Chapter 422 - Test Beneath was the small five thousand feet wide river. Gustav jumped in instantly and started swimming forward. At this point, Elevora had also arrived at the top of the mountain. She noticed earlier on that the rope Gustav was walking on suddenly disappeared. She moved over to the connecting points and squatted. "The rope cut?" She mumbled with a surprised expression while pulling it up a little. She looked down and could see the rope dangling in the distance. "So much for getting my hopes up... He probably fell already," She sighed while standing to her feet. ’No one’s ever gonna be on my level of strength,’ She said Internally with a look of disappointment before running forward. ----- After another twenty minutes, Gustav had gone past the middle of the river. He couldn’t swim too fast due to the current of the river shifting towards the side. Twice, the usual energy was being expended due to this. Gustav felt his arms being sore at the moment due to repeatedly swinging. Other special class cadets were thousands of feet behind at this point, with Elevora being an exception. Although she was still feeling disappointed, Elevora swam forward at full speed, not minding her surroundings. Other normal cadets were just arriving at the mountain top behind them. At this moment, half of the cadets had dropped out of the morning routine since they couldn’t make it this far. In another fifteen minutes, Gustav finally arrived at the shore of the river. He was shivering intensely at this point. His knees vibrated, and he repeatedly sneezed as water dribbled down his clothes. Gustav breathed in and out as he started moving forward again. His speed at this point had reduced drastically as he jogged down the path that led to the starting point of the morning routine. In a few more minutes, Elevora also arrived and started running down the same path without stopping for a single second to rest. She noticed the outline of footsteps on the muddy path. "Did someone get here before I did?" She wondered out loud. "Impossible," She said before running forward at full speed. Elevora was like a beast. Even with the harsh conditions of the weather and the fact that she had just come out of the river that was also freezing cold, her body was hardly affected as she ran forward. In a few minutes, she could see the outline of a familiar figure in the distance. However, it was too far, so she had no idea who the person was "So someone was ahead of me," Elevora had a surprised expression on her face as she voiced out. She kept running forward at full speed, and she knew that from the looks of things, she would eventually catch up to the person up ahead since they were slower than she was. The only problem was they were now close to the starting point. Gustav, who was up ahead, could already hear the sound of footsteps behind him slapping onto the muddy ground. Since he was no longer in the water, he was starting to warm up a bit, so his speed increased as he ran more. He could already see the starting point in the distance, which was the plain field where Officer Briant and his assistants were seated waiting. In the next one minute, he would arrive underneath the massive circular platform covering the entire place from above. Elevora increased her pace again and began to catch up. In the next thirty seconds, she was only a few ten feet behind. "That’s... Gustav?" She was finally able to see his figure properly. Gustav turned his head slightly to the side and stared at her figure. "You’ve lost this one," He said with a smile before increasing his speed. ------ A few minutes later, Gustav laid on the ground underneath the massive platform breathing in and out. His body was being dried by a weird machine floating above him. Elevora sat few feet away with a fatigued expression on her face, "You still didn’t win," She said. "No need to remind me... I was there you know," Gustav responded even though he was still out of breath. It turned out that he and Elevora tied. After his provocation, she accelerated and still managed to get underneath the platform at the same time as he did. There were many cadets underneath this place at the moment. These were injured cadets that were unable to continue after one incident or the other. There were more than two hundred of them here at the moment. "How did you even manage to get ahead of me?" Elevora asked with a confused expression. "How did you manage to tie with me?" Gustav threw a question back at her. Both of them stared at each other for a few seconds. ’She’s a monster alright...’ Gustav said Internally. ’What is he hiding?’ Elevora wondered. "Yes, you two managed to get here after three hours and thirty minutes..." Officer Briant voiced out as he approached them. "Honestly, I expected everyone to spend at least four or five hours out there," Officer Briant nodded in satisfaction as he spoke. "Oh and this is an orchestrated test session with a technological induced weather," Officer Briant revealed. "What?" Gustav and Elevora voiced out at the same time. "So this was planned?" Gustav asked. "Yes," Officer Briant replied while laughing lightly. "The weather within the MBO camp is different from the outside world... It can be manipulated as the Commander deems fit," He added. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶 Minutes later, more cadets began to arrive. Aildris, E.E and Endric had arrived before everyone else. Endric gave Gustav a weird glare before finding somewhere to settle down. After an hour had gone by, those who had managed to make it to the top of the mountain arrived. Less than half of the total number of cadets that embarked on the challenge made it to the end. Officer Briant came forward again and started addressing the cadets. He explained to them that this was actually a test and technology-induced, just like he told Elevora and Gustav earlier.