Chapter 291 Before the Battle

After the Spring Festival.

On the tenth day of the first lunar month, the sentry training camp will undergo a major assessment.

Before the exam, Duan Xi specifically told Yun Zhao in the group chat.

Duan Xi: [I reckon that sloth won't react until after the exam, Yun Zhao, don't get your hopes up too high.]

Tao Haohao: [He might not pass the mental test, but his physical fitness should be fine. The captain was focusing on his physical fitness and combat reaction training a few days ago.]

Spiritual entities cannot be used as auxiliary combat aids.

Then the only option is to work hard to improve one's own strength.

He Xiang is quite hardworking and performed well in shooting class. He is already proficient in using various firearms and ranks in the upper-middle level of his group during training.

Even if he fails the assessment today, his personal strength has improved several times compared to when he first entered the camp.

After leaving the training camp, whether hunting or searching for supplies, you'll always have a better chance of success.

Song Liang was completely baffled: "How could he have awakened such a spiritual entity? His spiritual entity is lazy and stubborn, quite unlike him..."

Duan Xi: [You make it sound like our spiritual entities are very similar to our physical selves. What do you mean by comparing your big lion to you?]

Song Liang: [...]

What Duan Xi didn't mention was that the captain's fire phoenix and Yun Zhao's little bluebird were two extremes.

Who would have thought that the once easily angered Fire Phoenix would now be like a completely different bird?

Yun Zhao silently typed: 【Okay, I understand.】

The assessment results will be released this afternoon.

He Xiang did not pass the test as expected.

Cheng Dongshu, on the other hand, made rapid progress and worked in perfect harmony with his spiritual body. He passed six of the eight major tests, ranking among the top B-level sentinels.

Yun Zhao casually asked the group of sentries from Dongcha Town.

Xie Tu: [Out of eight people, five passed.]

Tao Haohao: [They seem to be going back the day after tomorrow; they said their one-month lease on the shantytown is about to expire.]

Their trip wasn't in vain.

Having witnessed the five-star contamination zone, they learned skills and then sold the supplies they brought out to buy food.

Once it happens, it will happen again.

After visiting once, they will be able to find the way to the main base. Once they have collected enough supplies, Liu Hong and the others will come again.

The training camp has ended.

Team Zero has officially begun preparations for the next mission.

The fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

Jiang Mu finally appeared, leading his squad members into the operations department building.

The six of them ran into Xie Tu as they went upstairs.

Jiang Mu took the initiative to speak up: "Let me borrow the system to register my task."

The systems of the four bases are interchangeable.

All combat teams must register online before embarking on a mission.

Firstly, it facilitates the survey team in monitoring the surrounding conditions, organizing data, and identifying and addressing any omissions or errors.

Secondly, nearby sentry posts will receive advance notice and be on standby at any time.

Most importantly, teams performing missions will not collide, preventing duplicate entries.

Xie Tu nodded: "Please go ahead." With that, he took the documents and turned to leave.

Jiang Mu scoffed lightly, "Do you have to be so cold? You didn't even ask where our next mission is?"

Xie Tu: "If you register, I will naturally be able to see it."

"OK!"

Jiang Mu had nothing to say, so he asked instead, "What about you? Have you chosen your next mission?"

Xie Tu stopped in his tracks: "Hmm."

Orange behind her asked softly, "Where is it?"

Jiang Mu had already seen the documents in his hand.

—Sun City, Pollution Zone 111.

The cloud-based wizard still has a solution.

He said lazily, "By the way, we also need to start training, so we'd like to borrow your training ground."

Xie Tu did not refuse; the two S-level teams could be used for training matches.

*

After the start of spring, the snow gradually thins out, and the sky begins to reveal its long-lost clarity and vastness.

Team Zero's training has been moved to the training field.

Yun Zhao's physical training has also been gradually upgraded, from the initial guidance room to self-training at home, and now he has finally returned to the vast training field.

With Jiang Mu's team joining the training, the training ground became extremely lively.

Ten senior sentries conduct thrilling combat drills on the training ground every day.

They were all dressed in identical black combat uniforms, looking spirited with sharp glints in their eyes.

It instantly ignited the atmosphere to a boiling point.

"If I don't beat you all to a pulp today, I'm not Tao Haohao!"

"Come on! Who's afraid of who? I'll bet a thousand points, and we'll see who falls first today." Zhou Tianqi patted his chest defiantly.

Duan Xi: "Get your points ready, don't try to renege on your debt if you lose!"

Jiang Mu moved a chair and sat at the entrance of the training room. After waiting for half an hour, the group still hadn't moved. His patience was gradually wearing thin. "Who has so much nonsense to say when they're fighting?"

"That's called momentum. We can't lose momentum. Pre-battle trash talk is a tradition," Tao Haohao said.

Yun Zhao and Qi Ling were practicing target shooting at the training ground next door.

With her physical strength reduced to training with Qi Ling, and Qi Ling had clearly already surpassed her, his gun handling skills becoming more and more proficient, hitting the third ring right away.

Xie Tu stood at the edge of the field with his arms crossed.

I no longer expect her to be able to touch the target, I just hope she can use the gun skillfully and remember that she has a gun on her waist when it matters.

I heard noises coming from the next venue.

Yun Zhao and Qi Ling kept looking back, unable to concentrate at all.

Xie Tu: "Watch it once and practice for ten minutes extra."

Yun Zhao: "..."

Qi Ling: "..."

He is a competent captain and always has strict requirements for training.

Yun Zhao had no choice but to obediently complete the one-hour target practice session.

By the time she finished her shooting lesson and took a break, the battle over there had already reached a fever pitch.

Then... all ten of them collapsed.

Duan Xi was pinned down by the white beast, unable to move, with only his head sticking out.

"Holy crap! You can do that?!"

Orange was in an even worse situation, as he was pinned down right under the buttocks, with the White Beast's tail constantly swishing across his face.

"Captain...we were wrong, wake it up quickly."

Jiang Mu showed no intention of taking the children back. He stood up and walked into the arena, saying slowly, "I'm having you do a simulated battle, not play house."

The battle had just begun when the spirit entity roared and pounced out, only to end up... the little guys playing around in a chaotic mess.

Yun Zhao stood to the side and watched for a while, then walked away speechlessly.

It wasn't until Xie Tu arrived, his eyes filled with a stern look, that he scanned the team members lying on the ground, including Duan Xi and Chengzi, who looked rather disheveled.

Terrified, Tao Haohao dared not utter a sound. He used all his strength to move the white beast aside and crawled up from under its body.

If the captain finds out that I'm not taking training seriously, I definitely won't be able to do extra training.

Orange struggled to get up, but as soon as she stood up, the white beast's buttocks landed squarely on her face as it turned around. She could only weakly cry for help through the gaps in its constantly sweeping tail.

Seeing this, Jiang Mu recalled the White Jade Beast. "Start over. Don't let them out."

Training days passed by in a playful, boisterous manner.

The snow gradually stopped, and spring brought everything back to life.

The biting wind seemed to have withdrawn overnight, its sharpness receding quietly, replaced by a gentle, warm breeze, like a pair of soft, delicate hands slowly lifting the curtain of winter's chill.

The sentries received their missions one after another, some began training, and others set off.

The first batch of sentries who received the mission went to the site of the new satellite launch base to clear the land and take up their posts ahead of time.

Team Zero and Jiang Mu's team also finalized their departure times.