Shi Lang stood up from the chair and whistling softly he walked outside the cabin and the people could only watch his back vanishing. Amelia said, “I pity those poor people.”
Yuu smiled and said, “Oh, pity does not fit the emotion you will feel once he breaks them.”
The people in the room shivered. Milo said, “Boss is putting on gravity boots. Will he be fine with those?”
X, who had been silent for a long time said, “He is training himself.”
…
In the maze, nineteen people were running through the corridors, some were crying and some were wailing. Jane had been impaled by a spike through her feet. She was losing blood and a gentle numbing current was flowing through her body. The spikes were electrifying her body. The torment was simply unbearable.
On the other side, her husband Lucas was already carried to the infirmary by a bot, just when she was thinking about how to break Shi Lang’s face into pieces, she heard a calm voice in her ears, “Janey, how have you been? Did you miss me?”
Jane looked up and found Shi Lang smiling at her, she directly raised her claws to scratch his face off, but the young man ran away, he said, “Now, now, let me take you to the infirmary first.”
He came to her side and carried her up like a princess and said, “Milo, start.”
All of a sudden the corridors of death, which had been silent after Jane had been impaled, came back to life. Shi Lang ran, and the other corridors turned silent at this moment. The people in these corridors, turned their heads to look at him. Some of them sat down on the ground to catch some rest.
“You all are allowed to rest, till the time Shi Lang is running the course.”, a voice sounded in the speakers of the maze.
A few people were relieved, they failed to notice the sly smirk on Shi Lang’s face. However, not everyone was catching their breath, some were using this silence to move towards the exit on the other side of the maze, with their focus on Shi Lang’s movements.
The young man carrying Jane in his arms was leaning a bit forward, running from the phaser beams chasing behind him, due to the gravity boots, the pressure his feet applied on the ground varied and triggered the traps. However, this guy had no stress on his face, but a slightly maniacal smile.
He was moving all over the place, sometimes on the wall, and sometimes he would slide on his butt to get away from an overhead trap. He was trying to train his body and reflexes. Jane in his arms was shocked to see that he was able to do all these things and make them look easy. He was carrying her weight on his body, even if the mass was not too heavy, but her size and shape were too out of proportion for being a training weight.
…
Ten minutes later, Shi Lang placed Jane in a medical bay, and he said, “Did you understand the key to getting away from the phaser chasers?”
Jane had lost a lot of blood, as she lay in the medical bay she said in a faint voice, “I will beat the shit out of you.”
Shi Lang chuckled and walked out of the place. The injured people were all brought to the infirmary and placed in the medical pods. They were not given rest, inside their minds, Yuu was teaching them battle skills. The use of battle skills was not only to allow them to fight but also to improve their body control.
…
The whole week passed with a repetitive cycle of sleeping in the infirmary and running the maze. This was only the first level. Shi Lang had literally placed these people in hell. He had no hesitation, and to test them even further, he would run the maze with them, not only will he run through one path, but the entire level, passing all the people at least once.
This was a blatant provocation when the week ended, Ryan became the first person to cross the maze. He was rewarded with a day in the spirit chamber. He would gather the spirit energy to cultivate for a few hours and then spend his time as he wished. Ryan obviously chose to sleep. This peacetime was to boost the morale of the other people in the group.
Just as Shi Lang had predicted, the people had picked up the pace and were doing their best to clear the level when they found the reward. They all yearned for a day of good voluntary sleep. Shi Lang’s provocation began to lose its effects, and the participants were all getting calmer. This was the benefit of constant stress, they were not able to retain their calm minds to operate under high stress.
Tartarus was simply a hands-on experience for these people. However, Shi Lang was not going to spare anyone. One day he caught Milo and Hawk discussing the alternative methods to cross the maze, and the next day when they woke up, they were already in the maze. The young general said, “If you can use your alternate methods to cross the maze, I will give you both a personal bot.”
However, the result left him disappointed and defied. Milo and Hawk were shot down in the shoulder and hamstring, respectively. They were placed in the medical pod, where Yuu, literally broke their bones in the simulation realm. The entire Ace Division was put through this suffering and asked to keep at it till they can get through the maze.
Amelia was also not spared, although the new husband carefully carried her to the infirmary, and showed impeccable care, but in order to make her stronger, he really turned his heart into stone. The young wife was surprised by his mood changes but then Yuu said something to her, and Amelia began to work harder.
Yuu said, “If you did not keep up the pace, he will be stagnated as well. You do understand that he will bury his talent to be with you for his entire life and not regret it one bit. However, will you be able to live without regret if I tell you that he still has a lot of potential left untapped?”
As an instructor, Yuu was really good at developing an understanding of her students. It has been two weeks since Shi Lang took the mice again and said, “Hello, dear comrades, today marks the day when all the participants have successfully gotten through the first level of the Maze. Congratulations!!! Now you all can take a day off to sleep and spread love among each other. Tomorrow, you will advance to the second level, and let me remind you, the challenge is twice harder. May you all stay alive.”
The people suddenly thought that they were all living in vain, and Ryan even wanted to cry. He was given a day off, and then he was made to run different paths of the level because the variations of the traps were useful in training. Now they had not even started their holiday, and this guy had marked them with another hex mark.
…
After a day, the people stood at the entrance of the second level, but they did not know what it held for them in store, but just when they were hesitating, they felt a push from behind and they entered the maze. Just when they thought that the maze was slightly different in the aspect of fast and quick turns, they found a dedicated bot that had come up to fight with them whilst they ran.
Yes, Shi Lang had placed in spirit puppets to bring out the battle skills learned by these people inside the simulation realm, and he generously added some small spirit illusion formations to the traps. The participants were really being pitted, some would run into the walls and knock themselves out, while some almost got sliced into two for running to a scythe.
Shi Lang had become their biggest enemy because he would run around them in circles daily, sometimes he would even punch a person to make them stumble and fall. The same cycle that he used in the first level was being played.
The first person to pass the second level was Captain Steel. However, it did not happen before this guy noticed how Shi Lang crossed the path. Well, to copy someone, you must learn from them. That was what he did. One day of rest was the reward he earned.
Just when things were about to ease up, Jane crossed the maze, and in a fit of rage, because Shi Lang had kicked her in the butt and almost made her fail, she yelled and challenged Shi Lang for a duel.
The young general appeared in front of her with a fiendish smile and asked, “You will not be able to run away from this now, Janey.”
Jane did not wish to spare him and thus, they began fighting in the corridor. Shi Lang dodged a fist and it landed on the wall, leaving behind a tremor and a pit in the wall. The young general recalled that his best friend has the ability of super strength, and it was his turn to run from her.