The door slid shut behind her with a muted hiss.
Scarlett paused instinctively.
The testing room unfolded before her like something torn straight from a high-end research hospital, only colder, sharper, and unmistakably inhuman in its intent.
Wiring ran along the walls in deliberate patterns, thick mana-infused cables braided together with fiber optics. Soft blue and white lights pulsed intermittently, responding to unseen signals. Transparent panels floated slightly above the floor, projecting rotating arrays of symbols, runes, and digital readouts that shifted too fast for the untrained eye to follow.
At the center of the room stood the pod.
It resembled a medical scanning bed from her old world, sleek, metallic, and unsettlingly clean, but larger, reinforced with hexagonal mana plates embedded along its frame. The pod was open, waiting, its interior lined with thin threads of light that faintly hummed, as if alive.
So this is it, Scarlett thought.
The mana attribute test.
In her previous life, she had stood beside countless hospital beds, watched machines like this reduce human existence to data and graphs. Back then, she had trusted technology.
Now?
She didn't trust anything, after all, she's new here.
To the far side of the room, a thick transparent glass wall separated the testing chamber from the overseer section. Beyond it sat a woman at a curved control desk, surrounded by floating screens. A small microphone hovered close to her lips.
Scarlett's gaze lingered.
Red hair, deep and vivid but her facial features were obscured by reflection and lighting. What she could see of the woman's posture told her enough, upright, efficient, detached.
A professional.
Scarlett's eyes flicked upward.
Cameras, Everywhere. At each corner. Above the pod. Near the floor. Even subtly embedded within the rune-lit panels.
Speakers, too, small, discreet, likely for direct communication.
So no blind spots, she noted.
Her heart began to beat faster.
She became painfully aware of her breathing.
This room felt familiar.
Too familiar.
A place where secrets were peeled open layer by layer.
Her cheap master's voice echoed in her memory, unhelpful and infuriatingly calm.
Do not let anyone discover your twilight element.
Scarlett swallowed.
How exactly am I supposed to hide that… with all this?
She's still new here for Christ sake…
Her fingers curled slightly.
For a brief moment, panic threatened to surface.
Then she inhaled slowly.
Calm.
She had survived worse.
She still had the space.
And when that bridge came…
I'll cross it.
The heavy footsteps behind her snapped her attention back to the present.
The female examiner, the hulk strode past her and snatched the registration form cleanly from Scarlett's hands.
"Tch."
The sound was sharp, irritated.
Scarlett rubbed the bridge of her nose faintly.
Did I offend her somehow?
She replayed every interaction in her mind.
Nothing.
Unless existing counted as an offense.
The hulk marched up to the glass panel and slid the form into a narrow slot. It vanished with a soft click.
On the other side, the red-haired overseer glanced down, scanning the form as data populated her screens.
She tapped the microphone lightly.
"Hello, Scarlett," her voice came through the speakers, clear, even, professional. "How are you?"
Scarlett straightened unconsciously.
"I'm fine," she replied calmly. "Thank you."
The red-haired woman didn't respond to the politeness.
Her eyes moved as she read.
"Second attempt," she said aloud. "Orphaned. From a remote village. No registered relatives."
Her gaze lifted, meeting Scarlett's through the glass.
Not with disdain.
Not with pity.
Just… assessment.
"Mmm."
The sound carried no emotion.
"All right," the overseer continued. "You know the process. Begin."
Scarlett froze.
I do?
Her mind raced.
She did not, in fact, know the process.
She didn't remember this part at all—whether from the borrowed memories or any briefing. But hesitation here would only draw attention.
So she did the only thing that felt natural.
She walked toward the pod.
Casually.
As if she'd done this a hundred times.
She reached the edge…
—and suddenly the world jerked.
The female hulk grabbed her arm and yanked her back with startling force.
"What—!"
Before Scarlett could react, thick cables were slapped against her temples, cool and heavy. More wires were pressed beneath her arms, against sensitive skin. Cold metal brushed her spine.
The hulk's face was tight, brows furrowed, movements rough and efficient.
Scarlett felt her vision swim.
"Hey—" she muttered, dizzy.
What is wrong with this woman?!
She hadn't resisted.
Hadn't spoken out of turn.
Hadn't even hesitated.
Was this normal?
Her insides felt like they were being shaken loose.
If she were still an ordinary human—
She probably would've blacked out.
The hulk gave her one final, firm shove.
"Get in the pod."
Scarlett shot her a sideways look as she staggered forward.
This, she thought coolly, is why power is mandatory.
No dignity.
No morality without Power.
Without it, respect was optional.
She said nothing.
For now.
With a controlled exhale, Scarlett stepped into the pod and lay down. The surface adjusted immediately, molding to her body. The thin threads of light brushed her skin, reacting to her presence.
The pod began to close.
Panels slid smoothly over her, enclosing her in a transparent shell.
The structure rotated and rolled seamlessly into a recessed chamber within the wall.
The world narrowed.
Lights flared to life.
White.
Blue.
Silver.
They swept over her body in waves, from head to toe, then back again—faster, deeper, more invasive.
Scarlett clenched her jaw.
Her heart hammered.
On the other side of the glass, the red-haired overseer's fingers danced across the holographic keyboard. Lines of data scrolled rapidly.
Mana density.
Core resonance.
Elemental fluctuation.
Unknown variables blinked briefly—then vanished.
Scarlett felt a pressure in her chest.
A subtle pull.
As if something inside her was being… listened to.
She focused inward instinctively.
Her core stirred.
Five colors pulsed faintly.
She suppressed them immediately, compressing the riot of elements into the calmest, most orthodox pattern she could manage.
Hide, she commanded herself.
Just for now.
The machine hummed louder.
The lights intensified.
And somewhere deep within the system…
Something paused.