Translator: Abyssruler Editor: Lucas
It was just incredible. All five were users of Ability X and had strong spirits matched with equally strong bodies. This was a natural result of evolution. The current difficulty of the training was trivial to them. Just like the others who had recently awakened their Ability X, their body strength wasn’t that strong yet, let alone one that had not awakened it at all.
“I thought this guy’s genes were not good at all. Now isn’t the time to be mean, guys.”
Blunt and straightforward, that was how the people of Mars spoke. This was not to say that they were careless, but rather they found this method of communication to be the most beneficial.
The three of them vowed that it was an absolute no.
Initially, they were about to give up on Wang Zheng, but this fella was strong and ended up catching their attention.
“Seems like this time it is going to get interesting, as all sorts of unusual things are happening. So be it then, this guy may be able to give the five of them a bit of stimulation and bring up their competitive spirits.”
“That is correct. Some form of challenge would be good for them lest they become too complacent and lose because of overconfidence.”
This generation from the solar system had proved to be a glimmer of hope, but they also understood that the others were not standing idly by. Trying and failing was better than not trying at all.
If the five self-confident individuals were to experience a huge upset during this practice, it would no doubt greatly improve their mentality.
Wang Zheng felt awesome. This sort of harshness was nothing compared to what he went through in the cube; it was a matter of life and death inside. But this sort of training was something that simulations could never match. This was not so much about the difference in the stimulation of his senses but more of a psychological thing. No matter how realistic the simulations were, they were but simulations. This was the real deal.
His body was in constant contact with the sea. Every time the waves impacted his body, he felt his cells moving in sync with them.
Becoming one with the environment. This truly felt enjoyable.
Wang Zheng could feel that this sea could not really be called a sea, as there was something different about it. The sea and waves simulated inside the cube, no matter how realistic-looking, would have a certain something missing from it. This certain something was the force of nature.
Training was always done in simulation and then the skills learnt were applied onto the real battlefield. But then again, only those who survived the harsh training could display their skills.
Bonehead did not understand that simulations could only bring one so far. Breakthroughs could only be achieved in the real world.
On the screen, Wang Zheng began to slow down. For a moment, he was faster than Lear and the rest. But then again, Lear and the others would never use their full strength on these sorts of things.
Everyone was focused on their own matters, so they did not have the energy to pay any attention to the others.
But Meng Ao and the others were getting more and more interested. There were certain types of people that normally would not attract any attention, but the more you paid attention to them, the more captivated you became.
Because Wang Zheng was doing the pushups with only one hand, the other hand in the water was empty.
“This is how the people from Earth keep a low profile. They possess a quiet confidence in themselves,” Meng Ao explained.
Possessing strong abilities but never showing off and focusing on himself to further enhance his abilities, only by doing this would a soldier become stronger.
Those who were on the same level as Meng Ao all shared a common appreciation for soldiers who were down-to-earth.
But the more of a genius a person was, the more arrogant he became even if he seemingly had a calm exterior.
There was something different about this kid!
Achilles was the first to finish. The time recorded was eight minutes and thirty-one seconds.
Lie Xin was slower by five seconds. The reason being was she had entered the water a little slower than expected. Having a huge bust size hindered her training occasionally, and she had thoughts about having their size reduced. On the contrary, she decided against it as this was a form of admitting defeat.
Raston and Taros finished at the same time. They were ten seconds behind Lie Xin, but this difference in timing proved nothing.
Looking on, Lear had not finished yet.
Taros’s eyes lit up and he let out a meaningful smile.
In exactly ten minutes, Lear stood up. The counter displayed an exact ‘1000’ integer. His tactical backpack started to pour out the sea water that was sucked in. Pretty good pace.
“Ten minutes as expected, the best result of the first round.”
The underwater push-ups with the tactical backpack was one of the training regimes of Academy X.
This was not their first time attempting this. The best results were under ten minutes, the second best were between ten minutes and fifteen minutes. Beyond fifteen minutes was considered to be just merely a pass. What about failure?
Students of Academy X did not get results like that, neither would any of them ever receive this result. Any such individual would have been removed even before the training started.
Inside the monitoring room, the display on the seventh screen was enlarged.
It wasn’t the backpack reaching its limit but an alarm.
“Ten minutes without coming up for air?”
“Skin breathing….it is an alternative ability. It is not prominent and is even considered to be a weak ability. However, under certain circumstances, it is very useful.”
“This young seedling has potential, he has completed it too.”
In sixth place was someone from Titan. He was a hundred and eighty centimeters tall, but this was considered to be normal in a circle of elites. He was the person who performed the body hardening ability during the bonfire night, his name was Stocker.
As he stood up, he attracted the attention of the five others. Eleven minutes, this was considered acceptable at Academy X.
“A buddy from Titan?”
Raston laughed and walked over.
Stocker laughed and nodded. He could use skin breathing while underwater. He originally wanted to snatch first place, but it seemed like he did not make it. The five of them who did better were monsters, but then again, he did not immediately accept Raston’s invitation. Those with ability had to choose their partners carefully. This was the most important part when it came to being a captain. The ability to qualify for the IG competition rested on the ability to discern a strong teammate from a weak one. Choose wrongly and it would not end well.
Raston didn’t mind. Conversations were free. Attitude was the key, everything had its value.
One after another, more people came up. Most of them were from Mars and the Eight Stars of the Moon. When Milo stood up from the waters, she attracted a lot of looks. However, when she stood behind Achilles, everyone’s eyes shifted to the floor.
The number of gazes that fell on to Meng Tian was even more in number. This was a perfect woman in an imperfect place. She was a little cold to the others, but this was because of her Ability X. There were rumors that her ability had the property of ice and thus the colder she was towards a person, the more she felt affection towards him. But of course, this was only directed to the one she was attracted to.
Lear gave her a faint smile. Meng Tian calmly wiped the water off her face. Lear did not mind Meng Tian’s attitude at all. Everyone had their preferred way of doing things. The special thing about Lear was his self-confidence, it was different from anyone else’s.
Wang Zheng finished a little late, sixteen minutes and thirty-five seconds. In the end he had to use both fingers. He originally intended to only use one but found it to be too slow. People had their limits after all, but it would be amazing if a person could surpass it.
The last person was welcomed by everyone, the fatty Luo Fei. The fatty stood behind Lear and whispered softly to him, “I ate too much yesterday, so I had a stomach ache this morning and did not have the time to settle that…”
Everyone moved away immediately. Bloody hell, he hadn’t released some weird stuff into the water, had he?
Just when everyone thought that they could stop for some rest, Su Yan appeared again, smiling. “No bad, no one actually got disqualified. Next up you’ll run around the island for ten laps. If you do not complete that, you will not receive food and sleep.”
Even those students who would score an eight or nine on physical tests immediately turned pale. Running was nothing, ten laps around the field was also nothing. But running around the island…
Everyone looked up at the blue sky and finally understood why this place was called Demon Island. The demon occasionally gave you a few minutes to do as you saw fit, but the price to pay was extremely heavy.
Everyone soon became aware of another serious problem: this island wasn’t large, but it wasn’t exactly small either. One lap might’ve been okay, but ten laps???
Holy sh*t, how long would it take? Not to mention a day, could they even complete it in three days?
What sort of training was this? It was more akin to abuse. There was no way they would be able to complete this.
“It has already begun, the map is displayed on your bracelets. Oh, and I almost forgot, you can cut corners, but that lap will not be counted,” Su Yan said, smiling. It was a good feeling watching everyone suffer.
Achilles smiled. “Sir Su, this task is nothing to the people of the Moon. Let’s go!”
It was obvious that Achilles had conserved his physical strength. Milo and the others followed behind him with smiling faces.
Initially, there was not much of a gap in between the students, but as the training stretched on, so did the distance between them.
This was a test of endurance.
The people from the Moon headed out quickly. On the Mars side, they too smiled. “We the people from Mars have never lost, let’s head out as well!”
With that said, a group of people headed out with Lie Xin. In a short time, they had overtaken Achilles’s group.
The desire to win was the strongest point of the people from Mars.
Except that these ten laps were not only about speed. Endurance was equally important.
Everyone had set out. Lear did not pay any attention to Luo Fei and set off on his own. Luo Fei had a sad expression on his face. This test was going to take a lot out of him.
“Fatty, with that sort of look on your face, you might as well give up now. At least you will keep your reputation intact.”
The people who passed by would ridicule him.
“We better get going too,” Wang Zheng said. He could feel that Meng Tian, Zhang Runan, and Zhang Shan were a little tired.
The training here was indeed a little inhumane. Meng Tian had strong abilities, but in the previous test, she had not performed well.
Zhang Runan performed about the same as her. She had excellent abilities, but she lacked sufficient daily training. She could perform well for short periods of time, but once caught in a fierce battle, her performance deteriorated. This would be a tough battle for her.
“Let’s go, we’ve already come too far to give up.” Zhang Shan was really tired and his breathing had not stabilized yet. Out of everyone, his abilities and foundation were the worst.
“You can do it,” Zhang Runan said suddenly, surprising Zhang Shang.
“It can’t be, Manly Sister Runan is actually praising me.”
“You consider this praising? I’m afraid that you’re going to fall behind,” Zhang Runan said.
“Haha, the menfolk of Ares would never be afraid. F*ck, we’ve already been disqualified too much. We need to see this until the end no matter what!”
Zhang Shan beat on his chest. And the four of them went on their way.
Wang Zheng took the lead while the other three followed behind. The person leading the group should’ve been even more tired than the rest, but Wang Zheng…..was actually not tired.
