The solemnity on the warship was very depressing, except for the footsteps when walking, there were only some whispered discussions among the officers.

Ming Jiang sat in the small room allotted to him, closed his eyes and dozed off to preserve his strength.

This is what the captain of their team ordered before boarding the warship. In order to prevent surprise attacks during the warship, all soldiers except the patrolling soldiers must stay in their rooms to conserve energy and be ready to enter the battle state at any time.

Whenever patrolling soldiers passed by the corridor in front of the room, Ming Jiang could hear the sound of uniform footsteps and the sound of weapons colliding as they walked.

It wasn't until the lunch bell rang that Ming Jiang pushed open the port door of the room.

When he walked out of the room, the doors of the rest rooms of the soldiers in the entire corridor were also opened, and the soldiers wearing the uniforms of the battle against the Lotus Empire came out stretched out, and the serious atmosphere of the warship was a little bit more.turn.

"Hey new here?"

Ming Jiang looked suspiciously at the man opposite him, with a brown beard and gray hair, but he should only be in his twenties or thirties by appearance.

"Hey, look at my bald head, it's natural." The man on the opposite side was good at talking, and he walked up to Ming Jiang and put his shoulders together, "Are you a new student? Are you here for the exam??”

Ming Jiang hummed as an answer to his question.

The other party didn't mind Ming Jiang's indifference, but stretched out his hand and introduced himself: "My name is Alec, and I have served in the Seventh Army for three years. How about you? What's your name?"

"What grade are you in? Judging by your age, you should be in the second grade. Not many kids in the first grade would dare to apply for the field assessment."

Ming Jiang: "I'm in the first grade, you can call me... Jiang Ming."

"Hey, Jiang Ming sounds good." Alec was not intimidated by Ming Jiang's age, he was still smiling, and reached out to touch the mechanical mask on Ming Jiang's face.

"What are you? Your face is disfigured?"

"I was injured in the knockout round before the Star League, and I needed auxiliary equipment to be able to see." After Ming Jiang finished speaking, the electronic screen above his eyes flickered, as if to prove the feasibility of this sentence to acrylic.

Acrylic stroked his bushy beard: "Is the school so strict now? Is it allowed to do such a serious thing to classmates in the knockout round?"

"It was just an accident." Ming Jiang's voice was cold and pleasant. He seldom spoke in public with the media, so he didn't do any special processing for his voice. "It will be fine, but I need mechanical assistance recently, noaffect other people."

Of course, Acrylic is not worried about the latter sentence. The technology of mechanical repairing the human body in the interstellar era is already quite sophisticated. The most special thing is the assistant next to King Vigerson, who has transformed half of his body into a machine.

"I don't care about the back. On the battlefield, the only thing you can affect is your own life." Alec patted Ming Jiang on the shoulder.

Perhaps this sentence was too serious. In order to ease the atmosphere, Alec laughed again, "Okay, let's go to lunch together. I heard that today's meal has braised goose cubes. I like this the most."

Ming Jiang hummed, the mechanical mask was connected to a visual electronic screen, and a series of meaningless symbols were drawn across.

The canteen is the busiest place on the warship, and there are noisy voices everywhere, especially where there are many men.

Ming Jiang chose a quieter corner, and sat there to eat after receiving today's meal.

Alec didn't let him go because of this, but sat opposite him with a meal that was three times the amount of Ming Jiang's food.

"Aren't children willing to talk now? It's a little disrespectful to me, an old man." Alec chewed the goose in his mouth without stopping, "You eat so little, no wonder you don't grow taller."

Ming Jiang: ...

"I will grow taller." Ming Jiang said "without expression", took out of his pocket the nutritional supplement made in large batches overnight by the Academy of Sciences, and drank it with his head raised.

"This is……"

"Medicine to treat eyes." Ming Jiang had already thought up a countermeasure, and answered Alec's question calmly.

Alec didn't continue to ask any more questions, and ate desperately with puffy cheeks.

Not only Alec, Ming Jiang only needs to look around to see that most people eat in the same way as Alec.

Ming Jiang understands this kind of behavior. He will only provide meals when the warship is sailing normally. If there is a surprise attack or a battlefield, three meals a day will depend on the colorless and tasteless nutrient solution.

Under such circumstances, most of the soldiers would eat desperately before the start of the battle, as if they wanted to get back their money all at once.

But the lunch time is strictly limited. When the time comes, everyone clears up the plates tacitly and walks out of the cafeteria.

On the way back, Alec was still talking to Ming Jiang with a playful smile: "To be honest, our battlefield has not received new and old assessments for a long time, do you know why?"

"I read some information when I came here."

Three years ago, this defense base suffered a large-scale Zerg attack, only because the mother insect disappeared near the IQK16 galaxy.

Ming Jiang was so impressed by this incident that he didn't even need to check the information.

Because it is close to the IQK16 galaxy, not only the defense base suffered a large-scale impact from the Zerg, but even several unnamed planets nearby could not escape the disaster.

The turning point of the matter was the arrival of Lu Lin. That battle directly made Lu Lin the position of the first general of the Lotus Empire. He led the first army and some soldiers of the defense base, using the ancient blue star traditionalThe tactics of the three-point battle wiped out all the Zerg, and also helped some nearby unnamed planets deal with some follow-ups.

However, before Lu Lin arrived at the defense base, nearly half of the candidates placed here by the Lotus Imperial Military Academy died.

After this incident, the IQK16 galaxy was excluded from the final field battlefield assessment, and the name of this defensive base was not added to the selection list until this year.

Alec was very interested with the naked eye: "Then you are very brave, no one is sure whether the female worm will regenerate near the IQK16 galaxy."

"It should be that the school is very courageous. If the school didn't use the battlefield of the defense base as the assessment site, I wouldn't be able to choose it."

This was a coincidence. When Ming Jiang saw the IQK16 galaxy at the assessment site on the field battlefield, he was also stunned for a long time, his eyes full of disbelief.

He thought that the IQK16 galaxy had already been excluded by the school, and would no longer be selected as the field battlefield test site for the school's final assessment.

Originally, Ming Jiang was a little surprised why this place was suddenly added to the assessment site this year. Later, he met Lu Lin, and everything was solved easily.

Because there is Lu Lin as the assessment teacher.

In other words, Principal Alpha and the school trust Lu Lin and believe that he can protect the safety of the students.

Alec: "You can always trust Principal Alpha's thoughts. No one else can think about students like Principal Alpha."

"I think back when I was a student, he—"

"It's time to go back." Ming Jiang saw that Alec was about to make a long speech, even if he stopped him from the topic that hadn't started yet.

He gave a decent smile, but forgot that the mask on his face would block all his expressions.

"goodbye."

Alec scratched his head and looked at Ming Jiang's back as he walked into the room. He was not angry at Ming Jiang's indifference, but felt that the voice of this junior student was really nice.

Finally, Alec, who stood in a daze for a few seconds in the corridor, returned to his room in the last few seconds of the rest bell.

...

In the next few days, Ming Jiang would eat with this Alec every day, and he would often be stopped by other fighters who were good at chatting. They were very interested in this student who dared to choose a field test in the first grade.

The sailing speed of warships is much higher than that of starships used by ordinary people. It maximizes the speed and compresses everyone's transfer or rest time.

Of course, it is also because the physique of soldiers and fighters is higher than that of ordinary people, and they can withstand this kind of high-intensity voyage.

In ten days, Ming Jiang arrived at this defensive base known as the "Heart of Steel".

The warship was moored at the port made of steel, and Ming Jiang walked off the warship with the large army.

The entire base is made of steel, built on the highest peak of a planet where the daylight hours are only three or four hours. Except for the lifting platform that is only available to the army, only flying Zerg can touch the base.

The reason why it is called the "Heart of Steel" is because the main material of construction is steel, and the other reason is the geographical location of the base that is "easy to defend but difficult to attack".

Because there is no suspension vehicle track, traditional vehicles and aircraft are the most used here.

Ming Jiang sat in the car sent by the base to pick them up. The high chassis allowed the car to drive on rough roads, but it also bumped non-stop.

But no matter how bumpy it was, the bodies of the soldiers sitting in the car never moved.

As soon as they stepped into the military port, they had already entered the battlefield. Everyone's vigilance was at its fullest, and their muscles were tense, as if they could jump out of the car and shoot with guns in the next second.

In Ming Jiang's car, there is also a third-year combat department senior from the same school. His appearance is not as exaggerated as Alec, but he is also a strong man with a muscular soldier appearance.

The last one who broke the silence in the car was the team leader sitting in the passenger seat. Ming Jiang was assigned to this team to carry out the task.

"Well, this base was designed and completed by Admiral Lu Lin."

Ming Jiang held the gun and looked up, seeing the "Heart of Steel" in the distance from the gap between the driver's seat and the passenger's seat.

Built on the top of the mountain, among the clouds and mist.

At this time, it is the rarest daytime period on this planet.Ming Jiang could clearly see the clouds surrounding the top of the base, showing the base half-hidden in front of everyone.

In front of the mountain top, three circular lifts are working, sending armored vehicles and aircraft carrying soldiers to the base.

The motorcade, which was as long as a black line, kept driving towards the base. Ming Jiang listened to the senior beside him lamenting the magnificence of the base, and nodded in agreement.

"When you get to the base, you will be assigned to different dormitories." The team leader smiled strangely, and he looked at Ming Jiang, "For you, be careful not to be bullied, and come to me if you need anything."

The meaning of this bullying is too charming, Ming Jiang closed his eyes and thought, if someone treats him like that, he will just hit back with his fist.

The senior also understood the potential meaning of this sentence, looked at Ming Jiang unbearably, and took the initiative to say to the team leader: "Will he and I be assigned to the same dormitory? We are students in the same school."

"There is only one school here."

"Captain, can we live in a dormitory?"

"I didn't make a decision on these things, just live in the dormitory allocated by logistics."

"But……"

"No but." The team leader raised his thick eyebrows, and looked impatiently at the two students in the back seat through the front-view mirror, "Foreman No. G146, please remember that whether you are in the military academy or the army, the first ironThe law is obedience to orders from superiors."

"yes……"

Ming Jiang raised his eyebrows under the cover of the mask, he was a little surprised that the senior helped him.

Although without success.

The armored vehicle drove up to the far left elevator platform.

As the lifting platform got farther and farther away from the ground, what Ming Jiang saw in the car became wider and wider.

There was a slight thump of metal, the elevator reached its highest point, and the armored vehicle restarted, driving carefully along the floor of the base.

The armored vehicle has a special parking space in the base, and when the vehicle stops, their captain immediately pushes the door and gets off.

Ming Jiang also opened the door and got out of the car, and walked to the open space not far away to gather with other soldiers.

He knew that this was to allocate dormitories. Before arriving at the defensive base, Alec explained many base rules to him.

After waiting for more than ten minutes, the dormitory allocation for all the soldiers had already come down. Ming Jiang looked at the dormitory allocation quota in his hand in surprise.

Not long after, Alec came towards him with a heavy gun on his back, and the smile on his face couldn't be stopped: "I didn't expect that we would be assigned together, it's really fate."

Besides Alec, Mingjiang has two roommates with names he has never heard of.

He and Alec walked to the dormitory. On the way, Alec took the initiative to mention these two roommates, but his attitude was a bit bad.

"I don't know whether to say good luck or bad luck. Why did I get assigned to these two people again?" Alec's beard twitched, looking extremely disgusted.

Ming Jiang flipped through the cards that were handed out to him: "What happened to them?"

"It's nothing, it's just a bad personality." Alec stopped suddenly and grabbed Ming Jiang.

He looked at Ming Jiang, frowned and muttered: "I almost forgot, those two bastards should like yours the most."

"It's just that I can't see the face. It would be better if I look uglier."

Ming Jiang walked sideways through a narrow place, his masked face was very strange: "Do they like men?"

"Yeah." Alec didn't hide it, and introduced it to Ming Jiang openly, "Those two people... are bastards, they like to have one-night stands in the army, and the death rate of the IQK16 base isThe highest group in the empire, the officers will not stop this kind of only spiritual entertainment."

"Unless it affects the base?"

"Unless it affects the base."

"I see." Ming Jiang was thoughtful, "You mean they will attack me."

"Not necessarily, those two bastards still look at the face, so they should take off your mechanical mask first."

While speaking, Alec had already led him to the assigned dormitory. Four beds were distributed at the four ends of the dormitory, and there was a light curtain wall beside the bed to protect the basic privacy.

The door of the dormitory was half-closed, Ming Jiang casually knocked on the door and went in, just in time to see two well-built men hugging each other and lying on the bed opposite the door.

Still kissing with forgetfulness, even if Ming Jiang came in, he couldn't interrupt them.

Having had some early warning about this, Ming Jiang calmly walked to the bed he numbered, and the logistics had already arranged all the bedding.

He put the gun|gun he was holding next to the bed, and there was a faint smell of smoke in the room, as if someone had just smoked.

He went down to Alec, and sure enough, he saw Alec sniff his nose.

Soon, he heard Alec yelling at the two people on the bed who were about to undress and go home base: "Smoking is prohibited in the base, and you two violated the regulations. Don't bring me and Jiang Ming to be punished together!"

After being yelled at like this, the two sat up from the bed reluctantly.

"Why are you disturbing other people's happy time?" The curly-haired man above showed a wicked smile.

Alec snorted coldly: "If you want to play, just turn on the light curtain wall, no one wants to watch a live movie."

"Tsk tsk." The curly-haired man shook his head, and the man under pressure was complaining that Alec didn't know how to behave.

Because there was a meeting later, Ming Jiang didn't turn on the light curtain wall, but just wanted to sit on the bed and rest for a while.

But soon, the curly-haired man noticed Ming Jiang.

"Hey, is this our new roommate?" The curly-haired man kept looking at Ming Jiang with explicit and disgusting eyes, "Have you seen him before, newcomer?"

"That's a student of the Lotus Military Academy." Alec warned him, "This time the assessment will be conducted by the admiral as the assessment teacher, Edward, I advise you not to cause trouble."

Ming Jiang noticed that after Alec mentioned Lu Lin's name, Alec really restrained a lot.

Alec was still saying: "Also, smoking is not allowed in the dormitory in the future. We don't want to be punished with you. If you implicate me, I will choose to meet you in the training room."

Curly-haired Edward didn't care about Alec's threats, but looked at Ming Jiang with regret: "It's a pity that I can't see the face, this figure is definitely—"

The vine quietly climbed up from Edward's back, revealing a tip pointing at the other's throat.

"If we continue talking, I can't guarantee whether we will enter the interrogation room together because of the fight." Ming Jiang's voice was cold, as cold as frostbite.

Edward was stunned for a long time, probably because he didn't expect Ming Jiang, who was still a student, to threaten him so boldly.

Suddenly, he sneered, and after saying "interesting", he went back to sleep on his bed naked.

Ming Jiang turned his gaze and saw Alec giving him a thumbs up.

"Awesome, it's rare for a plant-type mental body to be able to reach your level."

"Let's rest, we will gather soon."

...

The base occupies the entire top of the mountain, with a total of ten floors, and each floor needs to be patrolled by troops. In addition, the three lifting platforms and an empty aircraft parking lot behind the base need to be guarded every night.

On the night of arriving at the base, Ming Jiang was assigned to guard the aircraft parking pad behind the base at night.

More precisely, the entire dormitory is on duty together.

After finishing dinner with the nutrient solution, the night shift began.

Considering that Ming Jiang was still a student, the captain who led Ming Jiang and the others also came over, and from time to time came up with a note on vigil.

"When you find the Zerg, you need to press the alarm as soon as possible, instead of going forward to fight the Zerg alone."

Ming Jiang kept the warning in mind: "Yes."

"Don't be a personal hero. The army is not the place for you to be a hero. Behind you are the people who need the protection of the army. Once the defense base is lost, millions of people will lose their homes."

Ming Jiang pursed her lips: "Yes."

Edward was obviously not as serious as Ming Jiang, he stroked his curly hair and tied it behind his head with a small rubber band.

"Oh, Captain, General Lu Lin is defending the base, how could he lose it? You are too serious, what will you do if you scare the 'future' who is still in the ivory tower?"

"Bang." The fist packed with spiritual power passed Edward's ear quickly and heavily, and landed on the metal floor.

Edward: "Isn't it okay if I don't talk about it?"

After arriving at the base, all the remaining good temper of the captain disappeared, and he gave Ming Jiang a fierce look: "If you are afraid, then I suggest you go back to the ivory tower and stay well, as far as I knowYour school also has a virtual battlefield assessment."

Ming Jiang raised his head, and the electronic screen above his eyes was facing the captain's fierce eyes: "I chose the assessment method myself, and so did the location."

Alec shook his shoulders, and changed the position of the gun against his shoulders: "Yes, captain, don't think too much, Jiang Ming knows what happened here, would he come here if he was afraid?"

"Okay, get ready to be on duty." After the captain said all the precautions, he didn't stop at the aircraft parking lot.

Ming Jiang walked to the post on duty. The post post was specially designed to observe all the situation ahead.

The nights at the defensive base were extraordinarily long and dark.

Ming Jiang looked at the starry universe in front of him, and couldn't help feeling emotional in his heart.

He probably never imagined half a year ago that he could stand at the highest point of this base in just half a year.

The searchlights worked tirelessly, making it impossible for the Zerg to hide at night.

The loneliness of being on duty at the whistle goes together with the night, but Ming Jiang doesn't feel bored.

He looked ahead indifferently, and every time a dark figure appeared in the searchlight, he would observe carefully to confirm whether it was the Zerg hiding in the darkness.

Edward's voice resounded from the left: "If you feel bored, I can talk to you."

Ming Jiang didn't even blink, and continued to stare straight ahead calmly.

"Is there really no need for chatting services? You just need to exchange your body."

Alec's voice immediately went on irritable: "Isn't your broken body drained yet, Edward, I advise you not to cause any trouble when the admiral is around, he is not someone your father can deal with."

Edward whistled: "I have never used my father's rights, they are willing to be with me, voluntarily."

The man who hadn't spoken all this time laughed: "I agree, you attracted me by your personal charm."

Several people chatted for a while, and Edward found that the new roommate had not spoken.

When the searchlights crossed, he turned his head and observed Ming Jiang.

Whether it was the working mechanical mask or the tense muscles in the calf, they all told Edward Mingjiang that he was in a state of vigilance.

He absolutely listened to the conversation just now, but there was no reaction.

Whether disgust or otherwise, nothing.

The opponent's eyes are only on duty within the range of the searchlights.