Chapter 44: Devil Training Camp 4

  The trainees struggled to prop up their exhausted bodies and stood in line shakily.

  "Each team leader counted the number of people." After counting, the 270-man team was reduced to 162. The eliminated trainees stood by the truck in a daze, and soon someone told them to take their luggage and get on the truck, which quickly drove out of the camp.

  "Today's morning exercise has come to an end, and your performance can only be considered barely passing. I hope to see improvement from you all tomorrow morning! After breakfast, formal training will begin! Everyone listen to my command, right turn! Destination: cafeteria, quick march!"

  "Report!" Qi Yunfei couldn't help but shout out loud.

  "Speak!" Ma Xiangdong's gaze was like a knife, stabbing towards him, just like a wolf staring at its food that was about to enter its mouth.

  "Report to the instructor, we haven't washed up yet, how can we have dinner?" Qiyunfei was chilled by his gaze, but still dared to ask the question.

  "If you were on the battlefield now, would you also ask your enemy to wait for you to wash up before eating? If you don't want to eat, you can continue running or just quit! Do you have any other questions?" Ma Xiangdong glared at him and asked in a gloomy tone.

  "Reporting officer, nothing else!" Qi Yunfei cursed in his heart, but he only dared to be angry and not speak out.

  Zhan Peng said in a low voice behind him: "Don't shout anymore, the strong sympathize with the weak but do not respect the weak. Do you want them to sympathize with you or respect you?"

  "Mother!" Qi Yunfei cursed in a low voice and didn't speak again.

  Breathless and disheveled, the students were led into the cafeteria, where they had to finish eating within five minutes, with no stools to sit on. When Xu Mingliang announced that time was up, most of the students only managed to eat half their fill.

  "Attention, everyone! Assemble on the playground in formation!"

  The trainees floated in with quick steps, rushing to the assembly ground. Xu Mingliang shouted without any sympathy: "Stand up straight! Who will sympathize with you if you're shaking all over? I suspect how you were scouts before? Remember, only the strongest can survive in boot camp, don't forget that for a moment, you are soldiers, men who stand tall and proud!"

  "If someone thinks that the instructor is intentionally making things difficult for you, giving you a hard time, then I hope you understand that soldiers are born for war! The training of special forces is to start from actual combat, the environment on the battlefield is thousands and tens of thousands of times more cruel than here. I would rather have you die in the training ground than go to the battlefield as cannon fodder! Train hard, give yourself a chance - the ones who will die are the enemies, not your own chance! Do you understand?"

  "Understood, instructor!" The remaining 162 students shouted with all their might, their voices echoing loudly in the mountains.

  At the entrance of the camp, five canopy trucks stopped. Xu Mingliang shouted: "Today's formal exercise class - in small groups, mountain marching 80 kilometers. Is there anyone who wants to quit? It can be raised now."

  Not one of the students had an expression of wavering.

  Xu Mingliang slightly raised an eyebrow, and his facial expression became more relaxed. "Turn right, board the bus!"

  The trainees followed their squad leaders onto the trucks, and the squad leaders immediately covered them tightly with canvas. The trucks started moving.

  The truck drove in circles on the mountain road so that the trainees couldn't find any reference points. However, this was unnecessary as the trainees were already dozing off after a morning of fatigue, with several even snoring while leaning against their backpacks.

  Huò Tīng counted the number of people on the bus, and there were six students left in Zhǎn Péng's class. Numbers 11, 13, 16, and 18 had already been sent back.

  After turning four or five corners, the car stopped, and Huo Ting shouted: "Get off at 15, 17, and 19!"

  "Yes!" Zhang Peng loudly responded, shouldering his backpack and grabbing his gun as he jumped off the truck. Qi Yunfei and No. 17 followed closely behind him, looking at their instructor in a somewhat flustered manner. They were already deep in the mountains and old forests - surely they weren't going to be abandoned here?

  He handed them a map and a compass, "Proceed 80 kilometers according to the map, find the notes at points A, B, and C marked on the map, which have the coordinates of the next point written on them. Report to point D by 7 am tomorrow morning."

  Another instructor filled the three men's canteens with water, handed out three compressed biscuits and gave Xianpeng a signal gun: "If you want to quit halfway, pulling the signal flare will have a helicopter come to pick you up."

  "Huo Ting raised his wrist to look at his watch: 'Now start timing, we can set off.'"

  Three people bowed their heads and took a look at the map, then ran away immediately. Huo Ting jumped onto the truck, and the truck started moving again.

  Zi Yunfei ran while looking back until the truck was out of sight, then stopped to catch his breath and called out to the two people in front: "Hey, don't run so fast, we still have 24 hours. We need to take a good look at the map first and divide up the work."

  Zhan Peng and No. 17 also stopped in their tracks, turning to look at him. No. 17 said discontentedly, "How are we supposed to divide the labor? Are we supposed to carry you while running?"

  "Cut the crap!" Zhi Yunfei cursed, "My point is that we should mark our destination, current location and rest stops on the map. Only then can we determine the shortest route. Otherwise, if we keep running blindly like this, we might be too exhausted to move even before reaching point D."

  Zhan Peng thought for a moment, nodded to No. 17 and said, "He's right." He took out the map and spread it on the ground, using the topography and terrain around him to locate their position on the map, and quickly found a small path with the compass. He pointed to the left side of the dense forest-covered road and said, "Here, this road is the closest way to point A."

  No. 17 looked at the map carefully, checked his watch and saw that it was 8:45. He raised his head to look at the small road: "This road is winding and requires frequent positioning, and the mountainous terrain changes greatly. Along this small road to point A, it will take about 7 hours. We don't have a strong flashlight or night vision device, and once it gets dark, we'll have to grope our way forward, which will affect our speed. I'm afraid we won't make it."

  Zi Yunfei had a strong sense of direction and had never gotten lost in an unfamiliar environment, so he didn't even need to use a compass. With a big smile on his face, he said: "Don't worry, I'll lead the way. We don't need to navigate frequently. Before 2 pm, we will definitely find point A."

  Zhan Peng glanced at his watch and then looked at the map, saying: "I agree. Open road 19, I'll take the back." He folded up the map and put it in his backpack.

  No. 17 looked at Qi Yunfei with some concern: "You'd better not be bragging, the fate of our three people's lives are all tied to you now!"

  "Put your heart at ease." Qi Yunfei patted the shoulder of No. 17 and said with a pleased expression, "Follow me."

  No. 17 glanced at his back and pouted, with a disgruntled expression. Zhan Peng said in a low voice: "Let's go."

  Three people pushed aside the dense branches that covered the small path, lined up and stepped onto the path, setting off with full confidence. Unbeknownst to them, they had already formed a special forces team's marching formation, with Qi Yunfei playing the role of the vanguard.

  Along the way, the three of them exchanged names. Number 17 was called Chu Heng, and he was twenty years old. He had been in the army for two years, and his immature face occasionally revealed a mischievous expression.

  The path was relatively flat, and the three of them had all been scouts for two years, so they knew the techniques for long-distance rapid marches. They would run 500 meters, then walk 500 meters, combining running and walking to minimize their physical exertion. Their bodies, exhausted from being tossed about earlier that morning, slowly recovered. After an hour, the three of them had already advanced ten kilometers forward.

  Zi Yunfei's confidence grew more and more, walking ahead, he couldn't help but hum a tune.

  Zhan Peng, however, was not as optimistic. He firmly believed that the road ahead would only get tougher and that the special forces assessment wouldn't let them pass so easily. He took out his compass again to take another reading, everything seemed normal, it seemed that Qi Yunfei's sense of direction was indeed quite good.

  Contrary to Zhan Peng's expectations, the good times did not last long. The three of them found point A at 13:20 and obtained the coordinates of point B, but then Zhan Peng suddenly discovered a fatal problem - the map and terrain did not match! In other words, the map was fake! It was clear that this was a hidden question - correcting the map.

  "Damn it!" Qī Yún Fēi cursed loudly, "Is this an instructor or Satan? Isn't this bullying?"

  Zhan Peng didn't say a word, took out his pen and started revising, but this would take up a lot of time, equivalent to increasing the marching distance. He drew on the map at the fastest speed, occasionally taking out the compass to determine the direction.

  Zi Yunfei plopped down on the grass, taking off his heavy backpack and massaging his numb and swollen legs. Chu Heng followed suit, sitting down to remove his own backpack.

  It was just past 2 o'clock, the map modification was completed, and Zhan Peng let out a sigh of relief. He looked at his partner and said, "We still have three points to find, everyone needs to be careful, there may not necessarily be any situation waiting for us ahead."

  His stomach growled loudly, and Zhan Peng suddenly remembered that from 5 am to now, he had only eaten two steamed buns. Under such intense exercise, his stomach began to protest. He took out a compressed biscuit from his backpack, divided it into three portions with his dagger, and handed one portion each to Qi Yunfei and Chu Heng. The three of them raised their water bottles, tilted their heads back, and gulped down the dry food with a swig of water.

  Zi Yunfeng furrowed his brow, patting his rumbling stomach, and grumbled discontentedly: "Damn instructor, he only gave us one compressed ration bar, will giving more kill him?" He looked around at the trees covered in weeds and muttered to himself: "I heard there's a lot of delicious food here, why can't I find any?"

  "Spare yourself." Chu Heng re-shouldered his backpack. "We have to go through wilderness survival training, for now we can only eat grass roots and tree bark."

  Zhan Peng had already determined the direction and pointed it out to Qi Yunfei and Chu Heng on the map. The three of them packed their gear and set off towards point B.

  They didn't know that on the road they were taking, there were several miniature cameras capturing their every move and transmitting them to Xu Mingliang and Ma Xiangdong who were sitting in front of the monitor.

  "These three kids are quite interesting," Ma Xiangdong said with interest, crossing his arms and staring at the monitor: "Among all the groups that found point A, only they have the most clear division of labor and also modified the map the fastest. Should we give them extra points?"

  "Wait and see if they can find the end point." Xuming Liang glanced at the dynamics of several other groups, raised his hand to look at his watch: "The real test for them will only begin after dark."

  Ma Xiangdong carefully observed Zhan Peng's movements and said, "I hope they can reach the finish line. This No. 15 has a strong momentum, it's a pity if he doesn't stay in our team!"

  Xu Mingliang patted his shoulder and smiled: "You quite like him?"

  "I have a feeling that this kid is like a wild beast, he hasn't even grown his fangs yet and already wants to bite people. The best part is that he knows when to hold back, isn't this the kind of person our Cheetah Troop needs?"

  Xu Mingliang nodded slightly, and Ma Xiangdong just expressed his feeling, "Look at his luck." He pointed to Qi Yunfei and said: "This kid is a material for the vanguard, 6 hours of journey, he only used the compass once, direction sense is not bad."

  It was a little past 8 pm, and the sky had completely darkened. Xianpeng's team successfully found point B and obtained the coordinates of point C. In twelve hours, they had completed more than half of their journey. However, for them, the real test had just begun.