- Oliver -

  The early days of the sed examination were slow and grueling. None of the 60,000 recruits had mao plete the mission.

  With eaew attempt came fresh experiences and lessons learned, but also a mounting sense of ay. This was the ticket to being NEA officers and, for a select few, the ce to bee Rangers. Everything was at stake.

  It wasn't until the third day that breag the Grand House ceased to be an insurmountable hurdle.

  "Yes! That's it!" one of the recruits excimed outside the arena, a triumphant grin spreading across his face.

  By bining strategies, they finally discovered the unication tower's oihe house. With a few well-pced shots or the use of explosives, they brought it down, disabling the four bat robots that stood guard at the front of the house and creating an opportunity to slip inside unseen.

  However, they quickly entered a sed obstacle. Navigating the house's interior without beied or defeated by the bck robots proved challenging. Typically, five of them were inside, with several more patrolling the grounds behind the house.

  Occasionally, if a recruit was fortuhe colpsing tower would nd close enough to the house to draw the robots' attention, allowing safe passage through the lower floors. It was thanks to this stroke of luck that, on the seventh day, a recruit mao obtain the Orb for the first time.

  She secured first p the leaderboard with an astounding time of 1 minute and 31 seds.

  ‘Her Boon is perfect for this type of challenge,’ Oliver mused, rewatg the rec. The girl could bee invisible; she only o acquire a pistol and some explosives since her Ranger on was a dagger.

  After the first person cimed a spot on the leaderboard, others began to follow in quick succession. Oer ahey etched their names onto the list. Yet, even so, only five hundred could secure a position.

  In st pce was someone who pleted the mission in 4 minutes and 33 seds. Even with one of the loimes, simply finishing the test was still a signifit achievement.

  Oher hand, some experienced ued outes from this trial.

  "Ugh! Every freaking day, it just gets worse!" Isabe shouted, a few steps behind in the line leading into the arena.

  Oliver gnced over his shoulder at her, a subtle smile tugging at the ers of his mouth. He had withe phenomenon firsthand and couldn't help but find some humor in it. Every day, Isabe's follower t on Insta soared higher. She was now boasting over fifty million followers who eagerly tracked the exploits of "MissileGirl"—a hat rivaled even the most famers.

  Despite what should have been a thrilling development, Isabe was far from pleased. Sure, the surge in popurity was a boon for her career, but she despised the niame. "MissileGirl" felt like a mog jab rather than a endation. To her, it seemed as though people were ridig her strategy, redug her carefully pactics to a reckless stunt, even though many admired its iy.

  "Look at this," she grumbled, thrusting her hologram toward Oliver. A barrage of messages, memes, and clips flooded the s, all featuriest run in the arena. "They're turnio a joke."

  Oliver offered a sympathetice before returning his gaze forward. "They're just excited. You did something impressive, and people noticed."

  She sighed heavily. "Impressive would be being called 'The Strategist' or 'Aerial Ace' or something. 'MissileGirl' makes me sound like some kind of daredevil."

  Oliver shrugged lightly. "Sometimes niames stick whether we like them or not. Maybe you use it to your advantage."

  Isabe frowned but didn't reply, her eyes sing the endless feed of notifications with a mix of frustration and resignation.

  Trying to refocus, Oliver closed his eyes and took a deep breath, tuning out the buzz of versations around him. He mentally mapped out the arena, visualizing the positions of each target and plotting the sequence of shots he would o execute. He aimed to internalize every movement until it became instinctual, minimizing the need for scious thought during the actual trial.

  A soft chime disrupted his tration. His gau fshed with a new alert. ‘Another one on the leaderboard,’ he thought as he opened his eyes.

  H above the ter of the corridor, a rge holographic s flickered to life, dispying the test update from the arena. The live feed showed the final moments as a recruit dashed through the simuted forest, the timer ting down in the er.

  | Leaderboard Update| #7 — Kyle Astor| Time: 01:45

  "That's how it's done!" An exuberant shout erupted from the front of the line. Oliver watched as a cluster of recruits gathered around Kyle Astor, basking in his achievement's glow.

  Footsteps approached rapidly from behind. Oliver turned his head just as Kyle strutted past, his expression oozing fidence. For a brief moment, their eyes met—Kyle's filled with a smug triumph, Oliver's steady and undisturbed.

  "Watd learn," Kyle sneered, his voice dripping with dession.

  Oliver held his gaze but chose not to respond. It was a weak taunt, hardly worth aowledging. Instead, he felt a quiet resolve settle within him. If anything, Kyle's arroganly reinforced his determination to stay focused.

  A few more miicked by, each sed stretg into ay, until finally, it was Oliver's turn.

  "This time. It's going to work," he whispered to himself, determination steeling his nerves.

  Oliver selected the most distarao the arena as his strategy demahe massive steel doors slid open with a hiss, revealing the sprawling, simuted ndscape beyond.

  The instant his foot touched the arena floor, Oliver sprang into a. He moved swiftly, half-crouched as he darted toward the weakest se of the perimeter wall.

  Gng upward, he spotted the holographic timer projected onto the arena's domed ceiling.

  | 00:11

  ‘Running ahead of schedule,’ he thought with a flicker of satisfa.

  Reag the wall, he vaulted over it with practiced ease. The sentinel robots hadn't reached this sector yet—just as he'd calcuted. He spared no for them; they were still several seds away from interseg his path.

  Without hesitation, he broke into a sprint toward the orchard.

  Arriving earlier than usual, he entered the same sentinel robot statio the staircase he o access. This time, he wouldn't wait for it to pass. Drawing his Energy Pistol smoothly, he took aim and fired two precise shots. The energy bolts struck the robot dead ter in its optical sensor array—the forehead—sending sparks flying as circuits overloaded.

  As the robot began to topple, Oliver lunged forward. Sliding on one khrough the soft earth, he caught the heavy metal carcass before it could crash to the ground and raise the arm.

  | 00:20

  "Excellent timing," Oliver noted, gng at the timer.

  He leaped onto the staircase and asded rapidly, his boots barely whispering against the steps. At the top, he reached the roof of the sed floor—a vantage point he'd scouted during previous attempts. He kly where he o shoot.

  Without wasting a moment, he aimed his pistol toward the barn across the pound. He fired a single, well-pced shot. The energy bolt streaked through the air and struck a stack of hay bales ihe barn. Fmes erupted instantly, billowing smoke that coiled into the sky.

  "Owo, three," Oliver ted under his breath.

  At that precise moment, he adjusted his aim and fired at the exposed geor beside the barn. The shot hit its mark, and the geor exploded in a shower of sparks and twisted metal. The bst took out several nearby robots, their chassis torn apart by the force.

  ‘They'll be busy with that for a while,’ he thought, a hint of a smile tugging at his lips.

  The orchestrated chaos would divert attention away from his true objective. With the robots occupied, the likelihood of someone disc the disabled robot in the orchard was almost zero. It also provided a window to move ued toward the Grand House.

  "Now, to deal with the bat robots," he murmured.

  His gaze fixed o unication tower adjat to the house. Bringing it down would ralize the four bat robots guarding the mairance. Setting explosives would be too time-ing. Instead, he'd rely on prearksmanship.

  Taking a deep breath, Oliver steadied himself. He targeted the rusted support leg at the tower's base—a structural weakhe other recruits discovered. Squeezing the trigger, he unleashed four rapid shots. The Energy Pistol hummed with each discharge, and the bolts smmed into the corroded metal.

  For a heartbeat, nothing happehen, a groan echoed across the pound as the steel suppave way. The tan to tilt, slowly at first, then with gathering momentum. It crashed beside the Grand House with a deafening g, crushing two bat robots and scattering debris.

  Without waiting to assess the full impact, Oliver moved. He vaulted off the sed-floor roof, nding in a roll that absorbed the shock. Springing to his feet, he sprioward the side entrance of the Grand House.

  Giving g the sky before entering.

  | 00:55

  ‘Good. Still on track,’ he thought. But now, he'd need a bit of luck.

  As he slipped through the side door, he repeated silently, ‘Lucky luck luck.’

  Ihe Grand House was eerily quiet. He sed his surroundings. There was no sign of the bck robots—the elite units. Either they were drawn to the fallen tower, or they were on another floor.

  ‘Please be at the tower,’ Oliver willed silently.

  Moving cautiously, he approached the tral staircase. Just as he was about to asd, a flicker of movement caught his eye. Peering upward, Oliver glimpsed the metal legs of a bck robot desding the stairs, its sensors likely probing for intruders.

  His heart skipped a beat. ‘No time for panic,’ he told himself.

  Pivoting smoothly, he slipped into a nearby room if the floor pn in his memory was accurate. It was directly beh the chamber where the Orb was kept.

  ‘What do I do? Think!’ his mind raced. ‘Improvise!’

  GCLopes