Old Memories

The days continued as such for 6 days, on the 7th day a change happened. Instead of the usual track running and brain teasers, the students were instructed to come to an agility course. The course was massive.

The start of it was a low-wall that led into stepping stones. Next were some waist high rubble walls, then you had to crawl through a 50 meter tunnel then quickly through some dodging panels. Next a low-rope then over a ditch, through a corridor, and across a balance beam, jump through a window then climb an apex ladder. Lastly over a terrace to finish the course.

The first person who did it took five minutes to complete it, mainly due to the unfamiliarity with the course. The rest of the people did it, and the average of 4 minutes with a few outliers like Jacob and Emmanuel.

There was only one issue during the agility course that was of any note, a student named Alyssa, when going through the tunnel, discovered her newfound claustrophobia. As a matter of fact, no one really liked the tunnel as it required an army crawl through it. Alyssa was exempt from that part of the course but had to take a 50 second penalty, the average of what everyone else had.

Overall, they had to run the agility course several times, and when they were done, they had to answer more brain teasers. They also upgraded from kid level to teen level.

'Circle the 8 (20x20 box of 9s)'

'Which word is written incorrectly in the dictionary?'

'People buy me to eat, but never eat me, what am I?'

The most annoying ones were finding puzzles. With an exhausted body, the mind had to work doubly hard to spot certain things. Things continued like that, with the obstacle course and brain teasers getting harder every week.

Finally, the last three days rolled around. Everyone was situated in a room with enough beds for everyone. On each bed was a name, and a helmet. These helmets were virtual reality helmets. Humans actually developed virtual reality nearly 2000 years ago in 2040, but the technology has come a long way since then, reaching a 95% simulation rate.

The drill instructor spoke, "These last three days will be spent in virtual reality. Everyone will be sent into a custom virtual world, and each team of two will have a specific mission. Once you complete a mission, you will earn a point and be assigned a new one. The team with the most points will be rewarded 5000 contribution points that can be spent at their leisure in the school."

He had a sneering smile on his face as he watched the students put on the helmets.

~~~~~~~~~

Jacob and Emmanuel appeared sitting together on a bus. Jacob immediately felt something wrong, but could not figure it out. He looked at Emmanuel to find him extremely uncomfortable, he quickly asked what was wrong, and Emmanuel said, "Our cultivation has been removed, we are at the level of an uncultivated human."

Then it hit Jacob, he was 'average' again. No superhuman abilities, just the body of a somewhat trained teenager. He searched his surroundings and found he was on a school bus, and there were a few other students on the bus as well, he did not recognize any, but felt they were vaguely familiar.

As he was contemplating, some words appeared in front of his eyes.

[Mission objective: Complete the school day.]

Jacob was stunned, was it that easy? Then he noticed Emmanuel was really uneasy, he asked if he had a different mission, to which Emmanuel replied, "I've never studied history this thoroughly, by looking at the phone of that NPC, it is the year 2014, I have no idea how to go to school." Jacob was once again stunned, that was the issue? Jacob looked around his seat and found a backpack quickly.

In the backpack were a few textbooks, and a notebook. There was also a schedule for the classes he had. He froze when he read the name, 'Jacob Smith'. The memories rushed back to him, it was his sophomore year of highschool, he remembered the students around him. More particularly one girl.

He remembered this day, and started to understand the situation, he looked towards a student who was fidgeting in his seat, feelings of anger almost consumed him, his mind cooled quickly though, he now understood that the seemingly simple challenge was a little different. He asked Emmanuel to show him his schedule, he was weird about it and instead read it off to him. It was the same class schedule.

It was a little weird, reliving a memory of a life changing event. He understood that the drill instructors were a little sinister with their challenges. He knew everything that would happen today, and that he could not normally complete the school day.

He motioned for Emmanuel to follow his lead, he had a bit of nostalgia as he got off the bus and went through the doors to the school, it was exactly like he remembered, the econ teacher directly to the left that always kept her door close because the loud bus students, the group of girls who always took up 50% of the hallway.

He made his way towards the cafeteria where they serve breakfast. The cafeteria was filled with groups of people sitting and laughing, or having a quick breakfast before classes start, or copying a friend's homework.

Jacob moved through the lunchline, inputting his student code and grabbing a sausage breakfast sandwich and an orange juice, he had Emmanuel pick out something similar. The time between breakfast and lunch always seemed the longest when you missed breakfast.

He did not sit in his usual friend group, and pulled Emmanuel to sit near the corner, a habit he developed from around this time. He eyed two people, one was the fidgeting kid from earlier, and another was a tall, rather skinny kid, he was messing around with a bunch of kids in a group throwing things around.

As Jacob was sorting through plans next to a nervous Emmanuel, a girl came up to the table, not just any girl, but one Jacob knew very well. She sat directly in front of Jacob and said, "Care to introduce me to your friend here?" Jacob was a bit confused, This person was Jacob's first girlfriend, Madison, yet according to Jacob's memories, they had broken up a few days prior.

Before Jacob can interrupt, Madison interrupted, "Is this the new bimbo you got to replace me? Do you think she is prettier than me?" Jacob was incredibly confused now, one she had broken up with him, and two Emmanuel was a guy!

Jacob then brought back some horrible memories of Madison as he snapped, "What does it matter to you Maddy? And you should get your eyes checked, Emmanuel is a guy." The second sentence flustered the girl a bit as she started to stare at Emmanuel more deeply, she then said, "I have never seen such a skinny guy with such big tits." She then huffed and walked away.

Jacob then looked at a jumpy Emmanuel, Nope, as flat as an airplane runway, ready for takeoff. Jacob then attributed it to some mechanism that the mission set, he then felt a bit of pity for Emmanuel being seen as a girl.

Emmanuel then asked after Madison left, "What is going on, why do you seem to know everyone, and people know you?" Jacob then merely responded, "I think this training challenge has us relive our memories." This sentence only continued to confuse Emmanuel even more.

Jacob did not care, the small mishaps that he has long left behind no longer affect him. He started to plan how to change the outcome of this day.