Vegis woke up with a smile due to the results of yesterday. Walking out of his room after doing his morning routine, he walked with purpose to the nearest pod train stop to catch a ride. The artificial sun beamed down on him while Vegis waited for the vehicle to arrive. After an uncomfortable amount of time, a Pod lowered itself to the station and opened its doors.
Entering the empty space within it, Vegis noticed that it was more empty than normal. “Strange,” he thought, “It’s rush time right now, where is everyone?” He then took a seat and took a deep breath to calm any jitters he was getting. It would usually take 1 hour to arrive at the closest station near the address he was given to start the testing required. On the long wait there, the Pod didn't seem to stop at any of the other stations or stops which cut travel by half. Vegis just did some light reading as he sat in the empty Pod.
As the Pod slowed, so did the noise it made, signifying that this was his stop. Getting up, Vegis stretched and walked out of the doors and checked to see if he was in the right area. Confirming it, he walked for 10 more minutes and arrived at a shining building that had a large sign spelling “Testing Facility 41”.
At the entrance, Vegis saw the person who hired him. Walking up to the person, Vegis opened his mouth and asked, “I forgot to ask, but what is your name?” Chuckling at this, it said, “I am G.R. unit 221. You can just call me Greg.” Vegis repeated the name to himself a couple of times to remember it. “Okay Greg, what type of testing needs to be done.” “Well Vegis, you’ll first need to have your compatibility tested, then the soul strength test, and finally a multi-sensory test will be done. These will be used to see how many clones you can connect to, how well you can handle the sense of them and how strong the control you have over them is.” “I get that, but how long will this take?” “On average, 2 Hours are needed to complete all the tests.” Vegis thought over this answer. “Much quicker than I thought,” he said after a bit.
“We will first need to make sure you are well fed and relaxed for the testing, so will you please step into the scanner.” Greg said while pointing Vegis into a small closet with a pipe going from the ceiling to the floor at the opposite side of the room. The door closed as soon as Vegis walked in, and noise soon flooded the room for 10 seconds before immediately stopping and opening the door. Walking out slightly disoriented due to the loud noises, Vegis looked around for Greg, who had been his guide and recruiter.
He saw no one but then got a message in his eye which said to follow the arrows being projected into his eye. A fuzzy shape slowly came into his left eye’s line of sight that gradually turned to an arrow pointing left. Following it, Vegis saw a series of arrows that must be pointing to his destination. When he finally got to the last one, it pointed to a room with a sign that had room 308 with his name under it.
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Vegis opened the door and saw someone who looked like Greg, but was wearing a totally different outfit and was staring into a clipboard. Greg dressed in what could be described as an old school detective outfit but this one looked like a nurse in scrubs.
“Hi there, are you the one testing me?”(Vegis) “Yes, I am T.E. unit 221. You can call me Tulip.” The Greg look alike said after looking up from their clipboard. “Okay, what test are we going to do first?” (Vegis) “We will start you with the soul strength test. I want you to lay down on top of the table and try to sleep. Don’t worry, this is the quickest test.”(Tulip).
“Okay” Vegis said as he walked over to the table. When he got on top of the table and closed his eyes to sleep, he felt as though he was falling. Startled, he sat up only to see that he was in the middle of a field. “This is your mind space. To your left, you will see a small old world camera. I will need you to turn it on and record yourself actualizing 3 items. They will be a 1 kilogram cube of steel, the first tool that appears in your head, and a small figurine of me.”(Tulip).
Vegis got up and grabbed the camera and flipped it around to see where the on/off switch was. After spending a minute on this, he finally turned it on and asked out loud, “Do I start now?” The camera started to let out static before clearing out and blasting out a “YES” from Tulip.
Vegis tried to gather all the knowledge he had about the alloy of steel, from his day to day life, the stuff he learned in school, and finally the things he remembered from his last job. All this knowledge fused together into a small whirlwind in front of Vegis before dispersing and dropping a metal cub with 5 cm sides. Pointing the camera at the end result, Vegis waited for a response from Tulip. “Thats pretty good, but it could be a little more bigger and uniform in shape.” eventual blasted from the camera after 2 minutes.
“Try the next object,” said Tulip. Vegis then spent the next few seconds trying to think of a tool, remembering its properties, and what attachment he had to it. The whirlwind picked up the steel cube and forged it into the shape of a knife. After a small period passed, Tulip asked through the camera, “What made you pick a knife, Vegis?” “Oh, I did some artisan work as a blacksmith and a wood caver in one of the VRMMO games I Played when I was young,” Vegis responded.
“Do you need a break before you make the last item?”(Tulip) “Nope”(Vegis). He tried to remember all the details he had seen on Tulip. The blue green scrubs, metallic skin, purple hair with strands of with and pink, and blue scleras. Those were the only things he could remember on Tulip, and so when the whirlwind crashed down and left, the item it dropped was a small metal doll with scrubs, purple hair, and blue eyes. “You did a pretty good job”(Tulip) “Thanks, though I thought I would remember more details”(Vegis) “Thats fine, this was just a test to see how fast you can remember things. Now, it is time to wake you up.”(Tulip).
