Dylan's numbers displayed and even the rich kids felt too inferior.
[1300kg]
"Bruh wtf, how is that even possible? The machine must be broken or something!"
"This can't be right, he can't be that strong, right? He isn't even from a martial arts family…"
"He just hit 10x the average in strength, must be due to his talent or faulty mechanical work…"
…
Students' words resounded, signaling disbelief among the audience.
Even the professor was shocked upon seeing this, thinking he was glad he didn't leave too early because he wouldn't have gotten to witness this.
Dylan walked back with a smug expression.
"Haha, did you see that Andrew? That's what you call real talent!"
"Yea yea, whatever you say. You barely utilized the tip I gave you, you could've hit just above 1500kg I bet if you trusted your body's durability more." Andrew chimed back, but with a slight smile showing he was proud of his friend's results.
"It is what it is, even at home I only managed to score about 900kg. I'll take what I can get, this will be enough to boost me into the genius class!"
Dylan had a cheerful expression, he knew however this was really all he was gonna excel at.
He knew he was decently well rounded, but his talent and the slight technique shift really shot up his performance this time around. He knew he wasn't gonna get as fortunate in the next tests.
Just then the professor said the next name.
"Andrew Clancy! Please come up!"
Andrew took a deep breath to focus himself, before dapping up his friend and making his way to the front.
"Good luck bro! You got this!"
Andrew smiled at Dylan and nodded his head.
Along the way to the front there were a few whispers from some of the girls in his class.
"Andrew… didn't he get more good looking compared to yesterday?"
"Yea now that you mention it he's a real hottie, no less than those kids from powerful families…"
"Even his physique looks rock solid, but didn't he awaken nothing yesterday?"
"Yea, unfortunately he's meant to be average in the grand scheme of things, truly unfortunate…"
Hearing his name buzzing around in the air, Andrew felt a bit of confidence, he was gonna try and show out a little bit on this test and do somewhat mediocre on the others.
"Of course though, I can't use my full power as to not raise suspicion… maybe I should hit with a light little 900kg? That's a good number. Not the highest, but not the lowest and still within feasible ranges for an average person…"
Andrew faced the plate that looked a little intimidating standing in front of it.
"Feel free to go whenever you're ready, but don't be too disappointed by your results… you'll make a fantastic construction worker with that body of yours." The proctor said, slightly pissing off Andrew.
"Please, a construction worker? Who the hell do you think I am? I'll never end up as just that, not in this life…" Andrew thought, before taking a few deep breaths to relax himself.
He was gonna try and use pure technique over strength for this. He didn't have access to some crazy martial arts yet, but he knew enough about force transfer from his past life and understanding the physics of the human body and the world.
"Okay…" he thought, "just a little love tap…"
Andrew in a split second got into position and then threw a deadly accurate punch right towards the center, torquing his entire body from his feet and his hips at one time, pushing into the ground with his back leg and slightly leaning his bodyweight forward into his fist.
As soon as he came into contact with the panel though, he knew there was a problem…
He had forgotten to hold back his strength!
"Oh shi-"
Andrew's fist came into contact with the panel, creating a devastating sound of reverberation that caused a slight shockwave to resound throughout the crowd.
It wasn't anything inconceivable, but he noticed a problem immediately.
He had accidentally punched through the testing panel!
Everyone looked at Andrew like they had seen a ghost, even his good friend Dylan was completely starstruck.
"Does talent mean nothing in front of this guy?!" He thought to himself, slightly dejected.
However, Andrew was even more startled, he didn't expect to punch through it like it was a piece of cardboard.
The proctor seeing this also couldn't believe his eyes, he shared the same shocked expression as the rest of the crowd.
Nobody said anything, it became so silent you could hear a pin drop.
Before anyone could say anything however, Andrew quickly spoke up to try and cover this mistake.
"Ahem, professor, I accidentally might have hit the same spot as Dylan, I think he created a weak point and when I hit it the stored residual kinetic energy burst out… can you replace the test panel so I can retest?"
The proctor suddenly came back to life, as well as the other students.
"Yes… yes that does make sense, how else could that have happened? It's scientifically plausible anyway…"
"Okay, I'll be right back from the storage room and you can retest." The proctor quickly ran to the other room and got a replacement panel.
The thing about this alloy was it was only built to withstand a maximum of 2000kg, the proctor, in order to preserve his sanity, quickly self-justified it as too short of a time in between Dylan and Andrew, and the residual energy from kinetic energy dispersion hadn't completely cleared yet.
Upon retrieving the new alloy panel and setting it up, Andrew quickly retested and hit a perfect 900kg.
The proctor heaved what seemed to be a sigh of relief, his ego didn't want to justify anything else other than the first possibility.
"Very nice Andrew, my apologies for what happened before, I should've held off a bit longer before calling you up."
"It's alright professor, it happens. I knew something was up when it felt like I hit a cheap martial arts gimmick board haha."
"Yea that was due to my negligence; but you did very well this time around. Depending on how you do in other tests you might have a chance at becoming a martial artist."
"Thank you for the kind words, I shall go back now."
Upon finishing up the lighthearted discussion, Andrew felt a big sense of relief.
He had been so focused on his technique he forgot to control his strength, a rookie mistake he pondered.
The students' words could be heard discussing what just happened.
Everyone else was justifying what happened in their own narratives as well following the professor, in order to protect their identity as awakeners.
"At least humans are still just as predictable in this life…"
Andrew quickly sat down next to his friend Dylan, who once again had a cheery expression.
"That one scared me a bit! I thought you actually broke the testing machine for a second, I got real worried for my own sanity…"
"Yea I wish I was that strong, maybe one day though…"
"You're more well rounded than me, so you should be able to get into a martial arts class no problem if your strength's that much. You must've taken some secret medicine to boost your strength."
"Haha, the world may never know Dylan, in due time the truth always prevails…"
….
Andrew, after settling the scores, started talking nonsense again with his friend, however he didn't realize a very certain someone had their eye on him…
"Master, is he really that strong? That didn't seem like a fluke."
"Hmmm, I could tell he exploded with a dangerous momentum for a second. Still but an ant in my eyes, but he's got more potential than he lets on…"
"I see, maybe it'd be best to make connections with this person then."
______