When the clock struck four am, Dewy and Bright headed down to the living room and were surprised to see Key and Nico sleeping on the couch, they noticed the mugs surrounded by ants and assumed the two had fallen asleep after waking up too early.
"Well, Key was too excited yesterday." Dewy chuckled and Bright nodded with a small smile
A while later, Key woke up after hearing sounds coming from the kitchen where Dewy and Bright are preparing hot drinks for the members to drink after they wake up and noticed that she's facing the ceiling at a greater distance, which meant her head is in a lower elevation and sat up.
"Did you sleep well?" Bright asked as he and Dewy entered the living room
"Yeah…" Key trailed off when she turned her head and realized that she had slept using their captain's lap as a pillow
"You ended up falling asleep after waking up early," she looked at their captain whose eyes are still closed after he spoke
"How long were you awake?" she couldn't help but ask him
"Why do you want to know?" he asked her back and Key sighed before leaning on the couch and shaking her head
Key's head turned to the stairs when she heard noises.
"Good morning, Opal, El," she greeted them with a smile
"Morning, Key," Opal replied
"You're up early," El commented
"We're going to do physical exercises today, right?" she asked and stood up
"Yeah, you ready? You might pass out from trying to keep up with us though." Opal said and Key jokingly frowned before chuckling and shaking her head
She was about to stand up when her phone vibrated and Kitten's name flashed on the screen.
There was a photo of a kitten above the caller ID 'Beloved Kit'. It was a habit of theirs to give endearment to each other, hence the caller ID.
"Excuse me," she excused herself before getting her phone and immediately answering it
"Hey, I just woke up, what's up?" Key said as soon as she answered the call
[On my way to pick the troublemakers, any messages that you want me to relay?] Kitten asked her
"You're heading to the ancestral house?" she couldn't help but ask slightly confused
[No, I meant the other troublemakers.] Kitten replied slightly nodding her head to the left
"Oh, those troublemakers... Just remind them to tone it down a bit, it often gets too messy around there." Key answered with a smile
[Sure thing, and oh, I did some two-seven-three's, you won't believe what I found out.] Kitten said
'Two-seven-three' or B-G-C is a code they used which stands for background checking.
"What did you find?" Key asked curiously because Kitten is not the type to bring those things up for fun
[I'll send you the fours, see you soon, KC.] Kitten said and hanged up
Detail is what Kitten means with 'fours' or the fourth letter of the alphabet; D.
"Your sister?" she turned around and saw Alexei
"That is my best friend," she answered with a smile
"Oh, I see," Alexei said with a nod
"Let's go, they're waiting for us downstairs." Alexei said and they headed to the front door
"Good morning, everyone!" she greeted everyone
"You should drink something hot first, you might get a stomach ache." Rio told her and Key nodded her head while smiling
"I already drank hot chocolate this morning," she answered
"You should've ordered hot chocolate for me as well." Quant told her
"Huh? Isn't there a container of hot chocolate powder in the cupboard?" she asked confusedly after recalling where their captain got the hot chocolate they drank
"That's captain's…" Quant looked at her in distress
"Isn't it for everyone…?" she asked confusedly and the rest looked at her before looking at Rasheed
"You won't get mad at her for drinking your hot chocolate, will you, cousin?" Alexei asked Rasheed
"You can't get mad at me, Captain," she said and Rasheed, whose hands are inside the pockets of the black jacket he's wearing, just turned his head in the other direction
"Rasheed won't get mad at you if he's the one who gave it to you." Dewy said with a smile
"That's a relief," Key said while nodding her head and sighed
"Alright, everyone, fall in line according to your heights please." Dewy said and Rasheed pushed Key in front making Key turn her head to glare at him while the other members stifled their chuckles
"Opal, come here in front." Bright called Opal who marched up in front after they all formed a straight line and faced them
"What are we doing first?" Dewy asked him
"We will be doing thirty jumping jacks," Opal said and motioned his arms straight on both sides
"Make your tallest finger meet, that's the distance you need to have." Opal said while keeping his arms in line with his shoulders
"Done," they said simultaneously
"Alright, one," he said and they started doing jumping jacks
Under the clear blue morning sky, eight figures in front of the JLNC's gaming base are doing jumping jacks.
Dewy rested and let the players complete the thirty counts of jumping jacks after doing twenty, while Quant wanted to rest after finishing fifteen jumping jacks but Bright called him out while doing jumping jacks himself.
"Stand up straight," Opal told them after they finished doing the thirty counts of jumping jacks
"Just copy my movements." Opal said before pressing his palms and fingers together with his fingers pointing upward and his elbows pointing outward
The rest of the team mimicked his position and pressed their palms and fingers together with fingers pointing upward and elbows pointing outward. Opal lowered his hands but kept his elbows in place, the rest of the team also lowered their hands while keeping their elbows in place.
It was uncomfortable, but as long as nothing is hurting, they continued lowering their hands for thirty seconds.
They did several other gamers stretches like Supine flexors stretch, reverse prayer position stretch, pronated extensors stretch, thumb adductor stretch, thumb extensor stretch, and joint distraction for the fingers and thumbs, and the wrist.
"First, we will jog around the base ten times. Follow my lead, everyone." Opal said and turned around before he started leading the jog
In ascending height order; Key, Quant, Rio, Alexei, El, and Rasheed jogged after Opal with Dewy and Bright jogging behind them.
They jogged from the front of their gaming base going around the place, then going back to the front base of their gaming base.
"Hey, Opal, I thought you said jog? Why are you running?" Quant asked when Opal's pace quickened after their second lap
"You too, Key!" Quant called up to Key who's matching up Opal's pace
"Am I?" Key asked jogging backward and facing them
"You're getting tired, Quant," Alexei tapped Quant's shoulder before jogging ahead of him
At the third lap of their jog, they have scattered from the one line they had earlier.
After finishing the ten laps of jogging; one that turned into a running race during the two last laps, they lined up in front of the JLNC base once again.
"Next, we will be doing some squats." Opal said and Dewy prepared his phone for the five-minute timer
At Opal's signal, they all began squatting with their arms in front. Three minutes in, their arms and bodies began aching so for those who are exhausted, Bright allowed them to stand up and rest.
Only, Opal, Rasheed, Alexei, Rio, and Key remained to squat until the timer rang.
"What will we be doing next?" Key asked, despite the sweat-drenched hair sticking on, her face still brimmed with enthusiasm, which amazed the rest
"Wow, you're not yet tired?" Dewy asked her and key shook her head
"Not yet…?" she asked with her head slightly tilting in confusion
"Do you exercise a lot, Key?" Rio asked her and only then did Key realize that compared to her teammates, except Opal, she's the only one whose face hasn't turned red from the continuous exercises
"Right," Key muttered in her mind. Of course, her stamina is higher than any average person her age on paper, she was a military general for more than three decades about five centuries ago.
"Yeah, I took up some martial arts a decade ago so I really needed to exercise." She answered
"So, what will we be doing next?" she asked
"We'll be going inside and we'll be confiscating your gadgets," Dewy answered
"Gadgets…?" she asked blinking in confusion
"We're not allowed to use any gadgets the whole day," Quant answered and her eyes widened
The bright lights suddenly dimmed in her face, if one is to call Key's expression, as she followed them back inside the gaming base.
"You haven't experienced a no-gadget day, yet?" Rio asked her and the way Rio called it made Key's expression lighten
"Oh, so it's just like a no-gadget day." Key said in relief
"What did you think it was?" Alexei asked and Key shook her head