Chapter 85: In Training (4)

Name:Descent of the Demon Master Author:
Chapter 85: In Training (4)

“Please stand straight, recruits! Straight!”

The voice coming out from under the gas mask sounded a little artificial and turbid.

“Stand at attention, please! recruits, stand straight!”

“Raise your head and look at your front!”

“Maintain the current gap from your fellow recruits! Please stand abreast and maintain the line!”

Yells coming from all directions at once were bothering Kang Jin-Ho's ears. Still, he paid them no mind and stared at a small tear gas canister with some interest. The instructor sitting in front of him had just placed it on top of a grille. They were about to conduct a CBR drill, a training to prepare the recruits in case the enemy forces resorted to chemical and biological weapons.

'Hmm, is it like simulating a poison attack '

Kang Jin-Ho couldn't fully understand the concept of CBR. Obviously, there were sects and clans back in Zhongyuan that relied on poison, such as the Tang family and the Five Poison Gates. However, their poisons were derived from living organisms.

'Whatever the case may be, this will be an invaluable experience.'

When thinking about it, the organization called the South Korean military was a very helpful place that aided you with understanding modern weaponry and how they were used. One should remember that most regular citizens of other nations wouldn't get to receive training of this nature unless they voluntarily enlisted in their own armies.

This training might be no more than skimming the surface compared to what the volunteer soldiers received in countries like the United States, but Kang Jin-Ho still found even a shallow introduction like this a valuable chance at acquiring new information. An experience like this could not be gleaned unless you were in the army.

“...Cough!”

“Huh I think my gas mask is leaking?”

The recruits standing abreast began whining as the smoke wafted around in the enclosed CBR chamber. Kang Jin-Ho was too busy calculating this and that in his head while studying the thick smoke to care about their complaints, though.

.

'Poison spreading through the air is impossible to fully defend against. You can hold your breath, but you'll still be poisoned if it's absorbed through your skin.'

The best way to defend would be to escape from the target location faster than the speed of the canister's explosion, but... There was no guarantee that only one poison canister would go off. And what if several exploded in various locations simultaneously? It could mean that all avenues of escape might be cut off at that moment. If escaping was not feasible, then the next logical question would be, how long could Kang Jin-Ho hold out

“Remove your filter cartridges!”

“Remove them, now!”

"Lift up your cartridges!"

Kang Jin-Ho loosened the straps and removed the cartridge, letting the unpleasant smoke seep under the mask.

“Recruits, you will be singing war songs during this training! As for the tune choice, it will be Cool Men! Recruits, load!”

“Loading!”

“Fire!”

“We're! Cool men!” Kang Jin-Ho joined the other recruits and started singing the song, but his mind was still busy analyzing the tear gas. Pain instantly erupted from the smoke that entered his nostrils and mouth.

'Huh. Withstanding it isn't as easy as I thought.'

Tears and snot began trickling down all on their own. Meanwhile, he could hear resentful voices leaking out pitifully from either side of him.

This level of toxicity shouldn't be much of a hindrance to him. However, he had to remind himself that this particular tear gas was designed to be deployed in training and was much weaker than those used on actual battlefields. If a CBR situation was to occur in battle, it'd be safe to assume that the majority of combat forces would be rendered ineffective.

"...Cough!" Even Kang Jin-Ho couldn't stop a sneeze from escaping from his mouth. This so-called weakened intensity of the gas was still too strong for regular humans to endure. "Hmm..."

He raised a little bit of qi and protected his eyes, nose, and mouth. Having found some leeway, he scanned his surroundings to see what was going on.

“Cough! Cough?!”

More and more recruits stopped singing the war song and toppled over to cough their lungs out.

'This isn't bad enough to kill...'

Kang Jin-Ho rubbed his chin slightly.

Obviously, the gas would negatively affect the bodies of these recruits to some degree. However, this was still a drill at the end of the day. Surely the instructors weren't planning to kill the recruits today, so these poor suffering sobs should be released from their torment soon enough.

Unfortunately, the 2nd Platoon Commander who was taking care of the tear gas canister didn’t have the same thoughts as Kang Jin-Ho.

'Why the f*ck does that punk look so relaxed '

The 2nd Platoon Commander's mood instantly soured. Truth be told, the CBR drill wasn't exactly fit to be called training. Tear gas wouldn't be used in real combat, to begin with. Besides, only a lunatic could have come up with a drill where recruits would get to experience a CBR attack without gas masks to protect them.

“Sir, this recruit's condition is strange,” said Kang Jin-Ho while pointing at the recruit next to him.

However, the 2nd Platoon Commander frowned even deeper instead. “Stop faking it, recruit! Raise your head, now!”

“But sir, his condition really is not great.”

“What did you say?!” The 2nd Platoon Commander glared murderously at Kang Jin-Ho. The gas mask obscured the burning light in his eyes, but the scary aura he exuded was still felt by everyone nearby. “Hey, Recruit No.100.”

“Recruit No.100, Kang Jin-Ho, sir.”

“Are you an instructor?”

“No, sir.”

“Is it your job or the instructor's job to determine stuff like that?”

Kang Jin-Ho flatly replied, "Sir, it's the instructor's job."

“Since you know, stay still on your spot. Do you understand this order, recruit?”

Kang Jin-Ho didn't bother to reply. He simply turned his head again to look at the recruit next to him. This recruit was already half-unconscious, and the circulation of his internal energy was getting more distorted at an alarming pace. These were signs of a looming crisis. Not just any, but a serious crisis, as well.

“Sir, we need to save this recruit.” Kang Jin-Ho freed his arm, walked over to the fallen recruit, then picked him up before slinging the half-conscious man's arm over his own shoulder.

“Hey, you son of a b*tch! What the f*ck do you think you are doing?!” The 2nd Platoon Commander exploded in rage and yelled, but Kang Jin-Ho ignored him and walked up to the exit while supporting the unresponsive recruit. The commander pointed at Kang Jin-Ho and cried out. “Stop that motherf*cker!”

The flustered assistant instructors grabbed and held on to Kang Jin-Ho.

“Recruit No,100! Let him go!”

“Stop! I said, stop! You punk!”

Despite their efforts, however, Kang Jin-Ho's expression didn't even twitch once as he continued to march toward the exit like a bulldozer, with several instructors clinging to him.

“What the hell?! Why is this bastard so strong?!”

The instructors became even more flustered and tried desperately to stop him, but Kang Jin-Ho still walked up to the door in seemingly unhurried steps. Once he reached the exit, he knocked on the door and yelled out, "I'm opening the door! Please step aside if you don't want to get hurt!"

"Huh What was that " One of the assistant instructors on standby outside the chamber tilted his head in confusion. He and his colleagues were charged with stopping any potential escapees from opening the door and fleeing.

“I think someone is telling us to move away from the door?”

“Huh Why? Should we open the door, then?”

“Well, let's just...”

Right at that moment...

BANG!!!

The thick door suddenly cracked as if it would splinter into pieces before breaking loose from the hinges and flying into the empty air. The assistant instructors outside stared agog at this sight, unable to process the situation.

“W-What the hell?!”

Their bulging eyes caught another unbelievable sight next—a recruit with '100' printed on his ballistic helmet waltzed outside the chamber while lugging around another recruit and four; no, five assistant instructors. Technically, it was more like he was supporting another recruit while the assistant instructors were desperately clinging to him.

The instructors guarding the door outside watched with their jaws on the floor. They couldn’t understand what this situation was supposed to be.

“How in the hell...”

How could a person do that?! Even though five well-built young men were clinging to him, Kang Jin-Ho looked like he was on a pleasant Sunday stroll. You might be able to find someone physically strong enough to drag five men around in South Korea if you looked hard enough since it wasn't out of the realm of possibility, after all.

However, would they be able to waltz around unaffected with that many people clinging on to them? The sight was so unrealistic it had to be a CGI scene from a movie or something.

Kang Jin-Ho suddenly stopped walking. He carefully placed the recruit leaning against his shoulder on the ground and stepped back.

“Hey, you as*hole! What the hell do you think you're doing?!”

The assistant instructors clinging to him threw off the gas masks and glared daggers at Kang Jin-Ho. They weren't sure what happened here, but they could still tell that this recruit had done something completely unacceptable. In addition, a mere recruit ignoring them had also wounded their pride.

Just as the assistant instructors were about to bite Kang Jin-Ho's head off, he silently pointed at the recruit on the floor.

“Kuruk... Cough, krrrr....”

The recruit began to spasm and violently convulse.

1. “CBR” stands for “chemical, biological and radiological.”