking up at the monitor showing Zayden sleeping peacefully, “It’s all up to him now.”

At that moment, one of the men hurried to Pina and said, “Madam, everything is ready and waiting on your command.”

“Good,” said Pina in satisfaction. She glanced up at the sleeping form of Zayden on the monitor and hesitated for a brief second before letting out a sigh and saying firmly, “Proceed.”

At that time, Wonder Man had just completed explaining the situation and giving further details to the security force of that area before departing by flying into the air. He flew incredibly fast through the air and reached the super human testing area very quickly and gently touched down.

Many people were amazed to see him there and began crowding around him with faces full of joy and eagerness to meet him. He began greeting everyone with his signature wide smile, making sure not to miss a single person and even stopping to sign autographs upon request from several individuals.

The people kept crowding around him, so he finally decided to gently go on his way by saying, “Okay, everyone. I’m very honoured that you’re so happy to see me and want to meet me, but I have to be somewhere else. It’s very important, so please allow me to go in. Thank you.”

As such, the crowd of people slowly parted ways but continued to cheer for him and call his name. Thanking them and waving at them in farewell with a wide smile, he entered the building and headed to the reception. The lady behind the counter was stunned to see him there, but he got her to focus by stating for what business he was there for.

After being informed of the location that he had intended to go, he smiled at her warmly and said, “Thank you very much, lady. You’re doing an amazing job. I am so proud of you.”

With that, he departed and left the lady reeling from his unexpected praise that had her almost faint. Her colleagues caught her fainting body with concern, but they could not hide their happiness and envy as they watched his retreating back.

He was here to ensure that Zayden was undergoing the super hero status assessment, and after learning about where the testing was taking place, he quickly headed there. It took him several minutes and finally he reached the place that he was informed about.

“Alright,” he said happily and pushed open the doors.

The moment the lights swung open, he was met with a sight that shocked him so much that he exclaimed, “What is this?!”