The Times Have Changed

Did knowledge count as a skill?

If it did,

could knowledge enhance practical ability?

After cursing the system out in his head for at least one MB's worth of content, Fang Huai finally calmed down and began studying its capabilities.

First, he searched through all the knowledge available. There was nothing about "ascending to immortality" or "cultivating immortality"—at most, it fell within the realm of social sciences.

Second, this knowledge seemed to come with practical ability. Otherwise, what the hell was the point of that cheapest one, Beginner Hairdressing and Styling, which only cost 1 Military Merit Point?

Could it be that once your brain learned it, your hands would too?

And that equally cheap Manual Tile Leveling probably wasn't something you could do with knowledge alone either, right?

If! If all of these were knowledge!

Then if he pulled out Standard Egg-Filled Pancake Production from Culinary Arts, how should you respond, sir!

Give him a recipe?

Flour, chopped scallions, eggs, refined salt, peanut oil...

Did those things need to be exchanged for military merit too??

Therefore, Fang Huai concluded that this knowledge should count as skills with practical ability.

This Merit System had enormous potential.

For example, if he spent 5 Military Merit Points to exchange for Advanced Experience in Simple Repetitive Work, he probably wouldn't starve to death. At the very least, he could become a small team leader in Foxconn's screw-driving division.

And there were quite a few skills even more practical than that.

Fang Huai had just checked. For medical knowledge in a specific field, such as neurosurgery, the highest mastery level required 200 military merit.

Cheaper first-aid knowledge, basic version, required 30 military merit.

The difference in instrument mastery was fairly large. From the cheapest, harmonica, to the most expensive, cello, violin, and erhu, they ranged from 20 to 200 Military Merit Points.

Even piano cost less, only 180.

As for how Military Merit Points were calculated, he had already seen that as well.

Commendation (Outstanding Soldier): 20 Military Merit Points.

Third Class Merit: 50 Military Merit Points.

Second Class Merit: 100 Military Merit Points.

First Class Merit: 200 Military Merit Points.

Each military merit award could be exchanged one-way for Military Merit Points.

Additionally:

1. Placing in the top three in an individual event during competitions or assessments held by units at the regimental level or above would grant 2–10 Military Merit Points depending on the scale and ranking.

2. Each emergency dispatch would grant 0.1–10 Military Merit Points based on the scale of the disaster and the host's contribution. Dispatches that earned military merit would not be counted repeatedly.

Emergency dispatches counted for Military Merit Points too. Fang Huai felt reassured.

For firefighting units, large and small, the average was nearly two dispatches a day. During busy periods, they could get more than ten calls in one night. During heavy rain and the like, it could climb above twenty calls in a night.

Assessments at the regimental level—that was detachment level and above—seemed fairly common, but placing in the top three at the Provincial City Detachment... that was fucking hard.

Still, even if he didn't place, and even if he earned no military merit at all, five years of dispatches in a grassroots unit should still earn him quite a few Military Merit Points, right?

Even a weakling like Fang Huai in his previous life had responded to over seven hundred calls after three years in a grassroots unit.

But there were especially many minor calls.

If the lower limit was 0.1 Military Merit Points and the upper limit was 10... then most routine dispatches were probably close to the lower limit.

He only had six military merit in hand right now. Other than some beginner-level options, there was almost nothing he could exchange for.

But military merit did not seem difficult to earn.

According to Hao Chengbin, Fang Huai should have placed first in both pull-ups and parallel bars during the New Recruit Regiment's first physical fitness test. That alone earned him six points, three for each event.

Then after serving five years, he could save at least three or four hundred Military Merit Points.

Doing the math, that was enough to exchange for mastery of an instrument and expert-level ability in a medical field.

But without a medical license... exchanging for it seemed pretty fucking useless.

Still, there were quite a few bizarre techniques in the system, especially in the life skills section. There was even Basic Intervention Technique, Spit Bubble Blowing Technique, One-Minute Hiccup Technique...

There was even Deception to Persuade Parties to Withdraw Lawsuits...

That skill had actually been classified as a life skill. Forget a lawyer's license—even a law degree wasn't necessary. All you needed was a mouth.

After roughly calculating it, Fang Huai realized that with only twenty or thirty military merit, he could acquire every skill possessed by a standard Tianjin Uncle.

Clapper talk, chess, card games, everyone a negotiation expert.

Fang Huai was still lost in thought when everyone had more or less arrived.

"Ten minutes!"

The Chief of Staff walked to the front of the formation and immediately seized the initiative.

"An Emergency Assembly, and it took ten minutes! You people are really something! Which squad leader never taught you how to pack a bedroll, or never explained what an Emergency Assembly was? Raise your hand and let me see!"

Even as he spoke, people were still coming out of the New Recruit Building behind the Chief of Staff, shouting reports. They were all led aside by staff officers from Regimental Headquarters to have their names recorded.

The Chief of Staff swept his gaze across the crowd and gave a cold chuckle.

"No one, right?

"I personally called the Emergency Assembly because I was afraid you wouldn't hear it!

"And what were you doing?

"I don't want to lecture you about lofty principles anymore! You're sick of hearing them too! But even migrant workers at a construction site know it's time to start work when they hear a whistle. Some of you clearly heard the whistle, got woken up, and what did you do?

"Cursed a few times! Rolled over! Kept sleeping!

"Didn't give a damn!

"Some squad leaders didn't care either! They waited for them to make fools of themselves!

"Well, go ahead! If you're going to embarrass yourselves, embarrass yourselves together!

"Today! Those who reached the entrance within five minutes—I have your names recorded. Your squads get one point! Those who arrived after ten minutes—I recorded them too. One point deducted!

"Third Company, Third Squad; Fourth Company, Sixth Squad; Fifth Company, First Squad; Fifth Company, Third Squad; Seventh Company, Ninth Squad; Eighth Company, Second Squad—all arrived downstairs in orderly formation within eight minutes. Each squad gets three points!

"The rest of you should reflect on yourselves properly!

"This Squad Point System starts at 80 points, and evaluations will be conducted once a month! The average score of all squads in a company will be that company's total score!

"I've already prepared pennants for the highest- and lowest-scoring companies and squads!

"The Corps Leader has already been notified. He'll be watching these point evaluations, and there will be reward and punishment measures too! If you aren't afraid of making fools of yourselves, then keep deducting points as hard as you can!

"Whether you win honor or disgrace yourselves depends on your own performance!

"That's all I have to say. You'd better behave yourselves!

"All personnel, listen to the command! Get all bedrolls onto your shoulders! High-knee jumps in place, begin!"

The entire formation quickly started moving.

The Chief of Staff and several staff officers walked through the formations of each company, while reprimands continued to ring out.

"Why isn't your bedroll on your shoulder? Where are the straps? One point deducted!"

"Zhang Xing, Second Company, Sixth Squad! Two bedrolls came apart! One point deducted per person!"

"Seventh Company, Fifth Squad! One bedroll came apart!"

At the front of the formation, a staff officer continuously recorded the deductions.

Hao Chengbin's back was starting to sweat.

This Squad Point System was a new policy introduced this year. He really didn't know much about it.

But now he understood. If he had let them do as they pleased today, never mind gaining points—he would have been lucky not to lose three or four.

Late arrival, messy bedrolls... thinking carefully through the entire process, Peng Yingqirui alone could have lost two points.

And then there was Lu Zexian, Liu Yue...

Wouldn't that have been four points deducted?

Experience-based thinking could kill you!

How could he make up for losing so many points?

If they really ended up at the bottom and the Corps Leader saw it, maybe even issued a notice... would his transfer be affected too?

In the past, Hao Chengbin had always used the same old method with recruits: deliberately let them make mistakes, find an opportunity to educate them, and make them take every word he said seriously afterward.

So when he taught them how to pack bedrolls yesterday, he had only demonstrated it casually twice, asked whether they understood, and when everyone nodded, he lightly skipped over it. He had been waiting for them to expose their weaknesses so the regiment could criticize them.

Once they were criticized, he would have a suitable reason to fly into a rage when they returned to the squad.

To sum it up: entrapment.

He could no longer use that method of leading soldiers.

If things went badly, it could affect him too.

The times had changed.

This time, although the higher-ups had not repeatedly emphasized the matter of beating and scolding recruits, whenever training was underway, the Chief of Staff and the staff officers had started wandering around the training ground, whether they had anything to do or not.

It was no longer like before, when everything on the training ground was handed over to veterans and no one cared what they did, turning a blind eye to everything.

At that moment, Hao Chengbin keenly realized that the higher-ups' thinking had changed. They were using certain methods to tie the veterans' interests to the recruits' performance, gradually changing some of the brutal educational methods so recruits suffered fewer losses and took fewer detours.

The leaders did not want to affect the results of recruit training, so they tried not to mess with the veterans' mentality. But some reins had already been silently placed around the necks of squad leaders like them.

Still, there were not many veterans in the entire regiment who understood things as thoroughly as Hao Chengbin did. The military's transformation would still need to be achieved through increasingly strict pressure and restraints on veterans.

As he walked, the Chief of Staff loudly gave instructions.

"Company commanders, tomorrow... no, today is Friday! At noon, issue the regular uniforms! Tomorrow night, organize everyone to wash their Camouflage Uniforms and the clothes underneath! Every last one of them stinks!

"And they must wash their faces and feet before sleeping at night! Every recruit has at least three pairs of socks now. They must change them every two days! Your corridors are full of shoes and socks left outside. The smell is enough to kill someone! I have to take the back stairs to get around them just to enter my office! And you people can stand it!

"Now that you're in the military, all those lazy habits from before must be changed! I've already spoken with the bathhouse. Every Saturday, each company will line up to bathe!"

As soon as those words came out, the recruits began whispering among themselves.

"We finally get to take a bath!" someone said excitedly.

"Oh my god... do we have to?" someone else said miserably.

"Li Xiaohe, if you still don't wash, can you stop sleeping under me? Your feet hit me right in the crown of my head when I'm trying to sleep! And you sleep facing the other way too. I feel like my hair smells like your feet now!"

"That's exaggerated!" Li Xiaohe's face was a little red.

Someone beside him covered his mouth. "Brother, you should really wash! Stop raising your feet so high! Your foot odor has mixed with Zhou Tong from our squad's body odor!"

Someone snapped in embarrassment and anger. "Bullshit! I told you, I don't have body odor! We had Physical Examinations when we enlisted! The doctor even fanned the air and smelled me!"

"I'm dying, I'm seriously speechless! That was because the doctor could endure it! Did you bribe him or something? Brother, if you stink, fine, but can you stop covering it with cologne? That smell has marinated together!

"Have some decency. Can you let me enjoy some pure stink? The Sit-up Squad Leader even makes me hold your legs down. Every time you sit up, that smell... if grenades cost six bucks each, I'd put a hundred bucks' worth in your bedroll first!"

Fang Huai listened with great interest.

He had not heard such slightly innocent internet slang in a long time. Memories came crashing over him wave after wave.

Back then, Fang Huai had been glad he enlisted early and had narrowly avoided the years when non-mainstream culture was still mainstream. If he had gone to college, he probably would have dyed his hair into a giant rooster comb and gone to internet cafés to furiously hammer the up, down, left, right, and space keys.

He remembered the first time he went home on leave and played CS at an internet café with his friends. He had happened to see a core member of the Funeral Love Family lift the curtain and walk out.

That look was something he still could not forget.

It was a man, with pitch-black eyeshadow drawn on using eyeliner, and lips in the same color. His front bangs reached his chin and covered half his face. The hair at the back was divided at the crown and all slicked up with mousse like a fan. The moment he stepped outside, the wind caught him. His wind resistance was so huge that he had to walk sideways against it.

He was also wearing shorts and a pair of high-top canvas shoes that reached all the way to his knees. The shoe tops were practically stuffed into his shorts.

When Fang Huai asked his friend, his friend said this was called a New New Human. His friend even looked envious and said this guy might be the chief of some major family.

Fang Huai had been completely lost. He had only been in the military for a short time, and humanity had already evolved twice. He had not even become a New Human yet, and now there were New New Humans.

It even sounded like some kind of ethnic minority settlement model. They actually had clan chiefs.

In the years that followed, many of his friends joined the "New New Humans." Some even joined those "families" that the household registry did not recognize. Those families had chiefs, queens, princesses, and fucking royal guard corps.

They were also into acknowledging fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters.

When two families went to war, several hundred people would curse each other out in a tiny room in "Audition." They could hammer their keyboards hard enough to throw sparks.

Whenever those people entered internet cafés, the attendants had to charge them an extra twenty yuan deposit.

Fang Huai had mocked those friends plenty afterward.

Forget it.

If you love, love deeply. If you don't love, don't hurt.

Task complete.

After checking his bedroll, Fang Huai finally received the notification.

The Chief of Staff gave an order at the same time.

"Each company, lead your troops to the training ground for a Three Kilometer Run! Anyone whose bedroll came apart, wrap your quilt around yourselves and run!

"If I weren't worried about disturbing the public, I'd make you run a circuit around the city and embarrass yourselves!"

The entire formation wailed.

Fuck, three kilometers in the daytime and three kilometers at night! The blisters on their feet had not even healed yet!

"What are you yelling for? Think it's too little? Four kilometers!"

That silenced them.

Ten minutes later, the recruits were panting on the training ground, shouting slogans now and then.

For a collective run with several hundred people, four kilometers only took longer; it was not fast. Most people complained, but their endurance had grown stronger.

Of course, the three members of the Flying Tigers Squad remained the towering benchmarks in the middle of the field.

It was clear that someone had already reached their limit. One of them was vigorously doing high-knee steps while desperately explaining something to the cadre accompanying them.

"One, two, one!"

"Come on, let's wake you up a little! We are pests! Sing!"

Xiang Zhiyuan, the Seventh Company's Duty Second Squad Leader, began subjecting the recruits to PUA.

The recruits seemed used to it too. Once they were here, they could forget about dignity. If the squad leader said they were pests, then they were pests.

"We are pests! We are pests! The righteous veteran squad leaders, the righteous veteran squad leaders, must wipe out the pests! Wipe them out! Wipe them out!"

Xiang Zhiyuan's voice grew excited too. "What are you?"

"Pests!"

"What are you?"

"Pests!"

Before long, the other companies' voices were stirred up as well.

"What are you?"

"Rookies!"

"Who gave you your name?"

"Veterans!"

"Why do the veterans call you rookies?"

"Because we're stupid! Because we're idiots! Because we have no brains! Because we're missing a screw!"

On the vast Training Ground, there was no one—no recruits—only a group of pests and rookies with a strict sense of rank and hierarchy.