NOVEL WEB Chapter 4: Strange Secrets and an Impossible Test
Chapter 4: Strange Secrets and an Impossible Test
As the principal finally left, Violet heaved and looked towards the ceiling. She was thinking about what had happened with Mark.
‘What was that thing?’
Violet couldn’t remember anything past getting the first glimpse of Mark's hidden soul. She felt like she had forgotten something but couldn’t think about what it might be. All she knew was that when she saw it she had blacked out and woken up in Mark's arms.
‘The bodyguard told me it was a mental attack. But Soul Seer offers protection from mental attacks my target might try. To pierce through it, along with my mental barriers, would need at least a Mid A-Rank level attack. On top of that the bodyguard, Lucian, an A-Rank himself, couldn’t even sense the incoming attack. It happened right under his nose.’
Violet sighed again. She just couldn’t figure out how that could have happened. While everyone here was considered a genius, to so easily piece through her defenses without even giving her enough time to see Mark's soul was something above what anyone else here could do. The information itself would have had to attack her or Mark was a secret Mid A-Rank, which would make him the youngest one in history.
‘Whatever he’s hiding, it’s definitely something huge. Based on how strong that attack was he’s probably the strongest one here. Yet I couldn’t feel a sensation of strength from him. I felt a minor pushing force while approaching him but it was far from the level of strength some of the other psychics here exhibited. Is the information he’s hiding just that sensitive that his soul launched an unconscious attack against me?’
63%
‘Even worse, it caused a lot of my mental barriers to break down. The counter has gone up way too much for such a short amount of time and is still going. At this rate, I won’t be able to hold myself back by the third section.’
Violet began to recall how she had woken up. She felt a warm hand on the back of her head and her right hand was firmly grasped. The hands were smooth, warm, and large, completely wrapping around her hand. It was oddly comforting, for a moment she just wanted to lie there and fall asleep like that. Yet when she opened her eyes she noticed that boy looking back at her. Her previous emotional self was long gone now, the counter had gone above 50%. She immediately got embarrassed and walked away.
In the room now, Violet slouched forward onto her desk, feeling once more the embarrassment she had felt at that moment. If the bodyguard reported what happened to her father or mother she would surely receive a firm reprimanding and punishment. Not only that, her brother would make fun of her for that for a long time. She wasn’t going to live this moment down for a very very long time.
“Attention applicants, the exam is starting in 30 seconds. Please prepare yourselves.”
Violet immediately propped herself up and quieted her mind. Soon enough, from the podium flew 200 tests, 200 pencils, and 200 pens, each landing perfectly in front of the applicants. The tests were turned over so applicants would be unable to start yet.
“You may flip over your sheets of paper in 3… 2… 1... You may begin.”
Violet quickly flipped the paper over to the other side and read the first question. She was extremely confident.
Whether it's math, English, history, or some other subject, I have some of the highest scores in Rokea. I’m not losing to anyone here.’
As she read the first question she paused for a moment. She might be in trouble. She read the next question, and the next, and the next. There was no doubt, that not a single one of these questions was academic based!
Question 1: A female teenager and a small male child are trapped underneath rubble. The rubble is unstable and the two of them will likely be crushed. You can only save one of them. Who do you save?
The small child
The teenager
‘How am I supposed to answer this?’
These questions were entirely subjectively based and tested morals instead of any academic subject. Violet was completely puzzled by this sudden development.
‘No matter how I answer it would be easy to argue for the other side. These questions don’t have right answers.’
She looked around her. All of the other applicants were looking down at their papers although some of them had the same look of confusion Violet had. She also noticed a new group of people in the room. Sometime while she was reading her paper a group of proctors appeared. There appeared to be 20 of them, 2 of them for each row of applicants, silently watching. For a moment Violet considered using Soul Seer on them but decided against it in the end. The chance of her getting caught was simply too large and she was certain that if she was caught she would be deducted a massive amount of points or even receive potential backlash like she had with Mark.
Looking back down at the questions again Violet pondered for a moment.
‘Looks like I’ll have to answer this anyway. The best choice then would be to try and choose what the school would probably want you to choose. In this case, the small child is probably the best choice.’
She circled answer A and moved on to the next question.
Question 2: An old man and old woman are being held hostage with a gun held to each of their heads. They both appear to be healthy and in good shape. They are the same age. You only have enough psychic energy remaining to block one bullet. Who do you choose to save?
The old man
The old woman
‘This one is even worse than the last one. At least the last one had an age difference now the only difference is in gender. This is impossible to answer.’
Violet began to tightly grip her pencil in frustration. There wasn’t a right answer to this one she was sure of it. How could she decide how two different human lives were weighed? Violet thought about her past, monitored and always watched. She felt so restricted and desperately wanted freedom, the freedom to choose how she wanted to live her life. She had finally found a chance to do so in AGH but is this the type of life she would have to live if she chose such freedom? Violet may be socially inept but she was well aware of the value of human life, there was little more that she valued more than her own life, something she believed would apply to everyone. Even while emotionless, while she may not care for others so much, Violet felt the urge to live and survive.
‘I can’t do it. I don’t know how to answer this question.’
Violet decided to circle this question and come back to it later.
…
One hour and 48 minutes later the exam ended and all the tests, pens, and pencils flew back to the podium.
“Thank you for your submissions, everyone. We will return to show the scores and current point rankings in a moment.”
Violet slumped in her seat. It was easily the most stressful test she had ever taken. On top of that, she was extremely frustrated.
‘These were impossible questions to answer. They only kept getting harder and harder.’
In the end Violet ran out of time, unable to choose answers for many of the questions. Choosing between human life, to Violet, was something simply too difficult to do. Violet turned to look around at the other applicants. It seemed like all of them had similar experiences to her.
She looked at the person next to her, being at the end of the room there was only one person next to her. She had dark brown hair and red lips. Her face suffered from some amounts of acne and there were pimples but overall she could be considered quite cute. She was wearing a sweatshirt and black jeans with holes in them. Her arms were small without muscle but she wasn’t skinny. Violet looked at the girl's chest, careful not to let the girl notice. They were small. This was something Violet was rather self-conscious about. While she didn’t care when the counter was beneath 50% once it got higher than that she began to feel insecure about it. The girl's chest was small yet still bigger than Violet's own.
The girl suddenly turned around and Violet quickly looked away before she was caught. She did a quick check on the counter to see where it was.
66%
Looks like her mind had recovered from the earlier attack. Her counter was no longer going up nearly as fast as before. She turned back to the girl once again. With her status now being known as a core member of the Woo family it would do her good to make some allies before the obstacle course and tournament. They could prove to be extremely useful.
“So how did the test go for you?” Violet asked, a comforting false smile on her face.
The girl turned around and looked at Violet for a moment before answering.
“I’m uh… I’m sorry Ms. Woo I don’t know if I am deserving of you talking to me.” The girl responded with a look of fear on her face.
“It’s alright. I’m not gonna send a hitman after you if I find your presence rude or something like that.”
“OH… thank you Ms. Woo.” the girl breathed out in relief that Violet seemed pretty normal.
“Please, call me Violet. So how did the test go for you?”
“I did horrible. It was practically impossible for me to answer a lot of the questions, to be honest.”
“I know right? I didn’t know what to choose for a lot of the questions.” Violet said while giving a small laugh.
“Same. It was way too hard.”
Violet looked into the girl's eyes as the girl began to smile, slightly enjoying the conversation. Violet reciprocated with a warmer smile and a small giggle. What the girl in front of Violet didn’t know was that Violet was using Soul Seer to figure out how the girl wanted Violet to respond. While it was rather taxing on Violet to constantly keep Soul Seer active and have a conversation, Violet was in a rather precarious situation potentially being targeted, and with no challenges coming soon, the rewards outweighed the risks. Plus, without it, she didn’t understand how to interact in most social situations.
“What’s your name?” Violet asked.
“My name is Vivan, how about you?”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Vivian.”
The two of them looked at each other with friendly eyes. Violet's plan was working great.
“Say, isn’t the grading process taking a while?”
“Huh?”
Violet was confused for a moment as Vivans soul suddenly switched focus, leaving Violet unable to know the correct response with Soul Seer. She began to slightly panic without a roadmap to help her. At the same time, Violet pondered the girl's words, she was right. A few minutes had already passed since the last announcement. What was taking so long? Right on cue, the speaker system turned on once again.
“We apologize for the short delay. We had to double-check one of the scores to make sure that it was accurate. The mean score is -88/100.”
‘Thank goodness, looks like I won’t have to answer her. Wow, they really did deduct points instead of just giving a zero. But still, that's insanely high. How did everyone get so many questions wrong? I should have gotten about half the questions correct at least.’
Violet quickly looked around the room to see if she could spot anyone who believed they got a high score. Unfortunately, all the other applicants were just as worried as she was.
“Here are the current leaderboard results.”
A screen popped up in front of each of the applicants. It showed their scores and identification. Violet quickly read hers to see her score.
Name: Jewoon Woo
Birth Date: 4/6/2007
Seat #: B20
Room#: G49
Test Score: -84/100
Ranking: #97
Total Points: -84
‘I guess the points start at 0. How did so many more people than me get worse scores when I didn’t even answer a lot of the questions though?’ Violet thought to herself.
The screen then changed to the leaderboard. It first quickly scrolled through 199 individuals, quickly moving past Violet's name. Violet looked down in shame, if her family discovered this, they would be furious. But her shame was quickly overcome by curiosity. After all, they hadn’t yet revealed who got first place. If she had looked around she would see all the other applicants doing the same thing.
“Congratulations to our high scorer with a 100/100, Mark Tran!”
Violet immediately turned around and looked towards Mark, something also done by the other applicants. She saw Mark sitting in silence, mouth agape, staring at his screen in shock.
End of Chapter 4