At 7 am sharp the next morning , about 1500 people had gathered under the Elite tower. It was a sight to behold , 1500 people in their jogging clothes shivering in the morning cold.
Rudra was also sharp on time at 7 am , as he wore black sports jacket and matching tracks with neon orange strap.
As he spoke , the air coming out of his mouth turned into vapour because of the moisture. He said " Good to see you all , we will now jog in files of 10 people , I wil lead. Follow my lead to the training grounds , make way if any car needs to pass , though I doubt it will be the case soo early in upside".
The crowd quickly arranged themselves into files of 10 , 150 neat files were made. Rudra started a light jog and said " The jog is very light , I control the pace , I want noone to fall out of the file ,or quit midway .... Is that clear? ".
A loud ' Yes sir! '. Was heard from the crowd.
Rudra slowly but surely increased the pace. 70% of the crowd was out of breath after the 5 minute jog , their breathing now ragged as they were pretty much completely drained of stamina.
This was pathetic considering they were literally one of the strongest players in Hazelgroove kingdom , ever since the start of the digital age after about early 2000's men stopped doing physical activity like before.
Machines and robots made lives simpler and hence the overall fitness of humans saw a significant degrade. Soo much soo that as of 2080 , compulsory physical education was introduced in curriculum all across the world , were physical training had to be mandated on students. Even so , it was undeniable that this generation was very unfit compared to the ancestors who plowed the fields and used hand held tools to do manual labour.
The ones who were unaffected were SMG and his 300 assasin colleagues , they were trained in physical activities since A very young age , and hence had excellent cardiovascular strength.
For them this training was a walk in the park , Karna was also fearing relatively well , as he was someone who regularly hit the gym. However even he was more of a weight training guy than a cardio guy hence his breathing rhythm had became unsteady .
Yume , Skyla , Bo and Jhonny were also fearing well , they were also trained mercenaries and physical conditioning of their bodies was excellent.
What shocked Rudra however was Neatwit, Neatwit was half dead at this point , making grunting noises as he ran. Looking at his lean body Rudra assumed he would be fit , however that was not the case at all.
However the one who fared the worst was Fatty Kalash , he could not walk steady in a file any longer as he bumped into everyone , he had no motor coordination , and no balance anymore , he was wayy past his limit , any moment now he would just curl up his fat body into a ball and start rolling instead of running.
Rudra had no sympathy for his fat friend though , his psychology had changed ever since his mother died to disease in his past life. He now knew that body was man's greatest asset and it should be worshipped.
He hoped to get fatty kalash into shape in this next month , the fatty did not take care of his body , and later in life his overweight would cause him severe health problems , hence it was better that Rudra showed no mercy now , for him to have a better future later.
Rudra dropped in the first file for a moment , leaving the lead , as he wrapped his arm around Fatty Kalash , he gave his friend a momentary balance and support.
Through his ragged breathing , Fatty said " I.....c.caant ".
Rudra patted him on the back and said " Drop out , and your training will be 5 times harder. I'd personally see you to hell , only 5 more minutes to jog , if you complete it , you get a 10 minute rest , If you drop out now , you suffer for the next one month ".
Saying soo Rudra went back to his lead position.
Fatty cursed in his mind all sorts of insults , even some Extremely creative ones came in his mind , as he thought about Rudra's words.
Finally snapping he said " F*** you , you demon , youre no friend of mine ".
Rudra tilted his head back and gave fatty a very cold glance , his eyes full of fury.
Fatty gulped a bit of saliva , his fatigue had suddenly dissapeared , Rudra's gaze gave him chills. His body pumped out adrenaline like crazy as all sorts of enzymes were released to make fatty forget about his pain and keep running.
His body had activated the fight or flight response to extreme situations , when Rudra gave fatty the cold gaze. Fatty knew , that he better complete the course or he will really wish he was dead compared to the training Rudra would put him through.
Gritting his teeth and steeling his resolve , he continued to run regardless. He felt his heart beating out of his chest, like it would explode. He kept cursing Rudra that if he died then it would be on him. However within that cursing process , somehow he did reach the training ground .
As soon as Rudra stopped , close to 800 people dropped dead on the ground.
While many had their hands on their knees , vommiting and coughing. Gasping for air.
Only 1200 people made it to the training ground as a part of the group , many were slowly walking towards the training ground , these were the ones that dropped out because they could not run anymore.
Rudra expected that the training would be hard on the guild members , but he never expected that the majority could not even handle simple running. This was too terrifying. The guild desperately needed to improve on their fitness.
Rudra had not even did the stretching exercises today in consideration that it was the first day. Looking at the situation he gave them all a 10 minute water beak. It seemed to Rudra that the training camp would proove to be much more difficult than expected for the guild members.
After everyone had settled down Rudra spoke " Ethan Grey has built this university ... It is called the Elite academy , it is where after the VR Olympics , we will run 6 month courses for high school and college graduates to make a career in eSports.
It is made with state of the art technology , and the graduates of each batch , would be guaranteed spots inside the main guild. With a good salary.
This academy will be the majority of how we will recruit new members in the future , and the training regime we do today is a tougher version of what the students will be expected to do.
Naturally I want that in this academy the teachers will be from you all , the existing elite members , and I know that you all will not want to shame yourself in training against juniors , hence please give your best in these coming time to become a worthy example and teacher for the juniors ".
Rudra's words lit a fire under the crowd , they were in awe of the Elite academy , they did not want the juniors to think lowly of them , they wanted to be a figure juniors would look upto.
The spirits of the crowd returned to their body as it seemed as if they were ready for the next round of training.
Rudra gave them a dose of motivation , and just hoped that it would proove to be enough to go through the day.
He said " Alright , also again a big thanks to Ethan Grey , he has flown in world class gym trainers here and physiotherepists here , who will be individually monitoring each of your next training".
About 2000 men stood waiting in the massive academy grounds who one by one walked upto individual members.
This was the perk of having a trillionare as your backer , the backend of running operations like these became soo easy .
Rudra only had to ask for things and they would happen. How will it happen? How much will it cost ? Whom to hire ? How to fly them in?
All that Boring stuff was handled by the Grey international.
Rudra wanted to take full advantage of this , as the next phase of training started.