It had been an entire year since Novis had played the game and it felt good to be back in it again. His movements, his senses, everything felt more in synch with the environment. Now that his body had grown in size, it didn"t feel awkward controlling a warrior slightly bigger than him."You have improved." Arthur said, "I am proud of you."
Novis exited from the gaming pod and went over to his desk where there was a leaflet out on the table. The leaflet read: t.i.tan university tryouts, must be 16+.
"It"s tomorrow, everything I have done so far was for this."
Last year Lucas had come to Novis with an offer, for the two of them to try out for t.i.tan university together. Unlike regular universities, t.i.tan university focused on Esports, and they were well known for their university team.
When Novis asked his mother if he could try out, she was actually very pleased. Novis never did get good grades at school, and she always worried about what he would do in the future. But at least now it seemed like he had a goal.
****
The next day as Novis was leaving the house to go to the trial matches surprisingly, Scarlett was outside waiting for him. She gave a little smile and waved at him as he walked over.
"What are you doing here?" Novis asked.
"I know it"s your big day today and I was here to wish you good luck." She said as she handed over a small container to him.
Novis looked at the container and noticed that they were some cookies inside.
"I made them myself."
"Thank you, I"ll eat them on my way there, I didn"t have breakfast this morning."
The two of them laughed and then there was a slight awkwardness between the two of them.
"I guess if you get in, we won"t see each other as much anymore." She said.
Scarlett wasn"t like Novis, she enjoyed playing the game with her friends but never planned to take it seriously. Even if she did, she knew she wasn"t good enough in the first place. Her place in life was not playing games.
"Of course we will, you"re my best friend. I will always keep in contact with you." Said Novis, "And I think you will make a great nurse taking after your mother."
"Hey Novis, why don"t you just confess already?" Said George.
"What do you mean?"
"Come on, we know you like her, and you might not see her again for a while."
"A confident man is an attractive feature. I think you should do it" Arthur added.
It was true. When he found out that Scarlett was looking at Dan and called him handsome, Novis was getting jealous. He didn"t realise it at the time, but slowly over the last year, he realised that he had feelings for Scarlett. However, he was about to go to a different University for at least two years, maybe even longer.
Even if she did say yes, it wasn"t fair on her to wait for him. But with the encouragement of his two-spirit friends, he clenched his fists.
"Scarlett, there"s something I wanted to tell you..."
Novis had fought hundreds of fights by now, he had even faced death with a gun and fought in another dream world but nothing compared to the horrible feeling he had right now.
"Novis, it"s okay," She said, "You can tell me when you come back." Scarlett had a ma.s.sive grin on her face as if she already knew what Novis was going to ask.
She quickly ran back off down the street towards her house.
"Just don"t forget about me okay, and text me every once in a while." She shouted.
"Did she know?"
However, Novis didn"t have much time to worry about that, for the selection process for t.i.tan was coming up, and he needed to head to Westgate school as soon as possible.
The university itself wasn"t located in the same county that Novis lived in, but they did do heavy recruitment. There were two ways to get into the university, either to be offered a scouting contract. They had a small team of scouts that would go to tournaments and offer them to the best players. If offered a contract, the university tuition would be completely paid for.
Then there was the second way. Every year during the summer, they would pick a school in each county and allowed anyone to come for trials. A strict set of tests would be used to determine who would be able to join and who wouldn"t. The test didn"t care about your past achievements, they didn"t care who your family members were. They just cared about how you performed on the day.
This year the trials were set to be done at Westgate school.
After taking a short bus ride to Westgate, he noticed that there was already a lot of people outside. The schools were closed which meant everyone that was here, was here for the t.i.tan trials. As he continued to walk forward, Novis must have estimated there was at least five hundred people here.
He carried on looking around until he spotted Lucas, but what surprised him was, Lucas wasn"t alone. Standing next to him were three other boys he noticed as well.
"What are you guys doing here?" Novis asked.
"We"re here to take the trial of course," Alex said.
Not only was Alex there, but Frank and Dan as well.
"When we heard you were planning to join this university we thought we couldn"t let you go on your own, what would you do without us?" Dan said.
"But I thought you guys already picked your universities," Novis said.
"We did." Frank replied, "But there Is no harm in trying out for t.i.tan. Remember Novis, you"re not the only one with a dream of going pro."
Novis"s teammates never thought they would be able to make it into a team like t.i.tan. If it was them from two years ago, they wouldn"t have even dared to show up at the trials. But over the last year, each of them felt confident. They had even won their county tournament.
So they had to be at a decent level to get that far.
"Actually Lucas, I"m surprised you didn"t get scouted by t.i.tan university?" Alex asked.
Lucas then looked around before replying.
"Actually I did, a few years ago as well."
Suddenly the others felt depressed that they would be taking the test next to some genius monster.
"Then, why are you here?" Frank asked.
"Well, as I told Novis I want to create my own path, I want to be a new person without my father"s backing. I actually changed my name. I"m no longer Lucas Bell, But Lucas Lally. I decided to take my mother"s name instead. Most people only know me because of my name and don"t really know what I look like."
"Now that you mention it, you changed your hairstyle." Novis pointed out.
Before Lucas always had his Hair neatly gelled back, but right now it was a curly mess.
Lucas started to laugh.
"Well, you never know, there could be some people who knows what I look like."
While out on the field, everyone was waiting patiently for an announcement. There were no staff outside or officials, but the leaflet said to come to this exact place.
With nothing else to do the group decided to do some stretches to warm up. That"s when they noticed the others doing the same.
"Why the need for stretching, aren"t they going to see our skills in the game?" Frank asked.
"Actually, every time they have done this test, its been quite physical." Lucas replied, "There has been no VR equipment involved, and they want to see how you are in real life."
Suddenly, the school speakers started to make an announcement on the outside field.
"Welcome all to the official t.i.tan selection process. Today I will be the a.s.sessor of your trial."
As the students looked around to see where the voice was coming from, they spotted a man on the third floor of the school building staring out of the gla.s.s window.
"There are a few things that you all need to know before the test begins. First, we have confirmed that there are a total of 523 candidates partic.i.p.ating in today"s test. Now, this isn"t an ordinary test, for you will all be competing against each other. Out of everyone here, a maximum of Five will pa.s.s!"
The students started complaining and making an uproar. They knew not many of them would be selected, but only five was a crazy low amount.
"Five is a best-case scenario, we may not even decide to accept any of you, or maybe just one of you will seem good enough for us. t.i.tan aims to be the top of the top, and our students must also have the same goal. I will be observing you all carefully, so give it your all!"