After a restless night, Lyra woke up before her alarm could chime.
Her next class wasn't scheduled for another hour.
She headed to one of the reaction testing rooms — small, sealed simulators designed to measure neural response time under simulated threat. Each student was allocated two free hours per week, though few used them this early.
The sim centres were tucked in a side wing of the academy's training block — dim corridors, pulse lights, and the faint hum of dampened kinetic feedback through the walls. As she stepped inside the testing bay, she realized she wasn't alone.
One of the pods was already active. The projection hovered above the unit, replaying the sim's output in real-time.
[Student: Aylin Rho | Rank: ]
Target Scenario: Swarmsmith Drone Cluster (Standard Mode)
Pain Calibration: 45%
Reaction Time: 0.38s (Peak), 0.51s (Avg)
Status: Active
Lyra noticed something odd: her profile tag, which shimmered on the sim feed, did not display a Rank.
Lyra frowned. Everyone had a visible profile on Academy grounds. Even System anomalies were usually flagged with a placeholder tag. This one… was hidden. On purpose.
Inside, the girl from class — the one who'd taken the seat beside Lyra — moved like she'd run the sim a hundred times. No hesitation. No wasted motion. She ducked under a blade sweep, twisted past a needle-thin projectile, and slid across simulated gravel. Her motions weren't just fast. They were precise. Anticipatory.
She wasn't reacting. She was predicting.
Lyra watched the simulation feed replay a particularly tight evasion — a low swoop dodge beneath a spinning blade cluster — executed with zero hesitation.
System suggests danger recognition at 0.12s — below expected baseline.
Either she's a prodigy, Lyra thought, or she's been doing this a lot longer than the rest of us.
-----
The simulation ended with a soft tone.
Inside the pod, the girl straightened, breath controlled but shallow.
She stepped out, visor dimmed and sweat collecting at her temples. Her expression was unreadable, but her eyes flicked up to the overhead display. She studied her own results like someone assessing equipment damage, not self-worth.
She spotted Lyra watching.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then the girl offered a curt nod. "You're early."
"Couldn't sleep," Lyra replied.
A pause.
Then: "You're fast."
The girl shrugged, grabbing a water pouch from the wall panel. "Better than being dead."
She walked past, not unkind — just focused.
-----
Lyra's Turn
She keyed into the simulator.
[STUDENT: LYRA KADE | RANK: D–]
[SIM MODE: BASELINE REACTION TEST]
[THREAT MODEL: Swarmsmith Drone | Tier 1]
[PAIN CALIBRATION: 30% – DEFAULT]
"Override to 35%," she muttered.
[ACKNOWLEDGED.]
[Begin in 3… 2… 1—]
The environment shifted around her — metallic alleyway, shattered concrete, and the whirring buzz of approaching drones.
The first shot came from her right. She dodged late — not enough to fail, but enough to feel it. A streak of searing pain across her left arm. Not real, but convincing.
Another strike. She ducked, twisted—
Too slow.
A third drone clipped her shoulder. The simulation paused.
[RESPONSE SCORE: 0.74s Peak | 0.89s Avg]
[Injury Simulation: Moderate]
[Note: Initial hesitation detected. Confidence Lag: 0.32s]
She exhaled sharply.
Not terrible, she thought. But not good either.
I hesitate.
She doesn't.
----
Outside the pod, she sat on the bench for a moment, trying to shake off the ghost-pain.
She needed figure out a way how to increase her response time. If she hesitates, she would be dead like the people in the video Instructor Levi showed during class.