Chapter 02

Organization Neox, is a group responsible for maintaining order and peace on the entire planet. This organization was created in conjunction with the alliance formed between the 3 main powers of the world: The Kingdom of Britania, the Arsênia Empire, and the Sunigame nation.

It has existed for about 325 years and acts as a kind of international police force, existing as a symbol of the alliance between the 3 main nations and constantly acting to keep this alliance going for more and more decades. Because of this the Neox group is known all over the planet and its special agents are greeted everywhere they go. Not much is known about their internal structure, but it is public knowledge that anyone belonging to this organization is part of the elite of society.

'Now that is a huge surprise.' thought Alex with a rather complex expression on his face.

Here is the biggest doubt at this moment, why would an organization of this size send an invitation to a young man whose power is not even close to being strong? Alex has not excelled at anything and has not shown any extra skills worth being noticed by this group of society's elites.

"Did they somehow see me using my powers that time I saved a dog from being hit by a truck? If so then their network of information is scary, because I am sure I was extremely discreet at that time... or did they somehow find out what I am? No, I don't think so, my parents erased any trace of being connected to me and to this day I have no idea where they are..."

In the past, before his parents abandoned him, they told him to try his best to look like a simple human until he was strong enough.

Alex may have made a few missteps, but he still made people think that he only liked tomatoes. So, there is no evidence that his real race has been discovered.

So, the only chance left is only because of his real powers being discovered in a way completely unknown to Alex. Along with the message on the invitation, there was also the address, date and time for the selection exam.

'I think I'll just refuse this...I don't want any more trouble coming directly at me'

However, to the young man's surprise, a small sheet of paper, completely white, fell out of the envelope until it finally hit the floor with its contents facing down. Alex stretched out his hand to pick it up and be able to see its contents.

As he turned the small sheet of paper over, his expression became a little surprised and at the same time a tiny smile was formed on his face.

The content of the letter was only a drawing of a closed hand with a thumb up and a playful little face drawn beside it. In the bottom right corner of the sheet there was also the following sentence: "To Al-chan"

And after reading this, Alex immediately changed his mind.

'Anyway, I really didn't want to be a part of it, but they say that being a Neox special agent is practically a guarantee of having a satisfying life and the salary shouldn't be bad either. Besides I don't want to live like a parasite taking advantage of my uncles...Aaaaargh, I guess I don't have much to think about since I don't have that many strengths besides my powers!' Alex reflected to himself.

"One of the weird things about all this is that they sent out the invitation almost 3 days before the exam and they are also doing this selection at the end of the first semester of the year..."

*Long yawn*

At this moment it was exactly 6:31 PM and usually around this same time Alex sleeps like a rock as he lies in his bed, and that is exactly what he is about to do. The young man took his cell phone out of the pocket located in his school blazer and set an alarm to ring at 11:00 PM, because around this time the teenager starts his real daily routine.

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*PI** PI* *PI* the alarm sound resounded through the messy room.

Young Alex at that very moment woke up and turned off the alarm. Then he stood up and started walking towards a half-open cardboard box with several bags of blood piled inside, he reached out his hand towards one of the transparent bags with red liquid and opened its lid to finally have his well deserved dinner.

After a few minutes, the bag containing blood was now completely empty. After discarding the bag in the trash, the teenager started walking again, but this time towards the door leading out of the room.

Upon exiting, he continued walking towards another door located at the back of the house, and as he turned the knob, he found a yard full of synthetic grass all over the ground and a fence about 2M high. The yard itself was not very big, but it was enough for the young man to practice his skill.

This is how Alex Walker's routine begins. Because he has a slightly stronger physique compared to an ordinary human being, he only needs to have 2 meals a day to feel satisfied. So, taking advantage of this, Alex developed his own routine to train his abilities for at least 3 hours a day, at a time when everyone is sleeping and would hardly see him if he used his real power.

His father taught him self-defense and some muay thai techniques during his constant training during his childhood, and so Alex tries to improve himself to create a fighting style out of the battle art and his unique skill while mastering his power more and more.

After the two hours of training are finally over, Alex starts walking into the house again, but this time heading towards the bathroom with the goal of taking a shower and answering the calls of his mortal body. A few moments later, the young man finishes his shower and heads towards his room to sleep again until it is time to go to school.

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It has been 2 days since the moment Alex received the invitation and today is the long awaited day for the exam. In the meantime, the young man's routine has remained pretty much the same, except for the fact that he has to constantly dodge the extremely pissed off redheaded teenager. Alex is a person who tries his best to avoid problems that can be avoided, because his laziness prevents him from taking part in fights or long discussions. The young man still does not know why the redhead is constantly picking on him, but still holds the theory that he has some mental problems.

Currently, Alex is on a train heading towards the exam site. As much as the invitation came just moments before the selection is to take place, the place where it will be held is only two cities away, or more specifically in Halsen, the current capital of the kingdom of Britannia.

'Going by the fact that the entrance exam will be held right in the capital, so probably people from all over the kingdom will participate in this test...I hope you won't have so many strong candidates, but it's almost certain that you'll have at least 1 person with a fairly strong ability...Aaaaargh how troublesome!!!!'

It is exactly as young Alex had thought. Since the Neox organization came about through the alliance between the three powers, then two selections are made in each of the three strongest nations. The first of them is the preliminary one, where several special agents are sent "secretly" to each nation in order to analyze individuals with enough potential to join the organization, this step is basically to limit the number of participants and avoid that almost the entire population of the country decides to participate in the test unnecessarily. The second selection is made through 4 tests randomly decided at the time of the exam, and with each round more and more people are eliminated.

"*long yawn* the capital is already at the next station; I just hope there won't be too many problems and everything will be over quickly..."

After a few minutes, the train had finally arrived in the capital Halsen. Alex got off the train and proceeded walking in to leave the station towards Henry High School, ranked 3rd in the kingdom when it comes to education and training for special skills.

(Research the subways used in Paris for reference when imagining the scene)

The streets of the capital were very busy, full of tall buildings and vehicles constantly passing from one side to the other. In the center of the city you could see a huge white castle with some golden details to give an air of royalty. The streets were not so crowded when Alex left the station, but as he approached the perimeter of Henry High the streets became more and more crowded.

'Are all these people crammed in here going to participate in the exam?' Alex reflected to himself.

The crowd of people was so great that some streets were blocked off because no vehicles could pass through there. After a few moments walking between people, Alex realized that he would never reach the school if he kept walking like this, so he sneaked into a narrow alley between two huge buildings and suddenly began to sink into the shadows formed in the alley.

This was his best stealth skill at the moment, as long as some shadow, other than his own, was formed somewhere, Alex was able to sink into it and move between other shadows around.

In this way Alex continued moving among the shadows of the people around the street and a few people may have noticed him, but they decided to ignore him because he must be a candidate for the selection exam.

After a few minutes of moving among the shadows, Alex submerged himself in front of the huge 10-meter grid with spearheads on top of it. There was also a huge wall, apparently the same size as the grating, surrounding the school with several fences full of thorns on top of it. Next to this, there were also 6 people wearing a black shirt with sleeves and completely black pants as well, apparently, they are special agents affiliated with Neox to protect the entrance.

(Imagine an Elite School in England)

At first the guards were even quite alert about Alex, but they quickly ruled out an invasion when they noticed his student clothes.

'I don't even want to imagine what those thorns or guards are capable of doing...' reflected Alex to himself as he approached the guards.

"Invitation, please?" Spoke one of the guards politely.

Alex put his hand inside his blazer and pulled out the invitation to deliver into the guard's hands.

"Here you go" replied Alex as he handed over the invitation.

After a few seconds inspecting the object in his hands, the guard said politely.

"Follow straight down the first corridor until you reach room C-86"

"Okay, thanks for the information!" Alex said politely to the guard as he headed towards his room.

After a few seconds...

"It's rare to have a polite young man here, most who passed by didn't even look at us..." said one of the guards.

"Yes, now I'm even rooting for him to pass, but his luck is not so good for falling into that room..." replied the guard who attended Alex.

After those words, they went back to focusing on their task.

Alex continued walking down the corridor with white walls and some posters pasted on it, this is a school to begin with, so it would be strange if there were no posters or some kind of decoration made by the students in the corridors.

After a few minutes of walking in slow steps, Alex finally arrived at a door with a sign taped to it that read"C-86"

After confirming that there were people inside, he moved his hand towards the doorknob and opened the door only to be caught by surprise by an axe flying towards him.

Alex was really taken by surprise, but managed to react in time and duck to dodge the sharp axe.

Still crouching, Alex looked up to see the axe bigger than his head, stuck in the ceiling with a few cracks around it. It was at that moment that a shiver ran down his spine and he quickly rolled into the huge room.

'Are these guys crazy?! This could end up killing someone! I wonder if everyone in this kingdom is mentally disturbed!!!'  Alex thought to himself.

After that he quickly got up to take a better look around the room. The place was really huge and had several windows on its right side, but they were all sealed and covered by a black panel stuck in them. Other than that, this room is like any other, but it had a huge whiteboard, apparently digital, and state-of-the-art air-conditioning.

Looking at a table beside the board, there was a person in a white suit, white pants, social shoes and a black top hat, he was sitting while having a cup of tea and watching anyone who entered. His face was not very visible as it was covered by a mask.

"Sit anywhere you want"

"Right..." replied Alex as he turned his body towards the various chairs scattered around the room.

There were already many people sitting on the chairs and since the room was huge, then it possibly had capacity for around 100 people here. Some candidates were impatient, others were quite calm and there were even those who seemed to be trembling. As for the age range, there were both adults and teenagers throughout the place and, just for curiosity's sake, there are more men than women here.

Ignoring the stares in his direction, Alex started walking to a chair located at the back of the room and near the window.

There are still two hours until the test starts, I think I can take a nap.

With that thought in mind, Alex sat in the chair and lay down on the table with his eyes slowly closing.

'Is this young man very confident or is he just plain stupid?' thought the person in the black top hat as he stared at Alex sleeping calmly.

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*clap* *clap* *clap*

Two hours passed and Alex was awakened by the loud clapping sound coming from the direction of the board.

"Pleased to meet you my dear candidates, my codename is Black-White and I will be your examiner at this stage of the entrance exam" Spoke the person in the black top hat, drawing the attention of all the people inside the room.

"I will give a brief introduction about the whole selection process. You will go through 3 more phases after this one and each phase will be run by a different examiner and will have a challenge randomly chosen by this roulette" Spoke Black-White while showing a large roulette wheel that until then no one had seen.

'Where did this roulette wheel come from?!' That was the thought of everyone in the room.

"In this particular phase, the maximum number of people approved is 10 and you are not allowed to kill someone using your powers or anything like that."

The whole atmosphere became much more tense than before. Already immediately after saying this, Black-White remembered something and spoke again.

"By the way, you will have to sign these papers if you want to be part of the selection process!"

The next moment, some sort of contract and a pen mysteriously appeared on the table of each person present.

'It is a contract that all damages, whether moral or otherwise, will be the full responsibility of the individual and Neox will take no responsibility...This really is getting more and more dangerous, but shouldn't they make us sign this before we walk in the door?' Reflected Alex in his head as he signed the contract.

He was absolutely correct, the supervisors should stand at the doors to make the examinees sign before entering, but Black-White completely forgot about that. After everyone signed, all the papers and pens mysteriously disappeared from the chair once again, and Agent Black-White spoke again.

"Now that everything has been explained and settled, let's spin the roulette wheel"

His hand reached for the roulette wheel and pushed it down sharply with all the force he had.