23 Days Later

Sparta's eyelid twitched. His brow furrowed deeper, and a faint anger appeared on his face.

From beginning to end, he had never intended to fight anyone, but just looking at this guy made his blood boil!

After thinking it over for a long time, Sparta finally loosened his clenched fist.

He could not let anger cloud his judgment. On his first day in Recruit Company, it was best not to draw everyone else's attention.

His plan was to lie low and steadily build his strength, not become the center of attention.

Sparta shifted his gaze away from Brighton and walked over to the only empty bed.

The road ahead was long, and there would be plenty of opportunities in the future. Though he said nothing outwardly, he had already marked down a grudge against Clayton.

He hoped Clayton could remain as tough as he was today.

Seeing this, several recruits exchanged looks.

"You really like fighting, huh?"

"We'll all be comrades from now on. Is bullying your comrades that entertaining?"

The one speaking was Luke, a burly man standing over six feet tall.

Luke folded his arms across his chest and sized Clayton up with an unfriendly gaze. The thick muscles on his face made him look incredibly fierce, enough to scare children into tears.

"What does it have to do with you? You think being tall makes you special?"

Facing Luke, who was a head taller than him, Clayton not only failed to back down but lifted his head, craned his neck, and provoked him again.

This time, the dormitory's atmosphere dropped to freezing point.

Veins bulged on Luke's temples. His eyes widened larger than bells as he clenched fists bigger than a human face, making them crackle.

Seeing that the two were about to fight, Sparta prepared to step in and stop them. At that moment, Jayce returned to the dormitory.

In just 0.01 seconds, he keenly sensed the explosive tension in the room.

Narrowing his eyes, he swept his gaze between Clayton and Luke before barking, "Are you all so full of yourselves?! Causing trouble on your first day!!"

Sparta walked over to Jayce and explained the entire cause from start to finish.

After hearing him out, Jayce wore a teasing expression, and a cruel smile curled across his lips.

Under everyone's gaze, he walked up to Clayton, raised a hand, grabbed his collar, and lifted him straight into the air with sheer strength.

Promoted on the spot.

"Although the Military Department has no explicit rule forbidding fights on the first day in Recruit Company, as your captain, I don't want this happening in Squad Three."

"Did you hear me!!!"

"Yes, sir." Clayton kicked his legs in midair, forcing the words through clenched teeth.

Jayce set Clayton back down, but his gaze remained icy.

For a moment, Sparta felt as if this were not the Military Department of the Viltrumite Empire, but an utterly ordinary military camp.

Given the Viltrumites' cold nature, how could they possibly care about such trivial fights?

They might even encourage fighting, yet Jayce had done the exact opposite.

Strange. Far too strange.

Unable to figure it out no matter how hard he thought, Sparta looked up and gave Luke, who had stood up for him, a slight nod.

Luke returned the nod. Everything was understood without words.

This time, Jayce did not leave the dormitory. Instead, he lay on his own bed, closed his eyes, and rested without concerning himself with the world.

Sparta briefly tidied his bed, then left the dormitory to familiarize himself with the Recruit Company where he would be spending the next ten years.

As he walked along the roads, he occasionally saw recruits from other squads also getting familiar with the area.

After wandering around, Sparta eventually came alone to a door marked "Training Room."

The automatic sensor door detected his arrival and slid open to the left. The lights overhead inside the training room turned on automatically.

Filled with curiosity, Sparta stepped inside.

The training room was enormous, large enough to accommodate three squads training at once. Yet it was completely empty, with only rows of equipment sitting quietly, untouched.

"Holy shit."

Looking at the equipment he had never seen before, Sparta's eyes widened. At that moment, it seemed as though light had appeared in his eyes.

For a training fanatic, a place like this was simply heaven.

In Sparta's eyes, those training machines were like beautiful naked women waiting for him to enjoy and develop them.

"Now I can train to my heart's content."

Delighted, Sparta ran his fingers over each machine, feeling and fiddling with them.

Once he figured out how each piece of equipment worked, he immediately buried himself in training.

Outside the training room, Jayce stood by the window, silently observing Sparta's every move.

He stroked his chin and glanced elsewhere.

Just like Jason, he really loves training, huh.

After thinking that to himself, Jayce left the window and continued pacing back and forth through the corridor.

Meanwhile, Sparta gripped the handles of the bench press tightly, sweat soaking his skintight combat suit.

"Stronger, stronger, stronger..."

Every time he pushed, he muttered the words once.

After a long time, Sparta sat up from the equipment, drenched in sweat, and returned to the dormitory in exhaustion.

His return drew everyone's attention.

"Been training?"

Jayce sat at the edge of his bed and asked despite already knowing the answer.

"Yes, sir."

"Go wash up. You stink."

"Yes, sir."

Sparta entered the small room Jayce pointed to. It was the washroom.

After washing up and finishing lunch and dinner, night fell.

Sparta lay on the somewhat hard bed with his hands behind his head, looking at the night sky through the window.

It was different from the Military Department life he had imagined. There were no endless rules, no brainwashing speeches, and certainly no cold, merciless regulations.

Everything felt so natural.

Twenty-three days after entering Recruit Company.

Recruit Company was dull and boring. Nothing interesting had happened during that time.

Even when someone occasionally argued with Clayton, Jayce quickly suppressed it.

Over those twenty-three days, Sparta's routine was no different from his ordinary days before enlisting.

Every day, he ate three meals, watched the news for a while, and trained for four hours.

His strength had also increased somewhat over those twenty-three days.

The only difference was that there were more noisy voices around him.

With a towel draped over his shoulders and wet short hair, Sparta walked out of the washroom.

"You really are hardworking."

Kaden shifted his gaze from the book titled Viltrumite Honor to Sparta.

"Who in the entire Recruit Company doesn't know Sparta's name by now? Everyone's even given him a nickname: Hardworking Sparta."

Digger chimed in from the side.

"It's just a habit to train every day." Sparta rehung the towel on the wall and asked curiously, "But what's with that nickname?"

Every day, he followed the same routine between three places and had barely interacted with anyone outside the dormitory.

This was the first time he had heard that nickname.

"Because you train every day. You're the most hardworking person in the entire Recruit Company... no, in the whole division, so everyone calls you that."

"I see."

Sparta nodded to show that he understood.

Without saying more, he took a copy of the Viltrumite Codex from the bookshelf and prepared to read it.

Just when he thought today would pass as usual...

Jayce strode into the dormitory with a file in hand.

"Recruits, your first mission in life has arrived."