The short rest period quickly passed, and a new round of training began.
This training involved moving logs.
It was very simple: carry large logs to a designated spot, then carry them back, repeating this continuously, needing to complete a specified number of transfers within a certain time.
As expected, Liens was beaten again during this training, and the number of times he was beaten was more than when he was running earlier.
Because he lacked strength, he was not fast enough at moving the logs, and he had to stop midway every time before picking them up again.
And as soon as he stopped, the guards supervising nearby would come and whip him.
In the end, Liens and a small number of others did not meet the requirements, and were thus severely whipped.
Even though Liens felt exhausted this time, he could not ignore the burning pain coming from all over his body.
It was time for a rest again, and Liens was too lazy to change positions; he directly entered the instance to rest where he was.
"Where he was" referred to the spot where Liens had just been pulled aside and whipped by the guards for failing to meet the training quota.
That ground was still stained with Liens' sweat and blood from his wounds, and, well, tears from the pain.
Next.
Sprint training, getting beaten, resting.
Weightlifting training, getting beaten, resting.
The above was the entire training process Liens experienced this morning.
Additionally, something noteworthy happened during this period.
One of the punished individuals couldn't endure the continuous whipping; taking advantage of a guard not paying attention, he knocked him down and then frantically tried to escape the square, to escape the Training Camp.
He really seemed to have gone mad.
Liens could see his facial features, distorted by tears, snot, and mud from the ground, combined with his desperate, all-fours attempt to run, truly resembling a mutated existence.
Unfortunately, he still failed to escape the Training Camp, not even stepping out of the square.
The instructor killed him with a single sword stroke; the instructor, who had been on the other side of the square, arrived beside him with an extremely fast sprint.
Then he drew his longsword and swiftly slashed across his neck.
Actually, Liens didn't clearly see the instructor's movements; everything ended in a very short time.
He only saw the instructor shake the blood off the longsword, then wipe it with a rag.
And that person fell heavily to the ground, tightly clutching the wound on his throat with both hands, but the blood flowed uncontrollably out of his body, finally gushing out, forming a pool of blood on the ground.
The body was eventually carried away by the guard who had been knocked down, and the blood on the ground was also cleaned by him.
Actually, Liens also understood why that "madman" had the idea of escaping.
Throughout the morning's training, he seemed to be caught in a death loop: because he was injured, his condition deteriorated, thus he couldn't meet the training requirements, then he was beaten, and then his injuries worsened, making it even harder to meet requirements, and he was beaten even more.
Moreover, with the intensity of the morning's training, he might have felt that if he didn't run, he would soon die from exhaustion or be beaten to death.
If it weren't for the "Reality Instance" ability, which allowed him to enter a state of deep sleep and recover energy even during short rest periods.
Most importantly, during this time, he couldn't feel the fatigue and pain in his body, which prevented the sense of exhaustion from accumulating.
It was thanks to it that he was able to endure the morning's training and not end up like the "madman."
However, when he truly couldn't hold on anymore, he wouldn't just lie there obediently and be beaten to death.
At the very least, he would stand up and throw a punch to show his resistance; it might be useless, but he could die a little happier.
After the morning's training, Liens felt that this place was much more terrifying than the Slave Exchange.
At least the thugs in the exchange wouldn't beat people so frequently; they had business to do, and goods sold better alive.
The Training Camp was different; they relentlessly pushed people to the limits of normal human endurance.
They didn't care about deaths, because what they wanted were the strong who could survive even in such extreme conditions.
…
Noon was the longest rest period Liens and the others got in a day, apart from sleeping at night.
The time from the end of morning training to the start of afternoon training was their normal activity time, as long as they didn't leave the Training Camp.
Of course, it was also very difficult to run out of the Training Camp; Liens noticed that high walls surrounded the Training Camp, and it was virtually impossible for an individual to climb such walls without tools.
Perhaps the rock climbing experts of his previous life could do it, but it was basically impossible for normal ordinary people.
And besides the high walls, the Training Camp also had a main gate.
Liens took advantage of the free activity time to check out the gate's situation.
To say it was heavily guarded was an overstatement, but Liens saw eight guards armed with sharp swords stationed there, and the gate remained tightly shut, not opening.
It could be said that trying to get past the gate might be even more difficult than directly scaling the high walls.
The more he looked, the more hopeless it felt; escaping was basically impossible, and even if he could escape, there was still the "contract" as a major killing weapon.
Also worth mentioning was that lunch, besides normal food, included an extra bowl of red soup.
After drinking it, Liens felt his body warm up, and his sense of fatigue rapidly decreased; he even felt the pain from his wounds lessen significantly.
'Could this be a magic potion, like a "Red Potion" in a game?' a thought flashed through Liens' mind.
No wonder the people in the Training Camp harassed these trainees so much; it turned out such a thing existed.
While it couldn't completely negate the fatigue and damage from training, it at least extended the lifespan of the trainees to some extent.
Perhaps, after more training, their bodies would eventually catch up to the intensity of the training.
Although there was the 'Red Potion' to reduce fatigue, and free activity time at noon, most people would still return to their dorms for a nap.
After all, even though the morning training was over, there was still the afternoon; who knew what torturous training awaited them then?
It was better to use the noon time to rest well and face the afternoon training in better condition.
Liens was the same; after eating, he went straight back to the dorm to rest.
As for what was said earlier, his actions of observing the Training Camp gate during free activity time were, of course, done within the instance.
How could he let the prison guards know about his blatant attempt to escape? He wasn't stupid.
Besides investigating the Training Camp's situation, Liens also provoked the instructor.
To provocation, the instructor's response was simple: direct whipping and increased training as punishment.
However, as soon as he showed any sign of wanting to give up training, the instructor would cut him down with a sword, just like he killed the escaping fellow.
When that sword strike came, he didn't even react before his throat was slit.
This was his first direct experience of the feeling of death within the instance.
Previously, although he had been beaten to unconsciousness and returned directly to the white space, he couldn't be sure if he had been beaten to death.
But this time, he was truly certain he had died.
After his neck was slit, he first felt pain, then quickly a sense of suffocation, and finally slowly lost consciousness.
That feeling was too real; the blankness in his mind brought on by the intense suffocation made him forget that he was in an instance.
Therefore, until he finally lost consciousness, he kept struggling on the ground.
Just like the "madman" in the morning, weakly clutching the wound named 'life'.
After losing consciousness, Liens returned to the initial white space, where he continuously gasped for air, trying to use this action to forget the feeling of suffocation he had just experienced.
It was a long time before he recovered.
At that moment, Liens was truly grateful; fortunately, after death in the instance, one returned to the initial space, rather than one's consciousness directly returning to the body.
Otherwise, he might have truly died from his reckless actions.
In his previous life, there was an experiment called "simulated execution."
Simply put, it didn't harm the prisoner, but it simulated the real feeling of death for the prisoner, thus causing the prisoner to be scared to death.
If his consciousness had directly returned to his body, then his experience would have been similar to the "simulated execution" experiment.
Because his memory would still be stuck at the moment his body gradually died, he would truly feel that he was dying.
In that situation, would he be "scared to death"?
Liens didn't know, but he also didn't want to use his own body to replicate that experiment.
Sometimes the truth doesn't need to be confirmed; people just need to believe that the "truth" they know is the truth.
People always need a little lie to deceive themselves.
After calming the fear brought by death, Liens entered the instance again.
Following the idea of "if you don't die from being reckless, be reckless to death," especially after experiencing "real death," he became even more reckless.
In the subsequent instances, Liens actively tried to take the instructor's sword, attempting to see how the instructor made his move.
However, after several attempts yielded no progress, he gave up on this largely meaningless action.
He knew that the gap between him and the instructor was too great; the instructor's sword speed probably exceeded his reaction speed.
Later, Liens planned several escape attempts, but he was either caught by the guards or killed by the instructor.
Additionally, he also tried to actively challenge higher-intensity training in the instance, allowing himself to better experience the feeling of constantly approaching his limits.
Finally, his body reached its limit, he lost consciousness, and automatically returned to the white space.
Furthermore, he also asked the instructor about the "Red Potion," which was the red soup distributed at noon.
However, the instructor was not as 'talkative' as Barton; he preferred action over words.
So he did not learn the truth about the "Red Potion" from the instructor.
He only hoped it was truly harmless, like a "Red Potion" in a game.