The exercise was announced as routine.
That alone made it suspicious.
No buildup.
No warning.
Just a line item added to the schedule:
FIELD INTEGRATION DRILL — VOLUNTARY
Grant read it twice.
"Voluntary," he muttered. "For who?"
Li Chen understood immediately.
This wasn't training.
It was calibration.
They moved before dawn.
Three vehicles.
Unmarked.
No unit patches.
No radio chatter beyond bare essentials.
Six candidates total.
Li Chen.
Harris.
Four others whose records were solid—but unremarkable.
That mattered too.
The site was inland.
Abandoned industrial sprawl reclaimed by scrub and silence.
Concrete skeletons.
Collapsed roofs.
Perfect for controlled chaos.
Grant briefed them quickly.
"Objective is simple," he said. "Secure the package. No simulated rounds. This is live-fire."
That earned looks.
"Questions?"
Harris glanced at Li Chen.
None were asked.
The moment they crossed the perimeter, things went wrong.
Too clean.
Too quiet.
Li Chen slowed.
"Spacing," he said calmly. "You're clustering."
One candidate scoffed.
Then the first shot rang out.
Li Chen moved.
Not fast.
Efficient.
He disarmed the shooter before the echo faded.
Live ammo.
Real blood.
Not fatal.
But close.
The others froze.
"Contact left!" Harris shouted.
Wrong.
Li Chen corrected him mid-motion.
"Roofline. East."
Another shot cracked.
Li Chen caught Harris by the vest and yanked him back.
The bullet tore through air where his head had been.
Grant watched from overwatch.
Heart rate spiked.
Telemetry scrolling faster than human reaction.
"That's not instinct," a voice beside him said. "That's prediction."
Li Chen advanced alone.
Because no one else could keep up.
He neutralized threats with minimal force.
Never wasted motion.
Never missed.
The firefight ended in under ninety seconds.
Silence followed.
Broken only by breathing.
"Exercise complete," a calm voice said over comms.
Li Chen didn't relax.
He turned slowly.
"This wasn't an exercise," he said.
Grant didn't answer.
Back at base, no debrief occurred.
No praise.
No reprimand.
Just medical checks and sealed reports.
Harris wouldn't meet Li Chen's eyes.
That night, the System spoke.
Not as support.
As warning.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
[User exposure exceeded acceptable thresholds]
[Conclusion: User designated CONTROLLED VARIABLE]
Li Chen sat on his bunk.
They weren't testing his limits anymore.
They were testing what happened around him.
And for the first time since he joined—
Li Chen felt something new.
Not fear.
Anticipation