Chapter 189 : Chapter 189
Chapter 189. The New Recruit Tactical Exercise Begins
[Choice One: Faced with the pressure from Instructor Qin, you choose to turn pressure into motivation, guarantee that you will take first place, and repay Instructor Qin for his guidance. Reward: ‘Mr. Competitor’
Choice Two: Faced with Instructor Qin pressuring you by threatening to revoke your training exemption, you do not care at all. If you lose your exemption, does that mean you cannot slack off anymore? Maintain a pleasant mood and eliminate outside pressure. Reward: ‘Intermediate Slacking Gift Pack’.]
Seeing this, the corners of Jiang Yichen’s lips slowly curled upward.
In truth, being exempt from training was rather boring. After a month and a half of it, he had discovered that he actually preferred the feeling of slacking off in the middle of training.
He did not know why. It just gave him a strange sense that he had earned it.
“Well? If you do not want your training exemption revoked, then bring back some results for me. Understood?” Qin Feng smiled faintly, looking entirely confident that he had him under control.
Jiang Yichen shrugged. “Then, Instructor Qin… do as you like.”
Qin Feng: “…”
Huh? No, what do you mean, do as I like? Why are you not following the script?
“You are not afraid?” he asked with a frown.
“What is there to be afraid of?” Jiang Yichen looked completely relaxed. “I have been exempt from training for so long that I should at least have some sense of participation. Otherwise, would this military district internship not have been for nothing?”
“…” Qin Feng’s mouth twitched. You certainly had not thought that way during this past half month of slacking off while cultivating.
Seeing that he could not threaten Jiang Yichen at all, Qin Feng’s face darkened slightly. “You all… just do your best and show your true strength.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he turned and walked straight toward the armed helicopter without another glance back.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host, on making a Slacking Choice. Reward: ‘Intermediate Slacking Gift Pack’. Would you like to open it?]
Jiang Yichen chose not to open it and stored it away again instead.
The last time he had opened two Intermediate Gift Packs at once, he had gotten a Supreme-grade reward. He still wanted to save them up for another gamble.
“Brother Yichen, the only one who can deal with Instructor Qin really is you.” Tang Long grinned. “You have no idea. Even though we did not have to take part in tactical training these past two weeks, Instructor Qin supervised our cultivation every single day. He practically wanted to monitor us twenty-four hours a day.”
“When I went to eat a snack, he scolded me so hard.”
Chu Xingchen rolled his eyes. “Instructor Qin is doing it for our own good. Having an Eighth-Realm Martial Emperor guide our cultivation is a rare opportunity.”
At that, Jiang Yichen slowly turned to look at Su Linyu beside him and rested his right hand on her head. “Cultivating has been hard, has it not?”
Su Linyu lifted her eyes and rubbed herself against his palm in an affectionate, clingy way, then shook her head. “It has not been hard at all. If anything, I am full of confidence.”
“Why?”
“Because every step I take forward brings me one step closer to Brother Yichen.” She gave him a sweet smile.
Jiang Yichen burst into laughter. In his previous life, Su Linyu and the others had been the people he envied and chased after. Now, he had become the one they longed to catch up to.
He swept his Mental Perception across the four of them, and their realms became clear at a glance.
Su Linyu was at the Second Layer of the Sixth Realm. Tang Long was at the Seventh Layer of the Fifth Realm. Chu Xingchen was at the Ninth Layer of the Fifth Realm. Jiang Feng had broken through to the Fifth Realm.
Reaching this level in half a month was not bad at all. The Slacking Cultivation Heart Method really was quite effective.
“All right, let’s go. I will be counting on your performance in the new recruit tactical exercise,” Jiang Yichen said.
As the group leader, it was enough for his team members to work hard. He had to give them a chance to perform, after all.
It was the same principle as a boss and his employees. As for the final results, he would enjoy whatever needed to be enjoyed.
“No problem. We are definitely taking first place.” Tang Long was full of confidence.
Su Linyu and Chu Xingchen also nodded.
Jiang Feng’s handsome face was as aloof as ever as he spoke in a deep voice, “Man, I will prove that I am not just dead weight.”
Jiang Yichen smiled blandly. “Get on the helicopter.”
The five of them boarded the helicopter, flying past the futuristic military base and over the vast, endless desert.
They landed at a helicopter platform near the center of the Eastern Great Desert, close to the Third Military District.
Below, nine instructors in military uniforms and nine groups of new recruits were already waiting. When they saw Qin Feng disembark, their eyes lit up slightly.
“Instructor Qin.”
They saluted.
Qin Feng gave a slight nod and returned the salute. “Is everything ready?”
“Everything is fully prepared!”
Qin Feng gave a grunt of acknowledgment and had Jiang Yichen’s five-man group stand beside the groups from the other nine military districts.
In the Fourth Military District’s group, Lin Wan, dressed in camouflage uniform, looked at Jiang Yichen’s familiar face, and her palm tightened involuntarily.
During this period of military district internship, she had heard many stories about Jiang Yichen. He had stopped an SS-Rank Beast Tide and received the highest honor, Special Class Merit!
She had gradually come to realize that what had once seemed within reach had now become something far beyond her sight.
Lin Wan looked at Jiang Yichen unwillingly, but he never looked back at her, as though she no longer even qualified to enter his line of sight.
“I believe that before you came to take part in the New Recruit Tactical Assessment, your instructors already explained the rules of the New Recruit Tactical Exercise.”
At that moment, Qin Feng stood in parade-rest stance and spoke in a ringing voice, “I will repeat it once more. This year’s New Recruit Tactical Exercise will use a points-based elimination system combined with random missions.”
“For every member of another group you eliminate, you will receive one point.”
“But the most important thing is your mission. If you complete it within the designated time, your exercise will be considered a pass, and you will receive fifty points.”
“If you wipe out another group completely, or stop another group from completing its mission, you will receive an additional ten points.”
After restating the rules, Qin Feng glanced at the watch on his wrist and said, “It is about time. Next, we will deploy each group to a random location within the Eastern Great Desert.”
“But do not worry. The distance between any two groups will be at least one hundred kilometers. There will be no situation where a weaker group is eliminated at the very start by a stronger one.”
“Your missions have already been loaded onto your exercise wristbands. They will unlock once you arrive at the designated location.”
“Now, prepare to depart!”
At Qin Feng’s command, the instructors immediately ordered their groups aboard the armed helicopters, and the spinning rotors whipped up a sky full of sand and dust.
After listening to the rules once, Jiang Yichen could not help smiling.
A hundred kilometers apart? His Mini-Map covered a thousand kilometers.
In his previous life, he had really envied those who got to take part in tactical exercises. Now, he felt there was nothing particularly interesting about it.
He could speedrun this whole thing.
Jiang Yichen clicked his tongue twice, then boarded the helicopter with Su Linyu and the others as they flew deeper into the desert.
Only the instructors leading each group remained, watching the helicopters gradually disappear from view.
“Instructor Qin, they are only new recruits. Are they really going to the ruins?”
The instructor from the Second Military District suddenly asked.
To put it bluntly, this New Recruit Tactical Exercise was not really meant to let the recruits from the various military districts show off their talents at all. It had been arranged specifically for Jiang Yichen’s group.
Qin Feng let out a sigh. “That was Commander Xu’s arrangement. Jiang Yichen and the others’ recruit assessment is to head to the newly discovered Guankou Ruins.”
“Before that, I had to help them increase their strength and accumulate more real combat experience.”
The instructor from the Third Military District sighed emotionally. “Sigh, things really are a little hard on these kids.”
“Kids? Jiang Yichen’s realm is already higher than ours, and he is even a Space-type martial artist. His future is limitless.”
“Come on, then. As usual every year, let’s make a bet on how long Jiang Yichen’s group will take to complete the mission. If I remember right, their mission is to eliminate everyone else before the other groups finish their missions. That is very difficult.”
“Around one hour. The record from previous years was two hours. Their strength is a little terrifying, so one hour should be about right.”
“I think an hour and a half. We placed an experienced tactical veteran in the other groups, and they are all a hundred kilometers apart. It will not be that fast.”
“You are forgetting that Jiang Yichen is a Space-type martial artist. He can use Spatial Jump.”
“You think he can jump a hundred kilometers? That is impossible. Even if he can, if the other groups disguise themselves and hide properly, can Jiang Yichen’s group really find them that quickly?”
“That is true. Then I am betting on an hour and a half too. Whoever loses washes socks for a month.”
“…”
Qin Feng smiled when he heard that, though he did not join in. Still, he felt their analysis was quite reasonable.
With experienced tactical veterans in the field, even if Jiang Yichen’s group was very strong, finding the other groups would still be extremely difficult.
How would they deal with that, he wondered?