021 WHOSE PHONE IS MINE?
Damen stepped into the testing booth, unaware that Lander and Dorin were monitoring his every move from the control center.
The machine hummed to life, scanning his body with meticulous precision.
Yet the scan lingered longer than usual.
"Is there a glitch? Why is it taking so long?" someone muttered.
Damen's eyes narrowed.
"This isn't a coincidence," he thought, a flicker of unease crossing his mind.
Finally, the results began to appear—first, Strength.
"Strength: 10.0."
"Impossible! How could he have a Strength of 10?" Miss Poney shrieked from her stage, and the murmurs quickly spread among the students.
"Something's wrong with the machines!" some shouted, panic and disbelief mingling in their voices.
"Stop the machine now!" others clamored.
But Principal Dean remained calm, rising to his feet. "There is no problem with the machines. The test will continue."
The second parameter appeared:
"Meta: 10.0."
The hall erupted. "10.0 in Meta? How is that possible? Did he reach G-class in a month?"
"Is that score even possible for a middle student?"
Even Miss Poney's glasses slipped down her nose, her mind momentarily blank. She couldn't process the writing on the board—was it shock, or her farsightedness?
Principal Dean, however, beamed. "Fantastic—a genius has appeared in my school!"
He was also not surprised by the result. "Ah… no wonder. The son of the city's twin Superheroes could be nothing less."
Principal Dean recalled checking Damen's parents' Heroes Medals during the mock test.
"The medals are genuine," he remembered. "This student is a prodigy. I can brag about this for months at the weekly principal's golf meet now."
Miss Poney's emotions were conflicted.
She loathed Damen for defying and humiliating her during the mock test, yet his unprecedented score would lift her class's average.
She sank back into her chair, carefully masking any outward reaction. Neither excitement nor anger touched her expression as she processed the shock in silence.
-----
As shocking as Damen's results were, Lander and Dorin in the back of the hall hardly reacted. To the average person, a perfect 10 in Strength and Meta was extraordinary—but in their world, geniuses like this were not unheard of.
And there were many such people in this world… their meta scores could grow at rates that were extraordinary and shocking to most.
Many of these people went on to become Heroes, even Superheroes.
What caught the duo's attention wasn't Damen's aptitude score—it was his psychic energy.
The machines had been modified for this test: they measured not only basic aptitudes, but also psychic output. They were testing him to determine if he was a psychic.
"Why is his psychic energy only 0.2?" Lander asked, frowning. He had been almost convinced Damen was the serial attacker.
"The readings aren't wrong. I've double-checked the machines. Everything is functioning perfectly," Dorin said firmly.
Dorin was an investigator at the Superheroes Intelligence Agency (SIA), but her specialty wasn't fieldwork or deduction. She was the agency's mechanic—the mind behind the machines.
If she confirmed the readings, they were reliable.
Lander studied the data, his mind racing.
"Have we tested everyone in the hall yet?" he asked.
"There are still a few students who haven't been scanned," Dorin replied.
"Test them," he ordered, eyes fixed on the charts. "The psychic energy in the room is still elevated. He's here… somewhere in this hall. I have to find him."
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Despite Damen's perfect result, the hall offered no applause.
Shock and disbelief hung heavy in the air. A few students—too prejudiced to accept the impossible—whispered among themselves, their mutters edged with resentment.
Damen didn't care.
He walked straight toward Mikey. "My phone?"
Mikey handed it over, frowning. "Here it is. But seriously… why did you even bring it into the test hall? The signal from a phone can interfere with the machines."
Damen accepted it with a faint smile. "I don't have a locker to keep it," he replied simply.
Before stepping up for the test, Damen turned back and placed the phone into Mikey's hand. "Hold onto this for me."
Mikey was confused, but took it.
Before the test Damen was terrified. He had a bad feeling about the test.
The devices lining the hall were far too elaborate—far beyond anything he'd expected from a school exam. A sliver of caution crept in.
If there was even a remote chance this was a trap meant to expose the powers of his mining app, he couldn't afford to be careless.
And then it struck him.
His phone.
As long as the phone remained on him, there was a risk, however small, that the powers inside could be discovered.
He saw only one solution. He handed the phone to Mikey.
With the phone no longer in his possession, whatever secrets it held, they couldn't be uncovered if the device wasn't on him.
Then he returned to Mikey.
"By the way, middle school's over. You should return the school phone and get a new one," Mikey reminded him.
"Damn it… I forgot the phone is not really mine," Damen muttered.
He couldn't keep the school's phone. It was school property, not his.
Then a solution struck him. "I'll claim I lost it and pay for the replacement. The school can't force me to hand over my own phone", he thought.
With that settled, Damen followed the other students out of the hall once testing concluded.
-----
"Has everyone been tested?" Lander asked Dorin.
She nodded. "All students have been scanned. Except for the principal and teachers, of course. Do you want to test them too?"
Lander shook his head. "No. We've already gone too far by secretly installing psychic scanners here. I don't want to stir trouble with the school…and with the SIA—That bastard Ambrone wouldn't like it."
"Yeah, he definitely wouldn't," Dorin agreed as she began preparing to uninstall the machines.
Lander' eyes stayed glued to the screen—and then he froze. "Wait. We don't need to test the principal or teachers after all. This has nothing to do with them."
"Why do you say that?" Dorin asked, curious.
"The psychic energy in the hall has vanished. Yet the principal and teachers are still here," he explained.
"So… the cause of the psychic must be among the students?" Dorin asked.
Lander shook his head slowly.
"It's not so simple," he thought. This puzzle was trickier than he'd anticipated, even for him.
-----
Damen headed straight for the school's administrative office.
"Hi, I'm here to report a lost phone," he told a staff member behind the counter.
"Name?" she asked without even looking up.
"Damen Dark."
She rifled through the records and pulled out a file. "Damen Dark, huh…"
"I can pay for the replacement," Damen added, trying to sound apologetic.
Then she looked up…and froze. Damen's charm hit her like a wave. Her expression softened, her previous indifference vanishing instantly.
"Actually… your lost phone was found and returned to Lost and Found. Since you didn't claim it, we sent it back to the store," she said, her voice tinged with surprise.
"You found my phone? When?" he asked, astonished.
"About a month ago," she replied casually.
Damen's eyes narrowed. "If the school already has my phone… then what's this damn phone in my jacket? How did it get here?"
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