SCOM - Chapter 28
Chapter 28
The evening training sessions were short, as the instructors could only use the academy’s training grounds. On Saturday and Sunday, with two full days available, the seven of them were dragged out for field training early in the morning.
In the dense wilderness, the seven students of the First Military Academy stood in a line. Four instructors and a rescue medical team waited in a temporarily erected tent opposite them. After a while, the instructors emerged from the tent and stood before the students.
“The weapons for the military academy exercise are randomly provided by the four major academies, so anything is possible. You have two days to reach the destination and capture the flag. Additionally, after this training, you will elect a captain who will have full authority to lead the team during the exercise.” Jia Hailan glanced to the side.
He Yue turned and dragged a long wooden box from the tent, while Kang Guang brought seven wilderness survival packs. Everything was placed in front of the students.
Jia Hailan raised his hand, looking at the timer on his Optical computer. “These are your weapons for this training. Take them all and prepare to begin.”
Qian Mao, at the front of the line, walked straight over and opened the long wooden box. Inside was a pile of firearms and a bag of tools.
“Too bad, no rocket launcher.” Guan Xue slung a survival pack over her shoulder, handed one to Qian Mao, and peered into the box. She spoke before anyone else could, “I want that submachine gun.”
There was only one submachine gun. What remained were three pistols, two daggers, and one…
Jiang Hong crouched by the box, rummaged through it, and then lifted something out with two fingers, asking the instructors with a shocked expression, “What is this?”
“You don’t even recognize this?” Kang Guang sneered. “You might as well withdraw from the competition now.”
Jiang Hong stared at the slingshot in his hand. “…” Of course he recognized it; he just couldn’t imagine why a slingshot was mixed in with a pile of weapons.
“This is a good thing. With enough skill, it can have a range of a hundred meters. The key is that the ‘pellets’ can be replaced with almost anything.” Qian Mao took the slingshot from his hand and carefully inspected the frame, rubber bands, and pouch. “The bands have excellent elasticity. I’ll just need to mount a sight on the frame later.”
Jiang Hong and Yan Yan each took a pistol. Ding Wuming, who was at the back, thought for a moment and decided to take a dagger.
Ji Yuezhi walked over, picked up the last pistol, and handed it to Qian Mao.
“Thanks.” Qian Mao paused, startled, then accepted the pistol. Although he was proficient with all sorts of firearms, it didn’t mean he could use them all equally well. The pistol was indeed the weapon he was most comfortable with.
One dagger and the slingshot remained. Now, only Ji Yuezhi and Zuo Luohuan were without weapons from the wooden box.
Zuo Luohuan stood to the side and looked at Ji Yuezhi, asking casually, “Do you know how to use a slingshot?”
Ji Yuezhi’s clear, cold eyes met Zuo Luohuan’s as he answered bluntly, “No.”
The moment he finished speaking, Zuo Luohuan stepped forward, bent down, and picked up the slingshot. She raised an eyebrow slightly. “Perfect. I know a little. I can teach you when I have the chance.”
Hearing this, Guan Xue, clutching her submachine gun, immediately sidled up to Zuo Luohuan and said in a cloying tone, “Boss, teach me too~”
Zuo Luohuan glanced at her and uttered a single, airy word: “Scram.”
With the weapons and survival packs distributed, the seven of them turned and walked into the dense forest. As soon as they left, the instructors started the timer.
“Who do you think will become captain when they return?” Bai Feng asked.
“There are only two candidates for captain: Zuo Luohuan and Ji Yuezhi.” Jia Hailan pondered. “It’s hard to say.”
“To think there’s something even you, Commander Jia, find hard to say.” Kang Guang looked surprised.
Jia Hailan’s gaze pierced through the dense forest, as if he could see the seven students who had already walked far away. “Ji Yuezhi is a natural-born commander. He has the strength and organizational skills to be an excellent captain. Zuo Luohuan… she’s strong and probably capable of commanding, but her temperament is unpredictable. It’s hard to say what she might do.”
“That’s true.” Kang Guang touched the scar by his mouth, his eyes deep in thought. This Zuo Luohuan was indeed hard to figure out at times.
The dense forest was full of wild beasts and poisonous insects. As soon as the seven entered, they checked to make sure their clothes were tucked in properly. Jiang Hong looked down at his pistol and suddenly realized it was broken.
“There’s a problem with this gun.” Jiang Hong couldn’t move the safety at all.
“Let me see.” Qian Mao took it and disassembled it on the spot. “The parts inside are rusted. I’ll clean it. Let me see everyone else’s weapons too.”
This sort of thing had happened once before in a military academy exercise. In an early competition, the firearms provided by the Southern District had a high frequency of chamber explosions during use, affecting students from several academies. At the time, only the Northern Military Academy was spared because a student from their weapons development department had inspected the weapons beforehand, averting the disaster.
Now, however, weapon problems had become part of the exercise’s challenge.
After checking all the firearms, the seven set off again. Qian Mao walked in the middle, holding a short wooden stick. He had borrowed Ding Wuming’s dagger to cut a two-centimeter-thick wooden disc, preparing to make a sight for the slingshot.
Yan Yan was at the front clearing the path, with Ji Yuezhi in the second position. The others were in the middle, while Zuo Luohuan brought up the rear.
The path through the forest was rugged and difficult. They had to find a route on the map to reach the destination and capture the flag. Along the way, they might encounter wild animals and perhaps some extra ‘surprises’ from the instructors.
“After we cross this mountain forest, there are two choices on the other side: a water route and a mountain path.” Ji Yuezhi held the only map. “The river on the water route is too wide, we might not be able to swim across, and there are things in the water that won’t be easy to deal with.”
“Then let’s stick to the mountain path,” Jiang Hong said, leaning over to look at the map. “There’s an abandoned road on this mountain, it should be easier to walk on.”
Ji Yuezhi’s gaze swept over the others, waiting for their opinions.
“I’ll listen to the seniors,” Yan Yan said, scratching his head. He had a clear understanding of his role.
“I can’t swim the water route,” Qian Mao said. “If there’s something in the water, I’ll only slow you down.”
Finally, everyone’s gaze turned to Zuo Luohuan, who was standing at the back, fiddling with the slingshot. Sensing their eyes on her, she looked up and said casually, “I’m fine with either.”
With no objections, they proceeded along the decided route. The destination was in another village, and getting there in two days without any transportation would not be easy.
Yan Yan held his gun, his tall body leaping over obstacles in the undergrowth with incredible agility.
After walking for a long time, Ji Yuezhi, from behind, suddenly called out to Yan Yan, “Don’t move!”
“What’s wrong?” Yan Yan tensed upon hearing his voice and looked over nervously.
Ji Yuezhi pointed to a spot less than half a meter in front of Yan Yan. “There’s a trap under your feet.”
The ground was covered in fallen leaves, looking no different from anywhere else at first glance. Ji Yuezhi took a few steps forward, crouched down, and gently brushed away the dead leaves. A pale yellow line was revealed. He gave it a hard pull, and a two-meter-wide net, along with the leaves on top, instantly fell away.
Yan Yan looked inside and couldn’t help but suck in a breath. The bottom of the two-meter-wide pit was densely packed with blades pointing skyward. If someone were to step on it, they would be impaled.
“They’re not real blades.” Qian Mao found a rock nearby and threw it down onto the blades. The blade it hit slowly retracted, and at the same time, a red liquid, like blood, spurted out. “These are all retractable fake blades. You won’t get hurt or die if you fall in.”
“Will there be traps like this in the exercise?” Ding Wuming asked, a little shaken.
“Yes, and with real blades,” Jiang Hong said, crossing his arms. “Every exercise has a death quota, didn’t you know?”
“Is it too late to withdraw now?” Guan Xue glanced at the gleaming blades in the pit, clutching her submachine gun as she joked.
As everyone’s attention was on the deep pit, no one noticed a slight rustle in a nearby pile of dead leaves. An earth-yellow, mottled snake was coiled in the leaf litter, its head crowned with a pattern that looked exactly like a dead leaf. It suddenly attacked, lunging viciously at its nearest prey. Its mouth gaped open, revealing two venomous fangs from which venom was already beginning to drip.
The next second, two dull thuds of something hitting flesh sounded.
“What the hell!” Jiang Hong yelped in fright.
As two stones whizzed past his ear, he didn’t have time to dodge. He could only watch as the two stones shot downwards, one hitting the snake’s head and the other its body. Both stones pierced clean through the dead-leaf snake.
The others also instinctively looked at the instantly killed snake. Its muscle memory hadn’t faded yet, and it writhed on the ground with two bloody holes in its body. The two stones that had pierced the snake continued onward, embedding themselves deep in the base of a tree trunk.
The person closest to the snake was Ji Yuezhi. His first instinct, however, was to look in the direction the stones had come from.
A gust of wind blew through the forest, and the leaves overhead rustled occasionally. Zuo Luohuan stood before a tree, loose strands of hair on her cheek fluttering gently in the wind. She held the black slingshot, casually flicking the band. Meeting Ji Yuezhi’s gaze, her lips curved. “Lots of snakes and bugs in the mountains. Be careful.”
Ji Yuezhi turned his head to look at the dead snake, avoiding her gaze, and said a word of thanks.
“This slingshot is amazing!” Jiang Hong, who had almost been hit by the stones, had the most profound impression of its power. His eyes burned with envy as he ran over to Zuo Luohuan. “Luohuan, let me try.”
He had never played with such a weapon, or rather, he had never imagined a slingshot could be so deadly.
Even Qian Mao was amazed after seeing it. He knew that a slingshot, used well, could have a certain lethality, but he never expected it to have the piercing power of a bullet. And Zuo Luohuan had fired two stones at once.
Jiang Hong gave it a try but found that even aiming was a problem. Not wanting to waste time, he gave up and returned the slingshot to Zuo Luohuan.
The group detoured around the pit and the dead snake, their steps a little more cautious now.
They continued onward, and by the time they crossed the forest, the sky had grown dark. Their survival packs contained only one biscuit, some simple medicine, and two bottles of pure water. They turned on their Optical computer for light and found themselves facing the two paths they had discussed earlier.
Under the moonlight, the great river on the left shimmered. The wind brushing against their faces felt somewhat pleasant, yet everyone’s gaze was fixed on the winding mountain to their right. They had to cross this mountain to reach the village, find the destination, and capture the flag.
However, the group didn’t rush. Instead, they set up camp on the spot, preparing to rest and replenish their stamina.
“The mountain path won’t be easy. Grass grows in the cracks, the road is unstable, and some dark places might collapse,” Zuo Luohuan said, remaining on the perimeter to keep watch while the others sat down. “We might also run into something.”
“Something?” Ding Wuming didn’t quite understand. “Senior, do you mean wild animals?”
Zuo Luohuan looked up at the mountain shrouded in darkness in the distance. “No.”
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