Lying in bed hot after both mental and physical fatigue was a blessing in disguise. But the alarm that went off just three hours after he went to bed shitted all that beauty.
Waking up to the sound of the alarm, Alexander threw himself out of bed and immediately put on his clothes. The clothes were handed over by Jade Dragon's men last night. It was one of the traditional martial arts outfits with dragon decorations on the back.
Alexander hurried because the remaining three would be subject to sanctions. However, because of his haste, he rubbed the clothes against the wound on his back and made him take a deep breath.
Everyone had to wake up in less than five minutes and line up in the big hall. Those who were not ready in the process would be whipped.
Alexander lined up and waited for subsequent orders. Masked instructors came and took them outside, and Alexander saw sunlight for the first time in a long time. When he saw the sunlight, he looked around a lot, not caring about his burning eyes.
He took to the greenery and plenty of oxygen.
'I'm not in the world. This should be Elysium.'
The atmosphere was unusually clean and the air sounded very sweet. Such clean air was impossible to find in the dead world.
He also knew he was on top of a very high mountain. No mountain in the world could be so high. Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to think about running away. After seeing the skill of Jade Dragon and the others, he could predict that if he attempted to escape, he would be killed instantly.
After they were taken outside, the instructors ordered them to run five kilometers. The last three people had both a whip and a breakfast penalty.
Fortunately, Alexander's condition wasn't that bad. Although he was not as good as the others, he was able to finish at the end of the twenties.
After the run, they had them lift weights under the name of strength training. They were asked to perform a variety of basic body movements with four two-pound wrist weights attached to their arms. Many children who performed high in running failed in this training and were sentenced to whip.
Alexander, on the other hand, was a little stronger than before after four months in the dark. Therefore, he was able to complete his power training, albeit with difficulty.
After the power training came breakfast. Even though the sun had just risen, their hard training had already filled them with the desire to die.
Luckily the breakfast was quite rich. They had more fine food in front of them than Alexander had ever seen in his life, and probably never before. On top of that, there were no limits. They could eat as much as they wanted in forty-five minutes.
Alexander ate his breakfast in moderation without filling his entire belly.
Immediately after breakfast, they switched to other training. Short-distance runs with weights on their wrists, fitness-enhancing training, and more. The training did not pause until the sun went down and the moon rose.
The training were mainly on strength and conditioning. The workout started at sunrise and continued until the moon rose to the top. There were no rest opportunities except for small breaks.
As Alexander arrived in the dormitory, he let himself go to bed and immediately fell into a deep sleep. The two whip wounds on his back still hurt. So he lay face down.
So the first day was behind us.
The next morning, the terrible alarm woke Alexander from his sleep and returned him to reality. He was all his tiredness and felt like shit. But he didn't have time to be idle. He quickly prepared and took his turn.
Today was no different from the day before. After the day of heavy training, Alexander put himself to bed and surrendered to sleep.
The next day something different happened. After breakfast, a skinny boy with blue hair sat across from Alexander and looked at him in a caring way.
Alexander didn't care about it at first, but after a while, he annoyed him and looked up at the boy.
"What's up?"
"I just wonder what my bedmate is like."
The boy had a pretty cute face. Even in such a gloomy environment, he hadn't lost his sparkling smile.
"Bedmate?"
So that was the person lying on the upper floor of his bed.
'It's not a nice phrase.'
"Yes, let's meet. From now on, we will act as partners anyway! My name is Noah, I'm going to turn ten. You?"
Alexander knew that being alone in such environments was like desiring death. Also, if he was going to be a partner with this person from now on, it would not hurt for him to meet. And this child could be the door to the information he wanted.
"My name is Alexander, and I'm going to turn ten."
"We mean we're our age. Hm hm, that's nice."
"..."
"Don't look at me like that! I can't tell you how hard it is to talk to the people here. Most of them were sold to the Black Dragon Camp by high-ranking families. Their arrogance doesn't go away."
'Black Dragon Camp?'
Alexander asked after looking carefully at Noah.
"Black Dragon Camp?"
"Of course! This is Elysium's number one secret training camp. A high-level organization that opens every ten years and educates children through a ten-year program. Camp the Black Dragon is the birthplace of many figures who are famous in Elysium."
Noah frowned.
"Did you come here without knowing these things? Are you a high ranking or a mound like me?"
"I don't know which one I am."
Alexander stopped eating and got up from his seat and retired to a corner away from people. He could hear Noah calling from behind, but he wasn't in a position to answer him.
'Black Dragon Camp is a high-level training camp that has taken its place in Elysium. It is used by noble families to raise warriors. It's an extremely brutal training program."
So far, he had understood everything.
'But what am I doing here? Judging by the way people behaved, they weren't locked in the dark room for four months like I was."
Something was wrong. There was a lot of difference between what he heard from Noah and what he went through. Should he have addressed this issue?
"If they're serious enough to bring me to Elysium, it wouldn't be good for me to take matters into place. It's best to secretly expand my knowledge network and make friends with as many people as possible. In such cases, building a castle will do me more harm than good. It won't be good to be separated from the others.'
Although Elysium was the cornerstone of mankind, it contained very dangerous things. It would be foolish to look at one side of the coin. Where there was light, there was darkness, and where there was an opportunity, there was danger.
The Black Dragon Camp may have been providing a high level of training, but their training was brutal. Death was not the worst end that could be encountered here.
"I need to keep up with your plans for me and slowly get stronger. I don't even know how to fight yet. It would be foolish to try to stand up to them."
The best he could do was keep up.
He had to keep up and take everything he could.
"They give us eight hours to sleep. The remaining sixteen hours are all spent in training. Since this is a training camp, there will be exams soon."
Alexander looked up and looked at Noah's weary face. After a deep sigh, he slowly walked to the table and sat across from Noah.
"Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?"
Alexander smiled as Noah looked at him in a daze.
'There's no need to think about what I don't have.'