Another wall appeared in front of Zain again. Unlike the last time, however, there wasn’t any other structure that came along with the wall. It was just a giant white wall as tall as a building itself, and it was blocking his way to the other side.
Although, the wall wasn’t the only object that he could spot. Only a few steps away next to it was a strange machine resembling an old gaming arcade, with all of its small screen, crank lever, and a slew of buttons.
“Welcome to the second phase of the admission test,” AISLE spoke. “Your task this time is to get to the other side of the wall. And, as with the previous phase, your performance will be evaluated in this part as well. That includes time, solution, and such.”
“Then what’s with the machine?” Zain quickly pointed to the elephant in the room.
“That’s the helper arcade. You can pull a limited number of items from it to aid you with the task.”
“Limited number, eh? How many, exactly?”
“It’ll have the indicator show up when you get to the machine, so no need to ask for it,” answered AISLE. “And it won’t delete your progress even if you turn it off and on again, so think carefully about the items you choose.”
“Well, sounds simple enough,” Zain cracked his knuckles in excitement. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
However, the young man didn’t go to the machine right away. Having learned from his mistake the first time around, Zain made his way to the wall itself instead.
Zain raised his hand forward and gave the wall a few knocks. Unlike with the maze, the wall stuck firmly to the floor and ceiling below and above. It didn’t look like going around would be an option, either, as even though the virtual space was quite large, it was still not large enough for Zain to not spot both ends of the wall being stuck to the sides.
A tried-and-true immovable object.
“Looks like the only way is to bust it down,” Zain exclaimed. However, he also knew that doing the same thing as last time wouldn’t cut it, simply because he had checked it himself, and the wall was much sturdier compared to the maze from before. The natural conclusion, of course, would lie in the arcade machine.
With that in mind, Zain finally cranked up the arcade. A flash of white popped up on the screen, and soon enough, a list of various items appeared before his eyes.
On top was a single number – 10 – indicating the total number of items Zain could get with the machine. Normally, it would be a rather lenient number, but it only applied to items that would actually fulfill the task. The items shown on the screen as Zain took a look, however, were anything but.
What the hell is all of this? Potassium fertilizer? Food container set? Portable stove? Are we breaking down a wall or having a picnic?
Zain went through the list of items once again in disbelief, trying his hardest to find at least something of use in this situation. Unfortunately, his efforts proved to be fruitless. There was not a single item that directly helped him in breaking down the walls, while the largest and heaviest item he could find in that long list of groceries was a mini fridge. Throwing that thing into the wall would only result in it breaking apart before it could even leave a dent.
Zain had also taken into account the possibility of getting every large and heavy thing he could get, but the same result would ensue. Even when combined, none of the things present would be enough to crack the wall. Which meant that brute-forcing it was impossible. The ceiling and floor were all made of the same material as the wall, so breaking over or under was also not a feasible plan.
However, as the situation became desperate, a ray of hope shone on the young man.
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“Hey,” Zain turned to the robot beside him, “as long as the items come from the machine, I can freely use them however I want, right?”
“Correct,” nodded AISLE.
“Good,” with a quick nod, Zain returned to the list of items before him. His experiences both outside and within this test had taught him one important thing in any sort of game – information. And if he couldn’t think of any solution, then all he had to do is ask for one.
Quickly sliding his fingers over the screen, Zain picked his first item of choice and cranked the lever.
The machine rummaged violently as if cooking up a monstrous idea. After a minute, it stopped as suddenly as it started, and its bottom opened up, revealing a rectangular device inside.
“Kids these days…” AISLE shook its body in disappointment. “Can’t you survive without your smartphones?”
“Never had one,” Zain answered with a grin. “And I’m not playing around either.”
Zain wouldn’t even pick up the phone without the extra line that it had in the description. In this day and age, everyone would just assume that the Internet would always be available to them, and of course, in a test setting, one would also assume they’d been locked from outside information during the time they attempted the test.
This was why the item “Smartphone with accessible Internet” was the outlier that Zain noticed. As someone without the item all his life (a large part of which was due to him being in jail), Zain was never exposed to the kind of information boom the outside world had. It was also the reason why he didn’t notice the item at a glance, but when he took a closer look, reviewed the first phase, and put things together, it made perfect sense.
If the first phase was a test of strength disguised as a test of wits, then the second phase was a test of wits disguised as a test of strength. The machine was to give out pieces of the puzzle’s solution, and the applicant’s job was to piece out that solution using the information given to them.
And just as Zain predicted, the smartphone held just the answer he needed, but with an even better reward than he could have hoped for.
The young man had thought that the next step in his plan was to use his previous knowledge to search for an answer using the phone he was given, but once he had the phone, it already had the answer he needed, just with a flick to its search history.
On top of the page was a single phrase. But it was a single phrase too powerful.
Making dynamites.
“Bingo,” with a victorious smile, Zain looked to the page and approached the machine. Soon enough, the young man had spent everything he had to gather his remaining 9 items.
Super potassium fertilizer. Concentrated sulfuric acid. Cooking container set. Filtering paper. Tape. Portable stove. Mini fridge. Glycerol. Baking soda
“What’re you cooking?” AISLE naturally knew what Zain was doing, but the AI asked nonetheless just to see what kind of answer would it be given. And the young man did not disappoint.
“Power.”
From the mini fridge, Zain took out two full containers worth of ice, then melted one of them on the stove. After letting the newly-obtained water cool down, he quickly added the super potassium fertilizer.
As the mixture settled, the concentrated crystals in the bottom were filtered out and dried, before being dropped into the most dangerous substance in the room – the container of the concentrated sulfuric acid. Normally, the process had to be done in reverse for safety reasons, but “fear” was never in Zain’s vocabulary in the first place.
Violent bubbles and smoke erupted from the container as if a miniature volcano was formed. However, it didn’t stop Zain from continue stirring the mixture until it had formed a paste. Then, using another bottle, he started heating the paste on the stove and let the vapor flow into it while keeping it cooled by a part of the cold water he made. Soon enough, from the other bottle, small droplets could be seen within the red fume that the paste was sending off, and after another while, the mixture was done.
“Okay, that’s the first part done,” wiping off the sweat from his forehead, Zain took the new bottle and poured in the rest of the sulfuric acid that he had. Afterwards, he cooled off the mixture in the rest of the ice and slowly added the glycerol while heating it again on the stove.
After a good minute, the liquid in the bottle had separated into two layers. Filtering out the top layer, Zain finally added the baking soda to it.
Taking out the smartphone once again, the young man said to himself:
“Now, the final step says to carefully remove it, but since I want this thing to explode anyway…”
The young man took the entire bottle and threw it into the wall as hard as he could.
Everything he had done was to make a single compound – nitroglycerin, better known as the prototype of dynamites. Due to its highly unstable nature, modern dynamites had steered away from it, but in this context, the highly unstable nature was exactly what Zain needed.
As soon as the liquid inside made contact with the wall, a massive explosion occurred, strong enough to rock even the ground and ceiling around the young man. Naturally, it meant that the wall was completely eviscerated, only leaving behind a trail of dust and debris once everything had settled. And of course, along with it was now a wide, clear path to the other side and the final phase of the exam.
“You’ve passed the second phase,” nodded AISLE. “Well done. Now, let’s get the final phase going.”