Miles walked into the room with many apparatus. They were strength testing machines to determine his “willpower”. He walked into the first room and looked at the first device. It was a pretty straightforward strength measuring device. He then walked to the giant machine covering the side of a wall. There was a red area with a fist drawn on top. Miles gathered all his power on his legs, then strained like a fine bow. When he was at his maximum, his waist moved like an arrow fired, and his upper body moved forward. He swung a fist at the same time, and the fist hit the red area with a loud sound.

Kaboom!

As expected of an empty room, the impact caused a loud noise reverberating, but Miles ignored it.

He looked at the numbers scaling with great speed. He had low-tier Body Strength, which was about 200 units. The strongest human before the invasion could only punch 100 units, which makes Miles twice as strong as the strongest person before the monsters invaded Earth.

Numbers on the machine scaled swiftly until it arrived at 100. After that, the speed of scaling decreased. When it was around 150, it was only increasing by a decimal. When it reached 200, it almost stopped and scaled one by one. It then stopped at 209. Two hundred was the limit that the first Serum could take.

When serum is first taken, the muscles would tear and restore themselves over and over again. These newly formed muscles would be more tender, so strength deteriorated to 75 to 85 units. Then with constant training, it could scale up to 200. That is the limit the first Serum could take.

Unfortunately, power wasn’t the only factor deciding if a person could take the following serums. Willpower was not directly related to limit but is one of the factors. After all, no device could measure willpower, so the ethics committee decided that a person who can preserve to reach the human limit can take the serums with their own free will. If not, selling serums is highly prohibited.

To take the first serum, 100 units is the punch power limit. Miles already reached that point before he took the Serum. And now that he attained 200 units, which was the threshold for the first Serum, he passed, at least for the punch power test.

Miles looked at the number with a conceited look and moved to the next room. It was time for a speed test. He looked at the number with many intervals. At each interval, there was a device measuring the speed. The peak speed in a 100-meter run would be considered the highest and would be recorded.

Before the monster invasion, a person could run up to 45 kilometers in an hour. A person with the first Serum could run as fast as 70 kilometers in an hour. That was the highest speed in a short distance. Even with his physique Miles could only keep that speed for a short kilometer, then he would slow down by half.

The optimum speed he could run for long distances was 45 to 50 km.

Miles started the button and dashed like an arrow. He passed the devices one after another and speeded up with every step. In a few seconds, he already finished his sprint and looked at the numbers on the screen.

His highest speed was 73 kilometers per hour, which was a little bit faster than normal speed.

“Nice. Seems like my training didn’t go to waste.” Miles looked at the numbers and walked into the next room. He took test after test seriatim and passed them with flying colors. His jumping power, muscle density, and other qualities were just enough to pass the test.

At the end of the test room, there was a coded machine waiting for him to scan his AI.

Miles scanned Coin, rather, Coin’s alter identity, Blood Lord, the code before leaving the test room. When Miles took an alter identity for himself, the AI also became Coin’s alter identity. Unlucky for Coin, Ezio named his AI as Blood Lord. With no other choice, Coin took this alter identity for himself, although with lots of cringing.

When he was back at the counter, the paymaster was there waiting with a bottle in his hand. The transparent bottle was filled with orange medicine. Miles knew that this was the second Strengthening Serum.

“I saw your result. You are good to go.” the paymaster said with a smile and handed over the serum.

“Thanks. Have a good one.” Miles took the serum and left the shop. As soon as the sliding doors opened, he found a couple at the corner talking.

“Honey, you should let me go. I will be late for my meeting.” The woman said to the tall, handsome man.

“I can’t get enough of you.” the man with a uniform said quietly, but Miles could hear them talking just fine.

“Don’t forget to give Miles a call.” The woman said and left the military man on his own. She walked in Miles's direction, smiling bashfully.

Miles felt like his stomach was aching, and his heart was palpitating madly when he saw them.

The lady took two steps forward, then turned her head. “And don’t forget to ask him about the Marooner.”

Miles felt like his body petrified. He locked on his place and looked at his parents — his mother’s smile and his father’s goofy, love-stricken face.

At that moment, the scene froze, then moved again. Evelyn walked beside her husband until she went on her way.

It was then that Malcolm turned to look at where Miles had been standing for a long while. After some time, his knit brows loosened, and he too left the venue.

Miles only came back to himself after some time.

“Mother and father are looking for me?” He asked silently.

“Can it be because they found out you used a Strengthening Serum?” Coin asked.

“Maybe,” Miles murmured. There were many things in his mind. His brain worked harder than ever, but couldn’t wrap his head around himself.

“Why did Father look at you like that?” Coin asked Miles.

“He must have felt I don’t have any superpowers with his powers. Although rare, there are many people with the same condition or similar to mine. Or people whose powers are removed also seem like people failed to awaken. Thus, father must have gotten suspicious of me.” Miles answered, then added, “Father was there when I was fighting with Starve Cleric. He must have noticed something when he was there. Are they suspicious of me being the Marooner, or something else?”

Coin didn't answer as Miles continued.

“Mother also wanted to find the Marooner. It should be something they have in common. Other than me, I can’t think of anything else. Mother said don’t forget to ask him about the Marooner. Even though it can be understood as, ‘Ask if he is the Marooner?’ It can also mean, ‘Ask if he knows anything about the Marooner?’ After all, when I hunted Vampire with my armor, I ensured that the Marooner was in one of those three strongholds.”

Miles contemplated for ten minutes before he could clear his head and take another step. He looked around and then left the military headquarters. He jumped on the train and went to his house.