My temples were throbbing.
They sent an email this morning detailing all the facilities available in the city, along with some surface-level history of the academy and what to expect.
And about the facilities, there were a lot of them. A lot. A Hell lot.
There was a training center for weapon training, vehicle simulations for those who wanted to learn in a safe environment, a shooting range for guns, another shooting range for bows, all staffed with robots that could act as training dummies, provide feedback, or teach you. Nothing in-depth just fixing stances and basic form
And lastly, the parkour course.
The whole city could act like a maze for those brave enough or simply insane
There was also a file containing the academy's rules and regulations.
The academy wasn't that strict when it came to rules, but three rules had to be followed at all costs.
1 – A student must, under no circumstances, reveal their family name, clan name, or any other information that links them to any outside organization.
We actually had to sign a soul contract for that, which made us unable to mention any information about our past. A way to make things fair, they claimed.
2 – A student must not use the active form of their Gift until the third year of the academy, in adherence to international law, unless directly told otherwise by someone above vice-principal rank.
Passive effects were allowed, since there was no way to suppress them. My form shift also counted as passive. I could change forms without essence consumption.
3 – A student cannot contact the outside world during their first four years of the academic program. Self-explanatory, Can't cry to your mommy for bullying that's all.
Other than that, it was a quiet Monday morning.
And I was feeling too lazy to check out every listed facility. There was a market on the 75th floor, which I had already visited yesterday.
It was between my floor; 101, shared by four people with identical rooms, I assumed and the ground floor, so I went there.
I needed stuff to cook, stuff to cook in, and stuff to wash the stuff I used to cook in.
There was running water, both cold and hot, 24/7.
And a bathroom with a shower, a tub, and a toilet equipped with a tissue stand for those who liked to wipe and a mini shower head for those who liked to use their hands.
There were parks in every block. So after eating a simple breakfast I made for myself, I went to decipher what the stuff on my rune reader meant.
'Or that could wait. I only have six months till entrance—got to make the most of it'
With that thought, I pushed myself off the bed and headed toward the training grounds.
The training grounds were located underground, along with the shooting ranges.
They spanned throughout the entire city. One could access them simply by taking the elevator from their building.
Pressing the T button on the elevator directly took one to the training grounds.
And I found myself in the training grounds, a sword in my hand, going through regular motions—stab, slash, thrust, repeat.
It was currently 8:00 AM.
Six hours in, I decided to skip the meal and continue swinging, mindlessly going through the motions.
The machine mostly buzzed red, signaling incorrect stance or misaligned slashes.
But sometimes, it buzzed green.
With time, green started appearing more frequently.
I was also thinking…
'I don't have any motivation. No goals. The only goal I had, I've already completed.'
'I don't have any place to call home. Nowhere to return to'
'So why was I swinging the sword at all? Admission was already guaranteed.'
'For honor? I don't know what that is. For freedom? That doesn't exist. For beliefs? I don't have any, not anymore
So why?'
The answer, however, was very simple.
'I was training because I wanted to. You need power to survive. You need power to show kindness. You need power to get the answers you seek.'
I may not know much about myself. ButThe instincts of the beasts wouldn't let me hide my strength. A predator doesn't hide itself out of fear of others, after all.
'Arius believed that people only get one life, so they should shine as brightly as they can while they have the chance.'
'As for Roanne, she thought it was simply fun—exciting to be here, to meet people our age in the future.'
So hiding strength wasn't an option. The only way forward was to give it our all, that was something we could all agree on.
So I swung my sword,
And six months passed.
Across the city, similar scenes could be seen playing out.
In one training hall, a youth sat meditating with a sword resting in his lap. He opened his eyes, silver pupils reflecting faintly.
The lights in the room flickered on, yet the youth's eyes did not react, as if the light itself had no effect on him.
From his unfocused pupils and lack of response, one might conclude that he was blind.
But a single glance at the room told a different story.
Training dummies lay scattered across the floor, some cleanly beheaded, others with limbs severed precisely at the joints.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
An alarm echoed through the hall.
"So it's time…" the youth whispered, more to himself than anyone else as there was no one beside him.
He rose and walked away, using his training sword as an improvised cane.
In another corner of the city, inside a bathroom, a different youth stood before a mirror, wet hair clinging to his head, the sink overflowing with water.
"Haah…"
"Today is the day. Today is the start…
Wait for me. I'm coming."
He wasn't looking at his reflection. He was staring at a blue screen that only he could see.
[SYSTEM QUEST ISSUED]
OBJECTIVE: Place within the top 1,000 of the entrance rankings
REWARD: Mask of ???
A girl could be seen in the archery grounds, shooting arrows. The dried blood on her hands and the shallow cuts on her fingers suggested she had been practicing for a long time.
Shing~
After shooting another arrow, she left. All the targets in the field had at least one arrow lodged in them, each perfectly centered on the bullseye.
Clang~
Clang~
The sound of metal striking metal echoed from the blacksmithing facility outside.
Inside, a boy hammered a heated metal rod. Slowly, it took the shape of a crude sword.
The boy looked at it, disappointment clear as he muttered,
"Six months of hammering, and I can't even make a single decent sword."
"What date is it today…?"
He glanced at his phone lying on the adjacent table.
"FUCK! I'm going to be late for the entrance exam."
Bang~
Bang~
Bang~
I emptied my pistol, hitting all the vital organs on the test dummy.
I practiced shooting nothing too crazy, just handguns. Trained with swords. And completed some parkour courses whenever I could make time between weapon practice and gun practice.
I also tried vehicle simulations until I was confident that, if the need to drive ever arose, I wouldn't crash embarrassingly.
Running over NPC pedestrians was fun, though and trespassing on private property.
Their fault for making it so realistic.
8:45 AM was the current time. The train that would take us to the examination center would arrive around 10:00 AM.
Might as well take a shower. I know how long the exam will last.
Thinking along those lines, I headed toward the shower.
***
I walked out of the shower and dressed in my shapeshifting clothes which was an absolute necessity for a distinguished gender-bender such as myself.
I looked at the balcony. It looked very tempting.
'Bah, who cares about a flying license? I'll be fine.'
I ran to the balcony and jumped.
[Form Shift]
Croak~
'Yep, can't speak in this form, but who cares? Speaking is overrated. I haven't talked to anyone in six months and I'm doing fine. Totally sane.
Less thinking. More flapping. Enjoy the wind."
I could see the entire block from up here. Almost everyone was leaving, trying not to be late for the trains.
There were ten trains heading to multiple examination locations. After all, even an academy as prestigious as this wouldn't be crazy enough to pit fifty thousand students against each other.
…On second thought, they might actually do that.
We had already been emailed our train tickets and assigned train numbers to avoid confusion and overcrowding.
I flew over, ducking under streetlights for fun.
And just like that, I arrived at the station. I nosedived and stopped myself at the last second, then-
[form shift]
I touched grass with my feet. Shoes, technically. Time to board the train.
And board the train I did.
At exactly 10:00 AM, the train left the station.
For 10mins at 360 km/h to 260km/h
Then it slowed down to 1 km/h.
The speakers started buzzing. Then a voice came through.
"Yoo, you guys should be able to hear me.
So, Vice Principal Carter of the Elite Academy here, and I'd love to tell you that, as you all know that while all of you are accepted, only 2,000 of the 50,000 present across the trains will get a chance to enter the one and only Elite Academy."
"So give it your best, and if you fail then well, you suck. That's all."
"If you wasted the last six months loafing around, I have bad news for you. The regular academy for special admissions is no better than any other government academy. Only we at the Elite Academy have all the goodies."
"Anyway, it's currently 10:05 AM.
To pass the first test, you need to reach the center, which should be roughly 5 km from your current location."
"The exact location will be sent to your devices in—
3
2
1
AND GO."
The doors of the train opened. Train was still moving.
The train was moving on a bridge; rooftops could be seen a leap away.
So this is why there was a parkour course in the listed facilities. How fun.
I took a few steps back, sprinted—
and jumped out of the train.