It would be a long couple weeks of what feels like the same day over and over again without any sense of diversity. This was something Rohan had gotten used to over the course of his life, as he never found any particular problem with how mundane his life was, if anything he found it advantageous since it meant his schedule would be easier to follow and he'd know what to expect.
However, now without the unique dose of chaos that his friends brought, there was never an interesting conversation or humorous act, thus there was never a sense of diversity in any day since those who brought such diversity were no longer there.
What was one a hindrance to him now felt like a necessity, and without it, his life felt far more bleak than it ever did even if it only returned to how it was always like.
One of the operational elevator pads descends down to the lobby floor of the dorm building, appearing farther back in the overall shaft system as each of the pads have their own individual shafts. As the pad plummets towards the ground, it becomes noticeable that the glass casing leading to the ground has been replaced by an energy shield with a soft frost blue hue.
In fact, as the pad touches the ground, there seems to be a great crowd standing in front of the lobby, as there are hovering flatbeds carrying piles of debris beside adult staff. It seems that after the long night, the school was recovering from the damages after the confrontation in the elevator, which left everyone confused, especially since all the power was cut and thus nobody was able to acquire information on what had happened.
None of the staff nor students knew what caused such destruction, as all they could do was clean and contemplate in confusion.
There only seems to be one passenger on the landing pod, with that passenger being Rohan, who stands by the edge with his hands deep in the pockets of his varsity jacket. He seems to wear a weary expression as his eyes are hardly open, staring at the ground rather than the lobby in front.
He steps off of the pad and steps onto the lobby floor, where he silently walks past the debris and students. Of all the people in the lobby, he seems the least interested in the scene, as he maneuvers past students who all face the same direction. He doesn't observe their expressions, however he knows it's of shock and surprise, for he was the only one who knew what really happened on that elevator.
It seems that the blood had already been cleaned, and the main pad was already transported away, leaving only the pieces of debris from the crash remaining. It's not confirmed what the reactions were of the giant puddles of blood, but they were likely that of horror and disgust, for such a violent image wasn't expected to be in the campus.
The students standing in the lobby to witness the recovery likely didn't have early exams or they would've been risking missing them, but it wasn't like Rohan was getting to his exams on the best time either.
Rohan passes the group of students all gazing at the destruction, not seeming to pay any attention as his slow walk doesn't change pace. It does however when he reaches the center of the lobby, where he then comes to an instinctive halt.
He then turns around and looks over a large circular railing in the center to observe the large lounge pit below, with several lounges under the lobby's main floor, and elevator pads that connect them all. His blue eyes seem to find more interest in the lounge pit rather than the destruction behind him, as he turns to notice the elevator pad right beside him, knowing that on any normal day, he'd take the pad down to the bottom lounge.
He turns his attention back to the pit, gazing at the lowest level, where he finds a square of sofas. He spots one of the smaller sofas which would likely only be able to hold one person, as it appears more like a soft chair. He recognizes it as the sofa that he'd normally sit in when waiting for his group, as the pit was where he'd meet up with his friends before heading to class.
Rohan gently places his hand on the railing as he stares in silence at the pit, his mind fixated on his old routine, as he recalls the countless times he watched his friends approach him, ready to head to their first class building for breakfast. Usually Shuraj would be in front along with Sriya, then Ara and Vrey would follow, and at the back would be Ari, who'd be the most relaxed.
While Rohan would drink a cup of royx every morning to energize himself, it was the smiles and laughter of those friends in the lounge that truly woke him up everyday. Remembering the innocent faces of his comrades only stung him more, now that he's able to pair them with the soulless masks they'd dawn at night.
Although Rohan would usually now take the pad down to the bottom and wait, he'd no longer have to worry about such activity, as there's nobody to wait for.
Instead, he takes his hand off the railing, and turns back to face the exit of the lobby. His hands return to their pockets as he continues walking to the exit of the dorm building, no longer needing to spend time there, as he departs from the crowd of students watching the cleanup in action. His head lowers back down as he walks by himself for the first time in what felt like forever, alone with only his cold aura to keep himself company.
Rohan himself wasn't very amusing, nor was he ever, as he was brought up as a stoic individual whose priorities always remained to center around work rather than socializing. He spent most of his childhood at home, learning programming with his father or on his own, and the most socializing he had for most of his life was relegated to recreational air hockey teams where he hardly knew the team personally nor talked to them.
He was always closed off and in his own world to the point where he was completely ignorant of the real one, even having a completely distorted and utopian image of what reality was when in actuality it was far more complicated. He never put much effort into a social life, as even when he made his friends and obtained a girlfriend, he was chosen out of what felt more like luck rather than genuine reason.
He was brought into the group by the kindness of the members who let him sit with them, and he was pursued by Erica for his tolerance of helping others with work when he never really saw it as anything charming. Part of him wasn't even sure if he deserved the people he had, because he never truly worked to get them, they worked to get him.
While Rohan would like to believe that he's changed, as the time he spent mixing with his companions had given him a stronger social side, now being isolated from them made him feel as though he only regressed back to his old self.
Besides those six companions, he had nobody else, for he never worked to make any other acquaintances other than the ones he was fine with maintaining. Without those that he was close to, he had nobody, as though it was the first day of school. Nothing had changed, and yet in the same way, everything has changed.
It would be too late anyways to seek new friends, for the majority of the time he spent would be taking exams rather than socializing, and after these final weeks, he wouldn't see anyone from the school again. He's aware that there'd be no point in trying to change his situation, but even then it's painful.
Over the first week of exams, Rohan finds himself taking a combination of easy and challenging assessments, as they were all mixed up since they weren't designed to be taken all at once. He'd go from extremely stressful exams that required hard concentration and complete focus, and then later he'd take exams that feel like easy studying practice by comparison.
There doesn't seem to be much order in the chaos, however the majority of the exams do tend to be more stressful than relaxing since most of the exams he's taking are of courses that are meant for upperclassmen rather than freshmen. In fact, there are hardly any exams that he takes where he finds himself amongst potential freshmen, for it seems everyone else appears far older than him.
Rohan's exams take place in various different buildings and rooms, with many being halls that he's never seen before, for many of them are meant to be reserved for the courses of upperclassmen, the courses he never took.
One of those rooms is a massive flat room designed similar to a gymnasium, however even larger. The walls are plain white as is the floor, with no windows present, as the only source of light is the constant white light that beams from seemingly everywhere.
Along the entire floor of the room are countless rows of individual desks, all of them placed uniformly to have the distance between neighboring desks be the exact same. There seems to be hundreds of white desks, all of them being just large enough for one student to use, with each of them having the same type of white chair behind it.
While indeed every single desk is being taken by a student, with many of them being seniors since this is one of the exams meant for the final year, to each individual student, the room seems completely empty.
In fact, from Rohan's perspective, he's inside a massive hall full of empty desks, for there doesn't appear to be a single other student in sight other than him.
This illusion is generated by individual holographic bubbles that encase each desk, which encloses the student by walls that create moving live images of the room while also artificially editing out the students in said images to give off an effect similar to invisibility. By casting this constant stream of the altered room, the result is what appears to be a normal view of the hall, although with the difference that none of the other students appear to be present, leaving the hall itself devoid of people.
These bubbles are put in place in order to prevent cheating of any kind by completely shutting off each student's ability to gaze at another, thus shutting down any sort of contact or observation. They are extremely effective for this purpose, as none of the students can see each other, however from outside all the bubbles, all of the students can be monitored together since the illusion only affects those who are encased themselves.
This allows for a system similar to a panopticon, where none of the students are able to view any potential watchers whether it be cameras or staff, however they're fully aware that all of their actions can be perfectly watched. This leads students to avoid any attempts at bypassing the holographic bubbles for cheating purposes in fear of being caught, and thus they stay in their own bubble and do their own work.
At the same time, these bubbles create a rather eerie environment, as to each individual student, it seems as though they are in a large room as the only inhabitant of the many desks. They cannot see anyone, as though there indeed is nobody.
Among those students who seem alone, Rohan sits at one of the desks near the center, working with his Connect projecting a single holographic screen in front of him while also supplying a set of a holographic keyboard and mouse. Similarly to the secure assessments in class, the exams use a powerful lockdown system to utilize the student's personal Connects as devices that only provide the exam material while also regulating their behaviors. None of the student's could free their Connects from this hold until the exam would be over, meaning they couldn't go online or use any other tools on their Connects to give them an advantage. During the exam window, their Connects were effectively not their own, but rather the university's to control.
Rohan doesn't find much issue in either the bubble that contains him nor his lack of access to his Connect, for he had already done the proper studying to pass without cheats, even though regardless of his confidence he wouldn't stoop so low as to use illegal methods to pass anyways.
The only genuine setback that the security systems seem to provide is a greater sense of isolation, as the lack of visibility of anyone else gives him the feeling of loneliness to an extent beyond what he had already been feeling.
There's a coldness to the absence, and even though Rohan continues on the test, typing code into a response box after being given a prompt for one of the questions, he can still feel an unpleasantry from the forced solitude.
His blue eyes lazily stay open to stare at the screen, checking his own work while his fingers type on the silent holographic keyboard, as while he knows exactly what he is doing, he still can't help but feel exhausted nonetheless.
There seems to be nobody behind him, nobody beside him, and nobody in front of him. There's only him in the immense room, typing on the keyboard before grabbing his mouse to submit his answer and move onto the next free response question.
Even with the diverse range of topics and difficulty, all of the exams seem to feel the same, as every exam is as monotonous and tedious as the other. They feel like wastes of time, chores that have to be done for no real purpose.
The only reason they're even being done is for the desire of successfully graduating, but if anything he was only putting more work into dropping out of college.
There weren't many breaks in between the long and tedious exam days, especially given that Rohan was taking far more exams than the normal student, and so each day was clustered with far more work than most others regardless of what class year they were in. He'd always have an exam in the earliest time slot in the morning, and another in the latest time slot in the night.
Of course, it wouldn't only be those two exams, as then he'd have far more throughout the day, consuming most of the time other students could spend to relax and cool down from the hard tests. So while other students were laying around destressing, Rohan was taking more exams restlessly and without a clear end, moving from one building to the next to make each time without being late.
Even if each individual exam wasn't too exhausting, the lack of initial energy and the lack of rest to regain anything constantly placed Rohan in a state of low energy, making him seemingly constantly sleepy.
Even if he was able to perform sufficiently in this state, it made the exams more of a pain, as every next exam further put him into this drained state. Every time he entered another building for another test he'd be more tired, and every time he'd have to leave to another building he'd find himself yearning for rest.
However, while Rohan isn't as fortunate with getting breaks between exams, there are a few exceptions that he is able to relax in, as there are some points throughout the day which simply do not have exam windows. One of those exceptions are in the very middle of the long day, with that exception being a lunch break.
Every day at noon, Rohan would leave the building he was taking an exam in after submission, and walk down the path and through the nexus forest until eventually reaching the main hall to have his lunch. Of course like normal, he'd walk alone, heading to the building he's hardly visited before.
Now that his friends are no longer around, they aren't able to provide the credits necessary to purchase food from the mall's food court, which is usually what Rohan did every day for his lunch and dinner. Without being able to afford the luxurious food, he was given no other option but to get the free meal plan from the main hall, which was a requirement to have for all freshmen.
Of course, after Rohan learned of the origin of those credits his friend would allow him to use, he wouldn't feel comfortable eating from blood money, as knowing the kind of horrible acts that was committed to obtain the credits he'd take would take away any appetite.
Now, in order to serve that appetite, Rohan would have to pick up different food from the various stations inside the main hall, standing in long lines tiredly while collecting a basic salad that usually had minimal meat, but certainly nothing like the burgers that Shuraj would normally consume.
He's always had the healthier diets within the group, which he had tried to push onto his friends after seeing the horrible foods they were ingesting, but he later gave up after realizing how dedicated his friends were to their unhealthy foods that they found delicious.
The salads that were sold in the food court were usually noticeably tastier and had more contents such as a greater array of vegetables, better sauces, and more variety of meats. However, the ones in the main hall weren't much more than just the spinach leaves along with sauce and a few accessories. Even if the food wasn't exactly spectacular to begin with, it was far less appealing compared to the court food, but it was something Rohan had to bear returning to.
After collecting his food, he'd take his tray to the main room full of tables and benches, with a loud sea of chatter as students all took the time to entertain themselves between exams. The vastness of the room gave many options for seating, with multiple floors and smaller rooms that were dedicated for closer and tighter groups.
Even with all of the options, there is only one that Rohan takes, that being one of the benches closest to the station, which is also the bench he sat in on the first day. It was the one table he was used to, and the one table he'd take a seat in.
The entire outer section of the table was nearly empty, for there were no friends to fill up the benches. Instead, Rohan sits alone on the bench everyday during lunch, with only his tray of salad in front to accompany him.
Rohan eats in silence, using his fork to grab chunks of the salad before bringing it to his mouth to consume it. He continues the same mundane pattern until he'd finish the food, always keeping his head down and on the tray rather than distracting himself with views of the room.
His dreary blue eyes stare at the green food as he opens his mouth wider before every chomp before closing his mouth to chew, even though there was nobody around to judge him on his etiquette.
Even without trying to distract himself, he's still able to hear the conversations all around him, especially now that he isn't insulated by a bubble made from his own friends. He can hear everyone's voices filled with relief and joy as they joke to one another about their exams while forming plans for later.
They were similar conversations to the ones he'd have with his friends, as he remembers listening to Shuraj's infinite supply of rants about assessments he never bothered studying for, for he always found something to nitpick from the presentation of the exam. It'd either be something about the user interface, the wording of the question, the way the professor acted, or something else. It seemed to always be different, and that made it somehow always entertaining to listen to, regardless of how weak his arguments may have been. It'd be even more entertaining when the rest of the group would comment on his rants, as Ari and Vrey would openly judge him while Sriya would try to defend him while also admitting that Shuraj would've likely avoided the issues if he just put in the right amount of work.
Usually Rohan would somehow be roped into the conversation whether by choice or against his will, usually with his stance being requested by one of the two sides. It was always the side who requested it who he'd feel a tendency to lean towards just out of respect, even if perhaps he had to create some soft lies to pad down the brutal honesty. But even when he wouldn't exactly desire being roped into the conversation, he never felt truly annoyed, as he still always ended up enjoying listening and speaking to everyone.
Now however, Rohan just sits at the table alone, silently eating his salad without being talked to nor without talking to anyone. There's no more conversation, no more jokes, just silence and eating.
The joys of dining had been vanquished along with the enemies, leaving Rohan to have little more to do than getting through his food quickly before leaving for his next exam. After he'd finish his food, he'd just leave the tray at the table like usual, and then head out through the exit.
After the short and lonesome break, Rohan would have to return back to his exams, continuing his monotonous grind of exam after exam, moving from building to building. The break wouldn't really give him more energy, rather give him a pause from draining it, but the moment he'd leave the hall he'd be back to work, draining his battery in hopes that he has enough to suffice him to the end.