[2:15 pm, Indoor Gym]
It's been 10 minutes since I ran away from Elric and the rest, after presumably going to the "bathroom".
Arriving at the indoor gym, I found out that the others were already there waiting. A few more minutes after that, instructor Kurt arrived carrying a piece of paper attached to a writing board.
Seeing that none of the participants, except those who were being injured, were missing, he proceeded to give a brief seminar on what we were going to do for the afternoon.
"All right gather up!" (Kurt)
Following the instructor's loud command, all the kids dragged their tired bodies and gathered before him.
"For now, all you have to do for this period is to use the equipment inside the gym for as much as you can. That will stay the same for two weeks as after then, we will assign each of you individual workouts to follow depending on what we observe from you during the time given." (Kurt)
"I won't prolong this anymore since we're already 20 minutes late, so go on now. And also, take note that we will always be watching you. Don't you dare think of taking this time to slack off, understood?"
Nod Nod Nod!*
With him giving the kids that extremely scary look, no one would dare slack off now.
However, I didn't care about most of that as after instructor Kurt was finished with what he said, I immediately moved to a place I've been very curious about since the tour.
While everyone else was busy trying to find something they could use, I separated from them and headed into the innermost part of the gym where I found the room I was looking for.
[Gravity Room]
{Gulp... hehe, I'm a little excited.}
Grabbing the handle to the room, I opened the glass door and went inside. Inside was a ginormous open space coated with white tiles and white roofs all around. In the middle of it was a rectangular shaped panel that had about a dozen buttons and levers.
I wasn't familiar with any of them but I could already guess what the number in the middle of the panel represented. Currently, x1 was the figure written on it, so this probably relates to the multiple of gravity present in the room.
On the right side of the x1 figure were two buttons that had + and – written on them, as if already knowing what was going to happen, I braced myself as I pressed the + button a couple of times until the figure reached x5.
"Hmmm.... nothings happeni- gughk!"
Despite bracing myself, I was still taken aback by the sudden pressure that bored through my body.
{That....that's....that's the stuff!}
Even though my body was creaking right now, I couldn't help but smile at the premonition of using this room every day for training.
Without using any equipment at all, I already managed to reach the physicality of a middle school athlete in a matter of a few months. So, thinking of the possible gains I'll get from this machine and how fast I'll get them made me extremely excited.
"All right, let's not waste any more time, first push-ups."
Readying myself, I then started doing my routine in this heavier environment.
This moment of bliss went on for a couple more minutes until suddenly, while I was performing lateral movements, the door suddenly opened and a black-haired boy came in.
{Cha-Chao Yuchen!?}
When he first came in it seems that he was taken aback by the sudden gravity increase, but after a few more seconds it seems like he adjusted as his expression went back to normal.
Feeling the weight, he then started to perform a couple of strange stretching poses, as if the gravity didn't affect him at all.
"Hmmm.... hey you."
Hearing him calling out to someone, I turned my head backward to see if there was someone else in the room. But since no one was there, pointing my index finger at myself, then that could only mean that he was calling out ...
{To me, huh}
"Yes?" (Jericho)
"Is it all right if I increase the gravity a little? I don't really feel that heavy right now."
"!?"
{Is this guy crazy!? I'm already - no... calm down now, his number 1, your just some rank 50th trash, just be glad that his asking politely}
"O-Of course, increase it as much as you want."
"Thank you."
As if glad that he gained my approval (even though he didn't need it) he then went to the panel and started pressing the + button a couple of times.
{Hah... I guess this is fine as well, as they say, no pain no gain.}
Pip pip pip*
"..."
Pip pip pip*
"..."
Pip pip pip pip*
{Ho-how much are you planning on adding you assho-!}
"Gargh!!"
Before I could complain, it felt like an entire mountain was crushing my body as the enormous increase in gravity tolled on my body
In this room, the weight doesn't change gradually but instead changes all at once after inputting the desired figure. This meant that after Yuchen finished adjusting the weight, I didn't have the chance to adjust myself and had to take on the entire brunt of the increase.
"Hahh, that's much better." (Yuchen)
Letting out a sigh of satisfaction, completely disregarding how I was, Chao Yuchen suddenly started doing martial arts I'd never seen before. At one point he was releasing consecutive punches at fast speeds, then on another, he started performing flips and kicks all over the air.
"Mo-monster..."
{How can he move like that in this situation!? Argh, and it's taking everything I have just to stand up too.}
I don't know why this was so, but... a weird sense of frustration started rising in me... a frustration to not be overdone.
{As if I'd just go down like this, watch me!}
"Arghhhhh!!!"
Pumping myself up, I tried to do one jump to show that this gravity was doable even for me, prompting Yuchen to look at me.
Tensing my legs, I was now in a squat position and only needed to spring myself up to jump... But like a kite with no wind, my body suddenly withered down as if I lost all my strength making me fall face first.
Feeling my consciousness slipping away, the last thing I saw before passing out was Yuchen's startled look and the figure in the middle of the panel that showed ... x20.
{Da-damn you!}
Thud!
----------
"Argh... my head... what happened?"
"Oh, you're finally awake?"
"Huh... Ke-Kendrick?"
"Bingo, how do you feel?"
"...Like I have no strength at all-"
When I was trying to answer him, I suddenly started remembering what happened before I passed out.
Feeling the embarrassment kicking in, my entire face turned beet red as I covered it with both of my hands.
"... I wanna die."
"?"
"Kill me!!"
"!?"