Training roh was starting to get monotonous. I had been training in it for another hour with the only progress being that now I could give myself pins and needles faster then ever before.
Standing up and stretching I walked over and found the phone that Axmon mentioned. however when I picked it up I realised why he called it a cellular device instead of a phone.
It was barely able to be used as a phone, there were ways to contact others but along with that and the ability to research various things I found that there wasn't much else. No method of entertainment at all.
'And here I was hoping I would actually be able to try everything on one of these for once.'
looking at the time on the phone I saw it was about eight thirty am. I thought of going to training hall B but as I looked at my phone I noticed there being an application for ordering food.
looking through the first thing I noticed is that there wasn't anything particularly good but compared to nothing but oats and potatoes I would take what I could get.
I picked what it said was pasta mixed with souse and meat and then a popup notified me that I had used one extra food token out of three for this week and that I should go to the cafeteria in two minutes.
'Extra food huh, that means at some point there will be actual times where we are called to get food.'
I knew from experience that it was likely not going to be comparable to even the mediocre food on this menu.
Looking at the menu again I noticed a section for sweets. Clicking on the section and viewing what was there I saw many tasty looking treats and pastries. Looking down at their description however revealed all of their cost were at 3 tokens each.
'Now that's just evil.'
I stretched slightly and then walked over to the door while putting my new phone in my pocket.
Walking out of my room and towards the cafeteria which was luckily right next to training hall A and so very close to me. On the way I tried to do whatever I did with my roh but found it incredibly hard to do so. Each step caused changes in how my mind was supposed to be aligned to be able to absorb roh and so I was completely unable to even get a speck of roh on my walk.
Arriving at the cafeteria I opened the door and saw a few others but no one I recognised. I walked over to the pickup spot, a camera scanned my face and then presented me a small plate of whatever it was that I ordered.
'Was it called paste? no that's something different.'
I didn't really care what it was called and so I just picked it up and walked over to sit on a seat by myself.
Tasting it was an interesting experience, it was soft but also firm in a way that seemed very strange.
I finished the entire thing faster then I thought I even could.
'That was better then I expected.'
Not wasting any more time I put my tray and place in the collection section and started walking over to my room however when passing training hall A I thought that I might as well go in and train my muscles a bit. I had done a lot of labour yes but I couldn't exactly call myself strong. At best I had good stamina.
Walking over to a treadmill I put on the belt and strings which would pull me down and effectively increase the low artificial gravity and after I was set up I ran. I ran for a long time, even as sweat piled up on me I kept running. The cooled air of the training hall was the only redeeming thing about the entire experience as the more I ran the worse it became.
I was surprised by the fact that the pain in my legs wasn't the thing that eventually got me to stop like I thought it would be. What got me to stop was my lungs burning, it felt like someone had waxed my insides and then forced me to drink hand sanitiser with the horrible and raw stinging pain that I felt all the way through even my stomach. I stopped the machine and looked to see I had ran a bit over four kilometres.
'I've always been told running was a nice pass time, what fucking liars. This is nothing but hell.'
The doors to the training hall opened and I saw who I presumed was '3' to walk in. She looked at me for a split second and then walked over to the big suspended cushions to which she begun punching it.
I came to a realisation. 'So that's what you call a punching bag.'
I watched her technique with fascination. She was very obviously stronger then me, but as she started going faster and harder I realised just how much stronger she truly was. Each strike she dealt would have easily broken a few bones of mine and after a few more moments her strength grew so strong I thought I was dreaming. The punching bag was flying back and fourth at high speeds and by the time she stopped. She was left sweating, to which she begun picked up her water bottle and drunk the entire bottle then as she walked out the training hall she looked at me as if she was saying. 'What the hell are you looking at like that for?' But she didn't actually say anything and just left.
'What the hell did I just witness.'
I walked over to the punching bag and tried hitting it to which my hand crumpled and I hit it with the back of my hand. The bag barely moved and I was left with a hurt hand, it felt like trying to push over a fat guy with one hand with how heavy the thing is.
'What in the actual fuck. I guess I need to train my body a hell of a lot harder then I thought, if everyone is at that level of strength already I really will have my work cut out for me.'
I had an idea to try copy the way she moved and held herself. Imagining in my mind exactly how she punched I tried to do the same.
I definitely punched harder, but at the same time I found myself falling to the floor.
'Maybe that's what I need, I need tricks and knowledge.'
For a time I just looked up at the punching bag swinging back and fourth. I admired how much a little technique could make you stronger, how far a little knowledge can take you.
'If that's what I can do by just copying her, what can I do if I just know how to do it?'
My thoughts went back to Axmon's lecture, where he told us we all had a wealth of knowledge in our phones. I had quickly dismissed it before but I realised now that it might be the most valuable thing in this entire ring which is designed entirely for training the next generation of divers.
I Stood up and rushed to my room, so despite my lungs being as sensitive as they were I found myself thirsting for knowledge which surpassed whatever pain I felt.
I have no idea why I felt such a drive to learn more, the more I thought the more I realised I wanted to know more about everything not just about how to gain strength. Questions I had never asked in my life before raced through my mind.
'artificial gravity... What is authentic gravity then. I have heard many many times about earth, but I knew we weren't on it. Why weren't we on it? If we weren't on it then where were we?'
I had always taken these things as fact, never questioned them. partly because that was just how things were and partly because of what they did to us if we pushed the boundary of what they allowed us to know.
'It always comes back to knowledge, they give us enough knowledge to do our tasks and barely any more.'
My sense of danger for thinking of these things kicked in, but it only caused me to remember a phrase.
'curiosity killed the cat.' But that only made me ask. 'What the hell is a cat?'
I almost yanked my door open, my brain was moving from thought to thought faster then it ever had before, each point was completely pointless but I felt I had to ask these things. I had to be aware of exactly what I didn't know, then I could build on what I did know.
Only then remembering to close the door I took my phone out of my pocket and opened the information page.
'I need to know everything.'