Carrying a 250-kilogram load, running at high speed around Marine Headquarters fortress.
This part of the assessment demanded extreme stamina. Based on previous years' experience, most elite Marines attempting the graduation assessment could barely manage two or three laps.
Even the top performers among them would, at most, complete six or seven laps.
Spectators gathered in growing numbers, watching as Nao flashed past and vanished from view in the blink of an eye. While astonished, they couldn't help feeling a touch of worry.
"Hey, is he alright? Why is he running so fast right from the start?"
"Doesn't seem necessary, does it? This is a stamina test, not a speed race. Burning through energy like that is a huge disadvantage…"
The whispers continued for a while, then quickly faded.
Because the observers began to notice that as the laps increased, more and more graduates started to falter from exhaustion and chose to withdraw. But Nao alone remained energetic, his pace swift, showing no signs of slowing down whatsoever.
Six laps, seven laps, eight laps… Soon, Nao's completed laps reached double digits, easily breaking the Elite Camp's graduation assessment record.
He truly lives up to his reputation as the "Strongest New Recruit in History" monster.
People clicked their tongues in amazement, but they didn't notice the changing state of the unlucky souls who were accompanying Nao on his run.
"Hey, Nao!"
The bearded instructor who had previously led the complaints to Zephyr was one of those unlucky souls. He hung behind Nao, watching as the distance between them grew, and finally couldn't help but speak up, "Spee… speed! This is a stamina assessment, mind your speed!"
"Huh?"
Nao turned his head, looking at him in surprise. "No way, Instructor, I've already lapped several groups of people. Is this still considered slow?"
Lapped your head!
The bearded instructor was exasperated. He bristled and glared at Nao. "Who said you're slow?! I'm telling you not to run so fast! Can't you see we can barely keep up?!"
Eh?
Nao glanced back and only then realized that among the four people running with him, the two Rear Admirals who came to observe and supervise were doing relatively fine, barely managing to maintain the pace, but the two instructors were already panting heavily and sweating profusely.
After all, while many instructors were rich in teaching experience, before stepping back from active duty, most had only reached the rank of Captain or Commander. With age, their strength had declined further, making it impossible to keep up with high-ranking officers in their prime.
"Ah, my bad…" Nao scratched his head, smiling apologetically. "I thought since you didn't have any weight on, running at this speed would be easy…"
He turned back, slowing his pace slightly, but he was still significantly faster than the other new recruits.
Does that even sound like an apology?
The four people behind him nearly spat out blood. They looked at each other, feeling a bit ashamed.
—Right, he's carrying a 500-pound load, and we're running empty-handed, yet we're giving out first. What kind of talk is that?
"It's already thirteen laps. He should be reaching his limit soon…" Rear Admiral Doberman gritted his teeth. "Keep following him. I don't believe it. He hasn't even had dinner yet. Even if he can hold up, his stomach can't!"
"Mm."
Rear Admiral Dalmatian beside him nodded in agreement. "It's already getting dark. At most, another hour or two, and it should be over."
Clearly.
These two Rear Admirals, who had graduated many years ago, hadn't been back to the Elite Camp in a long time. Otherwise, if they had known about Brandon's brutal story of emergency hospitalization, they certainly wouldn't have been so optimistic…
...
Time passed
Dusk faded into night, and the plaza lights began to glow.
Rosinante, who had finished his day's training, took some time to visit and coincidentally ran into Shiryu, who was just coming out of the plaza. He asked in surprise, "Where's Nao? Why isn't he with you?"
"What do you think?"
Shiryu, cigar in mouth, spoke gruffly. "The last part is the stamina assessment."
Oh… Rosinante understood instantly, and asked curiously, "How many laps did you run? And Nao?"
"Five and a half laps. Barely made it into the top five. As for Nao…" Shiryu paused here, then pointed towards three dark figures running in the distance. "There he is, still running. If I remember correctly, this should be his twenty-fifth lap."
Hiss.
Rosinante gasped, watching the gradually disappearing figures, and couldn't help but exclaim, "As expected of Nao… Hey, aren't those two accompanying him instructors? Can they actually keep up even now?"
"What are you thinking?" Shiryu scoffed, crossing his arms. "This is already the third batch of replacements."
What does that mean?
Rosinante was confused until he saw several instructors resting and panting against a wall in the corner of the open ground. Only then did he begin to understand.
"You mean… the instructors who were running with him before couldn't keep up and were replaced?"
"Yup. Two were swapped out around the fifteenth lap, and another batch just went in."
Shiryu exhaled a puff of smoke, then gestured to another direction. "And those two overconfident Rear Admirals, they stubbornly refused to quit and ran for over twenty laps. They both collapsed unconscious and were just now resuscitated."
Rosinante followed his gaze and indeed saw Doberman and Dalmatian sprawled on the ground, their eyes glazed over, their faces pale. And the bearded instructor was straddling them, giving them artificial respiration.
That scene was truly too beautiful for words… Rosinante almost went blind just from looking, quickly averted his gaze, and asked hesitantly: "So what do we do now? Should we wait for Nao to finish before we go back and rest together?"
"Wait my ass!"
Shiryu scoffed. "If you want to wait, you wait. I'm dead tired and going back to sleep. As for Nao… do you believe he'll still be running when you wake up tomorrow morning?"
That's probably true.
Rosinante came to his senses. No longer lingering, he gave the instructors a sympathetic glance, then turned and left with Shiryu.
May they have good luck.
...
In the deep black of night.
The figure of the black-haired young man continued to run cheerfully, as if he never knew fatigue, while the people behind him changed again and again.
At first, Nao would turn his head to see who the accompanying instructor had been replaced with, but gradually, as the number of replacements grew, he stopped bothering to pay attention.
He just knew that every so often, a thump would echo from behind him, indicating someone had collapsed, followed by the bearded instructor's indignant booming voice:
"Two more down! Who else is here? Hurry up, it's time for the subs to get in!"
This situation continued until dawn.
When the morning light first appeared, becoming somewhat dazzling, there was finally no more sound of footsteps behind Nao.
He looked back and found that all the instructors who had come to participate in the graduation assessment had completely collapsed, not one of them having the strength to run with him anymore.
This was truly a sad story.
Fortunately, just before collapsing, Instructor Brandon had shakily managed to dial Zephyr's Transponder Snail. When Zephyr arrived and took in the sight of the completely wiped-out instructor lineup, he froze on the spot, staring in stunned silence for a long while.
Zephyr, known across the seas as the "Black Arm Admiral," had weathered decades of battle. There were few sights in the world he hadn't seen.
But this...
This scene truly defied comprehension.
Just then, Nao's figure came jogging over from the distance. Spotting Zephyr, he broke into a surprised smile and called out cheerfully,
"Good morning, Zephyr-sensei! What brings you here in person?"
"..."
Zephyr looked at him with a strange expression. "How many laps have you run?"
"Haven't really kept track..."
Nao shook his head, smiling cheerfully. "Only about eighty-something laps? I wonder if the instructors recorded it for me. Otherwise, I don't mind continuing to run and counting from zero again…"
Count from zero again?
A dark line appeared on Zephyr's forehead. He directly stopped Nao, who was preparing to run off again. "That's enough! It's done, stop, Nao! Don't run anymore!"
"Eh?" Nao asked in surprise, "Why, Sensei? I think I could run for a few more days, no problem."
"It's not about that…" Zephyr looked back at the "corpses" strewn across the ground and sighed softly, "It's because the Elite Camp has no more instructors left for you to exhaust…"