Alex stared at Mira, utterly speechless.
The fact that her test had such an anticlimactic end left him baffled. His test had been a nerve wracking ordeal, and here Mira was, recounting how The Whisperer practically poisoned itself to death.
He internally cursed, thinking, 'Why couldn't my test have been so easy?'
But he quickly dismissed the thought.
Mira's success wasn't due to luck, but her own skill. She was clearly more analytically and strategically gifted than Alex. She had observed The Whisperer, understood its weaknesses, and devised a plan based on these insights.
The fact that it died in a way outside of her calculations didn't matter, as it would have been killed by the fires anyway.
In contrast, Alex had gone in blindly, relying on what he heard and saw, which led to a more convoluted and dangerous solution.
"You're telling me it just... died?" Alex asked, still trying to wrap his head around it.
Mira nodded, her smile widening. "Yep, one of the plants I scattered was toxic. The Whisperer ate it and died. Simple as that."
Alex shook his head, laughing despite himself. "I can't believe it. I went through so much trouble making a bomb, and you outsmarted it with plants."
"Well, we each have our own strengths," Mira said gently. "You did what you thought was best given your information. And it worked, didn't it?"
"Yeah, but still," Alex replied, scratching the back of his head. "You made it look easy."
"Strategic thinking is all about knowing your enemy," Mira said. "I had a bit of an advantage because I encountered something similar before. But you did great, Alex. You showed creativity, which I heard is valued highly in this assessment."
Alex appreciated her words. "Thanks, Mira. I guess there's a lot I could learn from you."
"Not me," Mira disagreed. "But them."
She pointed towards the towering skyscrapers at the centre of the city.
"The professors of this place are much better at this than me, obviously." She affirmed.
"Right." Alex replied, reminded of the very reason they came to this place.
Jonathan scoffed at Professor Will's rebuttal, but he diverted his eyes back to the old man at the head of the table.
"I'm not saying the AI made any mistakes... I'm just suggesting we look at this from a... human standpoint." Jonathan spoke, trying to argue his point.
He was already not fond of using AI to judge the potential of students, as he believed using more experienced, human judges would provide better results. Therefore, it made sense for him to be speaking out during this meeting.
But that was only a cover.
"It looks like you're not satisfied with your son's ranking, or am I wrong, Jonathan Stein? A young woman with silver hair and vibrant silver eyes asked mockingly.
She was sitting in the chair next to Professor Will's and smiled provocatively in Jonathan's direction.
Jonathan scoffed at her remark and muttered a few curses under his breath.
"My son deserved to be first, so keep your mouth shut, Fayre? I'll speak to my father about this! He'll make things right, you'll see." Jonathan Stein cursed quietly, but loud enough for Professor Will, and Fayre, the silver haired woman, to hear.
Everyone else seated around the round table sighed deeply when Jonathan mentioned his father. The Stein family was famous throughout the federation as some of the strongest humans, but among the higher echelons, they were known more for their anger issues...
"Your father won't do anything to interfere, Jonathan." But the whole room was quietened down when the old man at the head of the table spoke up for the first time since the bickering had started.
He had been sitting there, silently listening the whole time, but things had gotten a little out of hand.
When Jonathan heard the old man's tone, sounding so certain when dismissing his father's interference, he couldn't help but quieten down.
His father was strong, one of the strongest people in the Federation.
But when up against the Principal of Capital Prime, he still had a long way to go.
His father was known as being 'one of the strongest', but the Principal was the publicly undisputed second most powerful person in the Federation.
He was the only confirmed King class S tier awakened.
This begged the question, what about the person in first place?
Well, not much was known about him as he rarely showed up in the federation, but there were rumours that the Principal had fought him in the past, and had lost horribly...