Extreme Training for Body and Mind

Although Cao Yuan had given all his pickles to Lin Qiye, the "down-to-earth billionaire" Baili Pangpang still managed to win himself an extra serving with his masterful "Rolex negotiation" skills.

Just as they were celebrating the hard-won pickles, a shrill whistle suddenly sounded.

"Everyone, put down your buns and stand up!" Instructor Hong's booming voice echoed through the enormous cafeteria.

Everyone hurriedly put down their buns and stood at attention.

"This afternoon, you'll have your first extreme training session! Once you're done eating, everyone assemble behind the cafeteria! Understood?"

"Understood!" the recruits answered loudly.

"I heard you spent half the morning sitting on the ground listening to lectures. Let me give you a warning: this afternoon's training will be extremely grueling. You'd all better finish the buns on your tables, or you'll be the ones making fools of yourselves."

With that warning, Instructor Hong turned and left, leaving the recruits staring at one another.

"Qiye, what's this extreme training thing?" Baili Pangpang looked baffled.

"No idea. Maybe some kind of physical fitness test?" Lin Qiye wasn't sure either. Before coming here, he hadn't asked the other members of the 136th Squad about the training. Now that he thought about it, he really had been an idiot, coming here to train without preparing himself mentally at all.

He wanted to ask Zhou Meng. At some point, Lin Qiye had come to feel that Zhou Meng was always in a state of "Schrödinger's reliability."

Unless you asked him about something or got him to help, you'd never know whether he'd actually help you or secretly trip you up.

Lin Qiye hesitated, then decided against it. He'd find out soon enough anyway.

The proof was in the pudding. There was no need to ask about something so trivial and make himself look like a little kid who ran to his parents whenever he encountered a problem.

After lunch, the recruits went behind the cafeteria, where several large black buses took them to a place half an hour's drive away.

After getting off the bus and seeing the lush mountains and forests, Lin Qiye realized they were some distance from the camp. They were at the foot of Jinnan Mountain.

It was a mountain range on the outskirts of Cangnan City. It hadn't been developed much and wasn't a tourist attraction; it was more like a stretch of primeval forest.

"Everyone, at ease! This afternoon, we'll begin extreme training. See Jinnan Mountain behind you? In a moment, each of you will be given a load weighing thirty-five kilograms. Your task is to cross this mountain range before daybreak tomorrow!" Instructor Hong said slowly.

Before anyone could ask a question, he went on to explain the rules of this special extreme training session.

After hearing the rules, Lin Qiye had a general idea of what kind of trial this was.

First, everyone would carry a tracker, and drones would pursue them using their locations. Anyone hit by a drone's paintball gun would fail and suffer a punishment. This was also an external incentive to keep the recruits moving through the mountains.

Second, the recruits could exchange their loads, but they couldn't discard them on their own, or they would be deemed to have failed immediately. This was meant to test the recruits' ability to cooperate and trust one another, which was extremely important for soldiers.

Although they were all recruits, their abilities varied, and so did the tasks each was responsible for. Lin Qiye thought one tactic was bound to emerge: several people could give all their loads to one person and let him be eliminated, greatly increasing the chances of the others getting out.

Third, they couldn't attack or touch the drones in any way, nor could they obstruct the paintball guns. They could only run, not fight back. This was also to prevent anyone from cheating with their Forbidden Ruins abilities.

Finally, they couldn't attack one another and could only cooperate.

Thus, this wasn't merely a test of endurance, but a comprehensive training exercise that tested strategy, teamwork, sacrifice, and much more!

"Oh, and one more thing I want to stress: you must complete this contest yourselves. Understood?" Instructor Hong added.

Everyone knew who that remark was meant for, so all their gazes converged on one person.

Lin Qiye scratched his head awkwardly and signaled to Instructor Hong that he understood.

Couldn't you have told me in private? How's that any different from calling out my ID number?

But Lin Qiye really hadn't planned on cheating in this training session. At the very least, there was no need to have Zhou Meng come out.

The point of training was to temper his will and improve his abilities. If he had someone else take over for him even here, what was the point of training?

That said, Lin Qiye hadn't said he wouldn't use Seventy-Two Transformations.

Isn't this just running away? Whatever way I do it, I'm still running, right?

"Everyone, come up and take a knife. These are for clearing a path, not for cutting people! Understood?" Instructor Han warned them as he handed out the knives.

"Oh, and you, Cao Yuan, come here. You're not getting a knife. Here's a spoon. Make do with that."

"And you, Baili Tuming, take off your Free-and-Easy Space and all the jewelry you're wearing. Hand them over."

After making sure these troublemakers wouldn't stir up trouble during training, the instructors finally let them into the mountains.

"Hey, Hong, was there any need to make this so complicated?" Instructor Han couldn't help asking in confusion after the last recruit disappeared into the dense forest.

"Heh heh, Han, did you really think this was an ordinary physical fitness test? I explained the rules, but I never mentioned the punishment for failure. Once the first person gets eliminated, they'll flee wildly through these mountains like rats smoked out of their holes!"

"But it'll all be useless, because we've already altered this entire mountain range with a forbidden item. Now it's like a maze. Not even a bird can fly out!"

"So what's the punishment?" Instructor Han was growing more and more curious.

"Heh heh, the punishment is being forced to put on a forbidden item called the [Truth-Telling Ring]. Anyone wearing it can only tell the truth! At the same time, we'll switch on a microphone and broadcast it live through the Bluetooth speaker in every recruit's load."

"Then they'll find out what social death means!"

Watching Instructor Hong's increasingly perverse smile, Instructor Han couldn't help feeling a chill at the back of his neck.

Holy shit. Good thing no one had come up with such perverse training and punishment when I joined the Nightwatchers! Running laps and doing push-ups were practically rewards by comparison!

But then he suddenly seemed to remember something and hurriedly asked, "Wait, the other recruits are one thing, but what about Lin Qiye? If he really gets eliminated, are you sure you want to make him wear that thing?"

Instructor Hong toned down his sinister smile and said solemnly, "Of course we won't do that to him. When we were discussing this earlier, we did consider having Lin Qiye wear the bracelet and asking him some questions about Zhou Meng, but Chief Yuan immediately put a stop to the idea."

"Getting the Truth-Telling Ring to work isn't that easy. The item itself isn't high-level, so it can only work when a person's willpower is relatively weak. But Lin Qiye is already a Double God's Agent, so the Truth-Telling Ring might not work on him. That's the first reason."

"Second, if we really did ask something crucial and upset that true god named Zhou Meng, none of us could bear the consequences!"

"So we won't make Lin Qiye wear the ring. But we do want to see just how far he can go under these conditions! That's why we've increased the number of drones by a third! And a few of them will go after Lin Qiye alone!"

"Let's see what other skills you have, Lin Qiye, besides your two gods!"