Chapter 20: The Labyrinth Test

It was an ordinary room, not too big nor too small. 40 spherical helmets hung by three or four types of wires and 40 little square stands below them. On each stand there was a bar stuck to it, which had a glove looking thing.

"Hey, remember what that cold female staff had said? It was break time. Is that why there's no student here? There also wasn't any student in the magic affinity test. We didn't notice anyone in the corridor either. Could it be that all the employees are on break now?" White Nevan was worried about their current predicament.

Nevan looked at the time on his phone. It was 4.30 in the afternoon. Not really a suitable time to take a break. However he suddenly remembered and couldn't help feeling pissed. They were too occupied with sight-seeing. He had forgotten to synchronize his phone's clock with Arcmania's. So currently he didn't know what time it was truly.

"Isn't this rather irresponsible, how can everyone go on a break at the same time?" Black Nevan complained. "Minus hundred points."

"They are human too, all people need some free time." Though White Nevan was worried about their own problem, he still spoke on behalf of the employees. A kind hearted person he is.

"Not at the same time!" Nevan and Black Nevan retorted at the same time.

Suddenly a voice came from a side, "I apologize. I had to take a call, it was an emergency." A man in his prime, with a big mustache and little beard came to Nevan.

"I am also sorry. I didn't know you were on a break." Nevan hurriedly waved his hand. He was a little flustered. Truthfully no grown up had ever apologized to him with such a serious tone. He felt a little overwhelmed and some unknown feelings that he couldn't quite describe. After all, a 30 plus something man apologizing to a 14 years old child, it definitely wasn't normal, at least not to Nevan.

"Break?" The man was puzzled by his question.

"Eh? Aren't you guys on break time now?" Nevan doubtfully asked.

"Don't be ridiculous, we don't have breaks. We are an organization that operates 24 hours so that we can take care of students no matter their home or time zone." The man explained as a matter of fact. His tone was very normal, not rude and not angry.

"Oh I understand. Sorry for the misunderstanding."

"It's OK. I guess it's rare in this season for the test room to be empty. After all, every aspiring wanderers need to take this exam."

"Everyone needs to take this exam?"

As the receptionist at the front had said, each academy had different sort of test exam, only mathematical exam was common since all wanderer needs to be good at math.

"Yes. You are here to take this exam right? Come with me."

The mustache man took Nevan to one stand and told him to stand on it and put on the gloves. He touched the spherical ball above, a small partition below opened up revealing a hole big enough for someone's head to go inside.

Nevan got on the half a foot tall stand and put on the gloves. The gloves had 5 thin wires attached to it.

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"Ok. Let me explain the whole process." Pointing to the spherical white ball which had part below opened like an egg, he explained, "This is a VR headset. Though I say virtual it's not too immersive. The insides are filled with displays and speakers. Basically they will create a virtual world around you using only your vision and hearing. You will be lead into a world of labyrinths. You have to enter the labyrinth and then get out of it. That is the test."

"I need to enter and get out of Labyrinths?"

"Yes. Now let me explain how to do it in detail…."

Nevan rejoiced. All this time he had been encountering all sorts of weirdos. That period receptionist, or that miser and game addicted examiner. There was that glasses guy who hated people who didn't follow his ideals and then that over enthusiastic senior who was kind but also arrogant at the same time. Only now he finally saw a proper guy who had proper work ethics and was serious about his job.

Nevan dramatically wiped a tear of joy from the corner of his eye and attentively listened to the mustache guy.

After a lengthy description, Nevan finally got a hold of how to go about it.

Nevan put the headset on. The world got dark. Almost instantly it lit up. All sorts of displays, screens, data started to appear around Nevan's head.

"Woah, cool! This is just like the insides of Iron Man's helmet." An exalted Black Nevan.

"I kind of want to try it on too." An eager White Nevan.

'We really are kids, getting excited just by Iron Man's visuals.' Nevan thought as he felt the excitement in himself as well as his two other parts.

"Once we get into an academy we can make plenty of them that are better. This one here is just a party trick." Nevan replied to them.

"Are you ready?" A mechanical voice was heard.

"Yes."

All the displays strayed showing various information.

"Simulation starting in 3, 2-"

"1"

Nevan felt the world go blank. Then a green prairie appeared before him. There were some bushes and some small shrubs here and there. Then a map of a simple labyrinth and the area around it appeared before him. The labyrinth wasn't complex. It was simple. Even a three year old can solve it after looking over the map.

5 seconds later the map disappeared. Huge blocks started to fall from the sky in front of Nevan and fell according to the design of the map.

There were 1 entrance and 1 exit to this maze. It wasn't that complex. To pass the test one needed to memorize the map of the labyrinth and follow the route out of this labyrinth.

Nevan had already memorized the design of the labyrinth and figured a way out of it. He stretched his right hand forward.

In the room, Nevan's head was totally inside the VR headset. He looked like a person who had a big white ball that functioned as his head. It was a comical scene. Nevan had stretched his right hand which was wearing the glove.

In the labyrinth world Nevan did not possess any body. It was just a floating ghost. He had no legs or anything. To move around he had to use this glove.

This wasn't an immersive virtual experience. Nevan had full knowledge of the outside world. He had to use this glove to move left-right, up-down, forward and backward.

With his hands stretched forward, he raised the hand a little. The 'Up' command.

His body in the labyrinth world levitated up. The walls were 3 meters in height. Nevan's point of view kept floating up and up. After a certain height it didn't go up anymore.

How much had he flown up? 5 meters only. This much height wasn't enough to get a bird's point of view of the entire labyrinth but would give him a little knowledge about his surrounding layout which would deem helpful in solving it.

Nevan lowered his hand - the 'Down' command - the body of Nevan in the labyrinth world came down.

Nevan waved his hand left, right- then pushed it back and forth.

The controls were simple. Only 6 basic commands. Nevan had to use the six basic three dimensional movements to move around. After all, it was just a simple test. No student would want to spend time learning complex controlling of an avatar just for a test.

Anyhow, after getting a hang of how the controls worked, Nevan suddenly had an epiphany. 'This kinda feels like a magician doesn't it. My body is moving along as I wave my hands. It's like those ancient magician's movies where they wave a stick and then objects follow that stick's movement.'

With that Nevan crossed the labyrinth in one full sweep. It was easy. Even a 5 year old could remember and pass this. Nevan knew why it was so easy.

"The trial has ended. Have you understood all the mechanics? Do you want to proceed to the test or try the trial again?" A mechanical voice asked.

"Proceed to test."

"Commencing test, 3,2,1."

A new terrain appeared. It was a grass plain but there were shrubs and bushes in huge numbers.

A map design appeared in front of Nevan. This was much harder than the previous one.

1

2

3

4

5 second.

The map disappeared. Huge stone blocks fell from the sky, creating the layout of the labyrinth.

"Please start. Reminder: the more time or the more you use the 'Up' command, the lower your scores will become."

It indeed made sense. Taking more time generally is a downside of maze games. On the other hand the 'Up' command can let you rise up to 5 meters high which will let you have a view of other sides, making it easier for you to solve the labyrinth. So the higher up you are, the lower down your score will go.

"Done!"

"Done!"

Two simultaneous echoes from White and Black Nevan.

"We can cheat our way through!" A thrilled declaration by Black Nevan.

"It's not cheating. People born with eidetic memory will easily pass it. Will you call it cheating? We are not cheating either. We are just using our ability that we were born with. It's definitely not cheating." A vain attempt at justifying himself.

Though White Nevan was rather a 'good' person, he still used his ability to figure out a way to cheat. Some may call it cheating. But from white Nevan's point of view, he was born with it just like his brain, so it couldn't be considered cheating.

With a huge smile Nevan spoke, "Then let's ace this and enter a top academy."