Stiff Muscle

After completing the menial task, Kein could feel his chest and arm muscles tighten slightly. Although the number of reps is small for an athlete, it is the system that determines whether each rep is correct or not.

It was not a small number of reps that he did when he realised some of his reps did not include a perfect push-up. It was annoying but at least Kein knew that Coach Marlon's discipline still had a conscience and was at a distance from reprimanding his kids when they made mistakes in their warm-ups or workouts.

A little dismissive before starting, he could now feel a bead of sweat running down the centre of his back and down his cleavage. His breathing was slightly normal considering he was used to doing this.

Kein could not imagine how difficult the tasks or exercises would be in the next few days or weeks. He did intend to exercise all his muscles and agility, considering basketball is a sport that emphasises physical contact with opponents.

Having finished dealing with the game that had upset him, Damian was a little surprised to see his friend drenched in sweat.

"How much did you do that? I know you're one of the luckiest people because your sweat glands don't smell too bad. But sweating that much could raise other people's suspicions."

"I can't help it. I guess I was so excited that I didn't count the number of reps."

"Don't you know? Training sessions are physical exercises. I don't remember you missing the cool-down session yesterday. Coach Marlon asked me to."

"What?!How stupid of you, mate! If I knew what we were doing, I wouldn't have to do the same thing over and over again."

Kein let out a long sigh, slightly regretting that he had wasted almost half his energy to fulfil the system's task requirements.

***

When it entered the afternoon, three o'clock to be precise, the students headed straight to the designated training ground. For your information, the academy that Damian and Nicolas Kein attended was called New Ares Academy. New Ares had several sports, such as basketball, football, volleyball, swimming, and others.

In the previous academic classes, there was no distinction about what sport they loved. Basically, everyone gets more than decent facilities and lessons. Only enrolment determined their attendance number. Even his classmates who formed a community of comic and fiction novel lovers came from different sports.

Every sport at least had achievements that could raise the status of New Ares Academy. However, compared to all the other sports, the sports that have accumulated the most achievements so far are basketball and football. Their competition is quite fierce and the difference in their achievements is non-existent because they both have the same number of trophies.

They boasted about each other's achievements in a healthy way, although there were some uproars between the basketball and football divisions in determining the best sport at New Ares Academy.

Kein was a student who didn't care about the competition at all. While he was still weak and had many flaws, he would try to keep his eyes and mouth shut no matter what happened, as long as it didn't interfere with the process.

Upon arriving at the practice building, Damian and Kein saw that their seniors were starting the practice first. That got them interested before they were banned from the training session outside of Coach Marlon's stipulations.

"Oh, you guys came early. Want to join us before the most annoying training session?"

Gilbert offered after he scored two points from the free-throw line.

Damian and Kein smiled and were already looking forward to seeing how far he could move. As for his recovery, from the morning until his physical training earlier, he did not relapse or feel anything uncomfortable in his leg. Kein did not want to assume that his recovery would be short-lived and that he would have to return to the hospital.

While waiting for his turn to take the free throw shot, Kein briefly thought about the efficacy of the mysterious capsule regarding the duration of his recovery. Even if it was just speculation, at least the system came with a promise that might exceed his expectations.

"I've fired seven shots and missed them all, Kein. Are you not in the mood? Or is it your leg?" Gilbert asked.

"Six months, senior. Six months,' Damian interjected while pointing all six fingers. "I believe the reason he missed is because his body is still stiff after lying down for six months. Before that, he did some physical training and sweated profusely."

"Really? Wasn't it just worrying that you were doing physical training? I thought you would miss this session." Gilbert turned his gaze towards Kein.

He shook his head and grabbed two balls from his partner's hand. Then the three balls were shot towards the ring in turn. As a result, only one ball went in and the other did not even touch the ring. It wasn't a bad result from three shots, but when totalled up with all his previous shots, he hadn't improved at all since six months ago.

That result made his friend laugh though he quickly looked away before Kein realised.

"It's alright. After six months of not training with the same results is more than enough. Sometimes many athletes need time to get back to their best after recovery." As a senior and captain of the New Ares basketball division, Gilbert tried to restore the spirits of his teammates. In stark contrast to his friend, who almost let out a laugh.

Soon, their activities came to a halt as their colleagues arrived one by one with Coach Marlon behind them. Instantly, they formed a semi-circle and looked at the coach.

As prescribed, the training session this time was physical training. Not a few of them complained about the training session because apart from being boring, it was also the hardest exercise and drained a lot of energy and stamina. Kein who had already wasted half of his energy, he felt his muscles stiffen again and every movement he did this time was getting a headache and a little benefit.

But what made Kein even more disturbed was that the system suddenly came up with a warning that could not be taken lightly.

[Excessive physical exercise on the same day will not make your body ideal faster. Stop for a while starting the same movement.]