The high school team leader looked at him, revealing a meaningful smile. The next moment, he roared, "Twenty kilometers of armed cross-country running, let's go!"
After yelling, he grabbed an automatic rifle, pointed it into the air, and pulled the trigger. "Go!!"
"Da da da da..."
The newbies didn't delay any longer, quickly found their backpacks, put them on, and ran towards the dirt road outside.
As Li Ling's activity increased, his blood flow accelerated, and his numb body quickly recovered. He joined Chen Paixiwa and the others to run forward.
Behind them, Gao Zhong, the team leader, grinned at Li Ling. Damn, this rookie is really tough. His arms, which were kicked, still hurt.
...
After the first armed cross-country run at the camp ended, it was completely dark. It was already past eight o'clock. Gray Wolf led the rookies to a dusty, dilapidated warehouse and told them that this would be their dormitory for a long time to come.
The newbie's dissatisfaction was of no use. The group of people obediently tidied up the house and cleaned the warehouse. About an hour passed.
During this process, Li Ling also met the two clowns, Shi Dafan, the medic, and Deng Zhenhua, the ostrich. Their antics made everyone, who were exhausted after a long day, feel relaxed.
Midnight.
The newbies, who had been on high alert, wary of what tricks the veterans might pull, finally succumbed to exhaustion and fell asleep one after another. However, they were soon awakened by the veterans with tear gas.
Li Ling hadn't slept at all. He forced himself to stay awake and endured the most difficult hour or so before finally recovering. With the feedback of the World Seed's energy, his physical and mental strength had been greatly restored.
So when the veterans threw tear gas into the dormitory in the middle of the night, he was the first to notice and shouted a warning, waking everyone up.
The rookies' ordeal officially began. From this moment on, they embarked on endless training, enduring extreme physical pain while also suffering mental torment from the veterans.
Endless insults and sharp sarcasm constantly assaulted the newbies' mental defenses. Every day, people quit, and those who chose to quit had all sorts of reasons, while those who persisted had only one reason.
Everyone else has a way out, but Li Ling doesn't. Even if he dies, he'll die on the special forces selection training ground.
He had to join the special forces, otherwise Xiaoying's tragedy might still happen; he couldn't allow any accidents to occur.
"Even the old lady selling popsicles can make them faster than you. What are you wasting military funds for? Are you thinking of quitting?"
"Loyal to the motherland! Loyal to the people!"
"At this rate, the motherland and the people are ashamed of you."
"Loyal to the motherland! Loyal to the people!"
"..."
Training, training, training that seemed to have no end. All the rookies were exhausted, their brains almost stopped working. Every day, they just mechanically followed the instructions of the veterans, including Li Ling.
In true extreme physical training, the replenishment of World Seed energy is rather slow. After all, there is too little spiritual energy in modern society, and World Seed cannot absorb much of it.
Except for some events that require endurance, where Li Ling can rely on his physical strength to gain an advantage, he can persevere in other events with strong willpower.
So Li Ling, like all rookies, was basically relying on willpower and physical strength to tough it out.
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Chapter 50 Becoming a Rambo-like Man
"What are you?"
"Newbie".
Who gave you your names?
"Old bird".
Why do experienced players call you newbies?
"Because we're stupid, because we're dumb, because we're brainless, because we're a bit slow!"
"very good."
Time passed day by day, and most of the rookies had been eliminated. On the fifth day, after a 20-kilometer armed cross-country extreme test with a load of 24.5 kilograms, only 47 of the 129 rookies who participated in the training remained.
Over five days, the newbies slept for only four hours in total, and everyone felt like their world was shaking when they stood up.
"Keep going, bro, you're just two steps away!"
Li Ling and Chen Pai lay down at the finish line, looking at a rookie who was almost inching forward step by step in the distance, and kept saying encouraging words to him.
"come on."
"Reconnaissance Company..."
"kill!"
"Reconnaissance Company..."
"Kill...kill..."
The rookie yelled as he rushed to the finish line, then fainted with a smile, but he soon woke up.
The group lay sprawled on the ground, quietly waiting for the end. Because they had been relatively fast, they had managed to get a short break.
Gray Wolf glanced at the stopwatch, walked to the middle of the road, and separated the rookie who had already crossed the finish line from the rookie who arrived later, as if erecting an insurmountable dividing line between the two groups.
"You've been eliminated. Your suffering is over."
The rookies, led by Chen Pai, struggled to their feet after crossing the finish line. Looking at their brothers who had endured five days and nights of hardship with them, they felt sorry for them.