Ash woke in darkness, his body stiff and cold on the narrow, hard bunk. Before his eyes could adjust or the fog of sleep fully lift, an ear-splitting whistle cut through the Marine barracks.
"GET UP! MOVE! YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES TO FORM UP!" a voice roared from outside, jolting him awake.
Ash's heart hammered. He quickly got and started getting dressed sloppily, but his motor functions were against him, letting him fumble around to get ready. All around, recruits scrambled with practised speed. Filo, his new roommate, was already dressed and sprinting for the door.
By then, Ash managed to jam one leg into his pants before nearly stumbling over, cursing under his breath.
He dragged his feet, trying to get the jacket on, slipped into his single shoe, grabbed the other, and half-hopped, half-ran for the exit with laces flapping.
Outside, the dawn hadn't even begun to rise over Marineford's parade ground with darkness everywhere. Smokey breath plumed in the cold air; the recruits snapped to attention, some trembling, others grinning nervously.
Smoker stood straight as a lamppost in the front row, arms folded, his white streak visible even before sunrise. Hina stretched her arms overhead, expression controlled and blank as steel. Tashigi checked her sword alignment, posture precise even with dew soaking her boots.
Ash slotted in at the back, barely finding a spot and still hopping on one foot, desperately tying his shoe. Compared to his other 3 teammates, he was a sorry sight for the eyes.
A sergeant's voice, all gravel and authority, boomed across the rows: "Training weeds out the weak! Today, you dig your own grave or prove why you deserve to hold 'justice' on your back! Marines have no space for the weak!"
Ash's stomach twisted hearing this. He was already out of breath just by getting here. How was he to complete his so-called 'hell exercises'?
Physical training began with a run, just a "warmup," as Wallace called it. It was a solid four laps around the Marineford walls, close to 9km.
Ash barely made it a third of one lap before a familiar, tight pain strangled his shins and sides. Each breath was like inhaling fire; his feet already ached, and he staggered as girls and boys blew past him like pros. Everyone who lived at Marinefold branch had Marine as a family member and had been trained since they were small.
He, on the other hand, failed at even the most simple and basic PE classes in his school.
He really felt how monstrous the people here were when Smoker passed him like a shadow, barely breaking a sweat, already lapping recruits. Hina didn't break stride either, her breath focused, eyes set on some perfect point far ahead.
Even Tashigi hopped nimbly over the mud; her pace seemed casual, but she was already with the front runners. Everywhere Ash looked, someone was faster, smoother and better. He was the only pathetic one on the whole ground.
Halfway through the second lap, Ash staggered to a stop, clutching his knees. His system timer, coldly luminous in his mind, now taunted him:
10km left. 8,450m left. 7,900m left…
A foot splashed next to him. Filo, red-faced but grinning, slowed just long enough to blurt: "Keep up, Ash! We're not even mid-way yet!"
Ash kept moving forward, refusing to quit. By the final lap, everyone glistened with sweat and exhaustion except Smoker, Hina, and Tashigi, who finished with not a hair out of place despite doing double the exercise compared to everyone else. As for him, he collapsed in three and a half laps, not even hitting half of what he needed to do.
Ash collapsed onto the grass, his lungs screaming in pain, his sides burning as he tried not to throw up.
And that was only the warmup.
The next hour was a blur of push-ups, sit-ups, and squats. Ash dropped to the dirt, tried to will his trembling arms into motion. Ten push-ups, then he faceplanted. He tried to do ten more, but he was barely able to accomplish them.
He watched as Tashigi did hers one-handed, as Smoker completed sets without a sound, as even Hina, wordlessly, powered through hers with perfect form.
The instructors stalked among them, barking corrections. "Back straight! That's not a squat, that's just sitting! Push! PUSH YOURSELVES HARDER DAMNIT!"
Ash grunted and strained, arms and legs shaking like jelly. Torrents of sweat stung his eyes as he forced himself to do a sit-up, then another, then lost count and simply lay gasping. His whole body felt like it was filled with lead. Every muscle burned. He felt the stares from everyone around him; he even heard the instructors snickering at his "baby hands" and talking about how they've never seen someone so "delicate."
Each set seemed endless, the numbers stretching impossibly.
Behind him, a chorus of groans filled the yard as weaker recruits fell away, but not all were so defeated. Smoker took a brief break only to reach into his pockets and light a cigar before resuming with his set. He seemed to be having a lot of fun. Hina and Tashigi never slowed down either.
By the end of the exercises, Ash lay flat on his back, arms and legs splayed out like a starfish, every inch of his body on fire. Above, clouds drifted lazily by. He wondered if he was about to die, and whether maybe the afterlife would have plush sofas and angel baddies for him.
He'd finished, what? Something like forty push-ups, maybe fifty sit-ups? All his dreams, all his talk, everything from last night, he wasn't even close to the bare minimum of daily tasks needed to activate his cheat code, let alone complete them.
Forget comparing to a prodigy like Smoker, Hina, or Tashigi, he was the weakest one in the camp, never thought he would be so pathetic. He'd remembered his gall to flirt with the girls, feeling embarrassment come over him. This was a world where strength was everything; they would never acknowledge someone like him.
At lunch, Ash shuffled into the mess hall, arms trembling so badly that his soup spilt over his tray. He saw the other people in the hall.
Smoker was chatting with two older cadets, Hina reading at the end of the table, barely acknowledging anyone else, and Tashigi helping bandage a teammate's blistered palm, smiling brightly.
Ignoring them all, he picked a corner before sitting alone. Seeing this, his roommate Filo dragged a chair over and sat beside him. "You survived! When I saw you, I thought you would quit altogether."
Ash managed a shaky smile, nodding. "I thought so too. But I'm not that easy to get rid of, you know."
Near the end of the meal, Smoker came and plopped down next to Ash, tossing him a fresh bread roll. "Don't die on me," he said with a smirk. "First day's always hell. You are the only one who dares to go after Hina; the camp wouldn't be the same without you." It sounded like Smoker wanted him around for entertainment purposes only, but Ash appreciated it anyway.
Hina passed by, dropping a cold water bottle at his elbow. "Hina says try harder tomorrow. Hina does not like weak people, but Hina despises quitters even more." She walked away before he could thank her.
Even Tashigi offered a gentle pat on his suffering shoulder as she passed, "You just need to last a few more days, Ash. It gets easier. Maybe. If you're stubborn."
That night, back in his bunk, Ash stared blindly at the timer—reset, 00:00:00.
Mission failed. DAY RESET. 0/1 Progress.
It was incredibly embarrassing for the first day's performance. At this rate, it'll take a lot more than 5 years to get the cheat, but he wasn't ready to give up, not yet. If Koby the crybaby can use Galaxy Impact, he will definitely do much, much better.