Swallowed Star

Volume 1 Chapter 11: Reaction Speed

“Old Jiang seems pretty confident” Chief instructor ‘Wu Tong’ said while laughing, but his gaze landed upon Luo Feng. Everyone at the scene was watching Luo Feng and awaiting his test results.

Luo Feng stood in front of the machine and released an explosive power from his waist. His body turned slightly and increased the power from his waist even more. In an instant, all the power transferred to his arm. Luo Feng’s fist was like an arrow fired from a bow under the full moon, leaving behind a blur. With a “PENG” sound, his fist smacked against the machine.

After he threw his punch, Luo Feng was delighted: “It felt so good throwing that punch, all the power went with it”. He looked at the display and saw

——“1101kg”

“Good”

“Not bad” Many fighters at the scene immediately complimented him.

Chief Instructor ‘Wu Tong’ rubbed his chin and nodded: “Not bad young man. Make sure to never lose your center ‘shi’ when throwing your punch. If someone ignores everything and only wants higher results for fist strength, he will lose his center ‘shi’. The punch might be stronger. However, against monsters, losing your center ‘shi’ is suicide! Not bad, not bad”

“Haha, this kid Luo Feng has great combat abilities” Instructor ‘Jiang Nian’ said while laughing, “He easily beat three elite members who were around his level of strength and speed!”

Luo Feng was delighted after hearing the instructor and chief instructor’s compliments.

He had a coma twice when he was younger, which led to increased strength and speed. Ever since then, he made a plan to become the best fighter! A really good fighter needs great combat abilities. In his teenage days, even though he hadn’t joined the Dojo of Limits then, he looked up some basics of martial arts and trained alone at home to pile up the experience.

This is why his combat abilities are so great.

“A nice bean sprout. Yup, pass!” Chief instructor Wu Tong randomly picked another ID and scanned it, “Next, Bai Yang”.

Luo Feng walked back to the place where examinees were supposed to stay.

“Not bad, crazy” Yang Wu laughed.

Luo Feng grinned.

……

All eight of them quickly finished the ‘strength test’ and only one failed and was disqualified. His fist strength was only 892 kg, which was close but not good enough. So for the next test, the speed test, there were only seven people left.

[KA!] Chief instructor Wu Tong walked towards the speed tester and turned on the switch.

“One by one, in reverse order. First, Yang Wu” Chief instructor Wu Tong commanded. Yang Wu was the last one to test his strength so he will be the first to test his speed.

Yang Wu took a deep breath.

He took the Prospective Fighter exam nearly 10 times and failed on the speed test every time.

“Brother Yang, you can do it” Luo Feng patted Yang Wu’s shoulder.

“Watch me” Yang Wu adjusted his breathing and ran on the track.

Instructor Jiang Nian frowned watching this. Yang Wu was also from the Zhi-An section, but he had failed the ‘speed test’ so many times already.

[DASH!]

Yang Wu stepped on the surface of the floor and made a low sound. With the strength of his arms and his explosive start, he quickly accelerated to his maximum speed. His veins were popping on his scarred face and he sprinted while clenching his teeth. He even let out a low howl after finishing the test.

“I must pass this!” Yang Wu stopped and howled in his heart.

He turned his head and saw Luo Feng give him a thumbs up. After seeing it. Yang Wu felt like he went to heaven.

“Haha, Yang Wu, nice luck. You actually passed” Instructor ‘Jiang Nian’ also let out a refreshed laugh.

Yang Wu ran over and looked at the display——’25.1m/s’。

“Phew, so close” Even Yang Wu laughed. If his body condition was slightly worse, he might not have achieved 25 m/s. If so, then he would’ve failed once again.

“Yup, pass!” Chief instructor Wu Tong also smiled, “Next”

Everyone did the tests one by one. Since Luo Feng was the second person to take the strength test, he was the second last to take the speed test.

It was Luo Feng’s turn soon enough.

“Luo Feng” Chief instructor Wu Tong hollered.

“Do your best, crazy. We better take the Fighter Combat exam together” Yang Wu encouraged and Luo Feng smiled and nodded. He walked onto the track and adjusted his breathing pattern. He lightly jumped twice in place. Luo Feng was unlike Yang Wu, who was a brute-force type; he gave off a relaxing feeling.

[WHOOSH!]

Right when he exerted his strength, Luo Feng was like a panther whose speed had no match. He brought a strong current of wind with him as he passed through the speed testing region. You could tell with just your eyes that Luo Feng’s speed was significantly higher than those before him.

“I felt like that was okay” Luo Feng turned his head and saw Yang Wu giving him a thumbs up. Even chief instructor Wu Tong and instructor Jiang Nian couldn’t help but to nod their heads in praise.

Luo Feng walked over and looked at the display——

“28.6m/s”

“Nice speed, it’s actually much higher than the passing mark” Chief Instructor Wu Tong laughed and nodded, “Last, Tong Guan”.

××××××

After the strength test, one person was eliminated. After the speed test, two people were eliminated. Now there were only five people left. The third test was the ‘Reaction Speed exam’.

“Follow me” Chief Instructor Wu Tong brought the group of fighters and the five people remaining from the previous exams. They arrived at the ‘reaction speed testing room’ connected to the training hall.

The room was around a hundred ping.

Of course, compared to the gigantic training halls that were a couple thousand ping large, these reaction speed rooms were clearly much smaller. There was only a large, seemingly valuable machine placed on the floor. In front of the machine was something that looked like a six barreled gatling gun. However, there were easily a couple dozen holes in the machine, so it had way more firing sites than a gatling gun.

“First, Tong Guan” Chief instructor Wu Tong instructed.

The full bearded man immediately stepped in front of the gun. He was on a circle that had a diameter of 3.6 meters.

[CLATTER!] The switch was turned on。

A red light started to emit above the border of the circle. It was like that the fighter inside was surrounded by a red curtain.

“Remember, no matter what, do not leave the circle. Once you leave it, it counts as a failure. If your body comes in contact with the red light, you lose points” After chief instructor Wu Tong finished saying that, he walked to the reaction speed tester and pressed a bunch of buttons and adjusted the power. There were many different power levels.

The lowest one is meant for intermediate members.

And the highest one…. is meant for top fighters.

“Begin!” The chief instructor pressed a red button.

[BEEP~~~BEEP~~~]The machine’s gigantic cannon started revolving and all of the dozen barrels started emitting a red light. There were quick ones and slow ones and even the trajectory wasn’t stable. It was very chaotic and messy. It then started to rapidly shoot within the circle.

The bearded man stared in front of him and was continuously dodging right and left and between the red colored bullets.

[PU! PU!] Two consecutive hits。

However, these ‘bullets’ are like rubber and have no power and speed, so they didn’t hurt.

Time passed by slowly.

The bearded man was trying his best to dodge and the timer was reaching a minute.

[TOOT~~~] After chief instructor Wu Tong pressed the button, the barrels quickly came to a halt. The middle display screen showed a large amount of information.

“Within 60 seconds, 57 hits, and three contacts with the red light. Disqualified!” Chief instructor Wu Tong said as he threw the bearded man’s ID back to him.

“Just barely missed the mark” The bearded man clenched his teeth and walked out of the circle as he shook his head.

“Next, Luo Feng” Chief instructor Wu Tong commanded.

After bumping fists with Yang Wu, Luo Feng walked into the circle.

As Luo Feng stood in the circle and faced the machine’s cannon, he took a deep breath. Before he entered the dojo, he constantly practiced at home. Luo Feng shines the most in these kinds of dodging exams: “Before high school exams, I get hit around 50-55 times in 60 seconds. Now that my body fitness level has increased, with my increased reaction time, passing this exam is no problem at all”

“Remember, do not leave the circle no matter what. If you leave the circle, you instantly fail. If you come in contact with the circle’s red light, you lose points” After chief instructor Wu Tong said that, he pressed the red button.

[BEEP~~~BEEP~~~]

The barrel of the reaction speed tester started revolving rapidly. The cannon’s dozens of barrels all started to emit a red light and soon shot out the rubber bullets rapidly.

“Hm?” Luo Feng stared ahead and rapidly calculated the positions in his head. As if he was a dexterous cat, he continuously dodged left and right and dodged the bullets one by one. Of course, some of the bullets were too fast to dodge, so he could only get hit.

When Luo Feng was dodging, many of the fighters started to talk.

“This kid isn’t bad, his reaction speed is superb”

“Indeed, he is fast and has a good foundation and form. Look, his feet are like a cat’s pads, he never loses his balance after each turn, which allows him to rapidly change direction. This form….. if he isn’t a genius or hasn’t worked bitterly for ten years, then there’s no way he would be able to have this kind of a solid foundation”

All of the fighters at the scene were amazed.

A fighter’s fitness level could be trained. But form and skill all rely on experience. A higher body fitness level doesn’t correspond to better form.

[TOOT~~~] After pressing the button, the machine’s cannon started slowing down and a large amount of data was displayed.

“Within 60 seconds, 28 hits, 0 contacts with the red light. Excellent!” Chief Instructor Wu Tong let out a smile, “Not bad, Luo Feng. I congratulate you. After the official documents arrive and your data gets recorded, you’ll become a prospective fighter!” After the exam, an official certificate will be issued and your records are sent to the citizenship information agency within seven days.

Luo Feng tightly clenched his right fist: “I finally succeeded!”

I finally became a prospective fighter!

“Luo Feng, August 1st marks the date of the Fighter Combat exam. Arrive at the Limit Hall at dawn. Under the guidance of an instructor, you will go with other prospective fighters to hunt monsters outside the human bases! After you pass that exam, you’ll become a real fighter” Instructor ‘Jiang Nian’ smiled as he said that.