Early morning, by the sea.
A large group of Marine soldiers ran along the shoreline, their eyes lifeless as they mechanically repeated the motion like puppets on strings.
This was neither jogging nor sprinting. It was an extreme run, an ultimate challenge carried out at full sprint from the very beginning.
"I told you to run at your limit for ten minutes. It's only been five minutes, and you already can't hold on?" Dragon stood to one side, his expression cold as he rebuked them. "Engrave this feeling into your bodies. Remember the feeling of reaching your limit. A strong individual is someone who can constantly break through their own limits."
"I don't need you to compete with others in speed. All you need to do is persist, to keep defeating yourselves. Even if you slow down, as long as you can keep going, you can break through your limits and transform into an entirely new version of yourselves!"
The instructors nearby were strangely moved. "For Vice Admiral Dragon to say so much in one breath, it really wasn't easy for him. He must have practiced a lot at home!"
If ordinary running tested physical stamina, then extreme running tested one's will. It had nothing to do with strength and depended solely on whether one's heart was strong enough.
Thus, even people as strong as Gion and Kaki were drenched in sweat at that moment, their eyes beginning to lose focus as they could only rely on instinct to drag their bodies forward.
"I... I can't go on!"
Finally, at the eighth minute, someone could no longer endure it. He gave up and collapsed onto the ground, greedily breathing in the fresh morning air like a dehydrated salted fish.
The power of an "example" was limitless. Once the first person