As Jelo opened his eyes, a white light attacked his eyes. It was so bright that it almost blinded him, and he squinted quickly. "Ouch," he groaned, raising a hand to cover his face.
For a moment, Jelo wondered if he was dreaming. He let himself believe that the past few days had been nothing but a weird dream, and he was still stuck in it.
However the sharp smell of disinfectant hit his nose along with the smell of grass and Jelo decided he was definitely not in a dream. He opened his eyes very slightly. When his eyes had adjusted, he looked down, surprised to find that he was outside the bus and lying on grass.
'When did they move us out?'
He sat up slowly and looked around. All around him, his fellow recruits were also just waking up, sitting up, and looking around.
They looked as confused as he was and a few even swayed off balance as they stood.
Jelo stood up and took a look around his surroundings.
He could see they were indeed no longer in the bus, instead they were now inside a huge compound fenced by gray, clean metal walls that were higher than any fence he had ever seen.
The floor of the compound sparkled as the sunlight hit it and it was completely neat.
Wow." Jelo muttered.
If the floor of the compound was beautiful, then the compound itself was another thing entirely, it was full of tall, silver painted buildings, the sun reflecting off them have them a hazy gleam that made them look futuristic.
Jelo's mouth hung open in shock as he looked around. So this was the military academy.
Above the main gate, glowing letters spelled out:
FEDERATION MILITARY ACADEMY: ZONE 3
"I can't belive it," a short puffy boy whispered beside Jelo. "We're really here."
Before anyone could say anything more, a deep voice barked out, "Form up, recruits!"
It was the sergeant, Danny. His square jaw looked even more intimidating in this compound.
The female officer who had followed him at jelo's school was no longer there, instead there were two new officers behind him. They were both male and although they were shorter than Danny, they had the same perfect face. Each of them carried a tablet and wore the same emblem of the Federation.
'So ridiculous' Jelo thought. Was having beautiful faces a requirement to join the army? Or was it that as one moved up the various power ranks, they got more attractive?
Jelo took a look at a snotty boy not too far from him and decided the second option was more probable.
The recruits hurriedly moved toward each other, forming an imperfect semicircle.
"Eyes front!" Danny commanded.
As they straightened, Jelo noticed a small triangular badge pinned to his chest.
What is this?'
He looked around after inspecting as many chests as he could, he realized every other person had one.
Danny began pacing in front of them. "Welcome to the Federation Military Academy," he said. "From this day forward, you are no longer civilians. You are recruits of the Federation, the next line of defense against the monsters and the unknown."
He stopped walking. "These badges you see on your chests are Ase Monitors, they will record your energy readings and translate your power level. The hierarchy here is simple, the strong rule over the weak, but you will find that out soon enough."
Jelo scowled as he thought about what Danny said.
Usually humans have an energy, a life force that sustains them through their time on earth, this is known as the soul.
In addition to their souls, Supers had another energy pool, that granted them their abilities. They called it Ase.
The amount of Ase one possessed was directly proportional to how powerful they got. As a result rank A supers had limitless Ase pools.
But that was only one half of the conversation, the second half was what worried Jelo.
Danny had said that the strong ruled over the weak.
This made Jelo scared as based on the stats on his system, he was still very basic which meant he was definitely an F rank. He was the weak.
Tch. I didnt come all the way here to be bullied. He muttered to himself. "One would think that having abilties would shield you from bullying but no, bullying is never absent in any part of the world. "
Danny turned toward the towering building at the far end of the courtyard.
"Ability testing begins now," he said. "Your power levels will be measured and classified. After that, you'll be assigned dorms and squads."
He motioned toward the building. "Move!"
The recruits followed his orders silently, walking toward the building.
Soon they were entering the building, and Jelo could see the most metallic corridor he had ever seen. Even their footsteps echoed, creating a pounding rhythm that made his heart beat faster.
"Calm down," he whispered to himself. After all, there was no reason for him to be nervous. All the recruits were probably like him, weak newbies.
For supers there were six primary ranks, from Rank F, the weakest, to Rank A, the strongest. Each rank was divided into six tiers, from one to six. That meant one could be F1 all the way up to F6, then E1, E2, and so on. The higher your tier, the greater your control and potential.
Danny was explaining this to them.
"Most of you here are untrained Supers." He said. "You'll start around F2 or F3, maybe E1 if you're lucky or if your power's unusually strong. And there might be a few who surprise us."
A few recruits shifted nervously.
He clapped his hands once. "Now, wait here. I'll go check if everything is set up. Nobody touches anything. I'll be right back."
With that, he and two assistants went off toward a hallway to the side.
For a while after he left, the hallway was silent as the recruits didn't know what to do, but soon they began to warm up and began to talk among themselves.
Jelo didn't join in the conversations. He was not someone who socialized normally, and he was also still processing how fast his life had changed. Instead, he leaned back against the wall, looked down, and folded his arms tightly so no one would approach him.
However, from the corner of his eyes, he observed the people around him.
At his right side, there was a tall guy with green hair. He was muscular, not in a bodybuilder way but in an athletic way. He crossed his arms as well, but he was looking up confidently.
Jelo took one look at his sharp jaw and concluded this was one of those jock-type students, the ones that usually bullied people like Jelo.
To Jelo's left, there was a scrawny boy with round glasses. He looked nervous, and his hands were clasped in front of him. He kept whispering something to himself.
He was like Jelo, no doubt they would be bullied together.
Away from the boy, there was a girl with jet-black hair. She was a nerd like the boy, and she wore glasses, but unlike him, she was hot. She was talking to a boy, although based on her body language, one could tell she was bored of the conversation.
But the girl that caught everyone's eyes in the hallway wasn't her. It was another girl who stood off to the side alone. She was almost as tall as Jelo himself, which was incredible since Jelo was six feet.
Her hair was purple, and it reached her shoulder. She had a slim figure with surprisingly big boobs, and she had a type of beauty that made Jelo too nervous to look at her for long.
But most notably was her expression. It was obvious she was very strong and powerful. She stood alone and paid no attention to anyone.
And for a while, nobody talked to her. They all watched.
Until a boy decided to try his luck.
He went to her with a cocky grin and his hands in his pockets. "Hey there?" he said in a forced low voice. "Didn't expect to see someone like you here. What's your ability?"
The girl didn't even glance at him.
The boy chuckled. "Playing hard to get, huh? I like that." He took another step forward, trying to catch her gaze.
Still, the girl didn't reply to him.
"Come on, don't be like that…"
He reached out to tap her arm.
Immediately he reached out, the girl reacted. A gust of air flew out of her palm and slammed into the boy's chest.
He flew back several meters and crashed into the floor with a thud.
Gasps filled the room.
The girl looked down at her nails, unimpressed. "Don't touch me," she said coldly.
The boy groaned, clutching his ribs as he struggled to stand. "You, you crazy witch! I'll show you…"
"Enough!"
Danny's voice cut through the hallway as he marched in, his eyes blazing with anger.
"I leave for five minutes, and you're already trying to kill each other? This is a testing facility, not a street brawl!"