A booming and thunderous sound shocks the earth as a train speeds down a track, its automated announcement echoing through the station, “Arriving at Saint Gon Station.” The train begins to screech to a halt and the doors open, and a young man walks out with a gust of wind scattering his dark brown hair.

He is wearing headphones, which are playing the news “There have been sightings of a golden streak in the sky, but there was a recording of this and it only appeared for a quarter of a second. Researchers have managed to identify the golden object as a rod, and we will talk about the origins of this rod right after the ad break—” At this point, the man stops and lets out a sigh.

“Oh, shoot, I forgot to charge my phone.” He moves his headphones to his neck and cracks a smile as he continues to the station exit, “I guess I don’t need to listen to the news”.

The man continues to walk through the dense city streets with billboards and giant screens on buildings showing ads. The smell of alcohol and cigarettes fills his nose. ‘How can anyone live like this?’ the man ponders.

He gets to a crosswalk where he stops, but while he is waiting, things get crowded as more people are waiting for the stoplight, the air smelling stale and dry as cars zoom by, releasing exhaust into the air.

‘I wonder what the golden rod was about,’ he thinks to himself. The crossing light turns white as he begins to walk alongside many people, and once he crosses he stands before a giant skyscraper that touches the clouds and the sign on this jaw-dropping tower says Monster Hunter Headquarters.

He enters the building to see a sleek, white design with a reception desk in the corner with a woman in a uniform.“Hey there, I’m here to take the Monster Hunter test”, “Oh, yes, you are, uh David D Rose, right?” the receptionist says as she searches her desk. David nods his head. “ID, please”.

David hands his ID to the receptionist, and she gives him a form to fill out. Once he finishes filling out the form, she gives him a keycard and instructs him to proceed to the third floor.

He takes the elevator up and arrives at a large room filled with computers as well as other participants. A voice sounds over the intercom, “Welcome to the Monster Hunter test. Please proceed to terminal number 8 and follow the instructions.”

David goes to the computer and begins the test. The terminal presents him with a series of questions about strategy, items, monsters, tactics, monster-hunting, and more, in total 250 questions, and this takes him 1 hour and 30 minutes.

He manages to get a score of 100% and the average is only 36%, and on the computer terminal, a text appears saying “David D. Rose has cleared the first stage of the Monster Hunter test. Please make your way to floor 5, room 24.”

David goes into the elevator with two other people. “So what score did you two get? Not to brag, but I got a 70%,” proudly announces a man with bright ginger hair and a childish optimism.

A blue-haired man with a blue hoodie looks at the man and then turns and ignores him, but David says “No, thanks, I don’t really want to tell you. The ginger-haired man is just standing there in disbelief, looking at his shoes out of embarrassment.

David’s ears begin to ring as he hears a strange voice in his mind saying, “Why do you run from the past? You attempt to defy time even though it will only lead to torment. We both know this Xander Z Rodger”.

A vicious voice shouts, “SHUT UP!! I am not a weakling. I am a goddamn Steel Orphan” and suddenly his ears stop ringing, but he notices the blue-haired man looking annoyed and angry.

The elevator opens and David steps out while still shaken up from the experience, and when he looks back at the blue-haired man, he feels something strange, but the door closes before he can figure out what.

“Well, best not to think about that, but what if he really is a Steel Blooded Orphan like me?” David ponders to himself, but eventually brushes it off.

David navigates the complex corridors to room 24 and when he opens the door, he sees an old man with a big, braided beard.

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“Ah, you must be David. I’m Lawrence and this is my assistant Leon and we’ll be your examiners,” says the old man with a grin on his face, while a blonde man waves at David. “So what will we be doing here?” asks David.

“Well, we’ll start with your synchronisation rate, then check the ability of your marionette, then we’ll test your marionette’s fighting skills and finally your fighting skills, though the tests would have been different if you had chosen a different role like support or something,” says Leon, while checking a clipboard.

“Are you ready to do the sync test?” says Lawrence with a smile on his face, “Yeah, sure. I’m ready,” says David,

“Leon, get the S.R.M. from the 4th equipment room. Here is the key,” Lawrence said while tossing a single key. Leon catches the key and walks out of the room.

“So why do you want to become a hunter, if you don't mind me asking?” Lawrence says with a sense of intrigue, “Well, I have a promise to fulfil.”

“When I was 8, my friends and I in the Steel Orphan Foundation we all had the same goal: to become the best hunter, so we had a rivalry to see who could become the best hunter first, but 4 years later they all died during an experiment gone wrong. I did not want to give up on the dream we all held in our hearts, so I want to become the best hunter for them”.

“Oh, you’re a Steel Blooded Orphan. Wasn’t that a project where they raise orphans from a young age to become soldiers?” Lawrence says with a face full of wonder, “Yeah, I guess you could say it like that,” David says.

“Hmm,… I could have sworn that there was another SBO. Pretty sure he was some blue-haired boy called Xavier, Xander, or something”.

‘No way he is an SBO as well. This confirms some of my suspicions, but which of the 13 remaining orphans is he?’ David thinks to himself with a shocked expression.

Leon walks through the door with a huge and tall wheeled cart holding a giant machine with many cables and straps.

“Here is the S.R.M. I’ll get it booted up while you plug it in,” Leon says while typing on a giant computer in the corner of the room, while Lawrence is plugging in the S.R.M. to the giant computer.

Lawrence then picks up an intercom, and dials a number, while holding the intercom to his ear: “Hey, we need authority to man the machine,” Lawrence says, all while Leon is typing at mach speeds on the computer. “Don’t worry. This won’t take long,” Lawrence says.

“Permission to activate the synchronization Rate Measurement machine is granted,” boom from speakers in the room.

Lawrence begins attaching cords and wires from the S.R.M. to David’s body. “You ready, David?” Lawrence says while walking towards a computer. “Sure, I guess I’m ready,” David says nonchalantly.

“Whenever you’re ready, summon your marionette,” Lawrence says while standing next to the computer. David takes a deep breath while his eyes are closed. David concentrates and clears his mind of all distractions.

suddenly a very pale and light figure appears before him. Its short, chalky hair resembled that of a doll with no eye sockets, and its eerie darkness exuded a sense of dread. The creature's mouth had impossible proportions, and its ear-to-ear smile was toothless and lipless, the ghostly being phased through his body, bursting out of his chest, as it begins to fully escape his body. “Sync rate is steadily increasing by 3% per second,” Leon says as he watches with slight fear in his eyes.

The marionette begins to move towards Lawrence and Leon, walking like it has limp legs. “Something is wrong. The sync rate shot up to 78% even though the average is 41%. And so quickly as well,” Leon says in horror. The marionette continues limping towards Lawrence, still having a creepy and wide smile.

“NO way the numbers are 99%. At this rate, it may reach code red!” Leon says in absolute terror “No, no, no, no, impossible, it’s reaching 100%!”

Alarms begin sounding. “Code yellow, code yellow, code yellow,” a screeching automated voice shouts, “S.R.M. readings have failed. Would you like to try again?” said a much calmer automated voice.

“Yes, try again while running 10 simulations at once!” Lawrence shouted while clenching his fist. “If we fail at this, the higher ups will pin all the blame on me”.

David's marionette continues its walk of dread and horror. “All simulations have failed,” says the robotic voice. “Try again, goddamnit!” Lawrence says while biting his thumb out of anxiety.

“All simulations failed, reaching code red,” the automated voice announces. “Shut down all systems and copy all data. Make sure to send all graphing data, visual data and audio data to the higher ups!” shouts Lawrence with a face of rage.

“All power to synchronisation. Rate Measurement powering off. Task succeeded. Attempt to obtain all data failed. Managed to get 27% of all data” says the automated voice.

The alarms stops sounding and the lights return to normal, “Huh, did I fall asleep?” David asks in a confused and drowsy daze.

Lawrence explains what happened while David was still wondering why he had fallen asleep.

“So how will they decide my sync rate, then?” David says with a weary voice. “My personal theory is that they’ll just pass it off and give you a sync rate of 0,” Lawrence says with a sad tone in his voice.

“Aww, man, this is exactly what I feared,” David says while ruffling his hair, “but they have not decided on what to do so can you come back tomorrow?” Lawrence says. “Sure,” David says as he walks off. “Adios fellas”.