My Infinite Investment System

Chapter 69: Expansion Draft

Grace opened seven roster positions against the gaps, then taped the list to Northstar’s front desk.

Two frontliners, one scout, one ward technician, two response generalists, plus one logistics-capable hunter had to appear before inspection.

’Seven people meant payroll, medical forms, backup routes, and seven new ways for somebody to eventually sue us,’ Ryan thought, with the list over Grace’s shoulder, ’so naturally the captain wanted in.’

He applied under field logistics, with a signature that filled the entire box.

"This process suppresses internal advancement and ignores proven ceremonial supply-chain experience," he said with a form that listed robe procurement as his primary qualification.

"You have not identified one emergency supplier," she replied with her eyes on the captain’s pen hand, "unless you intend to source bandages from the person who sells your slippers."

The captain considered this distinction, then withdrew his application and carried his robe upstairs.

Three hundred applications disappeared during screening.

Candidates remained for work Seven-B could safely assign twice.

Ryan’s C-rank card drew spectators near the testing floor, but Mika took selection beside Nia while Grace explained that fame did not get a vote.

"If you are here to watch spear guy fall through something expensive, the gym owner has a separate queue," Mika told the spectators with a pink pen on a candidate’s route card.

’She had made the warning sound like customer service,’ Ryan thought, counting the phones near the reinforced bag, ’which meant half of them would keep recording.’

Grace showed every candidate the same pay bands, injury coverage, evidence duties, plus exit provisions before testing.

Four left over follower premiums, but two returned after reading that rescue certification increased starting pay.

The gym owner banned Ryan from testing the reinforced bag after seeing Northstar’s repaired-floor invoice plus Grace’s attached labor estimate.

"I need a baseline before candidates start pricing the observer instead of the drill," Ryan said as he stopped beside the bag with his spear tucked under one arm.

"Your baseline has a spear, insurance consequences, plus an unpaid history with reinforced surfaces," he replied with his eyes on Ryan’s shoes, "walk on the tape like rent depends on it."

"The bag survived last time," Ryan insisted with one hand on the spear.

"The floor did not," the owner said with the clipboard locked.

Candidates began with evacuation rather than duels because Nia wanted their habits before their output.

One hunter carried a weighted civilian through smoke while preserving the evidence tag attached to her sleeve.

After the carry, the same hunter had to de-escalate an actor demanding priority because of an expensive watch.

"My time costs more than your entire route," the actor said with one hand on the watch beneath his sleeve.

"Then you can afford to wait where the evidence stays visible," she replied and guided him behind the marked line.

The two frontliner candidates faced a collapsing-lane drill where winning meant yielding ground in sequence instead of holding the center for cameras.

One higher-ranked hunter refused the retreat call and trapped both response generalists behind a fallen barrier.

A quieter candidate sacrificed his clean score to reopen their exit, then accepted a lower combat mark without arguing with the replay.

"I stopped the threat longer," the rejected hunter said over Nia’s tablet, "your score rewards the person who ran."

"You stopped your team longer," she replied, keeping her voice level, "output did not repair the command."

"The camera liked my position," the hunter said with his eyes on the nearest lens.

"Our team did not," Nia replied as she closed the replay.

The higher-ranked hunter looked toward the cameras, discovered that none of them were on his side, then left the testing floor.

Another candidate defeated the combat drill but failed the paperwork station by losing the clipboard while holding it beneath his shield arm.

Mika found the clipboard against his boot, then returned it with one raised finger.

"You protected the document from yourself," she said while he searched the same pocket twice, "the achievement is not transferable to evidence work or rescue duty."

The gym exposed awakened hunters who relied on output without controlling their feet, so Nia removed three for breaking formation.

Mika advanced a lower-ranked scout who abandoned her score to warn civilians about a blocked stairwell.

She ran the scout again with false instructions arriving through a compromised earpiece.

The candidate challenged the order, verified Nia’s position through hand signal, then completed the route without pretending uncertainty had disappeared.

"You were told to continue," Mika said with the earpiece between two fingers, "why did you stop?"

"Because the instruction arrived after the stairwell changed," the candidate replied with one finger on the earpiece.

Mika marked the route card with the edge of her pen.

"Good. Keep that answer for interviews," Mika said as she circled the score.

The response generalists faced a trap beside a damaged ward, where two civilian actors gave conflicting accounts.

One candidate chose the louder witness and lost the evidence trail.

The selected pair separated immediate danger from later testimony, then preserved both accounts before moving anyone through the lane.

Ryan tested their combat recovery after the civilian lane cleared, then entered Opening Position without announcing which candidate he would pressure.

They rotated the injured actor behind the frontliner, then forced Ryan to spend three exchanges reaching the protected space.

"You let him enter," Ryan said, lowering the spear point after the third exchange, "that was deliberate."

"You were already inside," one generalist replied through the borrowed mask, "we spent the lane instead of pretending we owned it."

At the ward station, applicants preserved a damaged barrier while an actor offered cash for unauthorized passage.

The selected technician refused without a speech, logged the attempt, plus repaired the weak seam.

"You could have taken the money," the actor said, slipping the envelope back into his coat.

"You could have offered it somewhere less visible," the technician replied, sealing the report, "neither of us chose well."

Seven-B paid the gym ordinary service rates plus offered cross-promotion without ownership.

Its conditioning, footwork, and pressure drills improved recruits immediately, so it created a training partnership rather than free loyalty.

After Ryan glanced twice at the reinforced bag, the owner required repair deposits plus prohibited unscheduled ability tests.

Mika signed before Ryan could explain that Combat Valuation had identified a harmless angle.

"The harmless angle ends at my wall," the owner said with the signed deposit form against his chest.

"You are joining an institution under active attack," Ryan said before offering the final contracts, "the jacket does not make that safe."

"It was the part that keeps the recruitment speech from becoming evidence," Ryan said as he folded the contracts.

Two candidates withdrew before the final signatures reached Grace’s desk.

Seven-B paid their assessment stipends, returned every document, plus thanked them without turning consent into a courage test.

One had passed every combat station but could not accept that the patron might target her family business.

The other chose a stable municipal guild after reviewing Seven-B’s permit calendar.

Ryan gave both copies of their assessment results.

The remaining seven signed clear contracts plus medical acknowledgments after the final medical checks cleared Grace’s desk before lunch, which was the closest Northstar came to a quiet morning.

They filled Grace’s exact gaps with two frontliners, one scout, one ward technician, two response generalists, plus one logistics-certified hunter.

No position changed names for popularity, while applicants who missed selection received written reasons without public rankings.

The logistics hunter found a missing clinic seal during onboarding and stopped the supply exercise before opening the case.

She sacrificed drill time until the inventory camera showed that an evaluator had moved the seal deliberately.

"The case was supposed to be opened at minute four," the evaluator said as he reached for the seal, "you have already failed the exercise."

"Then record that I failed before I opened a case with missing custody," the hunter replied with her hand over the latch.

Grace reviewed the footage once, then assigned the hunter beside the evaluator for the rest of the afternoon.

{Formal Hunter Roster: 18 -> 25}

{Return Credits: 600}

Clinic staff, gym personnel, Holt workers, plus support applicants remained outside the hunter count.

They remained outside the vote despite working inside Northstar.

Mika’s orientation deck arrived with transitions that Grace removed from the budget copy.

The recruits restored them by a twenty-one-to-four vote after classifying movement as morale infrastructure.

"The room needs a morale infrastructure," Mika replied with one finger on a slide that rotated through five shades of pink, "otherwise the new people think the jackets are a warning."

Before the celebration ended, the permit blockade closed the east route while missing facility approval stalled filtration work, mana discharge at the gym, plus excavation against auction obligations.

Grace traced all three secondary reviews to one safety-committee directive that treated the clinic, excavation parcel, plus partner gym as one project whenever Seven-B supplied money or personnel, then quietly froze three permits through one vote while claiming independent decisions.

Delay costs appeared beside the new payroll on Grace’s wall.

The roster victory had become a clock Ryan could not solve with infinite investment capital.

Qualified funding could cover equipment, but it could not purchase a permit or erase penalties attached to missed auction work.

The patron expected private lobbying, so an intermediary offered a committee introduction for a success fee before Grace requested terms.

"You want a success fee for an introduction," Grace said through the speaker with a blank evidence form ready, "please state what success means."

"That depends on how cooperative the committee becomes," the intermediary replied after a pause.

"Then you are selling access without a deliverable," Grace said as she wrote on the evidence form.

Grace ended the call before he named a price, so suspicion remained without evidence.

Ryan refused to send another person through the same channel merely to provoke a cleaner bribe.

Their answer needed to survive public inspection without manufacturing misconduct the committee had not committed on record.

"We do not bait him," Ryan said as Grace saved the recording twice, "we give the committee a route to reject us in daylight."

"That sounds less satisfying," Mika replied with the rejected orientation slide folded into a square, "which is how I know it may survive."

Mika proposed publishing every safety standard plus opening the route to inspection, with clinic partners, allied guilds, and neighborhood witnesses invited.

The new recruits expected their first guild event to be combat deployment.

Instead, they received inspection assignments: barrier demonstration, civilian routing, evidence desk, equipment logs, plus hostile-question intake.

"We were promised field work," a frontliner said with three binders against his ribs.

"You were promised work that keeps people alive," Mika replied with her eyes on his route badge, "the field includes whoever asks why your gate is closed."

Mika made participation part of training because defending an institution included showing strangers where its authority stopped.

Twenty-five black-and-pink jackets filled Northstar beneath three frozen applications, so the guild became impossible to overlook.

Grace saw payroll against a closing calendar while Ryan watched the recruits learn which forms required two signatures.

’Northstar finally had enough people to be noticed by everybody with a permit stamp,’ Ryan thought with his eyes on the jackets and inspection notice, ’so the next fight would happen in public.’

Mika turned the inspection notice toward the window and held it against the afternoon glare.

"We hold an open house," she said with one hand on the page, "if they want to call us unsafe, make them do it in front of everyone we kept alive."

Ryan looked at the closing calendar. He studied the seven new badges beneath the pink hard hats.

"I will ask the gym owner for permission before you demonstrate anything," he said.

"That is growth," Mika replied as she took the first inspection binder from Grace, "write it down before you relapse."