First Stage of Selection

Damian was chatting with another dorm mate. Standing in front of his room, or rather calling out to them to pass the time before starting the training session in the afternoon. Not without reason, his room mate was currently fast asleep in his bed. There was a desire from within him to wake up or disturb his friend's sleeping hours.

How could he not, Kein was even willing to leave the last lesson in order to rest his body before training. He was forced to do that considering his struggle not to be sleepy had been done in various ways even though in the end he chose to skip class and fall asleep in the room. This is an act of delinquency that should at least be punished by the dormitory staff or the dormitory.

It's just that Kein was a little lucky because none of the dormitory administrators realised. Even during the same condition, the surveillance camera was not being monitored so no additional punishment would be imposed on him.

"Kein, wake up. How long are you going to sleep?!" Damian woke him up while kicking his feet that were floating, beyond the limits of the mattress.

"Hmm....? Is it already night? Can I continue sleeping?" Kein rambled on with his consciousness almost non-existent. His face was confused as if he had lost his memory for a moment.

"Wake up, you idiot! You told me to wake you up 45 minutes before practice starts!"

Using a rude wake-up method, Damian pulled his friend's legs to get off the bed slowly. After making sure both of Kein's feet were on the floor, Damian immediately pulled on both of his friend's hands so that Kein stood up with his eyes still closed.

Health-wise, waking up someone sleeping like that is not a good way to go. Damian knew that fact but his thoughts were always, "As long as it's not done often, I'm sure this guy won't develop heart disease or anything like that."

Kein was surprised when he realised his body was already standing up while his brain had yet to respond. He immediately opened his eyes wide and slightly pushed his friend to make room. His head was suddenly dizzy and it was enough to disrupt his activities for the next few minutes.

Even so, Kein still set off toward the basketball building to complete the daily mission.

"Hey, wash your face before practice!" Damian warned him.

Kein did not reply with any words or gestures. But his consciousness led him to the bathroom not far from his room.

'Damn. It's really troublesome when you mistakenly use warm water after morning exercise,' he said while scratching his messy hair.

Not a bad thing for a body that sometimes needs a massage for extra recovery. It was just that he was a little sorry to know how the effect of warm water could lower his spirits and increase drowsiness in a matter of minutes.

Moments later, Kein was already at the basketball hall. His mind was clear, his vision wasn't even blurry, and his body was in an inexplicable state of fitness. He jumped up and down as high as he could and still felt how light his legs felt when they were the fulcrum. His Unique Ability was functioning as needed although he did not know if it could be deactivated directly or not.

The conditions on the field were very quiet, there was only Kein alone in the spacious gymnasium. He did a short warm-up before starting the warm-up together with his teammates. Shortly after finishing the warm-up stage, he heard the sound of a door creaking which drew his attention to one of the entrances.

Kein saw the figure of his teammate who rarely interacted but he recognized that the person had a basketball talent.

"Senior Davies? There's still half an hour before practice starts but you're already here." Among them, it was Kein who broke the silence.

Davies did not answer immediately. He observed Kein's slightly sweaty body and was already near the pile of ball baskets. "Why are you asking me that when you've already finished warming up?"

Kein scratched his head while chuckling softly, not looking at himself.

Although the situation had momentarily improved, now the tension was back in the basket hall. However, Kein tried not to be awkward and assumed that all his teammates were his close friends. Coach Marlon also told them repeatedly to instill in their minds that other teammates were also close friends or relatives.

That way they could easily synchronize one player with another and form a chemistry with each other that could outperform players who only rely on individual abilities.

Kein began his daily mission. He stood near the ring and dribbled the ball with his right hand. He didn't take a step or change his movements in the slightest, which raised questions for Davies who kept hearing the same tempo and floor vibrations over and over again.

"It's been five minutes since I arrived. But you keep bouncing the ball non-stop. Are you practicing your dribble?"

"Of course. Everyone knows that the dribble is the most basic. Somehow I feel like I haven't done this in a while"

"You're right. Lately, we've been so focused on building muscles that I've forgotten how to dribble."

Kein thought his words were a bit exaggerated. "There's nothing wrong. Sherla has gone to the trouble of compiling a list of exercises for us to go through. Sometimes she compiles them while her classmates are busy talking and joking with each other."

"Such a diligent girl. I really like her passion. It's only a matter of time how far her methods will take us. You also saw that no one saw them running away from the training, right? Indeed, sometimes something forced can bring about changes we never expected."

"You're right, Senior Davies. That's why I'm also getting more and more excited about training and never feel humiliated despite starting from scratch," said Kein as he showed himself practicing the most basic techniques.

He just couldn't say that his actions now were an absolute order from the 'system'.