As Alex walked out of the assessnt chamber, he couldn't help but replay the last seven days in his mind. The strategies he had employed, the risks he had taken, and the unexpected challenges he had faced.
Each mory was a lesson, a reminder of what he was capable of.
'Maybe my strategic thinking wasn't as bad as I originally thought it to be?'
He had made fire without tools, extracted chemicals from the earth, and crafted a bomb with nothing but his wits and the environnt around him.
The survival videos he had binge-watched were more than just entertainnt; they were the lifelines that had helped him succeed.
"Adapt and overco," he reminded himself.
Alex reached his dormitory, a stark contrast to the rugged, wild environnt of the simulation. He stepped inside, the familiarity of his personal space grounding him.
He headed straight for the shower, letting the hot water wash away the gri and exhaustion of the past week.
He hadn't actually accumulated any dirt or gri on his real body, but the feeling was more like a placebo.
As he stood under the stream, he allowed himself a mont of vulnerability. The relief of having his powers back, the rush of emotions from his success, and the stark realisation of how fragile normal human life could be.
He had walked a thin line between life and death many tis over the past year, and it had changed him.
Clean and refreshed, Alex dressed in comfortable clothes and sat at his desk, staring at his reflection in the mirror.
The face looking back at him was the sa, but his eyes held a new depth. He had been reminded of the limitations of humanity and the extraordinary gift of being an Awakened.
Back when he was a normal human in the real world, people always said that being whisked away to the Primordial Expanse was a curse, and in a way they were right.
But it was more of a door to a whole new world (literally) opening up for them.
Sure, there was a very real risk of death from this, but even if you were the biggest coward in the world, you would still be able to make it back from the Primordial Expanse given enough ti.
In fact, the highest percentage of people that ca back from the Primordial Expanse were the cowards, as they were grounded in reality.
They knew when sothing was too risky to take on, they knew when sothing was completely out of their league, and they knew exactly where to draw the line.
It was the people who didn't know these things that perished the most in the Primordial Expanse and gave it the bad reputation.
Many people, when forced away to the Primordial Expanse and given all of the fantasy abilities and system panels, get main character syndro and start to act like the world revolves around them, like they are the main character in their own story.
But it doesn't take long before reality hits them in the face like a 100mph brick.
Taking an old notebook out of his storage space, Alex began jotting down his thoughts. Strategies that worked, mistakes he had made, and insights he had gained.
He felt it would be helpful for him if he docunted these things, as it would help him grow and beco more mature and experienced in the future.
Yes, he did have near photographic mory thanks to the enhancents he had received from being an awakened, but that didn't an he didn't forget things.
He had recalled nearly every detail of the survival videos he had watched months ago, but that was only conditional.
He was so locked in — in the zone, during the test that his mind worked like a well oiled machine to co up with a plan that would help him succeed.
If he tried to recall the mories of the videos now, he'd be able to rember most of it, but so monts may be missing.
'Strength is not just physical,' he wrote.
He had realised this now that he had experienced being so weak once again.
'It's also the ability to think, adapt, to strategize.'
***
As the day turned to night, Alex felt a calm settle over him.
He lay down on his bed, staring at the ceiling. The future was uncertain, filled with potential dangers and opportunities.
But he was ready, and he wasn't alone.
"How was your test, Mira?" he asked with a gentle smile.
On the other end of his communicator, Mira also lay on her bed, with a slight smile on her face as she heard Alex's voice for the first ti in a week.
"I passed, high marks!" Her reply was short, but it was filled with the joyful youth a girl her age should get to experience.
Alex nodded, his hologram on the other side in Mira's room mimicking his actions.
"So what strategy did you use? Mine was quite 'unconventional' as the AI put it, so I highly doubt anyone else used the sa one as ." Alex asked, curious to know how Mira had overco the difficulties of her assessnt.
Mira laughed softly. "Unconventional? That sounds like you, Alex. But my strategy was pretty straightforward."
Alex raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Straightforward? Do tell."
Mira began, "Well, when I first encountered The Whisperer, I rembered an encounter with a similar creature I ca across in the Primordial Expanse."
Alex listened intently, surprised that she had actually t sothing so terrifying in real life before.
He couldn't imagine the fear she must have felt in that situation.
"The Whisperer, being a creature that feeds on people's souls, is sensitive to emotions. And what are emotions? They are just a bunch of chemical reactions in our bodies."
Alex tilted his head, even more curious to know what she was going on about.
"I tested it, and I was right. The Whisperer was sensitive to certain chemicals I found throughout the periphery of the temple, and I scattered a lot, and I an A LOT of them all around the temple over the first few days."
Alex blinked in surprise, "There was such a thing?"
"Yes," Mira continued. "The Whisperer was only an F- rank awakened, so it's abilities were weak on the relative scale of awakened. It wasn't able to differentiate between different types of chemicals, so it couldn't tell the difference between , and the various other random plants I had placed all over the temple."
Alex couldn't help but laugh, taking his palm to his forehead. "That's genius. Simple, effective, and completely bypasses any need for confrontation."
"So, how did you kill it then?" But there was still this part that Mira had missed out.
Mira giggled. "I didn't."
'???'
"What? Then how did you pass the test?" Alex was thoroughly confused at this point.
Mira looked amused at Alex's confusion.
"Well, the original plan was to burn it to death, I was going to trap The Whisperer in a room I filled with a bunch of dead wood and set it alight with it trapped inside. But…"
Mira paused, looking as if she was still confused about the situation herself.
"...but The Whisperer killed itself…"
Alex: "..."
Mira: "..."
'What?'
Before Alex could even ask, Mira continued.
"It turns out The Whisperer was eating every plant and chemical I had placed in the temple." She spoke, giving so more background.
"But one of the plants I placed turned out to be poisonous…"
'...'
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