For the next few following days, Sora had vigorously trained on the treadmill. Steadily leveling up physically. A thought suddenly appeared while Sora was running today, of the two first reminiscent horrifying attempts as of yet still haunting Sora, as he had collapsed even on a lower level of eight kilometres per hour and made it a little bit shy past three minutes before the collapse while the treadmill was still running on the second day.
Every male followed Sora and began leveling their physical strength, as their physical ability was embarrassingly low for a male their own age and they yet had to clear a quest ahead of Sora or at all to gain enough experience points to advance to the next tier, level 2. Kazuya and Negi joined in on their way of leveling up through undertaking the challenge of beating the treadmill quest alongside Sora.
“So how was your lunch today with Airi?” Kazuya panted while running on the treadmill, five kilometer per hour.
“Not bad, you get used to it after awhile, no needless chatter, just a brief quiet, tranquil and quick lunch with her, we do not talk much,” Sora panted even more heavily than Kazuya with having the treadmill set to six kilometres per hour.
“I see,” Kazuya chuckled.
“You guys seem to be nearing your limit,” Negi added with a grin while his treadmill was set to seven kilometres per hour.
“Even though we are running, or perhaps jogging at different speeds, I am not going to give in before you guys do!” Sora grinned back as a friendly response.
It ended up with the three of them being the last ones finalizing their training and they continued past five minutes while every other guy were cheering them onwards on the sideline, rooting who will endure the longest. However it ended after they had reached the twenty seven second mark as all three collapsed and gave in simultaneously. Afterwards the post-collapse incident Sora, Kazuya and Negi were all brought to the hospital room on the first floor to rest instead of going to the final class period.
In the collapse Sora’s consciousness had completely faded away and brought him to an inner world which he had long sought for, a solitude that was only his, and his alone, a dream inside of a gaming sheltered apartment and him sitting there watching himself playing in third person.
“Come on, let us go! We can do it,” Sora encouraged the other sitting Sora as he stood next to him over his shoulder.
Screen tab: “Congratulations, you have now hit rank 1 in the world!”
The sitting Sora jumped up and they high fived in an overly ecstatic and exciting manner. Both Sora’s were talking and applauding themselves how they have made this possible, and all of the sudden all sound faded as the real Sora watched himself being dragged away while the sitting one was still overly happy, and it seemed that the sitting one was talking to himself, not the real Sora.
“Sora!” Negi shook Sora until he had fully awakened and returned his consciousness to the real world, cruelly being pulled away from the realms of his inner dreams.
“What? Could you not tell I was having a long sought dream! I was finally back to those tranquil days of pleasant solitude,” Sora complained at Negi and only then had he first taken notice of Negi’s and Kazuya’s worrying, yet slightly exciting face expressions as they held up their phones.
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Sora quickly grabbed his own and read the missed tab. “New additional quest has been successfully added.”
Tab 2: “The first group quest has been approved in the upcoming exams next week on Friday, girls- versus males students will be compared in average percentage score on the exams.
Male students reward: All male students will be granted a free level up and delight themselves in the female students’ punishment.
Female students’ punishment: Resulting in a loss against the male students will allow them to participate in the outdoor swimming pool PE lessons coming up, on provisional access to the third floor, the following week after the exam.
Unique quest reward added: Attain rank one consecutively and you will be granted provisional access even if the males quest would result in a loss.
Kazuya and Negi appeared both baffled when they took a sneak peak and skimmed through together with Sora on his tab.
“Unique quest, huh? I knew you were in the top 5%, but not that you were the highest ranking exam student, Sora!” Kazuya yelled with excitement.
“Why did you not tell us,” Negi inquired.
“I did not think it was of any importance of knowing,” Sora answered with his usual carefree expression.
Sora laid himself back in the hospital to rest a bit while looking up and staring at the roof. Sora find himself laughing at the irony how inopportune and unfortunate turn of events always result around the treadmill, leading to prolonging it, the first tab quest, and opening a second tab which is yet another exam in the fashion of Sora always finding himself collapsing on it and afterwards gaining quests.
“I just want to clear the first tab, the treadmill quest, why do I keep getting a new one,” Sora grinned unintentionally.
“Yet you are smiling!” Negi complained at Sora’s grin.
“Yeah, this is a new quest, and it is a team one, those are more fun, whether we win or lose, let us give it our best!” Sora added and headed back to his room since the hour grew late during his unconsciousness.
On the following day all males gathered around Sora and had him encircled.
“Please teach us so we may level up and be granted provisional access to the swimming pool grounds the upcoming week,” They all bowed down, and in the crowd Kazuya and Negi were bowing down alongside them.
"You are all awkward in terms of individual personalities, yet beseech me to teach you in regard of obscene leering of your eyes at young girls our age, in the sole self-pleasure of witnessing them being torn down to mere swimsuits and both daringly, and embarrassingly revealing most of their skin?” Sora put forth a speech to both encourage and condemn his fellow companions, as he understood this was a young man’s dream.
“Yes!” They all shouted in unison and agreement.
“Well, then it can not be help! Let us beat the girls together then!” Sora grinned carefree as always.
Later at the lunch table, Airi was yet again waiting, however she had already grown accustomed to his supposed “fake gentleman being”, more so in Sora’s fear of bumping into girls on his way over arrival.
“Did you hear about the gender competition challenge quest?” Airi initiated with a slow delicate response as she had begun eating her lunch.
“Yeah, we plan to win, and on top, I have a secret reward added!” Sora gritted his teeth in a friendly response, showing he was used to responding to Airi’s pestering and pondering questions.
“Am I correct to assume and take this as a direct declaration of war?” Airi smiled.
Sora nodded in response of a “Yes, go ahead by all means”.
“And what is this special reward of yours that has been added?” Airi curiously addressed.
Without further ado, Sora pulled up his phone shamelessly and boasting while holding it up for Airi to read, and to issue the second challenge in her face, “To attempt and deny his possible solo quest reward in this team quest based setting”. A few minutes later, Sora thanked her for another tranquil shared lunch together and excused himself apologetically, since he was in a hurry to leave early towards the treadmill for his new regular day-by-day practice routine.
Airi smiled as she signaled the other girls in having retrieved information from a male student and waited until Sora had fully exited the school cafeteria before she chose to speak.
“Do not let Sora have any time for studying, approach him by just near him in a five meter radius, and disrupt the tutoring of the males at any cost,” Airi demanded while all the other girls were in agreeance with her, due to the previous secret night immediate crisis conference held the other day after the gender quest and its contents had been released.