As Nathaniel quickly left the stage, Anderson approached the burly man.
"I'm ready, sir!" Anderson said. The man clearly liked Anderson's attitude since he showed great respect. "Let's start then!" the burly man said, and the young man started immediately attacking.
Anderson started with a series of punches that the burly man effortlessly avoided. However, Anderson's skills immediately surfaced. His punches were executed perfectly, almost too well for a sixteen-year-old.
His kicks were deadly, and all aimed at one or two openings the old men left to test the young one. However, the guy was a little bit surprised by Andersons. He could fight that well without resorting to his brain's crystal power.
ραпdα nᴏνɐ| сom "Hey, kid, why aren't you using your power?" the burly man asked.
Anderson replied, without stopping his attacks and always aiming at the openings the old men left for the student to see.
"I can't, sir..." he said while punching at the old man.
"Why so?" the burly man asked.
"Because I would blow up the whole building..." Anderson replied, avoiding a punch.
The burly man's curiosity was immediately piqued. He turned to look at the man at the desk and said, "Dano, who is this kid?"
"His name is Anderson Worthington," Dano said. "Sixteen-year-old BRHO3C, his power allows him to generate explosions from his body, but apparently, he has no control over them. He would indeed make a mess, but not anything that our walls wouldn't be able to sustain."
The burly man turned to look at Anderson, who was still trying to land a hit on him.
"Oh? So you do never use your power?" the man asked.
"No, sir!"
"AH! I like you, kid, and you are even a good fighter at that!" the burly man said.
"Thank you, sir!" Anderson replied. After five more minutes, the burly man decided it was enough.
"All right, I want actually to give you rank 380. Is it ok for you?" the burly man asked.
"Yes, sir, it would be an honor!" Anderson replied.
"Good, did you hear me, Dano? Give him rank 380!" the burly man said while laughing.
"Yes, sir," Dano replied.
Benedict observed the match intently. He never did see another guy fight like that, and he saw his fair share of strong dudes. He then saw Amber, Gwen, Floyd, and Erik nod at the result, and he went close to Erik.
"Did you perhaps know this guy?"
"Anderson?" Erik asked. "Yes, he is from our same school; we were in the same group of students who joined the Red Palace..."
"Can you introduce us?" Benedict asked with his passion burning in his chest. Erik could swear he saw his eyes glistening for a moment.
"Yes...but...why so?" Erik asked, scared of what this guy would do.
"I want to fight him," Benedict replied.
"What?"
"You heard me. He is strong. I want to fight him..."
"If you say so," Erik replied.
From there, the burly man was mainly disappointed by the students. After Nathaniel and Anderson, he did expect the other students from New Alexandria's high school to be at least at that level, but he was gravely mistaken.
It wasn't like the students were not good, but they were average by the Red Palace's standards. He was only satisfied with Amber's performance, who got the internal rank 400, very close to Anderson's and Nathaniel's. Erik giggled when he imagined how mad Nathaniel would be once he learned the scores.
The other's turn quickly came; Floyd got rank 997, while Gwen got 785. As much as Benedict told him, these were terrific results.
Generally, new students usually got ranked between 3000 and 2000, and already being under the 1000th rank was a colossal achievement. Benedict clearly understood that Erik's friends were strong, and since they were that strong, his expectations for his roommate were high.
Later, Erik's turn finally came. His friends, Benedict and even Anderson waited to see the young man's score. The first thing the young man did was go to the strength machine. He quickly went in front of the machine, and then Dano said, "Punch it with all your strength, young man!"
So, Erik went into a punching stance, and after a couple of seconds of concentration, he punched hard at the machine.
BIP BIP BIP BIP BIP BIP BIP
The machine made a series of noises, and then the screen showed a number that read 19. That was a very high score compared to most other students, including Amber, Floyd, and Gwen.
Still, it was lower than Anderson's and Nathaniel's. A smile formed on the boy's face. He knew he had done well, and now everyone else would know too. Erik matured a lot during this month, but he was still obsessed with what the other people thought about him.
"19 points of strength," Dano said, but then he looked at Erik's file and became confused. "This is weird..."
"What?" the burly man said.
"The kid shows a strength level equal to an RHO2, Idor scale, but he is only SIGMA2..." Dano said.
"What? SIGMA2? How is it possible that such trash could join the Red Palace?" the burly man said. However, he quickly recalled how Erik had just scored 19 on the strength testing device. "Never mind. Keep going."
"Yes, sir."
Erik ignored the old man's words, was perfectly aware of his situation and was already risking a lot by showing everyone the disparity between his power rank and strength. Besides, there was something else that the young man was thinking about, the fact that this device accurately assessed his strength as shown by the system.
<Problematic...> Erik thought.
After that came the treadmill. Erik could reach a speed of 30 kilometers per hour and keep that pace for 24 minutes. That excellent score immediately put the young man under the spot.
"Weird," Dano said while he took notice of the score and kept reading the young man's file.
After that, the third test came, Erik had to avoid a series of projectiles that increased in speed and strength, and the first one to hit him would stop the test.
The first hundred projectiles were a breeze for the young man, the following 200 became a little bit harder to evade, while the last 300 were hard to avoid. Erik stopped at the 405 projectile, which hit him in the face, making him almost fall to the ground.
The machine's body showed a massive 25 on the screen.
"25 dexterity!" Dano shouted.
<These machines can accurately determine my physical stats...> Erik thought.
Dano was increasingly confused by Erik's score and started obsessively reading his file. Something like that never happened in the institution's long history. Probably in the whole of human history.
After reading for a while, Dano called the burly man.
"Sir, you must come here."
"What? Why?" the man replied.
"Just come here..."
The burly man quickly went to the desk and started reading the file that Dano was indicating. At that moment, Erik understood that they had figured out he was an awakener.
The two glanced at the young man at the same time. Dano with a surprised look, while the burly man with a huge smile.
"I would have never thought of seeing an awakener in my entire life..." the burly man said.
"What? An awakener?" a Red Palace student said.
"Did I hear that wrong?" Another asked.
Benedict looked at Erik, stunned, while the students from New Alexandria didn't say anything.
"Why wasn't I informed about this?" the burly man suddenly said.
"That's because you just said out loud what the young man is, despite being written on caps that this information had to remain secret, sir..."
"HA! Well, never mind now. What's done cannot be changed!" the man shouted. "C'mon, young man, let me see what you can do!"
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