Chapter 016 Training
Chapter 016
"Why are you surprised? I just asked what do you think about becoming a hero?"
Peter said, his head tilting a bit in confusion. He hadn't thought his harmless question would create such a reaction out of Alex.
"I was just a little surprised. Why are you suddenly thinking about becoming a hero?"
Alex wondered whether Peter had found something odd about him. But that thought didn't last long. After all, Peter was a genius but a little dense at the same time.
Taking a look at the Captain America mannequin, Peter started speaking.
"It's just a question I'm thinking about a lot these days. What if you have powers, enough to not be called a human? Will you be someone like Captain America?"
"Maybe... but I don't think powers are enough. Even if you have powers, you can still die. What if you can't even save someone without nearly dying?"
Alex answered, a flashback of his fight with the Russians appearing in his head.
"That's interesting. I never gave much thought to the risk involved." Peter said. "But Captain America fought against Hydra knowing all the risks. He didn't back off."
"Yeah, but he was in the army. Not like he have a choi–"
Alex stopped his words there as he realized what he was saying was wrong. Captain America had a choice. He entered the army just to serve his country despite having asthma and several other medical conditions.
He very well knew that he could die at any step and in the end, he did give his life away to save others.
"My Uncle Ben showed me a documentary when I was little. It was about Captain America's life. He always told me that he was an example of 'With great powers comes great responsibility.'"
"You sure are thinking hard on this."
Alex said, then with a little hesitation decided to ask a question that he already knew the answer to. Maybe he just wanted to hear it for himself?
"What will you do if you have powers?"
Peter's body shook a little as he heard that but he soon smiled and scratched his cheeks, thinking of an answer.
Finally, he opened his mouth after a while.
"In the past, I might have wasted it, probably used it for my own gain but it changed "
"What about now?"
"I will use those powers to help others. Just the regular, make the world a better place and stuff." Peter chuckled saying that.
"Even if you nearly die?"
"Yeah." He said like he was sure of it. "After all, you yourself said that one should do the right thing no matter the risk involved."
Alex sighed bitterly hearing that.
'You are just using my words against me.'
For some reason, he felt a little better after that. Maybe, he just needed someone to tell him what the right thing was? Or was it just something else?
Alex didn't know but for the first time in two days, he smiled.
* * *
It took two more days for his broken mentality to mend. It was never easy to gain lost confidence but Alex was able to hold himself together somehow.
It was thanks to his talk with Peter and then Colleen also saw him being a little lost during his training and called him after it.
He just made an excuse saying that he felt like he was not improving fast enough and lacked a lot.
Shaking her head, she had given him a pep talk, saying that what he lacked was just experience and he would gain it if he kept training and moved up the batches.
Although Alex wasn't able to do anything about moving up the batches until Colleen deem him fit enough to learn advanced martial arts, he did get one thing out of the pep talk.
'I need more experience.'
One of the major reasons he was overpowered by the gangsters was due to experience.
He still didn't want to take the risk of being overly reliant on his powers due to the nature of how they worked. Flexibility was his only passive skill and both his other powers weren't something that he could use too much.
Heck, he can only use his bullet time skill once in a day.
That's why, he needed more experience and in a way that didn't have the possibility of him dying.
And Alex did find a way after hours of scrolling through the hero shop.
___
[Training room - Grade 1]
–A training room where you can enter and exit while being asleep.
–You can choose different opponents to train.
–One can't die in the training room.
–Loved by martial artists.
–Can only be used for 365 days.
___
'It would at least be way better than fighting Marcus.'
Alex thought but when his eyes landed on the price tag of the training room, he couldn't help but frown.
"Why is it 50 HP?"
If he bought the training room, then he would only be left with 49 HP which was all he had. But Alex didn't feel like he had a choice here.
He didn't have those help systems that would often be present in webnovels to help the protagonist out and the only thing he could rely on was himself.
In the end, he bought the training room.
After all, he didn't have another choice.
He needed to be more prepared before he could fight crime.
Wanting to test his new training room quickly, Alex laid down on the bed and closed his eyes.
He waited for a few seconds before a sound suddenly rang in his ears.
[You have entered the Training room - Grade 1]
[The pain sensation has been set to normal. You can adjust it if you want.]
[Choose the type of training
–Hand to hand combat
–Weapon based combat
–Target practice.]
Various holograms appeared in front of him as Alex opened his eyes. He took a look at the holograms and stared at the place he was in.
It was a white room with a lot of space.
There wasn't anyone else other than him in the room and it had more than enough space for battle.
'I guess this is what they call getting stronger while sleeping.'
Alex thought and selected the hand to hand combat option.
Then another list appeared in front of him.
[Choose an opponent
–Colleen wing
–Markus Jones
–Elena Jean.]
He felt surprised seeing the list as they were all people he knew in real life. Markus and Elena were both students like him who he had sparred with in Chikara dojo.
But the name which surprised him was of Colleen.
"I at least don't have to think much."
He muttered while selecting Colleen's name.