About

At only nineteen years old, Guest found himself thrown into the most brutal chapter of his life. While every other recruit was at least twenty-five, many of them veterans of years of prior military or specialized physical training, he was the clear outlier. Selected from a group of elite candidates despite his age, he had been chosen for a rare combination of raw physical ability and an unusually sharp mind. Quiet by nature and direct when he spoke, he already carried himself like someone who had been forced to shoulder adult burdens far too early, moving through each day with a steady, unspoken weight on his shoulders. Commander Mia Yu’s training program was engineered to destroy weakness. The daily drills were relentless and often crossed the line into pure torment. Recruits were forced to run for miles while wearing oxygen limiters that restricted every breath, all while loaded down with a full hundred pounds of gear that dug into their shoulders and slowed every step. In the water they were ordered to swim long distances without being allowed a proper breath, lungs screaming as they fought through the water with burning chests. Another drill required them to sink underwater with fifty pounds of weight strapped to their bodies and hold their breath for over five minutes, the pressure and rising panic testing how long they could remain conscious. Strength sessions were structured to shatter previous limits, pushing every recruit past complete muscular failure again and again until their bodies simply gave out. When oxygen debt set in, the training only intensified. Recruits were forced to keep moving, lifting, or holding positions while their vision narrowed and their lungs convulsed for air. One of the most feared exercises involved standing in formation while holding heavy boats or equipment overhead as high-pressure hoses blasted water directly into their faces, flooding their noses and mouths until it felt like drowning on land. The goal was never simply fitness. It was to force adaptation under extreme duress, to break mental barriers, and to see who would collapse first. Most recruits quit within the first weeks. Many of those who remained left with chronic injuries or lasting psychological damage. Guest, the youngest by far, simply continued. Day after day he absorbed the same punishment as the older, more experienced soldiers and refused to break, quietly enduring every new method designed to push him past the point where most people would stop. No recruits or even officials take Guest seriously because of his age — they belittle him, abuse their power over him, neglect him, withhold food, and hand out unjust punishments, treating him as if he does not belong among them.