Gary watched the participants get called out one by one to show off their Altered forms in front of the three men. He was feeling anxious, though less due to the test and more because the teenager was currently realising his lack of knowledge with regard to the academy itself.
Gary had only known about the AFA’s existence in general, but he had never looked into its inner workings. After all, the base requirement for attending had always been to be an Altered, something which should have been impossible for the old him. Alas, even after he had turned Werewolf, he had been too preoccupied with other things to fill that gap in knowledge.
As such, the only thing he knew about the three judges were their names because they had name plates in front of them. Unfortunately, none of those rang any bells for him. Aside from them not being some Altered fighters, he wasn’t sure whether they were merely helpers, or perhaps some renowned professors who had come today to test them.
Every teenager was told to demonstrate their transformation in front of everybody. They were to show off the extent to which they could transform into, and how much control they had. All of it was being recorded, and once they were done, they were told to head further down, where the man with the large belly and muscular arms would ask them questions about what type of Altered they were, if they had any special traits, and what their speciality was.
‘I'm actually quite surprised… that most of the people here kinda suck.’ Gary thought, scratching his head because so far they had collectively witnessed seven teenagers come up, all unable to transform. The eighth one was the first who show some potential, though it was just one hand that could transform.
Still, despite the bespectacled man’s earlier claim of making them fail outright, all those that had been unable to transform, had been told to take a blood test before getting a chance to talk about their Altered.
‘I guess they must also be looking at potential. There is a good chance that some of them actually have quite a rare and powerful Altered which will grow in the future. At the same time, it's not like they are testing our physical capabilities with this test either.’ Gary thought, as he noticed that the third judge had yet to say anything, seemingly juggling his attention between his notes and the teenagers eager to prove themselves.
Fortunately, not all of them were duds. Eventually, those appeared who were able to turn their hands into deadly claws, whose eyes changed into that of reptiles, wings sprouted from their back and other abilities which were clearly inhuman.
‘Some of these Altered forms look really fascinating and powerful… but if that’s really as far as they can change, I understand why they didn’t get scouted. Still, they were at least lucky enough to get sponsored by some company. I bet those unable to transform are mostly the kids of rich families from Tier-2 cities or above.
‘ What about Xin… I wonder how far she managed to get? With her skills, she might even be joining the AFC for her debut match soon.’ Gary thought.
“Numba Coal, next!” The man in the middle shouted out the name.
The teenager who came forward was the one Gary had noticed earlier, for he was the one looking out of place due to the lack of brand clothes. As he walked up, the ones waiting were whispering snide comments about his clothing, the way he walked and his posture.
Honestly, Gary would have loved to slap all their faces. After all, he didn't have the same upbringing as the people around him. The relatively nice clothes on him were mostly because Kai had picked out his wardrobe for today and even then, he had turned down quite a few items, solely he had felt those wouldn’t suit him.
Standing in position, Numba clenched his hands and soon a change appeared on his body. It wasn't on his hands, legs, back or face like the others, instead it was on top of his head. Two large, white horns had grown out.
“Hahah, what is he, some type of Goat Altered!” One of the students pointed and laughed, with a few others joining him.
“Shut up!” Gary couldn’t take it any more. He turned around to face the one who had started all of it. “You guys have yet to go forward and demonstrate that you’re any better than all those who couldn’t even transform part of your bodies! He’s better than all of those, so how can you make fun of him?!”
Gary wasn’t sure with what kind of expectation he had coming here, but watching a group of rich teenagers make fun of somebody certainly wasn’t part of it. After experiencing all kinds of things while he had been part of the Underdogs, and even more after he and Kai had created the Howlers, their behaviour just seemed… so childish. No one around scared him, and because of that, Gary wasn’t afraid to speak up when someone annoyed him.
“The boy is right.” Professor Humfree who had been speaking so far chimed in. “None of you have earned the right to look down on your peers. You are simply here thanks to your parents or your sponsors, but the place you will be going to next, assuming you will actually be among the lucky few, none of those will be able to help you.
“You should be very careful in how you act before you have earned your place in this academy.”
After hearing these words, everyone settled down a little, and Numba was told to go on and answer the same questions as his predecessors.
“Well then, young man, let’s see whether you have the qualifications!” The man pointed at him, seemingly skipping over others, though Gary didn’t mind. Of course, the teenagers that he had told off just moments ago were scowling and staring at him. Unaware that he could hear them, they were whispering about him.
“I tell you right now, I'm going to laugh my head off, if he can’t transform after all his grandstanding. … better yet, I hope he’s also some type of lame Herbivore looking Altered.”
Ignoring those hateful comments, Gary casually pulled his sleeves back, unwilling to ruin his clothes. In an instant, he had transformed both his arms. The brown fur could be seen coming through his skin, with little parts of it falling off, almost shedding as a stronger hide appeared. At the same time, his hands became larger, with his fingernails extending into claws.
For a moment, Gary looked at the three men. Noticing that he had their full attention, he continued by making his teeth transform next, revealing four large canines, before his eyes narrowed, though without changing their colour. He had made sure to step just before that point.
“Impressive, very impressive, is that the limit of your transformation, or are you able to do more?” Humfree asked.
Gary looked at the other students who seemed to be taken aback, surprised at what had happened so far, but opening his mouth, he told a lie.
“That's my limit.” Gary answered, while walking off to the next man to answer his question.
Humfree locked eyes with his colleague and nodded, which prompted Professor Wood to look up Gary’s information and mark him as an interesting specimen.
‘Figures he isn’t one of those fancy pants who come here right after mommy and daddy sponsor them their Altered. So you’re sponsored by… the Howlers group? Don’t think I’ve ever he- no wait… wasn't there a report a while ago about the Howlers.’
Doing a quick search, Mr Wood, brought up information about Slough, and he started to find out a few things. For one, how the town was now under the control of those Howlers, a gang that had come out of seemingly nowhere. Nevertheless, that wasn’t a problem as far as that AFA was concerned. As long as those kids were powerful enough, they didn’t care who was behind them..
‘A new rising Gang, and one from a Tier-3 town. He has a lot of talent, that's for sure, and his Altered form looked vicious to say the least, but I fear that he might run into a lot of trouble if the others were to find out about this background. Those like him struggle the most in the AFA, especially if they are truly talented.’
Still, when looking through the article, there was something else that Mr Wood spotted, a certain video, about an Altered facing the Rookie champion of the AFC. Clicking on the video, there were clips of the fight online being shown.
Seeing this, and looking at Gary, a smile crept on the professor’s face.
*****
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