The room soaked in a bright red hue, a familiar sight for Kaiden.

It was the scarlet redness he hadn't seen in a long time.

'Why was it here?'

Shielding his eyes from the mild glare with his hands, he observed light rays bouncing off his hand.

It was the sun, he realized.

Additionally, it was red, crimson red.

Getting up, he saw that some others were already awake, while some still slept.

What time was it, he wondered.

Kaiden decided to try something and thought in his mind,

'What time is it right now?'

[Currently, it is 6:12 AM]

Indeed, thought Kaiden, I just have to think about it.

'Please activate my notifications.'

[Synchronization in progress...]

[Synchronization successfully completed; you now have your notifications.]

[Three unread messages; do you want to read them?]

When Kaiden confirmed, he couldn't help but laugh in frustration.

If he had known this earlier, he could have saved himself some trouble.

The messages were merely information about the academy's location, the requirement of using someone else's name tag for the exam, and the lights going out at 10 PM for bedtime.

Now that Kaiden lived with such technology in his head, he felt somewhat special but also quite uncomfortable.

Nevertheless, he looked out of the snow-white window into the distance, at the crimson sun surrounded by a bright blue sea with a hint of lilac and pink due to the light.

In the distance were trees that even reached the sea, which was several miles in the air.

Surrounded by a yellowish-blackish-purple forest and seemingly moving mountains.

Truly not the Earth as he knew it, but Praeter.

Even though it seemed like day, the sky, while somewhat bright, displayed other planets, almost as if they were about to collide with each other.

"Fascinating, isn't it?"

asked Elly, who had been observing him from the corner of her eye with a slight smile.

Kaiden, who could only agree, simply said,

"Yes."

As she moved closer to the window and leaned against it, a stream of wind tousled her hair.

But Kaiden was distracted by something else. A sudden beep sounded, followed shortly by a message.

[Training on Training Ground 11 starts at 7 AM]

Still, about three-quarters of an hour.

That shouldn't be a problem; after all, Kaiden only brushed his teeth and showered every few weeks.

But the expressions of the others seemed entirely different from Kaiden's expectations. Everyone was in a frenzy, even Mary seemed to be lost in thought, kicking her foot off the ground repeatedly.

'Was she stressed?'

Kaiden, who had little knowledge of grooming, didn't know that good grooming in the bathroom took at least 20 minutes, how would he?

Elly stormed into the bathroom first and locked the door.

The others were even more agitated.

They tried to kick the door, but it was futile; it was extremely robust.

Tentacles and fiery explosions also didn't help. Eventually, they gave up.

Fifteen minutes passed, and Elly emerged joyfully from the steam-filled bathroom.

'Was she showering? And just before our training?'

This time, they didn't rush in;

Ren, Mark, and Zack shared the bathroom, brushing their teeth and, to some extent, washing their faces simultaneously.

Kaiden, who came in later, only brushed his teeth.

Mary was missing, with about 10 minutes left.

She had already brushed her teeth by taking a free toothbrush from the bathroom, but it seemed she also wanted to shower.

Eventually, she only washed her face and came out of the bathroom just before there were 5 minutes left.

Exactly in time when everyone was ready to leave the room, as they already received the location as a notification.

While leaving, Kaiden noticed a fresh and clean dark gray uniform.

'Should they change?'

He wondered with a slightly puzzled look. But what could he do now? Be late for a bit of freshness?

As fast as time passed after that, the six had already arrived. Considering the exterior size, the interior did justice to the whole structure.

A vast area with a diameter of several thousand square meters for just about 40 people.

While it was a relatively simple area in gray and white, the floor felt different from what Kaiden was used to. They walked over to the others, and the floor felt peculiar. Similar to quicksand, but the force pulling in wasn't so strong that you couldn't free yourself.

On the contrary, it felt much lighter than expected. Almost as if the friction that should stop you provided an additional drive.

Everyone seemed to be waiting for someone, namely the sergeant in charge of their development.

'What time is it?'

[7:03 AM]

Standing in the sinking white-grayish floor, Kaiden looked around.

But apart from a whitish-gray surface, he saw nothing else. Just at the top, there seemed to be ventilation, meters high so it wouldn't get stuffy if all 40 trained at once and broke into a sweat.

With his legs pulling up again, Kaiden heard a light breeze, which suddenly became stronger, causing his upper body to turn slightly to the left.

Confused, he saw a slightly smaller but powerful blond man. About thirty-five, Kaiden guessed. Covered in wrinkles, but not too strong.

"Why did I get a new class now?"

everyone heard him mutter, but he didn't seem to be suppressing his words, just annoyed as he scratched his forehead and looked through the rows.

Nothing special, he didn't say anything suppressively again.

Shortly after, he raised his voice.

"I am Sergeant Ken; you'll call me sir if you want to address me! Understood?"

Loud and clear from most.

"Yes, sir,"

while those who said nothing were shouted at by Sergeant and had to run laps as punishment, and that was for the rest of the day.

Steps, lightly muffled, were also heard, but Ken heard them with ease approaching.

"You can join them!"

Shudders ran through most.

It wasn't easy dealing with Sergeant. Certainly not.

While Sergeant kept talking, the tension didn't seem to ease. Everyone either had a normal or tense posture with their arms behind their backs.

It was like the ticking of a clock.

A torture.

A wrong move, and you had to run laps, not a few but for several hours at a high pace;

overcoming it wasn't easy.

And when Kaiden thought about what Sergeant would do if someone gave up, well, it wasn't something he wanted to find out.

"And now, march into your groups!"

The sergeant shouted at everyone who had just been standing. Looking at the others, Kaiden made his way to a corner of the facility, where they loosened up and stretched.

The usual things, jogging in place, rotating legs back and forth to warm them up, and swift back-and-forth strikes.

Circling arms and then stretching with crossed arms and half-splitting with legs stretched.

Kaiden looked around;

everyone seemed to be doing it quite professionally and could do it, as they had done it several times before. Kaiden, on the other hand, did such things at most in gym class and even then rarely.

So, he just tried to mimic the others. From a distance, it seemed like Sergeant was saying something, but it wasn't easy to understand him.

But one thing was for sure; what he said meant that the fight would probably begin.

Why?

Because the quicksand-like floor suddenly transformed, creating a labyrinth similar to the Flexidur cave.

The only problem now was that the quicksand suddenly became so strong that Kaiden couldn't free himself, and he sank into the white-grayish ground.