Ryan tried to copy Arthur. He imitated the exact combination, step by step. He repeated the left hook and then moved into the short jab and right cross. At first it was not great. His feet were slow. His hands came late.

He landed some blows but Warren answered harder each time. The simulation drained his mental energy faster than his muscles.

He felt fog in his thinking and his breathing became shallow. He had to stop and breathe between rounds to clear his head. He felt shame each time he failed because he wanted to be useful more than he wanted praise.

He did not give up. He tried ten more times. Each time he took the lesson of the last failure with him into the next round. In the second round he focused only on his stance. He kept his weight lower and used his knees to absorb balance.

In the third he worked only on his jab and kept his arm tight. In the fourth he practiced turning his hips like Arthur did so the punch would carry more power. These were small improvements but they added up.

After a few rounds his jab began to land more often. He started to feel when Warren would try the same move twice. He read the micro cues in the hologram's shoulders and feet.

Across the rounds the system increased the pressure a little each time to push him. Warren's combos became a little less predictable, forcing Ryan to adapt. The fights were no longer simple drills.

They became tests of how fast Ryan could change his actions. He learned how to keep thinking when his body felt tired. That was the hardest part.

The simulation pushed his mind until it was numb but he forced himself to think anyway. He found that when he forced thought to stay clear his actions became less sloppy.

The tenth round lasted longer than any earlier round. It became a real exchange. Warren tried to overwhelm him with volume. He threw a flurry of body shots to make Ryan drop his guard then aimed for the head.

Ryan could feel the fog behind his eyes but he kept his guard up. He counted his breaths inside his head. He remembered Arthur's advice about rhythm. Arthur had told him once, "Punches are not only strength. They are rhythm. You break rhythm and the fight opens."

Ryan used that idea. He started to move in small patterns. He used a jab to make Warren blink and then a quick step to the side to change angles. He used the hook-jab-cross Arthur had used, but he put it in a different place.

He did not try to end the fight with one big hit. He wanted to score a point and then keep scoring. He wanted to take Warren's pressure and turn it back.

At one point in that long round Ryan landed a short uppercut while Warren was pushing forward. The uppercut did not knock Warren down. It did not end the fight. It did, however, make Warren hesitate for a breath.

That hesitation was enough. Ryan went into Arthur's full combo. He felt his hips rotate. He felt the rotation move through his shoulders and into his fist. He hit Warren with a right cross that connected and made the hologram wobble.

The simulation registered the blow with a sharp visual ripple on the hologram. It was a small signal but it meant victory. The next savage move from Warren came fast as a storm, but Ryan met it. He pushed back and placed one more hit to keep the advantage.

Immediately the simulation ended and declared the session finished. The system announced, "Simulation complete," and the room returned to normal.

Ryan fell to the ground in his apartment. He was exhausted in a deep way. He felt drained mentally and physically even though the system had not hurt his body. The exhaustion was real. He had to lie still for a minute and breathe.

His chest rose and fell. He felt a small smile come to his lips, the kind of smile that means you did the exact thing you set out to do even though it was hard. He felt relief more than joy.

He understood what the win meant. It was not that he had become unbeatable. It meant that he had learned how to keep moving when everything told him to stop. It meant that he could use Arthur's moves and make them his own.

It meant he had less fear of freezing in a real fight. It meant he had done the work and had one small success to prove it.

Ryan thought about the meeting and about the people who would stay behind. He thought about Leon and Aiden guarding their land. He understood why those two needed to stay. He thought about Arthur and Daniel who would go with Maya.

He thought about the leader who must trust them to handle whatever happened at the negotiation. He felt a sense of duty tighten inside him. The system had given him the win but the real test would be outside in the daylight, with other people watching and with things not predictable.

He stood up slowly and checked his body. He felt soreness in his shoulders and a tired ache in his legs. He felt clear in his head in a way he had not felt earlier.

The simulation had taught him two things: how to use a specific combo and how to manage mental fatigue. These were both useful and both necessary.

Before he turned off the simulation for good he spoke out loud and said, "Thank you." He meant it in a simple human way. The system had no pride to please but he felt grateful anyway because the simulation had given him a tool. He felt ready to train more.

He would practice the same motions until his feet, hips, and hands moved without thinking. He would practice until the combo felt natural and not borrowed.

He prepared for the day after tomorrow. He knew he needed to be careful with his energy and to rest. He wanted to be sharper than before.

He wanted the others to know he could be trusted. The small smile on his lips stayed as he thought about the meeting. He felt more steady now, calmer about the unknown.

He cleaned up and went to bed. The win in the simulation did not remove all his doubts but it moved him forward. It gave him the next step he needed.

He slept with the thought that when they met at the front gate he would stand where he was told, keep his hands ready, and protect the leader if the situation turned into something violent.

The confidence was small and steady. That kind of confidence, he believed, was what would keep them safe.

The chapter ended with Ryan lying on his bed, exhausted but quieter. He knew more work was waiting. He did not pretend his victory would change everything. He only knew that he had earned a small advantage. That would have to be enough to face tomorrow.

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