The Extraordinary Ordinary - Chapter 9 Adaptation Testing

‘Now then’

Chrome thought deeply about what to do next, after all, according to his perception, the day that he went through last time was supposed to be Saturday, this day should be Sunday, while the acceptance examination was supposed to be held on Monday.

This meant that he had to finish whatever preparations he had to make for the examination today.

“Let’s start with more in depth memory recollection,” Chrome said as he finally came to a decision.

While Chrome had tried to go through some of the most important memories that he received once he woke up in order to understand the current situation of alter Chrome, which has now become his situation, it still wasn’t possible for him to go through it all in that short time

He had merely skimmed through them to get to the more critical information that would be enough for him to base his assumptions on it, but that wasn’t enough for him to have enough information of the world’s background as good of that of an aspiring Extra.

That was why he decided to spend as much time needed to go through these memories as Chrome believed that it was actually the most vital part of the preparation needed for his endeavour in this parallel reality.

As such, Chrome took calm steps towards his beds where he sat in the position he was most comfortable with, cross-legged position.

‘Starting with’ closing his eyes, Chrome cleared his mind as he started fishing for memories in the sea that was his mind

`~~~`~~~`~~~`

Several hours later…

“While I’m Chrome Blue of another reality, I shall also take on your identity as Chrome Blue of this world!” Chrome said resolutely as he opened his eyes.

After spending several long hours of memory immersion, Chrome finally came to understand that the life of alter Chrome was actually more miserable than he thought

Starting from his untalented birth, and moving on to his parents’ untimely death, before finally entering highschool where he was bullied for being an orphan with such a puny Exos rating

Having went through such a harsh life in a much harsher world, alter Chrome’s personality was quite different than Chrome’s. Not only did he become submissive enough that he would take a beating without saying anything so that the day could pass, but he was also more hard working and self dependant.

Instead of trying to join any of his distant relatives’ family, alter Chrome who managed to keep the house, worked several part-time jobs to afford his own livelihood all the while trying to save with his target being to buy an ‘Awakening Pill’ one day

Of course, these memories were still more or less incomplete, with countless events and detailed happenings being missing, but it was just about enough for Chrome to have a decent understanding of both this strange world and alter Chrome’s life and act with the correct line of thought.

Looking at the wall clock, Chrome found out that it was already twenty minutes past 1 o’clock, and knowing that he woke up at 8 am just like the first day, he spent a bit less than five hours in his memory recollection.

‘It’s decided then.’

Starting from the very top of the task list that he had in mind, Chrome has decided to relieve himself of one burden as he took a quick decision to quit the big number of part-time jobs that alter Chrome took on for the last three years.

It wasn’t that he was just being an irresponsible brick or something, but it was because he couldn’t continue wasting this much time on several part-time jobs with lousy pay if he was going to take on the path of an Extra.

He had no intention of starving though, he only decided to act this with this quick and flexible approach because he already knew that alter Chrome had already saved enough money that could cover over 1 year of expenses which he was planning to spend on an Awakening Pill as soon as he had enough as he didn’t know that the school would actually act as their patron and give them one pill each

‘Worrying about living expenses shouldn’t be a problem if I managed to join the Academy anyway, even if I didn’t’

Chrome’s thoughts were all focused on doing his best since he had already decided on his path to become an aspiring Extra, so even if it wasn’t his fate to join the Academy, he still had his Self-Reliance Palace that he could rely on to reach the level where he could at least work with his Extra abilities in one year before his savings ran out.

‘Let’s get going then’ Chrome left the bed as he loves to his closet and got a change of clothes, which he didn’t have that much of, before changing his clothes, taking his key and leaving the house

`~~~`~~~`~~~`

Creak Slam!

Chrome finally returned as he closed the door and quickly changed his clothes as he lightly threw himself on the bed.

‘That took longer than expected’

Looking at the hour which already indicated that it already 5 o’clock as it was almost evening, Chrome complained a bit as quitting several jobs at the same day wasn’t such a pleasant experience as one may think

From the exact 5 jobs that he had which almost filled his day, starting from the very moment he finished school and till 2 after midnight, three bosses refused to give him the pay for the week that he worked five days of, one boss gave him only three days’ pay as they claimed that it was the work termination fee, with the respectful elder who was the owner of a bookstore close to the house being the only one who actually gave him all his pay, even adding a small bonus as he told him that he could return to work anytime he felt like he wanted to.
for visiting.

Not to mention the constant nagging they did as they tried to make him continue working for them, saying that it was for his own wellbeing and so on…

‘I might actually consider continuing that one…’ Chrome thought about the possibility of fitting in the bookstore clerk job into his future schedule, as it was one of the highest paying jobs from the several ones that he did and tried, all while being also the easiest one as he only had to watch the store for two hours only.

‘Now that’s done with, I should move on to the next task’

Although he didn’t really have anything urgent to do before knowing whether he would get accepted or not, other than getting rid of the part-time clutter, Chrome still had another thing he wanted to test the most.

‘Let’s try sleeping,’ Chrome decided as he wanted to test how the transfer between realities worked as he put his not so fancy phone on a timer to wake him up at at 8 o’clock as he put his head on his pillow and started forcing himself to sleep, which actually didn’t take much time from him as his mind was already exhausted from browsing through alter Chrome’s memory as well as enduring the bosses prep talk

`~~~`~~~`~~~`

Ding, ding, ding! Ding, ding, ding!

“I seriously need more sleep” Chrome woke up on the ring that was so close to his ears which he wasn’t that familiar with.

“This ring sound, and my current clothes I really didn’t go back” Chrome looked around him as he could faintly recall that he didn’t go to another place as he had just had a normal dream that he already forgot half of it, similar to how he dreamt a bit before entering this world once again after sleeping early in his normal reality.

‘Then it must be time restricted, probably having to be later than ten possibly at midnight…’

A theory was already taking place in Chrome’s mind. Last time, he had only slept almost a few minutes after midnight before entering this ‘Dream’ directly, but the day after, when he slept at about 10 o’clock, he had some normal dreaming time prior to waking up in here, so he somehow almost understood the rules of it as the only thing that he needed was confirmation.

Unfortunately, the time he slept in this reality last time was too unclear due to his agitated emotions so he could only test it out today.

“Let’s wait till midnight,” Chrome decided.

By sleeping exactly at midnight, he believed that he would be able to accurately pin the truth as he only needed to experience if he would return directly once he slept then or have a time-out dream before that