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"Everyone up! Now!"
Rokuro was jolted from his sleep by a thunderous roar.
He opened his eyes to see the same Konoha shinobi who had tossed him onto the bed the night before. According to the original Rokuro's memories, this man was their instructor, Okamoto. As for his surname, orphans like them weren't qualified to know it.
Training System! Training System!
As the name implied, he had to train to earn Experience Points (EXP). While standard training didn't offer as much EXP as completing specific Quests, every little bit counted. Even a mosquito's leg is meat, as the saying went.
He scrambled out of bed and joined the swarm of children following Okamoto out of the shack.
Wash up.
Eat breakfast.
The children followed Okamoto's lead with rigid discipline. Once the morning routine was complete, they were marched into a small training field where they joined children from other dorms.
Rokuro did a quick headcount—there were roughly two hundred kids in total.
Okamoto stood at the front, his gaze sweeping over the assembly.
"Except for the children from Dorm 9, everyone else follow your squad leaders and begin!"
At his command, the large group dispersed, leaving only the twenty-odd children from Rokuro's room standing there, looking bewildered.
Okamoto's expression was cold.
"Starting today, you enter the training program. Since you are newcomers, your daily regimen will be halved. One month from now, it will increase to the standard workload. If you cannot keep up with the progress by then... you will be sent back to where you came from!"
The children stiffened, terror flashing in their eyes.
They were all from impoverished families; most had never known the feeling of a full stomach. Here, they were fed and clothed. Even if the training looked grueling, it was nothing compared to the agony of starvation.
Determined, the children straightened their posture, fixing their eyes on Okamoto.
The instructor nodded, satisfied. However, when his gaze landed on Kanda Rokuro, he paused.
Those eyes...
They were calm. Confident. It was the look of someone who knew they would succeed. To see such a gaze in a child... this one was definitely moldable talent.
Okamoto shifted his focus back to the group.
"For now, follow me. We're running two laps around the training field. After that, a thirty-minute break, then the next drill. Anyone who fails to finish gets no food today!"
Okamoto began to jog at a steady pace, and the children fell in line behind him. Rokuro blended into the pack, his legs pumping rhythmically.
But his mind was elsewhere.
During breakfast, he had checked his System Panel.
• [Daily Quest: Run 10 Kilometers.]
• [Random Quest: Teach Fukada Miya a lesson.]
The Daily Quest overlapped perfectly with the morning drill. Judging by the size of the field, two laps should equal about five kilometers. That meant he could knock out half the objective right now.
But that Random Quest...
That was trouble. Fukada Miya seemed to be a kid from another dorm. If Rokuro went over and started a fight, the outcome was uncertain. More importantly, if he got caught and expelled, his path to learning Ninjutsu would be cut off before it even began.
No, I need to play the long game on that one.
After running for a while, Rokuro snapped back to the present. He remembered he hadn't allocated the EXP from yesterday's push-up quest yet. Without hesitation, he dumped all of it into his Taijutsu stat.
He was still too young; his chakra pathways weren't developed enough for Ninjutsu yet. It was better to boost his physical stats first to survive the physical conditioning. Yesterday's push-ups had nearly killed him, and his arms were still screaming in protest. He couldn't afford to be dead weight today.
Confirm allocation.
As the points flowed into his Taijutsu stat, he suddenly felt a change. The soreness in his arms—the aching stiffness from the previous night—vanished instantly.
Rokuro froze for a split second.
Wait. Does leveling up stats instantly heal fatigue?
If that was true... that was a game-changer.
It meant he could stockpile EXP and use it as a makeshift "stamina potion" during critical moments of exhaustion. He resolved to test this theory tonight.
Regaining his composure, Rokuro continued to trail Okamoto.
Standard training generated passive EXP, but as he finished the two laps, he saw his Taijutsu EXP had only increased by a measly 2 points. He sighed internally.
The gap between normal grinding and System Quests is massive.
It made regular training feel inefficient, but he had to impress Okamoto. Gaining the instructor's favor was his fastest ticket to learning real Jutsu and becoming powerful.
The jog ended. The children collapsed, gasping for air during their thirty-minute break.
Then came the real torture.
One thousand kicks.
One thousand punches.
One thousand side-to-side hops.
By the time they finished, it was high noon. The children were lying on the dirt, completely spent. Okamoto allowed them a ten-minute recovery period before marching them to the cafeteria for lunch.
The kids were starving. They tore into their food like wolves, paying no attention to anyone else's plate.
Rokuro was no different, shoveling rice into his mouth. He was so focused on refueling that he didn't even notice that his bento box contained a large, juicy chicken leg that none of the other children had received.
After lunch, they were given a two-hour break. The afternoon session would begin at 3:00 PM, repeating the morning's torture all over again.
Rokuro didn't want to sneak out at night to finish his running quest; it was too risky to provoke the instructors twice in a row. He decided to use the lunch break to finish the remaining five kilometers.
Most of the children were napping under the shade of the trees bordering the field. He wouldn't be far from them, so it wouldn't look suspicious. Besides, the training field wasn't empty. There were other kids—ambitious ones like him—who were using their break to put in extra work. No one would bat an eye at one more kid running laps.
After resting in the shade for a bit to let his food digest, Rokuro stood up, shook his head to clear the drowsiness, and began to run.
Five kilometers.
For an adult, this was a breeze. But Rokuro was in a child's body with short legs and limited stamina. It took him a full hour and a half to complete the distance.
Ding!
[Quest Complete. Reward: 500 EXP.]
He stopped, chest heaving, and walked back to the group. There were only twenty minutes left until the afternoon session.
"Rokuro... aren't you tired?"
As he sat down under the tree, a small boy scooted over and asked, eyes wide with disbelief.
Rokuro looked at the kid and offered a faint smile.
"Don't worry. I know my limits."
The boy shook his head.
"Your stamina is unnatural. I couldn't even move a finger earlier."
Rokuro just smiled and didn't reply. He leaned back against the tree bark and closed his eyes.
He wasn't ignoring the kid to be rude.
He was busy calculating exactly how much EXP he needed to spend to trigger a full stamina recovery again.
He had no time to babysit brats.