The Over-Break System

"No, hold off for now, Brance; you and Benny go over by Gabby; the podium had a set of coordinates, and it looks like if we follow them, we will find three other desks that have buttons in them. The following button should be 13 away from Gabby in any direction." Cynrik explained his findings, and the other two boys set about looking for the following button, and about 30 seconds later, it was Brance who found it. He was 13 desks away to the front of Gabby.

Nodding at Brance, Cynrik and Benny started searching 22 desks away from Brance. Finally, after a couple more minutes, Cynrik and Benny found the last button and positioned themself in a way they could quickly press it.

"Alright, there are only two ways to do this; we either push them at the same time or in order. So let's put it up to a vote." Passing off the responsibility in case something went wrong, Cynrik left the final decision to the rest of the group. After a short conversation, the decision was made to push all four buttons on the count of three.

"On three. Three, two, one push!"

Click

The four children pressed the buttons simultaneously and were bathed in bright white light, teleporting them out of the room at the exact same time.

Two seconds later, the four of them were sitting side by side, in an exact replica of the last room, only this time, nearly all of the seats were packed with children. All around them, over a thousand other children close to their age were chatting happily about passing the previous test.

Cynrik looked over at the Sanfords and nodded while putting his finger to his lips to tell them to stay quiet before looking at the front of the room where a red-haired, middle-aged woman in a pencil skirt and glasses was standing at the podium silently observing the group of children.

[Tsk, fucking already started with the dumb puzzle games.] Cynriks eyes flickered around the room as he counted the empty desks.

[Looks like we were kind of slow; there are only around 40 open seats. If we were any slower, it's safe to assume we would have flunked.]

[Seems like the teacher lady is eyeing us like a hawk, Cyn.] Brance too noticed the silent red-head across the room and spoke up about her.

[Either she's just keeping count, or there's another BS filter being applied to kick out people. Just stay quiet for now, and do the little good child act you always do.] Cynrik scoffed internally, picking up on the nervous tone Brance had used.

Time moved on slowly as small clusters of new kids would appear in the empty seats. Each time a new batch showed up, the teacher would check her Watcet before clicking her tongue and scanning the crowd again.

Eventually, after 30 minutes, the final seat was filled, and the Red-Head cleared her throat loudly, causing the noisy children to go silent.

"Welcome, and congratulations. This classroom holds exactly 1600 desks, and there are seven more just like it. This means, of the initial 183,200 applicants, only 12,800 of you completed the qualifying assessment to take the Written Exam."

Cynriks pupils shrunk to pinholes as he realized this first little puzzle had eliminated nearly 93% of the people who applied. If they had only been a few minutes slower on solving it, they would have been part of the over 170 thousand people eliminated.

"Now then, in five minutes, each of you will receive a prompt on your Watcets, giving you access to the testing program. You will have precisely 2 hours to complete the multiple-choice test, and you must score at least a 90% to advance to the 2nd Phase of the Exam. The program will be directly sent to you through a neuro-link, so only you will be able to see the questions, and it only takes a simple thought to fill in the correct bubble and move on to the next question. Using this method also means there will be no way of cheating."

[Hehe, unless you're us and have a Divine blessing from two Gods.] Cynrik snickered in the mind-link forcing Brance to frown and ignore him.

"If there are any questions, now would be the time to speak up, as there will be absolutely no talking while the Written Exam is being administered." Finishing her statement, several hands rose up to ask questions, and the Red-head, picked on a couple of them one at a time. Most of the questions were simple clarifications about what she had just gone over, and Cynrik tuned them out. That is until a relevant question was posed.

"Ma'am, once we pass the Written Exam, when will we know the start time and contents of Phase: Two?" A brown-haired girl around Brance's age asked nervously.

"If, and ONLY IF, you pass the Written portion, you will have 48 hours to prepare for the next phase of the exam. Only those who pass today will find out its contents."

[Welp, small blessings right, 48 hours is plenty of time to power level our Affinities. But…]

Cynrik was cut off by the Red-head who's next statement was a bit shocking.

"One more thing, the 100 people who finish slowest but still score a 90% or higher shall be eliminated. Now then, everyone sits quietly until you receive the prompt to begin the test.

[There it is. Of course, they're eliminating people with poor times.] With his mouth closed, Cynrik ran his tongue over one of his molars while thinking.

[I guess we have to speed run this shit. I'm a bit worried about Gabby since she's not the brightest apple in our group; I mean, she's sooo madly in love with you after all.] Snickering internally, Cynrik tried his best to ignore the howls of anger flooding the mind-link from Brance.

Luckily, he didn't have to do this for long, as just when Brance was starting to pick up with his insults, his Watcet vibrated, and a notification popped up on its display.

-You have been granted access to Written Exam #B7-

-Your assigned applicant number is 00115-

-You will have 2 hours to answer all 200 questions to the best of your ability.-

-Test will begin in 2 minutes.-

[OI, Brancie, what number did you get, I got one one five, PLAY IT TOBS!]

-Now playing "115" by Elena Siegman from BloPs Zombies-

[Everyone tries to hold onto their lives, when no ones alive, BRING ME 115,] Cynrik sang along with the song and even screamed the metal verse, causing Brance to roll his eyes while smirking because he knew what kind of reaction his older brother would have when he heard the number he'd been assigned.

[Tobs, stop the song.] Brance cheerfully put a stop to Cynriks shenanigans.

-Stopping playback-

[Heyyyy Cynnn, guess what.]Brance chirped playfully.

Cynrik suddenly felt cold and shivered in his seat while sitting straight up; sensing an omen, he slowly turned and faced Brance, who sat to his left, and was greeted by his little brother's full-toothed smile and crescent eyes.

[Y…yes Brance…]

[117.]

[NOOOOOO, FUCK, I COULDA BEEN MASTER CHIEF, GOD DAMN IT!]

-Now beginning Written Exam.-

-Connecting Watcet to applicants System.-

-Neuro-link connected.-

-Question 1) What does the STR or Strength stat represent…-

Wanting to cry and gritting his teeth, Cynrik started rapidly answering the questions as soon as they appeared. Likewise, Brance and the Sanford siblings quickly answered the multiple-choice questions as soon as they appeared. None of them wanted to be the last one to finish the test.

The Red-haired woman stood at the front of the exam room, looking out over all the children who were staring off into the distance as they took their tests. Then, finally, after 25 minutes, the first person to finish appeared. It was the brown-haired girl who had asked her the last question before the exam started. The woman knew she had completed the test simply because she was bathed in white light and teleported away from her seat. This was a sign that she finished the exam and scored a passing grade. Not long after she vanished, several more lights flashed in different areas of the room. Some white, and others red, signifying they had failed.

Once the one-hour mark passed, Brance flashed in white light and was gone a second later. Cynrik witnessed this out of the corner of his eye, and it caused him to speed up.

Five minutes later, the second person in their group passed. This time it was Gabby, who went into overdrive after seeing Brance leave and perfectly answered the questions at an almost impossible speed. Unfortunately, her disappearance momentarily distracted Cynrik, causing him to lose a few seconds and allowing Benny to beat him in passing the test.

Being the last one in their group still taking the Written Exam gave Cynrik a sour taste in his mouth as he checked how many questions were left. Sucking his teeth, he sped through the remaining 25 questions and was transported away.

Unknown to him, there were only 103 slots left to pass, and he had barely made it. When the final slot filled up, the room was suddenly tinted in red light, as over 300 people were instantly failed. The Red-headed woman had failed to inform them that there were only 1000 spots open, and now 600 of the initial 1600 applicants had failed.