Chapter 74

Chapter 74

Exercise headquarters.

Under the comprehensive monitoring of the thermal imaging camera, the area where the lake is located turns into a dazzling bright red that fills the entire screen.

Dean Nie from the Wingman Department just came over from the Imperial Capital. As soon as he entered the door, he saw the dazzling red screen: "What's going on? The instrument is broken?"

The operational staff officer in charge of monitoring shook his head.

Dean Nie laughed: "Where can such an image exist? With such a red color, at least someone has boiled a lake of water..."

He just made a joke casually, looked at the others, realized something was wrong, and walked to Zhuang Yu: "What's going on?"

Zhuang Yu: "Someone boiled a lake of water."

"..." Dean Nie: "Who?"

Zhuang Yu motioned to the monitoring screen.

On the surveillance camera, a nearby rescue team had already rushed over.

The wingman crashed into the nearby grass and was mostly destroyed by the triggered ground fire.

The observer parachuted before the crash, but because the terrain below was too complicated, it was not until the search and rescue team arrived that he was finally picked off the branch.

The mecha's operator was trapped in the middle of the lake.

The ambient temperature at night was low. When the temperature of the lake water dropped to about the same as a geothermal hot spring, the search and rescue personnel sent an assault boat over and picked him up from the mecha.

"Did you fight other mechas just now?"

The search and rescue personnel stretched out their hands to help him stand firm: "From the special operations team? Or from the mechanical insect swarm?"

The mecha operator's face was hot, he gritted his teeth and said vaguely: "Absolutely."

"That is indeed dangerous." The search and rescue personnel nodded, "You guys are better off. The one we rescued last time wanted to take advantage of the situation, but ended up having a mecha scrapped with his bare hands. After he returned, he was scolded several times by his superiors.Hours……"

The mecha operator's expression changed.

He was worried about being punished when he went back, and he was extremely nervous: "...If you are so powerful, why are you still a trainee?"

The mecha operator swallowed dryly and guessed in a low voice: "Is it - is he originally from the special operations team?"

"Although they opened the battlefield and promised to let us in, they also made other preparations."

The mecha operator said: "For example, let's have special forces members ambush among the trainees to deal with people like us——"

He couldn't continue, almost ashamed, and lowered his head with a red face.

Of course they also knew that using the standard equipment of mecha and wingman to rob an unarmed trainee was just opportunistic.

If you do this kind of thing, even if you are lucky enough to get a spot in the special operations team, and then return to the old army, you will still be pointed at and scolded by the military commanders on down.

…

Going all out to do something like this is nothing more than trying to get lucky.The special operations team is the top military unit in the entire league. If they can pass the training, it will be worth it even if they are pointed at and scolded.

But they didn't even get a hint of the quota.

Not only did he fail to touch it, but he even had his entire combat effectiveness destroyed with his bare hands.

"We don't know if there is an ambush from the special forces."

The search and rescue team member said: "We found out that the man who overturned the mecha with his bare hands was also a trainee and an observer."

The mecha operator's eyes widened in astonishment: "Observer hand?"

The search and rescue team members nodded.

They were surprised when they first heard about it, but after thinking about it carefully, they felt that it made sense.

Ten years ago, Zhuang Yu pioneered a combat method with the observer as the core, maximizing the ability of the observer, turning the special forces into a blade that cuts directly into the insect nest, and completely established the victory in that war with the Zerg.

After the war, the alliance's military began to propose updating the combat system. The conservatives and the reformers continued to clash, but at least they reached a consensus.

This new model, which has been tested on real battlefields, no longer has a fixed one-on-one partner, and uses the observer as the core to form a combat team, has a powerful combat effectiveness far beyond the previous one.

After the pilot of the special forces team has been successful and a model more suitable for ordinary troops has been explored, it will be rolled out to the entire army on a large scale.

…

But something happened at that time.

Zhuang Yu and the Sharp Knife Team completely disappeared from people's sight, and the response to several trials was mediocre. It didn't take long before the battle mode was changed back to the original battle mode with mechas as the core.

These past events have passed for a long time, and now most of the new recruits have no idea about this past.

"Now that Team Zhuang is back, the innovation may continue."

The search and rescue team member said: "The observer who can deal with mechas, if he gets a wingman and cooperates with his own mechas, how far can he fight? What if there are more mechas at his disposal?"

The mecha operator felt a chill in his back just thinking about that situation.

——They have all been training day after day, and have seen many elite troops with outstanding talents, rigorous training, and top-level mecha configurations.

But no matter how strong their personal combat power is, even an S-class mecha that can fight against the Insect King will no longer give them this chilling feeling down their spines.

They had just fought against that terrifying observer. If the opponent got the wingman, how long could they last?

If we really break the original partnership model and form a complete combat team with the observer as the core, or even an army with this model——

As long as you have a little awareness of the battle situation, you can realize that in this situation, the ultimate combat power can be increased exponentially.

The assault boat stopped at the shore, and the search and rescue team got off the boat and packed up the rescue equipment.

The mecha operator grabbed him hard: "What's that person's name, and which part does he belong to?"

"Shi Ji, the registration code is S7."

Search and rescue team member: "I heard that he is the first observer of the Alliance Military Academy."

The search and rescue team members paused for a moment, thought about it carefully, and couldn't help but smile: "After this exercise, it won't be long before he is probably not just the first observer of the military academy."

…

Exercise headquarters.

Dean Nie stood motionless in front of the monitor screen, his gray eyebrows tightly knitted.

Zhuang Yu reached out his hand and turned off the previous battle video.

"...I couldn't see it."

Dean Nie: "His previous performance was not so outstanding."

Dean Nie whispered: "I have been paying attention to him. He is very strong, but he is still in the category of a normal student..."

If he had known that Shi Ji had such a talent, he would have dragged Zhuang Yu out of the empty barracks and forced Shi Ji to him no matter what.

"I know." Zhuang Yu said, "The day I sent him back to the dormitory, he was not liberated to this extent."

Dean Nie turned around in shock and looked at Zhuang Yu.

He had known about Shi Ji's situation and already guessed the meaning of Zhuang Yu's words: "His ghost program——"

Zhuang Yu nodded: "Someone helped, and we have it under control for the time being."

Zhuang Yu: "That person promised me that sooner or later this set of programs would be stripped off, so I was asked to wait."

Dean Nie's eyes widened.

He was completely overwhelmed by the surprise. He paced back and forth several times before finally calming down a little.

Zhuang Yu returned his attention to the screen.

While the rescuers were rescuing the distressed mecha operator and observer, Shi Ji had already swam to the other side of the lake silently in the dark night, wearing a mass of water plants as a camouflage.

It is now the eleventh hour since the exercise began.

At two o'clock in the morning, most of the trainees were still repairing in hiding, while a small number of them had already started the most dangerous part of the attack under the cover of night.

The one-kilometer radius around all mecha and wingman drop locations has been completely cleared, and there are no bunkers for concealment.

Special operations team members are already in place and are continuously patrolling the vicinity. Once the trainees are discovered, they will be "shot to death" mercilessly by the opposing Blue Army.

This is also the most standard traditional confrontation mode that appears in almost all exercises.

"Adjust the plan." Zhuang Yu said, "Trigger the mechanical insect riot in advance."

The deputy of the special operations team beside him was a little stunned: "Now?"

This was not in line with the exercise procedure. The deputy frowned and asked hesitantly: "Can't we wait for some of them to get the mecha first? To stop the trainees, the special team's defense line is enough..."

Zhuang Yu asked: "How many of your men were killed in the battle?"

The deputy was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized something and turned around suddenly.

——Just now, in less than a minute, the members of the special team responsible for defending Shi Ji's partner's mecha had lost contact with three locators!

According to Zhuang Yu's requirements, the "killed" special force members will have their communication systems automatically cut off and can only return to the team on their own.

The others didn't even move at all. They didn't notice the quiet disappearance of their comrades, and they continued to patrol according to the original arrangement.The next moment the deputy looked at the screen, the indicator light of another locator suddenly went out.

Conflicts have also begun to appear on the monitoring screens in several other districts.

Unlike the silence in this area of ​​Shiji, these conflicts are extremely fierce, and trainees are constantly being eliminated. On the statistics screen, the number of eliminated people is rising rapidly.

But at the same time, the special forces also began to suffer new casualties.

Many trainees are from active military units and are elites selected at all levels. After twelve hours of exploration, many of them have adapted to the battlefield environment.

Faced with the eliminations who constantly joined the battle and tried to grab the spots, they did not fight independently as the military staff predicted. Instead, they spontaneously united together to form a strong force.

These people temporarily put aside their competition and prioritized ensuring that the most powerful mecha operators could join the mechas. The rest were responsible for covering and blocking the blue army. Many people even chose to sacrifice themselves and detonated the signal device representing the explosion.

On another monitoring screen, Ye Hanfeng teamed up with several military cadets to set up a trap and successfully killed a special forces member.

Zhuang Yu asked: "What is the current casualty ratio?"

Sweat broke out on the deputy's forehead: "1:12...it's still shrinking, it's 1:10."

1:10 means that for every ten people on the other side who are eliminated, one special operations team member will be "killed" during the exercise.

Ten years ago, the casualty ratio of Zhuang Yu's special operations team against lower-level troops was 1:30.

The sharp knife team he personally led never recorded any casualties during the exercises.

"These years...these years without fighting."

The deputy didn't know how to explain it. He swallowed nervously and whispered: "After you leave, the special operations team needs to recruit talents, and the selection criteria are also wider..."

Zhuang Yu nodded: "I know."

He had no intention of holding anyone accountable.

The one who should be held most accountable was himself. Even the youngest S7 was desperately resisting, but he was exiled by himself for ten years.

There is no time to hold people accountable. In less than three months, the Zerg invasion will begin, and the intensity of the first wave of the offensive will far exceed any recorded battle in the past.

The current special forces cannot stop the Zerg.

If they fail to achieve disparate results with strong deterrence, their galaxy will be fully invaded and used as the next "worm nest".

"Expand the scale of the exercise and trigger a mechanical insect riot."

Zhuang Yu said: "As long as the current members of the special operations team are killed in action, they will be treated as trainees and will be re-selected."

The deputy's expression changed slightly: "Captain Zhuang, if this happens——"

Zhuang Yu looked at him.

Even though Zhuang Yu had just returned to the team, even though in the past ten years, he had been as pale and withered as a crazy wandering ghost - at this moment, the deputy was still clearly aware that the person standing in front of him was the real person of the special operations team.person in charge.

... He is the true legend who single-handedly established a combat team capable of becoming a god, took the mecha and penetrated into the deepest part of the insect swarm, and blasted an attached planet where the insect race was located.

The deputy did not dare to say another word, saluted, and hurried back to convey the order.

Zhuang Yu turned around and looked at the monitoring screen.

…

Shi Ji has undoubtedly discovered this.

Just now, in the seventh area where Shi Ji was, the indicator light of the last locator belonging to the special forces team was quietly extinguished.

The entire blue team in District 7 has been sent to the furnace by their seniors.

In the night, Shi Ji apologized softly and took back the dagger.

When Zhan Chen made the Dolphin for him, he deliberately left the docking port for his wingman. His wingman was standing quietly at the end of the open space with the Dolphin.

All obstacles have been cleared. As long as the Dolphin's program is activated, it can immediately switch back to combat mode.

Shi Ji stood up.

He looked towards the Dolphin, but his expression was not as relaxed as it should be.

Yu Tang said in the sea of consciousness: "Shi Ji?"

"Too weak." Shi Ji said softly, "When the captain is here, even ordinary members of the special team should not be so weak."

After Yu Tang read the message from Zhuang Yu, he turned off the light screen and raised his eyes.

Shi Ji could have rendezvoused with his mecha long ago.

He had already obtained the Dolphin's trigger, but circled back and ambushed the Blues in the entire area by himself.

Many combat staff were horrified to see this. They all remembered this genius who had his head ripped off and snatched away by various war zones. They were worried that this was Shi Ji's way of showing off to Zhuang Yu before he entered the special forces team.

Only two of the parties involved had not thought about it at all.

Zhuang Yu sent a special message, explaining the current battle situation to him and asking him to be optimistic about Shi Ji's set of procedures.

Shi Ji broke the rules for the first time and mustered up the courage to ask him if there was a skill card that could restore the captain's form and make up for the impact on Zhuang Yu's body in the past ten years.

Shi Ji is willing to keep working in Yu Tang's cake shop.

As long as you can earn enough experience points, it doesn't matter if you bake billions or tens of billions of cakes.

When Yu Tang received the report from Shi Ji, he specifically showed it to the mecha on the side: "Don't you regret it later?"

The mecha gently expressed that it didn't understand: "Mr. Yu, what did you say?"

Yu Tang was used to his calmness, nodded and took the calculator.

Yu Tang opened the mall and searched for the experience points required for the body function healing card. He calculated the required number of small cakes on the spot and prepared to send it back to Shi Ji.

The next moment, a mechanical hand stopped his movement.

"..." The mecha stopped him, and for the first time there was a faint fluctuation in the mechanical voice: "Mr. Yu."

Yu Tang lowered the corners of his mouth and suppressed his subtle smile without any trace.

…

Due to the rules of the bookstore, neither of them can be too OOC, and their previous transgressions have reached the limit.

But Yu Tang could already clearly see that his back door had been opened to an outrageous extent.

Even the slow-selling cakes have a dedicated stall.

Yu Tang had no doubt at all that even if Shi Ji really baked tens of billions of small cakes and spent his own money to buy them and eat them slowly, it would be someone in charge of the shopping mall who was working on behalf of the system.

"Actually, no need." Yu Tang said.

He seemed to be telling Shi Ji, but his eyes fell on the mecha, and he spoke slowly and seriously: "Although some things will take more effort, you can also find other ways."

"It will be safer," Yu Tang said, "for you."

The mecha quietly raised its head.

This is just a toy-sized model. There are only red lights in the mask as indicators, and it can't even make any more expressions.

The mecha sat cross-legged on the ground, one hand still pressing the back of his hand, and the red light flashed gently.

Shi Ji was debugging the Dolphin. He listened carefully to Teacher Yu's words and raised his hand to ask: "What can I do?"

"..." Yu Tang gave an example casually: "For example, I bought Sheng Yi's house."

Shi Ji's movements stopped.

"Sheng Yi, the mecha operator you partnered with before."

Yu Tang reminded him: "Sheng Tiancheng blocked most of your talents and left you to him, asking you to be his observer..."

Shi Ji: "...I remember, Mr. Yu."

Shi Ji was only temporarily freed from the control of the system, and the memory of that period was not erased.

He roughly heard Yu Tang talk about the exchange rules of the mall. As long as you have the ownership of such things, you can exchange them, and the experience points you get can buy what you want.

Before Sheng Yi's eighteenth birthday, he was still Sheng Yi's nominal guardian and indeed had the right to dispose of Sheng Yi's belongings.

"You don't want to have anything to do with him anymore?" Yu Tang regained his composure and said warmly, "It doesn't matter. If you don't want to redeem it, just don't redeem it."

After all, Shi Ji's situation is different from Xiao Hongka's.

Yu Tang had no intention of forcing Shi Ji to make any choice - when the program was finally stripped off, he could solve all the technical problems, but there was only one thing: Shi Ji's heart must be complete and strong enough.

Forced divestiture is destined to be accompanied by a crazy counterattack.Even if there is any hesitation, those all-pervasive data will take advantage of it.

After all, Shi Ji has been responsible for taking care of Sheng Yi for so many years. If Shi Ji can't pass this hurdle on his own, Yu Tang will not go beyond him and do anything.

"No." Shi Ji said, "Things have priorities. The captain's physical condition is more important. If he is not guaranteed to be in peak condition, he may die in this war."

Shi Ji had already adjusted the Dolphin. He returned to his wingman and put on his goggles: "If it must be exchanged, I will discuss it with Sheng Yi."

Yu Tang was a little curious: "How to discuss?"

"Senior Zhan has already taught me," Shi Ji said, "Sheng Yi may be put into a sack and placed on a wooden board to float away in the sea. In order to prevent this, he needs to improve his fighting ability."

Senior Zhan in the mecha: "..."

Shi Ji: "When I was checking my data, I also found two small programs called 'The child does not teach the guardian's fault' and 'The guardian does not punish the child for being lazy'."

Yu Tang, the producer of the mini program: “…”

"I have thought carefully about it for a long time." Shi Ji said, "I think it makes sense. It was my previous way of educating him that caused the problem, and the responsibility lies with me."

Shi Ji said seriously: "I will apologize to him and then make corrections."

Yu Tang felt that Sheng Yi might not want to hear this apology.

Their light screen would monitor the protagonist in real time. Yu Tang switched to it and took a look at Sheng Yi's picture.

From the basic settings, the protagonist's attack and reception are destined to continue to collide. Under the invisible guidance of fate, Sheng Yi, who entered the war zone, has already met Ye Hanfeng again.

The military students united by Ye Hanfeng are still trying their best to deal with the members of the special forces guarding the mecha on the opposite side.

According to the new order issued by the headquarters, once a special operations team member is "killed" and is eliminated, he will automatically be regarded as a trainee. Only by passing the selection training can he rejoin the special operations team.

These special operations team members completely put aside the last trace of underestimating the enemy, and the resistance was not a bit stronger than at the beginning.

Sheng Yi formed a temporary alliance with these people, but refused to charge directly with his mecha regardless of anything.

The rules are written in black and white. The first twelve hours of the training exercise are to assess the trainees' combat qualities without the mecha.

Sheng Yi had always regarded Ye Hanfeng as his real opponent. He couldn't understand how the always proud Ye Hanfeng could break the rules in such a matter, and he was furious.

This time, many people stood on Sheng Yi's side, and the temporary alliance broke out into internal strife, causing a lot of chaos and quarrels.

Ye Hanfeng had a headache from the noise and walked aside alone.

He couldn't explain to these people that the exercise was completely out of order.

Since the controller behind this exercise decided to erase the rules, there must be a reason for erasing the rules. He couldn't think of what the reason was yet, but at this time, the rule sheet with black and white words had long becomepiece of waste paper.

Ye Hanfeng clenched his fist hard.

He is the observer. Under the current model, the observer is naturally the auxiliary position.Even if he temporarily became the leader of this group of people due to his individual qualities, he would not be able to issue orders that would be enough for everyone to obey.

The most urgent task is to try to maintain this alliance that is on the verge of collapse.

"...Stop arguing."

Ye Hanfeng said: "Let's maintain the status quo for the time being, and then try to break through again."

Sheng Yi's face finally looked better, and he took the initiative to stand up: "I'll do it this time -"

Ye Hanfeng ignored him, adjusted the electromagnetic energy cannon on his wrist, and silently jumped into the increasingly dark night.

…

Yu Tang turned off the light screen.

He thought about the scene where Shi Ji suddenly appeared, apologizing to Sheng Yi for not beating Sheng Yi all these years, and to make up for it, he gave Sheng Yi a good beating.

Yu Tang: “I’ll try it if I have a chance.”

"Okay." Shi Ji always listened to Yu Tang and Senior Zhan's words. He nodded seriously and wrote down the matter, "But even so, there may be no way to redeem the Sheng family's residence."

Yu Tang asked casually: "Why?"

"Because the ownership of Shengzhai does not belong to me."

Shi Ji said: "It belongs to Sheng Yi's father...Mr. Yu, cut off the projection of the sea of consciousness!"

Yu Tang looked slightly stern and stood up.

...He also saw the scene that suddenly appeared in Shi Ji's observation window.

Countless mechanical bugs rioted out of control, overwhelming the sky and suddenly submerging all observable fields of vision.

Zhuang Yu spent a lot of money. He wanted to eliminate everyone's laxity and carelessness in this exercise, and he also wanted to use this exercise to select the most elite candidates - only one Shi Ji is not enough, this is a game that may...In the protracted war, he wanted to select a group for Shi Ji.

A group that belongs to the first observers in the league.

…

The mecha pushed itself onto the ground, jumped neatly across the sofa, and stood on top of the pile of pillows.

Countless, slightly glowing huge data streams gathered quickly in front of it.

The mecha was about to operate, but was stopped by Yu Tang: "No."

"Shi Ji needs to balance the system." Yu Tang said, "It doesn't matter to me."

The mecha disagreed a little, and there was a hint of worry in the mechanical voice: "Mr. Yu."

Yu Tang shook his head.

The mecha was silent for a while, then nodded: "Okay."

His tone was indistinguishable from usual, but Yu Tang vaguely sensed something was wrong and looked away, looking down at him.

The mecha raised its head, and the gentle mechanical voice revealed a human apology: "Mr. Yu... I'm offended."

Yu Tang: "?"

The mech took his hand.

According to Chuan Bookstore's regulations, if the host goes on a three-day vacation, the system will switch over with the host and temporarily take over the related work.

In principle, the system can be swapped with the host.

Yu Tang's vision went dark for a moment.

Shi Ji suddenly pulled the joystick to the limit, and the wingman suddenly rose at an incredible angle, leading the Dolphin to dodge the sudden wave of insects.

A strong sense of weightlessness swept across the sea of consciousness.

Before the feelings were projected from the sea of consciousness to the host, Yu Tang's data stream was quickly exchanged and temporarily transmitted into the mecha.

Yu Tang opened his eyes.

In front of him was the figure that had appeared countless times in his memory.

As the light points converge, the figure that has completely disappeared without a trace is re-solidifying in the sea of consciousness.

"Take it easy."

Zhan Chen stretched out his hand, his palms were warm, and firmly supported the swaying mecha model: "Wait a minute, I will make a small swing."