The Atlas Incorporation event looked more like a festival than a place where a fierce competition took place between spartans and intellectuals alike. There were colorful designs and miniature flags strung across the buildings beside the main street. It showed the main colors of the Atlas group; a bright magma red, a cool sky blue, and a mossy green. And the iconic flag of their with a man holding the world on its shoulders.
After all, this wasn’t just a simple event that a run-of-the-mill company started, this was done by the company that was on the threshold of being mentioned in the same sentence as The Solar Corporation, The Deep Depth, or the Strongest Chain. These were the companies that gave the world its energy and electricity, the most technologically advanced underwater country in the world, and the justice system that controlled the rules and regulations of the world itself.
These were the companies that literally ran the world. And thinking that a homegrown company like Atlas would become a company like that was something to be proud of. So, this wasn’t just an event of competitions, but also a celebration of the company reaching this amazing level.
Grammo struggled to push Patty through the crowded streets as parents walked with their children and some rambunctious students blocked their way. Even the casual passerby was too busy enjoying the festivities to bother even walking.
Who could blame them? Even Patty was caught up in the fever of celebrations as he bobbed his head to the instrumental background music booming on the side.
“Oh Supes, it’s too crowded in here. Where’s the musical venue taking place?”
Patty was busy taking in the scenery to even notice Grammo’s anxiety shooting up. Being a lazy slacker like himself, he never experienced this kind of stuff before. During holidays and celebrations, Patty would always want to go back home and stay in bed all day, so he would always miss out on these kinds of events. Children would always have their happiest memories during birthday parties, Patty stayed at home. Teenagers would have these pool parties and sleepovers, Patty slept all day on his bed.
But it wasn’t like Patty disliked the idea of celebrating these kinds of events, he was just too lazy to attend them. In fact, he liked to find new and exciting things all the time, with the added caveat that he could be lazy and still experience it while being lazy.
That’s why he was so inclined with always watching his favorite adventure space show, the Space Invaders, and also why he wanted to spend his time playing video games where he could experience strange and exciting worlds all in the comfort of his own home. The consoles these days were fully immersive and players could even experience a new life in virtual reality, but those things were out of budget for him.
If he had more money, he could buy virtual reality pods and just spend hundreds of hours playing in another world. Alas, he was broke. If his power wasn’t cut out, he would still be at home right now.
“Patty, focus! We need to find the stage or we could be late!”
“Fine, fine! Let’s just ask those people who are crowding that building over there!”
Although the streets were already congested as it was, this building seemed to only be an ocean of heads that were all bobbing up and down in waves. Everyone was on their tiptoes trying to see past the mountain of heads in front of them.
At a stage inside the building, there were four old men in Atlas Incorporated armor and suits looking down and addressing the crowd in front of them. The crowd nearest them were shouting and trying to introduce themselves informally sort of as a personal advertisement. They were hoping for the very miniscule chance of being recruited by these men and have their lives altered for the better.
These men were none other than the main organizers of the Atlas Incorporated event. They were the main characters of this whole thing, the one who decided which applicants get rejected and which ones were thrust into a lucrative world where money was as common as coal and your face was plastered on every kid’s wall calling you a hero.
“Excuse…excuse me?” Grammo asked the people closest to them.
“Get your hands off me!” the guy shouted. “Don’t weigh me down, you’re ruining my chances.”
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Grammo was startled facing this aggression. He didn’t expect to get this kind of a reaction just because he tapped the guy’s shoulders innocently. He could see the seriousness in the guy’s eyes; this guy was dead set on getting the organizer’s attention. Even though the organizers never told the crowd that they would be recruiting people in this place, and even if they did, the guy was too far away from them to even be noticed in the crowd. It’s not like he stood out like a sore thumb.
“Sorry,” Grammo apologized.
The guy, instead of stopping the argument because Grammo already apologized, looked at Patty and decided to take things a step further. Because he saw that Patty was sitting on a rolling chair unlike the rest of them who tried their hardest to stand out, he figured out that picking a fight with them would earn him a better reputation.
This was the perfect way to show the organizers that he deserved to be recruited by them!
“Trash doesn't belong here. You think the organizers would pick some boring-looking teenager over a peak-performing human like me? I learn everything there is to know about Atlas and I have trained for a whole year to fit all their standards. You are not even trash. You are excrement of the excrement. Get out of here before I show you who you’re messing with!”
The guy shouted loud enough for everyone to hear their argument. Grammo’s ears were bright red from embarrassment, not only because this guy berated his character to the very ground, but also the fact that everyone heard it.
“What? You’re still here? Didn’t I tell you to LEAVE!” the guy said as he used both of his fists to throw the strongest attack that he could muster. This was his time to shine, so he didn’t hold anything back. He was at the upper ground, while Patty was sitting in his seat, vulnerable to any attacks.
And this wasn’t a fair fight to begin with. The guy was a grown man in his late twenties. His muscles were fully developed and his stature was heads above Patty, who was only a teenager. Everyone who witnessed this expected things to immediately turn messy. Some averted their eyes afraid to see the disaster, but some wanted to watch this spectacle like it was good entertainment.
Will his bones be broken? Was it just going to be a nasty bruise? Will blood be spilt?
Even Grammo was worried for Patty, but he was not athletic enough to react quickly to the deteriorating situation. He wanted to push Patty out of the way, but for him, it was simply impossible.
But it turned out that nothing happened at all. Before the punch even landed, robust looking men who wore the Atlas armor uniform suddenly appeared and held the attack back before it hit Patty squarely in the chest. They apprehended him before the damage could be done. They successfully averted a disaster for the event since having a casualty in the field would tarnish their reputation.
“The aggressor has been apprehended.” One of the guards approached the leader of the organizers and reported the good news.
“It shouldn’t have even escalated to that point. Be more aware.” The leader was disappointed that this stain on their record happened under the eyes of Dione.
“I apologize for this situation. It could have been a PR disaster if a disabled teenager was assaulted on our grounds” whispered the leader to no one beside him.
“It’s fine.” replied the wind. It turned out that Dione was beside them this whole time, but he was invisible to the naked eye. In order to prevent unwanted attention, he turned himself invisible to everyone he wanted–a simple feat for strong people like him.
“Haha…i saw something interesting,” Dione commented.
“Interesting?”
—-------
Patty looked completely unfazed from the whole situation. From other people’s perspective, it looked like he didn’t even notice anything at all. They thought he looked completely shell-shocked; if the security didn’t apprehend the guy in time, people were sure that there would have been a bloodbath.
In the aftermath, the only thing that hit Patty was a gust of wind that rotated his rolling chair in a different direction.
“Oh, look Grammo. That’s where we need to go!” Patty pointed at a stage where a performer was singing in front of four judges. It was clearly the place where the musical competition was taking place. “Quick! Push, Grammo, push!”
Grammo and the people around them believed that Patty was an optimistic person. After all, even after being berated and almost assaulted by a maniac, he brushed it off like it was nothing.
But in truth, Patty was just lazy enough to hold grudges and be angry at some nobody.
So Grammo quickly pushed Patty away from the chaotic scene towards the music venue.
—----------
“What did you see there?” Dione asked.
“Was there anything else? That student almost died,” replied the leader.
Dione chuckled a little bit. “That’s not what I saw. I saw a terrifying kid who could see everything. I observed his eyes. He followed every minute movement of that guy even before he started swinging. He could see what was going to happen with crystal clarity as if everyone was moving as slow as a snail.
The leader and the rest of the organizers couldn’t believe what they heard. They looked back at the unassuming student in a rolling chair, but they never saw anything impressive. In fact, what they saw from his was the exact opposite. He looked like he never even reacted before the security arrived. But they couldn’t voice their doubts in front of Dione.
“But sir, if he did see what was going to happen, why didn’t he do anything?”
It was at that point that Dione smiled. “That’s what’s interesting. He saw the security guards move before they even arrived at the scene. I could see him calculate the seconds and conclude that the security would arrive before the swing would hit him. That’s why he didn’t react. He knew he would be safe. That little rascal. I don’t know if he’s arrogant or he’s a genius. Maybe both.”
The organizers were left speechless. If that was true, then it was indeed an impressive feat that could be an indication of a golden talent.
“Monitor him for now. If I didn’t have to hide myself, I would claim him for myself right now.”
—————-
“Thank the Supremes the organizers were there with security,” Grammo said with relief.
“Were those the five guys that planned this whole event?” Patty asked.
“Five? There were only four of them there.”
Huh. That was weird. Patty for sure saw another man with tall and lanky features standing behind the four of them.