A hiss.
A tremor.
And then… a breath.
Kai's eyes snapped open to blinding white light.
His chest rose sharply, lungs drinking in sterile, filtered air. The first thing he felt wasn't pain or fear — it was confusion. His vision blurred, and for a second, he thought he was still mid-battle, trapped inside the Apex prototype's neural feed. But no — the roar of combat had gone silent. The world now hummed with mechanical serenity.
Then came the voices.
"System reboot complete. Subject stable. Welcome back, Cadet."
The voice wasn't human — calm, synthetic, polite. It echoed through the circular chamber as pod after pod cracked open with a pneumatic sigh. Blue mist rolled across the floor, and from the fog, shadows began to stir.
Kai blinked again and pushed himself upright, coughing once. He was seated inside a padded pod, lined with silver gel tubes that retracted into the walls as soon as he moved. His hands trembled slightly. Every nerve in his body felt awake.
He glanced left.
A second pod hissed open. A familiar voice groaned.
"Oh stars— why do I feel like I just swallowed a reactor core?"
Selena. Her hair was a mess, her usual composure traded for wide-eyed disbelief. She turned, spotted Kai, and froze. "Wait. You— you're real?"
Kai blinked. "Last I checked."
Oliver's pod opened next with a loud clunk. The big guy sat up like someone rebooted a tank. "Okay… either I'm alive, or this is the most realistic afterlife ever coded."
Then came Valerie, yawning as though she'd just finished a nap, not a galactic-scale survival gauntlet. "Ugh. Please tell me nobody recorded how I screamed in that last simulation."
Kai couldn't help it — a laugh escaped. It was small at first, but it broke the tension.
Selena giggled too. Oliver snorted. Valerie just rolled her eyes, smirking. And for a brief, surreal moment, all four of them sat in their pods, staring at one another — half-awake, half-shocked, but undeniably alive.
Then, something clicked in Kai's head. "Wait… where are we?"
They all looked around.
The room stretched endlessly — a white, curved hall filled with thousands of identical pods. Students were emerging everywhere, some rubbing their heads, others cheering or collapsing in disbelief. The ceiling shimmered with soft blue light, casting everything in a surreal glow. It looked like the inside of a massive testing facility — too clean, too quiet, too organized.
"I think…" Selena said slowly, standing to her feet, "…we weren't actually out there."
Oliver frowned. "What do you mean 'weren't out there'? We fought drones, scaled an orbital ruin, nearly died from—"
"Yeah," Valerie cut in, "I'm pretty sure I cried when I thought you exploded."
"Wait," Kai said, brows furrowing. "You cried?"
She stiffened. "I—I mean hypothetically! Dramatic tension and all."
Before Kai could tease her further, a large holographic screen blinked to life across the room. A calm administrative voice filled the air.
"Welcome, incoming students of Grimstone Mech Academy.
Your initial entry evaluation has concluded successfully."
Silence swept the chamber. Then, a wave of chatter.
"Entry evaluation?" Selena repeated. "You mean… that was all a test?"
Oliver stared up at the voice, jaw slack. "A test? That wasn't a test — that was war!"
"The Eidolon Reality System is a fully immersive simulation designed to assess team coordination, moral integrity, and adaptive intelligence under pressure. All candidates were grouped into randomized units of four for unbiased evaluation."
Kai leaned back against his pod, exhaling.
So that was it. All the sweat, the battles, the chaos — it was never real. But his heart still hammered with memory. The emotions had been real. The choices. The risk. Even the small things — like Selena's smirk when he pulled off an impossible repair, or Oliver's laugh when a plan actually worked — all of that was theirs.
"Please remain calm. Instructors will assist you shortly. You may now check your results via the student access terminals."
Screens blinked to life at each station. Students rushed to them, shouting, laughing, cheering. Some cried. The air was alive now — thousands of young voices mixing into a storm of disbelief and relief.
Selena grinned. "So… anyone wanna find out if we passed?"
Kai shrugged, still trying to process it all. "After everything? If we didn't, I'm suing for emotional damages."
Valerie laughed — a genuine, bright laugh that echoed above the noise. "You'd lose. You signed the waiver."
As they climbed out of their pods, they passed others waking nearby — faces unfamiliar, names unknown.
A tall boy with black streaks in his hair stumbled out of a pod beside them. "Uh… hey. Do any of you know what day it is?"
Selena tilted her head. "No idea. Who're you?"
He blinked, rubbing his eyes. "Ezra. Ezra Kline. I think I was in a different test group."
"Nice to meet you," Kai said automatically. "I'm Kai. This is Selena, Oliver, Valerie."
Ezra squinted. "Oh. The 'Grim Squad,' right? I think I heard one of the observers mention your team."
Valerie frowned. "Observers?"
He pointed to the ceiling. "Didn't you see the cameras?"
Oliver groaned. "There were cameras? Great. So they saw me nearly punch that generator to death."
Kai grinned. "You looked cool doing it."
Selena folded her arms. "So basically… the teachers drugged us, threw us into a virtual gauntlet, and watched like it was a reality show."
Valerie smirked. "Academy tradition, I guess."
A loud clang interrupted them as the far door slid open. Several instructors stepped in, wearing formal black uniforms lined with glowing crimson seams. The lead instructor, a tall man with silver hair and a calm smile, raised his voice.
"Welcome to Grimstone Mech Academy," he announced. "If you're awake and breathing, congratulations — you've survived the Eidolon Entrance Trial. That means you are officially candidates."
Applause broke out spontaneously — scattered at first, then growing. Students whistled, clapped, and shouted, some hugging their teammates.
Kai glanced at his team.
Oliver gave a proud grin.
Selena straightened her jacket, hiding her own smile.
Valerie crossed her arms, pretending not to care, but her eyes gleamed.
They'd made it.
A little later, as the crowd began to disperse toward the registration terminals, Kai tapped his wristband. A holographic window flickered up —
Evaluation: Passed
Ranking: Top 2%
Remarks: Adaptive Innovator — Exceptional Divergent Thinking
He blinked.
Then grinned.
"Top two percent," he murmured.
Selena peeked over his shoulder. "What? No way— you beat me?!"
Oliver whooped. "Ha! Called it! Kai's brain's too weird to rank low!"
Valerie smirked, checking her own score. "Top five percent. Not bad for someone who had to babysit a reckless engineer."
Selena made a face. "Ugh, don't remind me."
Kai looked at them all — his team, his accidental allies. Somehow, it all felt right.
Across the massive chamber, cheers erupted again as more students checked their results. A few groaned, others high-fived. The energy was chaotic, hopeful — alive.
And for the first time since stepping foot in this academy, Kai felt a quiet certainty bloom in his chest.
This…
This was only the beginning.
He looked up toward the glass balcony high above, where instructors watched from behind tinted panes.
"Guess they wanted to see what we'd do under pressure," Kai muttered.
Oliver chuckled. "Well, joke's on them. We don't break."
Valerie smirked. "We improvise."
Selena smiled softly. "And we win."
Kai grinned. "Then let's keep doing that."
And somewhere above, beyond the glass, Head Instructor Zhao smiled faintly as he marked something on his datapad.
"Team Grimstone — adaptive, cohesive, unpredictable.
Mark them for Tier One placement."
The test was over.
The real story had begun.