7

"This place?" Upon seeing the so-called training grounds, Xen was stunned for a long time. In front of him was a large hall with numerous sleeping pods placed systematically. He didn't know what that thing was and its true purpose. When they said about training, he was expecting more of running around and exercising. These unknown pods were the last thing he thought about.

"Good, you all are here." It wasn't until everyone was present that the Instructor looked at them with a slight smile before speaking in a soft tone.

"Many of you must be wondering what these things are." Her voice had a hint of pride along with playfulness. "Let me tell you..."

Walking to the nearest pod, she entered it before closing its lid. The moment she did, a large screen popped up in mid-air displaying the scenery of a large open grassland. And upon that grassland, was the figure of the Instructor whom they just saw entering the pod.

"Virtual Reality?" Looking at the screen, Xen couldn't help but frown. This thing was a relic of the past. They have moved way beyond that into the era of Augmented reality. They didn't need to rely on headsets or pods to enter a virtual realm. The entire planets were covered with nanomachines except for a few restricted zones. It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that with the help of Augmented reality, one could even transform his own room into something else without even needing to put on a headset. The chip on the back of their head was just a cherry on top that confirmed their identity and let them use augmented reality more effectively.

"The hell are they doing with this antique?" Xen wasn't the only one with such thoughts, Aurora beside him frowned in confusion too. This thing was a relic of a bygone ear. What was this instructor even thinking?

While many people like Xen and Aurora were thinking about this matter, the woman on the screen finally addressed them.

"Many of you must have been wondering why I am showing you such an antique?" She let out a soft chuckle before speaking further. "Well, in a sense, it is a relic. But..."

Her eyes narrowed into slits before her voice echoed in everyone's ears. "We have repurposed it now."

"It can not only let you practice in various scenarios, but it could also let you feel the real sensation. Inside here, you can smell, touch and do almost everything. Consider this another world."

The smile on her face just kept on getting brighter the more she introduced its functions. "Not only that... But it has an internal built-in sensor and fluids that will supplement your body. So, the hard work you do there will be fed back in the real world."

"Isn't this exciting?" After speaking these words, the smile on her face faded for a moment before he continued in a rather calm voice.

"Inside here, you will face more than just challenges. You'll experience fear, pain, and exhaustion. This is more than a game—it's your future."

The crowd went silent for a long time. The majority of the children couldn't understand what she was talking about, but the few who did, all had an expression of disbelief. There had been talks about something like this, but no one ever managed to make it.

Who would have thought that there would be someone who could make this dream come true? For a moment, their hearts were filled with excitement. Earlier, they were hesitant because of the fear of suffering injuries and trauma. But since they didn't even need to practice in the real world, they could go as wild as they wanted there. Even if they died, they would only feel the sensation and not true death.

The more they thought about it, the more they clamoured. In the end, the woman had to exit the pod and force them to be silent.

"Since you understand it, then enter your pods." Waving her hand, she ordered them to enter and soon, the children followed suit.

Within moments, everyone has entered their pods.

"Start the simulation." Looking to her left, the woman gave a nod before the simulation officially started.

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Without further hesitation, Xen entered the pod.

The moment he entered, the lukewarm liquid filled the pod quickly, and before Xen could even blink, a sense of weightlessness overtook him. His vision blurred, and for a brief moment, it felt like falling asleep—only to awaken, not in the pod, but on the endless grassland that stretched as far as the eye could see

"This is?" He looked around with some nervousness, afraid that something might jump out the next second.

The three kids on the other hand were already running around with loud waves of laughter.

As for Aurora... She just let out a heavy sigh while looking at the circus in front of her.

Just when they were lost in their train of thought, a screen jumped in front of everyone.

[Dear candidate, your training will start now.]

[Please follow the instructions.]

Along with these simple rows of text, there was an additional row of text below them.

[Run 10000 Meters.] (0/10000)

"What the!?" Xen looked at the task with a stunned expression. He was expecting some ferocious creature to pop out whom they needed to defeat together. But who would have thought that they would be greeted with such a task?

Just when he was wondering about it, he saw Aurora stretching her body before she started running.

"AAh!"

"Sister me too."

"ME... me... mee..."

Looking at Aurora's departing figure, the three brats immediately began to chase after her.

"...." Xen looked at this scene with a stunned face. He didn't expect them to follow this order so soon. Gritting his teeth, he clenched his fists before running behind them.

-------

After half an hour, with the exception of Aurora, the rest of the four were lying on the ground, panting like dead dogs.

"Hmph." Aurora snorted in displeasure before continuing with her journey.

Xen noticed her displeasure, but there was nothing he could do at the moment. His physical fitness wasn't as good as hers. Even running for half an hour straight was a goddamn miracle. If not for these three brats encouraging him from time to time, he would have fallen a long time ago.

"What a shame." Watching Aurora glide through the task while he lagged behind with every laboured breath gnawed at Xen's pride. How could he possibly keep up in this world if even children could outlast him?

He looked at the progress before a wry smile ran across his face.

(1100/10000 meters)

"Damn it." For a moment he wanted to curse out loud. The instructor wasn't kidding when she said this place was like another world. It truly reflected their physical conditions. And if that wasn't enough, it even let them experience tiredness, sweating, panting and innumerable other small things. For a moment Xen even forgot that this was a virtual reality and not the real world.

[Please keep on running.]

Just when the four of them were lying on the ground, a new message popped in front of them.

"Ugh..." Gritting his teeth, Xen stood up and began to run once again. He wasn't going to die either way, so he might as well run for as long as possible before. These thoughts gave him a bit of comfort through this arduous journey.

Three hours passed in the blink of an eye as a different scene was playing in the grassland. Xen along with three other kids was lying on the ground. Their breathing was feeble as if they were about to die. As for Aurora... she was in the distance sitting on the ground in silence, though exhaustion was clearly visible on her face.

She completed the task in less than two hours. But those four bastards... The more she thought about it, the angrier she got.

Even after three hours, they haven't finished their tasks. instead, after running for 5000 meters, they couldn't take it anymore and fell to the ground.

No matter how much she shouted or urged them to move and finish their task, they didn't budge an inch. Helplessly, she could only wait for them.

One more hour passed in the blink of an eye before a new notification popped in front of them.

[Daily time limit is over. Exiting the simulation...]

With this, everyone felt their eyes go black before they found themselves back in the pod.

"Fuck me." The moment Xen came back to the real world, he almost shouted in fright. Never before in his life did he run this much. Exiting the pod in fright, he looked around only to see a lot of others just like him who were full of panic.

"Huff... Huff..." Taking deep breaths, Xen calmed down his riling emotions before observing the changes in his body.

Surprisingly, his body which was clearly submerged in a liquid was completely dry at the moment. Not only that, but he could even feel muscles all over his body contracting in pulses like he had been exercising for a long time.

"Interesting..." Just when he was checking the changes with great interest, the scene in the hall changed. The woman responsible for instructing them arrived in the middle of the hall before looking at them with a gentle smile on her face.

"I hope you all enjoyed your first day of training." The smile on her face bloomed even more as she spoke further. "Now, we will divide the groups into four parts, 'A', 'B', 'C', and 'D' based on your performance today."

With that, she signalled the men beside her to collect their previous room tokens and then assigned completely new tokens to them.

"This..." Looking at the token in his hand with the letter 'D' on it, Xen was speechless. He knew the performance of his team was terrible. In fact, if not for the presence of Aurora, he even wondered whether these people would have thrown him and his team out of Mars into outer space.

"Well, could have been worse." Xen could only console himself with a smile.

It would have been fine if he had stayed silent, but the moment he spoke this sentence, Aurora beside him trembled in anger before clenching her teeth and looking at him with a murderous expression.

"It could hardly be worse." If not for the presence of the instructor and other people, she would have slapped this ungrateful wretch to death on the spot. How dare he belittle their efforts without putting any.

There were a lot of things she wanted to say, she even wanted to scream, but in the end, it all turned into a single sigh. There was nothing she could do anymore. The only thing she could do was to hope that these guys would put some effort into improving, otherwise, she would have to meet the instructor and change the team.

"Umm..." Smiling awkwardly, Xen just nodded in response before heading towards his new room. Even though he wasn't physically tired, he was still mentally tired. At the moment, he desperately needed a rest.

After some twists and turns, Xen along with his team finally arrived in their destination. But the moment they arrived, Xen was left speechless. For a moment, he even wondered if they had come to the wrong address.

In front of him was a small room that was almost half the size of the previous one. Instead of proper beds, there was a set of mattresses laid on the ground.

"We... We are going to live here?" Arian looked at the room first before looking at Xen. His small mind couldn't comprehend why they were here in the first place. Didn't they have an even better room than this?

"Good fucking job." Since she couldn't blame the kids, Aurora targeted the only viable person... Xen.

"....." Xen on the other hand speechlessly looked at the scene in front of him before letting out a deep sigh. When he exited the simulation, he wondered what the so-called penalty was. For a while, he even thought that it was just a made-up thing to encourage them to perform better.

It was only after looking at the room in front of him did he realised what the so-called penalty truly was.

Not only were they given such crappy rooms, there were even sealed quick meals placed at the corner of rooms for them instead of a fresh meal.

The more he looked at it, the more he found himself at a loss.

Noah paused, his small fists shaking a little. "We… we'll do better tomorrow."

His voice cracked, but the look in his eyes stayed strong. Even though he was young, he finally understood how badly they had failed. He glanced at the others, hoping they felt the same worry he did. They had to do better—if not, they would be stuck in this horrible place forever. No warm meals, no soft beds, just cold, hard life.

Aurora's lips shook as she looked at him. The tight feeling in her chest eased just a little. For a moment, she had almost given up—she was tired of pulling the kids along, tired of carrying the heavy weight by herself. But Noah's simple strength broke through her frustration.

"Good," she said quietly, forcing a small laugh as she bent down and tapped his nose, trying to hide how tired she was. "I'll leave it to you, little hero."

"Ugh..." Looking at them getting along, Xen just stood at the side with a speechless expression along with a tinge of jealousy. But for now, he didn't dare to show it on his face. He just clenched his fists and silently made up his mind to perform even better.