Jack led me to a place he called the ‘scrapyard’. It was an empty lot nearby that was filled with loads of machinery. He walked over to a line of ancient battle robots, which were clearly the crown jewels of this junk heap.

  Climbing up a ladder, he grabbed a giant wind-up key on a robot’s back. “The test is simple. Defeat an Enforcer Model Small”, he grunted as he slowly turned the key.

  The robot was not small, just in case you were curious. It stood at least four people tall and six people wide. Unlike the rest of the city, it had a boxy, rough appearance to it.

  Jack grimaced as he fought with the key. It had gotten much tighter, the ancient metal parts scraping together. Finally, we heard a click, and it stirred to life.

  “Order: Kill, Targets: One”, Jack said.

  The robot slowly woke up, as if groggy from a long nap. “ONE TARGET SIGHTED”, he pointed at me. “APPEARANCE: …”.

  “Yes, yes, confirm order”, Jack waved dismissively. “I swear, these silly safety features…”.

  The robot’s eyes burst to life, shooting a giant laser. I stayed still as it phased right through me, melting the ground beneath into soup.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “JUDGEMENT: TARGET INTANGIBLE”, the robot stated. It lifted its left arm, revealing a machine gun. I dove underground as silver bullets chewed through everything in the scrapyard.

  This was ridiculous. I was fighting an ancient death machine for E-rank. The other exam had me fighting a slime, you know! Surely this test was some kind of joke!

  After all, if people caught wind of this, then they’d ALL be heading to Mechadream for their E-rank exams! They were diluting the value of the ranking system, dang it!!

  Now, a robot can’t feel fear, obviously. But they were expensive to build! That meant that any responsible creator would naturally include a self-preservation instinct!

  “[Spooky Illusion]”, I whispered, conjuring up the image of an even more ridiculous war robot. Yes! Understand that you are outmatched, Model Small! Before my illusions, you are naught but a pebble!

  The robot kept tearing up the ground with grenades and lasers like nothing had happened. Hmm. Maybe I had overestimated the amount of thought that had gone into this rust bucket.

  No matter, this too I could use against my foe! I phased inside the primitive machine, letting it tear itself apart.

  “SELF DESTRUCTING…”. Jack bolted for cover as the war machine exploded, raining fresh scrap down into the yard. My generous donation.

  “Congratulations”, Jack coughed out some falling ash. “You pass…”.

  I beamed. E-rank, huh? Maybe someday I could earn it the hard way.