Max and Nico arrive well before the others and take a spot near the door. Front Right serms to be their position of choice everywhere they go, but in this classroom it’s everyone’s choice, the morning sunlight beats down across the left half the room and there are no blinds. It’s hot, bright, and distracting to students who would rather be outside playing.

Max wonders if it’s intentional, then decides that’s a pointless thought. Of course, it is. Everything here is a deliberate test.

The friendly-looking young Corporal teaching the class hands them their class books, and Max bursts into laughter while Nico hides hers by biting her fist.

“Is Something Funny, Cadets?” The teacher’s tone doesn’t sound so kind now.

“Sir, no sir. It’s just that the book is an introduction to the Kepler Standard Alphabet, and we can both already read the language, Sir.” Nico responds while Max struggles to regain his composure. Must planets use a local dialect with its own written language, so not a lot of Cadets arrive knowing the standard Alphabet._.

War might be the fate for half the population, the ones with a System, but the parents at home are rarely enthusiastic about sending their children to their fate, and nobody uses the standard Alphabet here on Kepler Terminus.

The teacher’s face has reverted back into a kindly half smile, and he drops a digital tablet on their desks and collects the first books. “Take those to the testing booths across the hall and fill them out. That standard assessment will help with your placement, so do your best.”

Max recognizes the symbol in the corner as meaning that the device is connected to the Academy’s internal Data Net and resists the urge to hack it. It’s the Military Academy, of course they would notice if he uses a password algorithm on their tablet.

With the fist to the chest Kepler Salute, they leave the room and pick adjacent stalls for the test. The testing stations are soundproof and have no windows to keep the students from cheating off of each other. That’s not going to stop this dynamic duo, though.

Max sees the first bits are simple reading and writing skills tests, so he takes out the stylus and quickly completes the first few sections. Then it’s on to the very basics of Mecha control panel layout, anyone who has used the simulator will know this, so again, he flies through it.

The third is the basic mechanical layout of the Line Mecha. Not much was available about this in the public data network, so Max looks it over for clues, then decides to see how Nico is doing, using his Innate Talent to check her mind.

She not only knows everything, but she’s also corrected a deliberate mistake in the exam itself. Max sorts through her mind, trying to memorize everything he can without directly copying her answers. That’s not too hard; it’s just a mechanical schematic, no more complicated than modifying a VR headset to bypass the bootup restrictions so he can play black market games.

With that essential knowledge, he moves all the parts on the screen to their correct locations and then double checks them against Nico’s work. It looks right, so he moves to the final section on basic piloting techniques. He already knows this from the Multiplayer Simulators, so he fills in everything as best as he knows it and then goes over the whole test again, looking for mistakes.

In the exam monitoring room, Sergeant Zamm is at a loss for words. Both students are on camera, and every entry into the tablet is monitored and recorded. The fact they aced the first-year writing portion was a given, but they didn’t make any mistakes on the second and third-year portions either.

Then they moved on to the mecha control layout portion. A third-year final test that identifies and correctly places every major control component in the Line class Mecha. They also got perfect scores on that portion, with only cadet Max needing to adjust an answer. The same again on the Mechanical layout. Cadet Max made no mistakes this time, he just took a more systematic approach that slowed him down, compared to Cadet Nico.

The room the Instructors are in is shielded against System intrusion, so they can’t be using their Innate Skills on the observers. If it even has that much range. The only possible answer he can come up with is that one or both of them already know this information that should be confidential to anyone outside the Academy.

[Possibility Cadets have used innate skills to learn required information through year three after entering the academy] Sergeant Zamm notes as he watches them finish their tests.

The information he has says they’re both veterans of the civilian Multiplayer Simulators, so the fact they know the essentials of control isn’t a surprise, but it does pose a problem.

This is the Third Year’s placement exam. After completing this, the standard course Cadets will be sorted into their career paths by aptitude, and not just by washing out of a program. Those with uniquely suitable skills would would officially start a trade program and finish the next three years getting ready for the intensive career training at the University, while those who didn’t qualify as any form of specialists would begin infantry training immediately.

But how do you place a student who scored perfectly in everything?

Sargeant Zamm snaps a picture on his personal encrypted device and sends the final scores and student information to an old friend much further up in the Command Structure. Surely the General will know what to do with two such outstanding Cadets.

The testing room does don’t unlock until thirty minutes before the lunch break, and both Cadets race out of the building after being dismissed by Sergeant Zamm, wanting to make it to the cafeteria before the seniors line up. Today they’ve got the good enchiladas for lunch here, and that’s not a meal either of them wants to miss.

They take their places at the loudest table near the kitchen and dig in while the amused upper-level students get their lunch. Everyone pulls tubes of the spicy cheese out of their uniforms, and Max understands why it’s a valuable commodity. The meal doesn’t come with it, but it would make it way better.

That’s valuable survival information in Max’s mind. He will have to obtain more of the cheese tubes.

After lunch, they return to the workout area, and Max heads straight for the resistance machine. It’s a full-body workout and can upgrade all stat categories, though it focuses on strength. Since the goal is fifty total points of bonus for the first years, this is his best option.

Today, Nico joins him, taking the next machine and activating a sparring scenario. Max ignored those because the haptic feedback was incredibly painful when you got hit, and you would be hit a lot. Instead, he picked a Strongman Competition today that was marked as suitable for cardio.

Endurance might not be in the first categories of Stats, but the system says there’s more to be unlocked. In a long battle, Max is certain stamina matters a lot more than fancy piloting.