Chapter 3- Training

Editor: Destro35

[Training 1, Pain: Being a beginner in the art of war, you've never taken a bullet or a grenade but that is going to change today! Choose difficulty:

Easy: All damage and pain shall be reduced by 50% upon receiving an injury

Normal: Damage and pain is normal

Expert: All damage and pain shall be increased 50% upon receiving an injury

Demon: A light touch will make you feel like your body is being pierced by a bullet

Origin: Each injury is equivalent to receiving the pain of experiencing a nuclear bomb (in kg)

Warning: The Origin grade difficulty can be done up to seven times but the intensity of pain and difficulty will increase by ten every attempt]

Seeing the options Ash picks Easy is soon teleported to the shooting range in a burst of white light. The light blinds him for a second and he closes his eyes as a reaction before opening them up again to see that he is not at the end of the shooting range tied and hanging on a target while being stared at by several soldiers with different machine guns aimed at him. Before he could say anything the soldiers started to open fire at Ash causing pain to explode across his body.

After about 10 minutes of shooting Ash's body was completely eviscerated, but soon another flash of light appeared and Ash was alive again and sweating buckets at the experience of still feeling the pain his body went through the entire process. Without a bit of reprieve, the shooting starts once again.

For the next two weeks, Ash experienced all sorts of pain from gunshot wounds to grenade shrapnel to a knife stab to the gut to a rocket turning him into a pink mist. He died countless times during this pain training as he died and was revived over and over again. Finally, on the last week of training, he no longer felt any pain from bullets, and after going through every item that he died from once more only to realize that he felt no pain Ash gets a notification from the system/

[Training: Pain. Is now over! Next training session available in 15 days]

After reading the message Ash wakes up in his tent which he soon comes stumbling out of while the gazes of confusion from his soldiers are on him. Team Alpha was already awake and they were cleaning out the camp preparing to move out once Ash gave the order to do so. A soldier gives Ash a piece of bark with some cooked meat on it and once he is done eating he gives the order for them to move out and continue heading North. 

After many hours of walking through the forest suddenly the trees are gone and the group has now arrived at a gigantic field with herds of animals twice as big as the animals Ash had seen when he was on Earth. There were horses, zebras, and buffalo just to name a few who were grazing and moving around the field.

[The host has found a suitable ground for the construction of the palace. Please place the cube into the ground]

A notification pops up and a small black cube about the size of an adult fist appears out of nowhere in front of Ash. Seeing this Ash grabs the cube and walks with his group towards what they assume to be the center of the field. Find a good spot Ash takes the cube and pouches it into the ground. As he pushes the cube into the ground Ash and his soldiers teleport back to the edge of the forest in a flash of white light. Then a few seconds later a building magically appeared in front of them all.

This building was about the size of a small town, and upon closer look, Ash saw that this was a palace, but more precisely it was his palace. The entire place was black with the outer walls being made up of reinforced steel that could hold troops with plenty of space on the top and surrounding area for, anti-aircraft guns, mortar pits, and cannons if Ash ever bought any of more than the few that came with the wall. Outside the wall, there was a moat filled with entrapped toxic gas and an electronic bridge that allowed one to pass from one side to the other when lowered.

Ash has his men cross the bridge and enter the palace courtyard after putting up the drawbridge behind them. Upon entering the palace courtyard they see that the space around them is filled with various colorful flowers, a few pavilions around the area, and pathed paths crisscrossing around the entire area. Following the path in front of them to the end, they arrive at the actual palace doors which were gigantic and had a well-placed accent of red gold decorations.

The doors swing open automatically to reveal a big open room with a giant crystal chandelier at the top of the ceiling that was illuminating the room. There was a set of stairs at the end of the room that leads up to a large door and branches out to the sides leading further up to elevators on both sides.

Opening the large door at the middle ground of the stairs leads into the throne room, while everyone just assumes that the elevators just lead to various floors of the palace and all the other various rooms in the place. Back to the throne room, a black carpet with golden accents making some small decals and patterns which lead to a pitch-black throne. There was nothing grand about the throne but the one eye-catching thing about it was a blood-red ruby that would be directly above those who sit at the throne. Looking around the room it was pretty bare except for some white flags that were hanging from the black marble pillars that supported the room and the reinforced multicolored windows that allowed in sunlight. The group walks to the throne and Ash in his 10-year-old body sits on the throne with his feet dangling onto the ground as his soldiers all kneel before him in a line at the foot of the throne.

His palace was beautiful as the system had created everything perfectly from the smallest details on the carpets to the overall structure of the palace. Looking at the white flags on the pillars Ash sees that he can make his country flag. Ash modifies them and after a bit the flag is complete. Ash made the flag solid red with a black western dragon spitting out golden flames with the initials of the empire at the bottom being S.E. Once done Ash gets off the throne as he wants to explore his new palace.

Team Alpha from up around Ash as they leave the throne room and enter one of the many elevators. The inside of the elevator is quite huge it could probably fit about 50 people with relative ease. There seemed to be 50 buttons that led to the various floors of the palace. The only eye-catching part about this is that there were three specially marked buttons. The first button was for the 48th floor which was called the Royal house, the second button led to the 49th floor which had something called the Gilded office, and the third button was -1  and the only lower level on the elevator which led underground to the cube. Ash assumed that the cube floor was where the cube he placed in the ground was and the office did not need an explanation. So, Ash chooses the 48th floor and the elevator starts to move up.

After about 10 seconds of climbing the elevator stops and the doors open showing a short barren corridor leading to bunker type blast doors. Everyone enters the corridor and as they do the elevator door closes, after which lasers appear out of nowhere and start to scan everyone. A few seconds later the doors start to open as the floor beyond the door is opened to them. Before them now is a luxurious floor that has everything that a house has. There was a personal kitchen to the left in a separate room, stairs leading upwards to a second floor, a living off to the right, and directly ahead there was no wall as it was just a reinforced glass window that had blast covers that could be deployed to withstand a heavy bombardment for a good while. Team Alpha respectfully goes into the living room to wait for Ash as he explores the rest of this massive floor with spacious toilets and a bathroom with a hole in the ground filled with hot water which made it look like a spa.

There was a lot of stuff on this floor and from what Ash could see he was likely going to enjoy spending some off time indulging in the activities here. Eventually, Ash finds the master bedroom with a massive bed 5 by 5 meters that has a nightstand on each side of the bed, his bathroom, and a crystal fan on the ceiling. Ash also found a black remote in the wall next to the light panel in the room. Pressing the red button at the top right corner a holographic screen appears on the wall where the TV would be, the screen showed a bunch of information about the palace and could even show the people on each floor. However, if Ash went on the internet or TV channels it would show that there was no connection but that is to be expected since he has not launched any satellites into space or anything to make the internet accessible. Still the remote had other functions as it could call maids, soldiers, and other stuff.

Pocketing the remote and heading back to the entrance of the floor Team Alpha and Ash go up to the 49th floor. This floor was a lot smaller but it had a waiting room with a secretary would sit and a set of wooden doors that led into an office. The office had a mahogany desk with some golden finishes on it and two chairs where someone could sit on either side. The room also had some paintings of wars and battles. On the desk, there was an assortment of random colored pens that were neatly arranged and a black phone. In the desk drawers, there were some empty folders and even a small pistol.

Seeing that there was nothing else left in the room Ash and Team Alpha head back into the elevator and descend to floor -1. The elevator doors open up and a corridor similar to what they saw on the 48th floor stands before them and after getting scanned they enter a large underground space. The space seemed to be about a mile to the other side from what Ash could see as lights from some unknown source appeared once they all entered. The Cube from before was there but now it was a lot bigger, about half a mile in length on each side, and was floating in the middle of the room while slowly rotating.

Ash and Team Alpha were currently standing on a massive platform that could fit at least hundreds of thousands of people easily. As Ash looks at the cube he feels some sort of pull to it so he just walks to the edge of the platform and as he does a path from the platform to the cube starts to appear before him. Walking across the path and ending up in front of the cube the system sends him a notification.

[Invocation of weekly citizens is now available. Proceed: Y/N]

Ash presses yes.