Strength.

"Bring Alex here."

Zhao Lei looked at Mei and said.

Today was the last day of his punishment. Lei had decided to show up and check in on his progress.

"I ensure you, master. You will not be disappointed."

Jin assured Lei.

"We'll see."

Mei reached the underground cell and opened the door. Contrary to her expectations, Alex was up.

"Is Lei here?"

"Yes."

Alex walked out of the cell.

"Are you ready?"

Mei asked Alex.

"Are you worried?"

Alex teased her for the comment.

Mei blushed slightly.

"What will it take to get you nervous?"

She was mentally exhausted by his carefree attitude.

"A one-sided fight against me."

Alex was about to poke her face, but she slapped his hand down.

"Don't get distracted. The leader is waiting for you."

He shrugged and said,

"Sure."

After a few minutes, they arrived at the training hall.

"Alex. How have you been?"

Lei spoke first. Alex smiled and said,

"Not bad."

Lei turned towards Jin and said,

"As you know, today marks the last day of your punishment. You will be able to take missions from tomorrow onwards."

"Yes. I have been keeping count."

Honestly, he was glad for the punishment. Unlike the Grey family, people here couldn't care less about him. The only two people he had to concern himself with were Jin and Mei. Rest all of them mostly ignored him, including the guard from his first night. This lack of interest was refreshing.

"Honestly, I don't think you are ready to accept missions on behalf of our family."

Lei was straightforward.

"But Jin asked me to give you a chance."

Jin was confident that Alex could pass this test.

"So here we are. Today, I am going to test you on three things. Strength, Speed, and technique."

He pointed towards the large stick underneath a big bell.

"First, strength."

Four of them walked closer to the bell.

Lei looked at Alex and said,

"I hope you have been training your wrists."

This stick was only around 10 meters in size.

"First, strength. You have to ring the bell with that stick in a particular sequence. I will give you the signal, and you have to keep up. There will be two rounds and no second chances. Understood?"

"Yes."

"Take your position."

Alex arrived in front of the stick. He positioned his arms according to the system's instructions, which maximized his efficiency. He took a deep breath in.

"Begin."

He tightly gripped the stick (made up of metal so rod) and used his wrists to lift it above the ground.

Yep. It was 100 kilograms.

"4 hits with a difference of 4 seconds between them."

Lei said.

Alex moved the stick back and hit the bell while balancing his power.

"DING!"

1...2...3...4...

"DING!"

1...2...3...4...

"DING!"

1...2...3...4...

"DING!"

The first sequence was easy. The 4-second window allowed him to use the momentum from every hit and hit the bell efficiently. His arms had to soak up more pressure, but he could manage that.

"5 hits with a difference of 3 seconds between them."

Alex tightened his grip even more. He needed better control over the rod to accomplish 5 hits in a shorter time. His veins were bulging out on his skin.

"Ding!"

1...2...3...

"Ding!"

1...2...3...

"Ding!"

1...2...3..

"Ding!"

He felt his grip loosen after the fourth ring. He used up 1 second to recover. This left him with two seconds, and he flexed his muscles even further.

"Ding!"

People started to enter the hall. Alex held on to the stick for his dear life, expecting Lei to give him another command.

Lei didn't say anything. He watched as the flexible metal rod started to slip through his hands.

As it was about to drop, Lei said,

"Well done. You have passed the first test."

Alex let go of the rod.

"Bang!"

The rod collided with the ground and made a loud noise.

Alex looked at his hands. They were tomato red in color.

"I will allow you an hour of rest."

Mei hurried towards him with some medicine and bandages.

Lei turned towards the crowd that had gathered inside the hall. They had arrived because of the bell.

"Everyone, make yourself comfortable."

Mei applied it to his hand and said,

"Thankfully, it doesn't look bad. But you should still wear the bandages to avoid further injuries."

'System, how long until my hands fully recover?'

'20 minutes.'

Mei was about to apply the bandages, but Alex stopped her from doing so.

"I won't need that."

Alex relaxed his body and sat down on the floor. He closed his eyes and said,

"Make sure that no one disturbs me."

After a few seconds, he fell asleep.

Mei looked at Jin in confusion. Jin himself was confused. How could he sleep right now?