Chapter 188 - The Complicated Third Phase

"We'll be using a low leveled brain inducer to send you all to that space. Therefore, it's not going to be above what your age group can handle... It's a virtual space, but at the same time, everything will be real except for what we want to portray as fake... The rest will be up to you," Gradier Xanatus voiced out.

'Low level brain inducer eh?' Gustav contemplated after hearing Gradier Xanatus's explanation, 'I hope this doesn't end up being troublesome,'

The participants still had lots of questions and looks of wariness, but they knew that the explanation wouldn't be more than this.

Zing! Zing! Zing! Zing! Zing!

The hall brightened up as participants began to disappear from their seating positions one after the other.

Gustav also disappeared along with them in a few seconds. When the light surrounding him disappeared, he found himself in a hall that was larger than every space the participants had been in so far.

It wasn't really a hall. It looked more like a lab because tub-like machines could be seen in rows and columns that extended as far as the eyes could see.

A glass wall could be seen seven hundred feet above on the right side of the wall.

Within the glass walls, five people could be seen dressed like Gradier Xanatus.

Two women and three men within the glass walls were dressed in orange uniforms with black stripes.

They had authoritative looks on their faces.

One of them, with a rhino horn on his forehead, folded his arms with a frown on his face. He looked down at the participants who kept appearing within the laboratory.

They all had their different ways of standing that looked quite menacing.

Gradier Xanatus stood in their midst. He looked quite tame compared to the rest of them with his hands locked behind his back.

"Find the pod that has your number on it," Gradier Xanatus said, his voice traveling through the large laboratory-like room.

More than a thousand participants were moving around the place at the moment.

The participants from Gustav's batch could see a lot of unrecognizable faces.

They instantly understood that these were the participants from other batches that had tests on separate floors.

The participants began to find their pods one after the other. Gradier Xanatus instructed this set of participants to go in next.

Tsshhh! Tsshhh! Tsshhh!

The pods opened up, and they entered it to lie down. It closed back immediately after that, and a red bar appeared above every pod that had been closed up.

Inside, the participants could only see blue and green glowing lines across the smooth surface within the pod.

Surprisingly they could still hear Gradier Xanatus's voice inside the pod. However, it wasn't coming in sound waves. Instead, it was resounding in their minds.

Giving them some other instructions and reminding them what this is all about

Gustav was already inside his. Being inside the pod reminded him of when he used to sleep in a bathtub.

Gustav smiled, 'I wonder what happened to that bathtub now? Maybe they put it away...'

Gustav wasn't really bothered by the pod reminding him of such times within his former household. He had gotten so used to sleeping inside the hard tub that he didn't feel uncomfortable lying down inside the pod.

The same couldn't be said for a lot of other participants who kept turning their bodies because they weren't comfortable within the pod.

Gradier Xanatus stopped talking and wished the participants good luck as the pod began to function.

The red bar that appeared on top of everyone's pod started filling up, and in a matter of a few seconds, it filled up completely.

Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting!

The red bar turned green, and the participants felt their consciousness being pulled out of them.

Their head turned woozy, and before they knew it, they had lost consciousness.

After a few seconds, they opened their eyes and found themselves in an unfamiliar world blazing with green and yellow fire.

Gradier Xanatus and the rest of the other supervisors stared at the large lab and watched as the bars on their pods turned green.

"Looks like it will be starting soon. Let's get the projection of the furry world up here," One of the supervisors, who happened to be a lady with blue hair all over her face, said.

Trooinn!

A holographic projection appeared in front of them that displayed a world blazing with green and yellow fire.

They could see the participants appearing all over the place, one after the other on the projection.

"Sir Xanatus... Do you think there might be any special class material among these lots?" One of the supervisors with green worm-like hairs asked.

"Don't be ridiculous Valgus, do you think a candidate with the potential of being special class will appear here?" The man with a Rhino horn dismissed with a deep tone.

"I think someone like that has appeared already," Gradier Xanatus answered with a mischievous smile.

-"What?"

-"Amongst them?"

-"Impossible!"

Three of the supervisors voiced out at the same time.

"Why would th..." The supervisor with a Rhino horn was speaking when the female supervisor with blue facial hair interrupted.

"Sir Xanatus... There seems to be a dysfunctional pod over there," She pointed at the western part of the lab.

"Huh?"

The four of them turned to the side and stared at the direction she was pointing in.

Among the thousands of pods with a green bar on them, a particular one still glowed red.

"Hmm? Check what's going on with that pod," Gradier Xanatus instructed.

One of them nodded and proceeded to jump through the glass wall.

Zwooon!

The supervisor's body phased through the glass and traveled across the air for several thousand feet before landing in front of the said pod.

"It says, unable to initialize brain waves," The supervisor voiced out.

Although he was more than a thousand feet away, they understood what he was saying. However, they were confused by that statement.

"I'll call for the maintenance tech team to check up on it," The other female supervisor with black flowing hair voiced out.

"Hmm, I don't think there's any need for that," Gradier Xanatus said and gestured for the supervisor with a rhino horn to open up the pod.

Tsshhh!

The pod opened up, and a boy with blond hair could be seen lying within it.

'Ah damn, I had a feeling that this was gonna happen,'