Chapter 169: I’m Back! (Part one)
A military defense zone in the suburb of L City belonged to the 5th Military Region’s territory. The entire 5th Military Region had about 50 thousand members, and taking into account the ones that get sent away every year and the new recruits that come in, this statistic is kept pretty consistent.
Earlier, what Wen Zhao was proud of was indeed enough for him to boast for the rest of his life. Just think about it, if every military region had about 50 thousand soldiers, 36 military regions meant 1.8 million soldiers, and to be able to be picked as one of the top 36 elite guardians was indeed very rare.
However, ever since the Three Swordsmen – Xu Cheng, Luo Yi, and Li Wei left, it was really hard for the 5th Military Region to nurture another star-level soldier, and that was why on the forums, other military regions were all laughing and saying that they would probably end up last this year.
The new recruits of the 5th Military Region (MR) were obviously furious to see those comments and immediately argued back.
Soldier of the 5th MR: “People of other MRs, don’t get too cocky. The 5th MR is just experiencing a brief period of hardship, and it will definitely rise in the future.”
Soldier of the 20th MR: “Hey, you guys are called the 5th MR, but your ranking was 28th last year. How does it make you feel that our 20th MR is actually ranked in the 11th place?”
Soldier from the 8th MR: “Why are you laughing? We didn’t even say anything yet when we were ranked 5th place, and you are already commenting and trying to refresh your presence? But you are right, the 5th MR is really garbage, I can’t refute that.”
Soldier of the 15th MR: “Another round of mocking before the tournament? What happens if the tournament becomes a big face slap?”
Soldier of the 3rd MR: “Hello Sir from the 15th MR, you guys are last every year, whose face could you possibly slap?”
Soldier from the 15th MR: “Hello Sir from the 3rd MR, I just want to say we are really going to face-slap someone this year. We are slapping the 5th MR’s face, because I feel like they will take the last place and get eliminated first from the competition.”
A soldier from the 22nd MR: “Just for what you said, I predict the 5th MR’s peeps will adopt the turtling tactic to drag it out and not get eliminated first. At least by then, they wouldn’t be last place.”
The soldier from the 5th MR was furious.“Whoever turtles is a [email protected]!”
Soldier from the 2nd MR: “Did you hear that? The 15th MR that gets last place every year, someone’s challenging you. Can’t you guys try harder? Dead last every year and yet you still have the face to come to the forum to attract aggro. You guys are the perfect textbook example of what not to do every year for our forum.”
Soldier from the 15th MR: “Let me tell you guys, this year our new recruits are all outstanding. If we are still last this year, then we welcome you to face-slap us. By then, I will facking live-stream myself shoving my junior into a fan on high speed!”
Soldier from the 2nd MR: “Just for what you said, once the tournament begins we will all just jump your a-s and kick the 15th MR out first. I look forward to seeing the livestream, maybe create a channel and post the link right now so I can bookmark it.”
Soldier from the 15th MR: “Bro… ?”
A soldier from the 5th MR was on his way to his shift as he read the forum thread on his phone. He laughed. Although it wasn’t fun to be on the bottom of the rankings, the bros at the other military regions were all pretty funny. When he came to the gate, he put away his phone and saluted to his comrade to exchange shifts. Just then, a taxi stopped by the middle of the road, and then a guy in a camouflage pattern uniform came over with a bag and handed him a booklet from the small window. This person was none other than Xu Cheng.
The soldier took a look and then gave him clearance to pass. Xu Cheng took back the booklet and walked into the military base.
Chapter 169: I’m Back! (Part two)
The soldier that was just about to change shift was a veteran, and he curiously looked at Xu Cheng’s back image and said, “That guy looks quite familiar.”
A rookie curiously asked, “That guy?”
Veteran: “That seems like Xu Cheng from the special ops department.”
Rookie: “Xu Cheng?”
Then, immediately, his eyes opened up wide. “Captain, isn’t Xu Cheng the top of the Three Swordsmen?”
Veteran: “Yeah, but I heard he became pretty ill with something and had no choice but to leave the army. From what the instructor said, he didn’t seem to be coming back. Did I mistake someone else for him?”
Rookie: “Capi, is Captain Xu Cheng very strong?”
Veteran: “Of course, other military regions are usually very strong overall as a group, but in our camp, no one could catch up even remotely to the level of the three Swordsmen. It could be said that every year, those three carried our azzes in the annual drill competition, and this year without them, we will probably be brutally beaten up.” The veteran sighed, “This also has something to do with the poverty level of the location of our region. Every year, the new recruits are all weaker than average, so the comprehensive military region’s strength can’t be compared with other regions. Also, unlike other regions, we have less funding, so we couldn’t invest more in training individual elites. Thus, the training strategy of our military region had been taking on the collective and general approach.”
Xu Cheng walked on the road in the military region. Although he left for a few months, coming back now after experiencing the dark baptism of capitalism in the society, he was much more calm and sophisticated than before.
The other camps’ people were dining in the cafeteria at the moment, and upon seeing him passing by, the veterans were all stunned as their chopsticks stopped. “Isn’t that Captain Xu?”
“It’s him! It’s really him! Is he really coming back?”
“He’s carrying a big piece of luggage, so that should be the case.”
“Awesome! With the competition right around the corner, I hope Captain Xu can carry the other new recruits and spike the team’s morale!”
The general instructor’s office door was pushed open, and some footsteps got closer and suddenly, a loud voice shocked him to leak a little, “Sir, Xu Cheng reporting to duty!”
The general instructor immediately looked up. Upon seeing Xu Cheng and his luggage, he smiled and said, “Took care of everything over there?”
Xu Cheng: “Pretty much, now I’m back.”
The instructor took out a key from his drawer and tossed it to him. “I’ve kept your Three Swordsmen’s dorm vacant for you. Go unpack and let’s grab a bite after at the cafeteria.”
Xu Cheng caught the keys and nodded. Then, he turned around and went to the dorm he used to live in, which wasn’t too far from here. After opening the door and seeing the empty beds of Luo Yi and Li Wei, he stood by the door as all kinds of memories filled his head. He didn’t know how the other two were doing now, and he hoped everything was alright for them.
Xu Cheng took out the photo of the three of them from before from his bag and placed it back onto his desk. He grinned and said, “I’m back.”
The things here stayed the same, but the people weren’t the same as before.
After coming out from his dorm, he saw his instructor already waiting for him downstairs. He walked down the stairs and went with him to the special ops division’s cafeteria. Over there, a lot of the new recruits were all eating, but as the veterans saw Xu Cheng, they stood up, causing the new recruits to stand up even though they didn’t know what was going on.
“Captain Xu?” someone immediately called out with uncertainty.
Xu Cheng nodded and grinned in response. “I’m back, is everyone alright?”
When the people all looked towards Xu Cheng, in a corner, some other voice sounded, “With Xu Cheng back this time, wouldn’t the drill competition be centered around him? Didn’t this guy leave because he weakened drastically because of some illness? Hu Bing, I’m afraid that you have to give away your captain’s position on the team now.”
