Chapter 6 – The Brutal Education Program – Part 2
The bus moved into the military camp. Inside the bus, half of the players gave up the combat class and logged out while the other 50 players remained. Four players and Mia were the only female characters in the bus while the rest were men.
Officer Krastel watched the clock counting down to zero. Once the clock ticked zero, he gazed at the remaining players and continued giving instructions.
"I see that all of you have resolved yourselves. Congratulation for entering the military camp for the first time! From now on, you are no longer a civilian! Although I said this, we won't treat you like real recruits or real soldiers because we know that all of you are still under-aged."
"Once the bus stops, I want all of you to rush out of the bus and follow the drill sergeants' instruction. Within the camp, you cannot speak anything but 'Yes, sir', 'Yes, chief', 'No, Sir', 'No, Chief', 'Aye Aye, Sir Chief', or 'Aye Aye, Chief'. That's the basics for now. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, Sir!" Mia shouted by reflex.
On the other hand, the rest of the players had never been in the military or had any knowledge about the ancient military system. They kept their mouth shut in nervousness and confusion.
"Only one of you did your homework. The rest is still a bunch of kids, ah? Remember this, always reply your superior officers with the words I've told you. If you failed to do this, you're going to get yelled at, and your performance result at the end of the first tutorial will be worse than the others that strictly followed our instructions."
The eyes of the players sharpened when they heard that there was a performance result at the end of the tutorial. Their mindset changed from spoiled students that followed the instructions of their parent's word by word into players that were seeking result from their quests.
"It's one of those games that requires role-playing, right?"
"Ah, I've overlooked this. This game is just that simple."
"It's an immense type of game. I can do this."
The players here had experienced other VRMMO games before. Each game in the market had different settings and genres, but they were categorized into two types.
One was an immense type which players had to role-play and initiate a conversation with NPC to get a quest. They were required to travel around the game and completed various tasks as the game storylines progressed.
The other type was a simple system type. The players automatically got quests by clicking a few buttons in the menu. These games were mostly action games that players did not have to care about the lore and the background storylines. Players simply jumped into the game and enjoyed the combat system that the games had offered.
When they first arrived here, they thought that this game was the second type because they had seen the commercial and the action battle scenes. Most action games used the simple system type, so they misunderstood.
Meanwhile, Mia did not care about these trivial things from the start. He just wanted to pilot one of those Mechs.
…
The bus stopped in front of a building, and the bus door at the front opened. Officer Krastel got down first and the shouts of the drill sergeant echoed from below.
"GET DOWN FROM THE BUS!"
Without a word, the players on the front seat jumped up and rushed down the bus. Players behind him followed suit in a hurry.
Mia managed to squeeze himself into the line of people before he got out of the bus.
"Move to your department! Move! Espers to the left! The rest to the right! Move!"
Mia dashed to the right of the front building where there were markers on the ground. They were the hint where players should stand on. There were 3 players that had gotten out of the bus earlier lined up in a row.
"Form the line of five! Any excess, form up a new line! Faster!"
…
All fifty players form up in ranks with 45 players in front of the left building while Mia and 4 others stood in front of the right building.
'Eh? Only five of us here?'
Mia was surprised by the separation of divisions. Majority of players chose Psychic Division.
Because of the strict education that all students went through, all their initial intelligence were between 400 to 600 which was at least 3 times higher than an average person. As a result, players with experiences made the best of their status by choosing a career that required high intelligence.
Psychic Division was found in this 23rd-century and was still a dominant division even in the 46th-century. With players' advanced knowledge of the future, they believed that this division would benefit them in the long run.
The four players besides Mia had an ugly expression. They also thought that they had picked the wrong division judging by the majority of choices.
'It doesn't matter. It might be a bit lonely, but I'll pilot a robot in the end.'
Mia hyped himself up while he listened to the drill sergeants' shouting.
"Turn left and get down on the ground! Give me a hundred push-up, now!"
The five players were shocked. A hundred push-up from the get-go?
Mia gritted his teeth and attempted to do what the drill sergeant ordered. The moment he gave one push, he felt that the gravity of this earth was pulling him into the ground. He had a hard time pushing himself up with just one push.
'What's going on? I can do 50 at home in a session all the time. How come I can't even do one over here?'
The other players faced the same situation. They could not complete even a single push-up. None of them realized yet that the ground they were on was rigged by the game, so the gravity on the place was double that of the real world.
"PATHETIC!! Is this all you've got!? None of you can even do a single push-up, yet you want to be a soldier!? Why don't you pack your bag and go home! We, soldiers, have our standard! None of you are qualified to call yourself a soldier! Until you complete one hundred push-ups here, you will stay here in front of the building!"
The drill sergeant yelled out and stomped around the players. He sometimes lowered his face down and stared at one of the players into the eyes and started cussing incomprehensible words.
[Quest Initiated]
[Tutorial 1.1 – Complete one hundred push-up! (0/100)
[Reward – Bonus EXP to STR and VIT. Stamina Attribute will be unlocked.]
'Oh wow, seriously?'
Mia was amused by how the game gave out a quest for doing this mundane task.
"An average recruit can complete this in less than 5 minutes. But for you lots, I doubt that you can complete this in 10 minutes! How about this, I'll make a bet with you. The first one that completes this task under 10 minutes will get a reward from me!"
[A challenge has been given!]
[Complete the Tutorial 1.1 within 10 minutes (0/1)]
[Reward – A title from the drill sergeant.]
'Oho? Looking down on me? Bring it!'
Mia mustered all of his strength to push himself up the ground. He was the first one who completed the first push-up.
*Ding*
[Complete one hundred push-ups! (1/100)]
'OK, one at a time.'
Mia pushed himself down. Because of the intense gravity, the breasts of his character touched the floor.
*Boink*
"…"
*Boink*
As if there was magic at work, the elasticity of his breasts gave him a bit of strength to help him in the push-up. He managed to raise himself up easier than the last time while he was shocked by the discovery.
*Ding*
[Complete one hundred push-ups! (2/100)]
'Dafuq!? I thought I configured these things to be firm, so it won't sag. How the hack they become a spring!?'
*Boink*
"…"
Despite the chaotic thought inside of Mia's mind, he retained his poker face on the outside. He felt so embarrassed to the point that he wanted to be reincarnated as a carrot, but he had to continue.
*Boink*
*Ding*
[Complete one hundred push-ups! (3/100)]
*Boink*
*Ding*
[Complete one hundred push-ups! (4/100)]
…
…
Four minutes later.
*Boink*
*Ding*
[Complete one hundred push-ups! (100/100)]
[Congratulations! You are the first player who completed the push-up under 5 minutes!]
[You've received 100 EXP]
[You are level 2! 5 Additional Free Attributes have been added!]
[You've received 20 STR EXP]
[You've received 20 VIT EXP]
[Stamina Attribute has been unlocked!]
The drill sergeant smiled at Mia and smacked his shoulder in satisfaction.
"Good job, recruit! That's how a soldier should be! I thought you wouldn't be able to complete it in ten minutes, yet you did it under 5 minutes! I'll give you something as a reward!"
[You have received the title "Good Recruit!"]
[Title – Good Recruit!]
[Title Effect – Maximum STR and VIT increases by 2. Your superior officers will favor you.]
Mia's character still had the same poker face. He did not want to utter a word because of shame.
Meanwhile, the other players glanced at him in admiration and awe. The task was so difficult that they could not complete 50 push-ups yet, but Mia had finished it without a slight change in her(his) expression.
'Such beauty and such discipline.'
'She must be an athlete in real life.'
'Wow, that's a tough girl!'
"You lots! None of you have the right to rest yet! Get your chest on the ground! Recruit Misha! You can enter the barrack. The staffs inside will instruct you the next task!"