Chapter 115: Final Match, Time To Show Some Flair!
“Pa~”
The starting pistol fired.
The 10 Kilometers Cross-country with Load officially began, and the competitors all charged out toward the gunshot.
Compared to the previous light cross-country, at the start all competitors were charging fiercely with very fast speeds; the style of the cross-country with load start was completely different.
The competitors’ starting speeds were not fast at all, and even their acceleration seemed somewhat slow.
The reason for such a big difference was two factors.
First, the cross-country distance of up to 10,000 meters was completely different from 5 Kilometers and 5 Kilometers; stamina allocation had to be reasonably arranged.
Otherwise, it would easily lead to fatigue in the later stages, or even running out of breath and completely collapsing.
Second, the items to carry in cross-country with load included, but were not limited to, a chest rig filled with ammunition, steel helmet, backpack with mat and quilt bundled together, grenade, raincoat, shoes, medical kit, supplies rations, and 81-style rifle, etc.
The total weight of all these items carried on the body while running was at least over 40 jin.
Compared to ordinary troops’ fully armed cross-country with a load of only 10 kilograms, the weight was doubled, meaning the difficulty was increased by more than twice.
What kind of concept was this?
The large barrel of bottled water used at home for water—many people panted just carrying one while walking, let alone running, and running 10 Kilometers.
And a large barrel of bottled water was only 35 jin; cross-country with load was equivalent to carrying a large barrel of bottled water on the back, holding a pack of 12 bottles of water in hand, and keeping the items from falling while continuously running 10 Kilometers.
It was equivalent to the division grand competition doubling the load, with standards even stricter than conventional ones.
For fully armed cross-country with a 10 kilogram load, the passing standard for the division was 70 minutes, while for T Division grand competition’s 20 kilogram load, the passing standard was compressed to 60 minutes.
Competitors who didn’t return after more than an hour were not counted in the assessment results.
No exaggeration.
If this standard was placed among social groups who moved bricks every day with no time to exercise, over 90% of people couldn’t finish the whole audience.
Among the remaining 10%, at least 99% couldn’t finish within an hour.
Those who could were truly one in ten thousand.
Precisely because the grand competition’s difficulty was so high, sprint speed wasn’t that important here; load-bearing ability became the hardest attribute.
People with strong load-bearing ability had higher load limits and ran with load more easily.
Even if their body weight was greater, consuming more stamina.
They didn’t need to expend extra large amounts of stamina to maintain because their body couldn’t bear the load.
Compared to people with slim bodies who couldn’t support such great weight, their bodies easily reached fatigue limits, requiring more stamina to support.
Competitors with large builds actually had stronger endurance.
This led to the cross-country with load venue featuring this group of the strongest cross-country with load competitors, each with extremely strong physiques.
Not the bulky muscles from bodybuilding, but sturdy with well-defined tendons, bones, and flesh.
Chen Jun’s 89 meter height was unique in Steel Seventh Company, his 180 jin weight unmatched, solidly the number one tough guy in Steel Seventh Company.
But on the 10 Kilometers Cross-country with Load field, his physique immediately became unremarkable.
Especially with everyone carrying large bags and small packs, over twenty big men squeezed together— from dozens of meters away, it was impossible to tell who was who.
Only a group of big men could be seen, striding steadily and gradually disappearing into the distance.
To better fit the cross-country with load attribute, and since 10 Kilometers cross-country wasn’t suitable indoors, outdoor terrain tested load-bearing more rigorously.
This project became the only outdoor one among all running projects.
Run out 5 Kilometers, then turn back.
The parade ground’s roads were relatively flat, making it easier for competitors to run with load.
But the outside roads were loess roads; even if the route was relatively flat, it was only relative—actually still undulating.
And these small undulations had a big impact.
Under load, the legs faced great pressure; every kick and placement stressed the knees, and uneven road impacts were greater.
This caused competitors’ speeds to not be fast, and actually no way to charge up.
They could only maintain their running rhythm at the body’s limit, gradually accelerating speed as much as possible, saving stamina for the final sprint.
However.
Cross-country with load demanded even higher physical quality; competitors’ strength levels were more easily shown, and in an irremediable way.
Small skills like wind breaking and lane grabbing were completely useless in cross-country with load.
After running less than 2 Kilometers, the competition team split into two distinct echelons, with the gap continuously widening.
The competitors in the leading first echelon were undoubtedly the strong seeded players.
There were seven in total!
Among them were Chen Jun and Ba Te Er from 702 Regiment, three competitors from the reconnaissance battalion, and two from other units.
The first group of seven was very steady.
They kept pace with each other evenly, and after reaching the 5 Kilometer check-in point and turning back, they continued another 1 Kilometer, maintaining for a full 6 Kilometers.
It was only here that someone finally couldn’t keep up.
Stamina and physical state began to decline, unable to support continuing at this running speed.
Three competitors slowed down more and more, dropping from the first group to form the second group, squeezing the original second group into the third.
Only two competitors from the reconnaissance battalion remained, along with Chen Jun and Ba Te Er, still competing.
Ba Te Er lived up to being the consecutive champion in cross-country with load, also a multi-time division grand competition competitor, with his best result once taking second place.
Thinking of how Ba Te Er had selflessly helped Wu Liu Yi take first in the previous 3 Kilometers.
Chen Jun thought that he had already won nine consecutive victories in Ninth Company, plus ten firsts in light 10 Kilometers, with results as eye-catching as the sun.
One more first would just be the icing on the cake.
Useful.
But not hugely useful.
Whereas Ba Te Er, the real man who had helped Chen Jun, had nothing to show in this grand competition; this first was worth a thousand gold to him.
Comparing before and after, after weighing the value.
Chen Jun immediately had an idea in his mind.
Chen Jun never liked owing favors to others and decided to repay the previous debt of gratitude in this grand competition, in his own way, to Ba Te Er.
“Bro, you hold your rhythm; leave the rest to me, I’ll help you.”
Chen Jun whispered to Ba Te Er, gave him a knowing look, then slightly accelerated toward the reconnaissance battalion competitor leading by a few meters.
At this moment, Ba Te Er still didn’t understand what trick Chen Jun was playing.
His look toward Chen Jun was full of confusion.
But he was obedient, didn’t blindly accelerate, and followed Chen Jun forward.
As they gradually overtook the two reconnaissance battalion competitors, Chen Jun deliberately stimulated them: “Hey, you two reconnaissance battalion guys, losing to me so many times must feel really bad, right?
This is your last chance, too bad—I’m accelerating now, you can’t catch up.”
After saying that, Chen Jun slowly accelerated again, pushing speed to the final sprint limit, leaving only his back to the reconnaissance battalion competitors.
The reconnaissance battalion competitors who had been maintaining rhythm immediately got anxious upon hearing Chen Jun’s words.
Having lost so many events already was infuriating enough; now being mocked face-to-face, if they didn’t vent this anger, they wouldn’t be men.
And so…
The two reconnaissance battalion competitors, enraged and broken by the provocation, lost their heads completely ignoring rhythm, only thinking of surging ahead to overtake Chen Jun.
They were completely led astray by Chen Jun and began furiously accelerating ahead of time with roars.
