CRUSHING WEIGHT

"Push-ups ready!" ordered Nanami. The cadets, who are now just in their uniforms, all got on all fours and started doing push-ups.

"Next segment is an obstacle course! Do it in groups of 3, all 3 of you must pass to be considered successful, otherwise you have to do it again. You will be ranked based on time," she continued, gesturing to the obstacle course. It consisted of a rope ladder that leads up to a specialised ladder which is made up of giant wood logs. To climb it correctly, one must wrap all 4 of their limbs on a log first like a sloth before they can proceed to the next one.

"I suppose this must be easy for you elites?" asked Nanami.

"YES MA'AM!" replied the cadets in unison.

"Alright then," said Reza, gesturing to the other instructors, who then poured pails of detergent over all of the equipment.

"You gotta be—" cursed Louis internally, the difficulty just went up from a simple exercise he can do with his eyes closed to one that may actually screw him over, given their fatigue and the frictionless surfaces.

"Numbers 9, 31 and 42!" roared Reza. Sean, Ariel and Albert stopped their push ups and went up to the course.

Sean stepped onto the platform, carefully grabbing the rope ladder, it is slippery as he had expected.

He climbed up, reaching the first log. He wrapped his limbs all around it carefully, using every ounce of energy to pull himself up to the next log. Albert followed after him.

"Gosh! This is too slippery!" he groaned, almost slipping had Ariel not pushed him.

Sean pulled himself to the top log after a painful climb, lowering his leg down as an extra pivot for Albert to use to circumvent the problem of slippery surfaces. Albert then carefully climbed up, hooking himself tightly while also holding on to Sean. Once Albert cleared Ariel climbed up to his former position, suddenly, she slipped, losing her grip and almost falling had Sean and Albert not caught her at the last second. Heaving a sigh of relief, the trio continued their progress, starting their way down.

"Numbers 23, 92 and 100!" yelled Nanami. Karl, Louis and Clara headed over to the course, climbing up.

Vera in the meantime is close to collapsing from fatigue from doing so many push-ups. Seeing her, Nanami grinned, walking over.

"What are you? A bridge?" asked Nanami. "Be a proper lady and keep those legs closed," she teased.

Vera looked away awkwardly. Nanami's personality is a mess to her. Friendly, fierce and flirtatious at the same time to whoever she meets.

"3 Fs huh…" she commented internally.

Nanami then noticed Eddie slowing down. She immediately stepped on him.

"Uh oh, seems like someone is getting too comfortable~," she mused.

"Hell…" grunted Eddie, feeling the crushing weight of her 120kg body mass. "Why are you…so…heavy?!" He did not expect her to weigh more than double of what her body size suggests.

Nanami frowned, still keeping her smile. She stepped on him harder. "Don't you know that you should never ask a lady her weight?"

"So, junior, let me ask you again, am I heavy?" she asked. This ironic as Eddie is in fact older than her by 1 year. "No…ma'am…" groaned Eddie.

Nanami smirked. "Liar," she increased her force further, prompting Eddie to scream in pain. Erika grimaced seeing Eddie in such a state. "Yikes…" she muttered.

Suddenly, a commotion startled all of the instructors and cadets, and they turned to see to their shock that the ladder had fallen apart and collapsed, burying the cadets under the logs.

It turns out that as Sean was making his descent, a piece of log that is already worn out broke under his 120kg body mass, pulling apart the entire ladder and sending all 6 of them on the ladder into the safety net on the ground.

Nanami stared at the chaos, speechless. She then rushed over with Reza to help the cadets up, checking them for injuries.

Reza glared at Sean, who whistled away, avoiding eye contact with him.

"Change of plans!" ordered Reza. "Since you clowns broke the ladder, I want you all to carry the logs back to base! 3 cadets to a log! Sprint back with all your energy! You will be ranked based on time."

Sean grabbed a log, grunting to carry it up for it is 100kg each. Albert and Ariel immediately went to help him, carrying it together and sprinting in the direction of the base.

"LOWER! LOWER!" yelled Ariel, for both Sean and Albert are 185cm tall while she is just slightly past 174cm, having to tip toe to just touch the log at the height they are carrying it at. The 2 immediately adjusted their position.

Karl, Louis and Clara ran alongside them, with Vera, Eddie and Erika close behind.

Out of the blue, rows of fire-fighting robots popped out, aiming their hoses at the cadets.

"Oh sh*t…" cursed Albert, just in time for the high-pressured water to hit him in the face, the impact almost flooring him.

The cadets all collectively screamed in pain at the impact of the high-pressured water, which soon obstructed their vision and some groups ended up tripping and falling consequently. "Not again..." groaned Vera.

"Those jerks really went and deployed these robots last minute to screw with us…" cursed Louis internally.

"Hurry up!" roared Herbert who had arrived to "welcome" them near the gate of the base.

Sean's group threw down their log, squatting and patting heavily. Soon the other cadets arrived.

"FALL IN!" roared Hebert. The cadets immediately gathered in position.

"Go to the armoury next, you have 10 minutes to select a main weapon, either a submachine gun or a rifle, and a sidearm of your choice!"

Hearing that they finally have a chance to shoot after so long, the excited cadets all rushed into the armoury. Sean followed behind. Just as he is going to enter, Nanami stopped him, handing him a slip of paper.

"Show this to the armourer, we have a surprise for you," she winked.

Puzzled, Sean took the slip and walked in. Xu Qing sat behind a counter in a locked room separated by a bar.

"The main privilege of a Tier 1," said Xu Qing. "In my opinion is that you are free to pick your own gears, we have almost all the standard-issue weapons of the world militaries in here, as well as all of the common accessories! Tired of using standard issue HK-416 rifles, QCQ-171 submachine guns and Glock 19 pistols? Here is your chance!"

Soon Xu Qing and the rest of the armours assembled the guns ordered by the cadets like buffet chefs, and the cadets then took their guns to the indoor range next door to zero their optics. Sean handed Xu Qing the paper slip. Xu Qing then passed him a rifle bag, passing it over. "Already zeroed," smiled Xu Qing.

Curious, Sean opened the bag after bringing it to a corner, stunned to see its contents: :

A SCAR-H rifle with a LPVO optic, a canted red dot, a laser and light combo, foregrip, folding bipod and a custom cheek rest plate on the stock sat there — the rifle Sean used to operate with. He grabbed it, checking the chamber to make sure it is clear and pulled the trigger. It is perfect, just the way he remembered, crisp and smooth.

He then grabbed the FN 5-7 pistol in the bag, fitted with a weapon light, also in the configuration he had used.

(10 minutes later)

Sean kept his head submerged in a pail of water, holding his breath. Albert similarly kept his head submerged in a pail next beside.

Sean could feel his heart rate rapidly rising as it tried pumping oxygen to his body in this airless environment, not helped by the instinctual fear of drowning adding on to his heart rate.

"Begin!" yelled Herbert. The 2 lifted their heads out of the pails, grabbing their guns and advanced, firing on the moving targets ahead. As they have no Exo-suits, the fire control AI in their optics is unusable, meaning they have to rely on their shooting skills only.

Albert aimed down the red dot sight of his MP5A5 submachine gun, quickly hitting the targets, ensuring absolute speed and relative accuracy. As for Sean, his rapid increase in heart rate made worse by his trauma and shaky fingers from that fatal accident 3 years ago greatly affected his accuracy, struggling to even properly line up the reticle of his LPVO on the targets. Switching to the canted red dot sight also did not work better.

Soon, both emptied the 30-round magazines of their main weapons, switching to their sidearms. Albert turned left, rapidly firing at the moving pistol targets while moving with his Glock 17 pistol, while Sean turned right and did the same with his FN 5-7.

The 2 emptied their pistol magazines soon, stopping at the end of the range, keeping their guns. Sean peeked at Albert's targets, impressed to see that most of his shots had landed on or near the bullseye. He then looked at his: all of his shots are at the outer edges of the targets, and a portion of them are empty, suggesting that he missed. He bowed his head in embarrassment, knowing that it is a barely passing grade.

The cadets behind all jeered softly at Sean, with the exception of Louis, Ariel, Eddie and Vera. Having been made aware that Sean was a Tier 1 veteran yet still performing so lousily is enough for them to look down on Sean.

He kept his head bowed as he walked back, ignoring attempts by Albert to cheer him up.

Ariel and Louis then came up next. Despite being an amphibious Lita, Louis still had to hold his breath as his gills are on his neck, not on his face.

"Begin!" yelled Herbert. The 2 rushed forward, Louis swiftly aiming down the holographic sight and magnifier combo of his Noveske N4 rifle, rapidly hitting his targets. Ariel aimed down the 1.5x optic integrated into her AUG A3 SF rifle, hitting targets at a speed and precision that triumphs over Louis. The 2 soon switched to their pistols, Louis' SIG P226 MK25 fired bullets on his targets rapidly. Ariel's CZ P-07 jammed for a brief moment, she quickly corrected the failure to eject the fired casing and proceeded with shooting.

Herbert nodded in approval at their grades when they are done. Sean looked at their self-congratulatory smiles, on one hand his is genuinely happy for them, on the other hand he feels too ashamed to face them for his horrible performance.

"Next!" ordered Nanami…

(2 hours later)

"At ease!" yelled Bryan, wrapping up the training for the day. "Today's training is so-so; I will ask the kitchen to put an extra gallon of water at your dorms tonight!"

"Sir!" yelled Eddie.

"Speak!" said Franz.

"We have not eaten one bite at all today!" he said. All the cadets looked down, hungry.

"This is why there is more water! If you are hungry, fill up your stomachs with it!" replied Franz.

"Sir! How can we train with no energy replenishment?" asked Clara.

"Consider yourself lucky to have water," said Bryan. "Here is not the place where you will be looked after by your Squad, Platoon and Company leaders."

"If anyone of you can't take it, feel free to quit!" yelled Franz. "Anyone quitting?"

The cadets stood in silence.

"Then we will announce who's leaving!" yelled Franz. "Number 55 step out!"

A cadet stepped out.

"The course is over for you," said Franz curtly.

"Sir! My skills aren't lacking, I was just too hungry. Please give me a second chance!" begged the cadet.

"The enemy won't give us a second chance," said Bryan. "We have different physical conditions, not everyone can make it, need not feel inferior as a result," he comforted.

The cadet reluctantly put down his helmet and number tags at the flag pole, tears raining down.

Sean sighed, had his physical performance not covered up his shooting performance, he will be at risk of being washed out.

"Should I just quit?" he asked himself, still torn internally, half of him wanting to go back to his comrades while his other half yelled at him to distance himself from them to not hurt them again. The crushing weight of his conflict is starting to become unbearable.