Chapter 287: The Sky Falls At The Start!!!
There are not many teams selected for the International Special Forces Competition selection, mainly due to the tactical nature and forward-looking nature of the subjects, requiring high-quality training grounds rather than large ones.
The competition venue was chosen at a certain training brigade of the military region, with all kinds of training facilities and equipment available.
The competitors who came here to participate in the selection were all experts who stood out from the special forces of various military regions, truly the favored children of heaven in the military.
Therefore, every competitor carried a bit of arrogance and had an extremely strong desire for victory.
They were also all very smart people.
To gain more advantages, the competitors were mutually observing each other, using the opponent’s data to come up with corresponding countermeasures.
Chen Jun’s group was the last participating team to arrive. Before them, nine teams had already gathered here.
They were the special forces of the Southwest Military Region, Northwest Military Region, East China Central Region, Northeast Military Region, North China Military Region, Southeast Military Region, Navy and Air Force, as well as the armed police special operations team.
（PS, for some reasons everyone understands, the military region made certain adjustments, and sometimes war zones might be used instead）
Under complete information confidentiality, everyone only knew which military region the other came from, with no knowledge of the specific units.
The publicly announced information for Chen Jun and others was only marked as the Capital Military Region participating team.
Without mentioning that they came from Steel Seventh Battalion.
When Chen Jun’s group came to report, it immediately attracted the attention of the other nine participating teams.
Not only because the title of Capital Military Region was prestigious, but mainly because everyone came from special operations forces and knew many secrets unknown to the outside.
They all understood that the mysterious special operations force of the Capital Military Region was the pioneer of our military’s special warfare technology.
Equivalent to the “holy land” in novels!!
As participating teams from subordinate sects, each came with a craving for victory, naturally regarding the holy land representatives as the biggest competitors.
Chen Jun’s leading participating team thus became the veritable “public enemy of the whole audience.”
The Steel Seventh Battalion crowd could clearly sense everyone’s emotions from their gazes—a extremely strong challenge desire.
Just arriving and being targeted by everyone as a “target,” honestly, the pressure generated was quite significant.
If not for being previously taken to the Southwest Region, witnessing life-and-death trials on the battlefield, with significant improvements in both vision and mindset.
For newcomers like Cheng Cai and Xu Sanduo who had just become special forces soldiers, their hearts might really have been under immense pressure.
As for now…
Not to mention special operations veteran Qi Huan, even Xu Sanduo and Cheng Cai’s group of “newcomers” felt no pressure from everyone’s provocative gazes.
Everyone’s heart held only strong beliefs, and the same unyielding determination as other competitors.
Yuan Lang took the participating team to the dormitory, completed the relevant procedures handover with the competition organizers, then left alone first according to the competition rules.
The competition selection was conducted with full confidentiality throughout, and all information materials were not disclosed externally.
Naturally, there would be no one besides the audience and competitors.
Those who could stay here besides the competitors were only the staff responsible for organizing the competition, who would announce the results to each unit after the competition ended.
“I hope we meet again in a month, not in a week. I will be waiting in the brigade for your good news.”
Yuan Lang left behind an encouraging phrase full of personality, carrying expectations for everyone as he departed.
The eight participating team members, from team leader officer Chen Jun to every team member, at this moment had their morale fully boosted.
Their hearts were already fired up with determination, bound to secure the competition quota.
…
The next day.
8 a.m.
The International Special Forces Competition selection officially began, with ten special operations teams from various military regions and branches competing on the same stage for the sole quota to represent the country abroad.
Below the grandstand on the parade ground, from left to right, a row of ten signs was inserted.
Each sign was spaced one meter apart in the middle, with the name of each participating team written on it. Each participating team just needed to line up behind their corresponding sign in an orderly manner.
“One two one, one two one, at ease.”
As one participating team after another shouted slogans and arrived behind their corresponding signs to line up, the competition atmosphere began to intensify.
It had a pre-battle “storm is coming” flavor!
The superiors attached great importance to this competition.
The lineup accompanying the person in charge was very “luxurious.”
“At ease, attention~”
“Report to Comrade Commander…”
After an officer personally organized the teams on the field, he saluted and reported the personnel situation toward the grandstand, entering the core part of the opening ceremony.
An old leader from the Military Commission personally addressed the competitors present.
“Today was originally an ordinary day, but now it has become a special day because, from this moment on, we will step out of the national gate to the world, making contributions to world counter-terrorism operations.
You are all elite soldiers from various military regions, capable and strong enough to shoulder this heavy responsibility, bearing the nation’s expectations for you…”
After the old leader finished his morale-boosting words, he proceeded to content related to the competition.
“This competition will last five days and nights. All competition venues and event setups will maximize proximity to battlefield environments, with all subjects carrying tactical backgrounds.
The significance is not just for the competition, but looking toward the real demands of future counter-terrorism special operations…”
The old leader clearly understood special operations, speaking at a very high level, not only explaining the competition rules but also the competition’s significance to reality.
To summarize in a few simple sentences…
He hoped that through this competition-as-warfare approach, by engaging with excellent foreign special forces, the domestic special operations level could be elevated further.
After speaking eloquently for a few minutes, the old leader’s speech entered the final wrap-up stage.
“I believe you are all the most excellent soldiers, so I hope you all bring out your strongest strength, letting me witness a peak showdown closest to actual combat, belonging to the entire army’s highest special operations level.
Now, I declare that the People’s Liberation Army’s first International Special Forces Competition quota selection race officially begins.”
With the old leader’s formal start, the smokeless war began to spread.
The competitors’ fighting spirits were fully ignited, with flames of desire for victory burning in everyone’s eyes, all determined to win this battle.
The opening ceremony ended with the leader’s speech, followed by the formal competition process.
First was announcing the competition rules.
This competition adopted a team points accumulation system.
That is, points could be obtained in each project, some as team points, some as individual points. Regardless of the method, all competition points would be uniformly accumulated to the team.
After all competition projects ended, the team with the highest points would obtain the overseas competition quota.
Where there were rewards, there were penalties.
If competitors cheated during the competition or used improper means to win, points deduction punishments would be applied based on the severity.
For better organization of points and competition format, the participating teams would be uniformly numbered.
Each team’s team leader officer would step forward, from left to right, to draw lots in front, randomly drawing the numbers for each team.
Chen Jun represented the Capital Military Region and strode forward, drawing a very auspicious familiar number—
Six!
Team Six, representing smooth sailing.
The team members like Cheng Cai standing in the ranks were all very satisfied with this number.
After each participating team completed the draw, everyone was then led to the competition preparation area to prepare for the first competition subject.
The event organizer already waiting here announced the competition rules to all participating teams.
The first match had two stages, belonging to a front-back linked type. Only after completing the first stage could the second stage begin.
The first stage was load-bearing sixty jin, completing 3 kilometers cross-country within 12 minutes.
The second stage was that once competitors crossed the finish line, timing would immediately start. Competitors needed to complete zeroing and precisely hit six targets within two minutes, using no fewer than three tactical shooting movements.
Completing a stage on time added one point, with a maximum of two points per individual for the project.
Failing the first stage running meant no shooting opportunity.
Zero points!
Each squad theoretically maximum sixteen points.
Those coming to the competition were soldier kings among soldier kings, truly top powerhouses selected from ten thousand, and challenging the first match seemed very simple.
All ten participating teams thought so, believing this one would definitely be easily taken.
Even Chen Jun thought so!
But the result was a heavy blow.
3 kilometers for the special forces soldiers present, even picking the one with the worst stamina, could easily do it in nine minutes unarmed.
They had also run fully armed cross-country before; twelve minutes was more than enough.
Even with a load of 60 jin, it wouldn’t stump everyone.
However, when all ten teams changed into equipment and ran the competition-specified route with a sixty jin load, the competitors were soon hit head-on.
The highly enthusiastic, fully morale-boosted competitors, at the start, even with sixty jin load, ran like flying.
As if there was no load!
But after running about one kilometer ahead, a steep slope of over forty-five degrees suddenly appeared, with a length of at least two hundred meters.
Even walking such a slope unarmed was tough, let alone with a full sixty jin load.
The competitors who had just been charging ahead, upon reaching the slope, seemed all debuffed with super deceleration, each slowing down more than the last.
Within less than fifty meters, almost no one could run anymore, one by one only able to climb up wearing masks of pain.
Looking at the eighty competitors from ten teams, on this super exaggerated steep slope, only a mere two could still run—
Load-bearing king Ba Te Er and “protagonist halo” Xu Sanduo.
Chen Jun, relying on his super acid-resistant physique, could barely manage alternating between walking and running.
The speed difference between walking and running was huge; a hundred-meter steep slope could be run in about twenty seconds, but walking up would take at least a minute.
One steep slope meant a half-minute gap; three to five accumulated would be formidable.
Don’t think downhill could recover the time; heavy load caused great potential energy, and downhill couldn’t rush too fast, even needing to brake speed.
Otherwise, once unable to brake and falling while going downhill, it would inevitably turn into a tumbling gourd.
Light injury at best, withdrawal from competition at worst.
That would be not worth the loss!
The route of this competition was carefully selected, with exactly this kind of steep slopes abundant—five slopes over one hundred meters long.
Running one slope delayed half a minute; five slopes meant nearly two minutes.
Equivalent to turning it into a ten-minute fully armed 3 kilometers.
Even unarmed 3 kilometers took nine minutes; now with an exaggerated sixty jin load, still needing to finish within ten minutes.
This was almost impossible!
Thus, in the first project of the opening, among the 80 top soldier kings from various special forces, only six returned on time.
Those completing the second stage were further compressed to two.
Namely Chen Jun and Xu Sanduo!
The other four competitors, including Ba Te Er, failed to complete the required three tactical movements and six targets in the following two-minute shooting.
In other words.
After the first project’s competition, only two people got full points, four got one point, and the other seventy-four all got zero points.
Chen Jun and Xu Sanduo could get full points only by giving their all.
After finishing the targets in the second stage, both were completely exhausted numb, lying on the ground unwilling to move, only left with heavy panting.
Ba Te Er was the most regrettable.
In the second stage shooting, because his zeroing speed was slightly slow, two minutes was too compressing, and he didn’t have time for one shot.
Finally hitting only five targets, regrettably losing one point due to missing one target.
Ba Te Er was so angry he pounded the ground; there was absolutely no way around it.
The competition rules were set there!
For the other competitors who could only get zero points, Ba Te Er at least had a chance to shoot, while they could only listen to the gunshots with full bitterness.
Carrying the expectations of their troops’ warriors and leaders, traveling thousands of miles to participate in the competition, only to get zero points in the first project.
Even among the ten teams, six teams were completely wiped out without getting a single point.
This result…
For these exceptionally confident, high-spirited soldier kings vowing to seize the championship, it was truly a heavy blow.
The organizers gave a show of strength right at the start, letting competitors feel the “malice” of this competition, forcing them to obediently settle down.
All arrogance was crushed!
In the half-hour break after the first match ended, they were all doing post-competition self-criticism.
“Really f*cking embarrassing, zero points in the first match; if this gets back to my old unit, I’d definitely be laughed out of my teeth by comrades.”
Tuo Yonggang was extremely annoyed and very self-blaming, hating that he hadn’t trained hard enough usually, wishing he could slap himself twice.
“This competition’s difficulty is too exaggerated; I’ve never heard of such exaggerated competition rules—it’s practically a rhythm to kill people.” Wu Zhe was very depressed.
“Actually, such high difficulty is normal. Don’t forget, we’re competing against the world’s special operations elites. Without strong strength, how can we beat them? Getting zero here is fine; losing face only at home. Getting zero abroad would be the real embarrassment.”
Seeing the team’s morale low, as captain Chen Jun had to stand up to boost morale.
He extended his right fist: “Come, brothers, in the first battle we’ve already gained a small advantage. Next, everyone bring out your strength; those who didn’t perform well, push harder. We must secure this quota.”
Among the eight competitors, five had zero points, so morale was indeed a bit low, urgently needing a boost.
And Chen Jun’s influence in Steel Seventh Battalion was absolute; with these few short words, everyone’s eyes changed.
“We must take it!!”
Everyone shouted in unison, reinvigorating the low morale.
