Chapter 57: Rose

As it turned out, a person making an inauspicious remark really was metaphysical. Ping Mo and Pei Yutu’s team was just halfway through their journey when they were ambushed. First a small reconnaissance drone hovered overhead, then a battlefield mecha tank blocked the way.

“This configuration is cheating, right?” Pei Yutu immediately set up a 145mm caliber, energy sniper rifle. It was the type of heavy sniper where the recoil was very strong and enough to knock over an ordinary adult alpha, but Pei Yutu’s grip on the gun was very stable. He didn’t shake at all as the rifle blasted through the tank.

Even though the students had military skills training every day, they had never seen such a realistic battle, and they were all stunned. Teaching Assistant Pei was shouting at the end of the blow, because Instructor Ping had already rushed out like an arrow. He used his energy knife to open up the edge of the hole caused by the rifle, then jumped in the still-red hot and burning hole!

“Ping Mo!” Pei Yutu didn’t care about anything else. He shouldered the sniper rifle, and ran after him. The students behind him had also reacted to the situation, and they were busy putting up their guns and looking for cover.

However, the action wasn’t over. Instructor Ping lifted the top of the tank. His hand held a Blue sergeant’s neck, and a long leg came out. His camouflage jacket had been burned by the big hole, and revealed burned flesh. His white handsome face was blackened and stained by the smoke, but his expression was extremely calm. His hand was also extremely stable, as he held a particle energy knife against the neck of the blue army soldier. No one knew what was said to him, but the battle reversed and the tanks left without further fighting.

The students were dumbfounded. The omegas, led by Zhou Li, screamed like cheerleaders, then Pei Yutu climbed on the side step, and took over the prisoner of war.

The takeover was very simple and brutal, and not everyone had reacted in time. A few students were addressed. “Watch the prisoners of war! Report to the system in time to record! Also, Zhou Li, Li Zheng, Chen Yaoyao, do not surround Instructor Ping. Go to inventory supplies. The mecha tank practical examination is part of this!”

It was not easy to send away the starry-eyed students that surrounded Ping Mo. Pei Yutu tried to hold Ping Mo down, but Instructor Ping was very tough and shook off his hand and jumped to a standing, stable landing.

“Ahem, Instructor Ping, let the kids handle the rest themselves. Let’s go over there and discuss the next strategy.” Pei Yutu said in a deliberately loud voice before he dug out his medical bag and pulled the heroically wounded Instructor Ping to the back of the scrapped battle mecha tank.

Pei Yutu held Ping Mo’s arm, which had been burned by the heat wave. “Does it hurt?”

Instructor Ping had put on a calm expression before. Now, he made sure no one was looking before he removed his disguise and scrunched up his face. “Yes.”

“Serves you right! Can you think about the consequences when you play the hero? This individual heroism the Raptors left you with is a bad habit. We are in a team battle. If you handle it alone, how can the students learn? I know you’re afraid of pain, but not willing to say it. You’d rather suffer than lose any face.” Pei Yutu was angry and distressed, so he kept on chattering as he took out alcohol pads and carefully rubbed them on Instructor Ping’s wound. However, his movements were gentle.

Ping Mo’s face was pinched with pain. “I needed to capture the chief in the tank first. Instead of facing a hard battle, now we can use it. Wasn’t that the best thing to do?”

Pei Yutu, “How did you know the chief was in that tank?”

Ping Mo asked rhetorically, “If he wasn’t the officer, why did you pick him out to fight? That battle mecha wasn’t in the best position for a hit.”

“You trust me that much?” Pei Yutu grinned and adjusted his grip on Ping Mo’s arm. “This won’t work. If the clothes stick to the wound, it will get infected. Better take them off first.”

Finally Instructor Ping’s injured arm was exposed, and Pei Yutu took out another piece of alcohol cotton and said, “It’s experience. If I were leading soldiers, they would also put themselves in that position. The more you battle, the more you understand this. You will have to endure a little, the alcohol might sting here.”

“Hiss…it hurts!”

This time, Teaching Assistant Pei didn’t give Instructor Ping the opportunity to escape, but also refused to press on the injured arm, as he smoothed his hair like he was touching his soft fur. “It doesn’t hurt. Don’t be afraid, it’ll heal.”

Ping Mo really shut up then. He had the illusion of being treated like a child, which he had never experienced in his life.

Although Lu Feng treated him extremely well, he was also extremely demanding. Whenever young Ping Mo was injured as a teenager, he was personally nursed by Colonel Lu. However, while he personally administered medicine to him, he never touched his head to comfort him or said, ‘It doesn’t hurt, don’t be afraid.’

Instead, he was always told, “An alpha won’t cry when they’re wounded. You’re a man. Be strong. Never let anyone know how fast you heal. Any unusual talent can be a reason for others to attack you, so never underestimate the dark part of human nature.”

Little Ping Mo had heard that Colonel Lu Feng was a great special forces soldier, but because he did a good deed, he was bitten back. It nearly killed his future, and also left him with a lifelong disability. When he grew up, he realized that his kind of personality which was often overly wary of the people around him and unpredictable, may be labeled PTSD. That was, post-traumatic stress disorder, which was a disease and could be treated.

However, little Ping Mo didn’t know that. He was just afraid that even Military Instructor Lu, who liked him, would abandon him. Then he would have to go back to the streets and continue to live in the days of no food or clothing.

Little Ping Mo was afraid to lose things, so whatever Lu Feng said, he would do it obediently. Over the years, he swallowed blood stubbornly and became strong. This actually branded his character.

Today was an exception, his strong pretense unexpectedly disintegrated.

Seeing Instructor Ping regain his silence, Pei Yutu began to worry. “If it’s painful, just scream. There’s no one else around, believe me, and there’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’m the strongest alpha in our barracks. No one will say a thing about you howling like a cat screaming during springtime from just a little rubbing alcohol. You’ll still be the fiercest man.”

Ping Mo wondered, “Really? Aren’t you the number one guy in your company?”

Pei Yutu was very proud of his head of spiky hair. “My main characteristic is handsome.”

“I think it’s your thick skin,” Instructor Ping mocked mercilessly. Still the corners of his mouth curled up.

Pei Yutu also laughed, then threw away the dirty alcohol pad and replaced it with a new one. “This time, I need to rub it in the middle. It will hurt a little more.”

“Hiss…um…um…” Instructor Ping really listened to Pei Yutu’s advice and screamed out in pain, then found that this could really divert his attention. However, he was still concerned about the students on the other side of the mecha tank, so he didn’t dare to let out a loud scream. A painful moan was deliberately suppressed, and his voice ended with a soft nasally sound.

Pei Yutu, “…” Pei Yutu, “Why did you stop screaming? Who could stand this?”

Ping Mo looked at him suspiciously. His long eyelashes were moistened with sweat because of the pain, and his big gray-blue eyes were clouded with moisture and his eyes were also full of doubt.

Pei Yutu, “It’s okay if you call out. I’ll just tell everyone I was farting.”

By the time Instructor Ping’s wounds were finally thoroughly dressed, the students had disposed of their prisoners and equipment. After the attack, their team had a good harvest.

Some of the students got into the mecha, while those who didn’t get a spot sat on top of the tank or stood on its sides with heavy weapons or lasers in hand as they chanted, “No guns, no cannons! The enemy made us!”

The POWs’ faces turned blue and white, and they all wanted to cover their faces. It was so humiliating! They were caught by a bunch of kids! Nevertheless, it wasn’t their fault. Those two military instructors simply had a bug-like existence. 1 The first used a fraction of a second to determine they were officers, and accurately sniped them. The other was even more perverted, and not only ran into the enemy camp but took the general’s ‘head.’ Firstblood.

They weren’t human beings, let alone people. Also, one of the military instructors kept on setting them up. “Eh, buddy, want a smoke?”

The POWs, “…”

Pei Yutu started handing out cigarettes. “Don’t be so nervous. It’s not really a war, it’s just a military exercise. All the equipment has been specially treated. Otherwise your mecha is so thick that our empty shells couldn’t penetrate it. They don’t hurt anyone! You guys have a pretty damaging strategy. Taking advantage of the lack of cooperation to attack each other? Do you have enough troops?”

Prisoner A clutched his cigarette and stammered, “I can’t say. Plus we’re all temporary ‘miscellaneous troops’ drawn from various units, so we don’t know each other’s details. To prevent being captured, you know.”

Pei Yutu pulled back his cigarette. “Tell the truth, and I’ll make sure you’re treated humanely!”

Prisoner B, “You, you, you can’t mistreat prisoners of war!”

Pei Yutu said fiercely, “Do I look like a man who follows the rules?”

The captives were silent for a moment and shook their heads collectively.

Pei Yutu, “First there was the drone sweep, and then a precise one by one, with the heavy weapons in front. You should also be a limited configuration, but there are too many big guys. If  I’ve guessed correctly, the heavy weapons were put on our team, right? Tell me! Who came up with this stupid idea?”

“…”

Five minutes later, Teaching Assistant Pei jumped out of the vehicle in style, and showed off his skills by leaping from the side of one moving ground mecha to the top of another one.

Unfortunately, his body shape wasn’t as light as Instructor Ping, so he landed with a heavy smash that was completely made up out of two styles, which scared two boys who moved far away to make room for him.

Pei Yutu sat down next to Instructor Ping with satisfaction and said, “Good kids. They have good eyesight.”

Ping Mo, “…”

Pei Yutu held his arm again and asked, “Are you better? Does it still hurt?”

Ping Mo didn’t pull his hand back, but gave a “hmm.” After a moment, he looked around without moving, then whispered, “It hurts a little.”

There was a little bit of imperceptible aggression in his tone of voice, as if he was being petulant.

Teaching Assistant Pei’s heartbeat immediately soared to one hundred and eight. He calmed down for a while before he said, “I know which unit the blue army is this time.”

Ping Mo, “Didn’t they say they would randomly draw a few units?”

Pei Yutu, “With these wolf pups around, several units will have to listen to them in the end.”

Instructor Ping listened to the wrong words, “You mean?”

Pei Yutu lowered his voice, “It’s my soldiers. This cockamamie fight is too familiar, but they don’t want to meet with me, so they sent elite equipment and irrelevant soldiers to our group. However, those pups didn’t expect that we are so tacit in our understanding! Of course, the most important thing is that our Instructor Ping is very good at hand to hand. They wouldn’t imagine that they ran into the Raptor Captain! Hahahahahaha! This is so silly!”

Ping Mo, “…” Why are you so happy that your soldiers failed miserably? Are you really their supervisor?

“You watch. If I estimate it right, after the rendezvous, we will still have this number left in the coalition army.” Pei Yutu made a hand gesture.

The next rendezvous went relatively smoothly, and indeed, three squads had just entered the map then fell to the ground, and with the ‘casualties’ more than half were down. They only encountered that one attack, and all arrived at the rendezvous point.

The surviving military instructors were overwhelmed with emotion. They compared the terrain map, and quickly selected a command location. The team regrouped, with omegas and betas as the main technical team, while the alpha team members established command. The rest of the team headed in various directions to run interference.

The military instructors wanted Ping Mo and Pei Yutu, the two strongest combatants, to escort the omegas themselves, but they were finally rejected by Teaching Assistant Pei for the simple reason that, “Ping Mo and I are now live targets, and the Blues are already on us, so we might as well distract them.”

After a short period of combat, Pei Yutu became the ‘uncrowned head’ and no one objected to his suggestion, so the team went ahead with the plan. The external structure of the Legacy Base was all metal, and the ground was a high-level simulation of the main planet’s environment of dirt and buildings. There were no plants inside the protective network, but broken walls that could be used for shelter were everywhere.

They passed through the obsolete buildings, without waiting for a surprise attack from the blue army, but it could always appear on Legacy Base.

An alpha girl pointed to the right and exclaimed, “Look! Is that a gilt rose?”

“Don’t talk nonsense. How could something as valuable as a gilt rose be in such a shitty place? You must be wrong. There shouldn’t even be a blade of grass inside the protective net.”

Ping Mo and Teaching Assistant Pei also looked over the sound. It really was a gilt rose, and not just one, but a large handful.

Translator Notes:

like a computer bug or a cheat code. Too good to be true