In a world where magic exists

Chapter 5: Light

Before the host started the 20-minute countdown I saw everyone drop to the ground as I did the same properly positioning myself to do regular pushups

"WOAH THIS DUDE IS DOING HANDSTAND PUSHUPS" I heard someone in the crowd yell out loud

I turned my head to see the magenta-haired boy leaning against a wall doing a handstand

That was smart of him, doing handstand pushups may be hard but you are practically forced to maintain proper form, or else one will fail to do the exercise entirely, hearing about the point distribution he might not have wanted to halve his potential points gained by doing an exercise with improper form so he ought to do an exercise that removes that condition to optimize his points gained

It was pretty smart, though it made him lose more energy as a result of trying to do handstand pushups

Apparently, I'm not the only one who has reached this conclusion as a blond guy following the magenta-hair's footsteps leaned against the wall assuming the same form

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Standing out is a pain so I'd rather do regular pushups, with my training in the white room I should be able to maintain proper form with no problem.

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"Let us start" A giant 20-minute clock appeared behind him

20:00

19:49

19:48

Calmly observing everyone before I start, it seems that a lot of people are rushing to do their reps

What a grave mistake

We were given 20 minutes of time yet people don't seem to understand that rushing is not considered proper form not only that but using bursts of energy to do reps is too inefficient as it leads to your muscles getting tired much faster as opposed to doing reps more calmly to not let your muscles get tired as fast.

This means not only are they losing half the points they could've earned but also making them tired much faster. Sure the extra points are supposed to be their aim but we were given a full minute to do that. 

Since it was not specified how many points we would gain by completing the task I would rather stick to doing pushups at a consistent tempo to gain points while not letting my muscles get tired so easily.

If I were in their position

Naturally, I also wanted the extra points to be more efficient in gaining points

I can do roughly 100 pushups in one minute but that would make me stand out, so I'll settle for 50 reps per minute until I see half of the applicants give up

looking at the boys doing handstand pushups, they have enough strength to be able to do roughly 1 rep per 1.2 seconds at this rate they will also get their bonus points which is very impressive for people my age.

15:00

14:59

It has been 5 minutes after the host started the 20-minute timer it seems that almost everyone has maintained their pace ever since the start of the exercise