When Kaas woke up, Aska was already waiting for him, and breakfast was on the shelf.
He felt uncomfortable, but he quickly pulled himself together and got out of bed.
This time Aska was wearing a new, light and very elegant dress, as if she, was preparing to meet her parents too. She glanced at Kaas, who did not seem to know what to do and without prefaces, said:
"First, have breakfast and take a shower, you need to get your head in order before I change your status."
"The main thing is not to switch it over unexpectedly", he replied, took the food and sat down at the table with a deep sigh.
"Don't worry, your sync is only 17.25% right now, I'm not planning any action until you hit your 49.2% peak like yesterday." she reassured him.
"But how can I do it quickly?" he asked.
"I don't know, try to do your exercises. Today's plans will not be the same as yesterday."
Kaas calmed down and turned on gourmet mode, hoping it would speed up his awakening. The thoroughness of his attitude to food at this moment, could become an icon for hedonists of all worlds. But if they knew that he, at this very moment, actually regretted that he did not have his book, they would curse him as a traitor.
When he finished, he neatly put the empty boxes and cans back on the shelf, looking regretfully at the empty beverage cans.
"Aska", he asked, "is there a refrigerator?"
"Why do you need a refrigerator?" she asked in surprise.
"Sometimes I want to drink just like that without food."
"Can't you drink without a refrigerator? You have 7 more cans of different drinks in your pantry."
"But why didn't you say it earlier?" he asked in surprise.
"I didn't even think about it, they are not necessary."
"Teach me how to use this invisible home pantry, okay?"
"I'll get you drinks right now", she replied, "and the pantry study should be postponed until tonight, which is important, but it will take time, which is not available right now."
With these words, 2 cans of drinks appeared on the food shelf. They were identical in size to those he had seen earlier, but they were brighter and had a lot more writing on them.
Kaas took one can in his hands, turned it over, looking at it and changing his mind about drinking right now, put it back and went to the shower.
He spent an hour on all the procedures, as if trying to procrastinate. Even if he did nothing to change his state on purpose, his excitement grew, not giving him even a minute of peace. He constantly thought about how he would meet with his parents and how exactly it would end.
Along with the excitement, synchronization grew, which he certainly did not know about. But this was closely watched by Aska.
Finally, wearing the most ordinary clothes he wore on his first day, Kaas got out of the shower.
"Well!" Aska said suddenly.
"What's 'well' ?"
"You are already ready, your synchronization is 50.1%, this is just an excellent result compared to the past days. It's time to change your status!" she exclaimed expectantly.
"Wait, I'm not ready at all!" Kaas protested.
"But what's stopping you? You're in better condition than usual!"
"I'm worried and I can screw it up!" he answered excitedly.
"How long are you going to worry?" Aska asked him doubtfully.
"Actually, I'll worry until it's over." he answered ironically and clarified, "just give me time to drink and collect my thoughts."
"Okay, just tell me when you're ready. You should know that right now, in your notes, you just woke up, had breakfast and took a shower, there is nothing about me or about our conversations."
"I get it", he said with a sigh and took the can of drink.
"Just remember that you don't need to worry", Aska added hastily, "I'll help you with the speech texts, and you, just speak as usual."
Aska, while speaking in a confident and calm tone, also looked worried, which calmed Kaas a little, her worry and concern seemed genuine. This immediately put him in a position where he should be confident and strong. Oddly enough, it was her manifestation of weakness that made him become more determined.
I just need to exchange phrases, like in classes, he thought, put the unfinished can on the table and walked into the middle of the room.
"Aska, what should I do?" he asked, looking her straight in the eyes.
"You already know, now I will change your status, it will be such that your relatives can contact you, but everyone else will be limited. When this happens, you will need to talk to them."
"But how will they contact me?"
"You've seen Adri, it will be very similar. It is important to remember only two things", she answered, "do not address me aloud at this time. Whatever you think of saying, first think about looking at my icon, I will prepare the most suitable version and give you the text you need."
Then let's get started, he thought, looking at her.
"Okay", she said.
Kaas only managed to swallow with excitement when a new icon appeared in his interface, which immediately lit up as a reminder of food, the difference was that next to it there was an inscription in Kiva, next to which was Aska's translation "Mom".
"To confirm the connection, just click on this sign."
Kaas did as she said, but instead of confirming the connection, there was an additional choice: presence, augmented reality, voice.
"Choose presence", Aska prompted.
He touched this point, and after his choice, as if entering the room from the wall behind which Aska was, a beautiful young woman appeared, whom he had already seen on the video yesterday. Her green hair was cut and barely touched her shoulders. Exotic light green eyes, as if shone with a mystical light, and a smile bloomed on her face. It was Kaas's mother, Asura.
"Your father is slowing down as usual", she said, shaking her head as she made a gesture in her own interface invisible to Kaas.
Kaas was silent, not knowing what to say, and Aska did not help him. Not even a local second had passed when the awkward silence was broken by a man who appeared, apparently invited by Asura.
"Here I am, here", he said, looking awkwardly at Asura.
Of course, it was Kanter, his father.
Aska didn't waste any more time. And a simple text with a translation appeared in front of Kaas.
"Mom, Dad, I made you nervous", Kaas read with a smile, awkwardly touching the back of his head, which was indicated as a necessary gesture.
He probably acted in a similar way in ordinary life, but ordinary improvisation would clearly not be enough.
"We knew you were okay", Asura replied with a smile and looked at Kanter with an obvious hint.
"I hope you learned the right lesson from this event", he responded to Asura's stern gaze.
It was clear who was the boss. At least this question was clearly ruled by his mother.
Kaas smiled to himself, and looking at Aska's icon, gave his own version of the answer. There was no need to wait, she reacted instantly, the text in Kiva and the translation appeared in front of him at the same moment.
"Father, are you worried about what exactly did I learn from this accident?" Kaas asked with a smile.
"Haha, of course you're right, your mother and I are thinking about it." embarrassed, he answered loudly.
"Don't pressure Kaas", Asura said sternly. "Our son would not make stupid conclusions."
"Mom, Dad, although it was an accident, I'll be careful. I still need my life." he read with a smile. The second phrase, which sounded like a proverb, was added by Aska.
"You will still have to visit your grandfather", Asura said. "He promised that he would not conduct any more experiments while you were visiting him."
"It's not fair, Mom, experiments are the most interesting part" Kaas answered jokingly, "you probably insisted".
"And I thought you flew to him to prepare for tests in history", she retorted, "when did you get interested in science?"
"History is also a science", Kanter interjected.
At that moment, Kaas's second breakfast appeared on the shelf, which was a few minutes late and which was clearly ordered by Aska.
"You have to tell them about your martial arts practice yourself", Aska said, "although they already know, but it's not customary to demonstrate excessive awareness."
A text immediately appeared in front of Kaas.
"I am interested not only in history", Kaas began, "now I joined the Zemtsu-Mudzu club and am going to visit my coach today."
"Ha-ha, great", exclaimed Kanter, "a man must develop comprehensively!"
From the look on Asura's beautiful face, it was difficult to understand her attitude towards this news, but she clearly did not intend to comment for or against.
"It's time for us to work", she said with a smile, hinting at the food with a glance to Kanter, and continued, "Kaas, we'll be back in a month, let's go together to the club you wanted to visit?"
"Of course, Mom", he replied.
Kanter and Aska simultaneously made a hand gesture that meant 'see you soon', and they both disconnected.
"How do you like your parents?" Aska asked.
"They're even too cute", Kaas replied, taking food from the shelf.
"Too much?"
"They didn't scold at all."
"But why should they scold? Did you do something bad?"
"In past world, I would definitely be scolded, or even beaten." he answered with a frown.
"This behavior is already outdated. You got your lesson, they know it from your records, and they were convinced of this personally, what else is needed and why?"
"But if I did something bad, wouldn't they scold me?"
"If it's against the law, then you would be punished. That would be your lesson, why should they scold? An assistant would explain your mistakes to you. Parents, of course, were also involved in the educational process, but already talking about their mistakes."
When did the parents admit their mistakes? thought Kaas. On Earth, they usually lied about something like 'At your age, I would never acted like that', as if it could motivate to imitate, especially since children often subconsciously felt a lie.
"Today, you need to contact the club's coach to get your lesson plan", Aska reminded.
"Will it be the same as with my parents?"
"Yes, exactly the same." Aska confirmed.
"And when to school?" Kaas asked.
"Tomorrow! You can add your wishes to the school store list only at school. There are 5 more days for this, but it is better to go there without delay, children usually do not wait for the very last moment."
"When should I visit my grandfather?"
"Contact him in the evening, this is the main thing. There is no rush with the trip."
"Why travel if video communication is no different from reality?" he wondered.
"Because your grandfather, as you know, lives in his own house, far from cities. This is considered pretty cool. In addition, Hoga Vix is not very fond of communicating remotely, and Kaas liked almost everything, including the taxi ride and the change of scenery."
Kaas finished his lunch and was in high spirits due to his success in communication.
"I am ready to contact the coach." he said, "it should be easier than with my parents?"
"Of course, you haven't met before."
"But what should I tell him?"
"It doesn't matter, just act according to the circumstances. You are just a beginner, and he is a coach and it is his task to lead you in training."
"Then how can I call him?"
"Look at your interface, this icon means a list of contacts, the coach was added right after you signed up for the club." Aska replied pointing to an option on his interface.
Kaas took the unfinished juice from the table and opened the list of contacts, everything was divided into sections: home, study, games, hobbies, favorites, etc.
The club ended up in the 'hobbies' section, and there were several contacts on the list of the 'Zemtsu-Mudzu' club, one of which was simply signed 'coach'.
He took a sip of juice to wet his throat and pressed 'call'. The contact's record just changed its color.
"Now we have to wait", Aska explained.
Kaas had almost finished his juice when the color of the recording changed once more, and a man literally burst into the room.
However, as soon as Kaas saw him, in surprise he spat out the remnants of the juice right in the visitor's face.
This reaction was because his call was answered by none other than Adri, who either taught or tortured him for the past few days.
Adri looked at Kaas, who was standing in an awkward pose with bulging eyes.
"What a technique!" said Adri, "who taught you to meet your coach like that?"
"This… this is a misunderstanding", Kaas stammered.
"Does it mean a misunderstanding? I am waiting for you in the gym in a minute, and there we will look at this ... 'misunderstanding'." He said sternly and disconnected.
"Aska, what should I do?" Kaas asked fearfully.
"Of course, go to the gym, he won't do anything to you." With difficulty restraining laughter she answered.
With these words, the door of the transport system, already familiar to Kaas from the video, opened.
"Go there and choose your club in your contacts, just like you made a call. And they will take you straight to the club." Aska said, "It will cost 10 golds, but on the other hand, you do not have to walk down the street, now it is better to avoid it."
Kaas sighed, and with a doomed look entered this room and followed Aska's instructions.
The door closed, Kaas did not have time to understand whether he felt movement or not, when after a few litas, the door opened again, and he saw a rather large sports hall in front of him.
Before he had time to look around, he was already called out:
"You're a quick thinker, did not keep me waiting", Adri said in a stern voice, walking right up to Kaas, who was stunned from such pressure.
"Since you have just joined the club, then you need to meet everyone, follow me", he said sternly and walked to the side, where people of different ages trained in several impromptu arenas.
Adri stopped and, as if talking to himself, said:
"So, who will test your skills?"
Kaas began to look at the trainees in shock. Absolutely everyone was much older than him, which did not mean that there were no children in the club. But who else would be visiting the club at a time like this, if not professional fighters?
Adri's gaze lingered on one figure, which sparred with the movable dummy, repeating the same tactics over and over again. At the moment of the enemy's attack, made a feint and step back with a shift to the left or right, counterattacked from a different angle and again retreated in the same way. In appearance, it was the smallest and youngest fighter in the hall.
There was just one problem. This is the same girl from the direct punch training program. Kaas immediately recognized her, and seeing her fast and smooth movements, he could not help but shudder at the thought of a possible collision with her.
Doubt was painted on Adri's face. Kaas looked at him and thought, So what should I do? Obviously, this threatening behavior is just a game to tease the newbie, fucking joker.
"It will be bad if, on the very first day, the newcomer has to be sent to the medical center", Adri said in a half-whisper to himself. Then, he turned towards Kaas and with a frightening expression on his face, said, "Well, newbie, there is no way out, I have to do it myself."
"No, no, no, how can you?" Kaas quickly objected, with a righteous expression on his face, "You are a coach and twice my size, won't they then say that you are mocking the little ones?"
"Well said, but you have no other choice", Adri replied loudly with a sly smile on his face.
"There is a choice", Kaas replied more calmly, simply pointing his finger at the training dummy.
Adri frowned and looked like he had eaten a lemon. Without saying a word, he walked over to the free dummy and made several adjustments, after which he changed its shape and size, shrinking. The dummy was now about half a head taller than Kaas.
Adri waved his hand, and the dummy took its position in one of the circles representing the arena. By this time, many of the fighters were already distracted from their training and with smiles, looked towards the unfolding drama.
"What are you waiting for, go show what you can", commanded Adri.
Kaas shrugged and left, not knowing what to expect. Before he had time to approach the dummy, it had already begun to move towards and attack. The dummy was ridiculously slow, apparently Adri did not expect anything at all from such a squishy.
The first exchange was with hands, the speed allowed, and Kaas intuitively, with his left hand, repulsed the blow coming towards him, not outward, but inward, knocking down the opponent's hand and at the same time opening its side for a blow. Then, taking a quarter step to the left, he threw his hand straight, indicating a blow to the liver area.
It wasn't perfect in technique or strength, but Adri raised his eyebrows in surprise, clearly not expecting anything like that.
The dummy continued, again attacking from the left, but already with its foot in the body, Kaas, in the same way, knocked down the opponent's leg, and following instincts, made a direct kick. But due to poor stretching, the blow did not reach the body, but his heel, absolutely definitely hit the dummy's groin. This was not a violation, because there were no rules in Zemtsu, but if Kaas had looked at Adri, he would have noticed how his legs involuntarily clenched. And from the side there were small chuckles.
Kaas decided to attack and swung to make a direct punch, which he had been training for the last few days, but the dummy leaned back and at the same time tried to counterattack Kaas in the legs. He lost his balance, and in order not to fall, in search of support, he took a long step forward, and abruptly waved his hand allotted for a blow, no longer for a blow, but in order to catch at least something.
* BAM *
It was a blow to the groin with a fist, as he fell with almost all of his weight into it, even a distinct sound of a blow was heard. Several deep breaths and comments came from the outside.
"Ohh, this guy is fierce."
"Do you think he did it on purpose?"
"Who knows, but if it were not a dummy ..."
Adri frowned even more, and changed the settings of the dummy, which in response, began to act much faster and more energetically.
Kaas was forced to retreat, but tried to repeat the movements that he had recently seen at the training girl, bouncing to the right, then to the left. He looked awkward, but this tactic worked, because the speed of the dummy was still quite slow ...
The dummy threw a low kick, Kaas intuitively made a move from a past life, counterattacking with the hip, which was aimed at the opponent's blow. It was a counter blow to the kicking leg, it made it possible to significantly reduce the force of the blow, bring the enemy a number of problems and provide an opportunity for a counterattack.
The opponent's groin was exposed, and Kaas kicked out his leg like he was hitting a soccer ball. The ring was already almost completely surrounded by spectators and the new sigh was even louder.
"You saw it, this guy definitely did it on purpose. But he was simply asked to demonstrate his skills."
"Maybe that's all he knows? He's just a monster, who trained him?"
"Probably an even bigger beast."
Meanwhile, the dummy seemed to go berserk and rushed at Kaas, practically driving him into a corner. Of course, it was Adri's work, but Kaas had no time to think about extraneous things, and when a kick to the head flew from the dummy, feeling that he could not block him, Kaas fell to the floor and did a forward roll.
He didn't think about anything special, he just wanted to get out of this unfortunate position at the first opportunity he got. But since he did not train rolls, it just turned out worse than ever.
However, the sighs and screams that were heard spoke of the opposite. The fact is that during a roll, he accidentally caught the opponent with his heel, and of course, since he was doing a roll right under it, another impressive blow to the groin came. Half of the spectators, including Adri, instinctively covered their valuable place with their hands.
"This guy, even during sparring, tries to inflict as much damage as possible."
"What kind of sparring is this?"
"He struck only 4 blows and three of them were to the bells. He's just a demon."
"So, stop", Adri interrupted the comments and the fight. But instead of getting angry, he laughed. "Excellent, wonderful!"
Kaas, who had already awkwardly stood up and thought about how to proceed, was surprised to see how the dummy calmly walked past him leaving the ring.
"Who taught you these techniques?" Adri asked approvingly.
Kaas really didn't know what to say, but Aska helped him by throwing an acceptable lie.
"In fact, I only bought two training programs, and I have been training recently. But I watched a lot of fights."
"And what are these training programs?"
"And these are your programs, direct punch and for general physical training", Kaas said with a sneer.
"Ha-ha, I knew, here it is, a real talent! You are ready! Completely ready!" Adri almost shouted.
"What am I ready for?" Kaas suddenly became wary.
"For the beginners tournament, of course!" Adri answered cheerfully.
"Stop!" Kaas shouted, raising his hands, and continued in a stubborn voice, "I'm not ready at all, and I want to prepare even more."
"Quite ready, you beat the dummy who fought as a copper rank 5 level. This means that you will easily pass the first level."
"But I don't want to just go through the first level!"
"What do you want?" Adri asked in surprise.
"I want to do 200 out of 200!" Kaas answered loudly and confidently.
"It's almost impossible!" Adri replied decisively.
" 'Almost', isn't it?"
"I'll explain to you", began Adri, "long training will allow you to become much stronger, but now you are 10, and when you become 11 or 12, your opponents will also be much stronger. Do you understand?"
"I see", Kaas replied, "but I'm not going to train for that long."
"And, how long are you going to train before the tournament?"
"I just turned 10 years old, and I want to fight all 200 fights before I turn 11. Therefore, before the first tournament, I would like to practice for at least a month."
Adri frowned again and said: "in fact, to have 200 fights in a year is quite realistic, but we have, according to the schedule, tournaments that are held once a month to qualify the ratings. And to participate in 20 tournaments per year, you will have to travel to other cities."
"If we have to, then we'll have to. Coach, I totally rely on you!" he replied with a smile, "I definitely will not let you down, so come up with the best training program for me so that I will definitely win!"
"Kaas", Aska called to him. "Finish here, it's time for you to have dinner."
But he didn't have to finish anything, Adri did it, laughing even louder.
"Ha-ha, if this is your desire, I will certainly help you, but remember, you will have to strictly follow all the instructions! Classes will start tomorrow, send me your schedule and I will fill it in!"
"So, everyone, go back to training, the newbie is going to knock out 200 out of 200, you all need to take an example from him, and maybe then our club will finally rise to the top 100!"
"You too, go do your business, I have already learned everything I need." He said to Kaas and turned away from him without seeing him off, as if he was not there.
"I've already sent your schedule to him", Aska prompted. "Follow the arrows in front of you, they will safely lead us to the nearest cafe."