Chapter 188 The Fighter Exam (1)

The last three classes crawled by, slowly. The bell rang and the teacher yelled out the normal things.

"Don't forget to do your homework assigned today. Tomorrow, blank is due!"

Lee Seng saved his notes and shut his tablet off. He put his stuff back in his backpack and zipped it closed. He stood up and pushed his seat in before leaving the room. He quickly made his way through the halls and to the locker room. He ignored the stares and whispers. They were all the same things.

'Yes, yes. Rumors, rumors, the bet match. Do any of them talk about anything else?' Lee Seng internally rolled his eyes as he opened the locker room. Some male students were stepping out and stared at him as he moved to the side, holding the door. He motioned for the dudes to go first. They gave him stares as they moved by. When they made enough distance, they started whispering about what happened at lunch.

Lee Seng moved to his locker and punched the code in. He stripped his clothes and school shoes off and put his gym clothes on. He folded his clothes neatly and set them inside, grabbing his shoes from his backpack and hanging it on the hook. He closed the locker and slipped his sneakers on and moved to the gym.

The gym was set up with bots and buildings. He recognized gunner bots near the building and wondered what was in it. Jae and Jason's short description of the Fighter exam made him have a messy idea of what would be inside. Lee Seng moved over to a corner that nobody was around and leaned up against the wall. He pulled his phone out of the zipper pocket and scrolled on his phone.

'God, I wish I could talk to the others…' Lee Seng thought. He scrolled his SNS platforms, ignoring the trending topics. 'I wish I could leave the district. I want some boba from Alice's place…' He found himself on a delivery app and seeing if they could deliver some boba to him. He realized delivery in the area was 'temporarily' unavailable and sighed. 'I should look around the district, then.'

The bell rang and Lee Seng slipped his phone back into the zipper pocket and zipped it up. Mr. Icarus clapped his hands together, rounding up the students.

"Alright, exam day is here everyone!" Mr. Icarus's voice boomed. "I hope all of you are prepared for the exam. We'll be tackling what we've been working on over the last few months and applying it to the exam. As you can see, we have created a course that implements the different things we've covered. You'll be starting out with a run. You'll get to the end and fight the dummy. Once you fight the dummy, you'll continue forward and then it's navigating the space. You can take the sneak approach and dismantle the bots within or go gun's ablazing. It's up to your judgement. The exam will be on efficiency, timing, your skill and the amount of damage done on the building.

"We have a couple of lanes so we can expedite the runs to be quick. Four of you will start at the same time and you'll be timed. Make sure to link your watches to the gym or else you'll fail. If you need help, don't be afraid to ask me." Lee Seng looked at his watch and tapped at it. A small holographic screen popped up and he began to fiddle with it, finding the gymnasium link and entering it successfully. "Chang, could you come here for a minute?" Mr. Icarus waved him over.

"Hi Mr. Icarus. What's up?" Lee Seng asked, moving over. Mr. Icarus finished scribbling into the tablet and looked up.

"I know you've been out for the last three weeks, so I just want to know if you understand what you're supposed to be doing." Mr. Icarus asked him.

"Yeah, it sounds straightforward." Lee Seng nodded.

"If you don't feel like you're ready for this, you can take it later."

"I'll be fine, Mr. Icarus. Honestly, I've done a lot of Specialized training while I've been stuck in that hospital room. I'm itching to run the course as best as I can."

"Good, good. I thought I'd extend the option out to you if you weren't ready, but I'm glad to hear you're ready to go. Do you have a preference on when you want to go? I know you have a Glass exam after this so I want to push you through as quickly as I can."

"Mmm, I can go with the first group if you don't mind, sir."

"Alright, sounds good. You'll be with the first group. Try to get through it as quickly and efficiently as possible. I know it's your first check-up exam, so I don't want you to be so stressed about this. I'll be grading you based on your performance here and the rest compared to your entrance exam, alright?" Mr. ICarus explained. Lee Seng nodded and Mr. Icarus nodded. "Alright, let's get started. First group is Chang, Anderson, Rowdy, and Smoake. Go to your designated lane based on how I called you."

Lee Seng turned around and headed over to the right most lane. He turned around and guessed the distance he needed to clear. He figured it was about half the gym which then led into the large building on the other half of the room.

'Each lane has a different way of getting in… It looks like mine involves climbing into the building.' Lee Seng noticed.

"Everyone clear and let's get ready for group one!" Mr. Icarus clapped the tablet. The other students moved to the side with Mr. Icarus. "Get ready. Get set! Go!" A loud blaring noise went off and the four students started down the path. The shooting started fairly quickly. It was a simpler shooting difficulty that Lee Seng was able to catch onto. He moved to the left, dodging the bullets as he flew past. He pushed forward and slid as a wide spray of bullets flew at him, throwing his body forward from the ground after the bullets had sailed past him.

The path started to get difficult with obstructing objects. Lee Seng threw himself towards a wall, narrowly getting hit by a bullet. Bullets punctured the wall. He counted the timing and quickly moved to the next wall. He followed the same pattern and reached the last object.

'I'm gonna have to sprint fast here.' Lee Seng pulled away and ran straight for the gunner. He pulled the gravity around him and made himself lighter. He had messed around with gravity and his body. He learned he could turn himself into a wall and make himself lighter with practice. Lee Seng's body grew light and he pushed forward. Because of the lighten state, he was able to clear it before the other three.

Bullets flew straight at him and he quickly hardened himself, allowing the bullets to hit him. He shifted his body back to normal and swung at the bot.

"Knock out!" The bot shouted. It dinged and Lee Seng moved past the bot. He could hear other 'knock outs' behind him. The building came closer and he noticed he had to leap onto the metal box and jump up a couple of feet and grab the window ledge. Lee Seng sprinted up the stairs and jumped onto the box and squatted. He leapt upwards and easily passed the window.

'Shit. I overdid it again.' Lee Seng sailed above the roof and pushed himself onto the roof. He noticed a hatch in his lane and opened it. Lee Seng glanced down into the barely lit space. 'One… Two… Four… Five guys?' He slipped inside and landed softly onto the ground ten feet below him. He could hear the others already in their fights. The bots he spotted below his floor were alert and looking around already. Lee Seng moved through the metallic floor as quietly as possible.

A bot slowly rounded towards his way as he pressed himself against the wall. He waited for the bot to move out and quickly grabbed the bot and choked it out. He slowly let it down as the bot lit up. He moved into the room the bot was in and noticed stairs leading downwards. He could hear bots slowly moving towards the stairs.

Lee Seng quietly descended the stairs, noticing a bot coming his way. The bot made a loud noise and ran at him. It swung its sword at him, forcing him to dodge. Lee Seng karate chopped the bot in the stomach and watched as the gravity struck it, bending itself forward. Lee Seng upper-cutted the bot and watched as it landed with a thud.

The other bots made a loud screaming noise and were moving into his zone. Three bots moved in first and started to punch at him. Lee Seng blocked and moved backwards past the stairs. He ducked down and slammed his fist into the groin of a bot, sending it flying. Lee Seng's momentum pulled him forward into a roll, rolling straight into a kick. He grunted as he twisted himself with gravity, moving into a flare and landing a strong kick at the other two bots. He pushed himself up as the bots regained their balance and swung at the bots.

The two bots worked together to force Lee Seng back into a defensive form. The first bot swung for Lee Seng's face while the other swung for his gut. Lee Seng pulled himself backwards and lashed forward with a gravity punch. The right hook swung at the second bot, knocking it left and continuing its force towards the first. The first bot pulled backwards as the second bot flew into the railing.