Five minutes later.

Roughly forty or so people stood in front of the officer and his soldiers, mostly still dripping wet from the ordeal they’d just endured. The survivors ranged in shapes and sizes, but for the most part seemed pretty fit - definitely more fit than I. Furthermore, they all looked to be about my age. Some older, some younger, but all seemed to be in their lower twenties.

But that was fairly normal. After all, I didn’t exactly ever exercise. Alas, somehow I’d been the first one to pass the mission and had been singled out.

“Alright, maggots. Here’s the deal. You’ve all been selected by C Systems to be trained into our operatives. You can either accept your situation, or be killed. However, being a C Systems secret agent will come with its benefits. Your Life: Life profile will be given VIP status as long as your mission allows for it, and you will be given an annual salary of five hundred thousand dollars.

“However, if you attempt to betray us, leave the program, or in any other way harm C Systems, you will be immediately put down. Remember, our chips allow us to keep track of you at all times.

“Understood?”

“...Yes, sir.”

“UNDERSTOOD???”

“YES, SIR!”

“Alright. You, kid. What’s your name?” He turned to me and spat his words into my face.

“Jim, sir.”

He turned back to the others. “James here is your stand-in leader. At the end of your training, those of you remaining will be allowed to challenge him for leadership. As your leader, he will be given VVIP status, and an annual salary of a million dollars.

“That is… if he is still the leader upon leaving this training facility.”

He turned back to me. “You, lead them to the new facilities.”

Immediately, S spoke up. 

You’ve been updated with the most efficient path to the barracks.

“Holy crap!”

Those following me stared at me like I was crazy, but I didn’t even care. In my vision, a translucent blue line had just appeared on the ground, directing me out of the room, presumably to our barracks.

The officer chuckled. “Surprised, maggot?”

“Yes...sir.”

“Scram. You and your men will have thirty minutes to prepare, then you’re due back here for the start of your training.”

“Yes, sir.”

I led my new team into a corridor, following the blue line.

After a while, we arrived at our new living quarters. Unfortunately, all the beds were bunk beds, but at least we now had a bathroom, and closets between each bunk bed for us to store our clothes. We even had a connected laundry room.

The more I thought about my new annual million-dollar salary and VVIP Life: Life status, the more I thought that perhaps this situation wasn’t all that bad — as long as this was actually C Systems, and not some criminal outfit pretending to be C Systems. At the very least, it seemed that I was employed now. With the job market how it was, that in itself was a big plus.

“Hey, over here.” One of the people in the room started waving everyone over, and soon enough, we forty-some-odd had formed a circle around them.

“This is some bullshit, right? I don’t want to be some kind of soldier. I was going to law school, for crying out loud.”

“Yeah, I wanted to be a game dev.”

“Oh shit, me too! Who’s your favorite developer?”

“...I was going to start my own crocheting business.” A shy-looking girl in the back spoke up.

“Guys, guys. Stop. We’re getting off topic.” The person who’d called everyone into the circle waved his hands. “The point is that none of us really want to be here, right? What are they going to do if we refuse to cooperate? Kill us all? Even C Systems wouldn’t be able to deal with the fallout. I say we —“

*Boom*

The person’s head exploded and their body crumpled to the floor as pieces of their head splattered onto the clothes of those immediately surrounding them. A few pieces even stuck to the ceiling. 

What. The. Fuck.

My mind raced, yet I seemed to calm down despite what’d happened. It was as if I’d somehow experienced enlightenment.

“Everyone.” My voice squeaked a bit as I drew everyone’s attention to myself, but nobody commented on it. “C Systems has shown that they’re willing to deal with body bags. Remember, there were several hundred of us in that room where they forced us to kill each other, and a hundred of us should have faced the flooding room challenge earlier today. There are only forty of us left.

“To them, we’re as expendable as it gets, so we might as well make the best out of this. This is my advice to you - fuck what you wanted to do, what you think we should be doing. Concentrate on surviving this training camp, and if we’re all still alive at the end, then we can think about what we want to do, then.

“For now, wash up and prepare for training. And if you lose hope, just remember. VIP status, half a million bucks a year. It might not be a dream job, but it will sure as hell pay well. Do you think your crocheting business, or working as a game dev would pay that much?

“Regardless of your answer to that question, we don’t have much time right now. Wash up, and we’ll head to the training center. I have a feeling we’ll have plenty of time to talk to each other about this while we’re here.”

“I guess.”

“Yeah.”

“Might as well.”

Most of those in the group nodded, and the rest didn’t really have any choice but to follow along. 

Crisis averted. For now.

I made my way to my bed and collapsed in it. Luckily, as the “commander”, or “leader”, whatever you want to call it, I had the privilege of having the only non-bunk bed in the entire place. 

I stared at the gray ceiling, frustrated. Sure, I’d placated everyone for now, but it would be a long road of hell before us, and even more so for me.

The officer hadn’t singled me out for no reason — it was so that the rest of the team would have a target to strive for, and potentially, depending on how training went, hate.

Especially if I continued to receive little bonuses like being paid double their salary, having VVIP status, a non-bunk bed…

Things like that weren’t huge, but resentment could stack up over time, especially with how hard our lives would likely be for the foreseeable future.

I sighed.

Turns out finding employment was a bit easier than I’d thought. Getting out with my skin intact would turn out to be the bigger issue.