Awakening Of The New Emperor

POV: Recruit 79

The man excused all formalities, which I was grateful of. After dealing with enough professionalism these past few hours, I just wanted to get to the actual evaluation now.

Thankfully, we were, and we wasted no time in doing so.

The man brought me over to the physical zone, and a line quickly formed behind me.

'It seems this is in high demand...' I thought to myself.

"We'll be starting with arm strength. Lift the weight in front of you, and we'll continuously add more weight until you've reached you're limit," the man spoke.

Acknowledging his words, I took a few steps forward just before the first weight. Bending down slightly, I carefully wrap my hands around the weight, which was just a tad sweaty to the initial touch.

Getting a good grip, I took a deep breath and pull it up.

With ease, I lifted it up in the air.

This wasn't all too surprising, as even years ago I was able to do this. However, unlike last time, it felt more of a natural thing to do.

Almost like lifting such weight was as normal as sleeping, eating, or even breathing.

As I watched the man write something down, I move on to the next.

Once again, I lifted it up with ease. Even though the weight had doubled, I still didn't break a single sweat. People in line started to take notice at me right after I had set the weight down as well. 'Maybe they'd be in for a good show?' I thought.

Moving on to the third set, I was extra nervous.

Not out of general fear, but fear of the weight itself. This was my limit last time, and beyond that as well. This was 4x the weight of the original one, and 2x that of the last. 

Even though it was my limit, I had also injured myself severely last time, which is why this had turned out to be a bigger deal than I thought. Mentally, that is. However physically, I was more than just ready.

Taking another deep breath, I went to lift the weight.

And like clockwork, I lifted the weight with ease.

It felt as light as a feather, and if I hadn't known any better, some cases I would think it was nothing but an itch that I had felt.

There was no applied pressure to my muscles either... everything was relaxed.

An abundance of chatter rung throughout the people behind me, which grew from just a few waiting participants to now more, as well some staff that decided to drop by. If I had to guess, it was about 10 - 12 people watching me now.

That's a lot of attention...

'This might not be good for a low profile...' I thought.

Well, it's too late now. Might as well.

I walked on over to the final weight. This was now an extra 5x the weight from the last.

Why is this here, you may ask? Going from 4x the original weight to now 20x the original weight?

'It's probably just to make those good look bad, with this incomprehensible challenge. Such a pity that people think that someone could actually lift such a thing,' I thought to myself out of annoyance. 

The man cleared his throat to get my attention.

"Not one person in the history of this facility has been able to lift such a weight," he spoke. "And only a handful have in the history of The New Order."

'So people have actually lifted this before...' I thought. 'No way.'

I walked on over to the final weight.

A few people in the crowd had dispersed, mostly the staff who have seen many come and go, not even lifting this an inch off of the floor. However, a handful, mostly the remaining participants themselves, had stuck around.

"Whenever you're ready," the man smirked.

I smirked back, before bending down slightly. I didn't really know how to actually lift any weights, to be honest.

I was just doing whatever made sense in my head, and it seems to have worked out.

Although, that might not have anything to do with my form...

Finding a firm grip on the weight, I took one last deep breath. The handle was as dry as a bone, a total contrast to the other weights. 'It seems most people don't even bother trying anymore...' I thought to myself.

I remembered back to my original evaluation.

Everybody in the building had tried the weight, to make their statement.

However, they all left with embarrassment otherwise.

Finally, I closed my eyes. Despite what I had witnessed, achieving the impossible, at least for me, it was impossible to let that get to my head. Any ounce of confidence that I ever dared built up over the past few years had found its way shattered days after, leaving me with an empty void of hope for anything new to achieve in life.

I had reached my peak.

At least, that's what I thought.

My eyes were closed, sealed shut. Not even plyers can peel my eyelids open at this point. However, I felt nothing. There was no opposite force against my hands, trying to push it's heavy weight back to the ground hard.

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

Slowly, I opened my eyes.

I had raised the weight all the way above me.

And all I had to show for it was a tiny drop of sweat that rolled independently down my cheek as I looked up.

There was no words from the accumulated crowd, not even from me.

The man in charge of examining me had dropped his clipboard, jaw to the floor, just like everyone else. Me included. How was I going to expect that I could lift such a thing?

"W-Wow. D-Do you think you can do more?" the man stuttered.

"I mean, I can do this,"

I had no clue if I could follow up with my words.

But with how things were going, I had to try.

'Well, let's not add any suspense and just get this over with,' I thought to myself. Quickly, I loosened one of my grips as the weight was still in the air. The hand that I still had fully gripped on the weight I had shifted more towards the center.

Carefully, I removed my loosened hand off of the weight completely.

No drawback.

I had been holding it high, with just one hand.