Chapter 40

Chapter 40

The instructor scowled and shot a look toward the laughter. "Anyone else who laughs will join him for push-ups!"

His voice lowered slightly, carrying a tone of intimidation.

The crowd quickly fell silent again.

Just then, Jiang Se ambled back with her hands tucked in her pockets, looking lazy.

As soon as she arrived, it was as if a big celebrity were making an appearance—the entire squad’s attention fell on Jiang Se.

Jiang Se touched two fingers to her brow in a casual salute. "An hour apart, and you all must have missed me so much!"

Her flippant attitude made the instructor frown even more deeply. He looked at Jiang Se and asked gruffly, "Looking so relaxed—does that mean you’ve finished repairing the mechs?"

Jiang Se dropped her playful demeanor, straightened up, and looked at the instructor. "Reporting, Instructor—repairs are complete."

The instructor shot a look at Lin Xu, who gave him an almost imperceptible nod. The instructor chuckled and turned back to Jiang Se. "Didn’t expect you to be so capable. You really fixed all three mechs by yourself?"

The people still struggling and twisting on the ground doing push-ups looked at Jiang Se as if she were some kind of alien, wailing in misery:

"Boss, why didn’t you tell us you were this skilled earlier?!"

"I regret this so much! If I’d known, I would’ve gone with the boss to repair the mechs. I still have thirty push-ups left—there’s no way I can finish them even if you kill me!"

"This time, I’ve been reborn—back at the moment the instructor gave us the choice. This time, I’m determined to cling tightly to the boss’s leg. Venmo me 50 and listen to my revenge plan!"

...

The instructor shot them a warning look. "Keep talking, and I’ll double your push-ups!"

Those few immediately shut their mouths obediently.

The instructor turned his gaze back to Jiang Se. "Get back in line and stand at attention. Next time, I don’t want to see you playing with your light brain during training hours."

"Understood, Instructor." Jiang Se returned to the squad and began the long, painful ordeal of standing at attention.

The sun was burning hot, its heat bearing down on them, making it almost unbearable. Several students had already dropped from heat exhaustion and were carried aside to rest.

Jiang Se also felt dizzy multiple times, but she gritted her teeth and endured it.

When break time finally arrived and the whistle signaled break, Jiang Se relaxed completely, collapsing onto her back on the ground. She covered her eyes with the back of her hand, feeling utterly drowsy.

Many others were in the same state—lying flat on their backs, covering the entire ground.

Seeing them like this, the instructor couldn’t help but frown. "It’s already noon—aren’t you going to eat? Don’t forget, you still need to pick up your training uniforms later."

Jiang Se’s eyes lit up at the mention of food, but then, as if remembering something, she slumped back down lazily. "What’s the difference? Eating just means drinking nutrient fluid anyway. Having it a little earlier or later doesn’t matter!"

After all, during mealtime, you had to worry about others fighting over food, which required some level of hustle. But the nutrient fluid was just sitting there—no one was going to fight over it.

Jiang Se’s voice wasn’t loud, but in the silence where everyone was lying motionless on the ground, it stood out clearly.

Hearing this, the instructor shook his head and muttered, "What a smartass!"

Jiang Se lay on the ground for about ten minutes before pushing herself up with one hand and standing. As soon as she got up, she felt sore all over, like she’d been through a wringer.

She stood and prepared to head to the cafeteria to eat... well, to drink nutrient fluid.

The military base had very clear signs at every intersection, so Jiang Se had no trouble finding the cafeteria.

Along the way, she also picked up a set of training uniforms at a distribution point.

The training uniform was entirely black, sealed in protective packaging. It included not only the clothes but also a pair of black shoes.

The fabric felt high-quality—clearly, Alliance University didn’t cut corners for its students.

Looking at the uniform, Jiang Se thought to herself: Once the training is over, I can use this as my work clothes.

As she mulled this over, she reached the cafeteria entrance. Before she could step inside with her left foot, someone suddenly threw an arm over her shoulder. Chu Yun’s voice rang in her ear: "Jiang Jiang, surprise!"

Her voice was light, cheerful, and full of energy—a stark contrast to Jiang Se’s current exhaustion and lethargy.

Jiang Se looked up at her. Chu Yun appeared completely untouched by the training.

Jiang Se: "Didn’t you train this morning?"

Chu Yun: "We did. Push-ups, crawl training—they pretty much ran us through a triathlon. But..."

Chu Yun’s tone shifted. "...compared to the training we Mech Pilots go through, this is nothing. The intensity of my high school training was much higher than this."

Jiang Se: Well, what can I say? I’m just a weak and helpless Mech Pilot!

Chu Yun raised an eyebrow. "I heard your squad caught a few people sneaking use of their light brains. I was worried about you, but it looks like you weren’t caught."

After all, given Jiang Se’s personality, if others were sneaking use of their light brains, it was almost impossible for her not to be doing the same.

"I got caught too, but I went to repair the mechs instead. I wasn’t punished with push-ups. The instructor assigns a hundred push-ups as punishment—I might’ve been able to muscle through fifty, but there’s no way I could finish a hundred even if you killed me."

"Alright, you dodged a bullet then!"

...

The two chatted as they walked toward the cafeteria.

Unlike the fancy cafeteria at Alliance University, the military base’s cafeteria was extremely no-frills.

The cafeteria had two floors, both designated for students participating in drills and training.

The space was vast and sparsely furnished. However, the windows that would normally serve food were empty, replaced by boxes of nutrient fluid and blank-faced robots responsible for distributing them.

The robots were silver all over, with only two vertical emoji on the black ion screen where their eyes would be. As they handed out nutrient fluid, the expressions on their screens changed—shifting from a blank slate to slightly smiling. With each bottle distributed, they emitted a cold, mechanical voice: "Have a pleasant meal."

The boxes of nutrient fluid were opened, each bottle contained in a special sealed glass vial. The fluid was semi-transparent, with a thick, syrupy consistency.

Jiang Se silently grumbled to herself: Doesn’t look very tasty.

After all, she’d occasionally seen ads for nutrient fluid on her light brain homepage. Those ads were vibrant and colorful, featuring trendy, attractive men and women as endorsers. The flavors were mostly delicious fruity ones like apple and citrus—more like a trendy, quick-consumption product akin to boba than mere sustenance.

The nutrient fluid in front of her, however, was likely the genuine article.

When it was Jiang Se and Chu Yun’s turn, each was handed a nutrient drink tube.

Jiang Se and Chu Yun found a random spot to sit. Jiang Se picked up her nutrient fluid, looked it over carefully, then adopted a resigned look as she twisted off the cap. She closed her eyes and downed the whole thing.

After finishing it, she slumped onto the table, and went quiet.

Chu Yun looked at her tentatively and asked, "Jiang Jiang, how does the nutrient fluid taste?"

"It just tastes like nutrient solution, just plain old nutrient solution."

Jiang Se's expression was somewhat hard to describe. "You'll know once you try it. To be honest..." She stared blankly at the glass tube. "Just thinking about having to drink this stuff for several days in a row, I feel like the sky is falling."

At that moment, Lin Xu and his school team happened to be coming down the stairs from the second floor. Among them, the Mecha Pilot Nie Wenjing must've had something urgent and didn’t have time to eat breakfast, so he just packed a Chinese breakfast crepe to carry with him.

Nie Wenjing looked up and saw Jiang Se’s gaze locked onto him like a laser... or rather, locked on the Chinese breakfast crepe in his hand.

Her gaze was intense, like a sharp sword, as if it could pierce straight through him.

Nie Wenjing was a bit confused and looked at Lin Xu. "Boss, why is she staring at me like that?"

Lin Xu glanced over and looked him up and down. "I guess she’s not looking at you, but probably at the Chinese breakfast crepe you’re holding."

Jiang Se took one look and then averted her gaze, grumbling, "So unfair. Why do they get to eat freshly made Chinese breakfast crepes while we have to drink this nutrient solution?"

Chu Yun propped her chin on her hand. "Probably because they’re the ones doing the training, and we’re the ones being trained?"

Jiang Se nodded in resignation. "Alright, you’re right."

After leaving the cafeteria, Jiang Se and Chu Yun split up and returned to their respective dormitory areas.

The dormitory area had been cleared out for them. Since this place was often used for military exercises or student training, there was a large vacant dormitory area.

The dormitory area had clearly been cleaned by dedicated cleaning bots and was quite tidy, but due to its age, the facilities weren't as nice as the ones at Alliance University dormitories.

The dormitory was an eight-person room with bunk beds. The bathroom and shower areas were at the end of the hallway.

When Jiang Se pushed the door open, two or three roommates were inside. Jiang Se glanced around—they were all familiar faces from the same unit.

When they saw Jiang Se, they said:

"What a coincidence! The big shot is in the same dorm as us!"

"Wow, I was in the first row this morning. Big shot, you didn’t see the surprised look on the instructor’s face when you said you fixed three mechas."

"I just secretly asked a student from another department. That instructor is notoriously hard to deal with. I think he’s the head instructor for this training session."

...

Hearing this, Jiang Se took a basin and towel from the cabinet and said, "The head instructor? Instead of showing off his skills in the Individual Combat Department, why is he here training a bunch of Mecha Pilots?"

"Not sure. Maybe he’s checking if our Mecha Department has any promising talents?"

"Ha." Jiang Se laughed. "And then he finds out that our Mecha Department has no promising talents, only troublemakers!"

After saying that, Jiang Se grabbed her basin, pushed the door open, and walked toward the shower room at the end of the hallway.

Maybe everyone was still eating in the cafeteria or picking up training uniforms, so the shower room was mostly empty.

Jiang Se took a ten-minute hot shower, then walked back to the dorm in slippers while drying her hair with a towel.

Jiang Se’s bed was the first lower bunk on the left-hand side as you entered the room.

The moment she lay down, the hard bedboard came into firm contact with her spine.

But Jiang Se was too exhausted. She closed her eyes and fell asleep almost instantly. Before drifting off, she fumbled with her Light Brain to set herself an alarm.

About an hour later, Jiang Se was jolted awake from her dream by a piercing whistle. She opened her eyes and glanced drowsily at her Light Brain—there were still half an hour left until the previously scheduled assembly time.

The whistle was so shrill and ear-splitting that everyone in the dorm was jolted awake. Muffled voices could also be heard from the hallway.

"What does this whistle mean?" one roommate asked.

"I think it probably means we should head down and fall in," Jiang Se pondered.

A roommate whose bed was near the window leaned out to look. "There are indeed people assembling down there, but not many—just a handful."

"Should we go down?" another roommate asked, looking at everyone.

"I think we should go down," Jiang Se calmly said. "Based on my understanding of the instructors’ methods, they’re probably doing this on purpose. Those who go down late might face punishment later."