Training

Jinpachi Ego waited until the dispelled player was gone and then continued with the actual orders.

"Well then, you unpolished gems. Now that you are the right number of players I will proceed. The next step of your evaluation will begin with athletic tests. We are going to collect all the data needed and bring you up into shape."

Moving his right hand, there appeared a holographic depiction of a player and his general attributes like current heart rate or other factors like height, age, top speeds in running, and so on.

Haruo had to give credit to the actual technology being able to do that in 2018.

It was not just something added through a post-process like editing a video. For that Jinpachi was too focused on each of them. It seemed the technology was far superior to his old world or it was at least top-notch of its kind now.

"You will all go through those tests and depending on your results you will receive a new ranking. Until then I hope you will do your utmost in it." The screen then changed and an instruction appeared to move to room Z - T02.

Stretching himself Haruo looked at all the others. "Well, and from here the training camp starts."

When Haruo went ahead and tried to leave the room Isagi stopped him by tapping his shoulder.

"Hey, don't you feel bad at all?", he asked when Haruo looked back.

"Feeling bad for what? Kicking out that player? Aren't you one to talk? I clearly remember that if I didn't pouch your shot you would have been the one to go...", answered Haruo with a laid back expression. "Besides, you already made your choice, no? Why try to find a scapegoat for your own guilt now? Get used to it, none of us can save anyone here."

Isagi frowned. "But..." Then his eyes wandered over to Bachira who clearly made a key pass to him and in his eyes had some responsibility in Ryosuke getting kicked out. But Bachira only grinned back after noticing the look.

And before Isagi could talk with Haruo again he was already out to get to the next room.

'That guy still has a lot of room to grow. I guess I should aim for those eyes that coach of our team has to judge potential growth.' A clear smirk appeared on Haruo's face. 'If these gems improve even more then it will become even tastier to eat them up...Man I sound like some weird pervert...'

But nonetheless, his whole body felt so revitalized that he felt he needed to knock himself straight out with some training.

And lo' and behold the first athletic test was endurance training. There were eleven treadmills orderly lined up. Probably each player got a very personal one to use.

There were even numbers on them so Haruo went over to his own number and took the utility belt that hung at the side with a note to equip it while training.

Doing just that he could see a heart blink up on the wristwatch. So it was a monitor of some sorts that would record his progress. Haruo wondered for what the belt at his waist was for then.

But enough with thinking. Stretching himself a little bit he went ahead and started running. The speed that was predetermined on the mill was 20km/h.

That surprised Haruo because that is in no way the average running speed or distance anyone could manage in just an hour. Good First-League players would manage to run around 15km per 90 minutes. Plus-minus something along that line. And on average about 10km.

It all really depended on the role as well.

Granted, the distance was included with trots and walking but it didn't matter. We are talking about nonstop running here.

If converting it into a 90-minute game that meant you would run 30km! That was an absurd amount even marathon runners feared to do without preparation. And you would be completely exhausted. Don't even mention 120 minutes. That came close to becoming a world record runner.

Haruo was not even sure where the actual record is but somehow he got fired up just testing out his limit with that newly acquired stamina.

Not much time passed and the others also joined and started their runs.

"Huh!? We are going to run this fast from the get-go?" Igarashi was the first to complain and the others could only smile wryly at this as well.

Concentrating grunts and the stomps of feet on the running mills were the only things heard after a while.

Each player started breathing heavily at around minute 15. The only exceptions were Haruo and Raichi. That being the person he stole the stamina from.

Looking at the blondie it was easily seen that he enjoyed this type of training. And he looked like to compare himself with the others, always poking them why they are starting to get so out of breath.

But that gaze soon was focused on Haruo. There was a clear indication that he noticed him keeping up easily.

"Argh, I am out!!" Igarashi was the first to deactivate the mill and started gasping for air. It has been 38 minutes for him. If it were a game that was enough to keep him on the field, albeit probably not the whole 90 minutes.

The others also slowly reached their limits around the 40 minutes mark with Isagi stopping just short of 43 minutes.

Haruo only glanced over at Isagi. For a playmaker, he sure needed to improve on that. At least an hour should be manageable at these speeds.

Slowly the time trickled down and the others that finished already were moving on to doing other training like jumping to determine their other physical attributes.

"God dammit!!!" Raichi Jingo started to cry out and could not run anymore. From all the teenagers that were running, he was the second place in endurance. It seemed to irk him greatly looking at his 74 minutes run while Haruo was still running like there was no tomorrow.

Raichi even stood still and looked at his back, stabbing him with greedy eyes.

'Looks like I got some rival on my back...Hmm, I wonder how much you will improve. But reaching this level will take a while for you, partner.' Haruo smiled a little bit being the only one still running.

But even his own stamina was just depleted at the point when the clock reached 95 minutes. He was so drenched with sweat that it was like a waterfall. Standing still he could see and obviously feel his legs trembling in pain.

'Urgh...My muscles are not used to this amount of running...It's probably the same with each talent. So I need to improve my muscles next. So there are some flaws in this power of mine. Figures...'

[Congratulations, hidden criteria reached. Perform 90 minutes of running at a speed of 20km/h. Special *muscle-type* devour obtained.]

'Wait, what?' Haruo gasped for air and stared at the message that appeared shortly after he stopped running. Looking at the description he was amazed.

[Special Devour: Devour the talent of anyone in the world. Restrictions are placed on the type. To obtain this special there are either hidden requirements to be solved. Applicable only to people you can see.]

Breathing in deeply he could only smile. So even training can bring certain results besides the most obvious normal criteria he can solve.

[Criteria to Devour: Reach the top 3 in endurance from Team Z. Bonus: Reach first place to gain another devour. Applicable to anyone in Team Z.]

Looking at the group he had two people in his eyes he really wanted to devour first. After all, now that he noticed he needed more core abilities it was a must.

[Devoured *Skyscrapper Jumping: A+* from -Wataru Kuon-]

[Devoured *Beansprout Growth: A+* from -Okuhito Iemon-]

Those two talents would let him grow into a good threat in the air later on.

And being a little bit taller isn't something he would say no to. The jumping talent also improved some of his muscles. If he kept that talent as is he would probably reach the same height as Okuhito who was 187cm tall. A pretty decent height for a WF, which was his most loved position.

The next few talents to take would be Bachira's flexibility and the low center core. Both skills needed for the later fast movements of Hyoma Chigiri's immense speedrunning.

But he would wait on that until he got the special devour done first. He already had someone special in mind and maybe it would solve most of those problems, making it redundant to consider.

Preparing himself for the upcoming other training units he sat down and did more stretching. It was a quirk he acquired so that he lessened the injury rate as much as possible. He was pretty sure Igarashi was currently in a lot of pain just because of his ankle.

Thinking even about it for a moment he looked over to Gurimu and called the black-haired buzz cut over to himself and told him how to massage his ankle to lessen the pain so it could heal up properly.

"Whoa! It really worked! Thanks! You aren't so bad after all." Igarashi even grinned brightly.

Haruo only snorted lightly to that.

"We will see if you still think that later as well." But contrary to that Gurimu only gave him a thumbs up.

"I won't go down so easily yet."

Seeing them talking with each other Raichi who was still glaring holes at Haruo came also over. "Is that the trick to run longer?"

Haruo and Gurimu both looked at him.

"Well, obviously strong and flexible muscles can help alleviate the strain on your stamina..." Even if it was only for a tad bit, it did help.

"But you barely got meat on your legs there..." The blondie obviously could tell how slim Haruo actually was. The only real muscles he had were the good athlete's body muscles like a six-pack that came with constant running anyway. Maybe his shoulders were a little bit broader but otherwise, Raichi wondered where that strength came from.

Haruo laughed lightly. "Can't deny that. But less mass means less power needed to push it. I am working on gaining muscles. I probably still didn't hit my growth spurt yet. But don't be surprised if I end up more muscular than you by then."

"I see, then muscle training it is." Raichi grinned and went over to the bench presses to increase his thighs which were already not something to scoff at.

---

While the group enjoyed some small chattering Jinpachi was looking at them through a bunch of cameras and observing their training.

"Can you please not litter the whole place?" Anri talked from behind him and collected various empty instant products that were eaten by Jinpachi.

"Hmm, just leave them, I am concentrating on analytics right now." Ego talked ack but did not remove his gaze from the screens.

"What did you find that makes you so interested. Isn't it only the start of the project? That already 25 players are gone..." Anri was frowning lightly and looked at some replaying recordings. At that moment she noticed something peculiar. "Hmm, isn't that Sugewara? Wait, why is he running alone? What are the others doing?"

Jinpachi looked over to the screen she was seeing. "A running time of 1 hour 34 minutes and 46 seconds. That is a recording of the endurance test from block 5, Team Z."

"Hmm, he barely managed to run a whole game? Well, he is still young, so it is no surprise." Anri heard the data and nodded understandingly.

"You are misunderstanding, Teirei-san. The running speed is 20km/h..."

"What!?" Now Anri was shocked.

"Everyone else but him barely ran half of that. His endurance at his age is..." Jinpachi was thinking for a short moment while looking at the screen.

"Monstrous...", finished Anri for him.

"Monstrous, indeed. But what makes it more phenomenal is that he has still room to improve. Look over here. He is doing special stretching exercises for his muscles. It means he stopped running because his muscles hurt, not because he had no air left in his lungs. The heart monitor is also indicating the same result. If I am not mistaken he could have run another 5 to 10 minutes before going down for the count."

"That can't be right. What is that endurance? The world record for 42km is 2 Hours. If he keeps that up he could reach that level."

"Let us not go overboard here. Running on a treadmill is different than running on various uneven terrain. But it is still a good display of stamina. And not only that...look here. The jumping test." Jinpachi pointed at the test when Haruo was jumping up. And even though he was much smaller than Wataru Koen he managed to actually jump at about the same height.

"Whoa!" Anri was surprised by his leap into the air.

"Now...how long do you think he was playing football for?", asked Jinpachi now.

"Hmm? I don't know. You were the one that picked all these teenagers.", said Anri back with a small smile. She had full trust in his ability to judge players. Those that would become stars.

"Half a year...He only started in his high school year."

"Unbelievable. So we actually got a genius in this group of kids?" Anri's eyes were now glimmering with the utmost respect and hope for the national team.

"Correct, but there are also others that fit that criteria. The question is how will he mix with the others. If he becomes better the more he plays, then we really may have found a rare diamond under the rough." Jinpachi grinned and his eyes were fully focused on Haruo at that moment. His left hand was already changing the rankings of Team Z. "Let us put some pressure on him as well."