It was the next morning and Lucie just woke up. She checked what time it is on her phone and it was barely 7 AM. Lucie went down to take shower. When she walked out of her room she saw that all rooms except one had a green light on their terminal, but one had red. 

Green light meant that the owner is awake, or isn't in their room, but red means that they are sleeping. Lucie doesn't know why there is this kind of function but she didn't really care. 

Lucie walked down and took a shower, dried herself, and with a towel around herself, she went out of the bathroom. As they need to go through the living room to go to the second floor, she was able to hear the mansion's main doors open when she was going up the stairs.

''Good morning.''

''Morning.''

It was Aurora, she probably was coming back from her training at the gym.

''I will get dressed and then make some breakfast, can you wake up Mara in the meantime?''

''Sure.''

Yesterday they talked almost, if not, all day, they wanted to know each other better, and it went better than they thought it would, and somehow they become good friends. Probably because they had similar struggles, all of them were in a bad situation. Even though Mara had a normal family, but as farmers, it wasn't easy they still had tough times.

They got to know each other and it was kind of fun. And thanks to UA recruiting them they and their loved ones from now on will have better lives. From the chat they had yesterday Lucie understood that Aurora's sister and mother are now living on the 20th floor in UA HQ, they were offered to live on one of the VIP floors but they refused, they liked the more lively common floors, but they still got a house on that floor. As for Maras family, they live on the same 20th floor, but her father and mother got a spot as the UA agriculture leaders. There are a total of 14 leaders right now, and they are responsible for all agriculture stuff like, where the funding goes, where and how much invest in certain things, and all that.

Mara's parents got that spot because they were very knowledgeable about farming, and as they had to sometimes improvise to survive they had many good ideas and theories. Another thing is that Mara's mother has a nature affinity magic core. But she wasn't proficient in using it, because she needed all the time she got to attend their farms and to housework when they lived at the farm.

At the start, UA wanted to give them a spot on the VIP floor but got rejected, because same as Auroras family they wanted to live in a lively place. As for the farm, it was left behind, and as the land didn't belong to them but the local lord it was easy, basically they quit their jobs. Well at least that is how Lucie understood, she isn't very knowledgeable about these kinds of things.

After a bit of time, Lucie was dressed and in the kitchen looking for a recipe on the internet, Lucie was little surprised that she didn't think about looking for recipes on the internet when she made the sup yesterday. The idea was brought up yesterday when it was time for dinner and Emma brought that up.

After a bit of searching, Lucie found a good recipe for pancakes. One good thing was that all their food and spices and cooking stuff is automatically restored by the UA. But it only restores the normal stuff if they want something like monster meat or something that is mana rich, then they need to get it themselves.

As Lucie was making pancakes she heard Aurora and Mara coming down.

''Good morning Mara.''

''Good morning~.''

They both sat down at the table and were waiting for breakfast. Mara was still sleepy and was yawning from time to time. As the pancakes were almost ready, Lucie took her phone and messaged Emma, to come eat breakfast.

One thing in the UA HQ app that was new was messaging function, it was better than any normal one because they could message each other about anywhere. But they could only message members from Team Zero.

After a little bit of time, as Lucie was putting down the plate with pancakes, Emma came and sat down at the table.

''Morning everybody!''

''''''Good morning.''''''

And with that, they started their breakfast. The table was lively as they ate the pancakes and chatted.

''Ah, right Aurora how was your gym?'' Lucie was curious about Auroras gym, like what functions there are and what machines.

''The gym is pretty big, it has all the training machines you can think of. Plus it has good showers that you can take right after training, it has refreshing beverages stored there in a fridge. Basically, it has everything needed for a good workout.''

Aurora looked excited as she talked about the experience and functions at her gym. 

''Looks like you are satisfied with your gym.'' Emma remarked and you could really tell that Aurora was more than satisfied.

''Yes I am, they did a good job making it. But on that note, have any of you been to your chosen constructs?''

''No, I have a plan to look at it today.''

''Me too, I want to see the fishes they put in the pond.'' Mara was drooling a little bit, when she was talking about visiting her fish pond.

''I visited the forest this morning. It was big and had many variants of animal and plant life~.'' Emma looked just as happy as Aurora was.

With those satisfied looks on the two faces, Lucie had some expectations about her laboratory. But before that, she wanted to check out the training simulation in their basement. 

Lucie asked the others if they wanted to come with her to the basement, and they all said yes. They too were interested in the simulation.

There were two entrances to the basement, one was outside at the back of the mansion, and the other one was near the stairs that leads to the second floor. 

Right now they were walking down to the basement, with anticipation.

After some walking down the stairs they arrived at the basement. They were shocked and didn't make any sound when they saw the basement.

''It's bigger than I was expecting... No, let me correct that, it's MUCH bigger than expected.'' The first to break the silence was Aurora. And Lucie had to agree with her, because the thing was bigger than a plane hangar.

[Welcome to training simulation Team Zero] 

The sudden robotic voice got them out of their trance, and at the same time, a terminal of sorts came out of the floor in front of them.

The terminal screen had options like, [Environment], [Opponents], and [Weapons] and at the bottom was [Start] and [All Random]. But that was only the beginning. In [Opponents], there you could choose what you want to battle, how much, how strong, and what kind of second cores they have if they aren't monsters, and the list goes on. 

It had a lot of options and they were stunned by how much this simulation had to offer.

''So who goes first?'' Lucie asked, as she saw that everyone wanted to try it out.

''Can I go first?'' The first to answer was Aurora. She looked the most eager to try.

''Well I have no objections, how about you two?''

''I can wait.''

''I'm fine with that too.''

Emma and Mara both were fine with letting Aurora try first.

With everyone being fine letting her go first Aurora started to fiddle with the terminal. She chose one opponent and it was set to (Race)/(not monster), the power of it was set Tier 1, and as a weapon, she chose gauntlets and all else she put on random and pressed start.

[The simulation will start. Please those who won't participate go to the observation room.]

With that said, Lucie, Mara and Emma went to the observation room. The room had soft chairs and a sofa, it had a snack bar, and beverages in a mini-fridge, also it had a big screen so that you could observe what happens in simulation. As they sat down the simulation started. On the screen they saw Aurora with her gauntlets, they looked kind of imposing.

The opponent was a muscular male beastkin or more precisely bullkin, he was about 210cm tall, he had unkempt dark brown hair, and had a bull-like tail and horns. He had a two-handed battle-ax with blades on each side. And he had two enchanting cores. 

The first to move was the bullkin, with a loud scream he charged at Aurora. It was easy to charge in a straight line because they were in big plains. 

Despite the yelling and charging bullkin that was coming at Aurora she looked calm. Aurora didn't move for a little while, but then she punched the air in front of her and made a shockwave activating her ability. 

The shockwave was fast, and it hit the bullkin right on. But as he was some distance away the shockwave did little damage and he didn't stop the charges momentum. Aurora created more shockwaves with her fists and sometimes legs. The closer he got the more damage he took from each shockwave, but he still got close enough to Aurora so he could reach her with his ax. And that was where it went downhill. Although Aurora had some fighting experience, because of her family's previous condition, she fought only some small thugs. But here the bullkin looked like he has trained in his ax mastery and combat. 

Even though Aurora had some advantage because of her [Shockwave], as it could send shockwaves through opponent's weapon to them and mess with their insides, at Tier 1 it wasn't strong enough to let it overcome the barrier of combat experience, and more so when her opponent had two enchanting cores. Aurora lasted for about one minute before she was sliced in half. And the bullkin didn't even use his beast mode.

The moment Aurora was proclaimed dead, the simulation ended and Aurora was totally fine and there weren't any signs of her fighting or getting sliced in half.

With the simulation ending, they got off their seats and went to check Aurora.

''Are you fine Aurora?'' Lucie asked little worried she could see that she didn't have any injuries, but still, she was little worried.

''Huh?! Oh, I'm fine. I just realized that I need more combat training more than I thought.''

''Indeed, this fight opened my eyes, even though I wasn't the one fighting.'' Lucie too learned from this fight, and she was sure the others have realized that they all need combat training, quite a bit. But this didn't discourage them, actually, it did the opposite they now were more determined than ever to get stronger.

''Does anyone else wants to try?'' Lucie wanted to try herself but she offered the other two if they wanted.

''Yes, I want to go next!'' Mara looked excited as she proclaimed her wish to go next.

''Emma you're alright with that?'' Lucie asked for Emma's confirmation, and Emma nodded with her usual smile.

With that decided Mara stayed by the terminal and the three of them went to the observation room. 

Mara chose the same settings as Aurora but she didn't pick a weapon as she fights with her claws.

Her opponent was human male 2m tall and had a greatsword as his weapon, and same as the bullkin he had both of his cores as enchanting ones. They were located in a rock forest. 

Mara activated her beast mode the moment battle started, and she went full offensive. 

Similar to Aurora, Mana lost but she survived longer, because of her ability [Beast UP] combined with beast mode her strength, speed, vitality, and other things got a big boost. Mara's regenerative power was enough that any shallow wound got healed in a few seconds. But still, she lost because the enemy was still stronger and more experienced, and her regenerative power wasn't off the charts because she still was Tier 1, the deeper wounds could take minutes or hours, and if one of her libs is cut off she needs a whole days rest. Although normally it isn't possible to regenerate your libs, and that in itself is enough to get Mara some respect but it still isn't enough for fights like these.

Next up was Emma and the settings were similar but she chose an environment where there was some kind of liquid. As for the weapon Lucie tough, she would choose a staff... Well technically it was staff like but it was more like double spear it was staff with two spearheads on each end. The battle started, her opponent was different it was a bow user and had fire affinity magic core.

They both were near a pond with a waterfall. Emma fought well but still lost, she controlled the water from the pond as attack and defense from the archer's fire arrows, but she still lost. Her plan was to get in range so the archer can't use his bow, but Emma forgot about his fire magic, as he used it mostly just to make himself arrows.

Emma lost because he made himself a dagger and she got stabbed in the heart by the fire dagger. 

After the fight, Lucie asked Emma about her weapon and Emma answered with a logical explanation.

''I do know how to wield a staff, so I wanted to have something staff like but at the same time something I could stab or cut, because my ability [Liquid manipulation] allows to weald all liquids including blood, so that's my reasoning. But it still was somewhat different than staff so I will need to relearn some things.''

And Lucie agreed to that statement because the more liquid was on the battlefield the stronger she was. Emma could control the blood of different people but not when it is inside them with her Tier 1 powers.

Lucie was the last of the bunch and she chose her weapon to be katana, but she lost the fastest and her opponent was similar to Auroras and Maras. Although Lucie was the one who lost the fastest she was the one who learned the most, because, she activated her [Super Learning] to the max, and while fighting she was improving at a fast pace. But not fast enough as she lost pretty quickly.

After all, that ordeal and some chatting it was time for lunch. Lucie made some sushi, as making sushi was harder than pancakes she had some fails, but she quickly learned the basics and made the lunch.

''Mhh~ I love fish!'' Mara was ecstatic about the dinner, and she didn't stop eating until she was full. 

After dinner they had a chat, they talked about the training simulation, little bit about their past. Mostly the parts where they had to fight. Mara sometimes needed to defend the farm from different monsters but they were mostly weak ones. Aurora had more running in thugs, as she and her family were poor and had to live in a bad district. Emma didn't have that drastic situations, but she was bullied by her peers, and she had some fights with them here and there.

After that chat, they went different ways and Lucie wanted to check her lab and see how it looks. Emma went back to her forest, Mara similar to Lucie wanted to check her pond, but Aurora wanted to call her family with a video call so she stayed at the mansion.

---

It took some time for Lucie to get from mansion to lab. 

When Lucie was at the entrance she saw how big was the lab it was bigger than the basement in their mansion. After a bit of standing still at the entrance she went inside, and it was amazing, at least that's what Lucie thinks.

There were many machines and equipment in the lab, and it was neatly organized by sections and professions. The first thing she did was went to the computer they installed, it was one of the newer modules. 

Lucie turned on the computer. After it turned on Lucie could see the desktop. On the desktop was only two things, app needed for the internet and file about the interior of this lab, well they were shortcuts.

Lucie opened the file about her lab, and in it was a map and full list about the machines. Like, what machine was where and what does it do.

''Oooooh, this is a lot.'' Lucie looked how long the list is. Lucie knew that she needs help.

''I should probably get an assistant of some sorts.''

Lucie had some idea where to get one but she wasn't too sure. As she was thinking that she suddenly got an idea when she was thinking about this morning.

''Right an AI assistant, it could be efficient and cool. Hihihi~''

Lucies idea wasn't bad but there was a problem she wasn't that good at programming, she read some books about that at the library, but no enough to program AI from nothing. But it wasn't hard to get to that level, at least to Lucie. 

So Lucie started looking on internet she downloaded some books and videos about this and started her grind.

---

~Auroras POV~

Aurora was right now looking what's new on the internet, and at the same time thinking about the call she had with her mother and sister. Aurora still remembers all the hardships they had gone trough. They had to be sparing with the food, cloths and other thinks, they didn't had luxury.

When Aurora was offered to join UA Team Zero she automatically accepted, because she wanted better future for her family especially her sister. And she didn't regret that decision.

At start Aurora was thinking that they will use her like some sort of killing machine or servant, but she was fine with that, if that means her family could live better. But with time that kind of thoughts disappeared. First was when she met Sara, she had talk with her, so she knew what was coming her way, and it was good talk as it cleared some doubts. 

But when she read information about the teammates she got little nervous, because she didn't know what kind of persons they were. But that too was slowly cleared out of the way. First she met Emma.

Emma was gentle and kind, she had this aura around her that made you calm. Next was Mara and she was interesting person, but in a good way.

The last was their leader, when they were driving to meet her all of them hoped she wasn't some asshole or some narcissistic brat. Put the moment they saw her in her underwear and her invitation their doubts were somewhat blown away.

And after yesterdays long chat they all became good friends. Aurora was happy about her situation, and she saw how her mother and sister were living right now, and that made her smile. 

As she was thinking about all that happened in this short time, she heard some one come in.

''Hey, Aurora how was your talk?'' It was Mara, and she was kind of wet.

''It was good. So... what happened to you?'' 

''Got little excited about the fish and tried to cache some, but slipped and fell in the pond.'' 

While they talked little bit Emma came in.

''Hello~''

''Oh, hi Emma.''

''Mm!''

Aurora answered her, and Mara just made a sound, while she was drying herself with a towel.

''Oh my, what happened to Mara?''

''''(She) fell in the pond.'''' Both of them answered at the same time.

They talked a little bit mostly and Mara was excited when she talked about the many kind of fish where in the pond, and how she thought they taste. 

''Speaking about food, it's dinner time. Where is Lucie?'' Mara was talking about the fish when Aurora asked about Lucies whereabouts.

''I can call her.'' Emma took her phone and called Lucie, but after more than one attempt, she still didn't pick up. So they went to her lab, because that was the last place they knew she was going.

When they arrived at the lab they saw how big it was and were surprised, but they had to find Lucie so they went inside.

They were little shocked when they saw Lucie looking at the computer screen intensely. They didn't disturb her as they knew each others abilities, and saw Lucies purple glow in her eyes. They saw that same glow when they trained at the simulation when she fought.

After about 10min she stopped and the glow disappeared too.

''Oh, didn't see you there, is something the matter?'' Lucie looked little surprised seeing all of them here.

''Lucie do you know what time it is?'' 

''No!?'' Lucie at Auroras question Lucie looked at the time on the computer screen and looked shocked.

''Wow I was here longer than I thought! Sorry about that.''

''It's ok, but you should know that we are kind of depending on your cooking, as none of us knows how.''

''Yes, well I will finish really quick and then let's have dinner.''

''Thanks.''

After that ordeal they went to the mansion and Lucie made fulfilling dinner.

---

~Lucies POV~

Lucie was little surprised when she saw all of her teammates at her lab, but when found the reason she was little surprised, she didn't saw the time pass. On the way back at the mansion they had little chat and had some fun, Lucie asked Mara about her pond, and when she saw Maras face when she talked about fish that is there, or Aurora telling how Mara fell in the pond, she couldn't help but laugh. 

They talked how was their day and some funny stories from their pasts. The chat still went on at the dinner table until it was time to sleep. The best part was that they draw lots who will go to the shower first, and Lucie was dead last. It was Emma, Mara, Aurora and then Lucie. When they were waiting Lucie asked Aurora about her family little bit nothing too private, and Aurora was more than happy to talk about that, especially when it was about her sister.

When it was finally Lucies turn it was almost midnight. It wasn't because the others took long showers, on the contrary, as they respected each other and were friends they did the minimum for it, so the other can get faster, and don't need to wait long.

After Lucie took shower she was pleasantly surprise that all the other were siting in living room waiting for her. They chatted few minutes and were ready for bed.

''Good night~''(Emma)

''Good night.''(Lucie)

''Night.''(Aurora)

''Good Nyaaaight.''(Mara)

When the three of them heard Maras yawn and cats 'Nya~' combined 'Good night', they couldn't help but giggle about how cute it was. 

After all that they went to their respected rooms.

Lucie before sleeping, still looked what's new but nothing much was happening right now. She thought little bit about her plan about the AI, with this speed it will take her about two to three more days before she could start programming, because she had a big goal in mind.

But all that can wait until later, now Lucie want's to sleep.

---

It's been about a week from the first day they arrived here. The days were mostly the same Lucie woke up took shower made breakfast and then they all went to the simulation to train. Lucie had three weapons she switched from time to time. She wanted to utilize her ability to the fullest.

She used, katana, throwing needles and bare handed. Lucies bare handed technique was kind of special, well at least not really common as far as she knew. She used her fingers mostly as she targeted the enemies pressure points. Using this technique she paralyzed enemies, limbs or organs and she could do other stuff. There are two reasons she chose this kind of hand-to-hand combat. First it had good flexibility as it could kill or paralyze the target, some stations need one not the other, it did suits her better, because many people will be stronger than her, and her ability didn't give her advantage in strength department as it did for Aurora or Mara. Second she thought it would look cool, as she liked to watch movies and anime where the masters could paralyze others with just targeting their pressure points. 

It wasn't as easy as learning to use one weapon but because of her ability being made for fast learning, it wasn't hard. 

The other members had steady growth too, and now all of the Team Zero had about 80% win rate. Well if the opponent was Tier 1.  

But right now Lucie was in her lab programming the last bit of her AI. It took little longer than she was anticipating, but it was expected.

The AI Lucie was making was with high learning capabilities. In this world there were AIs already there were two types the sci-fi version, like androids and super computers and the magic kind like golems that have core. Both of them if created in some way could have self learning capabilities, and can learn from stuff and mistakes. But Lucie went beyond that she made that her AI could learn much faster and had faster processing speed. Basically she upgraded so that her AI could learn much faster. If regular AI needs about a hour to process some things her AI could do it in a minute. There are some more upgrades she made but that is the main part.

There are people capable of making similar AI to the Lucies, but she doubted there is any made jet, because she needed lot of information and she used her ability to the maximum when she programmed too. She made many mistakes in programming and had to fix them and some of them needed some thinking to figure out. If it took Lucie days with her [Super Learning] turned to max, even if she was only Tier 1, it would take some one else about months if not years, constantly learning and most of all programming all that.

As she was ready to start her AI she wanted to name it.

Lucie thought about it and decided to name her AI.

''Alice, not really original but I like it.''