The Rene Hall was far from empty… The more cadets broke through the first bottleneck, the more of them trickled in here. Those only managing the breakthrough now were, more often than not, the kind of losers who wouldn’t make it to Second Period — but they weren’t giving up. Life had a funny way of turning things around, and Rene didn’t charge much, so lately the hall had started to feel like an anthill.I arrived later than I’d planned and could already hear the rhythm from the corridor: impacts, commands, sharp exhales, the squeak of shoes across the floor from sudden movement.And this time, I got neither space nor Rene’s attention. The trainer simply nudged a few cadets aside and cleared a thin strip for me right along the wall — not exactly the kind of space you could move freely in. Especially not with a movement technique as chaotic as Mad Monkey.I knew right away that aside from the single jump from the third step, I wouldn’t be practising much else. And no work with the Hook today either. Maybe just the Chain Punch...I decided to start with that. Do something I was good at, just to build confidence, then move on to the Monkey. After yesterday’s injury, a bit of confidence wouldn’t hurt.My body resisted. For some reason, my ligaments acted like they’d forgotten what flexibility was even for. I ran through a few standard warm-ups for both arms and legs, twisted through the torso, and put together a series of decent projections.Good enough.Next — Mad Monkey.I did two standing jumps, then opened the interface and pulled up that same holographic map with the chopped-up figures. My legs lit up green, while the next movement prompts showed up in blue.Step-step-jump.Starting off with the right foot was slightly harder, but I nailed it on the first try — then, unexpectedly, managed to repeat the sequence several times in a row.And there was no Rene beside me to say “Good.”Although (...)