Is the Squad Leader a Special Forces Soldier?

"Squad Leader, I broke the pull-up bar."

"It's my fault, you can punish me."

Lü Qinglong walked up to Squad Leader Chen Ting, looking like a child who had made a mistake, lowering his head.

If he had known the pull-up bar was so fragile, he wouldn't have attempted a muscle-up like Xue Daochao. He should have just stuck to regular pull-ups.

Now, he'd gone and broken the pull-up bar on the training ground. He must have made a huge mistake.

"Uh..."

"No need. The bar just broke. We have plenty of others, don't we? You can just use another one."

Chen Ting's mouth twitched as he spoke.

Unexpectedly, Squad Leader Chen Ting didn't scold Lü Qinglong at all. Instead, his tone was full of praise.

"Huh? Squad Leader, you don't need to worry about this?"

"I can put this pull-up bar back into the ground with my hands."

Lü Qinglong examined the structure of the pull-up bar. The main issue was that the supporting cables weren't properly secured to the ground, which caused it to be pulled out.

All he needed to do was re-insert the ground stakes back into the earth, and the pull-up bar would be as good as new.

"You can put it back? Alright, go ahead then."

Chen Ting nodded as he looked at Lü Qinglong.

Lü Qinglong happily went to the collapsed pull-up bar. He lifted it with his hands and then pushed it into the sandy ground.

Next, he used his Prison Foot, a size sixty-five, to stomp down hard on the ground stakes several times.

He made sure the stakes were fully embedded in the sand, then did two pull-ups. The pull-up bar didn't shake at all. Only then did he sigh in relief and return to the formation.

"It's fixed, Squad Leader. It's back to how it was, and even sturdier than before."

Lü Qinglong smiled again, like a child.

"Good. Thank you for your hard work."

Squad Leader Chen Ting nodded with a strange expression, then began to warm up his arms in front of the New Recruits, muttering to himself:

Are all the Lü family members this monstrous?

Just as all the New Recruits were wondering what their Squad Leader was doing, they saw Chen Ting approach the pull-up bar.

With a gentle jump, he grabbed the bar with his hands.

Then, under their puzzled gazes, Chen Ting calmly began to perform muscle-ups.

The veteran, now in his sixteenth year, tensed his body into almost a straight line. He seemed to be flying on the pull-up bar.

He completed twenty consecutive muscle-ups, followed by pull-up exercise two, pull-up exercise three...

He continued all the way to pull-up exercise eight.

Finally, he landed steadily on the ground, breathing slightly heavily.

"Awesome! Squad Leader Chen Ting is awesome!"

Squad Leader Wang Yuan from the second squad appeared beside the pull-up bar at some point and began clapping loudly.

The other New Recruits instinctively joined in the applause.

"Our Squad Leader truly lives up to his reputation as someone who scores Special 1 every year! He's still got it, Squad Leader!"

"Exercises one through eight are still so smooth and standard. How can we rookies compare to you, Squad Leader!"

In front of Chen Ting, even Corporal Wang Yuan referred to himself as a "new recruit."

The other New Recruits could clearly see the admiration in Wang Yuan's eyes.

"Our Squad Leader is this amazing? Even the Squad Leader from the next squad looks at him with admiration."

Ji Baichang asked Xue Daochao, looking a bit stunned.

He never would have guessed. Their Squad Leader usually felt like an old man focused on his health, yet he was so fierce on the pull-up bar?

"Your Squad Leader is incredible! Who in the entire Special Operations Brigade doesn't know his nickname, Thunder?"

"If he's not the number one assault specialist in our brigade, then who is? Cherish your Squad Leader!"

Wang Yuan, seemingly overhearing Ji Baichang's conversation, turned around and whispered a few words, his admiration evident.

"Our Squad Leader is actually this good? One of the best in the entire Special Operations Brigade?!"

Ji Baichang's pupils contracted sharply, as if he had discovered a new continent.

Does that mean Special Forces are just like their Squad Leader?!!

"You're spouting nonsense again. I'm about to retire, and you're bringing up the old days."

Chen Ting said to Wang Yuan with a hint of reprimand in his voice.

"Heh, Squad Leader! You're so strong, I was just afraid your recruits wouldn't know and someone might not respect you."

Wang Yuan chuckled, then turned and ran back to his own recruits, directing them to start pull-ups.

"What are you standing around for? The New Recruit Company regulations state that twelve pull-ups are passing, eighteen is good, and twenty-four is excellent. Have you met the standards?"

"Anyone who can't do them, just hang there. The physical fitness of soldiers these days is really worse than it was last year."

Chen Ting turned to look at the New Recruits who failed to meet the standard on the pull-up bar. Those few New Recruits immediately jumped up and obediently hung on the bar.

After hearing about Chen Ting's past exploits and his nickname in the Special Operations Brigade, Ji Baichang and Xue Daochao were also fired up and both expressed their desire for extra training.

Of course, the pull-up bar was only one of the training subjects for the New Recruit Company at the moment. After training on the pull-up bar for more than ten minutes, Chen Ting led them to the parallel bars area.

Compared to the pull-up bar, the parallel bars were obviously much simpler. Many New Recruits who could only do one or two pull-ups could generally do about four or five when using the parallel bars for dips.

In the parallel bar dip exercise, Ji Baichang did about thirty, which was exactly the standard for a "good" rating on the parallel bars.

Xue Daochao, neither more nor less, did exactly one more than him, which was meant to be provocative, making Ji Baichang so angry he was going crazy.

When it was Lü Qinglong's turn to do parallel bar dips, the other New Recruits, including Squad Leader Chen Ting, fell silent.

"Ji Baichang, go help him adjust the distance between the parallel bars. Set it to the widest possible."

"Also, check the base and see if it's secured properly."

"Then have two people hang on the other side of the parallel bars to add some weight, so the whole thing doesn't flip over."

The Veterans were indeed Veterans, methodically directing the New Recruits through a series of preparatory tasks.

Someone who didn't know better would think they were preparing for some high-risk operation, but it was just Lü Qinglong about to use the parallel bars for training.

"Squad Leader, everything's adjusted."

"Qinglong, why don't you come over and try the distance between these parallel bars? I've already set it to the widest."

Ji Baichang called out. Lü Qinglong came to the parallel bars and gestured, gripping the bars with his hands and tucking his legs up.

The adjusted width was just right. Before starting the parallel bar dips, Lü Qinglong still decided to voice his doubts:

"Squad Leader, with my physical fitness, can I join the Special Operations Brigade?"

"I want to be a Special Forces soldier too!"