From Weakest to Building a System That Made the World a Game

Chapter 3: Squad Nine

The holo-board dimmed, but the instructor wasn't done. His voice dropped lower, cutting sharper than before.

"Remember this: ranks and points won't save you out there. Only your choices will. Some of you will rise while most of you won't even make it past the first year here. The academy isn't here to coddle you. It's job is simple: train those who can fight and cut loose those who can't"

The murmurs in the hall had long died. Every eye in the hall was on him now. The instructor raised his hand toward the side doors. "Your assignments have been issued already. Muster at your designated bays. You'll be judged from this moment on."

The crowd dissolved into an orderly chaos. Recruits spilled into the corridors, their chatter split between excitement and dread. Instructions on their wristbands directed them to muster bays across the academy.

Daniel scanned his display, then angled toward Cargo Bay C where a tall woman in combat gear stood waiting. Her hair was cropped short, her posture rigid as if carved from stone.

"Sergeant Hart," she introduced herself, her tone clipped. "I'll be leading Squad 9. I don't care what you did in the trials, or what you think of your ranks. Out there, none of it matters. Only results and survival. Are you clear?"

"Yes, Sergeant!" the squad chorused.

Hart's gaze swept over them, pausing just long enough on Daniel to make her skepticism clear. Then she turned and continued. "Roll call. Pay attention because these are the people who'll be watching your back, or leaving it exposed."

"Owen Pike." A broad-shouldered boy stepped forward, fists flexing like he was itching for a fight. Restless. The type who'd rather charge first and think later.

"Sera Kim." Compact gear, blonde hair tied back, a medic's kit slung over her shoulder. Her gaze swept across the squad quickly, already tallying which of them might end up needing her help the most.

"Tomas Ibarra." Thin, pale, clutching a drone case to his chest like it was worth more than his own life. His eyes flickered nervously, not to people, but to the device in his hands. Someone who trusted machines more than humans.

"Kade Turner." Lean, sharp-eyed, with the smug confidence of a boy who thought he'd already outgrown the rest of them. His smirk lingered on Daniel a beat too long, no guessing needed to know who he'd marked as the weak link.

"And Maya Holt." Daniel looked up at the name. The girl from the trial grounds. Short dark hair. Storm-grey eyes. She gave the group a simple nod. But when her gaze met his, it didn't hold mockery or contempt. Just curiosity laced with doubt.

Hart clapped her hands once, snapping the group's attention back to her. "Gear issuance is under twenty minutes. Lets move."

***

Recruits lined up at windows, trading wristband scans for standard-issue kits: respirators, batons, basic med-packs.

Daniel stepped aside, examining the contents of his pack without a word. He quietly set the baton aside and replaced it with a pouch of weighted spheres he'd stashed earlier. A mirror shard, a stick of chalk. Small, unimpressive things, unless you knew what to do with them.

From the next window, a familiar voice cut through the clatter.

"Well, if it isn't Squad Nine's lucky mascot."

Briggs Nolan. The slab-thrower from earlier. His smirk stretched ear to ear, a few recruits snickered behind him.

"Recon's tricky enough without hauling dead weight. Try not to get anyone else killed, Reed."

Daniel didn't answer. He didn't even look at him. He calmly adjusted the strap on his pack and left. The silence seemed to irritate Briggs more than any comeback could have.

Having the tag of the weakest class, he had learned that the best way to handle people like Briggs was to ignore them.

A voice cut in from his other side, this one sharper. "He probably thinks silence makes him mysterious. Let's see if he still looks calm when the first beast that can take his head off shows up"

Daniel glanced at the speaker. It was Kade, a supposed teammate , rifle slung casually across his back, eyes brimming with smug confidence. His fingers drummed against the weapon, restlessly. The rhythm of impatience.

Daniel filed the details away. Impulsive. Predictable. A weakness disguised as arrogance. The kind of teammate who thought he was an asset… but might prove the biggest risk.

Unlike Briggs, Kade wasn't just a heckler, he'd be in the field with him.

Then he looked away again.

The squad gathered in their assigned briefing room before the twenty minutes were up. The room was lit by pale holo-screens. Hart stood at the front, already waiting to address them when the last person arrived.

"Tomorrow," she said, "you'll enter Wild Zone Seven-C. Codename: Red Hollow."

The holo-map unfolded into the air above them, a patchwork of ruined city blocks stretched out in ghostly blue light. Streets ended abruptly where a collapsed overpass cut through the grid like a scar. Pools of darker color marked the flooded underpasses, stagnant water glinting faintly under the projection.

Sections of the map pulsed red — unstable ground where past Aether storms had ripped the landscape apart, leaving cracked asphalt and warped steel twisted into unnatural shapes.

Dots flickered across the edges of the projection. Feral signatures. Dozens of them, drifting near the Zone's borders like hungry wolves waiting for the gates to open.

"Your objective's straightforward enough on paper," Hart said, flicking the holo-map until a blinking marker expanded at the edge of the ruined district. "There's a relay node out there, one of the old-world towers we've rigged with a beacon. It's supposed to keep this sector stable for supply runs."

Her tone darkened. "That beacon went dark last month. Without it, supply convoys can't risk this route. We've already lost two logistic squads sent to reestablish contact."

She let the words sink in before continuing. "Your primary task is to locate that beacon and bring it back online if possible. If not, recover the core and bring it home. Your secondary task will be to survey the area and mark a safe path for logistics along the way.

The Council wants this route open again, and they're willing to spend recruits to make it happen." Her eyes swept the recruits, voice clipped and blunt. "Which means you."

That's the truth of Central Academy," Hart continued. "We don't run these trials for show. Every mission you take is real. Every Zone you step into has already claimed recruits stronger than you.

But someone has to keep the routes open, the convoys moving, and the city alive. And if that means spending your lives like currency… then know this, the Council never hesitates to pay.

Silence. Even the loud ones, like Kade, stayed quiet.

Hart's eyes swept them again. "This isn't training. This isn't a game. Out there, hesitation will get you killed, so make sure to stay sharp. Dismissed."

The squad began to disperse, voices low, some nervous, others forcing bravado.

Daniel left the room with the map still displayed behind him. For a moment, his reflection in the glass overlapped with the glowing terrain of Red Hollow. A mind-user walking into a death zone.

Everyone else saw a weak link. Daniel saw the first chance to prove that the mind could change everything.