“You see, trainee, this machine is more technical than the UTS, hence the extra set of parameters that can be used,” said Coach Warnick, looking at the display panel.

“You have a parameter for Gene Sequence, another for Skill type, another for Gene conformity, and a few others more,” he continued.

This was the machine I needed, I said in my head. I continued playing the innocent card to see if I could get him to cough up some more information.

“Coach, so this machine would be the one you would use if you wanted to know your skill type and its attributes?” I said, sounding confused.

“Yes, but that would only happen for two distinct reasons,” he said, sounding critical.

“Oh? Can you tell me what the reasons would be?” I said, feigning intrigue.

“Of course, the first and the most critical one would be if you displayed a skill not seen before."

“This would be a great thing but also a bad thing. Seeing your face, I know you want to know why; it's easy. Having an unknown, unique skill would be a great discovery, but it would be bad as you would have many families and organizations after you. It could even become dangerous to a point,” he said thoughtfully.

What coach Warnick said made sense to me. It would be bad for people to notice my skills, especially since some had never been seen before. DSS came to mind as it was the most visual.

“What about the second,” I asked.

“Yeah, the second reason would be if you showed great progress in developing your skill and were part of the school's top-ranked strike team competing in the WPR,” said the coach as he started to turn off the machine.

“WPR as in the World Primal Rankings,” I said, confused.

“Yes,” he nodded.

The WPR was a competition held at the start of every year. The top schools from the ten committee groups sent their first-ranked strike teams to compete against each other. In addition to bragging rights, the winner received resources allocated to their schools for that year. Many professional strike team members who competed on the world circuit were also recruited from these winners. It was a big event.

“Coach, is a test scheduled for any of our seniors on this machine anytime soon?”

He looked at me as if trying to figure out what I was up to.

“I just want to see this machine in action. It would help me with my studies,” I said anxiously.

“No, it will be months before we test anyone, as school started just a few weeks ago. These machines will remain shut down for the next months, with no one here past 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. the next morning,” he said.

Bingo!

Just what I needed to know. Now I knew when I could enter, and nobody would be here to spy on me.

“That’s too bad,” I said disappointingly.

“Yeah, but even if we were testing, you would not be granted access to come in; these kinds of tests are very private. People don’t want this information to be released to the public. So, there would be no way for you to observe it, I'm sorry to say,” said Coach Warnick.

“I understand, coach.”

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With that, we started walking back into the hallway and out of the bldg. We headed back to the training ground to finish the class.

After class finished, we were dismissed. We then headed to our last class, which, like the others, went by without significant disruption.

It was already after school, and I had two things to do today. First, I had to meet with the twins. I was not looking forward to this, but I had already told them I would be there, so off I went.

As I walked to TG 3 for the meet-up, I kept thinking of different scenarios for sneaking in to test myself on the TGS machine.

“I have to do it today,” I said to myself.

It was Friday, so school would be closed tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday. I could always do it on Monday or one of the following days, but the more I waited, the less time I would have to adjust my workout routine. So, I decided to try to get myself tested tonight.

“I can go in around 7 p.m. when most everyone is gone. I just have to pay attention to the ground’s keepers and building maintenance personnel,” I mumbled as I approached TG 3.

I could see the bldg. up ahead.

“Looks like it closed for the rest of the day. Maybe the girls didn’t make it,” I said, a little excited at the thought of them not being there.

“Yeah, right, like you would be that lucky, Khy,” said a voice in a haughty tone from inside the bldg.

The next instant, the front door to the building was opened by none other than Yara herself.

“In now!” she said in a commanding voice.

“Hmm, this does not bode well for me,” I thought as I walked cautiously inside the building.

“Yara, what's going on?” I said, trying to remain as calm as possible.

“Really, you are asking me that after what happened this morning in class. You know my sister is going through detention because of you,” she said, a little flustered.

“Me? I don’t recall asking her to step in,” but as soon as I set it, I knew I would regret it as I saw Yara’s face contort into something unpleasant.

“You ungrateful asshole!” she said, very upset.

“My sister stepped in because she thinks highly of you, but this is how you are going to treat her.”

When she said that, I could see a change in her eyes. She was getting ready to pounce on me any minute now if I did not diffuse the situation correctly.

“Yara, my apologies,” I said, sounding humble.

“I know your sister meant good, and I don’t mean to take anything away from her, so I apologize for my previous comments.”

“What can I do for you girls as recompense for helping me out this morning?” I said, trying to diffuse the situation as best as I could.

I starting to believe this girl is two-faced as she went from almost blowing up to having sparkles in her eyes over my last comment.

“Khyrum, it's good you understand what my sister did for you this morning,” she said politely.

“As you said, it would be best for you to show your gratitude in a boyfriend-girlfriend way,” she giggled.

I looked at her in disbelief.

“Boyfriend/Girlfriend kind of way, when did I say this?” I said in a perplexed tone.

“I’m not even sure what that means, and I probably don’t want to know, but if I can help you with a school-related issue, please feel free to ask me. Or maybe I can run an errand or do a difficult task if you need me to,” I said in a neutral tone.

Looking at her, I could tell she would not let this go if I didn’t leave quickly, so I cut her off as fast as possible.

“Look, Yara, I have other important business to take care of right now, but my offer still stands. Talk it over with your sister, and if you girls need anything from me, I would happily help you girls out as long as I’m not put in a tight situation,” I said as I started to walk out of the building.

“Khyrum, stop! You can’t leave without hearing me out. I forbid it!” she said, trying to reach out and grab me.

I tried to get away, but by instinct, I used a wind step to glide out the front door before she could reach me. It was so quick that even I was surprised by the move.

Yara’s face was just as if she had seen a ghost. It was beyond words.

“Shit, I fucked up! I should have used it in front of her,” I said as I started to run from the building.

“Oh My God! What did I see?” said Yara, hyperventilating after snapping out of her trance.

“Did he just move in the air?” she continued with a bewildered look.

As Yara walked outside the building, Khyrum was already gone. She just shook her head and started laughing hysterically, her grin extending from ear to ear.

“As soon as I tell Cora, she will be jealous of me. She is the one that is putting in all the work, but I get to reap the rewards,” she said with a very toothy grin.

As I walked back to the estate, I tried to make sense of the situation. I knew I fucked up by letting Yara see one of my skills, but there was nothing I could do right now to resolve this.

“I know she won’t tell anyone, but I’m still going to need a perfect excuse as to what I’m going to say that was,” I thought as I walked home.

“I can't do much about it now. I’ll think of something later tonight. Right now I have to get ready for the infiltration job tonight,” I said.

“If everything goes according to plan, I should know what type of skill Golden Body is.”

With that, I continued to my guest home to prepare for tonight.