Chapter 73: Hell Week Ends
“If you can’t hold on, you can quit. There’s nothing shameful about that. The training volume in the Selection Training Camp is even greater than what you have in your own units.
It’s understandable if you can’t hold on, but don’t you feel ashamed of cheating like this?
Soldiers should be open and upright, not resort to these sneaky tricks!
Now you have no rest time. Given your significant stamina consumption just now, 300 push-ups as punishment.”
Gao Zhong Dui announced the punishment to everyone with a stern face, and the small assembly point at the foot of the mountain was immediately filled with gunshots, with the faint smell of gunpowder in the air.
“Hurry up, do you still want to eat!”
Chang Ning panted heavily while struggling to do push-ups, with intermittent gunshots echoing in his ears, mixed with the instructors’ urging voices and humiliating remarks.
The others didn’t have Chang Ning’s stamina. Being able to persist without fainting after going up and down the mountain was already their limit, and now Gao Zhong Dui made them do push-ups.
Several rookies broke down and chose to quit the selection, reducing the number of rookies even further.
In the distance, Tong Youyou, who had gotten out of the medical vehicle, watched Gao Zhong Dui and the others’ way of selecting team members, her eyebrows furrowed tightly.
To be honest, she didn’t agree with it, because this kind of training was completely overdrawing the soldiers’ physical potential.
In the end, Tong Youyou didn’t say anything.
She was just a doctor. How Wolf Fang selected team members was their own business. For now, she was an outsider with no right or reason to criticize anyone.
Moreover, Gao Zhong Dui and the others might not be unaware of the drawbacks of this selection method, but with the current severe international situation, as a special forces branch, they had to be ready at all times to handle emergencies. Time was precious for special forces.
Tong Youyou believed that her current duty was to do her utmost to ensure the soldiers’ physical health.
……
Today was the last day of Devil Week.
At this moment, the rookies were wearily performing armed swimming in a river with gentle currents.
To simulate the most realistic battlefield environment, explosive charges kept detonating on the water surface, with the waves knocking the rookies underwater.
Rubber boats followed at a neither too close nor too far distance, and the instructors’ voices buzzed annoyingly in their ears like mosquitoes.
Hui Lang sat on a rubber boat holding a loudspeaker and shouted loudly: “Your armed swimming looks really ugly. I really don’t know how your units trained you.”
Currently, the team members recruited by Wolf Fang were all elite soldiers from various reconnaissance units, far from the complex personnel composition in the future, with soldiers from all branches.
Therefore, armed swimming was a basic training subject for everyone, and it wasn’t as bad as Hui Lang made it sound.
But if they didn’t say that, how could they achieve the goal of stimulating the trainees?
“I think even dragging out a pig would swim better looking than you!”
“Hui Lang, our armed swimming can eliminate enemies, but the pig you drag out gets eliminated by enemies. In that sense, you’re aiding the enemy.”
As the vanguard, Chang Ning swam ahead of everyone. He spat out a mouthful of water and continued: “Wild Wolf, I suggest you investigate Hui Lang. I suspect he’s betrayed the country!”
“Hey, you little punk!”
Hui Lang didn’t mind Chang Ning teasing him at all and instead laughed.
Perhaps due to age, Gray Wolf Mada was always tolerant of the rookies, usually turning a blind eye to minor issues.
For example, he would let Xiao Zhuang off during searches, and he could even joke around with live wires like Ostrich and the medic.
Even with Chang Ning making somewhat offensive jokes, he could just laugh it off.
Gao Zhong Dui didn’t give Chang Ning a good look: “Chang Ning, seeing you still have the energy to talk makes me unhappy. It means your training volume isn’t enough yet.
As your chief instructor, that’s my failure. Rookie Chang Ning, after swimming ashore, add 10 kg to your load bearing, and do 200 push-ups!
Clear?”
“Report, clear!”
From training starting in the morning until now, Chang Ning’s load bearing had already exceeded 100 kg to reach 110 kg. This was all a testament to Chang Ning’s unyielding and uncompromising stance against Gao Zhong Dui and his gang of “black forces.”
110 kg load bearing was equivalent to carrying a 220 jin person on his back, but for him, it was just enough to feel the pressure. His four times normal human stamina was Chang Ning’s confidence in provoking Gao Zhong Dui.
Gao Zhong Dui wasn’t afraid of breaking Chang Ning either. Yesterday, Tong Youyou had submitted her research report on Chang Ning over the past two days. According to it, this weight still couldn’t threaten Chang Ning.
Punished again, Chang Ning wasn’t annoyed. He sped up toward the shore and then did push-ups.
It wasn’t that some strange attribute had been awakened in Chang Ning; he had discovered that the experience points for stamina in his system were starting to increase.
Chang Ning silently called up the system panel.
“Name: Chang Ning”
“Age: 19 years old”
“Military Rank: Second Lieutenant (Platoon Leader)”
“Merit Points: 200”
“Stamina: 460/??? （An ordinary adult male’s stamina is 100 ）”
“Knife Skills: 100/100 (Cannot be upgraded)”
“Shooting Mastery: 100/1000”
“Note: This system’s level is linked to the host’s military rank. Please strive hard, host!”
‘Tsk tsk, up another 10 points.’
Watching the experience points rise while doing push-ups, Chang Ning felt great inside.
Only Chang Ning had the cheat; the other rookies, including Xiao Zhuang, had their stamina nearly depleted soaking in the water.
Just as Xiao Zhuang felt he couldn’t hold on, a rookie behind him flailed helplessly in the air and sank.
The others were in an uproar upon seeing this.
Hui Lang calmly shouted loudly: “Rookies, keep swimming!”
After calming them, Hui Lang had two divers on the rubber boat jump down to rescue the drowning soldier.
The rookies continued swimming, while Xiao Zhuang stared blankly as the rubber boat carried the drowning person away.
He wondered if he should also take this chance to drown and get passively eliminated, which would at least account to Miao Lian.
Xiao Zhuang wasn’t like Chang Ning, who was full of longing for special forces and wanted to help Chen Pai realize his dream.
He also wasn’t like Miao Lian, who wanted to fulfill an obsession.
As for Xiao Zhuang himself, he simply disliked special forces, thinking the people here were all perverts and lunatics. He hated every blade of grass and tree here from the bottom of his heart!
Lao Pao, seeing Xiao Zhuang staring at the spot where the drowning rookie had been and not swimming forward, thought he was just scared.
Lao Pao pushed him: “Stop looking, swim forward! Just one last push, hold on!
Don’t let Miao Lian down!”
Pushed into the water, Xiao Zhuang choked on a mouthful and suddenly sobered up hearing Lao Pao mention Miao Lian. He then swam forward with all his might.
Qiang Zi, Ostrich, the medic, Xiao Geng, Xi Wa… everyone was swimming hard in the water for their own reasons.
After most had reached shore, the pre-set explosive charges began detonating, with soil and grass clippings flying everywhere.
Xiao Zhuang and a few rookies were unlucky, getting mud splashed on their faces. Ostrich, following behind, had just climbed onto the bank when he was blasted back into the water.
He plunged into the water and didn’t want to get up again, but the medic behind grabbed his backpack and hauled Ostrich up.
“Ostrich, you need to lose weight.”
“Medic, thanks.”
Ostrich didn’t bicker with the medic this time. Without his help, he probably would have been eliminated.
Hell Week had only one day left; getting eliminated at this point would be too unworthy.
By the time the rookies passed through the explosive charge area and reached the landmine area, Chang Ning was long gone.
The landmine area here was obviously watered down by Wolf Fang; careful observation could basically spot every landmine.
But the rookies, unlike Chang Ning who hadn’t been blasted by explosive charges, had massive stamina consumption and couldn’t carefully spot the landmines.
At this point, they were all dizzy and seeing stars; not collapsing was already a testament to strong willpower.
The rookies had to judge the marked landmines under their feet in extreme fatigue and go around or jump over them.
Rookies kept stepping on landmines, with white smoke immediately rising.
Ma Da shouted through the loudspeaker: “Rookies who stepped on landmines, you can rest now! The rest who don’t want to be eliminated, keep moving forward!”
Those unlucky rookies relaxed upon hearing this and collapsed. The rescue team hurriedly carried them toward the medical vehicle while unfastening their clothes to ventilate and cool them down.
Xiao Zhuang now felt his legs going soft. He staggered along, jumping and dodging the unevenly distributed landmines on the ground.
Ma Da shouted through the loudspeaker to remind the rookies: “Last 20 km armed mountain land assault! You have 3 hours to complete it. Exceed by 1 second and you’re eliminated!
Hurry up!”
At the finish line, Chang Ning had already unloaded his load bearing and sat next to Gao Zhong Dui, very naturally grabbing a bottle of water from the back seat.
“You kid sure aren’t shy at all.”
“Gao Zhong Dui, why be shy? Counting from the last inspection when we met, we’ve known each other for almost two or three months.
We’re practically old acquaintances.”
Seeing Chang Ning’s cheeky attitude, Gao Zhong Dui didn’t want to chat with this guy anymore.
He preferred straightforward kids like Xiao Zhuang; training them gave a sense of accomplishment.
Chang Ning felt more like an old veteran soldier than he did, which was no fun.
With Gao Zhong Dui not speaking, Chang Ning was happy to relax.
One by one, the rookies staggered toward the finish line, their bodies and minds utterly exhausted.
Ma Da anxiously shouted encouragements through the loudspeaker. If he could run for them, Ma Da would have done it himself: “Faster! You’re almost at the finish line.”
From afar, Chang Ning saw Lao Pao and Xi Wa linked by backpack straps. Lao Pao dragged Xi Wa across the finish line and collapsed.
Xi Wa collapsed just outside the finish line, unable to move another inch.
Chang Ning jumped out of the vehicle, squatted beside Xi Wa, and shouted loudly: “Xi Wa! Keep going, only 0.5 meters left!”
“Chang Ning, a reminder: don’t help him. If you do now, you’ll both be eliminated.”
Gray Wolf Mada kindly reminded him.
“Got it,” Chang Ning said.
Hearing Chang Ning’s voice, Xi Wa struggled to crawl up.
But that mere 0.5 meters now seemed like an insurmountable chasm to him.
Anxious inside, Chang Ning suddenly remembered why Xi Wa was in the selection: “Xi Wa, crawl over these 0.5 meters and you’ll be the King of Soldiers.”
Perhaps the dream gave Xi Wa strength. He gritted his teeth, dug his hands into the ground, and crawled forward stubbornly bit by bit.
The small dirt pit he dug in the ground was dotted with specks of blood.
Watching Xi Wa crawl past the finish line, Ma Da smiled with relief. He quite liked this honest soldier: “Good! You’re through!”
Ma Da straightened up and shouted back at the few rookies behind: “You few, hurry up, time’s almost up!”
Chang Ning helped Xi Wa lean against the Warrior Vehicle wheel to sit, then unfastened his load bearing, took off his hat to fan Xi Wa and prevent heatstroke.
Then Chang Ning heard the medic and Ostrich, that bickering pair, cursing as they ran over.
“Hey, you son of a… Medic, why do you… always chase after me?”
“Heh heh, I… gotta find a target to follow…”
“Look… look around… aren’t there plenty… to lead you?”
“No… choice, you’re… the tallest, can block… the wind for me…”
When the two crossed the finish line, Gao Zhong Dui glanced at his stopwatch: 3 minutes left. Xiao Zhuang hadn’t arrived.
When Xiao Zhuang staggered into view on the horizon, Xi Wa, sitting on the ground leaning on his backpack and being fed water by the medic, saw him and shouted loudly: “Xiao Zhuang, keep going!”
Xiao Zhuang’s eyes were already glazed over; he was not far from passing out.
He hadn’t realized his feet could ever feel like a thousand jin heavy. Every step required all his strength.
Lao Pao also crawled up, leaned on his backpack, and shouted: “Xiao Zhuang, last 20 meters, keep going!”
Gao Zhong Dui’s face was expressionless as he stared at his stopwatch: 1 minute left.
Chang Ning ran up to Xiao Zhuang. He couldn’t touch him, or they’d both be eliminated.
“Xiao Zhuang, Miao Lian is watching you.”
‘Miao Lian!’
Hearing “Miao Lian,” Xiao Zhuang’s eyes brightened slightly.
If asked who was most important to Xiao Zhuang, Xiao Ying came first, followed by Miao Lian.
Seeing it worked, Chang Ning continued shouting: “Xiao Zhuang, not only Miao Lian is watching you, Xiao Ying, your girlfriend, is watching too!”
“Xiao Ying~”
Xiao Zhuang’s consciousness fully cleared this time. He trembled and said: “Yes, I can’t give up.
Can’t disappoint Xiao Ying and Miao Lian!
Ah!”
With Chang Ning’s help, Xiao Zhuang shouted and charged toward the finish line, even though his steps were still staggering.
The stopwatch in Gao Zhong Dui’s hand ticked down the final second as Xiao Zhuang crossed the line right on time.
“Quick, quick, he’s passed out. Medic, check him.”
Chang Ning pulled Shi Dafan over to examine Xiao Zhuang.
“Xiao Zhuang’s condition is serious: dehydration plus heatstroke. He needs immediate treatment!”
“Let me handle it. You don’t have medicine on hand.”
Tong Youyou led the medical team to carry Xiao Zhuang away.
‘Isn’t this girl the one who’s been observing us?’
Chang Ning looked up following the voice and saw a pair of bright phoenix eyes.
With Xiao Zhuang’s collapse, the rookies’ Hell Week finally ended.
Of the over 100 reconnaissance soldier backbones sent by reconnaissance subunits from the entire military region, only 47 rookies remained after Hell Week.
Xiao Zhuang luckily stayed in the final second. That day, the team members finally got long-overdue rest.
Showering, eating, sleeping. And no one disturbed them.
But the next day, as the sunrise just rose, the reveille sounded again.
The rookies, conditioned by reflex, quickly dressed and ran out of the dormitory to assemble on the open ground.
“Report instructor, Training Camp should have 47, actual 46 present. Xiao Zhuang hasn’t returned. Awaiting instructions!”
As the highest-ranking officer among the rookies, Chang Ning had to take on the reporting duty.
