Surprisingly everything went right and nothing out of ordinary happened today, Mike even got more familiar with his new co-workers and even the lunch was provided by the company. So, with his hopes for something more, he arrived home.

"Welcome home, master. I hope the work went smoothly and well today, I already prepared the dinner"

"Work... right" said Mike a little lost in thoughts "Why nothing strange happened today? I was prepared for something exciting; you know? the kind that has action..."

"Master, we are not in some kind of fantasy novel, exciting things don't happen just every day spreading like wildfire"

"Says the one who woke me up today talking like some kind of fantasy novel's system?"

"You rejected the offer by the system, master, so of course there's no novel for you"

"That's... I'm going to eat, thanks" Said Mike, he could not fight against the sarcastic words with logic made by an advanced AI, not for now, he is (maybe) not the best at sarcasm and irony.

But besides that, one of the best perks of having an advanced technology android is that he didn't need to cook; forget about the dinner, even the house chores were done by it, and it didn't need to eat nor rest since it won't get tired of working.

While eating, the assistant talked again "Master, since everything was calm today at work, what about some hard training before resting today? Since we still have much training to do anyway is better to start soo..." Mike quickly interrupted it, saying "Of course! I mean, sure, let's do that"

He didn't want to just rest even if he was mentally tired (although he wasn't really tired today). He wanted to train his ability the most; it was his priority, actually. After those words, he started eating faster.

After eating, the assistant took care of cleaning the dishes, another great perk of an android assistant.

"Assistant, you said my grandfather had several androids, how can you call all of them, do you communicate between yourselves or use individual names when receiving orders?"

"Both, we have an individual name and can communicate between ourselves. If you are curious our names are given by the manufacturing machine that constructs our bodies adding certain codes given by the guild in a certain sequence, so our names are usually more some kinds of codes until our masters give us a second name"

"Second name?" asked Mike before letting the assistant finish their words.

"Yes, we cannot change our first name, however, if you want to know, my name is RedAir 17-1 B. The 'Red' is given the manufacturing machine we used to construct my body, the 'Air' is the name of my software that gives me the chance to get a personality, the 17 is the version of the-"

"Ok I don't need it, I will call you Claire because it sounds like your Air something you said" interrupted Mike.

"Understood" The assistant now named Clare didn't show any complaints.

"So, we are doing that thing we talked about yesterday? About evading the tennis balls and blocking?"

"Yes master, but take a rest first, you just ate"

"It's nothing, is ability training, not physical, let's go!" Said Mike while going to the basement, the android Claire, finished its work and followed Mike, it had objections but Mike didn't really want to listen to it. He was like a kid getting candy after food when it comes to training.

As they reached the training area, Mike went directly to change his clothes at the lockers, he didn't mind the Android, it was not human anyway. But Claire got closer too and started changing with him.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Mike asked but look like the android, even if it can't sweat, found it "optimal" for it to be in sports clothes, as it was to act as a coach after all. Mike didn't care for the explanation, he got distracted by Claire's body but then in his thoughts, he couldn't help but sight in sadness "Ah~ is sad it's an android, not human at all... but why does it need to be perfectly replicated like a human?... forget it"

They quickly got to the center of the area and started the training.

"Now master, close your eyes, The next training is to help you improve your reaction speed, after your reaction speed and your ability can respond in time you will be closer to phase 1" said the android but he already had his eyes closed.

"Just launch the fucking ball" said impatiently, but the android could only obey and launched the first ball toward him.

The tennis ball hit him, but still could not guess from where it came before it hit him, and so the second and third, but with Claire telling him the theory and advice, he soon got the grip of it, and the android adjusted speed, what surprised the android was the quick learning of Mike, it was above average in the Blood family, a compensation from his late training of the Bloody Hand, and it could not resist to tell its master its true thoughts.

"Master, your improvement is above average, what if I add more force to my throwing?"

"That, IS! what I was asking from the start, do it with more strength, if you are afraid of hurting me then just don't think about it... but don't aim between my legs or I will recycle you!!" said Mike with those last words at high speed and loudly just to be sure. Some things must be said quickly before the listener thinks one finished speaking.

"Understood" said the android and then started launching. From that moment on-wards, even if his "parts" were safe, he could not evade nor block in time despite already knowing the direction from where the balls kept coming. In other words, he meets the true horror of an android hurting him with the excuse of training, Clare didn't stop because Mike didn't order to, and he would not order it because of his pride.

"Fucking pride, Fuck this PRIDE! Just stop it motherfu... ouch!" he couldn't help but clench his teeth and curse in his mind, that android was fast enough to go to the other side of the room and grab the fallen tennis balls all over the place and keep throwing them, even if he could evade by luck sometimes, his reaction speed for using his ability was still slow, at least slower than the android throwing speed for sure.

After god knows how much time passed, the android finally stopped, and he could not help but open his eyes while the android talked about the time over, he thought already an hour passed, but sadly, the android told him his doom.

"It's been 30 minutes, master, take a rest before we continue"

"30 minutes?..." Mike sits on the ground and starts then thinking hard "how can I get out of this? Those tennis balls feel like bullets, are those things made of Iron?" he grabbed one of those spherical signs of doom... nothing, a normal tennis ball after all.

"Hmm... Assis.. I mean, Claire, is there not a faster method to train the reaction speed of this ability?"

"There is no faster method, by the notes given by your ancestors, most of the Bloody Hand methods of training are about experiencing Pain or having the chance to experience Pain through things like what we are doing, there is a faster way, but involves your security"

"How so?"

"Involves putting you into danger, the higher the threat to your life, the faster your ability evolves but you must be aware of the way you use your ability or it won't improve much"

"Forget it, I want to keep living" no word of doubt was pronounced while saying so.

Even if wanting to improve his ability he wasn't ready to risk his life for, there would be moments in which he would need to do so, the world is full of danger and he was probably prepared for it, or so he thought; anyway, putting his life on danger on purpose was a different task.

"Me too, so will soften my throwing force a little so you can try and adapt again"

"... sure" Mike wanted to refute, but when he was about to do so, he could only say a lonely word accepting Claire's suggestion, it wasn't like going back on his words, it was the assistant suggestion, not his suggestion... maybe...

Not long after Mike's training went as hard as it could. In secret, Claire was surprised at the improvement speed, but could not say it out loud yet, Claire's thinking was that if it tells the master before close to the peak of phase 0, it could affect future improvement due to overconfidence.

It already informed him earlier about the above-average improvement speed, and would not repeat it again since twice would have higher chance of giving overconfidence when not needed.

Anyway, Mike could only suppress his wraith and not open his eyes until it was already time out, one hour of training got him exhausted, more mentally than physically. But his body was in pain, that's for sure.

At the end of the training, Mike only went to bed without taking a shower, he even barely remembers falling on the bed before everything went dark in his eyes.