Chapter 29: First Cooperation

Returning to the camp, Chen Shanming, whose face looked unpleasant, immediately ordered the troops to disband.

The subtext is: "All of you, fuck off, go back to your own homes, find your own mothers." (Actually there are four more characters after that ^_^)

All twenty-four soldiers were feeling overjoyed, even breaking into smiles, but they were sensible enough not to show it.

Only Wang Yanbing, his big mouth about to split up to his ears.

To be frank, Chen Shanming, as well as He Zhijun, Fan Tianlei and the others who left earlier, had not the slightest dissatisfaction with them just because they lost this exercise.

As soldiers, they need both the confidence to strive for victory and a calm attitude toward failure.

Especially during the exercise.

Besides, they're a bunch of veteran soldiers with ten to twenty years of service—how could they resent losing a drill to youngsters? On the way back, Liu Xiaotian leaned against the carriage, closing his eyes to rest.

He Chen Guang lightly tapped him and asked in a low voice:

"You just believed me like that?"

Liu Xiaotian lazily lifted an eyelid, glanced at him, and said lightly:

"Of course, we're comrades."

He Chen Guang was visibly startled, a glint flashing in his eyes.

Liu Xiaotian then closed his eyes again, seeming to doze off.

I have to say, this kid's emotional intelligence is really not ordinary high.

Don't get it wrong—emotional intelligence doesn't just refer to the opposite sex.

Moreover, the current Liu Xiaotian is just a newcomer who recently crossed over into this world and put on this military uniform not long ago; he knows jack shit about the meaning of 'comrades'. In fact, in his original world, as the war era receded, the value of the word 'comrades' was rapidly diminishing.

What feeling is it for comrades who have shared life-and-death experiences? It's like having a steamed bun and wanting to give you most of it.

But what about now?

On the day of discharge after two years of service, there's at least an eighty percent chance it's the last time you'll see each other in this lifetime! Oh, right, maybe only when you're collecting wedding gifts will you remember that there's still a military commemorative album tucked away in some dark, damp corner of your home.

If you call the numbers listed above, at least half of them are already disconnected.

Even if you can get through, they might not come to your wedding; if they can send you a 200-yuan WeChat red packet, that counts as having been on decent terms.

Two or three years of daily interaction mostly amount to chatting and bullshitting, never having experienced anything major—so where would deep feelings come from? Moreover, sentiments nowadays are probably worth less than the late Republic's sheep coupons; where would all this comradeship come from? Of course, this is just the majority, not absolute.

(Sorry, I got carried away and spoke from the heart!)

As for why Liu Xiaotian said that, there's only one reason.

Because he understands He Chen Guang!

Besides, the seemingly crazy Wang Yanbing and the honest, somewhat dull Li Erniu are people he can trust to watch his back when carrying out missions.

Since that's the case, why not give He Chen Guang a little thrill? "Pah! Didn't notice you brat being so shameless!" The system's voice suddenly blared, almost making Liu Xiaotian jump and open his eyes.

Fortunately, he had long grown accustomed to that guy's unpredictable voice; his heart merely gave a couple of hard thumps before returning to normal.

As for this system, Liu Xiaotian had already noticed some oddities at this point.

For example, the voice speaking now, though it sounds like a metallic mechanical tone, carries an almost human emotion in its tone.

Whereas when it usually issues tasks, that voice carries not a trace of emotion.

Could it be…

Liu Xiaotian couldn't help but recall those fantasy novels he'd read in his original world. What if one day a phantom old man floated out of his body, demanding he become his disciple and teach him alchemy? "What about my reward?" Liu Xiaotian didn't waste words, asking directly in his mind.

"Rewards are randomly distributed by the system. What I want to tell you now is that, starting from now, you must gradually get used to all the assistance functions the system provides, including those I haven't mentioned to you." The system's voice sounded somewhat solemn, as if delivering a last testament.

"For example?" Liu Xiaotian couldn't be bothered to think.

"For example, after each physical training you can feel your muscles self-repairing and strengthening; after each shooting training, the shooting data is automatically stored in the virtual computer you see with your eyes—these aren't explicitly told to you, aren't counted as rewards, but are gradually appearing assistance functions." This time the system was quite patient.

Liu Xiaotian felt a bit unaccustomed, because normally by now he'd be getting scolded by the system to the point of almost choking on his anger.

"Okay, I've remembered it." For some reason, Liu Xiaotian inexplicably felt a bit nervous.

But after waiting a long while, that voice never sounded again.

Holy shit! Is that it? Won't you say anything else? Like suddenly telling me: "You're about to inherit a legacy, I can't hold on any longer, I'm about to dissipate"—that's unscientific!

After a while, the system's voice finally sounded again, only now it had switched to the pure mechanical version:

"Congratulations, mission completed, extracting rewards, please wait……"

"Rewards being extracted, please wait……"

"Rewards being opened, please wait……"

……

Damn it! Accumulate mission points, upgrade the system!

This is what Liu Xiaotian most urgently wants to do right now.

"Mission reward opened successfully, activate? Please confirm."

"Confirm!"

"Mission reward: Driving Skill Level One Package, synchronizing……"

"Synchronizing……"

Liu Xiaotian: ……

Until the vehicle entered the camp area, Liu Xiaotian finally heard the words "Activation sync complete."

However, he seemed not to feel any change in his body at all.

What about the promised Driving Skill Level One Package? Wang Yanbing jumped down from the carriage behind him, saw him standing there dazed, and slapped him on the back: "What are you spacing out for? Come on, let's go to the service society—today I'm treating you!"

But……

As soon as Wang Yanbing's hand touched Liu Xiaotian, they saw his body go limp and collapse.

"Holy shit! Is he faking it?"

Wang Yanbing instinctively stepped back half a step.

But right away he realized Liu Xiaotian wasn't faking—he just fell straight onto the ground.

If Wang Yanbing hadn't promptly reached out and grabbed his outer belt, that blow would have definitely knocked out two of Liu Xiaotian's front teeth on the hard concrete ground.

How He Chen Guang and Li Erniu rushed forward and sent Liu Xiaotian back was no longer important; anyway, he didn't know.

He only knew that at the instant Wang Yanbing's voice rang out, his brain suddenly felt as if a big hand had slapped it hard, and with a 'huhu' he didn't know anything...

(End of chapter)