Shi Lang stood in the back of the gathering room, waiting for his name to be called when he sensed a gaze locked on his person for a few prolonged seconds. He could tell who the person was without opening his eyes. His senses were alert and his spirit sense gave him the answer he needed.
The officer in charge of conducting the test was checking him, and the reason he was gazing so intently could be the calm displayed by the entire Ace division. After a few minutes, the names of the people from the Ace Division were called out and they moved forward. Shi Lang did not care for how they will perform as he had warned all these guys about the performance already.
After five minutes, the officer said, “Shi Lang.”
Shi Lang opened his eyes and walked over to the test room directly. He passed a barrier and found himself standing in a facility that looked like a sophisticated research lab. It was filled with various machines and a few separate chambers.
A man stood in front of him with a faint smile. He gestured for Shi Lang to step forward and said, “This is the first thing you need to do, please hit this pillar four times, each time using a different limb.”
Shi Lang nodded and walked to the side where the pillar was. He took a deep breath and stepped forward, with his fist rushing at the pillar, his back followed the punch and his hips rotated slightly before the young man locked them.
A boom sounded followed by a second boom. The pillar shook, the invigilator was shocked by what he saw, this man just produced a sonic boom while punching the pillar. Shi Lang did not waste any time and a second punch landed on the pillar with same intensity, followed by a round-house kick from the right leg and a straight kick from his left leg.
The space was still ringing from the four terrifying hits and four sonic booms. Shi Lang let out a breath and walked over to the invigilator as he said, “What’s next?”
The man pointed at a separate chamber and said, “This is an advanced obstacle course that will be used to test your speed, reaction and judgement abilities. You will have to use your weapon to deal with the threatening entities projected inside and also save the innocent ones.”
Shi Lang nodded and asked, “This chamber can handle phaser beams, right?”
The invigilator nodded and Shi Lang stepped inside the chamber after checking his handgun. The chamber had an array of projectors that could create hyper realistic scenarios and Shi Lang was also given a bracelet to stimulate pain if he suffers any virtual injury.
Shi Lang took a breath and nodded to the man. The invigilator pressed the start button in front of him and the man began to run on a omni-directional treadmill at a fast speed. The young man was not sparing any effort.
He was jumping from one treadmill to the other and avoided the phaser beam projections, just when he was getting in the groove suddenly a monster figure was projected rushing towards him, Shi Lang took note of the projection and sighed in his mind as this was an extremely real looking projection.
The monster looked like a scorpion and could have been said to be dangerous but Shi Lang noticed the eyes of the projection and decided not to act. The monster did not harm him, and Shi Lang moved to another treadmill, when he found a bunch of humanoid figures rushing over, and they all were carrying wooden stakes.
However, this time the young general did not hold back and his phasor gun fired ten shots taking them down from a considerable distance and all the shots were directly made through the head.
The invigilator was surprised, the people before had all made a mistake by treating the humanoids as non-threatening projections, but the past nineteen people and now this guy, they had nailed this accurately.
Watching Shi Lang rushing with ease, the man increased the difficulty but the result was the same. Whether it was a shower of phaser beams or was it poison gas clouds, Shi Lang made it through all of them unharmed.
The invigilator knew that Terrans had special abilities and this seemed to be the ability of this guy. He did not know how wrong he was. However, Shi Lang and the people could not care less about this misunderstanding.
…
After five minutes, Shi Lang stopped and he was slightly panting. This test has almost pushed him to use his to the level of peak core condensation realm. He did not mind this but he was surprised to see that machines were able to achieve this efficiency. He understood the reason why none of the people were able to make it through the test until they were from the civilizations from Tier-B.
Seems like the competition ahead will be exciting. He was looking forward to it. The invigilator led him outside and he found that almost all the people were standing back in the gathering room looking at the score bulletin in a daze. He did not mind and returned to his spot in the corner. The room was overflowing with gloom, as the majority of the applicants have failed to pass the test.
Shi lang looked at the scoreboard and nodded before he closed his eyes once again. They have cleared the first round, and they needed to wait for the second round. The top-twenty of the scores were taken by the Ace division.
The officer in charge was still standing on the podium with a shocked expression. He was a person from Tier-B civilization and knew what it meant to rank first in the tests, however, now appeared a group of people that broke the best score results like they were drinking water.
The last person who entered the test room was akin to a monstrosity who broke all the records that were ever set by the people appearing in the test. Suddenly, a person asked, “Excuse me Sir, can you announce the result now?”
The officer woke up from his daze and said, “The test has been finished, forty of you managed to get through the first round. Please go back to your lodgings and report here at the same time as today for the second and the third round, we hope you all are at the peak of your strengths when you appear in the third test.”
The people nodded and after the officer named them, they all walked away from the gathering room, many of them with a frown and disappointment on their faces. When Shi Lang and the rest were about to leave the officer walked over and asked, “You are Shi Lang, the topper of the round, may I ask what great civilization do you belong to?”
Shi Lang cast this man an indifferent gaze and said, “The Terran race, hailing from The Federation…”
The young man also introduced the space coordinates to the officer, before leaving. The officer was surprised and did not have the thought to give his name and rushed away in the building. He was simply hurrying to report this matter to the commander in chief. This talented group of people must be reported.
One, this will bring him credit and second the force will be able to focus on grooming these guys better in the future. This also counted as a favor to Shi Lang and the others who might feel grateful to him in future and then if they one day reach a high level, he could ask them to take care of him.
Interests were universal, and every sentient species was driven by interests. The man rushed to his direct boss, and asked for an audience. The boss man agreed and this officer walked in.
He saluted the man by raising his hand in the front, parallel to the ground and said, “Captain, there is something that you need to look at.”
The captain was a person with similar facial features as this man, who asked, “Lieutenant Shan, what is it?”
Shan walked over and gave the tablet with the results of the test to the captain, who raised his eyebrow and began to check the details. The more he read the more surprised he became and just when he reached the end, he was so shocked that he stood up from his seat and said, “This, are you sure there was no error in the machinery?”
Shan shook his head and said, “They are all perfectly fine, the invigilator mentioned a fact that this guy produced sonic booms with his limb moment only.”
The captain nodded and said, “I am going to report this to the commander, you follow along. Describe the scene to him as you saw it.”
Shan nodded and they quickly rushed to the top level of the strike force tower. The two people waited for a few minutes before an adjutant walked over and said, “Commander Harley gave you five minutes.”
The two nodded and walked inside the office…