9 Regional Games

Michael left the administration hall and made his way to the computer lab. He planned to use his free time at the end of class to look up some recipes and make his grocery list for dinner. First things first, he proceeded with his strategy from yesterday, using the blinders and increasing the settings to just out of reach in order to push the limits of his hands and eyes.

0.001

Intelligence-??? => 0.001

Potential Title "Limit Pusher" progressed.>>

After typing practice, the teacher gave a brief overview of the remaining components of the suite that he didn't get to yesterday, then issued them their first project - choose a topic, do their research using the tools available on the school network, then create a report using the templating functions within the application, then construct a presentation for the class using the presentation software. Seeing an opportunity, Michael decided to complete some of the Extra Credit mission he'd received. In the interest of his "Limit Pusher" title, he also decided to use the spreadsheet application to generate charts on various statistics for his report and presentation.

One of the other requirements was that they could only work on this during lab hours, so he was limited on what he could do at home regarding this. One of the other students asked the teacher why they couldn't work on it at home, and the teacher explained that this would give some students an unfair advantage - not everyone had a computer or access to the internet at home. This made Michael wonder - if having a computer at home was an advantage, then having one in his room was even more of an advantage. How could he best capitalize on this? Something to think about.

During their free period, he spent a few minutes organizing his thoughts for his project, then searched for and found a few recipes for this evening - he decided on roast chicken with vegetables and a green salad with a basic vinaigrette. This would leave him a lot of time while the chicken was in the oven to work on his homework.

The bell rang as he finished grabbing his printed out recipes and grocery list from the printer, and he hurried on his way to the gym for his least favourite class - physical education.

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By the time the bell had rung, the whole class was already prepared in their training gear and lined up in formation next to the track outside. It was ingrained into the students from the beginning of elementary school that it was the class that started when the bell rang, not the getting ready for class. This was especially true in physical education, where getting ready for class took longer, and punishment normally included repeated trips around the the field.

"Attention!", a loud, commanding voice called out from behind the line, making his way to the front. A hulking man with a thick neck and a thicker torso walked out, back as straight as a ramrod. There was a slight hesitation when he stepped to the right side, but he quickly stepped to and turned around in front of the students.

"I am Tesserarius Lakeshead, and you will be my charges for the next several years of your lives. I have a very long memory, and no time for nonsense. I do not care what your ultimate goals are at the end of your secondary education. My primary concern is that at the end of your secondary education, you will be prepared for your term of military service. Any questions so far?"

The formation of students was silent, looking blankly ahead. Everyone knew that this was the way of things, and had been warned by siblings or parents about what to expect. Tesserarius Lakeshead looked around briefly, then shouted. "I said 'ANY QUESTIONS!'"

"No, Tesserarius!" the students called back. Lakeshead nodded slightly in approval. "Very well. This term will be focused on preparing for the Regional Games. There will be five regions competing, which means between four to five hundred students. I don't have outrageous expectations for you, but I will tell you now that anyone who places in the bottom hundred will fail the class! Furthermore, most of you won't know this yet, but they've announced that anyone who places in the top 10 of the competition will be rewarded with a stay at the area's elite youth training facility! Now, everyone was here on time today, and no one has raised my ire yet, so consider yourselves lucky! You only have to run 5 laps. Begin now!"

The group quickly moved past the Tesserarius and made their way to the track. Michael knew that he would have to participate in the regional games, but never had any illusions about doing well. As long as he could keep out of the bottom hundred and pass the class, he would be happy. Sadly, it appeared that the System had other ideas.

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"That's a little vague, System," Michael grumbled internally. "Can't you give me more details? There's a lot of events - the pentathlon, archery, wrestling, weightlifting... I can't sign up for and expect to do well in all of them."

>

As he was running, he started to pay more attention to the rest of the members of the class. He noticed Jeremy and Valeria were in his class, keeping an average pace in the crowd. Chatting was forbidden during practice, but they ended up adjusting their pace and grouping together, enjoying a somewhat leisurely run in silence.

Once the last stragglers finished their laps, the Tesserarius reviewed the various events in the games with the students, and had them do some basic calisthenics. Michael was still a bit sore and expended from his first morning with his own routine, so he didn't perform very well. It also became clear quite quickly what the various segments in the class were. There were the four or five experts in the class, likely children from career military families and members of some of the cadet programs. There were also the clear bottom end of the class, people who had poor health or no motivation. Michael found himself and his new friends somewhere in the middle of the group right now, despite his poor showings in the calisthenics. At the end of class, he still received a few notifications of slight improvements in his abilities.

+0.001

Physique-??? => +0.001

Physique-??? => +0.002>>

Once he got cleaned up and changed, he quickly made his way to the grocery store on his way between home and his school. As he was arriving, the completion of his Daily Routine triggered.

+0.001

Physique-??? => +0.001

Physique-??? => +0.001.>>

He proceeded to quickly complete his shopping, keeping his receipt as his Mom had instructed him to on the phone. They would have been paying for pizza anyway, she argued, so they would reimburse him for dinner. He then made his way back to the house. Carrying his grocery bags, his arms started to complain after two separate exercise routines and now having to haul several pounds for half an hour. This was much more than his body was used to! He admonished himself, acknowledging that he was in fact pretty weak if he couldn't even do this much. Finally, he arrived back at the house, put his knapsack down by the stairs to the basement, and set down the grocery bags on the counter. He slowly pulled out all of the items, as well as the spices, dried herbs, salt, and pepper he would need from the cupboards.

Once all this was done, the system triggered.