The day of Magixa exam finally came. Wida arrived at the Magixa exam headquarter, in a building just adjacent to the CHESS headquarter. Assistants were seen rushing around preparing items for the exam destinations. Wida nonchantantly walked into one of the halls along the corridor, which was prepared for the participants, and sat down. Her "undercover" job had officially begun.
Two minutes later, a girl walked in. She looked to be eighteen years old with a worn jeans and a blue T-shirt. She was positively radiating excitement and vitality. She spotted Wida, the only one in the room, and went up to her.
"You are so early! I thought I am going to be the first one here!" she exclaimed.
Wida smiled. "I was scared of being late. They had strict ideas on punctuality."
"Me too! I had to persuade my family many years before they let me take this exam. There's no way I am going to miss it now!" the girl said strongly.
"Many years? How old are you?" Wida asked her curiously.
"Twenty years old," the girl answered. "My name is Viviana. Yours?"
Wida considered three second before deciding to give her name. "Wida."
"Unusual name," Viviana said.
Wida only smiled. They had a little idle chat then.
Fifteen minutes later, more and more people came streaming in. About half an hour later, the hall door closed signalling the beginning of the exam. Magixa exam had no limited number of people participating but the people must be older than 13 and punctual for the exam. They are disqualified if they were late even with a reasonable excuse. This time, there were about six hundred of participants.
However, not all of them could go for the "real" Magixa exam. Each of them had to pass through the preliminary exam. Before they entered the hall, they had to fill in a form which had one hundred questions. These questions were mostly psychological and they would determine which participant to take which type of preliminary exams.
When they pass this exam, they could then all be gathered together to take on the "real" test.
One by one, the names are called out and they went to their assigned exam destination. The preliminary groups were spearated as "physical", "mental", "power", "personality" and "ambition". Wida was lucky. She was assigned to the "easiest" group, "personality".
"Personality" preliminary exam group tested on one's personality. If someone was truly evil, and was taking the Magixa license for destructive purpose, this test would kick him or her out. This test only targeted those who had no power and little physical strength but with high ambition and mentality. Wida had to pretend that she was an ordinary person so she was assumed to have no power in the exam.
Viviana was assigned into "mental" group. "If we both pass this test, we will meet again! Good luck," Viviana wished her good luck.
"Sure. Good luck," Wida blessed her as well. They left each other.
Wida went into a door marked "personality test". The rest were already gathered inside there. Wida looked around with some interest. The room was mainly empty with two small office rooms at the other end. They had no window. The participants were either nervously standing around or sitting down, or chatting with strangers excitedly.
Wida was taken aback when she saw someone familiar. Mike was among them too. Mike seemed to sense her presence as well and inclined his head slightly. He jumped a bit on seeing Wida. Wida was curious and walked straight for him.
"You are a participant too?" Mike asked her when she was beside him.
Wida nodded. Before both of them could ask more questions, a bell rang. Someone announced the room to be silent and the person called forth to enter the office room one by one. The "personality" test was an interview whereby a specialist acting as the interviewer either probed into their minds or used his or her sixth sense to determine if the participant was lying or purely honest. Wida had already blocked her mind even before entering the hall.
And thus, the preliminary exams started.
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The girl typed furiously into the computer. "How's that?"
The computer blinked for a second and then flashed purple. "Infiltration complete. Gathering Magixa exam information."
"Oh, yes! I finally succeeded. In this way I can give them a little shock and present!" The girl with the red eye grinned happily like a child with a new toy. "Tell monster 29 to get ready," she ordered the computer.
The computer beeped two times and turned red.
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About one and a half hour later, the phase one of "Personality" preliminary exam was over. Thirty one out of forty four people remained. The rest desolately left after being disqualified. Wida was of course not tested. She was summoned into the room but the specialist already knew she was an "undercover". After a few minutes, she then left the room. She was the last one to be tested.
A speaker from somewhere announced, "Phase one is done. Please go to the adjacent room for Phase two of the preliminary exam. Thank you."
Everyone started to leave and headed for it.
"Why do you want a Magixa license?" Mike asked as Wida and him left the room.
"I could ask that to you too."
"My mother is getting sicker and sicker. She needs an operation but it cost so much we don't know how many years we can earn it even if we work ourselves to the bone. I heard that the Magixa exam could help in this case," Mike said truthfully.
Wida nodded. "That's true. That's fillal of you. Wish you the best in getting it."
"You too. So why did you want it too?"
At this time, they entered the room and had no chance to talk anymore.
In Phase two of the personality prelimary exam, everyone was told to choose one of the doors lining around the walls in the room. There were twelve doors all in different colours. These doors led to other rooms and then to other rooms and so on until they reached the real "end". There were different tests in each room and they had to pass them all in order to pass the preliminary test.
Only two doors could accept more than one person, but they were also the most diffcult to pass. They were the Pink and Purple door. The rooms through the Pink and purple doors were created magically. Although the participants may pass through the same door, the room and the next room and so on were different ones. It was like a huge magical maze. This was to ensure every participants had different tests and suffficient time, without another participant interrupting him or her.
There was also a time limit to the amount of time they had to pass through the tests inside the rooms of the Pink and Purple door. Each person passing through these doors had to wait another two minutes before the next one is allowed to go in, which means lesser time for the later participants. As a result, once everyone heard of this rule, they all struggled to get the other coloured doors or be the first one to enter the Pink and Purple doors. Mike and Wida were not people who liked to fight with other and ended up as the last ones queued for the Pink door.
"You go first. Ladies come first," Mike tried to be gracious.
Wida could see and sense the anxiety and conflict in his eyes. She shook her head. "No, you go first. You have a much important reason than me."
"But..."
Wida sighed and tugged Mike in front of her. "It's fine. Really."
Mike accepted her kindness and turned to her and said, "Thank you!"
Wida only shrugged.
After what seemingly to be a long time, Mike was allowed into the Pink door.
"Are you sure you won't go first?" Mike clarified again.
"Go! Best of luck!" Wida said in exasperation.
Mike nodded. "Good luck to you too!" He left.
The purple door still had one more person lined for it. Then, he was allowed in as well. Only Wida was left behind.
One of the assistants looking after the door turned to Wida. "You can leave now. Her Majesty ordered you to go through the White door."
Wida nodded and opened the White door. Apparently, she was an exception.
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The test was surprisingly quite easy. Thanks to her power of time, she could sense the question even before the examiner asked. She thus had more than the one minute specified to think and answer the question. Many of the tests were psychological, with scenarios and diagrams, and the participant has to choose the correct answer or they failed. One even test how fast you react to a computed monster attacking someone.
Finally, Wida reached the end and passed the preliminary. She went into another great hall. this hall had lots of different doors all around it. This time, lesser people were gathered here. There seemed to be only two hundred people.
Wida was anxious to see no sign of Mike. The speaker even announced, "There are ten more minutes to go before the preliminary exam is closed. There are ten more minutes to go."
After about two more minutes, someone came through the door close to Wida.
"Oh it's you!You passed too!" Viviana said delightfully.
"Congratulation," Wida said. She wanted to smile but thinking of Mike's state, her smile was tight.
"Anything is wrong?" Viviana asked softly, seeing her tight smile.
"No, nothing really. A friend of mine hasn't pass the exam yet."
"Oh, I hope that person will come soon then!" Viviana said.
"Me too. He had such an important reason too," Wida said, visibly worried.
After a few minutes, the speaker announced, "One more minute to go! One more minute to go!"
"Oh no, there isn't any time left!" Viviana said in despair.
Wida was also upset and getting more anxious. She wondered if he had failed. Yet, she refused to accept that chance of it happening.
Suddenly, at the last five seconds, a door opened. Mike stepped out, blinking confusedly.
Wida was surprised and happy to see that he had passed. Mike saw her and gave a wave and smiled. Viviana saw that too and also waved at him.
"Your friend passed too! Thank goodness!" Viviana said happily.
"Yes," Wida smiled.
"Preliminary exam is done! Preliminary exam is done! Time for Magixa Exam!" The speaker announced loudly.
Some cheered. Everyone wondered what was next.
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