Transmigrator Competition

Right now, in a field, five rows of ten children each stood straight, looking into the horizon with stone faces. As future members of the Stygian Clan, Squad 9 was taught since a young age on how to behave in front of their instructors and superiors.

Standing in a row of their own, every single maid responsible for one of the children of Squad 9, eyed the group of children standing a few dozen meter away.

Standing in front of the children was a man with a great scar running down his face, it seemed it was a born from an awful burn. One of his eyes was clearly fake and seemed to be ever this close to a drop from where it is supposed to be.

Beside him was a 20 years old man. He was missing his hair on the right side of his head and had a wild look. A body filled with scares and a gaze full of beastly killing intent.

"Hello, Squad 9"

The older man spoke, dragging his words to make sure the children took note of his low tone of voice.

"I'm Markus Nell. Ex-Commander of the Punishing Force of the Nell Clan. In other words, the ex-commander of the force meant to make sure you beasts are kept on a tight leash."

Amidst the rank of children, Nio frowned slightly. He knew of the scrutiny that the Stygian clan suffered from their masters. Beasts, Hunter Dogs, Slaves and Sole of their shoes was just some of the terms they used for everyone here.

"I supposed you heard before that you would follow martial arts classes with an instructor of the Nell clan, but there was something that they did not tell you."

He gestured the scarred boy forward, making him stand in front of Markus.

"This here is your senior, a Stygian, known as 2-2-2, he is from Squad 2 of G10."

G10 was like their names, an identification meant to separate our generations, for example, the people from Squad 1 of G1 were the first members of the Stygian clan, they were around 193 years of age. Cultivation does wonders to your age.

"He was recently in a mission of espionage. The objective? To find as many documents that could incriminate a vassal family of treason."

2-2-2 approached Markus with shaky steps, his face still as stone, completely paralyzed in an expression of fear.

"However, he and his comrades found it really entertaining to meet up with the traitorous scum. Apparently, they were trying to 'negotiate' a possible deal to backstab whoever was trying to buy the information that the vassal family was planning to reveal."

The children from Squad 9 started sweating.

"Now children. What is the rule we need to apply in this situation?"

His voice was disgustedly gentle. Despite their fear, they still answered.

"Rule 52 : Do not act outside of given orders! Punishment: Death!"

"Wonderful. 2-2-2's team was completely wiped out by me. But I was merciful, and I decided to let him die teaching his juniors something about martial arts."

No one could describe that ruthless smile as merciful.

"I will demonstrate the moves on 2-2-2, and you will see how to perform the technique as well as discovering the damage it causes."

Markus got into a stance.

"The first thing you have to learn, is not a fancy move or a complex footwork technique. Rather, you need to learn how you need to move your body to perform correctly every action. Only then will you be capable of performing said actions in a certain order that will further maximize its effects."

After that, started demonstrating how to throw a proper straight punch. He did it several times. At first, it was slow, with very detailed descriptions. Every time he completed the punch, his fist would touch 2-2-2's face, as if teasing him. And then he started speeding up. Less and fewer descriptions and faster and faster movements.

2-2-2 stood in place, straight and unmoving, getting hit by every single punch.

Markus, saying that he was seeing to many confused gazes from the children, repeated the process. He did so 17 times.

Once he stopped, the class was already going 20 minutes past the scheduled hour.

The children didn't move. 2-2-2 didn't either, ignoring the blood running down his face.

"Wow! Look at the time! It seems that time does fly when we are doing something we enjoy, don't you think so, kids?"

The children hurriedly nodded.

Nio couldn't help but lament the fact that Squad 9 was already pledging allegiance to the Nell family at the age of 5 through fear alone. Such traumas would carry further into their life.

'This kids will never be able to go against them.'

However, Nio wasn't a kid. His mind was much more developed and therefore more resistant to trauma, not immune, but resistant. Then again, he was smart enough to shift his attention elsewhere during class, in order to evade the sight of 2-2-2 being pummelled.

Or so was his plan when in the middle of the class.

[Ding! Ding! Ding!]

[Your Cursed Energy run out of control.]

That's right! That sight and brutality was capable of stirring something within him, allowing him to more accurately feel his cursed energy. Nio spent the rest of the class, training his control over cursed energy.

Besides that, he also learned how to throw a proper punch, you know, the goal of the lesson.

Although these lessons were brutal, they taught a lot. At least to Nio, he was one of the few that was able to keep his eyes focused on the beating that was occurring and therefore was able to see a move being used by a specialist several times. Even if there was an actual target.

Besides the most obvious lessons being absorbed by Nio, this was actually the greatest example of how the Stygian Clan was treated. Nio once again reminded himself of the place he was.

'I will suck this place dry of what they could give me and then dip.'

Where to? Nio still didn't decide that, he just knew that he had to get out of this place, to a place far off the reach of the Nell Clan.

'I also need to get out of this world to compete in the competition.'

That was also a fact he couldn't ignore. One day, he had to go and traverse how many worlds in order to keep his life.

Why not just stay in this small world and live your life? And risk that someone can track him down and descend from the heavens to rain hellfire on him? No, thank you.

It was better to just use the System to grow stronger and catch the enemy before they caught him.

******************************************************************************************

A few months went past, and Nio's and Squad 9's routines changed for the worst during this time.

Mainly due to Martial Arts Class.

Markus was unreasonable. Either, he beat the shit out of someone who broke the rules that the Nell Clan imposed on the Stygian squads. When there was no one to beat up, the turn went to one of the children of Squad 9, supposedly the one who was the worst at absorbing his "completely normal lessons".

Luckily, Nio and the ones he was closer with were one of the best martial artists on the squad, if not the best. As for how good they were? It was hard to say. They still hadn't practiced any moves, however they understood completely the techniques that were "taught".

Their only experience was when they decided to spar with each other outside of class to test if what they were being taught was actually being learned.

Because they were only taught the techniques but didn't have the experience to know how to use them, their spars were mostly turn based, one attacks the other blocks and counters.

Although it was apparently unproductive, it was thanks to that some of the children were able to escape the beatings Markus would so kindly distribute in the times there were no rule breakers to beat up.

Besides Martial Arts Class there was also Body Development Class, which was in few words, work out until you faint and once you wake up work out again. This class was given by several different instructors that specialize in different body parts to work out, and while the martial arts class took around two hours, the rest of the training hours was used on body development class.

As for that class, it was going fairly well for Nio. He found out strangely calming to work out. There was nothing to worry about while working out. Worried about the injuries 9-3-5 suffered on martial arts class? Focus on how many reps you have left. Worried that cursed energy control training isn't going well? Just focus on what exercise you are supposed to next. Worried that somewhere, in other worlds, are dozens or hundreds of people that you are meant to kill or be killed? Just do the lap you are supposed to, lil bro.