"Ten! Eleven! Twelve! Thirteen, keep up the pace! Fourteen!"
Ben, along with 35 other teenagers, were doing weighted pushups on a field, the sunlight beating down ruthlessly.
When Ben imagined training, he thought he was going to circulate mana, learn some breathing technique, or even learn a spell! But this was just the same as Earth!
'In…out…in…out…they don't know me son! Who's gonna carry the boats? And the logs?' Ben hyped himself up. His form was pretty much perfect, as he often did calisthenics back on Earth.
'This body is pretty strong. Maybe the original Ben was talented in the 'body' aspect? Or are humans in this world just naturally stronger?'
'This vest looks light but weighs around 30kg. And some of these people are wearing 50kg vests!' Ben could see a big difference between him and his peers, even though they were part of the same age group.
'Fuck, how does this make sense? Why make us wear vests if you're just making us spam volume?' Ben cursed inwardly as the instructor counted past 100.
The instructor had a bald, shiny head, narrow eyes, and was a little short. He was quite tan, just like most people in this place.
At this point, some of the students with lower numbers were beginning to tire out, not being able to keep up with the pace. Whenever that happened, the instructor would beat the student's back with a stick, "motivating" them to keep going until failure. If the instructor determined that you still had some left in you, he would keep beating you until you physically couldn't do anymore.
Of course, once students reached failure, they would take off their vests, drink some water, then keep going. This was the type of hell they were in.
'This is like a high volume drop set.' Ben analyzed this exercise with his transmigrator knowledge.
"Two hundred!"
By now, everyone thirty and below were doing knee push-ups, while some in the twenties were doing normal push-ups. Surprisingly enough, a few in the top ten were doing normal push-ups as well.
'I guess it makes sense since they're wearing heavier vests after all. Good way to shorten the time so the weaker ones don't rest for too long.' Ben praised the brutality of this program.
"300!"
Ben finally went to normal push-ups, outlasting everyone except number 1. This surprised his classmates, and even Ben himself was surprised.
'Is this because of I partly digested the Godflesh? Or maybe it's related to my transmigration? Seeing my classmates' expressions, the original Ben definitely wasn't this strong.'
Ben then looked at number one, who was doing weighted push-ups with 100kg! That was more than their body weight! That was superhuman level!
'I'm definitely getting higher weights next time. Will that guy get heavier vests too? Maybe there isn't even anything beyond 100kg?' Ben admired the monster that was number one.
He had curly sandy hair that extended to his neck, and an extremely robust frame. He looked like he was on steroids!
'Well, seeing how my 'father' mentioned some phoron pill, there probably are steroids in this world,' Ben thought.
"400!"
Number one finally went to normal push-ups. At least, that's what Ben thought, when he instead just switched to a 30kg vest.
'Yeah okay buddy, you're built different, we get it.' Ben inwardly lampooned.
Number one went for so long that the weaker students started doing weighted push-ups again! The instructor really did not let anyone rest fully.
After another 5 minutes, number one finally finished his normal push-ups. He didn't even go to knee push-ups, as that would take way too long.
'Get to number one or die, huh?' Ben recalled his father's words and felt that this was rather impossible. If he had any hope though, maybe physical training was just number one's strength, and Ben could edge him out in other aspects?
"Listen up maggots! This isn't a playground, nor is it your home! This is camp! And camp will be the worst time of your life! Embrace it, because as of today, hell week is starting!" The instructor yelled at the students.
'Hell week? Isn't that for Navy SEALs? What the fuck am I doing here?' Ben had watched a documentary on hell week before, and boy did that look painful.
'Am I actually going to carry the boats and the logs? Fuck.'
…
The waves washed coolly over the shore, slowly eroding the sand and rocks away. The sun was beginning to set, causing the temperature to drop continuously. The light on the water glimmered like stars, and the horizon was turning red.
On the shore, tens of naked teenage bodies were lying down with their backs facing the ground, enduring the cold washing of the sea. Their arms were linked together, their heads were raised slightly, and they were doing flutter kicks, as if trying to kick the waves away. Sand entered the crevices and orifices of their bodies, causing extreme discomfort.
Yet despite all this, these teenagers shouted like they were having fun!
'What the fuck is wrong with these people? This is surf torture, damn it, surf torture! Just this has caused countless potential SEALs to quit, yet these teenagers look like they're having the time of their lives!' Ben inwardly grumbled, seeing that he was the only one who was suffering.
"Surviving through waves of darkness and doom, I still stand!"
"Pushing through waves of monsters and misfortune, we still stand!"
"Dying through generations of terrorism and tribulations, Blackrift still stands!"
"Going through waves of pain and suffering, we contribute to the future of the world!"
The teenagers collectively started singing as if they were nationalistic patriots, moving even Ben and motivating the entire crew. Ben pretended to sing along, and even that was quite hard to do as sand and water kept trying to enter his mouth.
'Singing at the sea with a bunch of naked men and linked arms, is this true brotherhood?'
Ben had expected this to be hell, but seeing how all 35 of his peers were motivated to keep going, the atmosphere rubbed off on him as his blood started to boil and adrenaline ran through his veins.
"Haha, these instructors can't do shit to us! Keep shouting your lungs out, maybe we'll hear what you're saying next time!" Some people started to insult the instructors, yet surprisingly enough, they just laughed it off and continued yelling at them to keep training harder.
…
Hours later, night came, and they were still doing flutter kicks. The moment they stopped, they would get whipped by the instructors, which forced them to push to their limits. The stars shone brightly, creating a pleasant and encouraging view.
The tides were even higher now. Large waves of water and sand relentlessly pushed against the recruits, testing their ability to endure and to control their breathing. They huddled closer together for more warmth.
At this point, nobody sang anymore. Everybody was silent, kicking rhythmically as if they were machines. Ben's mind and body were both numb.
Some of the instructors went into the tents set up near the shore to eat dinner and sleep, being replaced by another one soon after. This caused looks of envy to appear on the cadets' faces.
"Fuck y'all looking at? Not going to break on the first night now, are you?" An instructor taunted.
The 36 teenagers kept silent.
"Aghhh!" Someone screamed.
Everyone looked over, only to see some glowing pink creature that resembled a jellyfish on his leg. It was rather small, around half the size of Ben's palm, and it kept moving up and down.
"Haha! These little fuckers are called latchers! Although they aren't fatal, their bites can cause quite an itch! Hehe, can you guys endure?" The instructor explained while berating them.
Ben looked at the sea, only to see little glowing pink lights approaching the shore. One of them jumped onto Ben's leg, latching on with its gel-like body.
"Agh, fuck me." Ben cursed quietly. This shit hurt! It felt like his leg was getting sucked into a vacuum, and Ben could see the latcher slowly turning red from his blood.
"Latchers feed on blood, which is why they're pink. The redder they are, the fuller they are. Heh, if your blood is strong enough, it can get full quite quickly! Of course, if it sucked the blood of someone too strong for them like me, it would instantly die." The instructor kindly explained.
Listening to the explanation calmed Ben's nerves a little. Once you know what you're dealing with, it's no longer as scary.
Another latcher hopped onto Ben's other leg. No matter how hard he kicked, those buggers refused to let go.
The first latcher was becoming more and more bloated. Its color was also turning a darker shade of red, but interestingly enough, there was a tint of gold in there as well.
Spurt.
Suddenly, the latcher exploded, scaring the shit out of Ben. Golden red blood flew everywhere.
"Fuck!" Ben cursed in English.
Everyone looked over in surprise, briefly ignoring the agony in their legs.
"Did you…advance to Rank 2?" The boy next to him asked.
"Perhaps." Ben gave an ambiguous answer.
"Heh, I bet his father gave him some good quality Godflesh. Lucky bastard."
"The power of being the elder's son…"
"Money can make up for a lack of talent after all."
Ben's classmates started to ridicule him, reinforcing the idea that Ben was a hidden protagonist hiding his strength. 'They don't know what I've been through in that hollow fish! They don't know…'
Typical overpowered protagonist hiding his strength thoughts appeared in Ben's mind, causing him to be amused at himself.
"Hey, now that you're OW! Rank 2, maybe we should AGH! Hang out more? Us UGH! Low numbers should look out for each other." The boy next to Ben, number 29, started to bootlick while screaming intermittently.
Ben ignored him, focusing on his flutter kicks. Although the latchers would die from his blood, his legs were still in pain and itched. Luckily, the latchers seemed to avoid Ben after seeing their brethren explode.
'So they have some basic intelligence.' Ben observed.
Screams of pain rang throughout the surf, making it lively again. Blood trickled down countless legs, and satiated red latchers returned to the sea.
'Luckily, we're all wearing underwear.' Ben shuddered upon having that thought.
"Fuck! Ah! Fuck!" Everyone started cursing, causing the instructors to grin in delight. They had gone through this in the past as well!
Some people even cursed in English, copying Ben.
Some people secretly wanted to quit, but since they locked arms with each other and saw nobody else cracking under the pressure, they gritted their teeth and continued kicking.
The weaker cadets would occasionally lower their head and kick slower to try and conserve energy, which the instructors overlooked. After all, there was a physical limit to how much you could do.
After what felt like eternity, a bell rang deeply, signaling that it was midnight.
"Congratulations on surviving! Now get your asses up and clean up! Our next drill is in four hours!" An instructor yelled.
Hearing how there were only four hours of rest, many cadets grumbled.
"God, please deliver me from this hell!" Some of them started praying.
Ben and the others returned to land, took a lukewarm shower, ate some cold seafood, and went to sleep. On the grass. At least they had a cover to sleep on to prevent bug bites.
…
"Get your asses up! We're doing pull-ups now!" A loud voice woke everyone up.
Surprisingly enough, Ben felt quite energized. Although he was still sore and tired, he had recovered more than he expected. Looking around him, he could see that his peers weren't as fatigued as he expected either.
'Sleep is overpowered man.'
The moon shone on the cadets doing pull-ups at 4 AM.