Chapter 55:New Approach to Practice Awakening
"Drag him to the side, and sit down." Charlotte didn't wait for them to break into chatter after that sight. She had no plans to alleviate their worry and fear, as their stay inside her room was limited to 4 hours, thus she had to make the best of it.
"We have no time to waste by going one by one. So you will all start at the same time."
She saw that her order wasn't taken into consideration, as each junior had their eyes either fixed on their cousin who was twitching from time to time, or at their toes counting how many they have.
Irritated, she frowned her eyebrows and decided to at least motivate them. Otherwise, their anxiety would affect their awakening process. "We will start with 5% and 10 minutes, and if you fainted during it, it means you are out." She extended her hand widespread, showing five fingers and added, "But if you managed to stay awake until the duration passed. You will be rewarded with 500 merits. Understood?"
"Understood!"
They replied with a little bit of vigor. But, their nervous expression did not change much. After all, no amount of merit could encourage them to look lightly at the integration process, following the horrifying scene they just regarded.
Felix sat down first in a meditation position and waited for Charlotte to make a move. His cousins soon did the same, while looking at the long needles, hovering near their hearts. Gulping noises resounded in the room, each time the piercing tips of those needles gleamed under the light.
Suddenly, one of the females couldn't handle the view anymore and fainted with eyes rolled at the back of her head.
'Thud.'
The moment the body hit the ground everyone stared at her speechlessly, not knowing why the hell was she here when she had Trypanophobia.
Helpless, Charlotte rubbed her eyelids and kicked her outside of the UVR. After all, she was not qualified to awaken if she couldn't even handle the image of a needle. Nonetheless penetrating her heart with it. She would probably get a heart attack immediately if that happened.
Trypanophobia was not a condition to be taken lightly.
"Queen AI carry on please." Charlotte requested politely for the queen to handle the process.
As expected from the Queen, her ways were always efficient and quick, as she didn't give anyone a chance to overthink, before she penetrated their hearts.
A few minutes later, a symphony of high pitched shrieks marked the beginning of the awakening process.
Meanwhile, Felix sat composedly with his eyes closed, without moving an inch or letting a single fart. In his eyes, this pain compared to the experiences and hardships he went through in his previous life was merely a joke.
No one could understand the tortures he had to face in his path before becoming a 3rd stage bloodliner.
So, he took like a champ. A clear contrast to the rest who were threshing and twitching around, like fish on land.
'As always, the only reliable junior in the family is Felix.' Charlotte smiled pleasantly at the sight of Felix sitting like a stone statue. She then glanced at the others who either fainted on the floor with foam on their mouths or still wailing like pigs getting slaughtered.
'This is going to be a long month.' She sighed.
...
10 minutes quickly passed by. But, for those who still did not faint, it felt like 10 years. The moment the last second ticked by, the pain instantly vanished leaving them feeling empty inside, like everything was merely a dream.
"Alright from the 9 of you 3 has passed successfully, while the others failed miserably." Composed, Charlotte informed them of their results. However, only Felix was actually listening to her fully, as the others just kept staring at the ceiling absent-mindedly.
Charlotte unbothered by their lackluster response, kept on going, "For those who passed, they can either choose to repeat the same practice with others who failed, or upgrade the pain percentage and duration."
"Can I upgrade my practice to reach half the power of the real awakening?"
Suddenly the cousins who were playing dead were shaken out of their daze forcefully by Felix's bold and insane request. They didn't dare to believe that he had actually asked to upgrade from 5% and 10 minutes to 50% and 15 minutes!
Such a large upgrade was simply what a masochist would ask for!
On the other hand, Charlotte's eyes gleamed with delight at his request. Her cold unmoving lips couldn't help but widen a bit. Yet, what came out of her mouth was the total opposite of her creepy expression.
"Are you sure Felix? You should know that there is no need for a rush since you guys still have a whole month to get used to the process." She asked with good intentions.
"Yes Elder, I am positive." He suddenly paused and added with a long exhale, "I believe that even though the training plan you made for us is good, it will not be enough to handle the awakening one month later." He suggested with a polite smile, "In my humble opinion, it is much better if we used half the power to practice each day during those 25 days. And during the remaining 5 days, we try to awaken for real with 100%!"
This method was quite deadly, as many juniors wouldn't be able to handle the agony and keep constantly fainting until they either give up on awakening once for all or preserve until the real awakening day.
At that point, those who stuck with the constant torture would have higher chances of succeeding for real, since the pain duration would actually get reduced by the potions!
"I hope you take my opinion into consideration, as this babysitting plan of yours is truly not going to achieve much, but provide us with fake hope that we can awaken." He gave a half shrug and added, "But in reality, we will just end up dying in our pool of blood."
Felix knew that it was out of his character to go beyond his way and help others. However, Olivia's sorrowful expression on the treadmill popped out in his mind just before he wanted to stop speaking. In the end, he decided to give them that freebie due to her.
If the elders considered his advice, they should have at least 40% of juniors succeed. Yet, the best part of his plan wasn't even that, but the fact that the rest who never had chances to awaken in the first place, was going to be slapped by the reality that fate had other plans for them than to be part of the awakened race.
At that point, giving up was certain, and the moment they do so, the elders were going to retrieve their bloodlines bottles, since they couldn't waste resources on commoners.
'Well, I have nothing much to lose if I saved the future lives of those morons. They might actually feel like they own me a favor.' Felix mused in his mind after saying his piece.
Charlotte's eyes were on the verge of spewing beams of light, each time she heard his voice, like angels singing heavenly music in her ears.
Felix recoiled a bit at the creepy way she kept looking at him. But soon his tense shoulders eased up as he heard her say, "What you said is exactly what I had on my mind, and I even shared this plan to the elders and parents." She scoffed, "But the majority refused, as they believed that it was too much for them to handle at the very beginning."
"So I could only follow their decision and use this childish plan of upgrading the pain slowly." She sighed in dejection.
However, that expression didn't even stick for one second before it got replaced by a devilish glint that sent cold shivers on everyone's back.
"But now that you suggested it, and with me supporting it, they will have no choice but to follow our plan." She chuckled and said, "Otherwise their face will be slapped after they see you practicing with 50% while their children with 5%."
"Elder Charlotte, we are only thinking about their safety nothing more. If not, we would have never mentioned it." Felix rubbed his hands and grinned as well.
Charlotte laughed sadistically for the first time while staring at the juniors who were shivering on the floor in fear from the voices of this evil due.
"Hehe, dear Felix I share the same view as you. This is all for them. Too bad no one appreciates our goodwill."
"Indeed!"
Both of them shared eye contact and licked their lips as they stared at those juniors, like sheep waiting for slaughter.
....
3 hours later...
Back in reality, every junior woke up with a pool of sweat underneath them. They rubbed their bloodshot eyes and sighed in relief after finishing today's practice. It was truly a hell on earth.
Meanwhile, in front of charlotte, 8 juniors opened their grey dead eyes with numb expressions, like they just got out of a three hours torture.
Sadly, that was exactly what happened inside Charlotte's room. After Felix gritted his teeth and took half the power of awakening without letting even a squeal, his cousins underestimated the pain greatly. After all, if Felix didn't even scream, the pain mustn't be that bad right?
Wrong!
Their naive thoughts caused them to faint instantly the moment the process began. They didn't even last for 3 seconds before foam came out of their mouths like they were shocked by electricity. What's even worse, was the fact that they had to wake up and start all over again!
This continued for three hours straight until they returned from the UVR with this shape. If it wasn't for few breaks here and there inside the room, their brains might have short circuits.
The elders and seniors began to notice the weirdness of Charlotte's group. Since the other groups were either sweating or in worse cases trembling. Meanwhile, Charlotte group appeared like a pack of zombies not responding to anything.
Only Felix had a normal expression on his face as he conversed softly with Charlotte and laughing from time to time.
"What's happened inside? Is the batch you took that bad to not even handle 5% pain for 10 minutes or what?" Abraham approached them with a confused expression.
"oh, not that." Charlotte shook her head and answered casually, "I just used the plan I proposed the last time, but got turned down by you softies, that's all."
Abraham and the seniors' expression instantly turned dark after hearing her reason.
"What the hell Elder Charlotte!! you have no right to do that to my child. Even if you are an elder, you should still follow the rules of the family and abide by them. Otherwise, you will be removed from your position!!" A fuming mother pointed her shaky finger at her.
Other parents all started shouting out loud in support of the mother's claim. Their fury was understandable, as every one of those 8 juniors kept looking at the ceiling or the ground absent-mindedly while chuckling like retards from time to time.
Charlotte didn't bat an eyelid at their tantrum. She just crossed her arms above her chest and said in utter contempt, "First of all, I only followed my plan after Felix suggested the same thing to me as well." She smiled in his direction, "He like a true man just gritted his teeth and didn't let a single yelp after taking 50% of awakening pain for over 15 minutes." She refocused on the parents and asked, "So tell me, if he can do that, why can't your wastrels do the same? Is he made of metal or his pain sensors are dead?"
"No! it is simply because he can take hardship while they can't." She insulted their children in front of their faces, not caring about holding back.
Felix neither blushed nor flushed, he simply kept blinking at Charlotte with expectation for more compliments.
Charlotte chuckled at the sight of his shameless begging for flattery. But she had to disappoint him by continuing to address the parents' fury.
"I will tell you right now that I will hold no responsibility after your kids die during the awakening, due to your soft approach inside the UVR, where they can't even die."
She turned around, planning to return to her room. However, her calm voice kept ringing in the ears of everyone. "You can either break them during the awakening mock practice or give them false hope that awakening was achievable by your mild approach."
"It's up to you, not me."