Eating across from him, Leo asked, “How’s the day been so far?”

  Anthony stayed silent for a moment before replying. “It’s been alright, nothing too bad. How are your injuries from that fight?”

  Leo flexed a bicep. “Almost as if I never had been injured in the first place.”

  A chuckle escaped Anthony as he smiled, giving a flex back to him. “Pfft, those are nothing. Boom! See that? You got nothing on these.”

  “What was that?!” Leo quickly got up, rolling his sleeves up. Then he flexed his triceps, making sure his muscles were easily noticeable.

  Anthony raised his hands in defeat with a chuckle. “Alright, alright, my bad. C’mon, put those away.”

  Settling down, he sat back down, bringing his sleeve back down. A stupid smile broke out on his face. It had been a while since they bantered like this, he had almost forgotten about it.

  Leo said, “Hmph. As long as you know who’s the best.”

  Anthony laughed. “Ah, this is refreshing. It’s been a while since we’ve had a relaxing time like this. Why had we stopped talking like this?”

  Leo shrugged. “You were looking a little down, man. Especially the…” He pointed at Anthony’s right eye.

  Hovering a hand over his eye, Anthony smirked. “It was from that fight with that giant guy. I think he hit me in the head or something, but this eye suddenly showed up like this. Sick right?”

  “Is it…?”

  Anthony said in pride. “Don’t worry, I can still see through it, it just looks like I’m blind. Purely aesthetic!”

  “Ohhh!”

  Leo clapped his hands in exaggerated awe.

  Suddenly, Anthony’s smile turned somber as the smile turned quaked, struggling to maintain its happy facade. His legs seemed to keep shaking up and down as he continued poking his food with his fork. After a moment of hesitation, he finally spoke.

  “Say, Leo. Can I ask you something?”

  “Yeah, what’s up?”

  He opened and closed his mouth a few times, hesitating to say something. Taking a deep breath, he asked, “No matter what…you’ll…support me right?”

  ‘Huh?’

  Anthony awkwardly laughed. “It’s nothing much… I know I’ve been acting a little distant lately, but I just wanna make sure it hasn't affected our friendship, y’know?”

  He suddenly clutched his head. “No, that came out wrong. What I’m trying to say is I don’t want you to think I don’t cherish our friendship, if anything it’s the opposite. I don’t want this to be ruined because of our predicament right now, and especially not after what happened with Chris and…”

  Leo put a hand on his shoulder, giving a sympathetic nod.

  “I can tell you that I’ve got your back, Anthony. If you’re in danger, I’ll come running.”

  Anthony’s eyes slightly lightened. “Really?”

  Leo nodded with a smug grin. “Of course, you’d do the same for me.”

  Satisfied with his words, Anthony went back to eating his food with a much brighter expression.

  Leo, on the other hand, couldn’t help but feel sick behind his smug expression. He wanted to throw up having to lie to Anthony like this.

  Right now, he had to make sure Anthony wouldn’t lash out before the Mindtap even arrived. That was what he had agreed on with Connie. If he did, there would be no salvaging him as they would most likely decide on immediate termination.

  He may have felt a sense of danger and distrust toward Anthony, he was still one of his closest friends. He didn’t want to see him dying, he had seen enough of his friends dying.

  Suddenly a large shadow loomed over the two as Patrick had come to the side of the table, wearing a bright smile.

  “Yo! What are you two up to all alone over here? Moping?”

  ‘By the stars, Patrick. How do you sneak up on me like this? I should check how he does this later…’

  Anthony turned to Patrick with a smug expression. “We are, in fact, not moping, but celebrating! I doubt the next trials will be as hard as this one!”

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Finishing his meal, he said his farewells to Anthony and left to the hallway leading to the Medbay. Looking outside, he saw the sky splashed with orange. It seemed the sun was about to set, meaning the Mindtap was most likely about to arrive.

  Tapping his feet three times, he stirred Connie awake, preparing for the process to begin. A dark spot slipped into his shadow, matching its shape as it rippled below him before gradually stabilizing itself.

  ‘Looks like she still needs practice on that.’

  He leaned against the door and said in a hushed tone, “They’ve brought in the Mindtap, it should be any second now that they’ll begin examining Anthony so get ready.”

  For the rest of the time, he wanted Connie to continuously oversee the process with the ability she was using now. The only reason they were doing this so last-minute was because she was concerned the Mindtap would notice her presence, thwarting their efforts completely.

  According to Connie, how the process worked was that the Mindtap would place her consciousness inside the recipient, making her body completely vulnerable, hence why some soldiers will remain guarding her. But that meant the Mindtap wouldn’t be able to detect Connie in the shadows, so they decided it would be better that she entered after the process began.

  Suddenly a speaker blasted into the dormitory.

  “ALL TRIAL PARTICIPANTS, PLEASE RETURN TO YOUR ROOMS AND REMAIN INSIDE UNTIL AUTHORIZED TO EXIT.”

  The Mindtap had finally arrived.

  “Time sure flies doesn’t it, Leo?”

  Jumping back, Leo whipped his head around to see the Lieutenant right behind him, wearing that same damn smile.

  Leo chuckled nervously. “I guess it’s time, huh?”

  The Lieutenant simply nodded. Behind him stood four guards, but they were much different from the guards like Cain. These ones wore what basically were padded blast suits, each armed with an assault rifle as well as a mace at their side. Their faces were covered as their helmets were tinted out, but Leo could feel the air around these guards were much colder than anything he’d felt so far.

  Well, maybe not anything so far.

  But between these four was a woman covered in a purple silk robe with a cloth similar to a mourning veil hiding her face. She kept her hands held together in front of her chest as if praying, Leo could swear he could see her mouth mumbling something.

  “Is that…?”

  Hearing him, the Mindtap briefly raised her head to glance at Leo, her blue eyes causing him some discomfort. It felt as if she was looking into his very being, or maybe just looking through him? Her eyes weren’t too focused on him as she quickly glanced away.

  Before he could finish, the Lieutenant lifted his index finger to his mouth signaling Leo to stay quiet. Lowering the finger, the Lieutenant said, “Recruit Leo, could you please direct us to your room?”

  Hesitating for a moment, he looked down at his shadow, reminding himself that he wasn’t the only one being affected by this. If anything, he was the one with the least amount of pressure on him.

  Taking a deep breath, Leo nodded as he led the entourage down the dim hallway, the sound of the Mindtap’s footsteps could barely be heard as the armored guards' heavy footsteps deafened the hallway.

  Suddenly, the Lieutenant approached Leo. He leaned over and whispered to Leo, “I would recommend you and your friend down there be prepared for the worst.” With that said, he backed away from Leo and continued following.

  Leo couldn’t help but internally gulp, but maintained his pace. How did the Lieutenant know Connie was there? On the bright side, he didn’t seem to know who Connie was, and he wasn’t planning on correcting that either.

  Finally, the group had reached the dormitory and now stood in front of Leo’s door.

  The Lieutenant gave Leo a small nod, signalling him to step back.

  Taking the Lieutenant’s warning to heart, Leo leaned to the side of his door, just out of Anthony’s vision but still able to peek inside. He decided to sit here because it would allow him to see everything while also not being at the forefront if an incident were to occur.

  The Lieutenant opened the door and flipped on the light. “Good evening, Recruit Anthony. I apologize for the sudden intrusion, but it is of utmost importance that you cooperate with this process.”

  Anthony, sitting on the bed, gave him a skeptical look before nodding. “What do you need to do?”

  The Lieutenant explained. “You will be put in a state of sleep where your mind will be probed by our Mindtap here. Of course, no damages will be done as long as things go smoothly.”

  He motioned toward Anthony’s bed. “If you would please lay flat on your back, we can resolve this with no problem.”

  Anthony carefully asked, “Do all recruits go through with this?”

  The Lieutenant nodded. “Of course, you just happened to be first.”

  Anthony stayed still, contemplating his words before complying. He laid on his back, his eyes cautiously observing the strange woman behind the Lieutenant.

  The Lieutenant stepped to the side, allowing the Mindtap to enter. “You may begin when ready.”

  With the confirmation she needed, she stepped into the room with the four guards spreading around the room, each locking onto Anthony’s body.

  The Mindtap calmly approached Anthony as she knelt beside him, the mirror reflecting his worried face behind her. She began muttering to herself for a moment as if in prayer before clasping her hands together.

  In a distorted voice, she calmly said, “Let us begin.” As her veil hovered over Anthony’s face, the room started blurring as she began the procedure.