Chapter 24

"Alright, ready? One, two."

Wilkins checked before giving the signal. Colleagues lined up on both sides sent passionate cheers, shouting the names of Dane and Greyson. Dane leaned his upper body forward, ready to dash out immediately. Wilkins looked at both of them in turn and shouted with a tense face.

"Three!"

"Woooah!"

"Dane, Dane! Our hope! Our hero!"

"Greyson, my love!"

"Run, run! Greyson, you have to win!"

"Dane, you're our pride!"

Intense cheers poured out with the starting signal, and the two quickly pushed off the ground and ran. Colleagues cheering at the bottom of the mountain were watching them. They could see the two, even if just barely. Except when they went around the newly added course.

Because that area dipped into a deep slope around the mountain, the colleagues watching from below wouldn't see Dane and Greyson until they appeared again on the opposite side of the mountain. That spot was where Dane would earn his money.

The flat ground ended quickly and soon an uphill path appeared. As a substitute for the first stage of the test, stair climbing, they had to pull a fire hose up to the middle of the mountain. Though it was a low mountain, the slope was quite steep, and having to transport the heavy fire hose meant tremendous energy consumption from the start. The only advantage was that when using the terrain, the hose was empty, unlike when training on flat ground where they filled it with water.

If you skillfully pulled the fire hose up, you would reach a point where equipment was placed. Then you had to put down the hose and carry firefighting equipment. As soon as the target was in sight, he practically threw down the hose and picked up the prepared equipment. Carrying two chainsaws, one in each hand, he had to go around a tree about 100 meters away and return to the starting point. After repeating this twice, he could move on to the next course. Of course, if he dropped a saw during the process, he would be disqualified. Since they could be seen from below, not even the slightest mistake was allowed.

Damn it, why am I going through this trouble...

Feeling sweat already soaking his back, Dane cursed. While coming back around the tree, he inevitably encountered Greyson. Though he instinctively became wary, surprisingly, Greyson passed by him without any expression and went around the tree. He almost lost the lead while momentarily distracted, but Dane immediately increased his speed and left him behind.

Next, Dane climbed up a rock wall holding onto a hanging rope, substituting for ladder climbing. He thought he could faintly hear the shouts of his colleagues from below, but they were as distant as insect sounds. As soon as he finished rope climbing, he crossed a small stream by grabbing tree trunks.

The uphill path continued. Dane moved his body mechanically and ran without resting for a moment until he reached the place he had thought of in advance. After finishing a couple of courses, when he entered the slope around the mountain, Dane realized that this was exactly the place he had been waiting for.

The faint sounds of cheering completely disappeared. In the silence, he quickly looked back. There was no sign of Greyson yet. Dane looked around hastily while catching his breath. This place, clearly inserted as a substitute for the search process during the test, had no proper path to step on. He found a fairly flat spot to place his feet and adjusted his posture. Two and a half hits should be worth 38 dollars and 25 cents.

Come on.

As he stood silently with his ears perked up, he heard a faint rustling sound. It was Greyson's footsteps. Approaching at a tremendous speed, it seemed like he would soon appear before his eyes. Dane held his breath and waited for the timing. One, two. And finally.

Greyson, who came around the low slope, hesitated. At the end of his gaze stood Dane. Seeing his long eyes narrow, Dane nodded slightly.

"Hello, pretty boy."

His loose tone was full of sarcasm. Greyson stared at Dane without saying anything.

4

For a while, the two just stared at each other in silence. To be precise, Greyson was glaring while Dane was looking back at him with an indifferent gaze. Greyson was the first to speak.

"Waiting for me like this! Are you perhaps worried about me? As expected of a firefighter, our hero! How can this be so touching..."

"Let's get you hit."

Since listening to nonsense wasn't part of the contract terms, Dane mercilessly cut off his words. As Dane grabbed one trapezius muscle and rotated his arm as a warm-up while nodding his head to each side once, Greyson opened his eyes wide and asked.

"Get hit? Me? You're saying you'll hit me? Suddenly? Why?"

The man was excessively talkative. For Dane, who wasn't usually very talkative, it was enough to make his ears hurt.

"Because I got a request."

"A request?"

"Yeah."

He removed his hand from rubbing his trapezius and said.

"Let's just get hit for 38 dollars and 25 cents and be done with it."

Greyson twisted his face. One might think the current situation was confusing, but that would be for an ordinary person.

"38 dollars? Is that all the amount for hitting me?"

He asked as if dumbfounded while grabbing his forehead. His reaction seemed more shocked by that than the fact that he was about to be hit.

As the great Miller family's playboy, countless people had tried to do something with him for money. That "something" had sometimes been love or seduction, but it had also often been requests for injury or murder. Of course, it was the karma of the life he had lived. The numerous "momentary entertainments" who had been abandoned by him were always sharpening their knives of revenge.

But that was Greyson's situation, and Dane had no interest in such matters. He just thought that since he was filthy rich, he must be shocked by the amount of 38 dollars. Understandable. Dane easily accepted this and agreed with that statement, still with an indifferent expression.

"Yeah, I don't accept counter-requests. It lowers trust."

"Ah, that's troublesome. Trust is very important. It's just..."

Greyson, who had waved his hand exaggeratedly as if it were absurd, sighed as if disappointed.

"It's too cheap. Among the guys who came to hit me for money, you're the cheapest. Everyone else wouldn't even dare for anything less than a substantial amount, if only out of fear of the Miller Law Firm. Couldn't you have asked for more? Or is that your fee? You're selling yourself quite cheaply."

Though he was going on at length essentially saying "you're such a cheap bastard," Dane didn't fall for the provocation. He indifferently ran his fingers through his hair and said.

"No surprise there, it just means that's what you're worth. If you want me to get paid more, try raising your own value."

And after looking Greyson up and down once, Dane added.

"With effort, you might be worth up to 40 dollars."

"Hmm."

Greyson, who had blinked his eyes, soon smiled strangely.

"Not bad."

Though it wasn't particularly welcome, this man had an excellent talent for getting on others' nerves. If Dane had as much interest in others as most people, he would have been offended by Greyson's words just now. But Dane had an innate talent for not even listening with the back of his ears to the words of people who had nothing to do with him. Let alone the idea that words from someone like Greyson Miller could dare to offend him was preposterous.

When Dane didn't show the expected reaction, Greyson soon turned the topic elsewhere. Moving his gaze to Dane's hand, he asked.

"Is that it? The tool to kiss me with?"

He's talented at being disgusting too. Dane added one more to his evaluation of him before opening his mouth.

"If expressing it that way makes it seem less painful, then yes, let's call it a deep kiss."

"Nice, deep kiss. I like it very much."

Greyson clapped as if he had made a great discovery. Dane was starting to get tired of having a conversation with this lunatic. He had spoken too many words with someone who didn't seem to be in their right mind. Without wasting any more time, he threw his punch. This was enough warning, and he had given Greyson more than enough time to run away.

A loud thwack echoed through the quiet forest.