Chapter 105: The Rookie Arrives

“Ow, it hurts, it hurts like hell!”

“Aaah!”

A chorus of miserable screams rang out across the parade ground of the military camp. The young women soldiers stared in stunned silence, hands clamped over their mouths, at the tragic scene before them. More than twenty raw recruits were sprawled on the ground, writhing in pain, while Qin Yang stood in the center looking thoroughly exasperated, grumbling, “Was that even fun? We only just warmed up.”

The other recruits all felt relieved they had not joined in. That guy was simply a monster, a total monster. Taking on five men at once had been easy for him. Was he even human?

“If you can’t handle it, then get lost. Stop making all that deafening noise here,” Ge Yun spat and barked, “You’re ruining my good mood with your racket. Move it.”

When skill falls short, defeat means being trampled by others.

One by one, the recruits struggled to their feet and left. Only the tall man, nearly six and a half feet tall, got up with a hand over his stomach and clenched teeth. “That didn’t count. We go again.”

“I’m not in the mood to keep fighting,” Qin Yang said as he put his gear back on. Then he struck a posture that clearly said he intended to watch the show. “Ge Yun, you handle this one.”

Ge Yun was even more direct. He rolled his neck and walked forward. The tall man drew in a deep breath, gave a low roar, and charged. This time he was not simply throwing his weight around; he was using the military combination techniques. But for Ge Yun and the others, who had studied those techniques inside and out, that posed very little threat.

Ge Yun stamped his left foot down, braced his left hand against the man’s chest, seized his collar with his right, and, in one smooth motion, executed a shoulder throw. Everyone stared in disbelief as Ge Yun, weighing only around a hundred and forty or fifty pounds, hurled the nearly two-hundred-pound giant clean over his head.

The man flew three or four meters before crashing to the ground, feeling as though every bone in his body had come apart.

The recruit company commander could not sit still any longer. This was a promising man in his unit; if he were broken here, that would be trouble indeed. He hurried forward and shouted, “Er Hu, how are you?”

“I-I’m fine,” Er Hu said through gritted teeth as he forced himself back up.

Ge Yun curled his lip, then sat back down on the ground. “His combat ability is passable. If he got a little more training, he’d probably qualify as an elite special-forces soldier. Right now, though, he’s still a bit short.”

As he spoke, a military vehicle suddenly drove over and stopped in front of the group. A neat, efficient team sprang down from the vehicle, fully armed, their movements precise and disciplined. They clearly had some skill, though they still lacked the edge of lethal bloodshed. Just from that missing aura, Zhou Qi and the others gave the eight-man team an immediate failing grade, frowning all the while.

This was war. In war, the real danger was not a godlike enemy, but a pig of a teammate. Their opponents were hardened operatives tempered in endless fighting, and if these rookies went up against them, they would likely do nothing but drag everyone down. What made things even more irritating was the female soldiers, who kept exclaiming how handsome, how cool they were.

An upper-level officer noticed Qin Yang and the others and stepped forward to salute. “Sun Umbrella Special Operations Team requests guidance from the War God Squad in the future.”

The officer knew exactly who these men were. He also knew very well how terrifying they had once been when locked away in the Black Prison. If the eight men he had brought were the best of the best chosen from the special forces, then these twelve were super-elite. Every one of them was a killing blade forged at immense cost by the nation, every one of them a terrifying freak capable of changing the course of a localized conflict.

The War God Squad lived up to its name. Compared with them, even the specially selected elite unit said to be the Chinese military’s final trump card, the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon Team, might not be as formidable as this improvised super squad.

“Sun Umbrella Special Operations Team? Never heard of them,” Cheng Mu muttered.

“The Sun Umbrella Special Operations Team was only established three months ago. The men selected for it are elite recruits. It is one of the military’s specially formed action teams for building China’s special forces,” the officer replied with formal precision.

“I’m the captain, Xie Chengyang,” said a young soldier as he stepped forward and saluted.

“Captain Zhou Qi.” Zhou Qi returned the salute.

While Qin Yang’s group examined the rookies, the members of the Sun Umbrella Special Operations Team were also sizing up this mysterious squad. No military bearing, no soldierly dignity; they sat on the ground like a gang of street thugs. It was hard for them to understand why their instructor had been so excited he had barely slept, or why he kept stressing in every meeting that they must study this War God Squad at all times. Study what, exactly? Their sloppy behavior? If they went back with that kind of performance, their evaluation would certainly be a fail.

Xie Chengyang’s team had their own pride. From the day the Sun Umbrella Special Operations Team was formed, their superiors had emphasized that this small unit must be built into an existence comparable to the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon Team. The Five-Clawed Golden Dragon Team had been assembled from the finest special-forces talent across the entire country after dozens of grueling rounds of refinement. As a newly formed unit, they had come here with the confidence that they would surpass it in this counterterrorism operation. But this War God Squad made them doubt themselves.

Wei Boyang received the news and quickly led the regimental commander and the others out to meet them. They exchanged salutes and a few perfunctory greetings.

Zhou Qi, the War God Squad hasn’t been to the battlefield in many years. This war will be full of danger. There is a training area at the base. You should begin with some restorative training,” Wei Boyang said, having noticed the special team’s uncertainty. He glanced at the time. “Five hours of recovery should be enough for you to rediscover your old edge, yes?”

“Yes.”

The few men answered lazily and half-heartedly.

That only made Xie Chengyang and the others stare wider-eyed. He was a major general, after all. They were really showing him no respect at all.

The Sun Umbrella team’s upper-level instructor naturally understood what Wei Boyang meant. He turned to Xie Chengyang and the others and said, “You lot are joining the training too. Strengthen your coordination with the War God Squad before the battle. No mistakes allowed. Understood?”

“Yes!”

Compared with Qin Yang’s group, this reply was crisp, sharp, and forceful, creating a stark contrast. Qin Yang, who had been lying on the ground resting, was startled at first. Once he understood what was happening, he could not help muttering, “Screaming so loud for no reason. Asking to die, are you?”

The instructor blinked, and after getting a good look at Qin Yang, grew even more puzzled. Since when had someone this young appeared in the Black Prison? But when he saw Zhou Qi and the others looking at Qin Yang with unmistakable admiration in their eyes, his confusion only deepened.

The training ground was not far away.

Since the regimental commander wanted to fire up his men, he brought along many promising soldiers to watch. Er Hu was among them, his nearly six-and-a-half-foot frame standing out dramatically in the crowd. The anti-terrorism training site was mainly used for hostage rescue drills and outdoor assassination drills. Wei Boyang chose hostage rescue first.

Inside a sealed space roughly the size of four basketball courts, a chaotic layout had been arranged: structures, houses, walls, barricades. The trainees had to pass through twelve defensive lines and eliminate the operatives holding hostages. First up was the Sun Umbrella Special Operations Team.

Xie Chengyang led the charge. After selecting his weapon, he drew a deep breath and rushed forward. Enemies would emerge constantly, both ahead and behind him. Some held daggers, others firearms while using hostages as shields. It had to be said that he was indeed quite good. From his combat movements to his shooting, everything was clean and decisive, with no hesitation. By the time he reached the final simulated stronghold, he had successfully killed seventeen operatives in thirty-seven seconds without accidentally harming a single hostage.

“Not bad.” The regimental commander clapped, and his men joined in.

One must know that in this simulation, the fastest any of them had ever completed it before was one minute and twenty-six seconds. Xie Chengyang had cut that time by more than half. The rest of the Sun Umbrella team were no slouches either. They moved through with rifles in hand, swift and efficient, all of them finishing within forty seconds.

Afterward, they all glanced at Qin Yang and the others. They were quite confident in their times, after all. The fastest record on a standard course was twenty-nine seconds, and that had been set by a true super soldier ace.

“I’ll go first.”

Cheng Mu picked up an 81-1 rifle and stood at the starting point. When the signal came, he exploded forward with speed beyond all reason. The instant he rushed out, he changed completely. Gone was the street tough attitude; in its place was a soldier who seemed to be moving through a storm of bullets. His decisive aggression made everyone hold their breath and dare not even blink, terrified of missing a single moment.

He ran and fired. In some places he did not even need to aim; an instinctive twitch of the body was enough to send the bullet flying, striking each operative in the forehead at a nearly uncanny angle.

When he fired his last shot, the signal operator stared at the counter in disbelief.

Twenty-nine seconds.

The previous fastest record: twenty-nine seconds!

Cheng Mu tossed the rifle aside and snorted. “Even if you keep training, it still can’t compare to surviving in a hail of bullets.”

“My turn.”

Next came Ge Yun, Gao Di, Zhou Qi, Dongfang Hao, and the others. It was like witnessing repeated rebirths through fire. This training ground had become a battlefield, and once inside, they transformed into the almost legendary super soldiers. Leap shooting, rolling shooting, and other complex, dangerous maneuvers were executed in their hands without the slightest hesitation, flowing together in one seamless motion.

“Twenty-nine seconds.”

“Thirty seconds.”

“Thirty-one seconds.”

“Twenty-seven seconds.”

When Zhou Qi stepped out, the operator was already numb. A record of twenty-five seconds made him feel as though he were dreaming. As for the pride the Sun Umbrella Special Operations Team had held before, it had been utterly crushed by the pressure. Every second shaved off the time was a tremendous leap, and they had not expected the gap to be so enormous.

“That’s what a soldier king looks like. A true soldier king.” Er Hu stared at the War God Squad, his eyes blazing with excitement. “I, I have to become a soldier like them.”

“So impressive. Are those really the same people who looked like street punks a moment ago?” several of the female soldiers whispered, covering their mouths. Even standing a little closer, they could feel the fierce killing intent radiating from those men.

Finally, it was Qin Yang’s turn.

“Qin Yang, I permit you to choose your own combat method,” Wei Boyang said, his words carrying a deeper meaning.

Qin Yang had no battlefield experience. He had learned plenty about marksmanship, but all his experience came from Zhou Qi and the others describing it to him; he lacked real combat practice. Still, Qin Yang had his own style, and Wei Boyang understood that. In the small training area specially carved out inside the Black Prison, Qin Yang could always determine the enemy’s position in the shortest possible time.

Qin Yang grinned and picked up two pistols. He walked forward at an unhurried pace, as though out for a stroll. Before the operatives even appeared, he had already raised his hands. The dark, blood-soaked killing aura that had once raged through the battle in Fengyang County surged out of him wildly, and even the temperature in the training area seemed to plunge. This was a dark essence of slaughter, a kind of killing stripped of all humanity.

Bang.

With the crack of a gunshot, Qin Yang remained standing where he was, motionless, his hands moving continuously. Bullet after bullet flew out. Then, at the very end, Qin Yang finally moved. He accelerated forward nearly thirty meters, raised both hands, and fired at the same time.

By the time the counter stopped, the bullets in both his pistols were completely spent.

“Ten, ten—twelve seconds.”

Seeing a number so absurd it almost should not have existed, everyone was stunned. Zhou Qi’s group, however, could only smile helplessly.

What silenced them most was this: one by one, the human-shaped dummies representing the operatives collapsed. Some had even been hiding behind walls, but the bullets had still struck them squarely in the head.

“How... how did you do that?” Xie Chengyang swallowed hard and asked in shock.

Memory alone made this impossible. Even if they remembered every target’s location, the positions were rearranged every time, and no one could predict the changes.

Qin Yang tossed the two pistols back onto the table and said something so flagrantly boastful that Zhou Qi and even Wei Boyang wanted to slap him twice: “Training. High-intensity training. Uninterrupted training.”

“Cough, cough.”

Cheng Mu coughed twice, clearly struck dumb by Qin Yang’s words.

The corner of Wei Boyang’s mouth twitched. He waved a hand and said, “Move on to the next drill.”