"Follow me," the bot said as it entered a well-lit corridor.

"Young master-"

"I'll be fine," Jisha said, attempting to calm the nerves of her bodyguards. They were hesitant, but in the end they let her go. Facilities that conducted tests and exams were among the most secure, so there was nothing to worry about.

She followed the bot inside. The walls were adorned with subtle patterns that shifted and changed as they walked forwards. At the end was a set of pristine white double doors. The bot gestured with its arm as they silently slid open. "Take a seat inside."

Jisha crossed over the threshold and took a closer look at the room.

"I will leave you here. Good luck," it said, and the white doors slid shut.

The waiting area was a stark contrast to the corridor outside. The walls were painted in shades of drab gray, and the ceiling was high with recessed lighting. The rough carpet was striped with muted shades of beige. A series of angular seats made of a hard plastic material lined the walls. They were ergonomic in design but lacked cushioning.

*They could have spent a little more time making these more comfortable, couldn't they?*

On the other side of the wall was a screen with some information.

 

*>Preliminary Cohort no. 4943D14*

*>Examinees: 472*

*>Test begins in - 59s*

 

It read that this "cohort" contained 472 examinees, but there was no one else in the waiting room. The reason was simple - every driving exam cohort had participants from all over the world. Data and results from a participant's performance would be compared to the rest of the cohort.

As the countdown reached zero, the door under the sign swung open. Once again, she stepped into the other side.

At the end of the corridor stood the centrifuge room. Dominating the space was the large circular contraption itself - its metallic surface gleamed under the soft lighting, and its sheer size was intimidating. Being elevated on a platform, it was the undeniable focal point of the room.

"Please remove all loose articles of clothing," instructed another bot that was standing near the centrifuge's doorway. It was likely the same model as the receptionist as they both had identical facial features. "It could be dangerous."

Jisha hesitated.

"Will I remain anonymous?"

There was no way this area wasn't being monitored in some way. If she revealed her face...

"We take privacy concerns very seriously. If you would like for your test to be conducted anonymously, we can do so. However, you will receive perks if you decide to share your data with us. These include-"

"I'd like to remain anonymous, please," Jisha said without hesitation. Her anonymity was priceless - there was nothing a DMV could offer that rivaled this value.

"Certainly. Your examination is now officially flagged as anonymous."

"Good," Jisha said, handing the bot her robe.

"Please enter through here," it said, pointing towards the door of the centrifuge that was only wide enough for one person.

Jisha obediently stepped inside.

The walls were padded, likely to dampen any sounds. The only source of light was a hard glow of red outlining the seat, and it was bright enough to cast long shadows that danced with her movements.

"Will you need assistance buckling up?" it asked.

"No thanks."

"Very well. Good luck."

With a resounding thud, the door sealed shut, leaving Jisha alone in the dimly lit chamber. The belts and harnesses were intuitive - even first-timers should've been able to understand how they worked.

*I wonder if knowing how the belts work is part of the exam? I can imagine some poor soul getting thrown out because they didn't know the basics...*

With a series of clicks, she was safely fastened and ready to go.

Only after several minutes did the lights dim, leaving the room pitch-black.

A deep clank resonated throughout the material, and the machine began to spin. Gravity that pulled straight downwards now had an enemy. An invisible force pressed her sideways into the wall. The faster it spun, the more difficult it became to move.

Every limb weighed twice as much, and ordinary movements that one could perform subconsciously now required conscious effort.

*This is a bit familiar.*

Though it wasn't nearly as potent, it was a similar feeling of being transported back into her younger body. She'd already gone through that training by playing Synergy for the entire night.

*If I can deal with *that* massive handicap, nothing else can faze me.*

"Welcome Preliminary Cohort 4943D14. I, Deana, will be your proctor for today's examination."

A holographic screen popped up in the middle of the room several metron away. The system AI, Deana, presented and elaborated on additional details, likely for legal reasons.

"The first exam today will be decision making in double gravity."

The small screen fizzled away, and the entire room sprang to life with color. It was almost as if she were really in a room with double gravity.

"First, we will perform an eyesight reflex test."

In front of her spawned a hollow orange circle with crosshairs in the center.

"Track the dot with your eyes to the best of your ability."

At first, its movements were sluggish as it leisurely drifted across her vision. But soon, its pace quickened, darting erratically, zigzagging with such speed that it became a blur.

Just as her eyes struggled to keep up...

"Calibration complete. Average reaction time: 0.302s."

*Slow.*

She exhaled disappointedly. These numbers were abysmal, but nothing could be done about them right now.

"During the exam today, would you like to compare your performance results to the rest of the cohort?"

"If I remain anonymous, sure."

Deana displayed a bell curve graph with various markings.

"Your reaction time of 0.302s is in the 29th percentile of this cohort and the 32nd percentile of all time."

"Hm."

71 percent of today's participants had faster reaction times. This was surprisingly not as bad as expected.

"The first test will have a duration of 5 minutes. You are to solve the puzzles on the screen as they appear. You will be graded on speed as well as accuracy. Should you find yourself unable to proceed with a particular puzzle, you are advised to skip and try the next one. Such actions will not be penalized. There is no predetermined quantity of puzzles for this test, so solve as many as you can. Good luck."

 

*>5...*

*>4...*

*>3...*

*>2...*

*>1...*

*>Begin.*

*>Question 1: Which shape comes next in the following sequence?*

 

*Let's see... Three squares, then two... This one.*

Not only was it a problem solving test, but it also required you to physically move to submit your response. This made sense - you would have to move your limbs while operating a vehicle manually. If you couldn't do it while under steady g-forces, how would you be able to under hectic situations?

 

*>Question 2: Which type of line is missing from the image?*

 

*This squiggly one.*

 

*>Question 3: ...*

*>Question 4: ...*

*>...*

 

The first few questions were no-brainers. Even the average 10-year old could have solved them in comfortable conditions. The key here, though, was that these conditions were *not* comfortable.

As she progressed, the difficulty of the questions rose dramatically. Even more dramatic than that, though, were the conditions inside the centrifuge. High speed winds, distracting sounds, flashing lights... and when that wasn't enough...

 

*>Question 25: Traveling on which of the following road segments incurs the least risk?*

 

*The diagonal one.*

 

*>Increasing Gs. 2.0 -> 2.3*

 

*Haha...*

Sweat poured down her forehead and her heart beat wildly, but the system wasn't willing to grant any mercy.

*Come on... As long as I don't pass out, I'll be fine.*

 

*>Question 30: ...*

*>Question 40: ...*

*>Question 50: ...*

*>Increasing Gs. 2.3 -> 2.7*

*>Question 60: ...*

 

*How much longer?*

She'd been so honed in on the questions that she'd lost track of time.

 

*>Question 75: ...*

*>Increasing Gs. 2.7 -> 3.0*

 

*Are you kidding me...*

Sprint! Push ahead! Stay awake!

 

*>Question 97: ...*

*>Question 98: ...*

*>Question 99: ...*

*>Time expired.*

 

"End of phase 1."

Deana's soothing voice echoed over the PA just before Jisha could complete question 100. The centrifuge's motor powered down, and air conditioning fired at full blast.

"Haaaaaah...."

 

*>Pulse: 191*

The high-intensity session was over, and Jisha allowed herself to relax in her seat. She stopped fighting against the centrifuge's force and allowed it to stick her to the wall.

"Take a break, you deserve it!" Deana said with an encouraging tone as soon as the machine came to a halt.

*Whew. I almost got to 3 seconds a question.*

That had to be a fine result for today's standards, right? Of course, most of her focus went towards not passing out, but still...

*I can't believe something as small as 3Gs is enough to nearly incapacitate me.*

It seemed like no matter what she did, her physical weakness would always restrict her freedom in this world.

*That can always be improved later. The more interesting question is, how did everyone else do?*

 

---

 

"Wow, these questions are harder than average, aren't they?"

"That might be an understatement..."

"The difficulty has to be somewhere around top 10,000 at the very least."

"Ten thousand? Isn't that a bit too generous?"

The gamblers in the lounge were having a hell of a time analyzing the test, as this information was always released publicly. There weren't just gamblers in the lounge, though.

The results of all tests were shown online all over the world. This meant the gamblers were everywhere. Of course, not everyone was a gambler, and many just thought of the whole thing as a spectator sport. But many would try their own hand at the questions as well.

"What in the world is this difficulty curve? All the questions past 50 are ridiculous."

"I skipped to number 75. It took me three minutes to try and figure it out... and I got it wrong."

"I started from 1 and I can't solve anything past 20 very fast."

Usually, a good percentage of people would earn marks they considered passable. However, this time...

"Top 10,000 is absolutely generous, but not in a way you might expect. I believe its rating could be even higher than that."

"What?"

Ten thousand sounded like a big number, but when you considered there were over 70 million such tests taken in the past, that nearly placed it in the top 0.01% in terms of difficulty...

"Whatever. It's common sense that the number of questions answered isn't the most important metric anyway."

"Are you coping with the fact that you got number 75 wrong?"

The first speaker here was actually correct - the raw number didn't actually mean much. Performance among the pack as well as the difficulty of the test was factored into an aggregate score.

"I wonder what sorts of numbers Iztasa will put up for this beast of a challenge," one of the online gamblers said.

"Iztasa like always? Just because they have an Iztasan in this cohort doesn't mean they'll win. My money's on Austem," said a second.

"You're literally setting your money on fire by picking the underdog here," replied the first.

"Morons. We're all throwing our money away by gambling," interjected a third.

"Sure, Mom..." the second teased.

There was one important thing to factor in if one were to throw money into this hobby - which countries were the best at producing prodigious drivers for the Radical One motorsport circuit?

A lot of people entered the testing grounds to obtain a license to drive on the city streets, but the ones that scored the highest were always professional motorsport prospects. Naturally, if you couldn't even pass the license exams, how could you be a professional athlete? As a matter of course, the preliminary exam was always a breeze for these people. To them, the only thing that mattered was the top rankings. Private deals and promotions were waiting on the other end of a high ranking participant. Those with the most promise would receive the most resources and support in their training.

Iztasa, located in the Southeast, was currently the top-performing nation in Radical One. Naturally, the harder the questions were, the more the better performers would shine. As much as the first gambler wanted to say he was making a "good investment" by betting on them, they *were* gambling at the end of the day...

Austem, on the other hand, was located in the West and would also perform well in the big leagues, but they didn't have the best track record when it came to training new drivers.

"Anyway, if you're going to lecture us, why don't you tell us what your pick was?" the first gambler complained.

"My money's on Skeran," said the third.

""Huh?""

"What are you two 'huh'ing about? It's what my random number generator told me to pick."

"I can't believe you would actually support a Northeastern nation..." the first said.

"Don't even call them nations. It's embarrassing. You know how many human rights violations-"

"You two know that I always spin this RNG before I bet, right?" the third interrupted before the second could get too political.

"Yeah, yeah it's 'double gambling'... You don't have to tell us for the millionth time... Wait, shut up! The results are in!" the second said, bringing their attention back on track.

"Finally. Who is it? You know what, I'm closing my eyes because I already know I've won," said the first.

The other two waited with bated breaths. Would their risky gambles pay off? Probably not. But there was a chance...

Finally, the results of phase 1 were updated.

"... Interesting."

"Wait, what? Buddy, take a look. You're going to love this,"

The first gambler opened his eyes, only to have all of his expectations shattered.

"What?? How? Why?"

He read the list over and over, but the results never changed.

 

*>3 - ... - Dvanitra*

*>2 - ... - Austem*

*>1 - Anonymous*!