To the absolute horror of everyone else—especially the unfortunate instructors of the sophomore division—what had been designed as a well-balanced, controlled examination swiftly and violently descended into complete and utter pandemonium.
Simulated beasts poured out of every artificial crack, crevice, and rockfall, launching themselves towards the nearest mechas.
The crowd outside couldn’t hear the students inside, but judging by the frantically waving arms, slamming fists, and a few mechas doing suspicious jumps, they were definitely screaming in their cockpits.
Durability alerts blared, and somewhere in the control room, a technician shook in horror as the monitors showed everything they prepared spawning in one go.
Meanwhile, inside the arena, the chaos was both a disaster and a divine gift depending on who you asked.
The upperclassmen, previously smug and leisurely ambushing freshmen, were now too busy not dying to guard tokens or enforce exam rules. And the freshmen, who needed only one token and the finish line to pass, were suddenly having the time of their lives.
Well, mostly.
Because a few bad eggs lost their hard-earned tokens after Noah decided to take them nonetheless.
Technically, the rules never said they couldn’t take someone else’s tokens, and while he never thought of doing something like this before, getting thrown to the beasts as a scapegoat would change a man.
So, now armed with more tokens than required, what was left was getting to the finish line.
It was a rather simple task. However, the spectators could clearly see how the students chose to react to the crisis, especially after several events unfolded following Luca’s stunt.
First, the sophomores tried to block Luca’s shortcut because this was a direct counter to their requirement to pass. But that didn’t end well. For not only did they not need to do this, but it also resulted in eliminations as the beasts practically gathered there.
Second, the freshmen who had been scared of direct confrontation learned to wait to ambush those heavily damaged sophomore mechas for their tokens.
And lastly, those from Luca’s section, who were practically veterans of explosions and near-death experiences, decided to use their brains before moving.
And that was how those lucky few, including Noah, decided to take advantage of Luca’s funnel by sprinting around the periphery where the coast would have to be clear.
The results were tragic. Well, tragic for so many people. But the same couldn’t be said for Luca, who joyously and casually crossed the finish line in 9 minutes and 57 seconds with his 10 tokens.
A beautiful result.
One that Luca stared at after he dismounted from the mecha.
"Host," D-29 piped up, launching virtual poppers to celebrate. "Congratulations on your success! Finish time: 9 minutes and 57 seconds. Placement: second."
Luca paused, eyes slowly blinking at the display.
And then his hands immediately flew up to cover his mouth. Because right there, at the very top of the leaderboard, Xavier Montclair and Luca Kyros were ranked right next to each other.
Wow.
It looked so nice.
Luca fiddled with his terminal, snapped a discreet photo of the display, and prepared to send it to Xavier, who probably hadn’t seen his match since he’d left right after his own.
Only—
Ping!
Luca blinked. A message?
[XAVIER: You did really well. I saw. Clever of you to figure out the secret of those specialized weapons so quickly. I’m proud of you.]
Luca promptly turned into steam.
His ears flushed red. His brain short-circuited. His heart? It did a small, inappropriate wiggle.
But he still sent the photo he was going to send anyway.
[LUCA: Look, our names are next to each other.]
[XAVIER: As it should be. Together.]
Luca combusted.
He didn’t even notice that he made a little sound until someone near him jumped.
And just as he was about to slide into a daydream—
Ping!
Another message.
[XAVIER: Also, in case you were wondering, the simulated arena’s structural integrity is isolated from the real-world arena. So even with all that...flair, no permanent damage to the Academy’s equipment. No fines.]
Luca froze.
Oh.
OH!
Calibration. Realignment. Fiber threading. Neural line tuning. Resonant frequency harmonization. He didn’t just fix the mecha—he understood it. Spoke to it. Whispered promises of second chances and sleek performance curves.
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