Invincible Earth! : Volume 1
Chapter 11: Incident during Reflex Test

In the first try, Lance couldn’t adapt to the movements of his body and tripped on his own leg as the first strike came.

Sounds of laughing came from the crowd that was watching. As contestants started to finish their tests or wait for their tests to be scheduled, they had taken to viewing others to see how they would fare.

The crowd around Lance was especially large as he was relatively famous in the group-both for being last before and being in the top three of PP in the present day rankings.

There was one laugh which sounded the most mocking of them all. Lance looked into the crowd to see Apollo with his blonde hair laughing his ass off almost kneeling on the ground.

Lance’s eyes turned red as he remembered Apollo stepping on him before.

In front of him was the leather wrapped one eyed creepy figure, behind it was the obnoxious guy he so wanted to take revenge on.

He got tunnel vision as both targets aligned in his mind. As the robot came towards him with a sweeping strike to his legs, Lance roared and punched at its chest with all his mind and soul. At that moment, he felt the golden ball in his dantian quivering as a tiny bit of starlight went from his energy construct into the ball. The ball in turn shined with a blinding golden bright light, and Lance felt his whole body entering into a higher state of activity as each and every cell was set ablaze, outputting their maximum potential.

“THWACK”.

The robot was covered in leather to protect the initiates, but it ended up protecting the robot itself. Lance had punched with so much force that the robot which weighed over 500 kilos was sent flying backwards.

Either by design or by luck, the robot flew straight towards Apollo who was outside the ring laughing uncontrollably.

His eyes were still closed when he felt a leather figure first hitting his head with such force as to snap it backwards before continuing to pummel into him with the rest of its momentum.

Apollo couldn’t help but also be blown backwards along with the robot. After flying for a few feet more, the two figures, attached together fell down with a “THUMP” with the robot lying spreadeagled on Apollo.

Apollo only felt a sharp pain in his head then his body as he saw his surroundings pass by him with a blur. The impact with the ground was the last straw, making him faint oblivious even to the half ton robot weighing down on him.

The whole crowd stared with their jaws open at the incredible sight. Only the last “THUMP” served to bring some back to their senses.

They turned to look at Lance who still stood in a punching position with his arm outstretched, also staring.

“Monster!“, they mouthed, knowing how heavy the robot was.

Darius and Entsy were also in the crowd but had had to hold their silence as the others were laughing.

Seeing this scene though, they couldn’t hold in their excitement. Lance had told them about the episode with Apollo in the crowd, and both of them had vowed to help him take revenge.

They never expected that Lance himself would take revenge in such a spectacular manner.

They whistled and clapped, bringing the whole crowd back to their senses. Most of the rest of the crowd joined in the clapping. The people who weren’t clapping either looked at him with a puzzled look or with a strong sense of competition.

With this incident, people started viewing Lance as a serious competitor to take 1st place, as opposed to the fool who came last and had no potential.

…

Lance was first shocked by what had just happened. What was that feeling he had just had? What was that golden flash?

When the clapping started though, Lance began to sheepishly giggle as he realized that he had taken his revenge. This instant satisfaction was something that one could get addicted to.

Realizing that he was giggling, Lance controlled himself. As he turned around to look for the proctor , he felt a weakness in his limbs as he promptly fell to the ground.

Darius and Entsy ran up to him to see if he had fainted again, but thankfully he was still conscious.

He just couldn’t move. It felt as if every last bit of energy in his body had been sapped in that instant that the golden light had flashed.

His friends propped him up between their shoulders as they started walking towards the comprehension test area. They had both already passed their tests with flying colors and were very happy that Lance could join them. Seeing his shocking performance, they couldn’t believe that this was the same friend who had meditated in a puddle of his own blood as his injuries healed night after night.

Perseverance truly gave great results.

A few minutes after they walked away, a proctor walked to the area seeing the commotion.

This was a fair middle aged balding man wearing a ceremonial Chinese gown. As he came to the site, he found it strange that the robot wasn’t present.

Seeing a crowd in the distance, he quickly walked to it fearing the worst.

As he sifted through the rows of people in front of him, he could see the outline of a leg twitching under a lather wrapped torso.

He ran forward, grabbing the half-ton robot as if it were nothing and throwing it to the side.

Under it lay the pride of his faction, Apollo.

His head was bleeding and most of his body parts were bent in weird angles. Although he was alive because of his sturdy body which was the result of a breakthrough, he was still very heavily injured.

His eyes going red, he screamed:“WHO DID THIS? ATTOK! We agreed that people of the level above master wouldn’t intervene! Our leader won’t let you off easy!“.

A Chinese youth who was standing to the side walked toward the man reluctantly to sort things out before they got out of hand.

“Sir, it wasn’t anyone above master level. It was just Lance who had been taking his reflex test.” He went on to explain in detail what had happened.

The proctor’s jaw fell more and more as he listened to the amazing tale. At the end, he could only sigh and point his hand at Apollo, making him float in the air after signing that Lance had passed the test. Disabling the robot directly gave the highest score to any Initiate, as each robot was designed keeping the average power level of an Initiate in mind.

“Dammit. He can’t possibly be this powerful. It must just be a weird strength based IN which hasn’t been discovered yet. Yes, that must be it. Damn that Xuan Long!“, he muttered under his breath as he walked to the infirmary.

Meanwhile, the trio had sneaked to the cafeteria for some quick enidra before going to the comprehension test area.

Lance was feeling much better with the heavenly enidra in his stomach supplying him with energy.

The comprehension test was just a simple IQ test that was given on Earth. It was to make sure that each initiate at least had the minimum IQ to understand and act on mission briefings. This test had actually only been added in the last few centuries, as cases of people who had not been able to even read any language and comprehend simple sentences had appeared. No one knew why this occurence had started.

There was only a pass or fail with this test, and all three of them had no problem with it.

They walked to the briefing area which was again the central area that Donovan had given his speech.

Giant holographic arrows in the air pointed towards areas where they needed to go, just in case someone got lost or confused.

The area started to fill up as the trio waited for the briefing to begin.

…

After waiting for a few hours, the test was finally done.

Donovan was impressed with the sheer number of people who had passed the test this time. Of the thousands of initiates, it was a great matter if 10% of them were eligible for the first mission after only a month of training.

This time, a whopping 30% of initiates from the bottom groups had passed the test. One had to keep in mind that these were people who had had little to no proper training till a month ago. With just this month, they had either broken through or learnt to use their intrinsic nature effectively enough to pass the test. This showed that they were the cream of the crop. In IE, at least in the present situation, there was only a dearth of talent but not resources.

Thus, seeing this result made Donovan and the other commanding officers happy.

With a slight smile on his face, he walked into the holographic projector hub again as his enlarged image alerted everyone around.

“Congratulations, you have all successfully passed the test. Except for a few who passed the test but were injured due to some reason or the other, everyone else is present here. We shall start the basic mission briefing now.” He eyed Lance in the crowd as he said these words.

“As you may have heard before, the objective of the missions are to expose you to the past of IE. There is actually another motive for the missions. Whether you are strong or weak, the most important strength of being part of IE is the collective will to protect our homeland. Whatever your singular motives are, whether it be to get stronger or protect your family back on earth, you can work for them as long as you dedicate yourself to this objective first. By seeing the past with your own eyes, you will understand why IE came to be, and in doing so we hope that if the need came, you would not hesitate to give up your life to save our mother. Depending on the results of your missions, your assignment in IE will be decided. Let me give you all a small personal tip: the purer the motive, the more its worth.”

“Initiation missions will also put you in situations where you will have to get comfortable with using your Intrinsic Nature. Remember: believe in yourself.”

“The standard rewards for just passing the mission will give you the cultivation manuals up to level of Master. There are hidden objectives that one can fulfill to get additional points, which can be exchanged for resources. The first two missions will be set in a virtual environment but you will not know that it is virtual. Think of it as a dream where you cannot tell if it is reality or not. Dying in these missions will only result in you failing in case you don’t fulfill the passing objective. To you though, it will feel like you are actually dying. This is to ensure that we can see how you would react when faced with any situation.”

“Initiates, remember: Only strength will allow you to take hold of your destiny. The universe is vast, with many races and innumerable things to see. But as you are now, if you venture out into the cosmos, only death will await you. Be strong enough though, and it wouldn’t be a pipe dream to set up your own kingdom on a planet of your choosing. As fantastical as it may seem, many of your ancestors have done just that, and even more. You cannot even begin to imagine the horizons that open to you the stronger you are.”

“If you pass your mission, you will see me again but on a happier note as I will be giving you your manuals and prizes. Good luck initiates. Make our mother proud.”

Lance half expected this speech also to end with a blood boiling proclamation, so he was surprised at such a mellow ending.

As the holographic projection turned off, what looked like a huge swarm of bees could be seen coming towards them. As they got closer, it became clear that they were once again the eye shaped interactive balls.

One such ball came towards their group and scanned the three of them and two other people who were standing beside them. After it was done, it said:

“Team assignment complete. Mission location: Pentagon”