Chapter 27: Golden Eyes

Summer watched their interaction in awe. Back in her old life, her instructors had made every training session feel like hell.

They did not care if she was tired, injured, or already at her limit. If anything, they would only push harder, forcing her to keep going until her body simply could not take it anymore.

So seeing an instructor who could scream at his trainees one moment, then immediately check on them and praise their progress the next... it was strangely refreshing.

At least this man actually seemed to care about the people he trained.

When the trainees who had finished their training finally left the training ground, the man checked his terminal for a moment before turning his attention toward Summer.

"Summer Beaumont?" he asked in such a gentle voice that it was almost hard to believe he was the same person who had been shouting just a few minutes ago.

"Yes," Summer replied quickly.

She was in a daze for several seconds because this man looked like he could rival the sun itself.

His golden hair seemed to shine every time the light above them touched the strands, making him stand out even more inside the cold training ground.

When Summer looked directly into his eyes and noticed something familiar: Golden eyes.

The same color as Archer’s. But somehow, they felt completely different.

Archer had black hair, which made his golden eyes look sharper, almost dangerous.

Whenever he stared at someone, especially when he was annoyed, those eyes could make people feel like they had already done something wrong even before he said anything.

This man, however... with his golden hair and bright expression, his eyes looked warmer, almost like sunlight.

The man finally walked closer while Summer was still in a daze.

"Ilya Noctis," he introduced himself. "I’ll be handling your physical evaluation today."

Summer cleared her throat, trying her best not to look like a creep. "Oh, yeah. Nice to meet you."

Ilya glanced at her profile again before raising one brow. "It says that... your rank is unknown?"

"For now, yeah." Summer added, "Maybe the machine is malfunctioning. That’s why Dr. Rinko asked me to undergo the physical and mental evaluations first."

Ilya scrolled through his terminal, and then he suddenly frowned a little. "But it seems like we can’t do your physical evaluation here."

Summer raised one of her eyebrows, but before she could ask anything, Ilya had already shown her the information on his terminal. "It says that for a more accurate result, you need to enter several polluted zones."

Summer stared at the screen. "What?!"

Ilya continued scrolling as if what he had just said was completely normal. "You’ll start from a D-Rank polluted zone. After that, depending on your result, you’ll move to C-Rank, B-Rank, and possibly A-Rank."

Summer’s expression slowly changed. "You’re serious?"

"Very."

Apparently, they were not only going to measure how much weight she could lift or how fast she could run.

Her strength, stamina, reaction speed, survival instinct, combat ability, decision-making, and even how well her body reacted to polluted environments would all be recorded.

And for some reason, the system wanted all of those things tested inside actual polluted zones.

"Why is the physical evaluation so long?!" she blurted out.

Ilya chuckled. "It’s not that long."

Summer immediately looked at him in disbelief. "You just said I might have to enter four different polluted zones."

"Yes."

"That is long."

Ilya thought about it for a moment before casually saying, "Well, technically, if you fail in the D-Rank zone, then it’ll be pretty short."

He wasn’t wrong, but somehow, that only made Summer more annoyed.

"But isn’t this actually a good thing?" Ilya asked. "Not everyone gets the chance to enter so many polluted zones. All the accommodations will be covered by the government, and you’ll still get the basic fee if you perform well in each evaluation."

Summer shifted her weight onto one leg and thought about it for a moment. Then she asked, "Does that mean... I can stream it too?"

"Sure. I don’t see why not, but..." Ilya’s tone became a little more serious. "Most people probably wouldn’t dare to stream during their training period."

Summer looked at him curiously. "Why?"

Ilya hesitated for a second before answering. "Because... sometimes it can be pretty humiliating."

"I’m not saying you’re going to embarrass yourself," Ilya quickly added, "but right now, you don’t even have a fixed rank yet."

And from the information on his terminal, he could also see that Summer used to be an F-Rank Guide.

"Between surviving in the polluted zones and guiding Archer Reed, which one has a higher chance of getting me killed?" Summer suddenly asked.

The moment she brought Archer’s name into their conversation, Ilya suddenly laughed.

"Ohhh." Ilya looked at her with clear amusement now. "I see."

He grinned. "You’re the interesting Guide Archie told me about."

Archie? What kind of childish nickname was that?

Summer honestly couldn’t imagine anyone calling Archer that to his face and somehow walking away without getting glared at.

Then again, Ilya was also one of the elite Sentinels. Maybe they really did know each other well.

Still, it felt a little strange to think that Archer actually had someone close enough to call him Archie.

Summer hesitated for a moment before asking, "Are... you two close friends?"

Ilya looked at her, then smiled. "Oh, we’re more than friends."

Summer blinked several times. What the hell was that mean?

For some reason, the way he said it made her imagination immediately go somewhere it probably shouldn’t.

Before Summer could misunderstand any further, Ilya continued casually, "We’re brothers."

Summer almost choked on her own saliva. Her eyes immediately moved from Ilya’s golden hair to his golden eyes, then back to his face again.

Besides their eyes, there was almost nothing about them that looked alike!

Summer wanted to ask more about that, but then both of their terminals suddenly beeped at the same time.

[A New Mission Alert!]

[Location: Zone 41]

[Target: D-Rank Polluted Zone]

[Mission: A sudden increase in polluted creatures has been detected. Sentinels and Guides are required to reduce the population of polluted creatures.]