Chapter 31: Not Knowing Who the Opponent Is

Chapter 31: Chapter 31: Not Knowing Who the Opponent Is

Compared to the chaos of the other team members, Renee Morgan looked calm and composed. Practicing with live ammunition isn’t something you get to do every day, so she was definitely focused on learning. Who knows, maybe she’ll get a chance to shoot a spy film one day and have some real experience to fall back on.

In the half-hour practice, Renee didn’t take a single break. When the whistle finally blew, she stretched her arms and stood up, looking refreshed and radiant.

Lynn Miller ran over with excitement on her face: "Morgan, this is awesome. Worth it for a lifetime!"

Renee nodded with a smile, her gaze shifting to Miles Yates who was coming up behind Lynn.

Miles met Renee’s eyes, feeling a little embarrassed. She was younger than him, and he’d been in the business for years before she started, yet somehow he always ended up being the one she guided and took care of.

The six members of Team Two left the range to run another kilometer, and after finishing that, they’d still have to hold their breath in a water barrel for at least thirty seconds.

The kilometer run was tough but manageable for everyone; the breath-holding challenge brought grimaces to many faces. Their bodies were already near the limit after training since morning—holding their breath for thirty seconds felt almost impossible.

Lynn wasn’t great in the water, but she didn’t hesitate to push herself. After a few tries, she clung to the water barrel, her whole face dripping, gulping for air.

Miles stood by her side, coaching her and cheering her on, before heading back to his own spot.

Gael Prescott wasn’t doing much better. Usually, he trained indoors, almost never outside under the blazing sun, so this level of intensity, plus the heat, really stretched his endurance. Now, with the breath-holding, he was hitting his absolute limit.

Renee didn’t jump right in like the others, dunking her head and struggling to hold her breath. That kind of approach wears you out and risks injury; it takes too much effort just to hit the thirty-second mark.

She’d just finished running, her body not yet settled. She took a few minutes to rest and wasn’t fussed about Miles finishing his thirty seconds so quickly.

To others, her behavior looked like she was hesitating, maybe even afraid to try.

Wendy Aldridge could swim and felt confident about holding her breath for thirty seconds in water.

Seeing Renee stand motionless, Wendy blurted out, "Renee, how come you’re just standing there? There’s not much time left!"

Renee really didn’t want to bother with Wendy, but considering the cameras, figured she’d better keep up appearances and replied coolly, "I’m taking a break."

Wendy laughed, "Is it that you don’t know how? I can teach you if you want."

Renee shot her a look, crossed her arms, and answered coldly, "I don’t know."

"Oh, I see..." Wendy couldn’t hide her smug smile, pressed her lips together trying to rein it in, and said, "I’ll finish my breath-holding first, then teach you."

Renee didn’t respond further.

Wendy scoffed inwardly, thinking, Just wait till I show you—I’ll make sure you pay back for how tough these past few days have been on me, interest included.

She strode back, full of confidence, and dunked herself in the barrel—only to choke and pop back up within seconds.

Not one to give up, she tried again, but only lasted a few seconds.

After several rounds of this, viewers in the livestream couldn’t help themselves:

[Wendy Aldridge really seems to have overestimated herself....]

[?? Has she never realized there’s a four-word gap between her and Renee Morgan? Self-awareness!! At least Renee has some.]

[Damn, I can’t even type now, gotta roast—earlier, watching Wendy act so confident, I almost thought she’d turn out the underdog champion of the show. And this? THIS? Now I’ve lost a pack of spicy chips to my coworker...]

[Upstairs, one pack of chips isn’t much. My brother was laughing so hard, his phone fell into his water cup just now.]

[...]

Surprisingly, this time it was Miles who finished the task first—crushed thirty seconds underwater in one go.

The livestream chat exploded like they’d witnessed a miracle, everyone spamming flower emojis in celebration:

[Bro won! I knew you’d pull it off!]

[Bro’s amazing—even after all that intense exercise, still fastest at thirty seconds underwater. Shows how solid his stamina is—yesterday was just a one-off, not actually weak.]

[Can certain trolls stop calling him Emperor of Lies, or Kidney-Weak Brother—have some class, seriously.]

[...]

Renee waited until she’d fully recovered, then calmly took her spot, held her breath, sank into the water, and powered through over thirty seconds without pause.

The instructor pressed the timer and nodded at Renee, clearly impressed. If he didn’t know who these people were, he’d suspect Renee was military elite with all those seasoned training habits.

The viewers, though, reacted weirdly, spamming question marks across the screen.

Many doubted their stream had glitched, and in a split second the comments blew up:

["Doesn’t know how"? THIS is "doesn’t know how"??]

[Doesn’t know? Doesn’t know? I remember standing with my arms crossed, not knowing who my rival was.]

[I know it’s not nice, but I feel so bad for Wendy Aldridge. Wonder if her face right now is swollen or just hurting...]

[...]

After choking on water a few times, Wendy regretted her earlier words. Seeing Renee pull off the task in one go, she held back her anger, only showing her frustration once she got in the water herself.

Damn Renee Morgan—she must’ve done this on purpose, she had to have...

After who knows how many tries underwater, eventually Wendy and Lynn seemed to figure it out and completed the task.

The group finished up with another half-hour of live ammo target practice, rushing through to complete all tasks in nearly three hours.

Zara Chapman and Lionel Lincoln timed out on the breath-holding challenge. Neither wanted to waste more energy, so they bowed out.

The group walked back to the assembly point from the shooting range.

Wendy knew Zara was still stewing, probably furious at Renee Morgan, so she deliberately started chatting and comforting Zara, making a show of loyalty: Tomorrow for the wilderness challenge, since she and Lionel don’t have a toolkit, everyone’s sure to help them out.

Zara’s mood lightened a bit, and on camera she explained, "You guys are impressive, got your toolkits. I was worried we’d struggle to finish this morning, so I had to resort to that trick..."

"We know, Ms. Chapman, you did it for everyone," Wendy nodded earnestly, glancing at Lionel, "Right, Lionel?"

Lionel, feeling a bit down, froze for a second before nodding in agreement.

Wendy then deliberately looked at Renee: "Renee, you agree too, right?"

Renee hadn’t really caught what they were saying. She glanced up at Zara, but didn’t nod or reply.

"Tsk, Renee, you...do you have some problem with Ms. Chapman? You act like you’re all tough thanks to your military training—but Ms. Chapman is our senior in this industry, you could show a bit of respect." Wendy shot Renee a sarcastic look, making it clear she was reminding Renee not to get too cocky.