"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.
Everyone who reached saw Felix standing in the same position while staring at the ceiling absent-minded 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 godlike Felix appeared when he threshed them before. Common sense still applied to him.
5 minutes later...
The rest of the juniors, who took the stairs, arrived as well. Surprisingly, Kenny and Olivia were within them. Well for Olivia it could be understood, as she didn't participate in their fight. However, for Kenny, a quite strong and intelligent junior to not win a spot inside the elevator, it was quite weird.
The elders did not rush them after seeing their horrendous fitness. Their eyelids couldn't help but twitch couple times, as they noticed 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, "21 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 clutched their fists, while those who didn't, cried miserably over losing 100 merits that they didn't even possess. Thoughts of fasting crossed their minds.
Suddenly someone of those who passed 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 fuck 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 noises resonated in the hall. The noise got so bad, even the elders were alerted.
"Enough, what's the matter with you?! You better explain yourselves or else everyone is going to get 20 merits deducted." Abraham banged his fist on the podium over this blatant disrespect in their faces.
Silence suddenly descended in the floor, as everyone was too afraid to make a fart in the presence of an angry Elder. They might be polite and gentle most of the time, but when they get furious.
Shit gets real, pretty fast.
If they didn't have 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 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 sternly.
"This hidden mission was to see who is able to 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 fucking brains."
Dissatisfied and disappointed, Elder Abraham scolded them, uncaring about the elders behind him who were trying their best not to bust his act.
The only one who knew that Abraham was lying but didn't find funny was Felix.
As he gaped wide-eyed at Elder Abraham, twist facts and truths to make it seem like it was their plan all along to have the loophole he discovered, as a hidden mission.
Only now did he realize the reason for their generosity and Abraham's hidden glint. He rubbed his eyebrows at their silly attempt to shush him with a bribe. It's clear as day that the elders didn't want to lose the training camp dignity before it even began.
After all, for the first task to have such a large loophole would turn it into a joke in the eyes of their juniors, and they couldn't allow that to happen no matter what.
Meanwhile, those youngsters kept switching their sight between Abraham and Felix with bulging eyes, not daring to accept the fact that their IQ was even lower than Felix, the thug of the family who skipped every class in school.
In their eyes, accepting it was the same as stressing that their time spent studying, and learning to become smarter was but for naught.
Soon their shock was replaced with numbness as they stopped dwelling deeper into it. Felix already surpassed them in courage, foresight, combat, and stamina. It would be weird not to beat them in intelligence as well.
'Guess we can just die. Our existence is merely there so the elders can compare us. If so it's better to just end it now.'
'I got beat up, ran 15 floors twice, just to be slapped by the reality that I could have avoided it. I should just throw myself out of the window and save my parents' face.'
...
Suddenly the floor turned chilly, as half of the juniors stared at the ceiling with suicidal thoughts.
Abraham instantly realized that his plan had backfired after seeing their expression of admitting defeat.
He tried to salvage the situation hurriedly by flattering them, "We the elders might not show it, but we truly admire the fact that you didn't give up on the task, knowingly that it was impossible to pass."
"So hold your heads up, 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 some of you might obtain better abilities than him. You just have to find your way to surpass him."
Abraham had absolutely no qualms using Felix as a stepping stone to flatter them. As long as their determination reignites, he wouldn't mind slapping Felix with some merits points as compensation.
"Am I right Felix?" He decided to put Felix in his charade after seeing that nothing of what he said, worked.
Vexed, Felix sighed at this sight. He didn't know why Abraham was even trying to help those pieces of trash who lost their goal at the first setback in their long integration journey. But, he could only play along. It's not like he was not getting paid.
"Indeed, I am not the best or even close to being that. Just yesterday I saw in the UVR, multiple humans with different unique talents, that I can only wish to obtain." He slumped his shoulders and added, "Sadly, I can't, since it belongs to them only, and no one can take it from them."
"Did you hear him? You just need to find your unique talent, and no one is going to be as good as you while doing it. So lift your heads up, it is too early to feel discouraged. The training has just begun, and I can't allow you to give up now."
Abraham swiftly supported Felix with a penetrating voice, which struck the hearts of those losers who were about to give up on their path.
In a sense, it was quite understandable, as no one would want to live a life where their entire existence was merely a supporting character to be compared to others.
They simply hoped to be the main character of their own lives and stories, and what Abraham and Felix mentioned was the ignition to help them achieve it.
The chilly atmosphere was gone as suddenly as it appeared. How could it not? When those losers' eyes were emitting blazing flames like torches, eager to find the unique talent that set them apart from the rest.
Felix scratched his cheek while observing the results of his confidence boost. 'Let's see how far it's going to last you for.'
'Well whatever, as long as I get paid with merits over my boosting, I don't mind doing it again.'