As it Was | Hange x Reader

Chapter 9: High Achievers

The ceremony passed by smoothly. Besides the small hitch where Shadis had told (Y/N) and Hange about sharing the lab space, everything else went smoothly. The three of them sat through the speeches given by previous brain games victors. They listened to the familiar speech given that explained the rules and regulations of the brain games.

"439 people were nominated to compete in the brain games. And now only two hundred remain. All of you should begin to prepare your research projects. You have six months before the finale to create a completed product. Between now and the end of the year, you will be participating in two events. The scavenger hunt and jeopardy. The scavenger hunt will be taking place three months from now, and will eliminate more than half of our participants, until only 75 people remain. The hunt will take place throughout the city of Trost, and you will compete to find everything on your list."

The rules might have sounded disheartening. What was the point of beginning the research project when there was more than a half chance of being eliminated? However, all the participants in the games had hope. They were high achievers.

"Your team will be allowed to help you. Two months after the scavenger hunt, the game of jeopardy will eliminate another 25 people, until only 50 remain. These fifty students will compete head to head with their research projects, until there is only one victor. The winner of this year's brain games shall receive a 100,000 dollar grant, along with the chance of creating and implementing their project in real life."

(Y/N) needed that money. She needed the prestige. She had given up on her dream once before, and she refused to do it again. She would win. She would get the money to pay off her loans. She would get the prestige that would allow her a full ride to the graduate program of her dreams.

She would become a world-renowned scientist and prove her dad wrong. She'd prove everyone wrong.

"This year, there has been a few changes in our program. Before, each round would just have disqualifications. But this year, we will also be awarding points to each of the victors. For example, the first place position in the scavenger hunt will be awarded 1,500 points. Same for the jeopardy round. The winner of the research symposium will get 2,000 points. Whoever has the most points, shall become the victor."

"I can't believe we're here," Pieck gushed as they stood up to leave. The ceremony had finished after all of the names of the participants had been announced. After seeing her name on the huge projector screen, (Y/N) felt a spike of pride. She had gotten so far.

"Once we get home, we should start preparing the schedule for working on the experiment," (Y/N) said. She was ready to begin.

"You're going to work us to the bone, aren't you?" Yelena mused. She walked slowly besides (Y/N). "It's quite obvious that you're passionate about this. And for reasons other than pure academia..."

"Huh?" Pieck glanced towards Yelena, curious. "What do you mean by that, 'lena?"

"(Y/N) knows."

(Y/N) inhaled sharply. She did. She knew exactly what Yelena meant. Did she want the prize? Yes. She wanted it so bad. Did she want prestige? Yes, again. She wanted to be known as one of the smartest scientists out there. But did she also want to beat Hange? Definitely.

She wanted to win out of spite. If she had been excited before, she was completely motivated now. There was nothing more that she wanted than to prove Hange wrong.

"She just means that I want the prize," (Y/N) joked. "The money."

"Ahh," Pieck nodded. "Well, the prize is very tempting! Who wouldn't want it? Oh, oh, since we're here, why don't we introduce ourselves to other participants? Maybe making new friends would be helpful!"