Jem was outside the hall of his secondary school in a crowd of faceless students.

On the wall was the seating plan for an exam. He couldn't remember what it was but he found his place and followed the throng of students into the hall.

Jem was at the very back and far right of the hall and he sat down awkwardly in the chair. He looked at his legs. They're strange, why are they-- I'm in the trial. He placed his water and see-through pencil case on the desk and it shook violently.

“The exam will begin in two minutes.” Jem shivered. The voice coming from the invigilator was more screech than speech, like nails on a chalkboard.

His exam was apparently on Chemathphiliologyiscs and the exam board was AQJEC. Jem could feel the nervous bounce of a restless leg through the floor. Next to him, the faceless human raised its water to non-existent lips with shaking hands. The mouth of the bottle passed right through the hollow dome of white skin which served as the creature’s face.

Jem was about to move over and check if it was okay, but he felt a predator’s attention lock onto him and he froze. The invigilator’s neck swiveled 210 degrees, it was looking straight at Jem. It had no mouth, no nose, no ears, just a single eye in the centre of its forehead.

Jem made no further attempt to move and the invigilator's neck completed its turn, a full 360 degrees.

Jem sat motionless waiting for the five minutes to be up so he could finish the exam and get this trial over with.

The invigilator started writing on the board.

Start Time: 10:00 AM

Finish Time: ? 200/200 remaining.

Answer quickly.

Answer truthfully.

Breaks will not be tolerated.

The clock on the wall was digital, weirdly out of place in his secondary school exam hall, but very convenient. It read 9:59:32 and was counting steadily upwards.

It hit 10:00:00.

“Begin.” Every exam paper flipped open simultaneously.

Jem scanned the first page.

Question 1: Would you subject one person to incredible suffering to save 10 lives?

* What if the person was you?

* What if the person was randomly selected?

* What if the person volunteered?

Give your answer and detail how you came to that conclusion.

Jem thought about his answers to the question and came to the brilliant conclusion: it depends. He thought about for himself. His first question was, how long would it last. If it was just for a second, even the worst physical torture, he could endure that. Probably. But if it was for longer, 5 seconds, a minute, two minutes. Maybe he could do it. Maybe. Especially if it was something like press a button and then it starts. If he had to make a continual conscious choice, he was less sure of himself. If his perception of it would go on forever, there was no way he would do it.

For the second he was leaning towards no, unless that was also consensual.

And the third, well he wouldn’t necessarily like it, but personal choice is personal choice.

Question 2: List three organelles in mammal cells.

What? What are these questions?

Jem looked forward to the next question.

Question 3: Solve for x and y. 43x +1 =y 23x-y=7

What is this trial?

Jem went back to the second question and gave his answer: Ribosomes, mitochondria and golgi apparatus. He then solved question 3 it was fairly easy though it didn’t come out to a neat and tidy number. Jem left them as fractions.

Question 4: What are london forces? Explain how they generate and some of the real world interactions.

All of the questions so far seemed fairly easy. Jem quickly wrote something down about temporary dipoles and gecko feet and looked around. Everyone was writing slower than him and he could even see what they were writing. His eyesight was bonkers even after just a few levels. He even still had his increased thinking speed though it was set on what it had been when he entered and he couldn’t interact with it to change it. It seemed everything was going to stay in slow motion.

That was probably why he saw it happen. The fraction next to ‘time remaining’ flicked from 200/200 to 199/200 and the invigilator's head whipped to the side, focusing on a student who had their head tilted to the ceiling and was breathing slowly. Jem guessed it was a panic attack. Presumably, one that had started after seeing one of the questions.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

The invigilator’s single eye glowed golden before a beam flashed out, the student was gone in an instant, vaporised. It reminded Jem a little of the Ann-droid from an episode of doctor who.

Jem turned the page and answered the next question. I guess that’s what it means by ‘breaks will not be tolerated.’

Jem continued answering the questions but tried to figure out what the trial was supposed to test. If they were real people he might have tried to take out the invigilator but they weren’t at least as far as he was aware. What did he know, maybe they did have lives, but if those lives were generated and they were destined to be extinguished when he finished his trial it probably still wouldn’t matter.

After a while, Jem slowed down. He didn’t want to finish before everyone else, that might count as taking a break and that didn’t look like a good time. Probably not real? Maybe answering the questions fastest would net him the best trial results? But if it were like a real-life exam then the quality of his answers would matter more than the speed he completed them.

Jem’s questions dwindled, as did the faceless ones in the room. The first person to complete the paper was eviscerated just like the others who’d taken a break. Jem was glad he’d adopted his middle-of-the-pack approach. The slowest ones were being picked off too. Not just the ones who finished.

– – – –

Hours had passed and there were only three of them left. The one with ginger hair kept bringing a pencil to their face, every time it moved away it was a little more mangled, chewed on by an invisible mouth. That one had ghoulishly white skin, Jem wasn’t sure if it was a natural skin tone or if it was to do with the nervousness. The hair said skin tone, the pencil said nerves. The other one was a picture of confidence, shoulders back posture straight, they were like reflections of each other.

Jem was the odd one out, curling horns on his head and legs that had not been made with ordinary chairs in mind. There was probably a dictionary entry titled ‘Manspreading’ somewhere with a picture of his legs on that chair. He shook his head.

The confident one finished first and Jem finished a few moments later. The third one didn’t finish. Ann-droid finished them off first and then the confident one a moment later. That left Jem alone in the room.

The invigilator turned back to the board and rewrote most of it.

Start time: 10:00:00

Finish time: ? 1/200 remaining.

Defeat the invigilator.

Complete the exam.

Oh no.

A sword appeared in Jem’s hand and tentacles sprouted from the invigilator's back. Glowing lines of power spread from the eye towards the tentacles. Jem ran forwards.

This is like the mashed-together lucid nightmare of every GCSE student ever.

To Jem’s relief, it seemed as though the eyebeam had stopped working when the tentacles arrived on the scene. It was the best-case scenario, the worst was that eyes would sprout on the tentacles and he’d be sliced into ribbons by superheated laser beams.

The invigilator finished growing its tentacles and ran towards him. It was moving… slowly. Not truly slowly, still faster than he had at level 1 by far, but it was nothing compared to Jem now that he was level 19, and that his body had been changed by training with Ayo. He paused. He’d thought that surprise was his best option, but with the speed advantage, any surprise advantage he could glean wasn’t as valuable.

Jem kicked out at the nearby tables and chairs, clearing a space. He didn’t want to get caught out by a tentacle because it had hidden behind a chair leg. The invigilator stepped out into the artificial clearing. Jem ran forwards as about half of the tentacles, ten, shot towards him, the others moved backwards, hovering in the air as a counterbalance.

Jem sliced through three tentacles in one stroke, kicking to the left to dodge the rest. The floor was pristine, polished and slippery under Jem’s hooves. He felt his legs slide out under him but he turned the fall into a roll and launched himself back up with his arms. Four tentacles crashed into the floor where he’d just been.

The tentacles Jem had cut moved over to the far side, swapping places with three of the undamaged tentacles. Oh, come on. Jem moved back in, a little slower on the polished floor. If he could just slowly cut away the tentacles from the edges then he could work his way closer. Five tentacles came for him, the others holding back.

The invigilator was learning too. Jem moved is arm in one wide arc cutting through all five tentacles as they came for him. Just as the tip of the last tentacle hit the floor the other five rushed at him. He cut one and dodged three, but one wrapped around his right ankle. Jem crossed his legs and savagely stomped down on the offending appendage.

His stomp wasn’t enough to rip it, but its grip loosened. He was just able to wrench his hoof free, as another three tentacles came flying at him. Jem allowed himself to fall backwards, dodging under the tentacles and cutting them off as they flew overhead.

Jem pushed himself up, again. And took a look at the invigilator. The tentacles that he’d cut were slowly regenerating in the back and a couple of the tentacles were working together to heft chairs. He did not want to be impaled on a chair leg.

Jem strode forwards, his attention on the sword in his hand. It was almost identical to the one he’d been using in practice with Ayo. He focused on the techniques and steps and how to move. He focused on how stable footing is important when you fight and how to fight when you don’t have it. He focused on the movement of his blade and looked up to meet the singular unblinking eye of the invigilator.

The tentacles came in groups and Jem sliced through each of them with his sword. When he couldn’t slice through them he dodged and if he couldn’t dodge he lashed out with his free arm halting the tentacle’s momentum. When the first chair came, it crashed into his ribs and he felt a sickening crunch. The tentacles carrying the chair were cut.

When the next chair came Jem was ready for it and leapt upwards. A strength stat of 61 wasn’t a joke. He used the chair as a platform and lept for the invigilator. His sword pierced its chest and he sliced the sword down through its body in a single motion. With all of his weight and strength behind it the flesh, sinew and bone didn’t stand a chance. Jem crashed into the floor and felt more than saw the invigilator die.

Its not-quite-real illusory body faded leaving only a projection that was rapidly being sucked into a gem that was forming where the eye had been, like a cloth sucked into a hoover.

The gem fell towards Jem. It passed through his flesh and hovered in his chest. Inert. Waiting.

The colour left the room, the texture, the details, the desks and chairs, the light and then his consciousness.