Chapter 30: Physical Training Begins

"Five o'clock. Get up. Time for weighted mountain climbing."

Eve went straight to Principal Tyler and arranged Sophie and Mason's holiday schedule.

That same day, she took the two—who had absolutely no idea what level of training awaited them—to a private residence at the foot of a nearby hill.

After giving them brief instructions and notifying them to get up at five sharp the next morning to start training, she left.

The two were so excited about training with Eve that they couldn't sleep at all.

Just as they finally dozed off, Eve woke them up for training. One by one, they kept their eyes closed, going straight into bed-refusing mode.

"You have ten minutes. If I don't see you, the training difficulty doubles."

This place was for training their physical fitness, not for a vacation.

Want to stay in bed? Well, they'd better think about who they're dealing with.

Spoiling kids?

Sorry, that's not her thing.

Hearing "difficulty doubles," their drowsiness vanished instantly. They scrambled up and appeared in the courtyard without even washing their faces.

"Huh, what are you doing here?" Mason looked at the man standing beside Eve and asked in confusion.

He'd thought this training would be Eve personally training them. Never did he expect to wake up and find Marcus—who looked annoying no matter how you looked at him—standing there.

"Wait, didn't I tell you I had some stuff going on recently and you didn't need to follow me? How did you track me down here?"

Ever since losing to Eve in esports, Marcus had treated Eve's words as gospel. Except during class, he'd appear by Mason's side at any other time.

Even though Mason had refused him repeatedly, it was useless. He could only reluctantly accept his presence.

This time, worried that if he didn't make things clear in advance, knowing Marcus's one-track mind, he might even show up at his house.

And what happened?

Turns out he'd still underestimated Marcus's persistence.

He actually tracked him down here?

"Shut up!"

Eve snapped, "Let me formally introduce you. This is Marcus, and he's also your teammate for this training. From now on, the three of you will train together."

"No way, I don't agree." Mason immediately jumped out.

Sophie's presence already made him unhappy enough.

Eve was his real sister. Training him was fine, but why train others too?

But Sophie's presence—she seemed closer to Eve than he, the actual brother, was in many ways. Even if he had objections, he could only keep them to himself.

But now, another Marcus popped up to compete for his sister's attention. No way. Absolutely not.

"This is a notification, not asking for your opinion."

Eve, wearing casual sportswear, looked coldly at Mason. "Looks like you didn't read the code of conduct I gave you last night at all?"

Worried these two would make useless excuses, she'd spent some time copying the code of conduct from her organization training days.

One copy each, making them read it thoroughly overnight. Even if they couldn't memorize it, they at least needed to know what it was about.

The first rule clearly stated: once training begins, trainees cannot have any objections to the instructor's words.

Looking at it now, Mason didn't just fail to remember—he clearly didn't read it at all.

"Everyone prepare for weighted mountain climbing. Mason gets double weight."

Eve's face darkened as she coldly glanced at Mason, who was about to speak again. Mason instantly shut his mouth obediently. "You have one hour. If you're late, no breakfast. Start now."

With Eve's command, whether it was Mason with his unvented complaints, Sophie who'd been silent the whole time, or Marcus who was thrilled to be by Eve's side, they all grabbed their weights as fast as possible.

They began climbing the small mountain ahead.

Soon, they disappeared from Eve's sight.

Eve glanced at the watch she'd prepared, turned around, and went into the kitchen. She skillfully made herself a sandwich and sat in the courtyard, eating leisurely.

As for the portions for the three climbing the mountain?

Eve never planned to make any.

With these three's current physical fitness, coming back in an hour was pure fantasy, a pipe dream.

In fact, Eve was absolutely right.

An hour passed. Forget about running back—there wasn't even a shadow of them in sight.

"I can't... I can't do it!"

Mason, who'd been spoiled by Lynn since childhood, was the first to give up.

Among the three, his physical fitness was already the weakest, not even matching Sophie who'd grown up doing farm work in the countryside.

Now, with double the weight of the others, he collapsed on the ground before even reaching the summit.

"Are you even a man?"

Marcus sneered and kicked Mason's waist with his foot. "A man saying he can't do it—what a weakling."

"Damn it!" Humiliated like this, Mason jumped up, glaring, ready to fight Marcus.

"Dare to say I can't do it? Today I'll show you whether I can or not."

Taking a deep breath and gritting his teeth, Mason started climbing again.

Even though his speed was countless times slower than at the start, he kept climbing.

Marcus smiled and tapped the earpiece on his ear, reporting everything that just happened to Eve word for word.

"Good. Keep up."

All along the way, whenever Mason was about to give up, Marcus would appear beside him with endless sarcastic remarks.

Provoking Mason to get up again and again, breaking through his limits again and again.

As for Sophie, even though her legs had almost lost all feeling, she kept gritting her teeth and persisting.

She paid no attention to what was happening around her, focusing only on the ground beneath her feet.

Two hours later, Eve had not only finished breakfast but also cleaned the kitchen when the first figure finally appeared in her sight.

None other than Sophie, gritting her teeth.

Though her hair was soaked with sweat, though her delicate face was covered in perspiration.

Though every step required tremendous courage, Sophie kept gritting her teeth and persisting.

Eve nodded with satisfaction.

With Sophie's persevering tenacity, her future achievements would definitely be significant.

Looking at Sophie now, she seemed to see her younger self, gritting her teeth and persisting through the organization's high-intensity training.

"Reporting, instructor. Sophie has returned!"

Seeing Eve, Sophie grinned and said with difficulty. Her body went limp and she collapsed on the ground.

"Stand up!"

Eve smiled coldly. "Walk slowly around the courtyard five times. Then you can rest."

Though Sophie had no strength left in her body, she struggled to get up and started circling the courtyard.

Just as Sophie finished her last lap and got permission to rest, Eve's sight finally caught Marcus and Mason's figures.