Confidence Boost

"Alright Robert, that's for the future tasks. We need to decide what to do with him now, should we reward him with merits or not?" Charlotte dragged the stubborn Robert back in his seat.

"Just give him 200 merits, since he used his brain and found the loophole. We can't punish him for relying on wits. We would be the laughingstock of all business families if we did so."

"Agreed." "Second that." "Indeed he did not break the rules."

"Felix we decided that you shall be rewarded with 200 merits instead of the original 100. Take it as a bonus reward." Abraham smiled with a hidden glint.

Felix saw it but did not know what he meant by it. So he stopped thinking about it and accepted the free points.

.....

2 minutes later...

Half the juniors arrived without breaking a sweat, as they used the elevators and did not need to run too much. Though, they were covered in blood and scratches. Some even had their teeth knocked out. They really fought tooth and nail for those 100 points.

But they still had it better than the rest who were probably still in their rooms or climbing back the stairs. They got beat up but still failed the task.

Soon, they saw Felix standing in the same position while staring at the ceiling absent-mindedly like he was contemplating his life choices.

However, they did not find it weird as they assumed that he just arrived as well from another elevator. The only thing questionable about him was the fact that he had no injuries like them.

They soon began to question each other on who rode with the devil himself.

"I took the first elevator, he was not us."

"Me 2nd, I definitely didn't see him with us."

"The hell? He didn't take the 3rd as well."

"....."

In the end, they stared at Felix speechlessly, not knowing his reason for giving up on the task. The thought that he used the stairs didn't even cross their minds. No matter how powerful Felix appeared when he threshed them before, common sense still applied to him.

five minutes later...

The rest of the juniors, who took the stairs, arrived as well.

The elders did not rush them after seeing their horrendous fitness. Their eyelids couldn't help but twitch a couple of times as they noticed a few juniors vomiting their breakfast in the corners of the floor.

The entire reason for this simple task was to find out only two things, ruthlessness and fitness. They were quite pleased with the former, but the latter was quite a disappointment.

After a while, Abraham clapped his hands twice to bring their attention towards him.

"Since everyone is here, it is time to evaluate your performance." He clicked on his bracelet and a hologram popped out, "Twenty-one of you managed to pass the task successfully; I will call the names of those who passed. If you did not hear your names, it meant that you failed." He read the names of those who passed from the holographic list, "Jack, David, Owen,, Luke, Sarah..., Noah, Felix....."

Those who heard their names clenched their fists, while those who didn't, wailed in misery over the loss of 100 merits they never even had. The thought of fasting briefly crossed their minds.

Suddenly, one of them realized that Felix finished the task as well, which was quite weird, as he believed that Felix didn't even take part in the first place.

After all, he was not in any elevator and definitely didn't use the stairs. So why the hell did he pass?

He approached a cousin from the losing bracket and ratted on Felix without a flinch.

'Let him ask the elders. No need for me to question their decisions. I still want my life. But those morons will dare to confront the elders about this blatant favoritism.' He retreated to his position and continued to massage his bruised cheek.

Before long, the news kept passing from one to another, until hushed whispers and noises resonated in the hall. The noise got so bad that even the elders were alerted.

"Enough, what's the matter with you?! You better explain yourselves or else everyone is going to get twenty merits deducted." Abraham banged his fist on the podium over this blatant disrespect in their faces.

Silence suddenly descended on the floor, as everyone was too afraid to make a sound in the presence of an angry Elder. They might be polite and gentle most of the time, but when they got furious, shit got real pretty fast.

If they didn't have such a vicious rough personality, they wouldn't have been able to secure their position as a Business Empire Family Elder.

"SPEAK!"

Abraham didn't have time to indulge in their silence, as more important matters were waiting for him.

"Elder, we were conversing about Felix. It came to our attention that he managed to pass the test without doing anything. So we were just wondering how he did it, so we can learn from him next time." Junior wearing glasses bowed his head respectfully and explained without a stutter.

Other elders smiled in approval at his explanation. They appreciated the fact he was smart enough to question their decision without being upfront and saying directly, 'Why he passed while doing jack shit and not us?'

"It's simple; he was the only one who found the hidden mission we left behind during the task. If you used your intelligence like we taught you and did not run like monkeys the moment we gave you an order, you might have been able to see it as well."

The rest of the elders and seniors were struggling to hold their laughter, as they listened to Abraham spew bullshit through his teeth.

"This hidden mission was to see who can take advantage of the family safeguarding mechanism we mentioned before, to pass the task without breaking a sweat. If you used your brain for a second, you might have realized that by giving us your bloodlines you wouldn't need to run to your rooms in the first place. Just like Felix did."

"Next time use your damn brains." Elder Abraham scolded them with a displeased tone.

The only one who knew that Abraham was lying but didn't find it funny was Felix.

He gazed at Elder Abraham, watching him twist facts and truths, making it seem as if the loophole he had discovered was part of their plan all along...A hidden mission.

Only now did he realize the reason behind their generosity and the hidden glint in Abraham's eyes. He rubbed his eyebrows at their silly attempt to silence him with a bribe. It was as clear as day that the elders didn't want to lose the training camp's dignity before it even began.

After all, if the very first task had such a glaring loophole, it would turn into a joke in the eyes of their juniors, and that was something they couldn't allow to happen, no matter what.

Meanwhile, the younger participants kept switching their gaze between Abraham and Felix, their eyes bulging in disbelief. They couldn't accept the fact that their IQ was even lower than Felix's, the family thug who had skipped every class in school.

In their eyes, accepting it was equivalent to admitting that all their time spent studying and striving to become smarter had been for nothing.

Soon, their shock was replaced with numbness as they stopped dwelling on it. Felix had already surpassed them in courage, foresight, combat, and stamina. At this point, it would be strange if he didn't beat them in intelligence as well.

'Guess we can just die. Our existence is merely so the elders have someone to compare. If that's the case, it's better to just end it now.'

'I got beat up, and ran 15 floors twice, only to be slapped by the reality that I could have avoided it. I should just throw myself out the window and save my parents from embarrassment.'

Suddenly, the floor felt chilly as half of the juniors stared at the ceiling, drowning in suicidal thoughts.

Abraham instantly realized that his plan had backfired upon seeing the defeated expressions on their faces.

Hurriedly, he tried to salvage the situation by flattering them. "We elders might not show it, but we truly admire the fact that you didn't give up on the task, even while knowing it was impossible to pass."

"So hold your heads high. The training camp has just begun. Trust me, there are hundreds of ways to showcase your talents and magnificence. Some of you might awaken faster than Felix, while others might obtain better abilities than him. You just have to find your own way to surpass him."

Abraham had absolutely no qualms about using Felix as a stepping stone to motivate them. As long as their determination reignited, he wouldn't mind slapping Felix with some merit points as compensation.

"Am I right, Felix?" He decided to pull Felix into his charade after seeing that nothing he said was working.

Felix sighed in vexation at the sight.

He didn't understand why Abraham was even trying to help these weaklings, who lost their drive at the first setback in their long integration journey. But, since he was getting paid, he could only play along.

"Indeed, I'm not the best or even close to it. Just yesterday, I saw multiple humans in the UVR with unique talents I could only wish to obtain." He slumped his shoulders and added, "Sadly, I can't, since those talents belong to them alone, and no one can take them away."

"Did you hear him? You just need to find your unique talent, and no one will be as good as you at it. So lift your heads up! It's far too early to feel discouraged. The training has just begun, and I refuse to let you give up now!"

Abraham swiftly reinforced Felix's words with a penetrating voice, striking the hearts of those on the verge of giving up.

In a sense, their reaction was understandable. No one wanted to live a life where their entire existence amounted to being a mere supporting character, constantly compared to others.

They simply wanted to be the protagonists of their own lives and stories, and what Abraham and Felix said was the spark they needed to reignite their will to fight.

As suddenly as it had come, the chilling atmosphere disappeared. How could it not, when those so-called losers now had eyes burning with determination, like torches eager to find the unique talent that set them apart?

Felix scratched his cheek, observing the results of his little confidence boost.

'Let's see how long it lasts.' He mumbled.