dawn drills: the reward for climbing is being hauled up first
So the best E.T.A. players’ special perk is they get hauled out of bed at dawn, still crusty-eyed and pale with sleep, to drill in the first shift.
Context
The regimen's inverted economy, stated deadpan: the prize for slogging to the top of the rankings is more suffering, earlier. The "special perk" of being one of the best is getting "hauled out of bed at dawn, still crusty-eyed and pale with sleep." Advancement at E.T.A. doesn't buy the body ease; it buys the body more drilling, sooner and colder. The better you are, the harder the institution works you.