One minute earlier, Jackson Raines had actually started to feel bored.

  He was sitting comfortably in first place, and the top ten didn’t even show Ethan Parker’s name. Jackson had been looking forward to the moment the drill ended—he wanted to see Ethan’s face, to watch that stubborn, cocky expression crack into frustration and humiliation.

  Then—

  The rankings changed.

  Not gradually. Not by a few points.

  They jumped.

  Every team in the top ten dropped a slot, and one squad came rocketing up from nowhere like a dark horse with a rocket strapped to its back.

  Ethan Parker Team — 5999

  Jackson Raines Team — 1823

  Jackson’s pupils constricted.

  “What the hell?!”

  “Did Aimee bug out?!”

  The broadcast answered him in the same instant:

  [Ethan Parker Team has completed a hidden achievement. Total score +5000.]

  Hidden achievement…?

  Since when did this simulation even have hidden achievements? Jackson had never heard of anything like that.

  Which meant—

  Ethan had done it first.

  Jackson stumbled back a step, staring at the absurd gap on the leaderboard, his mood dropping from the clouds straight into the basement.

  How was anyone supposed to catch up to that?

  …

  Up in the mentors’ office, even seasoned people looked shocked.

  “You’ve gotta be kidding…”

  “I didn’t even know hidden achievements existed.”

  “It makes sense,” someone said, recovering first. “The standard logic is to camp the outpost edge and farm points while preventing breaches. Nobody touches the brood-mother—any normal person treats it like scenery. Ethan didn’t. He brute-forced the ‘off-script’ objective and killed it.”

  Caleb Shaw adjusted his glasses, expression composed—but the pride in his eyes was impossible to hide. The look said it plainly:

  That’s my trainee.

  “This kid is ridiculous,” someone muttered. “Even in a format that doesn’t suit him, he finds a way to flip the board.”

  “Talent, strength, and brains. His ceiling is terrifying.”

  One mentor slammed the table. “Deputy Director, I believe our last capture operation was insufficiently rigorous. I request a re-capture—”

  “Sit down,” the Deputy Director snapped. “Teach your own trainees not to be useless before you talk about re-capturing anything.”

  …

  The simulation ended.

  Ethan’s squad won by a margin so brutal it didn’t even feel like the same competition. The other teams could only stare up at the scoreboard like it was mocking them.

  Even now, Ethan’s two teammates still looked dazed.

  “Don’t just stand there,” Ethan said. “Let’s go.”

  Chase Nolan snapped out of it and nearly launched into orbit. “BRO—THAT WAS INSANE! Ethan, you should be in movies! I can’t even describe what I’m feeling!”

  He’d joined the drill expecting to cling to a strong teammate and accept a low placement without complaint.

  Instead, they took first.

  It was like winning the lottery while you were trying to buy a sandwich.

  The first-place grand prize—the Spirit-Ascension Pill—would go to the MVP, but even the “carried” teammates would receive side rewards.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Nora bit her lip and spoke in a small voice. “I’m sorry… I dragged you down.”

  Ethan laughed. “Dragged us down? We got first. Be happy.” He nodded at her. “And you did fine. You held the line.”

  Nora’s eyes lit up instantly.

  Somehow, Ethan’s approval mattered more than the win.

  Teams filed out, chatter rising everywhere.

  “Can’t believe Ethan won—what kind of hidden achievement is that?!”

  “Jackson came back from out of town just to compete and got wrecked. By a rookie. He’s not sleeping tonight.”

  Derek Wolfe, who’d been one of the first to clash with Ethan, finally understood the gap between them. If even Jackson had eaten the loss, Derek trying to compete would just be self-humiliation.

  And as if the universe wanted it, Ethan ran into Jackson almost immediately after exiting.

  Jackson passed him with a hard, dark look and said coldly, “This time you got lucky. Next time we get a chance—fight me for real.”

  To Jackson, the drill didn’t prove anything. In real combat, he believed he’d crush Ethan.

  Ethan nodded casually. “Sure, Jake. We’ll spar sometime.”

  Jackson stopped dead.

  “You—!”

  Ethan hadn’t even remembered his name.

  Jackson’s face went red. His neck flushed. He stormed off like he was afraid he’d explode if he stayed one second longer.

  Then Tessa Blake came jogging over and slapped Ethan’s shoulder hard enough to sting.

  “Dude—what the hell. That was insane! I didn’t think you could flip it like that. No wonder you’re 304.”

  Ethan grinned. “Told you. I’m still the boss.”

  “Enjoy it while it lasts,” Tessa shot back, rolling her eyes. “Cafeteria. Late-night snacks on me. And I’m introducing you to Evan Cross—he doesn’t even know you’re his roommate yet.”

  “Go on ahead,” Ethan said. “I’ll catch up.”

  He went to claim the MVP reward.

  Spirit-Ascension Pill: acquired.

  With that, he could shove his level forward hard. Beautiful.

  A moment later, Caleb Shaw called him.

  “Ethan. Your request was approved. Starting tomorrow, you’re cleared for official field missions.”

  “Perfect,” Ethan said. “Thank you, sir.”

  The more time he spent inside Unit 749, the more convinced he was he’d made the right choice: a reliable mentor, interesting teammates, and a straight road to power.

  …

  Cafeteria.

  Tessa had ordered an entire table of BBQ and was already eating like it was a competitive sport.

  “Tessa!”

  A guy in a yellow athletic jacket came sprinting in—one of their roommates.

  Evan Cross.

  “We haven’t seen each other in seven days,” Evan announced dramatically, “and it feels like an entire week—”

  “Sit,” Tessa said, not even looking up. “Eat.”

  “Smells amazing. This BBQ has a strong… BBQ essence.”

  “Do you physically suffer if you don’t say something stupid?” Tessa’s temple twitched.

  “By the way,” Evan said, eyes shining, “that new guy—Ethan Parker—is unreal! I heard he’s a rookie and he still surged into first place—”

  “Oh.” Tessa’s mouth tilted. “Speak of the devil.”

  Evan whipped around.

  His eyes went huge.

  Tessa pointed her chopsticks at Ethan. “Ethan Parker. New roommate. Also under Caleb Shaw. Evan Cross—weakness: talks too much. Strengths… still pending.”

  Evan lunged forward and shook Ethan’s hand like he’d just met a celebrity.

  “Hi! You look strong, and in reality—turns out you’re not weak at all!”

  Ethan sat down without ceremony and started eating. “So this is a celebration dinner for me? Tessa, respect.”

  Evan stared at him in disbelief.

  He called her Tessa that casually… and she didn’t blow up. She only glanced at him with mild contempt.

  What happened while I was gone? Did 304 change regimes?

  “From now on,” Tessa said lazily, “you call him Boss. Me? Depends on my mood.”

  “BOSS!” Evan said instantly, eyes misting over. “I’ve suffered under the previous tyrant for so long—now the new king ascends and 304 will finally have peace—”

  Tessa kicked him off his chair.

  He popped back up, grinning, then adopted a “serious scientist” voice.

  “Did you know? According to research, people who eat BBQ late at night will—”

  He paused dramatically.

  “—eat one more BBQ meal than people who don’t.”

  “Get out,” Tessa snapped.

  …

  That night, Ethan swallowed the Spirit-Ascension Pill.

  A huge surge of spiritual energy flooded his body and filled thirty apertures in one shot.

  His level jumped from lv37 all the way to lv67.

  The most immediate difference was simple: the power he’d burned during the simulation didn’t just recover—it came back stronger than before.

  More spiritual energy meant better endurance. Sequence abilities ran on energy; the more you had, the longer you could fight.

  Then another text notification appeared—one of the Divine-series missions.

  [Current Mission: Kill any Rank-Two demon wraith.]

  [Note: This mission is a prerequisite for realm breakthrough.]

  A prerequisite mission meant he had to finish it first, then grind to lv100, and only then would the system allow a normal breakthrough.

  When Ethan asked Caleb, he learned that only God-Chosen dealt with rules like this. Ordinary psionics could break through purely with talent and comprehension.

  That also meant Caleb now knew Ethan was God-Chosen—though at this point it wasn’t exactly a secret. His combat output had already made it obvious.

  “Tessa,” Ethan asked, “have you ever gotten a prerequisite mission like that?”

  “Yeah,” she said like it was normal. “Mine was ‘withstand a lightning strike head-on.’ So I waited for a thunderstorm, climbed a mountain, and got hit. Felt like tribulation.”

  Thunder-line logic. Brutal, but consistent.

  Ethan was Slaughter-line. His requirement was simple: kill something.

  The problem was finding a Rank-Two demon wraith in the first place.

  He opened the Unit 749 app and scrolled the mission board.

  One listing caught his eye:

  “Haunted House Disturbance.”

  [Case File ID: CB9822]

  [Location: Harborview City — Emeraldstone Old Town]

  [Overview: An abandoned, decaying house in the old town. Two days ago, four college students went exploring (three male, one female). Only the girl escaped. She claims she saw a “ghost.”]

  [Current Progress: Local security dispatched two officers to investigate. They also went missing. Suspected supernatural entity inside. Case transferred to Unit 749.]

  [Objectives: Locate the missing 3 students and 2 officers. Determine cause of the disturbance. If a supernatural entity is confirmed: contain or eliminate.]

  [Reward: 15 contribution points, $30,000]