The night passed quickly, and I found myself forcefully pulled out of my dreamland by my alarm. I felt as my recollection of the dream rapidly fizzle into nothingness. I struggle fruitlessly to conjure memories of the blissful dream of last night. Finally, I accept the reality that the dream is now forever forgotten, and I must move on with my life.
Today marked the last day of the hero academy test. I checked my phone to see whether the academies had released the content of today's test. Fortunately, they did, and I learned that the final part of the test would be a rescue simulation. There will be a simulated scenario where the contestants must attempt to save as many people as possible. Their final score will be calculated by how many people they saved and how quickly they saved them.
I went through my daily routine, which consisted of brushing my teeth, showering, getting dressed, getting something light to eat from the canteen, and reading a book before setting off to where the final part of the hero academy test will be located.
Given the type of test it was, the testing location was located in the city's desolate outskirts. I took the bus and walked to the testing location and found that several apartment complexes had been erected there.
A crowd of contestants had already gathered near the starting point, so I joined them. The test will not officially begin until an hour later, so I entertained myself by having some small talk with the other contestants who were also waiting.
An hour had passed quickly, and now the location of the final part of the test was pretty packed with contestants and audiences alike.
On the stage located near the apartment complexes, the spokesperson walked onto the stage, took the microphone into their hand, and started talking, "Thank you, everyone, for your continued patience as we prepare to start the final part of the hero academy test!"
The crowd cheered.
The spokesperson continued, "I understand that emotions are high right now, so I will not bore you with a long monologue. All I want to say and the hero academies and I are proud of our nation's youth, seeing how many want to become heroes and protect the public from evil-doers!"
The crowd cheered again.
"However, as much as I hate to say it, I believe everyone here understands that not all of you will be able to become heroes. Many of you here today will not become heroes."
The crowd turned deathly quiet as everyone understood the reality of the situation but didn't want to think about it.
"To those of you who do not become heroes today. I understand the disappointment and the potential regret you might feel at that moment. However, just because you do not go to the hero academies does not mean you cannot still be a hero to your friends, your family, and your community. I implore you to continue to be the beacons of hope and safety within your communities and find other ways besides fighting evil to help people. Remember, simply fighting evil does not make one a true hero. It is one's actions!" The spokesperson said with rising excitement and energy.
The crowd erupted in cheers after the spokesperson's motivating speech.
"Let the games begin!" was the spokesperson's last remark as he stepped down from the stage and someone else took his place.
The person now on the stage quickly introduced themselves, "Hello everyone. I am Kevin Armstrong, director of today's test. The sooner everyone can organize themselves, the sooner we can begin the final test. Now, I will quickly elaborate on the rules and grading procedure of the test. As many of you may already know, today's test will be a rescue simulation where contestants are scored based on how many people they can save and how quickly they can do it."
The director continued, "As you can all see, the apartment complexes behind me will be where the test will take place. Test staff will soon set the building ablaze, and several trained personnel will be inside the burning buildings pretending to be normal civilians. As contestants, you must try to save as many of them as possible. I expect we can start the first round of simulations in around ten minutes."
After the director finished sharing the rules for the test, I got in line for the simulations. And, precisely as the director had estimated, ten minutes later and the first round of simulations were ready. In total, ten identical apartment complexes were lined up together. Each round of simulations will last a total of ten minutes because, in a real scenario, the trapped tenants will most likely already have died due to smoke poisoning in a burning building after ten minutes.
Contestants were lined up in front of each of the ten houses. A moment later, all the houses combusted in flames simultaneously. A horn was sounded, which marked the start of the round of simulations. The ten contestants each sprinted into the apartment complexes in front of them, calling out to get a response from the acting civilians.
A few rounds of simulations have now been completed. In these rounds, I've seen many unique and interesting quirks being used in the simulations. I've come to understand that the most challenging part about the simulation was not saving the civilians but finding them. This made me focus on discovering a method that would enable me to find civilians during the test quickly. Since the first round of simulations, I have constantly been examining the apartment complexes with my thermo-vision. I was attempting to find the silhouettes of the civilians within the fires with my thermo-vision. However, so far, it has been a futile effort. When looking at the blazing apartment complexes with my thermo-vision, all I see is a mass of bright orange. Let alone look for the heat signatures of the civilians. I could barely make out the shape of the apartment complexes with my thermo-vision.
I've never had my thermo-vision on for so long, so my eyes were starting to feel strained. I began to feel a little regret because of how I neglected training my quirk. A few rounds of simulations later, I found myself standing in front of one of the complex buildings. There were no more opportunities to practice, and it was now all or nothing. I waited for the horn to sound before sprinting into the fiery building.
For the first minute inside the building, I was running down corridor after corridor while calling out to the survivors, trying to listen for a cry for help or something. However, I had wholly underestimated just how loud it was inside the burning apartment complex. With the constant sound of fire crackling, the sound of the walls and wooden beams collapsing, you really couldn't tell that it was all fake. I started to re-evaluate my course of action here. I could either continue running around the building like a headless chicken hoping to find a civilian or try to use my quirk to determine the location of the civilians. I was not too fond of the former option because that relied purely on luck.
I steadied my breath before turning on my quirk inside the burning building. Immediately, I was assaulted by waves of bright colors. I felt like I was in a realm where the colors of red and orange and everything in between was constantly twisting and mixing. It was madness incarnated. Then, an idea sprouted out of nowhere. I closed my left eye and focused all my energy on my right eye. Immediately afterward, the scenery in front of me vanished. The initial red and orange world disappeared, and all that was left was blackness. However, within that blackness, I spotted silhouettes of blue and purple colors resembling the shape of people! I now knew where the civilians were! Just then, a terrible pain assaulted my right eye, leaving me clenching my face in anguish.
The sharp pain finally relieved enough for me to operate again, but I still struggled to open my right eye. But that wasn't important right now! I now know the general location of the civilians; I can't let such an opportunity go to waste!
The following eight minutes were the most stressful minutes of my new life so far. I was running in and out of the burning building saving a new civilian every time. I managed to step out of the building with one more civilian in hand just when the ten-minute timer was up. After finally taking a brief pause, I noticed that everyone's attention was on me. The average number of civilians contestants have saved in each simulation so far was two. Meanwhile, behind me, there were ten civilians. I had unknowingly shattered the record, which was five civilians saved.
A few hours have passed, and I am now signing documents that would officially make me a North Goldberg Hero Academy student. The entire procedure only took around twenty minutes. I was given new identification, a goody bag of treats, and a key card to a dorm room in the North Goldberg Hero Academy by the end of it. I could move in anytime now; the start of the school year wouldn't be until two months from now.
As I walked back to my dorm to start packing my stuff, I noticed that time around me had stopped, and a black portal swirled into existence in front of me. I knew where it led to, so I didn't hesitate to walk into it.
After walking through the portal, I found myself back where I met Miss Gina for the first time and where I became her avatar. Just like the first time, Miss Gina was sipping tea next to the table, and her beauty was just as blinding.
I sat down next to her on the table and noticed that she was feeling ecstatic. A cup of black coffee then conjured in front of me.
"Thank you," I said.
"I should be the one thanking you, Patton," Miss Gina said in a sweet tone.
"Why is that?"
"I didn't expect you to be so successful. I now feel fully assured having you as my avatar!"
"I'm happy to hear that."
"At this pace, you'll be able to complete the mission in no time!"
"Miss Gina, the tortoise beats the hare. Haste is the path of destruction."
"Yeah, you're right. I'm just feeling a little emotional right now, hick. I felt so scared. You know, hick. If it weren't for you, hick, I would probably die," Miss Gina said sorrowfully as she started to cry.
I was now in a very awkward position. What is one supposed to do when a literal goddess is crying in front of you? I decided to implement the age-proven method of just staying quiet and nodding.
After a few minutes of crying, it seems like Miss Gina finally recovered her composure.
"Here, please use this," I said as I handed her the handkerchief I kept in my pocket when I saw her starting to wipe her face with her hand.
Miss Gina nodded and used my handkerchief to wipe away the dried tears from her face.
"How do you like your quirk so far?" Miss Gina asked, sounding a lot better now.
"It's been a lot better than I expected it to be, to be honest."
"See? I told you so, didn't I."
"Yep, you were right. I concluded that I have two states of thermo-vision so far. Heat vision, where I can observe the heat of all objects, the default mode of my thermo-vision, and focus vision which allows me only to see a specific temperature of my choosing. Though, I need to train my thermo-vision more often now as it seems that focus vision is very taxing on my body."
"That's good to hear. How is your eye feeling right now, by the way?"
"It's still a little bit painful. I reckon it'll fully recover in a week."
"Here, I can fix that," Miss Gina said as she bent over the table and unexpectedly kissed my right eye.
It took me a moment to process what had just happened, but when I did, my face flushed red.
"Uh..uh…uh," I stammered, unable to speak a coherent sentence.
"I'm going to take my leave now," I finally managed to blurt out before escaping through the black portal.
Miss Gina softly laughed as she watched my reactions from beginning to end.
