Chapter 3: Blinded Eyes and Origin Story

I watched in horror as Violet suddenly fell to the ground. Her head tossed backward as though someone had punched her in the face. She fell limp and unconscious onto the ground. Blood began to seep out of her nose and closed eyes, common signs of a powerful psychic mental attack.

‘SHIT!!! If she gets hurt here I’ll definitely be the one blamed for it. AND WITH EVERYONE WATCHING FUCK! I shouldn’t have yelled out so loud. If the Woo family blames me for their daughter's death like this, I'm a dead man.’

I knew what she had done. I could feel it deep down in me. I didn’t blame her for trying, I would also be curious if I saw something so unusual.

‘Quickly, check for pulse and breathing. Just like how Mom and Dad taught you. Every second counts.’

I placed my head over her with my ear directly above her mouth to listen for breathing. Two of my fingers touched her neck where I would be able to feel a pulse. I carefully looked at her chest to see if it was rising and falling. I would usually be embarrassed for doing such a thing but I had other things to focus on right now. However, before I could be certain of anything I felt a kick to my ribs force me away.

“GET OFF OF HER!!!”

The one who had kicked me was a tall man in a suit. I couldn’t get a look at his face though, I was preoccupied with the intense pain I felt. I knew that getting kicked in the ribs could hurt but this was unnatural. I could barely breathe.

‘Did he use some sort of technique to keep me incapacitated?’ I thought to myself.

I looked down at myself and sensed a strange amount of energy gathered in the place where the man had kicked me. He had sent some psychic energy into my body to increase the pain and was sustaining it there to keep the pain going.

As I was on the ground keeled over in pain the man dragged his hand across Violet's face. It glowed a strange green, a sign of a healing technique. Such techniques were usually quite difficult to master, this man was likely A-Rank or higher. He was probably a bodyguard for Violet, a member of the Head Family of the Woo’s would have a bodyguard protecting them almost constantly.

He suddenly vanished before my eyes, leaving Violet behind. Her face was once again spotless, she was no longer bleeding at all. I felt the pain quickly dissipate away and I stood up.

‘There's no doubt, that man was definitely strong. I might be out of my league here.’

I may have been a genius, having reached low B-Rank status while young, but I was inexperienced and there were plenty of people stronger than me. It would be a long time before I could even think about fighting against that man.

Violet started to wake up. I grabbed her hand and propped up her head with my other hand. She was truly beautiful. I could feel her hair brushing against my hand. Aside from the frayed parts, it felt smooth and soft.

‘She really is beautiful… DAMNIT stop. This is not the time to be thinking about that stuff.’ I began to berate myself in my head.

Violet opened her eyes and looked at me. Her face began turning a shade of red as she realized what position she was in. She looked around slightly nervously. I followed her gaze and realized that we were being watched. Almost every other applicant was looking at us.

‘Shit… I’m so fucked.’ I thought privately to myself. Becoming the center of attention was not something I wanted.

Violet suddenly got up out of my arms and grabbed her bag and suitcase. She quickly walked away from me, out of sight of the other applicants. I quickly left in a different direction than her, escaping the judging gaze of my peers.

‘Well, this is certainly quite the start.’ If this was any indication of what would happen then I was failing the application.

After calming myself down I reflected on what happened right before Violet suddenly went unconscious. I bowed down in front of her and started yelling. For a few moments, I was looking at the ground when all of a sudden I felt as though someone were gazing through me. Not at me, through me. It was like they were trying to see who I really was.

But that’s not what caused the sudden attack on Violet. She had done something she shouldn’t have done. Tried to look at something that shouldn’t have been looked at. She touched my soul and… I sighed a tremendous sigh. She had nearly died. If she had or if she were injured then I would have become an enemy of the Woo family. My life would have been as good as over.

‘That bodyguard is probably looking at me right now. He shouldn’t have seen what happened, what Violet used was definitely a Unique Power. It’s best if I just don’t interact with her for a while. Also, I don’t remember anyone in the core family being named Violet. Strange…’

I looked at the sky, hoping for it to cheer up my mood after that heart-stopping event. The gods did bless today with beautiful weather after all. My breathing and heart rate slowed back down to normal. I felt the heat of the sun on my face and a light breeze brush against my skin. After about 5 minutes there I had completely relaxed once more.

“Attention all applicants, please make your way to the front door.”

It was starting, at last, the first chapter of my new life. I got up and walked back to the front door. Violet was deep in the crows, people avoiding her gaze. She was a core member of the Woo family after all, it would be more strange if people didn’t act awkward around her. I looked at the other applicants, of which, there were now about 200. Their gaze seemed to weigh on my mind.

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‘I’ve really messed up. Fuck. There go my chances of AGH.’

I looked down to avoid their gaze and walked towards the front door. I could hear others around me, whispering about what I had done.

“Why is everyone looking at him?”

“He just attacked a member of the Woo family.”

“No fucking way seriously?”

“What a shame, he’s kind of handsome.”

“Better stay away from that guy.”

I kept my head down as I pretended to ignore all these voices. This was so embarrassing. I saw Violet standing near the front, people were talking about her too but she didn’t even seem phased.

‘She is so stoic. It’s like she doesn’t care about anything. Actually, wait… she did look pretty embarrassed when she woke up.’

As I came to the front of the crowd the speakers made another announcement.

“We have received word of two applicants attacking each other. As neither was harmed we will not be barring them from the application but any further fighting among applicants unless explicitly given permission will be cause for an immediate rejection. With that being said, welcome to the AGH application.”

I heard all the applicants turn their bodies. I couldn’t see any of them but I knew that they were looking at me.

‘Welp, I’m fucked. Gonna work at a fast food restaurant for the rest of my life I suppose. I wonder how much Mc is paying first-time employees…’

The doors in front of us opened up. They were massive, at least 14 feet tall, and 5 feet wide each. The other applicants and I walked through a dark tunnel before coming out to a large room shaped like a big college lecture hall. It was dark inside, and the walls were dark blue. The seats were also a dark blue… Pretty much everything was a dark blue except for the railings and the speaker podium in the front of the room.

“You all have assigned seats. Identify yourself at the check-in poles for a badge telling you where to sit.”

A door to our left suddenly opened and a series of poles with red lights on top. I walked over to one of them, placed my thumb on the fingerprint scanner, and took a photo of my face with the pole. A small card slid out of the pole.

Name: Mark Tran

Birth Date: 6/14/2007

Seat #: E1

Room#: B49

Beneath all the information was the photo of my face. I quickly found my seat and waited patiently for the application process to begin. Being on the edge of the stadium I was sitting next to only one person.

I looked at him, his hair was blonde and he looked caucasian. He had light-toned skin and slightly toned muscles. A light blue jacket was tied around his waist and he wore dark green cargo pants and a black shirt.

‘Let’s see if I can strike up a conversation while waiting.’

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey.” He replied.

‘Let's go, great start Mark.’ I did some imaginary arm pumps in pride. Better than with Violet at least.

“My name's Mark, what about yours?”

“My name is Roland. It’s nice to meet you, Mark.”

He offered out his hand for a handshake, something I readily agreed to.

“So where are you from Roland?”

“I’m from Ameriac. How about you?”

“I was born and raised here in Panaj.”

Ameriac was one of the world's three greatest superpowers. Out of the 304 countries officially acknowledged by the United Globe, Ameriac was easily the most famous of them all. With a population of almost 8 billion people, it was the 3rd most populous country in the world. It was also widely believed to have the strongest military in the world. Their influence globally was no joke. While Panaj was by no means a small and weak country it certainly wasn’t anything like the absolute powerhouse Ameriac was.

“Well Roland, it's a pleasure to meet you. I hope you do well in the application.”

“Nice to meet you, Mark. I wish good luck to you as well.” He said with a bright smile on his face.

At that moment a man walked out onto the stage and stopped in front of the podium, in view of all of the applicants. He wore a suit, his hair was black with some strands of white on the sides. He appeared to have a strong build with broad shoulders and large arms. His face was clean shaven and he had a strong jawline.

‘There is no doubt about it. That’s the principal, Sever Foul.’

The principal of AGH was also its founder. He was an SS-Rank psychic, making him one of the 99 most powerful individuals in the world based on ability alone. He didn’t look it but he was almost 80 years old, his aging slowed considerably by his massive quantity of psychic energy.

Even from here, I could feel the power he walked with. A psychic aura lightly coated his body, perfectly refined and controlled. Releasing a visible psychic aura could only be done by Mid A-Ranks and above and even then, only S-Ranks would be able to release it constantly.

‘Principal Sever really is deserving of his status.’

The entire room held its breath as the principal grabbed the mic and began to speak.

“Hello, future stars.” The tension finally relaxed as he spoke. His voice was deep and powerful but also warm and kind.

“You have all come here today as the best of the best, every single one of you a genius. You have proven yourself in the evaluation tests and even the weakest of you received top marks during the newborn evaluation.”

The psychic evaluation tests were tests done by every person in the world to calculate their rank. By measuring quantity, the amount of psychic energy, and refinery, the control of psychic energy, the machine gave each citizen a rank ranging from F to SSS Rank. As it stood now, I was a low B-Rank nearly to Mid-B Rank. This left me as one of the underdogs in the application. Being a low B-Rank I was likely in the bottom quarter of applicants and the differences between just Low B-Rank and Mid B-Rank were rather large. That isn’t to say that a Low B-Rank would never defeat a Mid B-Rank or even a High B-Rank, just that it would be extremely difficult.

“Today I’ll be telling you about the application process you will complete.” Here it was… everyone in the room sat on the edge of their seats, waiting to hear what the application this year would consist of. With the application changing every year, applicants had no way to prepare except to train their bodies and powers.

“This year the application will be split into 3 different parts. The first part will be a multiple-choice exam. It will have 100 questions on it. This will be done today in approximately 30 minutes. It will be a 2-hour exam.”

‘... ah fuck. I didn’t study for this shit.’ I looked around the room and saw many other applicants worried about this application. None of us studied after all, we wouldn’t even know what they would test us on or even that there would be a test.

“The second part will be an obstacle course race taking place 3 days from now. More information will be given on that day. The final part will be a tournament between all remaining applicants that will take place 7 days from now. More information about it will be given after the second part.”

Everyone in the room collectively breathed a sigh of relief. At least the other parts were more in line with what we expected.

“The application works with a point-based system.”

‘Shit looks like he is still going.’

“Individuals will receive a certain amount of points for everything that they do here. During this week-long application process, we will monitor your actions everywhere excluding bathrooms and dorm rooms. We will add or deduct points from your total based on your actions. Go below a certain score and you will fail the application and be forced to leave. At the end, the 20 highest scores will be considered for acceptance with 10 of them being chosen to join AGH.”

‘Interesting. I’ve never heard of something like this before. They really do have high standards too. Only 5% accepted this year again.’

“The exam you are about to take will be worth a total of 100 points. Any answer that can be considered wrong will deduct you a point, anything else will gain you a point. Be careful how you select your answers. Good luck future stars.”

The principal vanished with a puff of smoke, not even a slight trace of him left.

‘So, it finally begins.’ I stared at the ceiling with a smile on my face. Despite my nervousness, I was also more excited than I had ever been.

‘This will be my origin story.’

…

A man in a suit watched his master's daughter walk through some doors before disappearing into the darkness. As the doors closed he pulled out a specialized radio.

“Sir, she’s gone through the entrance now.”

“Good. Any issues?” A gravely old voice came from the other side of the radio.

“Yes. She tried to use her Soul Seer on a boy, somehow it backfired and she received a mental attack. I healed her quickly but I was surprised by the amount of damage. The boy is definitely a strong psychic.”

“Hmm… I see. Be sure to keep an eye on him for me when you can then.”

“Understood sir.” With that, the man blended into the air, disappearing from view.

End Chapter 3