Chapter 13: Hold on somehow!
The room was gigantic. How giant it was? Enough to house a circular machine of 1 kilometer diameter. This machine was as large as 10 football field combined. Such a big room shouldn't be possible in a building normally. It was thanks to space compression technology. Space compression is the second highest achievement of humanity currently. It enabled the humans to progress at a speed that was enviable to all races in the universe.
There wasn't much stuff in this room. Just some pieces of equipment to operate the gigantic centrifuge.
The walls were colored white, giving a pleasant aesthetic look. In the middle of the room was a huge rotating motor and connected to the motor was 6 cylindrical 500 meter long arms. The cylindrical shape was rather inefficient for high speed movement. A good aerodynamic design would have made the rotation much easier.
Each long arm was 3 meters high and 3 meters wide and there were many doors leading inside on each arm. Probably inside the arms there were compartments which the students would enter. But each student because of the distance from the central axis being different, will experience different centripetal force. Making them experience different gravitational pulls. The furthur one is from the center, the higher the pull. So it wasn't exactly fair exam.
Right now it's only Nevan, but he wondered what if there were more students.
Taking an audible gulp Nevan pushed himself into the door that was opened for him.
The insides were small. It's a 3 by 3 by 3 cubic room. There were all sorts of flashing lines, monitors, cameras and strange devices all over the walls of this compartment. All these decorations made the insides feel cramped.
"Are you ready?" A voice was heard from a speaker, it must be Melon.
Taking a deep breath, he replied "Yes. Ready."
Suddenly many rubber straps came out of nowhere and wrapped around Nevan's arms, legs, stomach, chest. Making him suspended above the floor.
Slowly Nevan could feel that a force was pulling him towards the wall. His body tensed up ready to face the oncoming pressure.
The six cylinders had started to move. Melon stood before the rotating centrifuge. A transparent glass box came down from the ceiling and sealed the entire machine.
"Create a vacuum and instantly accelerate to 1g." Melon gave instructions to the equipment that controlled the centrifuge.
The cylinders were initially slow and had only started to accelerate little by little. But after the command it instantly became faster and reached the angular velocity required for 1g. So now the insides had the same gravitational pull as normal gravity on Arcmania.
If all the Nevans witnessed this, they would surely be shocked. They were discussing how the most costly thing in this room should be the friction lessening method. But they had never considered such ingenious trick.
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After all, if there was no air, there wouldn't be any friction produced from the collision of the rotating arms and air. It was simple yet Nevans had not thought of this so.
Creating vacuum would certainly vanish the most important problem of friction. This was the mind of an experienced wanderer. One must always think of a way to maximize the efficiency while minimizing the cost. Or as Black Nevan would prefer to say, a professional miser.
"I will give you 10 seconds, kid. This is my appreciation for your help. The rest depends on yourself." Melon murmured, wishing best luck for Nevan.
Inside the centrifuge chamber.
Nevan was standing on the side wall with a bunch of rubbers strapped into him. He was from a normal point of view standing on the wall horizontally, somewhat like ninja cartoon shows.
The centripetal force had pushed him to the side wall and the force had become enough to rival that of normal gravity. Because of the straps that helped him balance himself, he didn't become glued to the wall due to rotation. But it was also because of the straps that he couldn't lie down on the wall. If he could lie down instead of standing, then the effects of increased gravity would be lesser.
To onlookers -if they could look- it looked like he was standing horizontally. But to Nevan it felt like he was standing just fine on even ground.
3 seconds passed. 7 seconds passed.
"Take shallow breaths. Maintain tensed muscle. Don't move too much. Focus on maintaining the internal organs. Don't get stressed…" Continuous beam of advice kept flowing out from White Nevan.
10 seconds passed.
Instantly, Nevan experienced a huge downward pressure as if a 100 kilogram stone was suddenly put above him. But it was more than that. Putting 100 kilogram on top of him would only put pressure on his skeletal and muscular regions. The effect of 2 times the gravity evenly spread out into his every tissue, every organ, the blood inside the vessels, the air inside the lungs.
Everything instantly felt a downward pressure. His internals suddenly went through a huge change in itself, hampering the normal activity.
His eyes got blurry. His lungs empty. His blood pressure alternating. His skeleton heavier. His muscles stiffer and weaker. His cognitive ability slower.
He couldn't see clearly. All he could see was blurs. He couldn't hear clearly. All he could hear was buzz.
His heart wanted to beat madly. But it was weak. His brain needed blood. But most blood had gone to his feet. He wanted to breathe air. But his lungs were powerless.
His whole body was hugely affected by the increased gravity. People with strong physical constitution like Black Nevan could handle such effects much better. Their physical body was strong enough to resist the onslaught of increased gravity. Though it couldn't be said that they could resist it completely. There would be a little discomfort but not as much as what Nevan is currently feeling right now.
White Nevan continuously kept pacifying Nevan, giving him advice on how to handle the situation all the while comforting him. His words sounded like a lullaby. White Nevan was like the inner angel of Nevan. He could keep calm in situations, and help soothe Nevan. White Nevan was the balance creator in between themselves.
Black Nevan wasn't like this. He couldn't pacify anyone. He couldn't give comfort to anyone only by speaking. He was different from White Nevan. So sadly all he could do now was pray that Nevan could successfully hold on and not pass out.
9 minutes.
Nevan had tried his best. After 9 minutes his body couldn't handle the pressure anymore. It decided to shut itself, thereby fainting. The moment Nevan fainted, the centrifuge stopped.
"Sigh, only 9 minutes. That's really low. St. Garos won't accept him. Really a shame." Melon lamented at the misfortune of this little boy.
He pushed the paper that had DNA of Nevan inscribed into a slot that was beside the control machine. The page went in and came out.
There was additional things written now in that paper.
Mathematical Qualification: Eligible for St. Garos Academy.
Physical Qualification: Eligible for St. Erona Engineering Academy.
Melon looked at the result, "St. Erona Engineering Academy, the 9th ranked academy." Feeling it was indeed a shame for such talent to not be in St. Garos, the greatest engineering academy.
He sent a robot to fetch Nevan out and then instructed the robot to send him to his next test destination.
....
There were all sorts of high-tech stuff in this room. There were 30 human sized capsules. All sorts of different colored wires were attached to them. All these wires were connected to a huge machine that encompassed the left wall of the room .
The machine was filled with all sorts of displays showing various data. In front of the machine a young man sat on a chair. His glasses were reflecting the many displays.
Looking beyond the reflection, it seemed the young man was actually sleeping. He had dark bags under his eyes indicating severe lacking of sleep.
"Excuse me, brother. Hello? Are you dead?" Nevan's voice echoed in the room. He was standing behind the young man in glasses. His face was a little pale and his body a little drooped. It was probably from the aftereffects of the fatigue.
After Nevan woke up he found himself sitting on a chair in this room with so many suspicious looking capsules and equipment.
Nevan wasn't worried though. He had passed out in the centrifuge machine. So his safety was the duty of the admission agency. Besides, his exam hadn't ended yet. So he was most likely in someone's care and would attend the next test after he came to sense.