Adam settled himself into the quarters assigned to them, no hint of his true purpose expressed on his poker face.

The rooms assigned to them were next to each other, a total of four rooms for three people each. The room design was simple with three single-size beds next to each other, separated by a nightstand in-between all of them. A small restroom was attached to the room, fitted with the minimal necessities.

The women in the group were taken to another part in the barracks, thus the only people in these four rooms were the young and middle aged men who were present during the welcome speech in the command room.

His fellow trainees were already assigned rooms by the time he got here, therefore we was left with the third bird in the fourth room. The room's number was 503-04 and was occupied by two other guys in the training group.

The one on the first bed was called George Meltos. He was a blond young man, 22 years of age and with a fair face to match. He seemed the gregarious type, prone to partying until late.

Whereas the one on the second bed seemed to be the polar opposite, with wrinkled forming at the sides of his mouth and whitening hair combed backwards. He was the oldest man in the training group, looking to be in the late fifties. His immediate nature seemed to be more inclined to be introverted. His name was Francis Durand.

It was in the evening, and the group of trainees were given approximately fifteen minutes before they were introduced to a military lifestyle. Adam, having a lack of items to settle down with, decided to rest on the bed for the remainder of the fifteen minutes.

However, this perfectly sound and logical plan was ruined by George when he decided to initiate ice-breaking activities.

"Hello everyone, my name is George Meltos and I come from Newcastle. We are you guys from."

Adam wrinkled is brows, not quite appreciative of the extroverted gesture. What was the use in getting to know each other when one could use the time resting.

The old man softly sighed, then spoke too.

"I'm Francis, I was born in Versailles and came to Australia fifteen years ago."

Adam noted that Francis' accent was moderately thick, giving away his French heritage. Although the accent itself didn't impede his fluent English and instead added some mysterious touch to his presence.

They both turned to look at him, George with his bright blue eyes and Francis with a slightly bemused expression, a bemused expression which seemingly masked a distant expression in his eyes which implied that there was much more to this man than met the eye.

Adam sighed, not a soft one like Francis but rather one of defeat.

"I'm Adam."

Adam's short sentence perfectly portrayed his view of ice-breaking activities, a waste of time.

George looked slightly taken aback by Adam's straight forwardness. Francis simply let on a small grin.

George looked as if he was about to attempt to change to topic of the conversation when the a bell rang.

That was the signal for the trainees to form up outside the quarters.

With only a momentary hesitation, the group composed of strangers to each other made their way outside, gathering with the rest of the group.

The majority of the trainees were composed of young adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, although older people were present such as Francis.

Nobody in the group particularly stood out to Adam. It was instead Adam who stood out from everyone else. A cold expression on his face coupled over with the Grandmaster paying special attention to him, even an utter moron would know that there was more to Adam than first met the eye.

Feeling multiple gazes from his fellow trainees, Adam maintained his cold poker face and was indifferent to any inquiries addressed to him by the other awakened.

The situation continued for another minute or so until an officer came by and took them to their first lesson, explaining what it would be on the way there.

"Firstly, we have to determine your physical capabilities as well as your metaphysical activities which are directly linked to your elevated status as awakened. The training facility within the fortress, which we are heading to, is designed with cutting edge technology to measure the combat capacity of awakened personnel."

"The way this exercise will be completed will be with your roommates, who will form your small team fro the remainder of the training. Each room group will be assigned a single slot within the facility to complete their assigned exercises by the end of they day. Those groups which fail to do so within the allocated time will continue their exercises until they are finished, even if it's by three in the morning."

Nobody in the group complained, how hard could it be to complete a series of exercises designed for three people with essentially the greater part of six hours.

They made their way past the multiple concrete structures within the fort to arrive at a non-descript concrete bunker with an entrance leading down into the ground.

Saluting the guards, the officer opened the doors and led the group inside.

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As the group crossed the bunker's doors, most of them gasped as they were subject to the Police Box effect.

Also known as 'It's bigger on the inside!'.

The officer didn't care to explain and soon led the group past multiple metallic instruments and machinery at which they could only guess the purpose of.

Eventually, they reached an array of eight capsule looking machines.

Once there, he turned and addressed the group.

"What you see here is the third iteration, and first functioning model, of the Awakened Compatible Immersive Virtual Reality Module. Or ACIVRaM for short. The main function of this capsule is to create a fully immersive virtual reality which properly incorporates an individuals awakened abilities within the virtual reality space, this allows you to gain experience, train and engage in simulated combat at no risk to one's health."

Many of the members of the group expressed surprised expressions at that statement, although some withheld speculative thoughts about such claims. Adam wondered how they managed to integrate the system which was made available to every awakened within the Immersive Virtual Reality provided by the capsules.

"As you can see, there are eight capsules here, and there are eight small teams present. You will find that your room numbers have been allocated to the capsules. All you have to do is decide upon someone to immerse themselves first and then the technology personnel will run the simulation."

Seeing as the introduction was concluded, Adam made his way to the capsule which was in the far left while everyone else was searching for their capsule. Seeing Adam moving so decisively, George and Francis decided to follow him.

Once at the capsule, the group of three was besotted by an awkward silence as to the subject in nominating someone to go first.

'Perhaps the icebreakers were a good idea?'

'Shut up 'Adam'!'

Irritated by 'Adam's' tactful remarks, Adam immediately decided that he would go last.

This resulted in a scenario in which George was drawing in breath to speak just as Adam stepped back and said.

"One of you guys go first, I'll go last."

George was mildly surprised, however, Francis looked thoughtful for a second before following Adam's lead and stepping back. This caused George to be dumbfounded, what was wrong with his teammates? Did a cat get their tongues when they were children?

He merely shrugged and hoisted himself inside the sheening metal capsule in a surprising feat of athleticism, laying himself at rest inside the moderately hard white cushions which acted as insulation. The officer, seeing as group 503-04 was finished first, went over and gave the signal for the technical staff nearby to start the simulation within their capsule.

Adam watched as the capsule sealed shut and flickering lights and metres fluctuated. When the capsule sealed shut a second metal sheet covered the first and sealed itself atop that. Adam mused that it would take Toshihiro's final strike against him to break through this metal capsule.

The other groups followed shortly after, their capsules undergoing a similar process.

Seeing as everyone else was waiting, Adam decided to sit down in a corner of the room and meditate while he awaited his turn within the capsule.

Meditation was a method of training the self which Master Li had demonstrated to Adam back in his courtyard. It involved a specific breathing pattern and posture in which the mind was set at ease. This allowed one to calm down the stray thoughts in one's conscience and mentally attune themselves for battle.

He got some weird looks from the other groups, however they let him mind his own business as a result of the icy aura being figuratively emanated by Adam's character.

Other groups, but not his own group. Francis came down and sat next to him with his legs out in front of him. He took out a small leather gourd and drank from it, it seemed to be vineyard wine from the smell of it.

He turned to look at the operating capsules, while speaking to Adam.

"Don't you sometimes wonder how it all turned like this?" His voice held a solemn tinge in it, as if he kept a great tragedy close to his heart.

Usually, Adam would have pretended not to hear him, however this old French man intrigued him and thus he decided to indulge him, if only momentarily.

"Are you talking about the awakening?"

Francis simply shook his head slowly. Taking another sip of wine, he continued.

"No Adam, I am talking about everything. The social values of our old society, the value of righteousness and rule of law. It has all been turned upside down in this world in which the numerical value of one's level determines their status within society. Either as that of a slave or a king." Francis seemed to spit out the word 'king', as if some deep seated despise and contempt was held within the meaning of that word for Francis.

Francis' words seemed to light a candle of reminiscence within Adam. Before the change, what had he stood for?

His life was comfortable, if unhappy. Rule of law provided a reliable measure of security for all citizens. However, when it was gone and replaced with the uncertainty of strife, Adam didn't particularly feel anything.

He had lost all feelings of parental affection, no familial connection with whom to stand by and forced to stand on his own two feet, turn himself into his own fortress.

No, Adam didn't regret losing the certainty of every day life to the awakening. In some warped and twisted measure it set him free. Free from seeing the reminder of a happy past which was called his mother every day. Free from the suffocating atmosphere of his room. Free from the constraints of his defective conscience, allowing him to break past the restraints of civilised society and setting of on his own road.

Perhaps, this was why he took to Master Li so readily. He had been like a floating piece of driftwood to a drowning man, a salvation for a lost cause. After murdering his mother, he had no objective, nothing to strive for.

Master Li had changed that, he allowed him the strength to stand on his own two feet and gave him the philosophy to choose his own path in life, wherever it may lead.

Adam turned to look at Francis and responded, taking all of his experiences in the awakening to account.

"The awakening brought conflict everywhere, however, it also brought a directive purpose, a single objective. In a pursuit of strength, it is only natural that those with conflicting interests clash, often to the death. In my opinion, the awakening granted a new system for us, a system in which we can cast the expectation which were inflicted upon us by society into the abyss and forge our own path ahead, whether it take iron and blood!"

Francis seemed surprised at that statement, not expecting something such as that from someone so young. He didn't speak for a while, slowly ruminating over what Adam had said in his mind.

In the time that it would have taken a sandglass to turn, Francis finally raised his head and asked Adam a question with an imperceptible glint in his eye.

"And what is your path? Young Adam."

Adam already knew the answer to that question, he knew it when he joined the Cold Evil Sect, he knew it when Patriarch Sha had promoted him into a chosen, he knew it when Master Li had sent him out to defeat Ito Toshihiro.

"I am seeking my path."

Adam's tone was a paradoxical mixture of confidence and uncertain. A certain sense of confidence from an uncertain future, such was the conviction behind Adam's words.

He could feel 'Adam' grinning at his words, although he seemed to grin at almost anything.

Francis let out a smile, he opened his mouth to speak.

"Adam, I think we might become closely acquainted during our stay here."

Adam smiled, in his head he thought that this old man wasn't as annoying as George, and subconsciously began to like his demeanour.

Adam opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted as the capsule which belonged to another group rapidly opened. From the unsealed gas, a pale figure coughed and collapsed on the floor, showing symptoms of shock.

Everyone in the group was alarmed, they were told they would be doing exercises in there, but what exercise could have caused this to happen?

The officer in the room stepped forwards and motioned the medical staff to carry away the unconscious individual, then he resumed his position. Unwilling to approach the intimidating officer, the trainees could only dreadfully wait for their turn inside the capsule.

After this incident, Adam turned to look at the capsule which belonged to Adam's group lying on the left side.

Before this it was a mere curiosity, however, it now represented a challenge.

The best way to find one's path is to overcome challenges.