Raine clambered out of the canoe.

“I can’t believe we had to do it all over again,” Vick said, lying on the pier.

“At least—” Raine paused to take a few breaths, “—at least it was a little better than the first time.”

They slowly got to their feet and waited for their teammates to finish before they headed back to the Gilman Tower for their short lunch break. Everyone ate lightly, even Vick. They didn’t want to puke.

Afterward, they went to the gym, which was connected to the Gilman Tower by a small pathway at the back. Their team was one of three that were there. Each team was paired with a personal trainer who made sure they were doing the exercises correctly.

Aside from Raine, everyone did exercises ranging from lat pulldowns to bench presses, pull-ups to squats. Raine was stuck with pull-ups, lateral raises, bicep curls, and a few neck-strengthening exercises because of his injuries.

Halfway through their training, someone from another team ran to the bathroom and puked.

Lukas let out a wordless shout and squatted over 300 pounds. Kayden and Arnett competed to see who could do the most consecutive pull-ups. Grant learned how to do flys from their personal trainer. Max and Vick did lateral raises with light dumbbells. Reo did bench presses and overhead presses on a machine.

By the time they were done, none of them could lift even a small bottle of water without their arms trembling uncontrollably.

They had ten minutes to shower. Then while Raine went to another Ephrian lesson with the other team leaders, the other new employees cycled back and forth between the Gilman Tower and Mount Rialis. Twice.

. . . .

Song Hyun-woo exhaled a cloud of smoke and opened his laptop. He put out his cigarette in the ashtray. He opened his browser and downloaded reports from June, Steele, and several others. He opened Steele’s mid-week report on the outliers.

Three were already struggling. One was injured on the first day while cycling from the runway and struggled to get motivated afterward. Another had cried themselves to sleep for two nights in a row. His teammates said he was mentally and physically exhausted. The third fell off his horse and got a mild concussion. He developed a fear of riding horses.

Song Hyun-woo sighed. No matter how hard we try to filter them out before recruitment, these people always somehow get in.

But he was a bit relieved to see that none of them had been recruited in California.

He moved on to the stellar recruits. There were four standouts: Livia Wade, Kayden Caldwell, Raine Williams, and Cecily Caraway. Three weren’t as impressive but still had potential: Edgar Roberts, Vick Walters, and Julia Yang.

Song Hyun-woo read the summaries of their performance. As expected, Wade and Caldwell were great recruits despite showing minimal leadership potential. Williams was doing fine as a team leader and was making fantastic progress in learning Ephrian. Then Song Hyun-woo read Caraway’s summary. He sighed.

She was learning Ephrian and Spanish rapidly and had great athletic ability. Her stamina was incredible. But she had intimidated her team members into voting for her as the team leader and then failed to keep a cooperative atmosphere among them. Her lack of interest in others kept her from developing any friendships with any other recruit.

The most annoying thing about Caraway was not that she was a terrible leader, but that she had great potential that was very likely going to be wasted if she couldn’t fix her aversion to connecting with others.

We could put Williams, Caldwell, and June in a team with her. June could be specifically given the task of helping Caraway become less hostile to others. But it’s almost a waste to put those three together just for Caraway. Just Williams and June could balance out someone like Roberts without Caldwell’s help.

That’s when he had an idea.

Wait, what if I put June, Williams, and Caldwell in a team with Caraway, Roberts, and Ava? My god. Ava could smash Caraway’s excessive pride, and with enough time, June and Caldwell could calm Roberts down, especially since he won’t be able to talk to his father in the New World. Williams would provide the team stability. Song Hyun-woo thought about it for a few moments. Then he shook his head. That’s a last resort. Definitely. We should crush Caraway’s pride before training is over. But she needs help for when that happens. We can’t have her fall apart.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket. He called June.

. . . .

“Hello?” Raine said, answering the call.

“Hi, Raine,” June said. “I wanted to let you know that there’s going to be a competition between teams and another between individuals next week on Friday.”

Raine’s brows rose. “I see. What will we be competing in?”

“A variety of sports, like swimming, archery, cycling, and a handful of others,” she said. While she spoke, he went to a desk to write down what she was saying. “It’ll also include contests of math, physics, Ephrian, and physiology.”

“Okay. Thanks. Will there be any prizes?”

“Of course. I can’t tell you about most of them yet, but the results of the competition will be used to put everyone into tiers. Those in the higher tiers will have more advanced training and have the potential to earn more when they start working.”

Earn more? “Can I ask how much more they earn?”

“I can’t say exactly because it’ll depend on you, but on average, the new employees of the highest tier go on to earn about 120,000 in their first year. But remember, that’s on average.”

He asked a few more questions. Then they exchanged a few pleasantries, said goodbye, and hung up.

“Guys, we have some important news,” Raine said loudly. Arnett was lying on the couch, Max and Vick were flopped on the beanbags, and the rest were in the rooms.

“What is it?” Max asked. “Is it about the weekend? Are we doing something cool?”

“I’m out if that’s the case,” Vick said. “I’m just going to laze around this weekend.”

“No, no. We’re going to compete with other teams next week.” When the ones in the rooms came out to the living room, he explained what he’d heard from June.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“My god,” Max said. His eyes were wide. “120,000 dollars. In just two years, after tax, you could buy a nice house in like Iowa, right?”

“Yes, assuming you keep your expenses low,” Reo said calmly. “But I imagine it won’t be easy to enter the highest tier.”

“Exactly,” Arnett said. “There are some crazies on the other teams.”

“We’ll win the archery contest without a problem,” Kayden said. Then he sighed. “But you said swimming is part of it?”

“Yeah,” Raine said.

“I guess I should head to the pool for some practice, then,” Kayden said. “I suck at swimming.”

“Jesus, dude,” Vick said, slowly getting up from his beanbag. “Aren’t you tired? I’m ready to crash in bed already.”

“I’m fine,” Kayden said with a shrug.

Grant sighed. “I’ll have to ask one of you guys to help me learn how to swim,” he said.

“How tired are you?” Raine asked. “Because you should start as soon as possible.”

“Not that tired. I could probably cycle to Mount Rialis again without a problem.”

“You people are monsters,” Vick said. He shuffled into the first room. “I’m going to take a nap.”

Lukas yawned. “Yeah, I’ll probably take a nap too. See you guys.”

Those two went into the rooms.

“I would help you out if I were any good,” Kayden said to Grant. “But if I teach you, I think you’ll get my shitty technique too.”

“I can help you guys out,” Raine said. “I’m not a great swimmer, but I’m decent.”

“What about your injuries?” Kayden asked.

“I don’t need to get into the water. Let’s go to the pool in the apartment, not the olympic pool.”

Grant nodded. “Thanks. When should we go?”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

“I would join you if I had your inhuman stamina,” Reo said.

“What he said,” Arnett said, still lying on the couch.

“Yeah,” Max said. “I’m not actually on this beanbag because I want to be. I just can’t move.”

Raine, Kayden, and Grant went out half an hour later, and they bought swimming shorts, rash guards, and goggles at a clothing store nearby. Then they returned to the Gilman Tower and took the elevator to the third floor.

The pool was small. It was about a quarter the length of an olympic pool, and shallow enough that Grant would be able to stand with his shoulders above the water.

There was no one else around. There’s probably no one else crazy enough to keep exercising after what we did today.

Grant and Kayden changed in the bathrooms and went to the showers. They suffered through a quick rinse with cold water. They walked briskly to the edge of the pool while shivering.

“To start, you have to get comfortable with just being in the water,” Raine said to Grant.

Kayden went into the pool first.

“Goddamn is it cold in here,” he said. He started swimming first, kicking off the wall.

Raine watched him go and noted his mistakes.

Grant slowly went down the steps into the pool. He was shivering even harder than before. “Shit, he’s right. The water is ice-cold.”

Raine put a hand in the water. It really was cold.

Raine had him start by holding the edge of the pool and kicking. Grant kicked far, far too hard. Water flew everywhere.

Raine tapped his arm, and Grant stopped. When his head came out of the water, he gasped for air.

“You should bring down the power,” Raine said once Grant caught his breath. “If we’re at 100 percent right now, take it down to ten percent.”

While Grant was practicing his kicking, Kayden swam back from the other side of the pool. Raine told him what to change about his freestyle, bit by bit. He didn’t want to overload the guy with information.

“You should try to reach more,” he said. “Your hands are entering the water too soon.”

“Got it,” Kayden said. He took a deep breath and kicked off the wall.

Raine watched him swim, and in just a few moments, his eyes went wide. A laugh of disbelief escaped him. Is that what you call an athletic genius?

Kayden’s freestyle was still full of flaws. His kicking was sporadic and too forceful, he only breathed on his right side, and his legs were too deep in the water. But he’d fixed the mistake in his strokes. He was reaching as far as he could on every one.

Raine had instructed friends on swimming before. None of them had been able to fix their mistake so completely without a handful of reminders. It was hard to fix such a big mistake without slipping back to it by habit after a minute or two.

But Kayden didn’t return to his flawed strokes. He was still doing it right even after reaching the other end of the pool and swimming back.

“That was exactly what I was talking about,” Raine said when Kayden stopped.

Kayden grinned. “Great.”

. . . .

Friday was an easy day. Even though they knew it was coming since Raine had their schedule, it amazed them all. They had a generous one-hour break after a short session at the gym and attended an hour-long lecture on joint injuries. Then they received a thirty-minute break and had a two-hour-long lesson on archery with simple wooden bows. Then they were done.

“That’s it?” Max asked Raine. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Raine said.

Max threw his hands into the air in celebration.

“But what do we even do now?” Vick asked.

“Prepare for the competition, that’s what,” Arnett said.

“You’re right,” Kayden said. “I’ll go swim again.”

“Yeah, I should swim too,” Grant said reluctantly.

For one reason or another, most of them headed back to the Gilman Tower.

Raine wanted to grab some coffee and read the news. He went to the apartment to shower, change, and get his wallet. Then he headed out with his briefcase.

The nearest cafe was a six- or seven-minute walk from the residences. It was creatively named the Hopkins Cafe.

There was a long bike rack in front of it, full of bicycles. The cafe had a handful of tables were outside that were occupied by smokers. Raine went inside to avoid the smoke.

It was a busy cafe. Most of the customers looked like long-time employees. They had different uniforms from the new employees, and more than a handful had pistols at their waists. Their uniforms were more formal, though they still seemed perfectly fine for a session at the gym.

Raine looked at the menu. The cafe served coffee, tea, and cakes that looked healthy. Raine hadn’t been aware that cakes could look healthy until then. They had names like ‘pine nut cheesecake’ and ‘low-sugar carrot cake.’

He ordered a latte and took a seat wherever. He pulled his laptop out of his briefcase, turned it on, and opened the New York Times.

His brows rose as he read the headlines. When the hell did all of this happen? I guess this is what I get for not keeping up with the news for a while.

His latte came soon. He thanked the employee and kept reading. On the business section, he scrolled down to the older articles. There wasn’t much that interested him.

He took his eyes off his screen and grabbed his coffee. As he was taking a sip, he saw a short girl with a bob-cut and a Harvard jacket make an order at the counter.

She looked around. There weren’t any empty seats around. She frowned.

He let out a small sigh.

“Caraway,” he said. “Need a seat?”

Her brows rose. Her eyes landed on him.

She looked around again. There still weren’t any empty seats, of course. She shuffled over and reluctantly took a seat at his table.

“What did you order?” he asked.

She blinked. “None of your business.”

“Okay then.”

That’s it. I’ve expended my entire reserve of kindness for today. Raine’s eyes went to his laptop. He went to Bloomberg and read an article on Dale & Castor.

Cecily pulled her phone out of her pocket, but she wasn’t looking at it. Her gaze was sweeping the cafe.

There was a table beside them that was occupied by a couple about to leave. Cecily stopped looking around and grabbed the table as soon as the couple left.

What an unsociable person. He sipped his coffee and looked up the price of gold.

“Here’s your iced latte, ma’am,” an employee said.

Cecily nodded. She shot a fleeting glance at Raine and pulled her latte close to her. She put one arm on her table to block his view.

“I thought you didn’t drink coffee,” he said, glancing at her.

“I do now,” she said.

She took a sip with the straw. She cringed.

“Why is it so bitter?”

Raine drank his own coffee. “To someone who’s never had coffee before, that’s how it is.”

She pushed the latte away.

He sighed. “Really, you’re going to waste all of that coffee?”

Who knew the kindness reserve itself had a reserve. He got up and went to the nearby condiment stand. He returned with a packet of sugar and a stirring stick.

Cecily nodded slightly.

How about a ‘thank you?’ He wanted to throw the sugar at her face, but he instead put the packet and the stirrer down calmly on her table and sat down at his own.

She tore open the packet and poured everything into her drink. Raine watched in horror but said nothing. She stirred her drink and took a small sip.

“Much better,” she said. Then, with her voice so quiet he had to strain to hear her, she added, “Thanks.”

Huh. “You’re welcome,” he said. His eyes went back to his laptop.

He opened a new tab and thought about what to do. I should prepare for the competition. I already have Ephrian covered, since even if Caraway improves significantly, I’ll at least be number two. Math or physics. Hm. Math, I guess.

He hadn’t sat down to study math since his time in college. But he motivated himself with the thought of making money. For over an hour, he sat there reviewing algebra, precalculus, and calculus.