[LSB] Chapter 149: You First

Julian was now peacefully waiting for his batch to be called to take the second test. He shouldn’t be, since everyone was practically ogling and talking about him, but he was—in fact, he was probably the only one having a peaceful time.

The other candidates—and anyone who’d been alerted to his presence—were still in utter shock. Some people who had been piloting their vehicles manually even had to pull over and land because they were too distracted and invested in what was happening.

And of course, those in the forums and chat rooms were also on fire..

<Wwwhhaaat!!!???>

<Sword Junkie is back, baby!>

<Did anyone see that?! He didn’t even flinch from the gravity test!>

<So what?? That’s only 30gs.>

<lol. The guy above me is stupid>

<Is he even human? How is that even possible??? Are his bones even bones?>

<Crazy theory: Otherworld Julian and Earth Julian are the same body.>

<Stoopid. His clone was literally killed. I still have the video saved>

<Yow. For real? Share it to me>

<Delete that!>

<The people who killed him must be shaking right now>

<Please, its probably just because of his suit>

<you late bro. he is strong even without the suit. You saw the first test?>

<i did. I still think its the suit>

<That’s true>

Julian didn’t use the exosuit at all. If they knew that, then they would have probably completely lost their minds for real. Every news outlet across Earth had already picked up the story. But ironically, it wasn’t Earth where the reaction hit the hardest.

It was Mars.

Over there, daily life came to a complete halt. Everyone was tuned in. Every conversation stopped as soon as Julian’s name hit their feeds. After all, he had saved hundreds during the unexpected daemon attack months ago—then vanished without a trace. 

For a while, they truly believed he had died, but it turned out the news was about his clone avatar back in some virtual reality game or whatever it was.

Mars was, after all, for the most part, not introduced to the technology of Humanity Engineering.

They truly thought the man who saved hundreds of them died… and now that he was back, a good number of them were now buying passage to Earth just to see him.

Even back on Humanity Engineering, they were trying hard to contain whatever unneeded news was coming out. Victoria was leading the effort, but Erin had just told her to relax.

“Is… this really okay?” Victoria whispered, her voice almost whistling as she talked through Erin using her comms. Her eyes, glowing from all the feed and news popping up in front of her.

[I am afraid we can not control this anymore, child.]

“But… you said it was important to keep Julian’s image perfectly clean. Our entire lives depend on it. We should get rid of the Thatcher family, if they happen to target him or any of his friends—then he might start thinking that the rest of humanity isn’t worth it, Master. You said it yourself, he… is our only true defense against the daemons.”

[I did. But we are not in Artemia—the people here are free to follow whatever path they choose. In the end, I believe Master Julian will make the right decision.]

“I know that I am being presumptuous and likely disrespectful, but perhaps that sort of outlook could work. And that Master Winters would, in his own accord, help humanity… But Master Winters is not like most people.”

Victoria closed her eyes and turned off all the feeds she was receiving, 

“I have spent time with him, and have spent time learning about him personally—he is unpredictable and stubborn at the same time. He’s… different.”

[So are you, so am I. Refrain from interfering with Master Julian for now and focus on working with his peers in trying to find Silvie.]

“But—”

[That was an order, child.]

And as Victoria heard Erin leaving the comms, the only thing she could really do was sigh and shake her head.

“Master Winters,” she whispered. “You’re making my job harder than it already is.”

***

Back at the Exterminator Association, Hannah was walking beside Julian as they headed toward the second exam venue. Julian could hear her opening her mouth and closing it, but he didn’t really bother trying to ask what she wanted to say.

He didn’t need to, however. Eventually, after a few more steps, she finally said it.

“So… the rumors really are true, Mr. Winters.” She jogged slightly to keep pace with his longer stride. “You really are a superhero.”

“No.”

“Uhm. Yes, you are? You destroyed the first test! You’re, like… crazy strong!”

“In your perspective, maybe. But that’s not enough to make me a superhero.”

“Well…” Hannah narrowed her eyes at him, “You’re super strong, and you helped save a ton of people on Mars. If that isn’t the definition of a superhero, then I don’t know what is, Mr. Winters. We—Ah, we’re here!”

Hannah walked ahead, and Julian followed him inside. He tapped the doorway on his way in, and the vibrations quickly made him aware that he was inside another dome.

The Exterminator Association, it seemed, had a thing for hemispheres.

This wasn’t the first smaller dome that Julian had sensed while being inside the Explorer Association’s dome building—this dome, however, seemed even thicker than the actual building.

It was vast too, almost taking up nearly fifteen percent of the entire structure’s interior. As they walked in, the examinees ahead of him fell into silence the moment they noticed Julian stepping into the inner chamber.

And even though it was already as quiet as it could be, the voice that resounded after seemed to disagree.

“Okay, that’s enough!” He grabbed everyone’s attention by clapping his hands several times as loudly as he could.

“I know that a celebrity has decided to grace us with his presence, but all of you need to focus! My name’s Angelo Rosales, and I’ve been fighting daemons since some of you were in diapers. Now, you might think I look young, and that is because I started young!”

Julian tilted his ear at the new proctor’s voice, and Julian’s eyebrows began to lower as he heard a certain tone in his voice that he felt hostile, and he was right.

Angelo didn’t believe the hype that followed Julian Winters. He thought it was fake—manufactured by the media machine of Humanity Engineering. Rumors from a friend of a friend told him Julian’s feats were staged, so it wasn’t that hard to imagine that they were doing their best to fake his strength, too.

The previous proctor told him that Julian had some sort of advanced exosuit; it was probably bypassing all of their security checks and making it seem like it was deactivated.

He was probably faking being blind, too.

Unfortunately for him, even if his armor was incredibly strong, live combat would prove it useless if the one wearing it was useless.

Humanity Engineering couldn’t have made it clearer that Julian was their pet project—they should have at least picked someone who literally looked like one of those ancient lost statues.

And now, he was going to expose him.

Well, that was his plan anyway.

“I heard today’s batch is the largest number of applicants we’ve ever had,” Angelo crossed his arms, and his right arm seemed even more muscular than his cybernetic left arm, and he clearly wanted to show them that.

“They say that, but now there’s fewer of you here than those who showed up last week.”

He wasn’t wrong. Earlier, Julian had sensed over two hundred people breathing nearby. Now, barely a dozen remained. Eleven, to be exact.

“Exterminators usually work in groups and teams,” Angelo continued. “But of course, it is not always that you would have your team with you, and there are times you would get separated from them. Tch.”

Angelo paced away from the rest of the group, stopping near the very center of the dome.

“I can’t count how many times I’ve been in that situation. So that’s what your test is—to see how you respond to a daemon… alone.”

And with that, a bright light suddenly flashed in the space beside Angelo—and a daemon emerged.

Most of the candidates flinched, and some even almost fell to their butts as soon as they saw that.

Sadly for them, Angelo also saw how they reacted, and he quickly scoffed while shaking his head.

“You’re not even facing a real one, and some of you have already pissed your pants,” Angelo scoffed again. “And this is literally a Threat Level 1 daemon. I swear, this is the worst batch I’ve ever seen.”

He pointed at the daemon.

“Let me give you a demonstration of what you’re about to do—before any of you start fainting.”

The daemon was bipedal, its legs resembling that of an extinct kangaroo, supported by a tail even longer than its own body. It had no upper limbs, making its rubbery, squid-like head look even more grotesque.

Angelo turned his back on the daemon, facing the candidates as he raised his cybernetic arm. With a hiss, the hand split open like a blooming flower—revealing a long, gleaming spear extending from his forearm.

“We call this type of daemon a critter,” he said.

And the moment he did, the daemon suddenly sprang to life. It only twitched and then immediately lunged toward Angelo.

Angelo, however, didn’t even bother looking back and only smirked at the candidates. He only moved when the daemon was only a few feet away from him—he swung his spear behind him. And the creature was cleaved in half.

Or at least, that’s what it looked like.

Instead of falling apart, the daemon’s body shimmered and faded, revealing what was underneath the hologram.

Everyone seemed amazed, but Julian was completely oblivious to this, as what was underneath was the only thing he could feel in the first place—he knew it tried to replicate the form of a daemon from how the head was shaped, but he didn’t know they also projected it to make it look like an actual daemon.

If he was right, then it was thousands upon thousands of tiny machines all flying together to shape the daemon. It wasn’t really cut, as the little machines all flew away to avoid Angelo’s attack and make it seem as if the daemon was sliced through.

They weren’t exactly nanomachines, but they acted similarly.

“Now!” Angelo suddenly shouted, once again causing the candidates to flinch in surprise, “It is your turn. But if you manage to defeat this daemon, the level will become higher, and so on, and so on—this is to assess how you handle things under pressure, after all. Now…

…Julian Winters, you first.”

***

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Thank you for reading. I'm tired, bros.