After parting ways with Lozen, Shindo found the exam room relatively quickly. Nevertheless, Lozen’s words confused the former gadgetsmith. What exactly did she mean by average? Why not choose someone from the top? If he entered a top team, wouldn't that guarantee his career in some way or another?

Still, Shindo didn’t have time to think about those words. He quickly brushed these doubts aside as he was called along with three other aspiring heroes to take his exam. He couldn't bother to remember any of their names. No, scratch that. Shindo didn’t pay attention to that as his attention was stolen by the enormous room.

The room was massive and square-like. The white high ceiling and the thick looking walls looked almost scientific in nature, as if they did scientific tests here. However, the truly impressive thing was that the room had enough space to fit five to six small three-story houses, but currently the space was being used for four small two-story houses. How much budget did HOC invest in the exam?!?!?

"Are you Wattz?" A voice called to him. Shindo turned around to see two heroes approaching him side by side. The one on Shindo’s left was someone he recognized as one of the two heroes that fought Lozen earlier this morning. His boyish features were elevated by his grey and yellow spandex, but his black mask contrasted poorly with his costume. There was a simple patch on his neck, where Lozen had hit him earlier that morning.

The other one was a new hero that wore a simple grey hoodie with a black outline. The hoodie's black outline matched with the black mask he wore, along with a sort of black under armor and a giant "XIII" logo that went from his right shoulder to his left rib. The hoodie was sleeveless, showing off his toned arms. His left shoulder had a simple tattoo with the words "clover 7.2.58", while on his right arm he had a silver bracelet clasped between his shoulder and his elbow.

'Ah, the examiners,' Shindo thought. He didn't fail to notice that there was a weird air of hostility between them.

"Sorry for being late." Shindo apologized while scratching his head. "I got lost in the center."

"Wattz, I think you are mistaken. You are right on time." The hero in the grey hoodie slightly grinned.

"I can understand why many of the newbies don't enter in time. It's just like some people I know." The other one in the yellow spandex sarcastically said.

The grey hoodie hero’s ginned wryly at that small jab, but he let it pass while he handed Shindo a clipboard.

"Please verify that the information presented here is correct, and then we'll proceed with the exam briefing."

Shindo gave it a quick skim while checking that most of his personal info remained incognito. His power was set as an "Undetermined Enhanced Archetype" much to his dismay.

He gave the information one last skim and nodded with satisfaction. Shindo then handed the clipboard back to the hero with the grey hoodie, casually set it down on a nearby table.

"Alright then, Wattz, I'm Yata. The guy over there is Batoon." Yata said, while barely acknowledging Batoon. The other hero crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. They both glared at each other until Yata pointed to a house behind him. It was a simple two-story house with simple-looking windows and a wooden door. He then started pacing, waving his fingers like a pointer.

"This is your exam: A typical hostage situation that could happen anywhere in the outskirts of the city. One of us examiners will act as your "helper" to save hostages from the rigged house. The other examiner will act as a "villain" to try and stop you from doing so. It is key to note that the place is rigged with arsine gas, and it will activate when the time limit, 40 minutes, goes off." Yata took a stopwatch from his hoodie pocket and showed it to Shindo.

Batoon then took it from there. "For this exam, you have two clear conditions. The first one is obligatory: you have to get to the hostages and save them by any means necessary. You will do so with the help of the ill-fated Nyan cat over there."

Yata smiled wryly at this. "The second one, and this one is optional, is for you and you only to immobilize the 'villain' by any means necessary. I bet the audience seeing us would like this though, since it would be far more entertaining to end the fight defeating one of the esteemed Mortars."

A vein popped in Batoon's forehead.

"Yes, Wattz, and make sure not to get distracted by feathers or bugs..." Yata gritted his teeth at Batoon's remark.

"Oi! That was once," Yata muttered, but then a cat-like grin spread through his lips. "But hey! As long as you're not a seven-year-old man doing cosplay, you'll do amazing in the test!"

Batoon raised an eyebrow. "So, they don't call you a groomer just because of the kitten thing, eh?"

"Speak for yourself, you mismatched, creepy-ass, reject seventies cartoon!"

Sparks were flying between them as a sigh almost escaped Shindo’s lip. They were starting to annoy him.

Batoon was about to reply to Yata's snarky comment, yet the latter cut him off before he could start, grinning at Shindo insincere politeness.

"Are there any questions?"

"Yes," Shindo answered. "Is the arsine gas real?"

"Ask the wanna-be Poison Ivy over there," Yata pointed at Batoon, who responded with a glare and then looked back at Shindo. At least, Yata's sarcastic remark gave Shindo the idea that it wasn't real. However, this didn't stop him from being frustrated at their back and forth.

"What is the number of hostages?" Shindo asked a new question, hoping he got a serious answer.

Thankfully, Yata answered thoughtfully. "Exactly 3. They will be together in one of the rooms of the house"

Shindo found this to be both good and bad. Since Yata would be his helper, Yata could carry two while Shindo carried one hostage. The best part of this plan was that Shindo could alternate between offensive and support roles. However, the hostages being together meant that Batoon could quickly "kill" one of the hostages. In the worst case scenario, Shindo could try to carry all three of them.

“Do you have any more questions?” Batoon asked, breaking Shindo’s concentration

"Do I have any time to prepare? If I do, when will this prep time start?"

Batoon eyed a watch on his left wrist. "You have exactly five and a half minutes, and it starts when I inform the furry over here that I'm in position. Is that all?"

Shindo smiled coldly, sending a message to the two of them to stop it. Both of them flinched as Shindo opened his mouth. "No. One last question. Can I check the perimeter within my preparation time?"

Yata looked at him with a relaxed expression. "Yes, you can. As long as you don't tamper with anything. Any more questions?"

"Thanks. I have no more questions." Batoon then entered the house through the front door. After a few minutes, Yata pointed towards the house with his right thumb, signaling to Shindo that his five minutes had started.

The ex-villain quickly dashed to inspect the house. At first glance, the house seemed familiar. It resembled a typical yet simple looking two story house, with a wooden door, some typical red brick walls, a tiled ceiling, and simple looking windows. He could see several piano wires on the tiled roof, so Shindo assumed this would notify the "villain" if they approached him from the top. Plus, the house didn't have a big chimney, so that left Shindo with two possible entrance options: The door, and do a frontal attack, or one of the many first floor windows where he could try and get some high ground or try for a sneaky approach.

He continued walking around the house and took mental notes of many different things. The inside of the house had little to no furnishing, which was good for Shindo. There was more space for fighting, and it could help him with his escape. The walls on the other hand, looked like they had a poor foundation, so Shindo assumed that the terrain was unstable. There was also a window in the back that had cracks on the glass, which could be a possible sneaky entrance, but that could be a trap set by the examiners. Shindo took note of it, but he kept it on the back burner for now.

"You have three minutes remaining!" Yata shouted.

There wasn't anything else Shindo thought was relevant about the house, so he decided to get a better look at his 'partner' Yata. He didn't notice it at first, but Yata was more cat-like at a closer look. His mask seemed to have a night vision function, with how it emulated a cat's eye color. To top off the vague cat motif he had going on, his hoodie had two cat ears attached. There was also a vaguely familiar silver bracelet on his left wrist that intrigued Shindo. Where had he seen it before?

What worried Shindo, though, was that Yata seemed unarmed. How was he going to fight? Maybe he would use his powers? From his looks alone, Yata appeared to have a cat-like ability, but how could that aid Shindo with his exam? Maybe Yata didn't use his powers like him, or perhaps he fought with martial arts. Who knew?

"Please, Wattz, believe me when I tell you to choose someone average at what he does and knows of the hero world. Do not pick someone... someone without accomplishments."

Lozen's words resounded in his mind as he started his gadget set up. He still couldn't understand what that cold woman tried to tell him, yet the sadness in her voice intrigued Shindo. The more he gave them thought, the more profound they sounded. Yet no matter; he shouldn't dwell too much or risk losing prep time.

"You have ninety seconds remaining!" Yata shouted.

Shindo didn't mind those words and started his final loadout. First thing first was that he couldn’t use any flame gadgets. He was dealing with a flammable gas here, and even if it wasn't a real threat, he suspected that HOC would deduct points for risking civilian. So that discarded a third of his controllers.

Hurriedly, Shindo released his gadget belt. He dropped it on the floor, which led to his gadgets sprawling out of it. Slowly, He started setting them in order on the floor, grinning at the bundle of metal darts. He put them all back in one of the more accessible pockets.

His eyes then set on three metallic-blue pyramids with the letters RTC on one face and three other more neutral-looking controllers similar to the one he used against Pyro. These six would be more useful to him; they weren’t that risky to use. He stashed them all with his darts.

"You have 30 seconds remaining!" Yata announced.

Shindo calmly organized the rest of the gadgets, separating them from the most useful to the most useless. Only when he made sure that they all were in an orderly and accessible fashion, did Shindo start adjusting his belt while walking towards Yata.

"You ready for your exam, Wattz?" He said as Shindo finally put on his gadget belt.

"Am I?" Shindo asked with a grin.

"If you're this cheeky, then yes, you are more than ready," Yata sighed.

Shindo's grin deepened as he spun his neck around.

"Let's get this over with."

Yata nodded and turned serious. Then, both of them walked towards the house. Shindo's exam had officially started.