Chisato was ragged and out of breath. She was lying sprawling on the dirt surface, her body covered in sweat and grime.

  She was doing her best to regulate her breathing. ‘In, one, two, three. Out, one, two, three,’ she repeated the counting in her head while matching her breathing to the count.

  Slowly and eventually, she managed to calm her breath down to a slower pace instead of her previous jagged hyperventilation.

  She would love to get her back off the dirt ground, but both her arms and legs refused to listen to her command. The training was beyond anything she had done athletically before. It forced her to utilize every part of her body, every fiber of muscle, and every bit of will she had to drag herself and the heavy gear to the end of that 6-mile jog.

  She was staring at the sky, which at this point in time was the only thing she could do. The azure blue sky, sprinkled with the occasional fluffy cloud, hung above her vision.

  ‘It’s peaceful,’ she thought to herself. She would have to get up soon to go get lunch along with everyone, but until she could regain a semblance of control over her body, staring at the sky wasn’t so bad.

  Just as she was enjoying the scenery, someone’s head hung above her vision.

  “Wow, you look like you’ve run a whole marathon… are you ok?” It was My, standing just above her head while leaning over.

  Unlike Chisato, who was out of breath and was sprawling on the ground, My looked like she could still go on for another hour or two.

  She was also sweaty and grimy, just like Chisato, as evidenced by the damp and dirty clothes. However, she was able to sport a smile on her face and retain her cheerful attitude.

  Chisato wondered how much of an athletic monster My was. Even others in her squad, who had military or law enforcement backgrounds, would still be catching their breath.

  “I’m… I think I’m ok. Just sore and catching my breath. I didn't expect the training to be this extensive.”

  “Haha, you’ll get used to it. It’ll take maybe a week or so, but you’ll make it through.”

  “I’m more surprised that you’re still fine. What sort of training did you do before joining?”

  “Meh, don’t worry about it, just some casual training here and there.” My dismissed her question by answering vaguely.

  Peter, who was catching his breath earlier, came over to where the two girls were.

  “Hey My, you look like you still have quite a lot of energy left, huh?” Peter asked.

  “Yep, this is light work for me. I’m used to working out for longer periods.”

  “Damm, you’re a beast.”

  “Thanks.” My replied while holding a victory sign with her fingers.

  Peter chuckled, probably at the ridiculousness of the situation and her bizarre behaviour. He then looked down at Chisato.

  “Wow, you looked fucked up.”

  “Wow, thank, Peter. Tell me something I didn’t know.”

  Chisato regained enough strength to lift herself back up to a sitting posture, though her legs were still weak. She dusted herself briefly before looking up.

  “What else do we have after lunch?” She asked, partially hoping that there wouldn’t be any more heavy activities today.

  “Well, after lunch, we have rifle drill, then martial arts, then after that, we should be done for the first day, just dinner and some gathering for more instruction before we get the night to ourselves.” Peter kindly explained.

  “What he said. However, today is more for the supervisor to test the recruits’ limits and identify their weaknesses to improve. Tomorrow will be the actual first training day.” My added some additional information.

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  “Thank God, even though I’m not religious.” Chisato rested her arms on her knees. She didn’t know if her body could last for the entire day with more continuous training. However, if it were just the martial arts drill, Chisato would be able to see tomorrow still, albeit with a full body sore.

  A hand was offered to her as Chisato was pondering her situation. She glanced at the person who was offering her a hand.

  It was My again, a cheerful smile still brightly shone on her face. Chisato couldn’t understand how someone younger than her would be able to outperform her and not even be tired. Although she couldn’t deny to herself that My’s positive attitude did help Chisato’s spirit also high enough to overcome her tiredness during the previous training.

  She grabbed onto My’s hand and was helped back up to her feet. It was still sore, but she could at least walk to get that much-needed lunch to replenish her stamina.

  “Let’s go get lunch. Else you wouldn’t be able to shoot straight.”

  My said as she led the group toward the mess hall. Peter gave Chisato a friendly pat on her back and walked alongside her.

  Chisato gave him a smile in return. Maybe it was the right call afterall, Chisato thought to herself.

  It was an orchestra of gunshots, with the noise ringing for miles around the facility. Hundreds of firearms were going off continuously, deafening the area and drowning all other noises.

  Because of the excessive noise, it was mandatory for everyone in the facility to wear ear protection and headsets, mainly because the PMC did not want to deal with cases of people going deaf and claiming benefits.

  Chisato put foam earplugs in her ears, put on the headset, and turned on the filter before joining her squad outside the gun range.

  Captain Armstrong led the group to a recently vacant spot where a previous squad had finished its evaluation.

  There was a gun rack filled with a generous selection of guns, with multiple guns for each category. It was a simple but effective selection of guns that most people could recognize. Even Chisato, who had no professional experience, could recognize some of the weapons thanks to her pop culture knowledge from movies and gaming media.

  Captain Armstrong stopped by the weapon rack and faced the young recruits, clipboard in his hand, and the others resting on top of the weapon rack.

  “These here are the weapons you’ll be working with. No doubt most of you are familiar with at least one gun from the selection here. However, just in case, I’ll go over the names and weapon type.”

  He put away his clipboard and picked up one gun at a time while explaining to the recruits. Since Chisato was neither a gun enthusiast nor a veteran, she paid extra attention to the introduction from the captain.

  “For a pistol, here we have the classic Glock 19, one of the most common pistols in the world. Next up, the submachine gun. This is the MPX, compact, reliable, fast fire rate, good for CQB situations.”

  Chisato took a good look at the MPX before the captain placed it back on the rack and picked up two rifles, one in each hand.

  “For the rifle, you’ll be using both of these. On my right is the good ol’ American classic, M4A1, and on my right is the grandfather of modern rifles, the AK. Although it’s not the classic 47 or 74, these AK-12s will still be fine for testing purposes.”

  These are the weapons that Chisato had some familiarity with, since she’d seen them used in games and action movies before.

  “The last one you’ll be testing with is these M1014 shotguns. Strong, powerful, kicks like a mule. It’ll make sure that any door, and or human, that you shot at, will no longer be an issue.”

  There were a few other types of weapons, but those are specifically for people with specialized roles in the military. Armstrong returned the shotgun and then picked up the Glock again. He gave a quick but clear instruction on the gun operation, usage, and the usual spiel about gun safety, don't point it at anything you don't want gone, safety on when not in use, and point at a safe direction.

  Once the instruction was done, everyone was sent to their own stall. Chisato was assigned to a stall next to My.

  Once she was at her stall, she saw that all the loaded magazines and ammo for all the guns were placed on the stall.

  “Alright, get to shooting, and remember, you’re being graded on both accuracy and precision.”

  The captain gave his last instruction before stepping back. As soon as he did, someone in the squad already started firing at the targets.

  Chisato loaded the magazine into her pistol and brought her gun up to aim at the target. She took a deep breath and gripped the pistol tightly. She’d never shot a gun before, and based on the movies and written comments on online forums, the pistol shouldn’t kick as much as the bigger weapons, but she wanted to be safe.

  She closed one of her eyes and aimed with the other, placing the target just above the front sight, and then pulled the trigger.

  Her arms recoiled slightly from the kickback of the pistol. She let out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding.

  “Pretty good shot for someone who’d never handled a gun before.”

  She was surprised when the captain was right next to her, clipboard in his hand.

  “Decent form, close to the bullseye. Seemed like you were replicating from those action movies, I could tell. Worked out pretty well for you.”

  “Thank you, sir!”

  “Just keep both eyes open, recruit, and maintain your field of vision for better situational awareness. You’re not shooting a sniper rifle in the middle of the desert.”

  “Sir, yes, sir!”

  Taking the captain’s advice into consideration, she adjusted her aim to account for her vision and let loose. The bullets pinged off the metal target 50 meters away from the stall. She fired all nineteen rounds in her magazine before the slide locked to the rear of her gun.

  “Much Better. You have a knack for this kinda things.”

  “Thank you, sir!”

  Armstrong nodded before he moved on to observe a different team member.

  Chisato felt ecstatic. Her arms were slightly numb from handling the recoil of the pistol for the first time, but it didn’t matter much as she was pumped with adrenaline from the excitement. She was like a kid in a toy store.

  She continued the drill, shooting at the metal target and burning through the rest of the Glock magazines. Everyone else also finished up on the pistol ammo around the same time as Chisato.

  The captain then gave everyone the MPX to work with, along with the necessary instructions.

  Other than the gun being different and the target placed further to account for the range of the SMG, Chisato went through the new gun with no problem at all since it was also chambered in 9mm. It was even easier since she had multiple points of contact to stabilize the gun for better aim.

  Things were different when it came to utilizing the rifles. The M4A1 and AK-12 recoiled a bit more than the smaller caliber gun, and the target was even further than when it was for the SMG.

  It was even worse when Chisato had to handle the M1014. It was a bit too unwieldy for her personal taste, and the recoil, by the lord, she thought, as the first shot with M1014 had her shoulder kicked back so hard she felt like her shoulder was hit by a speeding truck.

  Her shoulder was entirely numb after going through 21 rounds of buckshot, peppering the metal target that was placed at the 30-meter mark.

  “You did a hell of a good job shooting back there!”

  My commended Chisato for her shooting just earlier as the squad is moving to a new area for their last activity of the day.

  Just as Chisato was about to reply to My for her compliments, My gave her a friendly pat on her back.

  A friendly pat that was just a little bit too hard, placed at the shoulder where Chisato was feeling numb.

  …

  There was a scream that reverberated for miles.