While the professors were busy discussing what to do, a few helpers had come in, and had brought in a few benches for the waiting teenagers to sit on, while they moved the injured to another room. After receiving treatment, they returned and joined the others.
Right now, the Werewolf was sitting on a bench of his own, since the other teenagers had all chosen to distance themselves from him. Ironically, some had taken the initiative to go and talk to Numba, pretending as if they hadn’t treated the Goat Altered like an outcast. Of course, he hadn’t forgotten, nor forgiven them for the fact that they had tried to gang up on him in the first round, so with his arms folded he was simply ignoring them.
At one point, Gary stood up to stretch, which made everyone else immediately flinch, clearly afraid of him. “I only attacked you due to the assessment. I’m not normally that aggressive.” The green haired teenager mumbled as he looked away from them awkwardly.
‘I didn’t exactly come here to make friends, but they could at least try and hide their disdain towards me.’ Gary thought as he let out a small sigh. ‘I admit that I might have gone a little too far back there, but I only overreacted because their plan to eliminate me nearly worked.’
This awkward atmosphere continued until the three professors eventually entered the room.
“We won’t waste your time any longer, so I shall proceed by reading out the list of students that have successfully passed. Please note that due to the ‘unforeseen circumstances’ we’ve come to the decision by taking into account everything you’ve shown so far in this assessment and the previous one.”
Everyone became nervous and tense, as they had no clue who had passed and failed. Chances were that the ones that had been knocked out before Gary had gone on his small rampage were non-contestants, but as for the rest, it was anyone’s guess.
“In no particular order, Gary Dem.”
The first name came as no surprise, as all of them agreed that the Werewolf had proven himself vastly superior to the rest in every way. The real question was who the other four lucky teenagers were.
“Numba Cardenez!”
Another one who had shown great skill during the ball game. Many expected this as well, though all but him and Gary had secretly hoped that the professors might not see his potential.
“Ian Noblitt!”
There were gasps from the students as they heard this name. After all, not only was he one of the Altered unable to transform, but his confrontation with Gary had led to him having a large cast over his leg that would likely take a long while to heal.
Some students looked like they were about to argue, yet Professor Hai gave them a stern look, shutting them down instantly. In the end, they had no choice but to accept the fact that his potential had to be high enough to warrant this decision, especially if one took into account his display of strength against the Crab Altered.
If it wasn’t for Gary, then he might have had a great chance to pass this and any future assessment. It was at this point that the other students were starting to lose hope. They now felt like everything would be based on their file, what background they perhaps had, and they all knew that their backgrounds were lacking, or else they would have been invited.
“Izzy Shamone!” Professor Humfree called out.
“Wait… me?!” Izzy stood up, pointing to herself. The teenage girl was in disbelief, she hadn’t done much in the ball game, her background wasn’t the best, so why had she been picked? Overjoyed with the decision, she didn’t even notice that tears were rolling down her face.
“That is the result of our decision. These four students have passed and will be moving on from here. Everyone else, we thank you for your interest in applying to the AFA, and we hope you’ll have a bright future elsewhere.”
It was then that all the students stood up, from where they were. They wanted to complain, but before they could the three professors were heading out of the room, telling those that had passed to follow them.
“That’s just four! What about the fifth student?!” One of the students shouted.
Without turning around, Professor Humfree reminded him. “I did indeed state that we have five places, but I’ve also been upfront about the fact that I did not believe that five people would pass. It’s already quite surprising that four places have been filled, and as for the rest of you, blame yourself for lacking the necessary talent to impress us.”
——
Gary and the other three felt a little bad, yet this feeling paled in comparison to their joy of getting to be students of the AFA. Out of around one hundred teenagers, only four of them had succeeded.
However, rather than walk over to the main building, the three adults were leading them off campus. They were quite surprised when they saw a bus, which they boarded, but since they had been told to follow, all of them did so silently.
Fortunately, their destination wasn’t too far from the academy buildings. There was an air around the professors that just told the group of teenagers that it was best to not question them. Eventually, they reached another large building. There was no glass on the outside, so it was impossible to tell what was inside.
One thing was clear though, it was huge and looked almost like another academy, just here on its own. While standing outside, the students were told to line up and each one of them was handed a badge.
“Some of you might have thought that you already made it, but those two assessments have merely proven that you deserve to have come here.” Professor Hai explained. “This is the first step into entering the REAL academy.”
At that moment, numbers appeared on each of their badges. Gary’s showed the number 120, Numba’s 121, Ian’s 122 and Izzy’s 123.
“Inside that building, the number on your badges will dictate how pleasant your stay will be. It decides many things such as what room you’ll sleep in, what meals you will receive, though most importantly, only those who manage to retain their place in the top 10 for at least one week may join the AFA.”
Although it wasn’t quite what Gary was expecting, for the first time he felt like he was actually going to be part of the AFA, and with his badge it made him realise that he might be one step closer to meeting Xin again.
*****
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