“Will do, boss man.” Franky waved as Zac left the training area. Kenji looked down at the gear and smiled. 

“Right, he said to get one that fits, not necessarily put them on.” Kenji looked up at Franky with a blank expression. 

One little sentence caused everyone to go crazy when things could have gone very smoothly for everyone. This was one of the skills needed for a Chaser. Making a target move how you want. Whatever allowed maximum results with the most negligible risks. Kenji was in deep thought and looked around and noticed that he was the only one standing there. Everyone else was still running the track. 

“Wait, where are the other 3 I was running with?” He blurted out as he looked around the center of the track. 

“They’re still running. You lapped them… 3 times.” Devin said with a smile on his face.

“What?! No way!” Kenji looked at the track to see the other three still running. On the other hand, the three of them looked at him like he was a freak.

“Wait, how much time was left when I finished?” Kenji asked. 

“12 minutes and 3 seconds. Your time was 17:57. Congratulations, you beat the previous Company-wide record for recruits by a whole minute.” Franky said. 

He and Devin began to clap with deadpan faces. Kenji was in shock. Not only because he had broken the record but because there was such a record in the first place. 8000 meters in 18 minutes was an inhuman feat in itself. He broke a record like that, but he had never done any kind of physical training before in his life. 

Why hadn’t he done any physical training before? His mother! His mother had always been against him doing anything too dangerous. He always thought that she was overprotective because his father wasn’t around. Was it because she knew? Kenji placed his hand on his forehead, as all of this crashed down on him like a cold shower. Then a sudden thought came to mind, someone else was capable of superhuman feats.

“Wait, who held the record before me?” Kenji asked, but he was staring at Devin. From what he remembered last night, those goons were terrified of him. If anyone was superhuman as a recruit, it had to be him. 

“The previous record holder, huh? He just left.” Devin chuckled. 

“Zac?! Shit!” Kenji mumbled under his breath. 

Zac didn’t seem entirely too thrilled with Kenji’s outlook on this situation. Now that Kenji had broken his record, he was sure that Zac wouldn’t let him just go through the paces. Kenji groaned, 

“How is this even possible?” He said to himself. He began to doubt his existence up till this point when an energetic voice entered his ears. 

“Yeah, that’s what I wanna know, you little freak!! Were you training for the Olympics?!” The excitable young woman shouted as Franky tossed training gear toward her. She snatched it out of the air and sat on the ground in front of Kenji. Her green eyes stared up at Kenji, looking for answers. 

“Ah, no. I don’t even work out.”

“I find that improbable. Your build is quite robust.” The petite young lady spoke while catching her breath. Her dark brown eyes checked out Kenji’s body. 

“I won’t lose to you next time!” The loudmouth wasn’t far behind as he shouted at Kenji. The two of them grabbed their gear from Franky. All three sat down in front of Kenji; they all looked exhausted. It was only then that Kenji noticed that while he was tired, he wasn’t what one would call exhausted. He looked down at his clenched fist and could feel a burst of energy flowing through him. What the hell was he? Was the only thing echoing through his mind. 

“You guys should take this time to put on your gear; we'll start the next evaluation once the 30-minute mark is reached. So you have about 5 minutes.” Franky told the four of them. Kenji looked over at several individuals still knocked out on the ground. 

“What’s going to happen to them?” Kenji asked. 

“That depends on them.” Franky responded. 

“Tsk, I’d say you’d better worry about yourself, but seeing how freaky you are, I’m sure you have nothing to worry about.” The fiery green-eyed girl said as she began to strip down in front of everyone. 

“Whoa!!! What are you doing?” Kenji shouted. 

“You see a changing room around here? What? Haven't you ever seen women’s underwear before? I’m Hanabi Akiko, by the way. You can call me Akiko.” The fiery young woman said as she held out her hand towards Kenji. 

“Ah… Suzuki Kenji. You can call me whatever you want.” Kenji shook her hand a bit shyly. 

“I am Chiba Ume; feel free to call me what you like.” The petite woman bowed toward the three of them. She seemed to have changed into the training gear without anyone noticing. 

“Takashi Genkei.” The loudmouth gave a simple introduction as he stripped. He was a head taller than Kenji and seemed to be packed with muscle. After putting on his training gear, he looked over at Akiko, 

“You’re part foreigner?” 

“My mom’s german. Is that a problem?” She asked as she glared at Genkei. 

“Ah, no, I was just curious,” Genkei said as she shrunk back at Akiko's aggressiveness. 

“What about you, freak? You’re half Korean?” Genkei turned his attention towards Kenji. 

“Yep.” Kenji gave a simple response. As he put on his training gear.

“You have a nice body. Mr. I don’t work out.” Akiko said as she stared at the half-naked Kenji. 

“I bet he just says that to impress girls,” Genkei chuckled. 

“If Akiko’s expression is any indication. It’s working.” Ume said with a smirk. 

“Shut up!” Akiko turned away from the group.

Kenji just shook his head. 

“Guess the 3 of them think the 4 of us will definitely pass, so it’s best to stick together. I won’t turn away from help.” Kenji thought to himself as he looked at the 3. 

The training gear didn’t seem to be anything special, as far as he could tell. It fit a little snugly, but other than that, it seemed like a black one-piece training suit. However, after putting on the training suits, Kenji felt a tingle run through his body and lines of green light flashed aroused the bodysuit for a moment before fading away. Kenji's group continued to chat with each other as the recruits began to pile in as the deadline neared. 

“And that’s time! All of you who haven’t finished, finish and wait here. The rest of you come with me.” Half of the recruits managed to finish on time. That wasn’t surprising, considering several were still knocked out on the ground from the initial scuffle. The group of 15 didn’t have to follow Franky too far. As they arrived at an obstacle course inside the training facility. 

“Line up facing me, arms width apart.” Franky gave a simple command, and everyone followed. 

“You all will be running this obstacle course as fast as possible. I don’t care how you get through it but get through it. But first, we will be performing the Five 20s.” 

“What’s the Five 20s?” One of the recruits asked. 

“The Five 20s are 20 rounds of 20 push-ups, 20 sit-ups, 20 half burpees, and 20 full burpees, performed in succession. Immediately after the 20th round, you begin the obstacle course. Those training suits will monitor everything you do to ensure you finish everything. No slacking.” 

After Franky finished speaking, everyone looked like they had seen a ghost. They didn’t understand what kind of hell they were trying to put them through. That 8000-meter run was just a warm-up. Now the actual assessment was going to start. 

“God dammit.” One was the recruit mumbled. 

“God dammit, indeed. Round 1 20 push-ups, go!”