Goodbye

Once he came back to his senses, Jiang Yan Hai was rather surprised. What the hell was this Special Forces Experience Card?

Could it be that using it would instantly turn him into a special forces soldier?

However, Jiang Yan Hai could not use this thing right now. Wouldn't that be a waste? He had no use for it at the moment, so he would keep it for now.

After taking a deep breath, Jiang Yan Hai did not dare sit down. Instead, he kept walking slowly to recover his strength. In particular, a tingling sensation continuously coursed through his body, as though his muscles were constantly regaining energy.

Though the process was slow, that tingling sensation was precisely what had allowed his muscles to hold on while he had been doing burpees. Otherwise, Jiang Yan Hai suspected he would have suffered rhabdomyolysis long ago.

What Jiang Yan Hai did not know was that his squad leader was currently holding a thick stack of reports and speaking with a man in a colonel's uniform.

"This is all of his information. I don't know what exactly happened to him, but he seems... like someone who has lost all hope," the squad leader reported solemnly.

If Jiang Yan Hai had been there, he would have recognized that this colonel was none other than Fan Tian Lei, the man he had met before. Fan Tian Lei was intently reading through the documents in his hands.

After finishing them, Fan Tian Lei fell silent for a moment before looking up and asking sternly, "Are these documents authentic records?"

"Reporting! Yes, sir!" The squad leader immediately snapped into a salute.

Fan Tian Lei immediately lapsed into silence. What had happened to turn the gifted young man he had once met—so confident, with eyes full of vitality and self-assurance—into this?!

The change had happened during recruit training. At first, Fan Tian Lei and the others had suspected that someone was bullying him, but after a thorough investigation, they found nothing.

It was as if he had changed overnight. All the records from Jiang Yan Hai's brief eighteen years of life were in Fan Tian Lei's office. It could be said that he was a genius through and through!

And even while he was in school, he had been a genius with terrifying self-discipline and perseverance at such a young age!

If a genius like this were properly trained in the military, he might become an outstanding general in the future!

That was why, after Jiang Yan Hai had slacked through the entirety of recruit training and was finally assigned here, Fan Tian Lei had personally spoken to his superiors and instructed the squad leader here to look after him.

But now... they still seemed to have found no reason!

This deeply pained Fan Tian Lei. If this continued, this kid would be ruined!

In his current state, even if he did not become a soldier, he would not be able to do scientific research either. Could it be that he simply did not want to be a soldier?

But whether it was this squad leader or He Chen Guang and the others before him, they had all probed him indirectly. Yet he had said nothing.

"I'll go talk to him. Afterward, I'll give you an answer as to whether we should continue looking after him this way." After a brief silence, Fan Tian Lei straightened his uniform and stood up.

"Yes, sir!" The old squad leader immediately saluted.

Fan Tian Lei returned the salute, and the two of them headed out, quickly making their way toward the farm barracks.

By then, Jiang Yan Hai had been walking slowly for more than ten minutes. The tingling sensation continued to rise from within his body. Miraculously, Jiang Yan Hai could no longer feel the soreness in his muscles, and it even seemed as though he had regained quite a bit of strength.

Just as Jiang Yan Hai was marveling at it, the mechanical voice suddenly rang out in his mind again.

"Training Mission 2 activated. Maximum speed, 300 standard burpees. One-minute countdown begins."

At the sound of that voice, Jiang Yan Hai's mouth fell open into an O. Fuck, is this trying to kill me?!

But after pausing for barely a dozen seconds, Jiang Yan Hai gritted his teeth and began doing burpees again. What was he afraid of? With the Auxiliary Training System, he probably would not die anyway.

Jiang Yan Hai immediately resumed his burpees, still at the fastest pace his body could manage.

What Jiang Yan Hai did not see was that when he had only completed a dozen or so, Fan Tian Lei and the old squad leader came down the road beside the farm's piggery. By chance, they saw Jiang Yan Hai doing burpees in the open space in front of the barracks.

Fan Tian Lei's eyes lit up at the sight. Then, almost instinctively, he looked at Jiang Yan Hai's squad leader beside him. This is the slacker you wrote about in your report?

But when he turned back and saw Jiang Yan Hai's squad leader staring with his mouth hanging open in shock, Fan Tian Lei knew that the squad leader probably had not known about this either.

They were some distance away from Jiang Yan Hai, and the terrain was much higher here, so Jiang Yan Hai could not see them. Besides, his back was turned toward them.

"Don't disturb him. Start counting," Fan Tian Lei said quietly.

"Yes!" Jiang Yan Hai's squad leader softly saluted and began counting.

By the time he reached the fiftieth, Jiang Yan Hai felt as if every muscle in his body had begun to ache. He felt as though death would be better than this.

Yet the tingling sensation in his muscle groups suddenly intensified. It was also accompanied by powerful tremors, and he felt as though every muscle in his body was constantly vibrating.

Fresh strength continuously surged from within his muscles, keeping him from collapsing and being unable to continue.

His speed had already dropped considerably, but Jiang Yan Hai was still doing burpees as fast as he possibly could.

"297... 298... 299... 300!" When the count in Jiang Yan Hai's mind reached the final number, his entire body went limp as he collapsed to the ground.

"How many?" Fan Tian Lei immediately turned and asked from the distance.

"Two hundred and eighty-eight." Jiang Yan Hai's squad leader immediately gave an exact number.

"That means he did at least three hundred in one go." Jiang Yan Hai had clearly already started when they arrived, so Fan Tian Lei immediately reached the conclusion that it was most likely a round number—three hundred.

Three hundred standard burpees at maximum speed in one go... Fan Tian Lei fell silent. Even the special forces soldiers under his command probably could not complete that number easily. Any training became different once it pushed someone to the limit. If someone was merely going through the motions, there would naturally be no problem, but giving it everything they had was an entirely different matter.

Because burpees trained explosive power, not endurance.

It sounded unbelievable, but an ordinary person who never exercised intensely could suffer rhabdomyolysis from doing squats continuously for ten minutes.

The standard burpee Jiang Yan Hai performed involved jumping upward with maximum force, landing and squatting down, planting both hands on the ground, kicking both feet back into a push-up position, completing a standard push-up, then jumping both feet forward into a squat. That counted as one. Then he jumped to maximum height again and repeated the cycle.

Given Jiang Yan Hai's physical condition in recruit camp, it should have been nearly impossible for him to finish it. Yet he had forced himself to do it! How much willpower did that require?

Fan Tian Lei took a deep breath. It seemed he had still underestimated this kid. Though he did not know the reason, Jiang Yan Hai was likely hiding many stories deep in his heart.