Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

When a white gas started entering the air pipes of the cafeteria, panic spread through the hundreds of people who were in the cafeteria. Even though the doors were locked, some of these people immediately started to rush towards them, and these few people created a domino effect that drew even more people. Soon, the candidates were crowding in droves near the exits.

“So what? Is the exchange up or not?” Klaus asked Daniel again, pointing to the sandwich on the blue-haired boy’s tray.

Daniel swallowed the saliva that was in his mouth as he looked at the calm expression of the strange Asian boy sitting before him. Then Daniel nodded.

Then Klaus took the bag of peanuts on his own tray and exchanged it for the sandwich on Daniel’s tray.

Around them, most of the candidates were completely frightened and agog. No one could tell exactly if this was training, a test, or a real emergency. In any case, many were terrified that this might be a real dangerous situation.

Daniel stopped for a second to look around him at the back of this room and two things caught his attention.

The first was that just as Klaus was calm, there were other people with the same calmness all around the cafeteria. As strange as this may seem considering the situation, these people were also either so hungry that they could only see the food in front of them on the table and more, or as calm as if nothing was happening.

The second thing that caught his attention was that, despite the widespread panic, the employees in the canteen were working calmly, as if there was no emergency.

Yes, most people were still agitated and scared, but there were still calm people like Klaus.

At that moment, Daniel felt a wave of calm envelop him. Although he didn’t know exactly what was going on, there were other people who were dealing with the situation in a calm way. All he had to do was to stop and think for a moment to understand that the whole situation was meaningless.

Daniel took a deep breath, sat up, looked at Klaus, and the moment their eyes met, Daniel knew that he had come to the right conclusion. Then he almost laughed, but held himself back and continued in his seat.

And so, with the calm he had just found, Daniel began to eat his food together with Klaus, as if nothing was happening around him.

Meanwhile, the other candidates continued to despair, trying to strategize their way out anyway, and this went on for a few more minutes as white gas filled the floor of the place. When these desperate people realized that there were other candidates who were doing nothing, a large portion of them began to calm down.𝔬𝗏𝑙xt.𝐜𝑶𝑀

The remaining small portion, who were still desperate, only calmed down when they noticed that even after several minutes of exposure to the white gas, they didn’t feel different in any way.

Shortly after the general panic had died down, the doors were unlocked and the gas began to be sucked out through the vents.

As soon as the doors were unlocked, a middle-aged woman entered the cafeteria through the main door near the canteen. This woman had gray hair, white skin, a composed look, and was wearing a formal red dress. Immediately, she was recognized by most of the people in this cafeteria.

“That’s Stephanie J. West, director of NIST and this whole place.” Daniel said to Klaus.

The only other person at the table with Klaus and Daniel, the blond boy with the fake smile, clicked his tongue and said:

“Everyone knows who she is, no need to announce it, know-it-all.”

Stephanie looked at the messy dining hall and said quietly:

“Ladies and gentlemen, I see that most of you are finally calmer now. As you may have guessed, the gas just now was nothing more or less than a last test. What you breathed in were droplets of water that were condensed, cloud-like, and offered no danger to your health.” She smiled gently at the end of her sentence.

Some people whispered to each other and those who had already noticed this, could almost smile.

“As you all may already know, this special program, the result of a partnership between NIST and Hónghé Holdings, focuses on finding people with talents that will change the world. However, none of the fifty-one facilities under my operational command will be a circus that brings together the weirdest people. This, and all the other places that hold the special program, will be a place for the strong and talented who have the ability to survive without guidance. You guys know what that means, don’t you?”

Stephanie put her hands back and looked at the entire dining hall steadily.

“This place is not an educational institution, but a place where only the best can be here. And the test just now once again proved that not all of you are ready for it for two reasons. The first is because many of you didn’t trust that NIST could protect your lives while you are under our roof, in fact, most of you believed it. The second reason is because there are people who are swayed by the behavior of the masses, and there are those who are not. We are after that minority who are not, because we are not going to mold the talent of those who have passed on, we are going to evolve it.  Of the 298 present here, in this cafeteria, only 53 have passed the test. I ask that all of you form an orderly line and leave quietly. If you are selected, you will receive an e-mail in 15 minutes.

After the principal’s speech, she left the premises. Everyone in the cafeteria did exactly as she asked.

Some candidates were already looking disheartened, feeling sure that they had not passed while others were hopeful that they were among the 53 chosen.

Klaus and Daniel didn’t even look at each other after they handed over the trays of food. There was no need for words or exchange of greetings as they both knew they had passed the test and would see each other again. They separated to form the line and left the room in a reassuring silence.

As directed, Klaus waited for the arrival of the e-mail mentioned by the principal. To his surprise, it didn’t take more than five minutes to finally receive the e-mail from NIST congratulating him on entering the special program. In the e-mail were some important information, such as required documents and other requirements, but before taking care of this, Klaus called to tell his family about the result.

Michael Park was the one who answered Chun’s cell phone, because she was busy cooking dinner. The selection process was so long that the night came. After Klaus reported the result to his father, Michael was clearly very happy, but he showed it in his serious way, congratulating him on such a remarkable achievement with a simple speech.

Soon Michael passed the phone to Chun, and Klaus had to listen to her talk for a long time. He heard her sobbing for a few words as well.

“My son is magnificent!” She said with tears of joy after a while.

Klaus heard her voice and almost got into trouble with the onion-cutting ninjas. It was unusual for him to feel as happy as he was feeling in the last few months and passing this program was like a reward of a long and arduous journey. After the conversation with his parents, Klaus had to hang up the phone, because he needed to finish the admission procedures for the program and taking care of this was not very difficult, just boring.

Being considered a type of government department, NIST had access to a lot of normally confidential information, and therefore knew every applicant in minute detail. In other words, they needed each applicant to submit documents more in the sense of proving that they really were who they said they were than informing them of things like address, ID card, and that kind of normal information.

Logically, the special program would not start immediately. From what Klaus heard, of the ten thousand applicants, a thousand were accepted. Among them, all the members of the Alpha Group were approved.

Anyway, the people who were accepted were from different parts of the state, and so they needed to return to the house to pack their bags for the dorms and settle other pending matters.

For his part, Klaus chose not to return home that same day. It was already a little late after he got through the long line of approved applicants, and he just took a cab to the nearest hotel.

Once there, Klaus relaxed and began to think about the celebration he would have when he returned home.

Klaus knew that he had worked hard for his entire life and deserved that pinch of happiness. After all, while all his classmates celebrated their entrance to colleges a few years ago, all Klaus could do was watch them from afar.

But there was nothing more he could do to change the past, and now he had finally achieved something of the sort as well. After all, to be chosen for such a selective program as this was quite an achievement, wasn’t it? Klaus sighed at length and smiled as he looked up at the ceiling, thinking about it. He was really happy and a little tired, to say the least.

However, not everything is flowers… Klaus could not even imagine what was waiting for him in this new stage of his life. And a nightmare, which made him wake up scared in the middle of the night in that third-rate hotel, gave him a brief notion of this.

…

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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