It's been a few days since I beat up John and his lackeys. Since that event, it seems like they are actively avoiding me now. It looks like they have categorized me into the "do not disturb" list. I was currently sitting on the guard railing next to a road outside the city. This was my favorite place to come to. It had a nice view looking down at the sleepless city. I liked to come here and think. It's always a freeing experience.
Today, the topic of my thinking about was my current progress. I felt that although I was busting my ass off in the gym, it wasn't going to be enough. I needed to do more. What else could I be doing right now? I sat there pondering this question for a while. I had thought of many different ideas, but they weren't feasible for a middle schooler to do. Near the end of my thinking session, I thought that maybe I should enroll in some self-defense courses to learn some fighting techniques. But that will cost money, and I don't have any money. It seems like I need to get a part-time job. But what part-time job could I get as a middle-schooler? Wait a minute, is it even legal for a middle-schooler to work? These questions were giving me a bit of a headache. I sighed aloud. I'll try my luck at a few jobs this weekend.
A few days had passed, and it was now the weekend. This also marked the start of my job search. I traversed all around the city looking for different jobs. Unfortunately, as I had expected, I was denied many jobs due to being a middle-schooler. Just when I was about to give up hope, I found a convenience store that was willing to hire me as a clerk. The job paid minimum wage, but that was more than enough for me. So, from then on, my schedule looked like this: Go to school, sleep during my classes, go workout after school, go to the convenience store and work the night shift, repeat. Quite a mundane life, but I was cool with that.
Before I knew it, a few months had flown by, and I had successfully amassed a modest sum of money. It was more than enough to sign up for some self-defense course. I opted to buy a membership at a boxing gym relatively close to the school. I chose boxing specifically because I believed it was friendlier to beginners than many other martial arts, and you could quickly adapt boxing skills to other martial arts. Plus, it was convenient. So, I started to go to the boxing gym almost every day from then on.
Like this, a few years passed, and now I was in my final year of middle school. The entrance test to the hero academies was also just around the corner. The atmosphere in the school grew to become very silent, the calm before the storm. Everyone was doing last-minute preparations for the entrance tests. After all, the hero occupation was the most desirable in the world.
What were my chances of being admitted into a hero academy? Questionable, at best. Although I have been working extremely hard to become stronger, it won't be enough to cover the distance between a good quirk and an average quirk. But I was still going to give it my best. I'm not going to go down without a fight.
A week rolled by, and it was officially the start of the entrance exams to the hero academies. The first portion of the test was an academic and written test. It was a walk in the park for me. The next portion was where things started to get more difficult for me.
The second portion was an obstacle run. But it wasn't as simple as it sounded. It was a huge obstacle run, and within the obstacle run, there will be many obstacles that will attempt to slow you down. This obstacle run was a test of endurance. Though, of course, it wouldn't stop people with agility-related quirks from dominating here.
All the contestants lined up along the starting line. A screen positioned in front of the contestants started to count down.
3…2…1…GO!
With that, everyone started climbing over each other to progress forward. After the initial chaos, I found myself within the mid-ranks of the contestants. I was running at a steady, consistent pace. I knew that running fast and exhausting your energy in the early part of the run was a dumb idea, but that didn't stop a handful of individuals from precisely doing that. And, as I had expected, the contestants with agility-related quirks immediately started pulling a big lead.
After around ten minutes of running, the first obstacle finally showed itself. It was an eighty feet (~25 meters) tall wall with different hand grips splattered randomly on the wall. The contestants had to climb over it to continue with the obstacle run. There was no safety equipment, only a few staff and some medical personnel standing nearby.
"This should be easy," I thought to myself.
Although I was, by no means, the fastest climber, I climbed up the wall with a solid, steady pace. I speedily found myself on the top of the wall. I took a moment to look around me and noticed that a contestant just beneath me was struggling on one of the final hand grips. They had spent all their energy and had a desperate expression. Should I help him? I might as well…
I proceeded to reach down towards him. Seeing my hand, the other contestant grasped it firmly, and I helped pull him up. Upon reaching the top of the wall, he fell on his butt and was gasping for air.
"Thank you," he said with bated breath.
"No problem," I replied.
I continued with the obstacle run after helping the other contestant out. Following the wall was a steep downhill run which eventually stopped until it reached ground level. I proceeded to lower my center of mass and slow down my speed as I ran downhill with the desire not to fall.
After the hill, I resumed running at the pace I was initially running at. I also found myself overtaking a handful of other contestants.
As I was running, I suddenly heard a captivating voice appear in my head, "Hey Patton."
I was very familiar with the owner of that voice and recognized it immediately, "Oh hey Gina," I mentally replied.
"Did you miss me?"
"A little."
"How are you faring right now?"
"I am feeling pretty good. I haven't broken much of a sweat yet."
"Sorry I couldn't contact you for so long. Making you my avatar exhausted all my energy. Only recently did I recover enough energy to be able to contact you again," Gina said apologetically.
"No problem, I had guessed along the lines of that."
"…hey Patton?" Gina whispered hesitantly.
"Yeah?"
"Why did you help that person out?"
"You mean the lad that was struggling on the wall?"
"Yeah, that person."
"Well, the guy looked like he needed a hand, so I helped."
"For such a minuscule reason?"
"I don't need much of a reason to help others."
"…I see. The next obstacle is coming up. I'll let you focus," Gina said as I felt her angelic voice phase away from my head.
And, just as Gina had said, the next obstacle was now within view. It was a long body of water that must've stretched to at least one hundred yards (~90 meters). I felt a little bit annoyed seeing this obstacle. I'm not a big fan of getting wet, but I don't have a choice here, do I?
Immediately upon getting to the stretch of water, I dived in with no hesitation, and I started freestyling until I reached the other side. I haven't swum at all since coming to this reality. However, having worked as a dock loader in my previous life, I have had more than enough experience being in the water.
I crossed the swimming obstacle without a hitch and continued my run. I believe there should only be one more obstacle left. At this point, I was in the upper-mid ranks among the contestants currently running.
The final obstacle was unique. There was a large pit, and over the pit, there were several tight ropes you could choose from to cross the pit. I randomly chose one and started dragging my body across the rope. I had my body hanging below the rope with my legs crisscrossed on the rope and used my arms to pull myself forward. This was very exhausting.
While slowly pulling myself across the rope, I heard several people scream and then fall, ending with a loud thump as they fell onto the massive mattresses laid out on the bottom of the pit that successfully broke their fall. They now had to start from the very beginning. I guess this is where the hero academies primarily distinguish the physical weak from the physically strong.
After what felt like an eternity, I found myself on the other side of the pit and started sprinting towards the finish line. I finished 65th out of 500 contestants. Remember, this is just one of many sites holding the obstacle run. But, anyway, my results should be good enough.
That was it for today. The next part of the hero academy entrance will be held tomorrow. I headed back to my dorm, where I had something light to eat before waiting for tomorrow's test.
I had a great sleep that night. I woke up feeling like a new person, ready to take on the world. This morning, the hero academies released what the second test would comprise. The test today will be fighting-related. Each contestant will face off against waves of enemies, with each wave either having more enemies or stronger enemies. The contestants' final score will be calculated by how many waves they passed and how long it took.
Due to the sheer number of contestants wanting to enroll in one of the hero academies, this event will take all day to complete. I decided to arrive early at the venue where the second test would be held, and I wasn't the only one with that thought as there were already several other contestants waiting outside by the time I arrived.
Half an hour later, most of the other contestants started arriving and lined up. Not much longer, and the doors to the testing venue finally opened. The staff motioned for the first contestant waiting in line to give them their name and their contestant number.
As I was waiting in line, I saw that they were broadcasting the current contestants' fights on numerous screens outside and inside. One of the contestants currently fighting seemed to have the ability to control their hair. I witnessed that contestant manipulate her hair to shred the dummies attacking her. It appeared that she could also influence the hardness of her hair. That's a strong quirk if I've ever seen one.
Several other people with interesting quirks were currently fighting against the dummies. Still, none of them seemed as strong as the contestant who could manipulate their hair.
I eventually found myself in the front of the line and asked for my name and contestant number.
"What are your name and contestant number?" the staff asked me, ready to input numbers on the computer they were using.
"My name is Patton X. Washington. My contestant number is 61784," I answered politely.
"Great. I have you right here. As per procedure, I must inform you that your score will be calculated by the number of waves you complete and how long it takes you overall. Additionally, if you want to stop the test at any moment, yell stop. Staff will stop the test for you. Lastly, all injuries you encounter in this test will be solely your responsibility and yours alone. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"Good. Now I need you to sign this agreement which goes over what I just said," the staff said as he handed me a paper as well as a pen to write with.
I proceeded to sign the agreement and handed it back to the staff member. The staff member checked the agreement to make sure I signed it correctly before giving the ok symbol and gestured towards other staff to take me to my venue.
I was assigned to venue number nineteen, and the inside of the venue was a lot bigger than what the broadcasts would suggest. As I was standing in my venue, a transmission sounded.
"Remember, the test will stop when you either stop the test by yelling stop or the staff believe you can no longer fight or are in danger. If you are ready to proceed with the test, please wave at the camera."
Then, Gina communicated me again, "Hey Patton. Going forward, don't do that again."
"What are you referring to?"
"You know what I'm talking about. Helping other people like that. You are my only avatar. If you go bust, I'll go down with you. I can't be having you risk yourself to help others like that. Understand?" Gina said sternly.
"No. I cannot do that. If I want to help someone, I will help them. If you can't accept that, then I believe we must reconsider our relationship," I answered frankly.
"Why?"
"Because that is who I am. It must be mentioned somewhere in my characteristics, isn't it? You understand why."
"We'll talk about this more in the future."
"Alright, see ya.'
After sensing that Gina had stopped communicating with me, I looked at the camera at the corner of the venue and waved towards it.
"Good. Combat test will begin in 3…2…1…Start!"
With that, a gate on the other end of the venue open and out walked a frail-looking dummy. The dummy walked towards me at a slow pace and proceeded to swing at me when it got close enough. The dummy's swing was languid and weak as I dodged it just by leaning back a little bit. I didn't immediately take out the dummy as I was curious about how the dummy functioned. I turned on my thermo-vision and saw a distinct object within the chest area of the dummy that was emitting heat. I assumed that must be the core of the dummy and the secret to how the dummy is operating.
Knowing that I was on a timer, I stopped fooling around and lightly punched the dummy in the chest where the object was emitting heat, which caused the dummy to fall over, never to move again.
The transmission sounded again, "Round 1, complete. Please wait as clean-up dummies retrieve the combat dummy."
The doors to the side of the venue opened, and out came new dummies with distinct "DO NOT ATTACK" words written on them. The new dummies grabbed onto the dummy lying on the ground and took it away.
"Round 2, begin."
The gate at the end of the venue opened again, and this time three identical dummies of the first one stepped out. I quickly turned on my thermo-vision and discovered that the cores of the dummies were all in different places.
I smirked and said aloud, "This should be fun."
After taking out the three dummies, five dummies came out. After taking out the five dummies, ten dummies came out. After that wave, only a singular dummy came out, but this time, this dummy looked a lot stronger than the previous one. I readied myself as I knew that this was where the test truly began.
