Air Hero

Dazzling test results

After taking his number, Max then followed the people in front of him, and they arrived at a large dome. Looking around, there’s already a lot of people sitting on the spectator’s seat as they are primarily scouts from companies, and they are already waiting there for some time to make sure that they won’t slow down the registration process for the examinee.

Max could see seats lined up on the field, and he didn’t need to be instructed to find his number and sit down on it. Each seat has its number, and it is arranged according to the registration number.

“777, isn’t this a lucky number?”

Max looked at his seat number and sat down. He could see familiar equipment and devices that he saw at the beautiful gym and used two days before. The only difference is that the number of said devices is a lot more.

Not long after, all the participants' seats are filled, and the dome's lights are dimmed. Then, a spotlight comes into the center of the dome, and a figure can be spotted above a stage.

“Hi everyone! The MC for today’s hero examination test is me! Your beloved A-rank hero, the sexy and cute Elrisa!”

The moment Elrisa showed up above the stage, the crowd immediately went wild as they are cheering. If an S-rank hero is at the level of top celebrities, then an A-rank hero is a famous figure. Not to mention that the outfit that Elrisa wears has become her trademark and makes many people fall for her.

There are several reasons for a hero to be well accepted by the masses. Firstly, their achievement must be significant enough. For example, one of the reasons why Yuna wanted to catch Lindt and Vanya at first is because of the achievement it will bring her.

Secondly, your superpower. Some famous heroes have their own special signature moves or unique superpower. Since the United Heroes association divided them by elements, they really need to find a move that stands out from the rest.

Thirdly, your hero’s name and outfit. Elrisa is a unique name by itself. Her achievement is good enough to put her in A-rank, and her signature move isn’t overly powerful. However, the reason why she is famous and resulting in the cheers of the crowd just now is because of her outfit.

Blue-colored skin-tight leather suit with a heart cut-out at her outer thigh and upper arms area. It isn’t making her look cheap but instead, it pushes her allure to the max. In addition, her cheerful personality and signature move, ‘bath time’, makes everyone found her lovable and cute. Hence, she is very popular, especially among male fans.

“Elrisa… Elrisa…”

The crowd chanted her name, and she definitely enjoyed it as she smiled and waved her hands to the masses.

“Calm down, everyone. I can feel your love even from here. But, today, I am not the center of the attention. Yes, right now, we’re going to start the hero examination test. Spectators over there, have you prepared your paper to take note of the number of a promising individual? People with numbers, are you ready for the test that might change your life forever?”

“Yes!”

The crowd answered in unison.

“Okay, without further ado, the hero examination has officially started! We have 2879 participants today, and we will split your test into several stages. The first one is gauging your current level. We will be testing your power, speed, sensitivity, and energy. All the test results are unquestionable, so I hope you won’t cause trouble just because the result isn’t good. If that’s the case, I will personally kick you out of here. Well, I won’t kick perverts and masochists, though.”

Elrisa explained playfully as she gives a wink to the participants, and Max can hear them cheering once again.

“The first test is power. As you can see, there’s ten super extra strong Pluton brick. Further explanation will be taken care of by the examiners. Now, line up with 300 people per device.”

The crowd moved along with Elrisa’s announcement. Since Max’s number is 777, he will be lining up on the second device. In front of each SES Pluton brick, an examiner explains what to do to the participants. The process itself is pretty fast since they only need to launch one attack at the target.

“D-. D. D. D-. D. D+. D.”

After listening to the result that keeps on being called out by the examiners, Max finally realized why Kalina asked him to hold back. So far, he hasn’t even heard C-rank being mentioned. Max is feeling bored as he is waiting for his turn when suddenly he heard a large commotion.

“B-rank.”

“What? Did you hear that? There’s someone who has a B-rank in terms of power. So it seemed that we have a rising star among our peers from this examination.”

 All eyes are naturally directed towards the device where the announcement was made. Therefore, even the test has to stop for a while as everyone is looking in that direction.

“Hohoho, look at what we have here? Scouts, are you prepared to record the details? Let me tell you, participant number 1020, Iki Hawthorn. What’s more, he is unaffiliated without any sponsors.”

There’s a large screen on the dome, and it immediately put the person on display. But, of course, Max also looked at this person closely since most likely he will be his peers when he became a hero.

The boy’s red hair is spiky as if it was a burning flame and immediately attracts everyone’s attention. He is actually topless and wears only black and red colored shorts. If Max has to say his first impression about Iki, then it would be ‘wild’.

Nevertheless, the scouts on the side immediately recorded his name along with his number and tried to find about his background.

“Did anyone has heard of the Hawthorn family?”

“Is there any hero with the Hawthorn name?”

As scouts, their job is to make sure that they could get someone without any background. If the person they are investigating belongs to a family or has their own sponsors already, it is almost impossible to lure them.

Now, Max sees that holding back and hiding his real power isn’t detrimental at all. If he is producing a great result and, in the end, catching the eye of the scouts, there will be no end to it. Although on paper he is someone that already has sponsors, the eye of reporters will still fall into him, and it will restrict his movement instead.

Popularity isn’t always mean good things. It could ruin someone’s life instead. Not to mention someone’s background will be thoroughly exposed because of this, which Kalina wanted to prevent. If somehow Max’s name goes into the limelight and they found out about his past and by chance, they could connect Bonio’s and Yann’s death to him; he didn’t know how the Evil mastermind would react.

That is why Kalina is asking Max to stay lowkey. It wasn’t to hinder him but to protect him instead. Max realizes this as soon as he saw that the scouts are going busy after looking at Iki’s result.

“Oh well, big sis already said it before. So I better hold back and go easy on the test.”