Kill the Sun - Chapter 562

Chapter 562 – Categories

The test consisted of 50 questions pulled from a pool of thousands.

While Nick had been able to answer the first question, he quickly realized he might have been lucky.

'Well, biology isn't my strong suit,' Nick thought.

This test was about the biology of not only humans but also animals and plants.

Nick knew a lot about human biology, but he knew almost nothing about the other two.

After a while, Nick answered all the questions, and he immediately got his score.

'15 out of a hundred,' he thought. 'How did I even get an odd score with an even number of total questions? Do I get half points for partially correct answers, or do the questions give a different number of points?'

'Nevertheless, that's not even close to getting a point.'

Someone could earn up to three points per test based on the score.

30 out of a hundred gave one point.

60 gave two.

90 gave three.

There was no reward for getting a hundred percent, and the manual made that very clear.

The reason was that going from 90 to 100 points was far too much work for little benefit, and that was not what Aegis wanted from their trainees.

After someone reached 90 points, they should get to the next level and try to get 30 there.

Sometimes, perfection was not a good thing because it could cannibalize efficiency.

When he finished the test, Nick checked the other categories.

'Luckily, that was my worst field from all the ones here,' Nick thought. 'Might as well go with my second worst.'

Then, Nick clicked on Zephology.

Zephology was the study of Zephyx and Prephyx and how they interacted with the world.

One would expect that a former CZE would know a lot about Zephology, but that was actually not true.

Zephology was mainly about combining Zephyx with materials to create machines or equipment.

This was something for engineers and inventors like Ghosty.

Nick knew a bit about this, but not a lot.

However, when Nick saw his score, he was surprised.

'52 points?' Nick thought. 'That test was far easier than I expected. Sure, I only got 52 points, but that's my second worst category.'

'Am I just that bad at biology, or is this test just far easier?'

Nick shook his head. 'Doesn't matter. I'll just get to the next one.'

Next was physics, and Nick completed the test relatively quickly.

'74 points,' Nick thought with raised brows. 'These tests are far easier than I thought.'

After finishing three tests, Nick had already gained three points.

The number of points he could earn from here was crazy.

'Next, history,' Nick thought.

As he answered the questions, Nick realized that almost all questions referred to the current era.

There were just three questions that tangentially related to the past eras.

'28 points,' Nick thought with annoyance. 'I don't know a lot about history from this era.'

Instead of choosing the next category, Nick opened the level two test from history and was quickly confronted with a question about the Suffering Ones.

Nick was confident in psychology due to his troubles over the decades and his job.

Naturally, as CZE and Liaison, he had to know how people thought and how they would react.

However, Nick encountered a problem with the questions.

'Many of these questions are asking about words for specific actions and thinking patterns. I know what they all do, but I've never officially learned them, which means I don't know the correct terminology for most of these things.'

In the end, Nick only got 68 points.

Nevertheless, he went to the second level, but it didn't get any better.

42 points.

Yet, Nick still attempted the third level, and he was positively surprised.

48 points!

The reason for the score was that the third level mostly gave complex scenarios and asked Nick to predict what certain people would do and why.

Essentially, the third level wasn't asking about the terms but tested the trainees actual experience in the field and if they had properly understood the concepts.

'The first time I got points from the third level,' Nick thought.

Then, Nick looked at the four remaining categories.

His four best categories.

'Mathematics!'

Nick had learned a lot about mathematics inside the Big Brain Slug's labyrinth.

However, as Nick started to answer the questions, he took longer and longer.

The reason was that there were no easy ways to solve these equations.

At least, according to his knowledge.

'It's very possible that there are ways to simplify these equations, but I don't know them. I have to calculate all of them the hard way.'

In essence, Nick had to come up with his own way of solving these equations, which put a lot of pressure on his mind.

Hours passed.

Days passed.

Yet, halfway through the test, Nick clicked on cancel, destroying all of his efforts.

'I can't waste so much time just on math,' he thought with frustration. 'I actually have to earn points to stay here. I can deal with the math in my free time.'

So, Nick went to the next category.

Leadership.

Leadership was a field mixed from many different fields.

Psychology, economics, warfare, history.

Nick charged through the questions, not even needing to think about the answer.

'100, 80, 64,' Nick thought while reading his scores for the three levels.

Nick had been in charge of other people for his entire adult life, and he had managed an entire company while it was growing more and more powerful.

Even on the third level, he had been certain of almost all of his answers, and he believed that most of the cases in the third test were based on opinion rather than objective truth.

His score wasn't high enough to earn all of the points, but he also didn't believe that he was wrong.

'Two more categories,' Nick thought before looking at the next category.

He had to suppress a smirk of confidence.

Wasn't this the thing he had dealt with for the past five years?

'Economics.'