Chapter 40: Crown Plaza
At long last, the tests were over. Everyone standing in the loose crowd of candidates had made it to the end, had qualified after so much suffering and tension.
Yet, the atmosphere was far from happy. Many of the young men and women were still in shock from what they'd endured, especially the most recent process of being hunted down like game.
Alexandre, for his part, felt disappointed by Professor Hart's speech. She hadn't explained anything he'd actually wanted to know—there'd been no mention of the Aurora system, for example, which was a biotechnological program which somehow allowed Hunters to control the evolution of their abilities.
In fact, gaining access to Aurora had been Alexandre's main reason for participating in the game that was the Hunter Exams. While it was simple to get ahold of Hunter items on the black market if you had enough money for it—and it was, of course, possible to get an injection of modified Virus Z this same way—it was completely impossible to obtain a functioning version of the Aurora system or a license for it.
Despite all sorts of other things making their way onto the black market, the Hunter Association had managed to keep a tight grip on Aurora licenses which would allow someone to access it legally, as well as any properly functioning bootleg versions of Aurora.
And because Aurora was required to control the evolution of the Z Virus, even getting a proper dose of the SGC variant was useless on its own—at best, like driving a car without fuel. At worst, it was deadly, like stepping into a burning building without a fire suit.
Alexandre wondered if this same tight-lipped security was the reason nobody had mentioned Aurora to the candidates before now. Everyone knew that Hunters were biologically evolved humans as a result of being injected with the modified Virus Z, but very few knew the exact mechanism behind that biological evolution—and the fact that the Hunters themselves could control their own growth.
But Alexandre's thoughts were interrupted when someone grabbed his shoulder and said, "Yo, man!"
Alexandre turned to find Marlon standing there and grinning. Alexandre, pleased to see him, said, "I see you made it too! Congratulations."