Elias pulled his laptop closer. He typed in the URL. His heart hammered against his ribs. He knew he couldn't afford a prep course; he was living on ramen and hope. Last night, in a moment of desperation, he had spent three hours scouring the deepest forums on the internet until he found a cached link to a "Matrigma Free Test." It wasn't official, and it didn't give a score, but it was a simulation.

✅ – You’ll see the standard 3×3 matrix with one missing cell. Patterns include: movement, rotation, shading, addition/subtraction of elements, etc.

The fluorescent lights of the twelfth-floor conference room hummed with a low, headache-inducing buzz. Elias sat across the mahogany table, his hands folded tightly in his lap to hide the trembling. Across from him sat Ms. Vance, the Director of Recruitment for the Meridian Group. She wasn't looking at him; she was looking at the clock.