Hard work in detail

"Axel.."

"Yes, Lance."

"I know your answer will be the same but I will ask you again and I hope that you will answer me correctly and in detail this time."

Everyone was celebrating and all of them were drinking alcohol. The mood was very joyful and it suddenly turned serious. There was a pin drop silence.

"I cannot answer it if you don't ask me the question.", replied Axel.

"How the hell are you so strong?", asked Lance. Even though he was drunk, his legs were shaking and he was using this hand to support himself, his eyes were very sharp. His eyes were looking for an answer this time.

Everyone wanted to know the answer to their question. Axel was of their age. He may be younger than them but he was the strongest. How did he get so strong? That was the question that everyone wanted to know.

"You already know my answer. I work harder than any one of you and I spend most of my time thinking about Pokemon and training my Pokemons. I have already answered this question to you before."

"And I am not a fool to believe it like before.:", spat Lance.

"Lance, I am not lying."

"I know you are not lying but you are not saying all the things either.", said Lance.

"What do you mean?"

"Just explain your hard work to us. We are also working hard. We are from prominent families and we have the resources that you don't. I know that I didn't work hard enough during my initial days but now I am. But I still feel that I am going far from you. I cannot bridge that gap.

So, I think that you are doing something additional than just working hard and training hard. So, what is it?"

"Let's get serious here. I can tell all the things that I felt that I had done to get to this stage. But I cannot say that for free. You might be my friend but everything has a price.", said Axel.

"If you don't lie and give me complete information then, I am willing to pay you anything, if that is possible for me to give.", said Lance.

"I can also pay you anything if I can provide it to you.", said Ryker.

Very soon all of them agreed to do anything in favor of it. Axel was surprised that they were this desperate. He just could not understand why.

They may be weaker than Axel but they were very strong compared to normal trainers. They were from prominent families. They were also a genius and they also worked hard. So, there was a huge difference between them and normal trainers. So, why were they so desperate to get even stronger?

Axel looked at all of them and gave a big sigh.

"Sigh…. Ok, I will tell you all the things that I have done to become so powerful and you guys don't have to pay me anything as of right now but remember 2 things."

He looked at all of them in their eyes and said, "First you guys owe me now and I will ask for the help when I need it and secondly, the things that I am about to say to you, you guys cannot say that to anyone."

"I have no problem with it."

"I am also okay with it."

"I can comply with that.."

All of them agreed. If they could get the cheat code from Axel, then they were ready to pay anything. They also knew that Axel was an honorable man so he would not ask for something that they could not do.

"Let's book a room and order some food.", said Axel. He was asking for privacy.

Frank booked the room and ordered all the food. When the food arrived, he told the waiter to not come to the room unless they asked for it.

"Alright, looks like I have everyone's attention. First, you guys have to relax. I am not going to tell you something that you have never heard of. I don't have a cheat code that can get you stronger in a matter of seconds. First of all, remember that I am also a human."

Lance was seriously expecting something supernatural. He was drunk and he had already assumed that Axel must have something that was making him stronger. He suspected that Oak had given Axel something and Axel was keeping that a secret. 

Lance was right about something. Axel was keeping a secret but Oak had not given him anything supernatural.

Axel took a piece of meat and started to chew it slowly. He was enjoying this moment and he wanted to make them wait. None of them said anything and they just waited for Axel to finish eating.

"When I said that I work harder than you, it doesn't only mean that I work longer hours than you some days.

Let's take an example. Lance at what time do you wake up and what time do you train? Tell me your daily routine.", said Axel.

"Well, I wake up at 6:30 and then get ready to train at 7:30 a.m. I train myself and my Pokemons for 3 hours and then rest for 2 hours. At that time I also eat my lunch. Then I start to train from 1:00 p.m to 5 p.m. I then rest and eat my dinner. Then I train lightly for an hour or two and sleep at 12 am."

Lance told him his entire routine in a few seconds. Everyone agreed to his training routine. Some of them were even surprised that he worked so hard. 

However, Axel was disappointed.

"So, you are saying that you train for 7-8 hours a day. Let's say at an average of 8 hours a day.", said Axel.

"Yes, that is correct."

"Let me tell you my routine then. I wake up at 5 a.m. I get a very light breakfast stretch my body and get ready to train at 6 a.m. During this one hour, I try to remember the things I need to do today. I make a list of it and I write it personally.

I normally list down 8-10 things relating to training and my career that I had to do today.

Then at 6 a.m. I start to train. I would have already made training plans for my Pokemons a day before. So, I don't need to interfere much. There are new and young Pokemons in my team right now. I would have to spend some time with them cause they are new and they don't know the training regime but my old Pokemons are perfectly comfortable with the training.

You train for 3 hours straight and then rest for 2-3 hours. I train for 30 minutes and then rest for 5 minutes. If there is a training regime in which I have to continuously train for more than 30 minutes, I rest for 10 minutes.

My Pokemons do the same but they have higher stamina. So, they train for 1 hour and then rest for 5-10 minutes.

So, by 9:30, I would have trained for 3 hours and rested for 30 minutes. I then eat and take some additional rest for 30 minutes. I also look at the progress of my Pokemons during that time. 

I re-enter my training regime at 10 a.m. I train the same way till 2:40 p.m. By this time, I would have trained for 7 hours. 

Then I take a rest for an hour. My body also needs some rest and I continue my training at 3:30 p.m. I then train for 3 more hours and take rest every 30 minutes till 7 p.m.

From 7 to 9, I personally make food with my Pokemons and discuss their training plans for tomorrow and for the future. After eating some food, I again train myself and my Pokemons for an hour or 2.

So, in total, I train for 12 hours each day.", said Axel.

Everyone was surprised by this. Training 12 hours a day was not a joke. One needs to sleep for 6-7 hours a day. So, a total of 18 hours were consumed by resting, eating, training and other things. So, how could he train for 12 hours? All of them were thinking the same thing.

Axel really was a monster.

"So, can anyone tell me, what benefits I have compared to Lance?", asked Axel.

Kate raised her hand and then said, "You train for 4 more hours."

"That is obvious but as Lance put it, explain it properly in detail.", said Axel with a smile.

"Well, you train for 4 more hours a day, so you can train a lot longer than others. You are also talented, so you capitalize on all that."

"Anyone else?", asked Axel.

None of them had any other answer. What other benefits were there? Yes, he trains longer than others, but that would not create such a huge difference. Or would it?

"Then, let me elaborate on it. 

Most of you train for 6-8 hours a day. Sometimes you guys go for 10 hours or 12 hours or maybe even 16 hours a day. But mostly you only train for 6-8 hours a day.

I don't exceed my training time. I only train for 12 hours a day. When I train for 4 more hours a day, I train for 28 hours more than you in a week, that is 1,456 hours more than in a year. 

I have been training since I was 6 years old. I am 15 years old now. So, I have trained 1.5-2 more years than all of you.

2 years of pure training time. It would take you around 5 years more to reach that training time. That is a lot of training time and remember, we are only 15 years old now. The gap would continue to increase and by the time we are 40-50 years old, I would have long surpassed you."

There was a silence in the room. They knew that they needed to train harder but none of them had calculated the time like Axel did right now. Now they were feeling that they were wasting their time.

"There are other benefits to this training regime. You must have noticed that I only train for 30 minutes and then rest for 5 minutes. There are 2 reasons for me to do this. 

Lance when you say that you train for 3 hours straight, we all know that you don't actually train for 3 fucking hours. You might train for 1 or 2 hours at most."

"No, I may lag for some time but I can confidently say that I train for at least 2 hours and 45 minutes in those 3 hours.", replied Lance.

"If all of you think the same as Lance, then you guys are very wrong. If you don't believe me then just take a diary. Note down the time you start to train and then note down the time when you go to the washroom, use your internet or even take a few minutes rest. 

You will learn that you have trained for a very short time. If you don't believe me then try it sometime.", said Axel.

No one opposed it. They had never calculated time like this. They would just think to train and then train.

"I train for 30 minutes and then rest for 5 minutes due to the very same reason. If I divide my training time to such a low level, I would have time to rest and train. I only had to train for 30 minutes so I can do that without any interference and I also have time to rest for 5 minutes. I would go to the washroom, talk to my parent or use the internet during that time.

Another reason to do this is to relax my body. I train physically, in aura techniques, and then psychic techniques throughout the whole day. I do high-intensity training. So, if train for 3 straight hours then I would have to rest for a long time. 

But if I only train for 30 minutes then I don't need to rest for a long time. This would also let me train longer as I don't get as tired as you guys."