Chapter 534 I Won't Take Your Favourite
So, it turned out that even though Benjamin could be a bit of a hard-ass sometimes, he was super dependable when it came to the important stuff.
He made Daphne train an extra hour just to make sure she got the most out of it.
As for lunch, he took care of her too.
With about twenty minutes left in her training, he had already set things up with the staff. As the team leader, he made sure that if training or other stuff delayed their meals, they could still eat there.
Nobody else knew about this little arrangement.
Daphne looked at the food in front of her, totally surprised.
"Eat up," Benjamin, impressed by Daphne's killer performance in her first training and her hacking skills, said to her, "You’ve got more training this afternoon."
Daphne nodded and started eating. They didn’t say another word.
After they finished eating, Daphne had a question. "Benjamin."
"Yeah?" Benjamin replied.
"The competition you mentioned earlier, it's on a rest day, right?" Daphne asked, a bit nervous.
Benjamin kept walking with her and casually said, "Worried I'll make you catch up on training afterward?"
Daphne nodded. "Yeah."
Benjamin chuckled softly.
Daphne glanced at him instinctively. For a moment, she caught his faint smile, but it was gone in a flash.
"Don't worry," Benjamin said nonchalantly as they walked, "I'll schedule it in advance."
Soon enough, Benjamin's gentle training methods were history, and Daphne and the others were thrown into some hardcore training.
Three days of brutal training left them sprawled on the ground, not wanting to move a muscle.
They used to chat a bit, but now even breathing felt like a chore.
"Three more laps," Benjamin said, standing in front of them in his training gear with a cold, indifferent look, "Finish them and then have lunch."
The group exchanged glances.
Could they say they were too tired to even think about lunch?
"Benjamin," Dominic used all his strength to sit up, totally wiped out. "We really can't run anymore. We just finished a 24-mile weighted cross-country run this morning. We just want to lie down."
This time, the weight was way heavier than before.
They had only managed to push through by constantly breaking their own limits.
"This is your lunch menu," Benjamin handed them a list, speaking slowly, "Finish the laps and you get Meal One. If you don't finish or come in last, you get Meal Two."
They slowly sat up and looked at the menu.
They were all wondering what was so great about Meal One that it was being used to motivate them to run.
The result? They got super excited when they saw the menu.
Ignoring their exhaustion, they quickly stood up, strapped on their weighted packs, and started running around the training field.
It wasn't that Meal One was particularly delicious; it was that they really didn’t want to eat Meal Two!
"They're still so naive," Efren remarked as he walked over and saw them running. He shook his head. "They'll have to eat that stuff eventually, whether they want to or not. Why bother?"
"Do you want to eat it?" Benjamin asked, glancing over with his hands behind his back.
Efren refused without a second thought.
He wouldn't touch those unless he absolutely had to.
Kevin, who'd been taking it easy with light training lately, got curious when he saw what was going on. "Benjamin, can I see what Meal Two is?"
Benjamin handed it over without a second thought.
When Kevin saw the list, his face changed. It was all kinds of bugs.
"Can we really eat this?" Kevin asked, pursing his lips in doubt.
"Of course you can," Efren replied, "In field missions or survival situations, you'll eat worse than this. At least these are fried and have some flavor."
Kevin tried to picture himself eating those bugs but just couldn't.
Meanwhile, Daphne and the others were still running like their lives depended on it.
As Efren had mentioned earlier, they all came from wealthy families and had lived pretty cushy lives.
They'd never even seen bugs on their dining tables, let alone eaten them.
Even Daphne, who wasn't usually picky about food, found it hard to stomach the idea.
"Run slower," Sam, exhausted, suggested to Dominic, who was second to last. "I'm allergic to protein, so I can't eat Meal Two. Can we switch places?"
Dominic didn't even consider it. "I'm allergic to the sight of bugs."
"Zoey, wait for me," Sam changed his target.
Zoey immediately picked up her pace, answering his plea with her actions.
Sam was really at his limit. "Aren't you guys my friends?"
"No!" they all answered in unison.
Sam was desperate and followed them with tears in his eyes.
With one lap left, everyone's pace slowed down. They were all close to each other, but no one had the energy to overtake anyone else.
Dominic thought about overtaking Zoey to secure his position, but his legs felt like they weighed a ton, and he couldn't run any faster.
In the last half lap, Sam gritted his teeth and gradually sped up.
When he reached Dominic, he panted, "I'll leave those bugs for you. See you!"
With that, he slowly overtook Dominic.
Dominic's eyes widened. He hadn't expected Sam to speed up!
In the end, Daphne came in first, and Dominic came in last.
Half an hour later, at the dining table, Dominic looked at the various fried bugs on his plate and spoke to Sam, "I don't get it. You told me you were too tired to run the last lap. How did you manage to speed up?"
"I had to use some strategy to make sure you came in last," Sam grinned.
Dominic glared at him.
Sam pretended not to notice his anger. "Eat up. They look pretty tasty."
Dominic snorted, "You should eat them."
"No need," Sam replied deliberately, "I won't take your favorite."
"What's going on? Is there some story behind coming in last?" Emma asked curiously.
"He told me he couldn't run anymore but wanted to finish," Dominic ground his teeth, feeling murderous. "So I let him lean on me, and I helped him run. But then he sped up in the end."
At this point, Dominic's gaze was like daggers.
Sam grinned, "I really couldn't run anymore. If you hadn't helped me, I wouldn't have come in second to last."
"I'll thank you for your help with this bowl of soup," Sam continued, lifting the bowl next to him.
Dominic didn't hesitate to throw two words at him, "Get lost!"
"Let's share some of our food with him," Sam finally felt a pang of conscience. "If we each give a bit, it should be enough."
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