The test that followed can only be described as a humiliation.
A complete slap in the face.
Cyntia and Ryan stared at each other at the infirmary door.
"Are you already finished?" Cyntia said with a trembling voice, to which Ryan slowly shook his head.
"Of course not." Ryan smiled like a demon.
If the first test favored those who had time to accumulate knowledge and the second favored those who had money to pay for a language teacher. The third test, ironically, favored misery and poverty.
Ryan was born and raised in a poor household, if he broke a bone falling down the stairs in the ruins of their building or broke a bone playing with other children.
Nothing would be done.
They had no money to pay for a doctor, so Ryan would not be treated.
Or rather, Ryan would not be treated by a doctor.
His father, however, knew everything about nursing, making a doctor unnecessary in almost every imaginable scenario. In his father’s words, any idiot can make a splint.
He also said something similar when Ryan was bitten by a venomous snake while they were camping, any idiot knows how to treat venomous bites.
Obviously, if any idiot knows, Ryan was made to learn.
Ryan could act as a nurse without any difficulty, being overqualified.
But this didn’t apply only to nursing.
Ryan remembered when he got a laptop, the computer in question came from the junkyard and it didn’t take more than a few days for it to stop working.
Ryan’s father then approached and said, any idiot can fix a computer.
When the building’s electricity failed he quickly called Ryan and said: "Look, if we wait for help we’ll be without light all day, so grab the flashlight and help me fix it."
Another day, their tall cabinet simply came loose from the wall and fell to the floor, that same day the damn old man grabbed some boards he found in the trash, got some screws, and called Ryan: "You damn brat! Come here, we need to build new furniture."
Even when they were without food instead of thinking like a normal person, his father would sigh deeply before shouting loudly:
"You damn brat! Choose, it’s about eighty kilometers to the river while the forest is only sixty-five. If we go to the river, we can catch some fish and roast them over the fire. If we go to the forest there’s a chance we’ll find a boar. What would you rather hunt or fish?"
The question was the biggest lie Ryan had ever seen, if he said hunt his father would insist on eating fish, if he said fish his father would say fishing is boring and that he was craving pork.
Ryan hated every second of it, his father also wasn’t exactly the most patient teacher. Even so, years later. Ryan wasn’t exactly an ordinary person.
While other humans learned to depend on each other and on money. Ryan learned to live a life in which the only thing he depended on to survive were his own two hands.
Not surprisingly, he knew how to do many things.
He had a lot of technical knowledge.
Nursing, Electronics, Carpentry these were just a few that could be mentioned. Ryan knew how to assemble a modern house by himself as long as he had the materials.
And the third test provided all the materials.
Points and more extra points were added up quickly.
He wasn’t satisfied until he proved he knew a little bit of everything.
"Director... shouldn’t we stop him?" Ryan was now performing maintenance on a computer with clear calm, even humming. "He’s already passed anyway..."
Cyntia watched that, bringing her hand to her forehead before sighing. "Ryan, enough..."
"No, just a bit more. I also know how to sew, you know sometimes my clothes would tear and I had to fix them." Cyntia shuddered hearing that.
"No, please." Cyntia started to turn pale.
"Ah yes, and after this I have to show my knowledge of jewelry." He said in passing. "It turns out that in riverbeds it’s quite easy to find some geodes and precious stones, I used to sell them to eat something besides fish."
"Enough.... For everything that is holy. I’ll give you the maximum score, just please stop." Cyntia almost begged.
To which Ryan looked back at her and said:
"But that wouldn’t be fair to the other participants, I need to earn every point." He went back to fixing the computer. "It would be very unfair to them."
He continued recalling every bit of knowledge he possessed. Poverty had taught him many things, that’s why his father insisted so much on that ridiculous performance.
For the first time, Ryan was grateful to the damn old man for that.
Cyntia was almost crying.
Aron beside her, swallowed hard before saying. "Ryan... they gave the maximum score. Let’s move to the next test soon." Ryan sighed.
"If you say so." Ryan immediately stopped what he was doing, the instructor beside him watched in terror as the computer turned on again.
The vast majority of the parts were in ruins and even so, Ryan performed some dark magic to bring the computer back to life.
"What’s left now?"He asked.
Cyntia looked at him again. "Physical and mental test..." in a short time they entered a gym.
The instructor soon stepped forward. "To begin, let’s assess your strength on the bench press."
Ryan nodded, he had never been in a gym before so he looked around at the scenery with curiosity.
"Oh, so this is what a gym is like." He murmured before then asking the instructor. "How does one do a bench press?"
The instructor soon sighed before guiding him to a bench with a bar attached above it.
"Repeat after me." He sat down, grabbed the suspended bar before making the correct movement. "Now you do it." Ryan nodded.
"Ah, I forgot! if you want to change clothes there’s a changing room right there..." Ryan frowned, but then shrugged and did as instructed, putting on athletic clothes.
He had never worn clothes like these.
The clothing felt extremely tight against his body, making him uncomfortable. Even so, instructed by Aron he left the changing room without looking for a larger size. And when he came out, dozens of pairs of eyes fixed on him.
"damn it..." Cyntia cursed under her breath.
The gym around them, obviously, was full of people unrelated to the test just like the library.
In that instant, those running on the treadmill forgot to run while those pulling weights simply let go, being dragged by force.
Ryan caught the attention of all of them.
His thin body had never drawn attention before, after all, Ryan always wore long, comfortable clothes that covered almost all of his skin.
But in that instant, the kind of life he had lived up until then became quite clear.
His body was thin, but the muscles were extremely defined. Bearers of a genuinely terrifying strength for someone so young.
"Let me try." Ryan sat down to do the bench press and soon grabbed the bar with a hundred kilos on each side.
"Hey! Wait a second kid!" The instructor shouted. "You’re going to hurt yourself."
Ryan ignored the noise and soon lifted the bar and pulled it to his chest with ease, feeling the weight with calm and tranquility.
The instructor watched in shock as Ryan controlled the weight with mastery.
However, he soon murmured. "Too light..."
He raised and lowered the bar quickly to prove his words, leaving the onlookers speechless in admiration.
"Let’s go up by a hundred kilos each time." Ryan said gesturing to the wide-eyed instructor.
"As... you wish." He said breathlessly.