“Ergh, good morning, recruits. How’s it going?” Zac spoke to the recruits while drinking a travel mug full of coffee. The recruits looked at him a little concerned. They all heard that he was the Head of Finance but understood that meant something different in this secret world. The way Franky acted when he introduced him made it seem he was very high on the totem pole. But right now, he really looked out of it.

“Are you ok, sir?” Akiko asked. 

“Oh yeah, I’m great. Girlfriend agreed to move in with me. Things went so well that I forgot I had to be here this early, on a Saturday morning.” Zac groaned. 

“But it's 7pm on Saturday night,” a confused Genkei said. 

“Not where I was!” Zac shouted, annoyed. 

Kenji chuckled. He knew they somehow had the means to move across the planet at incredible speeds. Using something that probably wouldn’t be available to the public for maybe a decade at least.  It sounded great for many situations, but this was one of the pitfalls, time zones. It looked like Zac was still in the clothing he wore on his date.  

The recruits found themselves in another rather large empty gymnasium connected to the track and field area. Kenji counted that there were still 30 recruits left from yesterday. He was a bit shocked that there were so many here. Only 15 made the 8000-meter time limit. Although there was no time limit for the obstacle course. They just needed to finish, and all 15 did,  if only barely. Comparatively, he finished everything quite quickly, surprising himself. After everything that happened yesterday, he expected to be dead tired and sore. Instead, he was refreshed.

“Why are there still 30 of us?” A sharp-eyed brown-haired male spoke.

Zac started to laugh while choking on his coffee as he looked over at that recruit. He raised an eyebrow as he walked towards him. He stared into his eyes for an uncomfortable amount of time and then said, 

“You’re a vicious little bastard, aren’t you? I saw you yesterday in that scuffle, Mr. Watabe.” Zac patted that individual on the side of the face and walked away. Watabe glared at Zac’s back with contempt. 

Watabe Ken was indeed vicious and had a very discerning eye. He was the first to grab his gear during the scuffle, but he stood there to knock out individuals in the confusion who he thought could threaten his achievements. Unfortunately, these “Chasers” weren’t as heartless as he had hoped. The ones he targeted were still alive and well and were now wary of him. 

“You think we’re just going to kill off talent because they got unlucky once? That would be wasteful and very short-sighted, Ken.” Zac chuckled as he took a sip of his coffee.

“Yesterday was just to set a baseline. It's used to ascertain your physical levels, determination, and… your character.” Zac then turned to stare at Watabe. The recruits he had targeted the day before looked at him with glee. They assumed that there was no way they would accept someone like him. 

“What are you losers smirking about? His attitude is perfect for a Chaser. I rather like him.” Zac said, much to the shock of everyone present. It was Watabe’s turn to look at the others with glee. 

“His physical prowess is around 2nd or 3rd best overall, after Isuel over there.” 

“It’s Kenji!” 

“Shut up, Isuel!” Zac cut off Kenji and smiled. 

“On top of that, he has a good eye, he’s goal-oriented, and will take down anything he perceives as a threat to that goal. Those are all qualities valued by Chasers. We aren’t beacons of justice, here. We are cold calculative killing machines.” Zac took another sip of his coffee.

“But isn’t it counterproductive to act against your allies?” Ume asked. 

“You are correct, little miss! But you guys aren’t allies yet. Are you?” 

“I suppose not.” Ume nodded her head in agreement. 

“You are all working to pass the evaluations. Obviously the better you do the more attention you get. If there is someone here that you feel will overshadow you, the natural train of thought needed for a Chaser should be to remove said person. However, we will not tolerate recruits killing each other. Anything outside of that, knock yourselves out, literally.” Zac spoke nonchalantly. 

“He basically turned this into a free-for-all, and he looks pleased with himself. Bastard.” Kenji thought as he stared at Zac. He didn’t understand this world, and the more he found out the less he wanted to understand. From his first interactions he was clear that human lives were little more than transactional to these people. It made him a little sick.  Zac looked back at him and then smirked, 

“You look like you wanna hit me, Isuel. Well, you’re in luck. Today, I will be assessing your combat abilities. To your left is a rather large locker room filled with weapons. You have until I finish making more coffee to choose the weapons of your choice. Then you will take turns attacking me. Either on your own or in groups no larger than 4. Your mission is to make me bleed. Your time starts now.” Zac said with a smile as he walked out of the room, looking into his empty traveler's mug. 

The recruits all walked into the weapon cabinet, giving Watabe a wide berth. It was clear that if groups were going to be formed, they would have to avoid teaming up with him. He scoffed at everyone, 

“You clowns would just hold me back anyway.” He walked deeper into the spacious room with a contemplative look. 

“He’s kind of a dick. He’ll fit right in.” Kenji mumbled to himself as he watched Watabe walk into the storage room, and then glanced over to look at Zac leaving. 

“So we’re teaming up, right?” Akiko asked Kenji, with Genkei and Ume trailing behind her. 

“Do we even need to?” Genkei asked incredulously. 

“Have you ever seen a Chaser in action?” Ume asked Genkei, who responded negatively. 

“If everyone in this room went at that man, if even one of us made it out alive, it would be a miracle,” Ume said with a grim expression. “She’s right,” Kenji said with a frown as he

remembered what he saw Devin do. It would be a slaughter if Zac was even a tenth of what Devin was. 

“Well, at least all those hours in Kendo Club won't be wasted.” Akiko smiled as she grabbed a Katana, a Wakizashi, and a Tanto blade. She strapped the three blades on her waist. Genkei looked over at her and smirked as he grabbed a pair of tactical hard-knuckle gloves.

“I was nationally ranked in Taekwondo in High School. I’ve been doing MMA as a hobby while in University,” Genkei said proudly as he smashed his fists together. 

Everyone then looked over at Ume, staring blankly at the weapons in front of her. She looked back at everyone else and shrugged her shoulders, 

“I’m a Bioengineering Major. I was president of both the Robotics and Science Clubs in High School.” She informed the group. 

 Genkei stared at her inquisitively. On the other hand Ume, turned her contemplative gaze back toward the weapons. 

“There’s no way she’s just a science nerd. She could keep up with me through the 8000-meter run and the obstacle course.” Genkei thought to himself. 

Akiko and Genkei then looked at Kenji but didn’t bother to ask him anything. Every time they brought up the topic he was adamant about not being involved in anything physical. Even though he not only finished 1st in everything so far but broke records each time. 

Kenji ignored the group for the most part, as he spent most of his time staring at the weapons in front of him. He’d never touched any kind of melee weapon before he had no idea how to even go about this. Everything had come to him rather easily to this point, so he thought that if he just stared at the weapons long enough something would jump out at him, like some anime. After combing through everything, nothing of the sort happened, and he chuckled to himself. 

“Guess this is real life afterall. ” Kenji jokes to himself. 

Afterall no weapon would leap into his hand like it had a mind of its own. He had no no choice but to thoroughly think things through. 

“Make him bleed, huh?” Kenji thought and then grabbed a military-grade bulletproof shield. His group gave him a strange look. Ume looked at the shield and nodded her head, 

“Interesting, then I’ll take this,” Ume said as she grabbed a bow and a quiver of arrows.

“Tsk!.” Watabe scoffed at the 4 of them as he walked past. He had two daggers in his hand. Akiko looked at his back as he walked away and then turned back to the group, 

“That guy gives me the creeps,” Akiko said as the four walked out of the weapon closet.

“Really? He just seems like a dick who’s about to get his ass kicked.” Kenji said with a frown.