CHAPTER 24
After Savio and FORT685 left, Hirayon was left to think on his own. He couldn't believe that Savio said an oddity could use an element other than those they had a high affinity with. Hirayon had always thought mastering one element was hard enough, and now he was being told he had to master all of them.
Lost in thought, Hirayon finished his meal. FORT685 entered the room and handed him a set of white clothes, a fitted long-sleeve shirt and pants with a stretchable and soft fabric. Hirayon changed quickly, revealing his thin physique. When he was done preparing, FORT685 ushered him out of the room, and they walked a series of hallways. Hirayon made mental notes of the doors and turns, knowing that he would need to remember them if he ever wanted to escape.
After passing through several hallways, they finally arrived at a massive door. It was so huge that it could have belonged to a giant. Two men opened it inside, revealing a gigantic, white arena resembling a colosseum.
Stepping inside, Hirayon squinted when the bright lights hit him. His eyes adjusted for a few seconds before he was finally able to gaze in wonder at the entirety of the place. With the extremely high white ceiling and massive space, the arena was quite empty with the seats surrounding it. The only oddities inside were the children and their servants in the flat open area in the middle.
"I will leave you in a few minutes," FORT685 told Hirayon, who was still scanning the whole arena. He was looking for something noteworthy that he must remember that might help him in his escape. So far, he noticed that the entire arena had eight massive doors, which he assumed were the entrance and exit of the place.
"Where are you going? What am I supposed to do here?" Hirayon asked as FORT685 told him nothing on their way here.
"Today is the testing day, and you will be testing your strength and potential," FORT685 replied.
"Test? Why?" Hirayon asked. He was confused as to why he needed to be tested.
FORT685 smiled at his master, "It will be explained to everyone later, but don't worry. I know you'll be fine. Just remember to do your best to win award points. It will be beneficial later on."
With that, FORT685 left, and a serene melody played inside the arena. Hirayon watched as the other children walked toward the center of the arena. Suddenly, a circular platform descended from above, carrying a creature with a huge grin on his face.
'Is that man a human or a bear?!' Hirayon exclaimed in his mind as he looked at the man who had the head and upper body of a bear, but his lower body was normal, like a human. His build was huge and scary as well, with his hands and claws almost reaching his knees. Although the Bearman was wearing a formal three-piece suit, it didn't make him look professional and less scary as it even made him look weirder.
When the children saw the Bearman, some shrieked in surprise while others stood in fear.
"Monster!"
"FOLT871 help!"
"Kya! Don't come here!"
"Servant, where are you?!"
The children were already panicking and were running away when the Bearman grinned again, showing his pearly white fangs. "Welcome, children!" The bear man exclaimed, ignoring the commotion his appearance had caused. "Are you excited about today?"
The children didn't stop running even after Bearman's question. They continued to shriek and slam the arena doors, yelling for them to open and let them out.
"Ehem! Children, calm down," the Bearman said, but his loud voice was buried in the children's cries.
"Well, nothing new," He said and took a huge breath before letting out a terrifying growl that echoed and silenced the whole arena.
The children stopped yelling, and some of them weakly dropped to the floor with their whole bodies shaking in fear.
"Now that everyone's quiet. I am Tedie, your host and game master for the White Arena Torneo or simply Torneo, where you will have the chance to be the representative of the Familia and be one of the strongest in Diwana."
Tedie looked at the children's faces with a happy grin. He wasn't bothered at all that the children would flinch and shake whenever he looked at them.
"For everyone's comfort, I am an oddity who was given the characteristics of a bear, so I am a human and not a monster. I am also kinda scared of bears," he added and chuckled, making the children frown at the strangeness of the Bearman.
"Now, don't be scared and gather here in the center. I need to explain the rules," Tedie said, urging the still-quiet children.
"Come on, hurry up. We need to start soon as we have a lot of things to do," he added.
Hirayon glanced at the hesitant children and walked towards the center. He didn't run earlier as he was still near the entrance and observed the Bearman all throughout the commotion. There were also other children like him who wasn't that scared and walked toward the center.
Because Hirayon and the others were not attacked by Tedie when they reached the center, the other children followed until everyone was in front of Tedie. Most were still scared and wary of the Bearman, but they stilled as they didn't want to show cowardice. After all, most of them were still children of rich oddities and were raised with pride.
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"Wonderful! Now that everyone is gathered, I will explain what you must do today," Tedie said, and a huge hologram appeared above him, making all the children look up.
The hologram contains the alphabetically arranged children's names, ages, the type of oddity they are, and their trainer.
Hirayon searched for his name and saw the code-like name that Savio said would be his name from now on.
OWS59 6 Water Oddity Savio
"For today, every single one of you will be testing your capabilities. There will be ten tests, and you will be ranked based on your performance scores on each test. Depending on your final rank, you will receive award points and secret presents that will come from none other than the members of Familia who have chosen you as their candidate!" Tedie explained excitedly and pointed to the middle part of the bleachers, which had protruding rooms stretching out on the entire arena. It looked like a normal wall, but Hirayon and the children knew that the people inside those rooms could see them as it was the same as their rooms.
'The walls must've been transparent from the inside,' Hirayon thought as he remembered the window he saw when he left his room. He never imagined he could be watched from the outside as the walls inside his room were plain white and solid like metal.
"Do you understand? I will answer your questions now. You have 10 minutes because we can't let our precious Familia keep waiting," Tedie said, but no children were interested in asking their queries.
Because of that, Hirayon spoke, "Why? Why do we have to do this?" He asked, and the Bearman happily answered him.
"Because you, children, are the future. You will be the key for the whole Diwana to be united. Do you guys want to be strong and represent the whole world? Because here, you will all be given a chance to become strong in a short period of time. Once all the games have finished, the top 10 will go out and be introduced to the whole Diwana. And if that happened, you'll be able to get out of this place."
The children's confused and wary gazes changed into a bright one as hope was clearly reflected in their eyes.
They finally found a goal and a way for them to be able to get out of the white arena and be back to their families.
"Will we really be able to see our parents and friends again?" A child asked with a hopeful voice.
"Yes. Only if you did your best and were able to get a spot in rank ten."
"How many games are there?"
"There will be exactly 50 games. They will be held twice a month, but there will be changes here and there, so always be prepared. Your trainers will also be advised to keep you awake during those days because you will be automatically disqualified if you miss two games," Tedie explained with a stricter tone.
"Are we going to have the first game today?"
"No. You will only be tested today so the Familia can see your potential and give presents to their candidates who performed well."
"What kind of presents are there?" Another boy asked.
"It depends on what the Familia wants to give you, but it will always be something useful for you," Tedie said, not giving a specific answer as he himself was not sure what the children would receive.
"What is Familia? Who are they?" Hirayon asked the thing he was most curious about. He wanted to have some information about the oddities behind the kidnapping, experiments, and now this absurd game.
Tedie gave Hirayon a meaningful smile, "They are the ones who want to bring hope and peace for all."
Hirayon was about to ask more because Tedie didn't give him what he wanted, but the Bearman didn't let him continue.
"So let's not keep our Familia waiting anymore. Let's start the first test!" he shouted, and the hologram above shone before presenting the instructions for the first test with a video below it showing a device that the children will be using.
"The first test is very simple, and it will measure your endurance. For now, move away a little. Yes, that's right, move."
The children walked towards the arena's outer part, leaving the center clear. Tedie clicked something in the invisible hologram in front of him, then hundreds of transparent particles of white Aura manifested in the middle of the arena and turned into a device resembling a treadmill. The only difference was that there were no handles, and the platform could be moved in multiple directions. A hologram in front of each platform appeared, showing a counter for steps, timer, speed, and the km the child ran.
"Now, get into the platforms," he said, and the children all stood on a device. Because most chose the one closest to them, Hirayon and a few more children had no choice but to use devices in the center of the arena.
"The first test is simple. You only need to run until you can. If you stop running for 5 seconds, the device will detect it and stop the timer. Every hour, you will be able to see your rank in the top right of your holograms. It will also be calculated depending on your speed, time, number of steps, and the kilometers you've run," Tedie explained as he scanned the arena to see if all the children were already on a device.
"Alright? Now! Everyone starts running in four... three... two... Go!"
Together with his cue, a buzzer rang in the arena, startling some of the children and making them start late. Hirayon, on the other hand, started calmly and quickened his pace after a few minutes of warming up.
He was running moderately and was doing well. He was even slightly fascinated with the device as he could run in any direction he wanted. The counters in his hologram were smoothly increasing with every step he took. He was motivated to quicken his pace seeing the numbers increasing, but he decided to just run moderately as this was a test of their endurance.
'The goal is to be the last runner.'
Compared to Hirayon, who has a strategy, many children were going all out from the start. Because of that, after 15 minutes, a lot of them were already showing exhaustion.
When Hirayon looked around, he frowned. He saw that some had already slowed down their pace until they were just walking.
'They're already tired,' Hirayon thought as he watched the timer that had just passed 18 minutes.
'I'll have a chance to win.'
When Hirayon looked up in the VIP rooms, he was surprised to see people as the white wall was no longer there.
He could see 2-3 people in every room, and each room had someone sitting in a large hovering chair with a table full of snacks and drinks on their side.
'They must be the Familia members,' Hirayon quickly realized as they were being served respectfully by the other people in the rooms.
Even though it is far, Hirayon can clearly see oddities sitting on the chair, thanks to his ability. He was scanning them, remembering each of their faces, and he realized that most were already middle to old men and women. They were also wearing formal clothes, such as three-piece suits and long gowns, which added to the intimidation and authority that Hirayon felt just from seeing them from a distance.
'They must be powerful oddities, Elite to Prime Oddities maybe,' Hirayon thought as he continued to remember their faces. When Hirayon reached the next room before the midpoint of the VIP rooms, he stumbled and looked away. His heartbeat quickened, and cold sweat ran down his back.
'Impossible, our eyes met...'
R E H I L I Y A