Working Hard To Improve.

Alex woke up in a cold sweat. He was still not over the fact that he had been so helpless against a simple reflex exercise. Granted, that the exercise was not easy, he was still confident in his reflexes. Turns out, he wasn't good enough.

He was in the system space, sitting on the ground. It was time to train. There was no time to waste.

"System, do you have a way to replicate the machine that beat me up?"

Alex was desperate. He needed to improve faster because today's event just showed that he still couldn't dare to be independent when even offending someone could get him injured like that.

"It is possible, but you will have to spend AP. Your current AP isn't enough for the materialization of that machine. But, the system can help you with the simulation of that machine. The only difference will be that none of this would be real. You will be in a trance, completely under the illusion of my words."

Seeing that Alex was still a bit perplexed, the system explained,

"Just like how I give you commands and advise you to make changes in your body for optimal body performance, I can directly relay the feeling and memories that you first experienced when you went against that machine. There wouldn't be actual fighting, more of a simulation inside your mind. You can take references from it and train in the real world with the actual machine. The system always keeps track of your surroundings, so playback of the situation is already available as a memory recording."

Alex got up. He was in a hurry, so he said,

"Let's do this then."

The System smirked. It then said,

"You don't need to get up for that. You are going to be asleep anyway."

He then proceeded to faint inside the system space. The simulation was active.

He was inside the Grey family training ground. Behind him was the machine, ready to fire at a moment's notice.

Lucius yelled,

"3...2...1...start!"

Alex remembered the entire incident inside of his mind. If he guessed correctly, he still remembered the trajectory of all the balls that hit him, so he was safe from the balls for now.

Or so he taught. Turns out, the system had changed the trajectory completely. He tried to dodge, but still got hit. His body felt pain, and even though it was not real.

"You won't be able to cheat, User."

The System, which had presumed the form of Lucius, was looking at User as if mocking him for being overconfident.

Alex got up, raring to go. He had to overcome this wall, at any cost.

------------------------------------------------

Clara was seated in her room, with Lucius standing in front of her, making a guilty face. He had been impulsive. That was a fact. He didn't regret his actions, up until the point that Clara had made him realize what he did wrong.

"Did you lose your brain somewhere? I told you that what he did could be either good or bad for us, so why did you punish him without my permission?"

She was absolutely livid. This event might make him feel like an outsider, who could never make a name for himself in this family till the time the main hierarchy existed. They already have to fight against the other families for him, now they had to do so with him having even less of a reason to join their ranks.

"Look, I said I am sorry. He dared to offend my daughter, so he needed to be taught a lesson. I just..."

"Shut up. I didn't ask you to defend yourself. I asked you to think of a solution. What can we do now to bring him back to our side?"

Lucius was not happy. He was being scolded over the fact that he tried to discipline his student. This was not what he had imagined being his master would be like.

He shrugged, and his gears started to turn. He could only think of one way to bring him back to being on good terms with his family.

"I think we will have to make Jane babysit him, while Steven tries to deepen his friendship with him. She is more patient than me, and we can use them to establish pseudo-siblings for him, which will increase his trust in our family."

He responded. He didn't like the idea very much, but he was out of options. Jane was a patient girl, so he could expect her to be mature enough to deal with him. Steven admired Alex, so he could be a good asset in luring him to their family in the future.

Clara went deep into thought. Her husband was an impulsive person, but even she could see that this was the only plan that could work. Alex might be intelligent, but he could still be influenced if he has a person that he admires. Jane was perfect for that.

"Fine. Call Jane back. We need to make sure that we can gain his trust. If now, all the effort that we have planned for ahead will be for waste. And remember to keep calm next time. Everyone needs to be brought down a peg sometimes. Just like you brought him down a peg with the machine, he brought your daughter down with his slap. Don't hold a grudge against a kid."

And just like that, another plan had been set up to lure Alex into the family. If only they knew, that the moment they decided to plan so much, they were destined to fail.

Alex, on the other hand, had exited the system Today's simulation time was done. He still hadn't been able to dodge a single attack. The system had perfectly emulated the entire event, so the best he could do was position his body in a way to minimize damage, which wasn't much of an improvement. He still couldn't dodge all of the balls. It was here that he understood the problem in his defence.

It was his reflexes. He was unable to suppress his reflexes to block when he was in danger. It was a good habit, but it could also be his biggest flaw, given the situation. He still couldn't differentiate between blocking and dodging, unable to select an action based on the situation. His muscle memory had been developed based on blocking, so he was more likely to do that to protect himself in this sort of a situation.

He still had a long way to go, but at least now, he knew his problem. He had to work hard to improve and get over the wall that he was facing.