In the family headquarter, at the gym...
Felix was currently running on the treadmill, wearing tight sportswear and air pods on his ears. His breath was steady and had only a few sweats drops on his forehead.
Running next to him was Olivia who had the same outfit on. The only difference was that her struggle to finish the run was clearly shown through her heavy breaths.
Although a month already passed by, she still wasn't used to running 5km each day, plus doing other exercises at once.
A few minutes later, Felix got off the treadmill and started to stretch on the ground, preparing to do 100 pushups, 100 squats, 100 sit-ups.
He felt that 50 for each exercise was just a waste of time for him, as it was not actually helping his body fitness improve at all. So, he doubled the amount on day three since the camp started to this point in time.
"Felix, how do you feel about the pain tolerance that's going to start tomorrow?" Olivia stopped the treadmill and sat down next to Felix.
Confused, Felix removed the air pods and asked, "Did you say something Oli?"
Olivia repeated what she said and added with a hint of fear in her eyes, "Also do you think they will shock us with electricity to build our tolerance or just beat us with sticks as I saw in videos?"
"What's going on that mind of yours to think like that?" He facepalmed and explained, "Did you forget about the UVR? They can simply use the party feature and take all of us inside. Then buy the awakening package from the Queen AI."
"What does is it do? Are we going to practice awakening?"
"Exactly like you said, but with more depth."
He pointed at his back and Olivia understood what he meant. She laid her hands on it and began to push him down the floor, helping him stretch. After a couple of pushes, he thanked her and continued his explanation.
"To awaken in real life there are only two paths. One, succeed and emerge as an awakened, or die in your own agony while slowly watching your flesh dissolve. However in the case of awakening in the UVR, the pain degree can be controlled, and the process can be canceled whenever things start to get ugly."
"So this is how it is going to be?! Just like a mock exam." She crinkled her eyes and nose and said, "Now my cousins who can't even handle the pain from the practice won't dare to awaken for real, right Felix?"
Her happiness was understandable, as before 70% of her cousins were destined to die based on what Felix said, but now with this mock practice, she believed that no one would continue on treading this path, knowingly that awakening was impossible.
After all, it was only common sense to not risk awakening for real, when the mock practice wasn't passed successfully.
However, Felix sneered at her naive thoughts, "Stop fooling yourself Oli, at this point, no one is going to back out no matter what happened. They will always think that they are the chosen ones destined to awaken. So they will go for it either officially or hidden, even if they couldn't handle 1% pain from the practice."
"Can't I just inform them that to have better chances, they will need more pain relief bottles?" She murmured with her shoulder sloshed.
Felix replied calmly while doing his pushups, "Be my guest, just don't get your hopes up, since whether you informed them or not, the maximum bottles they can have is still two. That's only if they were lucky and bought them at the start."
"So nothing can be done then? I really don't want to see my sisters die." She chewed on her lips and stared at him with watery eyes.
Annoyed by her whining, He stopped doing his pushups and point a finger at her head, "Focus on yourself first. I doubt you will be able to awaken with even 20% duration." He scolded her, "So before putting death flags on others, remove the one on your head first."
Olivia immediately held her tongue after realizing that Felix was right. Just because she only had a 20% duration, it didn't mean that the pain degree would be lowered. This meant that she was still standing on a thin line, as her pain tolerance was absolutely horrible. So, she stopped worrying about her sisters and focused on finishing the rest of the exercises.
...
Tomorrow morning at 09:00 AM...
Juniors and the upper echelon of the family all gathered on the 35th floor.
"Children you did well the past month. Some excelled at the training, while some performed subpar. But what's important is that all of you took the training seriously and worked hard. So you deserve a round of applause from us elders and your parents."
'Clap' Clap'
Applause rained down on the embarrassed juniors immediately after Robert finished saying his piece. The juniors could only scratch their cheeks or avoid looking at their parents' proud expression. They honestly felt like the applause was a tad over the top, as the majority of them actually straight-up didn't finish 50% of the exercises each day. In their eyes, the applause was exactly like being cheered on for obtaining a participation reward.
Regardless, most of them still had a hint of pleasure at this shower of approval, as the moment Felix went to that island and revived his project, they were getting nothing but punishments and disappointed looks. So, participation reward or not, they would gladly take it with open arms.
They were that desperate for a win.
"Abraham, why don't you take it from here?"
After the applause died down, Robert passed the hot potato of informing them of the next hellish training to Abraham, while sneaking behind the Elders with a tired expression.
Abraham who was minding his own business peacefully turned speechless after seeing Robert's shameless action. 'Fucking hell, we should have realized that drawing straws to be the informer was a bad decision when this old fart was playing with us.'
Irked, Abraham stood up with black lines on his forehead and trod towards the podium to cover for Robert.
'Reining the drawing straw agreement is really a classic move from Brother Robert. I expected nothing less from such a business genius.' Albert mused at Robert who was being served coffee with a polite smile.
"You have successfully passed the first fitness training task. But this was just the easiest one of all the upcoming tasks, so don't get too full of yourself, and keep working diligently."
He coughed and said at a faster pace. "Now that's out of the way. It's time to start the next task, which is the awakening mock practice, or in other words, the pain tolerance training."
"To not waste time we will start right away." He nodded his head at the elders to make a move first. The elders tapped on their bracelet, showing that sentence Felix showed to his cousins before, and stood in front of the four lines that were made by the juniors.
"This task will be carried out inside the UVR, and before you get excited, you should know that you are merely entering the white personal room of the user, not the UVR world itself. So don't get your hopes up."
The light that shone in the eyes of the juniors was extinguished as fast as it appeared. Uncaring about their disappointment, Abraham began explaining how the party feature of the AP bracelet worked. His explanation was almost exactly as Felix's, quick and straight to the point. The juniors began doing exactly as he said, by memorizing the sentence and lying on the ground after.
"Begin the process."
As soon as they heard Abraham's thunderous declaration, the elders started touching the juniors' foreheads.
A couple of minutes later, the last junior closed his eyes and stopped moving just like the rest.
....
Inside the white room of Elder Charlotte, Felix leaned on the wall and yawned in utter boredom at Charlotte's detailed illustration of how the awakening mock practice was going to be. It turned out, that Abraham didn't explain the process, as he planned for the elders to do so inside their rooms.
"Alright, I think everyone has some idea of how the integration process is going to be now." She clapped her hands to wake up Felix who was dozing off and asked, "Who wants to go first for a quick demonstration?"
However, the juniors acted deaf at her question, as each of them avoided eye contact with her. Felix chuckled softly at this sight, as it reminded him of the time he was acting in the classroom after the teacher asked a question.
Meanwhile, Charlotte didn't find this sight funny at all, since the last thing she wanted was cowards on the group she was responsible over for the next month.
"Kids, the pain is going to be set at 5% of the real thing. So if you don't have the guts to practice the awakening. Do us all a favor and just back off from now to save us resources and time, okay?"
Her taunt bore fruits, as the juniors who were all hesitant to be the first to go, all started raising their hands and voices to be picked after being looked down upon like this.
Pleased, Charlotte pointed at one randomly and informed him, "Prepare your mentality and relax your body. The moment I push the injection needle that is filled with 1% beast's bloodline in your heart, the process will begin."
The junior couldn't help but sweat buckets from his body pores, as his eyes landed on that long needle that was about to penetrate his heart. He wiped his sweaty palms with his sleeves and calmed his heartbeats a bit.
Regardless of his fear, he understood clearly that he couldn't back down from this demonstration. After all, if he was terrified of even a needle, there was no need to bother continuing treading on this path, since those needles were going to be needed in each integration! So, he could only gulp a mouthful and nod at Charlotte to begin the process.
Without further ado, Charlotte pushed the long needle deep in his heart and injected all of its content directly inside.
The junior felt a momentary pain from the penetration, almost causing him to yelp out loud. But that was it. The bloodline that was injected in his heart did nothing but spread apart and travel through his bloodstream, reaching every nook and cranny of the body without harming him at all.
Just like a peaceful guest coming to visit.
Minutes slowly passed, and still, nothing happened. The juniors watched in bewilderment at their cousin, who had his eyebrows frowned in worry and confusion.
Just as he wanted to open his mouth to ask the elder what was going on.
"AAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!"
An ear-piercing shriek escaped from his mouth, scaring the shit out of everyone near him. No one expected such a high pitched scream to come out of a rough-looking young man like him.
Speechless, Felix glanced at his cousin who was wailing with tears and snort in his face, while flaying his limbs around, like a fish captured in a net.
'If this is how you act when dealing with only 5%. Are you going to levitate in the air when you take 100%?' He covered his eyes at this embarrassing sight, not wanting to see anymore.
'If everyone is like him. Then we will lose at least 80% of our juniors in the process.'
Meanwhile, Charlotte's eyes were emitting waves of despair at this sight. She was truly about to lose faith in those juniors if everyone's pain tolerance was the same as him.
'I hope others perform better. Otherwise, by the time they try to awaken for real. only dead bodies will welcome us.'
Hopeful, she switched her sight from the junior who passed out due to pain, marking the failure of the process, to the rest, who had horror clouding their faces.
They knew that fainting meant instant death! So for their cousin to actually fail awakening from just 5% of the pain, they couldn't help but feel a sudden chill at the thought of awakening for real with 100%.
It was only now, that the true face of awakening was shown to them in all of its glory and obscurity that the world council was hiding from them.
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