For a boy who grew up in poverty yet housed a dream of donning the virtual headgear to compete in the world’s most heated sport, Lewis didn’t get many chances to immerse himself in the wonders of the digital world. It was why when an old model helmet, only in its most basic form of an iron frame and a multitude of wires were given to him by the healthcare robot in the most heinous prison in the world, the first thing that came out of the boy’s mind was not that of doubt or disinterest, but a sparkling joy of innocent youth:
“Whoa! I get to wear this?”
“Why are you sounding like you’re so surprised?” Asked AIDE in a quizzical tone. “You are from Aoba, are you not? Equipment like this is just junk compared to what they have over there.”
“It might be, but still!” Lewis answered with a beaming smile, his eyes still shining in a gleam of happiness. “This is only my fourth time actually seeing one!”
“Third time? Kid, didn’t you say you signed up for an NLS course?”
“Wel… I did,” Lewis answered with an awkward scratch of the head. “But I never managed to get one for myself. The only times I was able to use one were Aoba’s entrance exam, the ABC, and the betting game I told you about. And you can probably guess that I didn’t get to enjoy myself much in any of those experiences.”
“Talk about rough life,” the robot commented, shaking its body in sympathy. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, this thing is now your personal training ground. I’ll make it so that you’ll grow tired of seeing it in no time.”
“I’d like to see you try.” Touched by the gesture, Lewis let out a playful grin as he returned the jab, putting on the VR helmet in the process.
Once the boy opened his eyes again, before him were no longer the dull white walls of the prison’s infirmary. Instead, a wide, green pasture stretched out as far as his eyes could see, with the center having white lines drawn in a box-like pattern, a circle in the middle, and more lines separating it into halves. Around the green field, a red track with similar white lines circled around, perfectly recreating the air of a sports festival.
“Incredible!” exclaimed Lewis. “A soccer field and a running track!”
“The original design was just the soccer field, made by the two who used to practice with this thing,” AIDE explained. “I took the liberty to add a bit more flavor, seeing you seem to be the type to enjoy things like the springtime of youth.”
“I love it!” Lewis quickly nodded, before running off to the field with his feet almost in the air, just like a child gushing at his new toy.
As the boy dove down to the fresh ground and made a grass angel in his spot, the robot flew to his position to remind him of his original task:
“Hey, focus now! Remember what you came here to do!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Lewis retracted his smile and stood up, dusting off his clothes. “You want an evaluation, right?”
“Correct,” nodded AIDE. “If you want to beat the Course, then you need ample training. Thankfully, unlike your predecessors, we actually have a base for you to work on.”
Predecessors… The words echoed in Lewis’s mind. The idea that he had to rely on Zain, whose existence he had rejected ever since he knew the young man hailed from this prison, still bogged his mind. However, in his current circumstances, Lewis also knew that he likely didn’t have a choice.
AIDE, unaware of its partner’s current state of emotions, continued by projecting a graph from its singular eye. Two graphs, rather, each depicting a champion’s - Rex’s and Zain’s - statistical values. On each chart was a perfectly white square, rotated 90 degrees to make it diamond-shaped, and on each corner wrote one key aspect of the target. From top to bottom, in a clockwise direction: Strength, Speed, Skill, Smart.
“We’ll follow my creator, S.T.’s evaluation method, the 4S – that is, as you can see, values of your physical strength, speed, skill, as in dexterity and balance, and smart, meaning intellect. These four stats make the most basic representation of your current capabilities and will be graded in a letter-base system, ranging from E being the smallest, to S being the best, and anything beyond S being an outlier of capability.”
Turning to one of the two graphs, AIDE continued:
“Like this, for example.”
The picture shown was Zain’s, indicating that these were his numbers during his time in the Infinite Prison. With a flash of holographic light, the graph started to move, filling up its white interior with a deep blue. The colorful invasion continued, even spreading outside the white box itself until it finally stopped at the weird shape of a needle – the base was still quite large, but the endpoint was much, much longer than everything else.
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“This is our champion, Zain,” spawning a pair of mechanical hands from its round body, AIDE pointed at the holographic projection. “He is what the kids these days would call ‘a freak’. In other words, he’s an all-rounder with absurd stats anywhere you look. A in speed, skill, and smart, while his super strength puts him as the outlier of the parameters – our very first EX rank.”
While Lewis was still agape at the chart, AIDE had quickly changed it into another – this time of a brown-haired boy, whose short stature and normal limbs had Lewis nod in a sense of sympathy. However, such feelings were fleeted, as the boy’s mouth was soon wide open once more as he saw the stats of this supposed “comrade” of his.
The base was much smaller than Zain’s, that much was true. But it was a needle-shape, nonetheless.
“And here, we have Zain’s partner, Rex. Sporting a measly C in both strength and speed, as well as an above-average B in skill, the boy makes up for his incredible quick-thinking and sharp mind to skirt around the rules and arrive at the solution to give his team the win – our second EX rank, this time in smart. Now, do you see a pattern here?”
It wasn’t hard for Lewis to spot the one similarity between the two legends that preceded him, as the boy gulped to ease his worries and answered:
“To beat the Course and escape this prison, you have to have an outlier – a facet so strong it beats the common sense.”
“Correct,” nodded AIDE. “To put it in simple sports terms, you need a world-class talent. So, depending on your test result, you might have to kiss your freedom goodbye.”
There was no threat in those words. It was only the cold, hard truth. The Course was unbeatable until Rex and Zain conquered it, and it was a training ground specifically tailored for those two. To beat it, the two boys had to go beyond their conventional norm, to develop their skills into that called “world-class”. And that was the one thing that scared Lewis the most. Not only was he exposed to the chance of not even getting out of this concrete cage, but he also had to face the possibility of having his dream shattered, for he didn’t have what it takes in the first place.
“Now, Lewis,” AIDE continued, turning to the boy. “Are you ready?”
“I-”
Before Lewis could answer, a sudden voice called out to them.
“No need.”
A storm of digital data formed in front of the boy, and emerged the Student Council President, the one that was responsible for putting him in jail in the first place – Yusei Kotaro.
“P-President…” the boy stuttered, instinctively backing away from his former friend. The whiplash and emotional trauma from fighting Yusei was already too much for Lewis to handle that the boy almost crumbled right then and there.
“I’m not here to beat you half to death,” glancing at the shriveling boy, Yusei clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Not yet at least.”
“… Cadet Fuuma,” AIDE answered, scarcely keeping its cool – a rare sight for the healthcare AI. “What did you do to my patient to warrant this kind of traumatic response?”
“If he flinches after that much, then he’s not worth the salt in the first place,” Yusei spat.
“Then answer me this: how did you manage access in this area? Rex installed it so that it’s invisible to prison wardens.”
“Oh, that,” the young man scratched his head. “I’m not a warden, remember? Only transferred here a while ago, so my registry hasn’t been updated yet. I saw a strange cluster of virtual data within our VR network, and lo and behold.”
It was yet another lie, of course. Yusei’s reason for successfully breaking into the personal VR space was much simpler than that, for he had an even better brain behind the scenes to bypass Rex’s finest locks. But revealing that would also mean revealing his true goal, and so, the young man chose to keep lying.
“Anyway,” the young man cracked his neck in intimidation. “Heard you guys are planning to challenge me to the Course.”
“So what if we are?” Asked AIDE.
“I’d say good. Since I was about to do the same thing.”
Yusei then tossed over an envelope towards Lewis’s place, with the latter reflexively catching it. Opening the letter, the boy’s mouth widened in shock to see two pieces of paper, the first being an invitation with a line of bright red letters:
Regain your freedom! Challenge the Red-Black Course! Accept?
“What is the meaning of this?” AIDE asked. “Wasn’t you the one who put him in jail in the first place?”
“It’s tradition, no?” Yusei raised his eyebrows in a challenge. “A tradition that I hate to upkeep, but a tradition, nonetheless. Now, accept or decline, it depends on the criminal, but unless you want to rot here for the rest of your life, I’d suggest you take this chance at the jaws of the beast.”
The envelope crumbled in Lewis’s hands. Deep down, the boy knew his opposition was right, and yet, he couldn’t muster the strength to agree or disagree with him. The mere sight of Yusei had been such a nightmare for him that he was mustering every ounce of his strength to not spasm on the spot, all the while letting tears of shame flow out his eyes.
“And AIDE, if you’re planning to train the boy, consider the second paper a gift of mine. I’ll be waiting in the secret chamber below the cafeteria one week from now.” Yusei gestured, but before the robot could ask for more details, had already disappeared into thin air.
Without anything else to add, AIDE had no choice but to pry the second piece of paper out of Lewis’s hands. And soon enough, the robot’s electronic vision widened in shock and glee as it projected the contents in the air.
“Hey, kid. You’re in luck; I think we have a chance.”
On cue, Lewis wiped his tears and turned his attention to the stat screen before him. As the truth of his skills was shown in front of him, the boy could only gasp in pure shock and bliss.
A pathetic E in strength. A garbage D in speed. A paltry B in smart. But in his skill corner, the spike proudly protruded out of the square box.
The third EX rank, this time in skill. The boy’s one and only world-class talent.