CH 17

First battle (3)

“Lieutenant Colonel! This kid is amazing!”

During their noon break, Lieutenant Raymond kept talking excitedly while nibbling on a compressed military ration. “Regardless of psychological quality, resilience, or level of mecha manipulation, I… I have been in the fort for so long, but I have never seen such a talented young man before.”

He praised the person so much that his saliva was flying. Seeing Lieutenant Colonel Huo Lin’s sullen face from beginning to end, he stopped awkwardly. “Uh… Lieutenant Colonel?”

Raymond scratched his head. “Do you still think he’s not good?”

Huo Lin raised his eyelids and said indifferently, “Now I understand why someone above wants to put him in the Silver Big Dipper…Hmph, it’s really a pity to say that he’s a pitiful one, but it’s still a fact…”

“If he was just willing to do a civilian job, it’s not that it couldn’t be considered out of the ordinary considering he’s a disabled human. But as for driving mecha to go to the front line, it is impossible.” 

Raymond couldn’t understand. “Uh, this…”

Not far away, rows of mechas were parked neatly. The young people who experienced their first battle were as excited as a pot of boiling water. At this time, the officers didn’t care whether they ate, drank, talked freely, or let out a howling cry.

Huo Lin pointed to those figures. “Listen, he is outstanding now because of his fellow good-for-nothings. The new recruits need a period of adjustment, that’s why you and I are here.”

“You should know that…for new humans, the proficiency of manipulating mechas can be raised, and combat awareness can be trained. But crystal bones cannot grow from disabled humans, and innate things cannot be changed.”

“In a short period of time, he can rely on his wisdom, courage, diligence and will to attract everyone’s attention. But soon, he will see himself being used by the people next to him, and the gap will only get bigger and bigger.”

Jiang Jianming leaned against a tree, holding a bottle of energy water and drinking slowly. He lowered his eyelashes and his black military uniform made his face even paler, unabling one to see the slightest momentum of the killing of the red caterpillar just now by merely relying on a mecha alone.

Huo Lin: “It’s ruthless, but that’s the reality.”

Tang Zhen and Bei Maner came over and handed to the person under the tree a pack of compressed food. Jiang Jianming shook his head and said in a low voice, “…still dizzy, I will eat it later. It’s no big deal, don’t worry about me.”

Huo Lin narrowed his eyes. “Not to mention, in the next scoring match, with such a high consumption combat mode, how long can his mental and physical strength last?”

“There is only one reason why he is doomed to fail. His luck was too bad when he reincarnated, and was born as a remnant human, an extinct race.”

Raymond was stunned and murmured, “So simple…so cruel.”

Huo Lin snorted and patted the adjutant’s shoulder. “Survival of the fittest, this world is really just simple and cruel.”

In the afternoon, decentralized training, the so-called time trial, officially began.

The time limit was three hours, and the target of hunting were the alien creatures in this ice forest—well, it was said to be alien creatures, but in fact, what this group of newcomers would fight were only the red caterpillars, which were D-level and killing one will be equivalent to one point.

To speak of, even if one killed more advanced alien creatures, the score would not increase. This was to prevent some newcomers from wanting to take a chance and provoke those powerful monsters.

The newcomers went back to their own mechas. After listening to the rules, some people couldn’t help but ask, “Excuse me, Sir! How do you calculate who killed how many red caterpillars? Will you rely on the mecha recording?”

Raymond cleared his throat. “That’s a good question. Next, everyone listen to my explanation attentively—please look at the manual console of your mecha. Yes, it’s manual control.”

“There is a switch button below the control interface of the mecha muzzle, see it? Press it and try.”

Everyone followed suit, only to see the gun muzzles on the left and right mechanical arms of the M-IP 18 retracted backwards, and what looked like a searchlight bounced out, and even emitted a color purple light.

“This is the solidification ray for crystal particles. You’ve only seen these in textbooks before.”

Lieutenant Raymond said, and manipulated the mecha Evil Shark to step forward, and let the purple solidification rays shone on the body of a red caterpillar not far away.

“After the new crystal creature dies, the crystal particles in the body will quickly escape, and at this time, you will let the solidification rays irradiate on it…”

About ten seconds later, a colorless crystal cluster formed on the body of the red caterpillar.

The Evil Shark bent down its mechanical arm, pulled up the crystal cluster, and threw it into the storage bin in its stomach.

Raymond: “You can get the real crystal ore. This is a good thing, and you will know why later.”

“In the next time trial, we will use the total amount of real crystal ore brought back by everyone as the only grading standard–of course, internal fighting is not allowed. Violators will be dismissed on the spot and will be repatriated. Do you understand?”

In the mecha, everyone responded neatly. “Understood!!”

Lieutenant Colonel Huo Lin clapped his hands in a timely manner, “Okay, enough with the empty talk, last words–If you want to find death, go deep and try. It’s not necessarily bad to be dismembered by a high-level alien creature.”

Raymond: “Now–the first field training time trial–begins!!

With an order, dozens of IPs immediately moved and quickly entered the ice forest.

Jiang Jianming did not compete to be the first one, but kept moving forward at a very steady pace, and soon fell behind the large troop.

Suddenly, a mecha approached him nearby. Jiang Jianming turned his face and saw Li Youfang on the driver’s seat. The former chief of the Second College of Kaios Military Academy, was staring at him at the moment, with a face that looked extremely ugly.

“…I admit, it was not easy for you, but the mecha…was also quite powerful.”

Li Youfang gritted his teeth, blushed and said viciously, “However, if just one D-level alien creature consumes your stamina, then I won’t take my words back. In the future, on the battlefield with real knives and real guns…you’ll only drag the entire squad down!”

Jiang Jianming frowned and thought for a while, but still chose to respond politely. “Hm, you’re right.”

Li Youfang was furious. “You fucking looking down on me!?” 

Jiang Jianming said sincerely. “I just think you are right.”

“……”

Li Youfang’s face looked as if he had swallowed a red caterpillar.

Jiang Jianming, as if realizing something, “Ah” then waved his hand: “Don’t get me wrong, I’m referring to the previous sentence. I didn’t mean to look down on you.”

….It’s good if he hadn’t said that. 

After he finished speaking, Li Youfang’s face became even more colorful, as if he had swallowed ten red caterpillars. His teeth were trembling in anger, “You…good! Who wins and who loses, we’ll see after three hours!”

Before Jiang Jianming could give any response, he controlled the mecha to turn, and then plunged into the forest.

“…..” 

When he averted  his eyes back, Jiang Jianming only smiled lightly, and didn’t make a sound.

The contact connected to the mecha screen suddenly sounded, and Tang Zhen’s pretentiously deep voice came in. “Jiang Jianming, I really don’t understand.”

When Jiang Jianming looked at the rear subconsciously, he saw two more IP’s approaching, Tang Zhen and Bei Maner.

Tang Zhen: “Sometimes I feel that you are indeed a weak and disabled human being who needs protection, but sometimes I feel that your mentality is too dangerous. I may have been sold by you but I am still worried that you’re blindly helping others.”

(t/n Sold- tricked or cheated)

Jiang Jianming was silent for a second, then said seriously. “I won’t, human trafficking is illegal in the Empire.”

As soon as the two mechas in the rear paused at one point, Tang Zhen couldn’t help but open the cockpit. “I say Little Jiang, did you deliberately fail a class? I remember that your score in the mecha class was not high either?”

He knew that this person had been brought inside a mecha by His Royal Highness Ryann before, and he also guessed that he might have acquired some skills, but he never expected him to reach this level.

“?” 

Jiang Jianming cast him a stupid look, tapped the mecha console with his index finger, and said earnestly, “Young Master Tang, I don’t even have a crystal bone, the basic crystal bone practice only has theoretical points. “

Tang Zhen: “……..”

Fuck.

“Student Jiang, you are really amazing!” Bei Maner sighed again, “In the past, Young Master Tang always told me how secretive you were, I thought he was just exaggerating, I… I really didn’t expect it to be like this!”

“I never thought that there would be a way to use the crystal bones of alien creatures in reverse. It’s unheard of!”

Jiang Jianming shook his head and laughed, “Please stop praising me. If I’m really that good, why are you still worried about me?”

Bei Maner and Tang Zhen were stunned. 

Jiang Jianming blinked and said, “Didn’t you two come here because you were worried that I wouldn’t be able to cope with this time trial due to my lack of physical strength?”

Tang Zhen became worried at once and grabbed his hair. “No, don’t think about it blindly–” But he was immediately interrupted by Bei Maner, whose eyes are bright. “How can you say that, classmate Jiang! We are here to ask you to cooperate! Cooperate!” 

He saw Bei Maner raise her eyebrows and showed a slightly cunning smile. “Lieutenant Colonel Huo Lin emphasized fighting alone in the morning but there is no restriction on team formation in this afternoon’s time trial. Therefore, let the three of us work together.”

She manipulated the IP to walk to Jiang Jianming’s side, and firmly said, “Jiang’s observation and judgment are so amazing, you can command the two of us! Red caterpillars that are shot down by then will be divided into three equal shares. We will definitely not lose to Li Youfang.”

Jiang Jianming looked at her unexpectedly, thinking that this girl’s IQ and EQ were really high… 

He couldn’t help but glance at Tang Zhen. “Young Master Tang, you should really learn from others.”

Tang Zhen grinned broadly, but Bei Maner’s face turned slightly red. Jiang Jianming paused for a moment, then said, “But…sorry, I really can’t go with you guys this time.”

Seeing that the two of them in a hurry to refute, he raised his hand and said, “Don’t worry, it’s not because I’m afraid of dragging you down, on the contrary, it’s because you won’t be able to keep up with me.”

Jiang Jianming turned his head and glanced at the frost-covered jungle. “I’m going into the depths of the forest.”

Tang Zhen: “…you fucking stopped us to hear you finish, don’t you think you talk too much!?”

“…..”

Jiang Jianming shook his gloved wrist, and said two to three seconds later. “It’s like this, because I don’t have a crystal bone, therefore I must see higher-level alien creatures earlier than you, and start thinking about ways to fight faster than you….so that I won’t drag down the team in the future.”

He calmly raised his eyelids and looked directly at Tang Zhen and Bei Maner. “It is really shocking that a disabled person would join the army in the Far Star, but it is impossible to achieve the goal of shocking the world from the eyes of an ordinary person with only ordinary people’s ideas. I came to Silver Big Dipper not for fun, I’m serious.”

The two people had complicated expressions, and they were speechless for a while.

The shadows of the branches interlaced with each other, and were reflected on their black and silver uniforms. The surroundings were peaceful, but a faint roar was heard in the distance. Someone had already begun to hunt alien creatures.

Jiang Jianming added, “Don’t worry, I’ll only go in when I am sure. This is an area where Silver Big Dipper always trained their newcomers. No matter how strong the alien creatures are, it will never be stronger than C-level. Moreover, I have something for self-defense, there is no problem. “

“As for the time trial, it only lasts for three full hours, also it is a test of physical strength. If you are willing to listen to my thoughts–” Jiang Jianming pondered for two or three seconds, and then organized his words very fluently. ” –I suggest that for the first two hours, don’t use all your strength, you can grope for the route, while picking the single red caterpillar to fight, two people will flank it on both sides, remember not to get injured–because at this time, early injury is equivalent to being out of the game. “

“Wait until the last hour, then turn around and go back to attack the enemy you missed before. By that time, you have already familiarized yourself with the geographical conditions along the way, along with the fighting of red caterpillars.Therefore, it should be relatively smooth.”

His voice was a little low, but very clear, and because of his flat tone, he carried a calmness and tolerance that is rarely seen in disabled humans, making the listeners want to trust him with all their hearts.

Tang Zhen and Bei Maner were a little dazed.

They all thought in unison: How bad is God, to let such a person wear the heavy willow of fate and be trapped in a weak and powerless body?

When they came back to their senses, Jiang Jianming, who was in front of them, had already re-operated the mecha and headed for the depths of the ice forest without hesitation.