Chapter 9

"Your training course is simple. You will not be allowed any personal effects for the first fourteen days and you will begin with some physical training. These fourteen days will be the longest days of your lives and most of you will quit or be sent back home. In the rare event that you do pass, you will enter the fast-paced training phase and I feel sorry for those who fail to keep up."

The bald man was talking generally when he suddenly called out,

"Pretty rhiche!"

Vincent shuddered and glanced around him but everyone who saw the bald man's eyes gazing in this direction already distanced themselves from him a long time ago.

"Yes, you. I will break you and remold you into a good soldier" he smiled kindly. . . Or at least he tried to because there was nothing kind about his expression.

Without another word, the bald man turned around and walked away. Another soldier in a green t-shirt tucked into his military pants took the bald General's place and said in a loud voice.

"Today all of you will be allowed to get familiar with your new home, training begins early tomorrow so get some rest and talk to your family one last time" Although his voice was loud, his voice was kinder than the bald man's.

Vincent followed along with the other soldiers who led them to the barracks, they were all assigned to different rooms, Vincent's was Bay 18. And he was to live here with forty other recruits for the next six months.

The soldiers left without giving them any further instructions after showing them all to their rooms leaving them to their devices. Vincent quickly made his bed and put his things in place as orderly as possible. While other players conversed with each other excitedly, he instead used his phone to do some research about military training, fortunately, he could still look things up online like in the real world although there wasn't as much information available.

After a few hours of research, Vincent glanced at the bed by his left to see a young man in his twenties lying there fast asleep. He was lying on his back, his hands resting on his stomach as he lay straight on the bed. From the rhythm of his breathing, Vincent knew he was fast asleep. Taking note of how his bed was made and his things arranged, Vincent had a feeling that this person was very familiar with the training process and decided to imitate him.

The next morning when Vincent woke up, he was surprised to find that nothing had happened yet. Their trainers were nowhere to be found and everyone was still idling around.

"Hey kid, what are you doing here?" He heard a soft voice say to him. It was almost like a whisper from how soft it was but it wasn't low at all, just like someone lazy to talk finally getting some words out.

He turned to see the man on his left reading a book with his legs crossed.

"Same thing you are doing here" he replied with a frown.

"Nah" the man shook his head gently.

Vincent proceeded to look around at everyone feeling confused about what he should do now when the man sat up.

"I'm Dan," he introduced himself.

"Vincent"

"Listen, Vincent, I can tell you are not like those other manics who think it will be fun here. When the drill sergeant arrives, keep your act together, he already noticed you and that's both a good and a bad thing but it will be better if you don't stand out more than you already do.

"Put your phone, gun, and those things on the left side of your table together, you won't need them" he advised.

Vincent nodded and did as he was told but before he could ask any questions, there was a loud bang as the doors on both ends of the long bay opened with a slam.

The bald man walked in again, this time with many soldiers in their military t-shirts tucked into their pants. They stood around beside each bed while the bald man walked back and forth in the middle of the room.

After a while, he stood still and started, "I'll be your drill sergeant and you can call me Master. I can see none of you are ready to be here, GET YOUR ASS UP AND STAND IN A ROW!" He bellowed in anger.

Immediately everyone rose and formed two long rows in front of their bunk beds.

"CHEST OUT!" he roared another order this time without any anger but with stern command in his tone.

"It is my understanding that the military of the Originals is lackluster and so you will be pardoned for today's negligence. Now let's see you get down and give me twenty pushups!"

The recruits all had different expressions, some were flushed with excitement while others took the situation seriously but Vincent was very nervous. Along with the others he got down into form and started counting.

"Stop!" The drill sergeant roared again, it was like he was incapable of speaking in a lower tone.

"From today on, all of you are one body, when you go down, you go down together and when you rise you rise together. Now get on with it, give me twenty!"

The recruits started again counting from 20 but when they got to sixteen the roar came again,

"Stop!"

. . .

"Stop!"

. . .

"Stop"

Time passed and Vincent felt like his life was fading from him. A pool had accumulated underneath his body and his arms trembled endlessly like dead leaves in autumn wind.

His body threatened to fall but he didn't dare to let it. Sustaining himself by sheer willpower he was determined not to attract the attention of Baldy. Some guy had called him that out of anger only to get three slaps on his face and increase the number of pushups by five.

Another person dared to stand when Baldy was talking, thinking they had completed twenty-five pushups only to cause them to start again.

Some didn't know how to do a pushup and so everyone had to share theirs raising the number to thirty.

Every blunder someone made got them slaps and raised the number of pushups for everyone. They all started with different variations of pushups but eventually their actions turned more and more unified, just like right now when everyone was unified in their trembling.

"Stand up!" The order sounded like a presidential pardon for a criminal on death row. They all rose promptly their previous synergy disappearing in an instant but Baldy seemed to have not noticed.

"You think this is punishment? The next time I walk into this room to see an unprepared soldier, you will be punished. And now. . . Forwaaarrrddd March!"

Some blanked for a moment.

It wasn't over?

But that mistake was fatal as a whip landed on the backs of those who weren't prepared.

* * * * * *

By sundown when they finished having dinner and returned to their rooms, everyone had less to say. It came as a shock to them that all their personal belongings were gone and folded neatly on their beds were their new uniforms.

Some cried to go home, some ranted about retaliating the next day, making groups and plans for their rebellion, while most watched silently. Vincent was among those who watched the scene silently, somehow he still managed to catch the attention of Baldly and was subjected to a lot of insults. His pride was hurt, his pride was broken, in fact, he felt so embarrassed and humiliated that there was anger brewing in his heart. But he knew that if this was as real as the real world, any attempts to resist this training or resist getting molded would prove futile and backfire on the group.

Fortunately, something happened as night fell that made everyone instantly turn silent.

[STATUS UPDATE]

[Strength +3]

[Endurance +5]

[Willpower +1]

By now they all knew or heard about the difficulty in increasing their stats, seeing so much increase from half a day of training, everyone immediately started looking forward to the next day... but they had no idea the kind of hell that was waiting for them.