stonecrandall Chapter 10 Training
Chapter 10 Training
"Even if I give you these things, you still have to be alive to use them."
Before you see him, you hear his voice.
This voice was not as refined and calm as Lin An's usual voice; rather, it was like two pieces of raw iron rubbing against each other, exuding a hard, sparking quality.
Just as Li Fulan reached for the Desert Eagle, he paused upon hearing this and turned his head away.
A dark-faced man emerged from the shadows.
He was truly dark-skinned. It wasn't the bronze tan from years of exposure to the ultraviolet rays of the plateau, but a rough, deep brown, like old tree bark. His features were regular, but his eyes were too sharp, like two unsheathed knives, making you feel a tightness in the back of your neck when they swept over you.
He wore a black combat uniform without any markings, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing half of his forearm covered in winding scars. Some were grazes from bullets, some were knife scars, and a few were clearly marks from skin grafts after burns. His entire arm looked like a living tactical map, recording countless brushes with death.
Li Fulan subconsciously glanced at her own fair and clean hands, which were without even a callus, and then looked at this man's arm. Suddenly, she felt like a bean sprout in a greenhouse.
"Let's get to know each other again."
The dark-faced man walked up to Li Fulan, his slightly drooping double eyelids concealing a sharpness like that of a hawk.
"Lin An. Former chief instructor of a special operations brigade of the Army, three-time champion of the Army's 'Erna Assault' reconnaissance competition, once survived a fourteen-day solo, unsupplied infiltration in a tropical rainforest, and was also a specially appointed physical training instructor for 'Golden Helmet' pilots."
He rattled off this impressive resume that would terrify an ordinary person, speaking as casually as if he were reciting a menu.
It took Li Fulan several seconds to react.
Wait a minute?
Isn't this Commissioner Lin, who always carries a tablet and speaks in a very formal, literary way?
He subconsciously looked back, and the image of the "office worker" with gold-rimmed glasses and always wearing a crisp shirt didn't match the dark-faced man in front of him who exuded a murderous aura at all.
"That one from before..."
"Disguise," Lin An said calmly. "Standard procedure when contacting unknown individuals. Do you think the government would send a real clerk to be your contact person?"
Li Fulan's lips twitched.
Okay, he lost this round.
"For the next three months, I will take over your life."
Lin An casually picked up the Desert Eagle, his movements fluid and effortless—unloading the magazine, pulling the slide, and checking the chamber—all in one smooth motion. The gun in his hands felt like an extension of his body, as if it were an extension of his hand.
"I've seen your file. Nine lifetimes, each ending in a violent death. The longest you lived was twenty-three years, and the shortest was when you were bitten to death by wild dogs just three minutes after you transmigrated."
Lin An put the gun back on the table, his gaze sweeping over Li Fulan's entire body like an X-ray.
"Do you know what this means?"
"Does this mean I'm unlucky?"
"That means you're a complete noob."
Lin An's assessment was blunt: "Even with nine lives, you still managed to squander them. This isn't a matter of luck; it's a matter of ability. You lack the most basic sense of crisis, tactical awareness, and survival skills. If you were thrown into the wild, you wouldn't survive three days."
Li Fulan was speechless.
Damn, that sounds harsh, but it seems... to make sense?
"For your safety, and to ensure the country's investment doesn't go to waste, I'm going to transform you from a keyboard-chattering nerd into a survival machine capable of adapting to any battlefield."
Lin An counted on his fingers, "Firearms, from pistols to anti-materiel sniper rifles, you have to know how to disassemble, assemble, and fire them. Hand-to-hand combat, at least you have to be able to survive in close combat. Camouflage, stealth, tactical evasion, wilderness survival, battlefield first aid... even driving a tank."
"Drive a tank?" Li Fulan thought it was a bit outrageous. "I'm going to drive a tank in Douluo Continent?"
"It's always good to have more skills." Lin An said expressionlessly. "What if an even bigger door opens up in the future, leading to the world of modern warfare? It's better to be prepared, understand?"
Li Fulan opened her mouth, only to find herself unable to refute.
"Three months from now, either you'll be completely transformed, or—"
Lin An's lips curled into a chilling smile.
"You crawl out."
For the next three months, the underground training grounds of the Seventh Base were constantly in activity.
Gunshots, explosions, Li Fulan's screams, and Lin An's roars intertwined to create a symphony of hell.
In the first week, my gun-holding posture alone was corrected no less than two hundred times.
"Drop your wrist! Shift the recoil to your shoulder! Holding the gun like that, your wrist will be ruined after the first shot!"
Lin An's pointer struck Li Fulan's forearm, making him wince in pain.
"You're breathing! Hold your breath when you're aiming! You're panting like a bellows, no wonder your aim is off!"
During the day, Li Fulan was forced to practice shooting in the mud. She would lie prone for two hours at a time, her arms aching as if filled with lead, afraid to move even with mosquitoes buzzing in her ears. Move even slightly? Sorry, time reset, start over.
Then there's physical fitness.
Weighted cross-country running, rock climbing, swimming, combat sports... they trained to the point of exhaustion in every single one of them.
The most extreme method is centrifuge training.
That thing is for pilots to practice G-force tolerance; it spins so hard it can deform a person's face. The first time Li Fulan went up, she vomited so badly after less than thirty seconds, almost spitting out her dinner from the night before.
"Again!"
Lin An stood beside the control panel and pressed the start button expressionlessly.
"You think you can just leisurely run away when you encounter danger in another world? The overload during high-speed maneuvers can knock out an ordinary person! If you can't even withstand that, what will you do if you encounter a flying soul beast? Just wait to die?"
In addition to these regular programs, there are some "special courses" that Li Fulan has never heard of before.
For example, defusing a bomb while blindfolded.
"Memorize the position and feel of each line; there won't be light all the time on the battlefield!"
For example, wearing a gas mask to complete a shooting exercise in a gas chamber.
"What if my mask fogs up? What if my eyes are so hot I can't open them? I need to get used to all of this in advance!"
For example, wearing only a single layer of clothing for two hours in a freezer at minus twenty degrees Celsius.
"Survival in extreme environments: fundamental skills!"
Every day after training, Li Fulan felt like she wasn't human anymore, but a lump of mud.
Every muscle in my body aches; even turning over is difficult, and I feel like a dead dog lying in bed.
But it's not over yet.
That night, when his consciousness crossed dimensions and returned to Douluo Continent, another, even more deadly training session had just begun.
There was no instructor's protection, no safety rope, and no first aid kit.
On the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest at night, the land was teeming with soul beasts eager to devour him alive.
Under the cover of night, Li Fulan put the tactical maneuvers he had learned during the day into practice.
They crawled forward to avoid being detected by the hyena pack's sense of smell.
Plan your escape route by using the gaps between the tree canopies.
They used stones to make noise and distract the patrolling wind baboons.
Time and again, he flirted with death, and time and again, he escaped by relying on the equipment in his storage space.
On several occasions, he almost died there.
The most dangerous time was when he was entangled by a thousand-year-old tree demon that appeared out of nowhere. The thing's vines were stronger than steel cables. Li Fulan risked his life to use the entrenching tool hidden in his storage space to cut the vines and escape its territory in a scramble.
But he didn't die.
Moreover, under this double torment, his body is undergoing a qualitative transformation.
The soul power from the other world was like the ultimate stimulant, constantly repairing and strengthening his body during his hellish, high-intensity training.
Muscle fibers tear and then rebuild, and bones become denser after enduring extreme stress.
The speed of neural reaction has increased dramatically. What used to take 0.3 seconds to draw a gun now only takes 0.1 seconds.
Even his eyesight has evolved to the point where he can see in the dark; under the faint starlight, he can clearly see the veins on a leaf fifty meters away.
This change even stunned the base's medical team.
"His muscle density surpasses that of professional weightlifters, yet his body fat percentage remains at eight percent!"
"Bone density increased by 40%! That's medically impossible!"
"The most outrageous thing is his cardiopulmonary function; his hemoglobin's oxygen-carrying capacity has almost doubled, which is equivalent to that of Tibetan compatriots who were born to live on the plateau!"
Professor Yuan looked at the data and rubbed his hands together excitedly.
"Soul power cleansing, this is soul power cleansing! The cultivation system in the Douluo world not only grants superpowers, but also fundamentally transforms the human body!"
He wished he could tie Li Fulan to the lab table and dissect her for study.
The three-month period has expired.
The dust has settled at the firing range.
A kilometer away, the steel plate target had a hole the size of a bowl in the center, and the edges were charred from the metal being melted by the high temperature.
The power of the anti-materiel sniper rifle, combined with Li Fulan's current machine-like stability, meant that the accuracy of this shot had reached the passing grade for a special forces sniper.
Lin An put down the binoculars in his hand and looked down at the physical test data sheet in his hand.
The curves for those indicators are even steeper than those for a stock market bull run.
Strength, speed, endurance, reaction time, flexibility... each of these improved exponentially within three months.
"In three months, this kid's physical fitness has more than tripled."
Lin An took a cigarette out of his pocket, tapped it on the cigarette pack, but didn't light it.
He looked at the distant figure carrying a sniper rifle, walking with a swagger, his eyes filled with complex emotions.
Three months ago, he was a weak and infirm guy who would be out of breath after running 800 meters.
Three months later, the same person was able to finish in the top three in a 5-kilometer armed cross-country race, take down ordinary soldiers in close combat, and shoot through a steel plate from a kilometer away.
"Is this what they call 'Soul Power Cleansing'?"
Lin An muttered to himself.
He had led countless soldiers and seen countless geniuses. But he had never seen anyone complete such a transformation in such a short period of time.
"I thought he was a bronze player, but I never expected him to become a king."
He stuffed the unlit cigarette into his mouth, took a big bite of the butt, and flattened the filter.
In the distance, Li Fulan was handing a sniper rifle to the logistics soldier next to her, stretching her shoulders, her face showing the relief of surviving a disaster and a hint of excitement.
Three months ago, he was a lamb to the slaughter.
Three months later, he was a sharpened knife.
While they are still not on par with the real top special forces, they are good enough to survive in most dangerous environments, and even turn the tables on their opponents.
"Now, those unlucky souls in that other world..."
Lin An spat out the chewed cigarette butt from his mouth, a meaningful smile playing on his lips.
"I'm afraid we're in big trouble."