Everyone was a bit shocked.

“What? You want to know the high score? You shouldn’t be so foolish. Being over confident will get you hurt.” The military woman replied.

“Please just tell me. It’ll help motivate me to do well!” Reed smirked and gave her a thumbs up. “By the way, what’s your name?”

“My name’s Amanda. Ugh, alright I’ll tell you, but I doubt you can get anywhere close to it. The record amount of time spent in the test is 2 hours and 37 minutes. By that point the pain will have escalated to about 100 times that of burning alive.”

“Sounds painful. Thanks for telling me.” Reed was determined. If he was going to try at all, he was going to go all out. Also, he felt motivated. This was exciting. Competition like this was something Reed never experienced before, and he was quickly growing addicted to it.

Reed stepped up to the center of the room and signaled for Amanda to begin the test.

*bzap*

Not too terribly alarmed by the initial pain, Reed understood why Ema thought the test would be easy. However…

“Urk… This doesn’t feel right…” Reed muttered to himself. The pain was escalating. Slowly at first, but then it began to grow quicker and quicker. ‘Fuck, breaking the record is gonna be tough.’ Reed grimaced. His body began to shake and lightly convulse under the pain. ‘Maybe I should just stop trying. This is so painful… Do I really want to keep it up?’ Reed began to doubt himself. Maybe he should just stop trying. It’s so hard to keep standing, why not just stop? He’s gotten by just fine without trying in the past, why start trying now?

“Reed, don't give up! You can do it! My rival wouldn’t lose so easily!” In the midst of his doubt, Reed heard a voice. Looking up, Reed saw Ema, who was still pale from her turn testing, cheering for him. ‘Even though she was in so much pain, she’s still cheering someone else on… Alright I need to stop. This test only ends when I decide, and I want to break the damn record.’

Gaining his confidence again, Reed manages to stabilize his body and mind. ‘If I want to last long, I need to forget about the pain.’ Reed begins trying to steady his breathing and clear his mind. The solution to lasting longer that he came up with was meditation.

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Falling deeper into meditation, everything around Reed began to fall away. He wasn’t conscious of anything except his own body.

Once he stopped listening to anything except his own body, he could feel it. Inside his body, there was something. It was formless and colorless. Then, just as he became conscious of it, it reacted to him. It started spreading through his body, like it had been waiting for this moment. Strangely, even though it was spreading through his entire body, Reed didn’t feel like it wanted to harm him. It had a gentle touch, like a parent caring for their child. As it spread through his body Reed fell deeper into meditation. He couldn’t even feel the pain anymore, he could only sense the colorless energy flowing through his body.

Once it spread to every fiber of his being, the energy stopped moving. Then it began to pulse. It pulsed irregularly at first, but slowly began to get more and more in tune with Reed’s own heartbeat.

“Reed.” A voice spoke to him. It sounded like it came from his own body. “When you have become the strongest, seek me.” And then the energy began to disappear.

‘Wait… it isn’t disappearing.’ Reed thought. ‘It’s melding with my body!’ He felt his body grow stronger. ‘Is this perhaps a gift from that voice? Or is this something I had all along? Just what is going on??’ Bewildered, Reed lost focus and his meditation was disrupted.

The room came into view for him, and his body’s sensations came back.

“GAAAAAHHH,” Reed screamed. It hurt so much. It felt like his body was being torn apart over and over again. Trying his best to pull himself together, he looked over at Amanda and asked, “H-how long.. Have I.. *huff*.. been going?”

She looked at him, absolutely bewildered. “Th-three hours now.” Even though she said it, she looked like she couldn’t believe it.

“Urgh.. then.. Stop it.” Reed managed to say. He made it. It hurt like hell, but he beat the record. He endured more pain than any other human that had taken the test.

The test stopped. Without expecting it, the immediate stop of the immense amount of pain he felt shocked his system. Even though it has stopped, just the rubbing of his clothes on his skin felt like fire. His nervous system needed time to adjust to the lack of constant excruciating pain. In fact, unbeknownst to him, if his body hadn't been strengthened by the energy earlier then he would’ve not even been able to move his body.

Walking forward a few steps, Reed realized he needed help to walk properly. However, before he could even ask for it Ema stepped up and supported his weight.

“Thanks Ema. I owe you one.” He mumbled.

“No problem. It must’ve been absurdly hard, so just rest.” She said, none of her previous loud and proud self left. “Just sit here on the bench and sleep.”

Reed did just that.

A couple hours later Reed awoke. Looking around he guessed that he had ended up being hospitalized after that. They probably wanted to check his body to make sure nothing had gotten fucked up from overloading his nervous system so badly.

*sigh*

Sitting alone in the dark room Reed realized he might be fucked.

“Mom is so gonna fucking end me.”

Wallowing in despair, he went back to sleep in preparation for the marathon level lecture he would get in the morning.

A/N: I decided to cut this one a little short. I didn’t want to add anything that I wouldn’t be able to finish today. Also, be on the lookout for the next couple chapters. Players are gonna start being introduced, and Reed is about to learn a bit about what makes him special.