My Hitman System

At the bottom, there was another door with a keypad beside it. Brown filled in a certain sequence of numbers and the door soon opened.

A blast of fresh, cold air engulfed everyone's faces and rejuvenated them the moment the door opened.

Inside, rows of weapons were laid on one side, and several other equipment and gadgets Jin had never seen before were also present.

This was just a single compartment, and it seemed there were other compartments here as well.

Brown, however, didn't bother with explaining anything to them and just went towards a particular shelf and picked out certain pieces of equipment.

Soon, the four of them were asked their shoe sizes and were handed a special pair of shoes made of quite a heavy material. If not for the softness, they would have mistaken it for metal.

Along with that, Brown handed them all a black wristband as well.

"What's all this for?" Specy asked.

"Wear them first," Brown replied instead of answering.

After they had worn the shoes and wrapped the bands around their wrists, he finally started explaining, "The shoes you are wearing are called 'Dead Beats' and as you can already feel, they are heavy as hell. With these on, you'll have to run in the sand dunes until the wrist band starts beeping,"

Brown pointed to his wrist with his finger and added, "At the 10-kilometre mark, it will start beeping, and you may return here and remember that you'll have to run on your toes always, otherwise it won't get registered by the band."

"How can I run ten kilometres with these heavy shoes on when I'm injured?" Shadow whined as he pointed towards his thighs. He had just been stabbed yesterday during the parachute jump, and it would take at least a few weeks to recover.

Brown acted as if he did not hear him and said, "Those who won't complete the ten-kilometre target will not be getting their lunch. Dismissed!"

"How rude," Shadow muttered under his breath as he dragged himself out of the underground room along with others.

"I wonder how long this batch will take to master Swift Steps," Brown muttered as he gazed at their backs before busying himself.

A while later, he collected a bag filled with specially preserved salt granules and a huge frying pan and brought them out of the underground room.

It was time to make lunch for his students.

Meanwhile,

Around two kilometres away from the Oasis, the four assassins were running one after another in circles.

The Oasis was located right at the centre of large dunes of sand, so instead of running in a straight line, they had decided to run in circles to save their time.

It had not even been forty minutes since they had started running that they were forced to take a break.

Huffing and puffing like anything, they drank some water from the small bottles they carried before starting once again.

With each step, their feet almost sank completely into the sand, making it difficult to run on their toes.

As a result, although they have covered three kilometres by now but their wristband indicated that they had covered only one.

"This band is a huge scam!" Specy, who was the oldest among them, whined while running, and the others couldn't help but agree with his words.

Shadow, who was struggling to follow everyone from behind, was gritting his teeth tightly with each step to keep up with everyone.

When the sun's intensity increased, they wrapped their shirts or an extra clothing they brought with them over their head and face and persevered on.

The sun, however, was merciless, and they couldn't continue to run under it for long. They took regular breaks and went to the Oasis to fill their bottles and take a dip in the pond before continuing with their run.

Like this, hours kept passing by and only when it was two in the afternoon that they were able to meet their target of ten kilometres.

It has taken them more than five hours to run a measly ten kilometres in this desert.

"Finally!" Shadow roared out in joy when his wristband started beeping and fell on the sand.

Jin and Specy, who had been waiting for him, helped him up while Ice watched them from the side.

While supporting Shadow on their shoulders, they started walking back to the Oasis.

"Ouch! Slow down a bit, you two, can't you see in injured?" Shadow grimaced in pain.

"How about we drop you here and you can crawl back to Brown's hut," Jin replied.

"Sounds like a plan," Specy gave his nod.

"Haha, guys, I was just joking, you can't be serious, right? I can't wait to taste the lunch. What about you two?" Shadow tried to change the topic the next moment.

It could be said that the shared struggle had brought the group closer to each other, but Ice still kept some distance from everyone.

Since she was a woman, the others didn't find it strange.

While dragging their foot, they all finally reached Brown's hut.

Outside on a large cooking vessel, Brown was stirring something with a ladle.

"Place your bands in that plastic box over there and arrange your shoes outside the hut," Brown instructed.

A while later, the four of them in their regular footwear were standing in a line with a plate in their hands.

"Here," Brown placed a huge portion of a gooey substance he had prepared on each of their plates.

"What the hell is this?!" Specy couldn't help but ask. After running for so long it was natural to get angry when you were served something that looked literally like shit.

"Food," Brown replied nonchalantly.

"Food??Can we even eat this thing?" Shadow asked.

"All the previous batches ate this, but if you don't want to, then staying hungry is always an option," Brown snorted.

After hearing him, everyone was forced to reluctantly taste the dish, and to their surprise, it tasted quite good.

Jin and the rest asked for several servings as well, and like this, the whole vessel was completely emptied.

"Alright, it's 3 PM right now. Go and sleep since you all must be very tired by now. In the evening, your second training will start. Report back here at 7 PM, understand?" Brown asked.

"Yes, sir," Everyone responded and walked back to their shelters.