The light flickered again.
No one spoke this time, but Nana's hand had already swiped open the tablet's interface. The background logs scrolled rapidly; there were no system call records, and the load was normal. She closed the device and looked up at Chen Hao: "It might be a voltage fluctuation."
"Voltage again?" Chen Hao scratched his head. "If this light keeps flickering, I suspect it'll become more neurasthenic than I am."
Susan squatted down to tidy the knots in the burlap sack: "Didn't you say you were going to do morning exercises yesterday? Now you're standing here complaining, is that part of your training?"
"I'm just warming up," Chen Hao straightened his back. "Talking is also physical work."
Carl pulled an old cable from his toolbox: "Don't just talk the talk. If you're really going to train, you need a plan. Otherwise, if you're tired after carrying two bricks, the whole team will be starving the next day."
“I’m not that delicate,” Chen Hao retorted. “Although I came in last place in the 800-meter run during my university physical fitness test, I still insisted on finishing the whole race! That’s called willpower.”
“That’s called giving up.” Carl tossed the cable to the ground. “If you’re going to train, train something useful. Reaction time, speed, teamwork. Not some breathing contest.”
“But what we do most often is move things!” Chen Hao pointed in the direction of the warehouse. “Yesterday, Susan and I carried three bags of rock moss back, and my shoulders are still sore. If you don’t have the strength, nothing else matters.”
Nana suddenly spoke up: "Statistics on the mission data over the past 72 hours show that material handling and structural reinforcement accounted for 61% of the total working hours. Chen Hao participated in all the heavy-load operations."
She paused, then continued, “But the average delay in handling the three emergencies—the approaching sandstorm, the jammed hatch, and the short circuit in the cables—was forty-seven seconds. The main reasons were the interruption of information transmission and the disorder of the action sequence.”
"See?" Chen Hao said, hands on his hips. "It shows we need stronger people to handle things."
“It also shows that we need a faster brain to give orders.” Carl stared at him. “If you could just cut a few less words, you might be in the room forty seconds earlier.”
Susan stood up and clapped her hands: "Alright. Since both sides have valid points, let's not just train one type. We need to train strength and reaction time. Divide the training into different categories and then combine them for assessment. Anyone who can't keep up should be ashamed."
Chen Hao stroked his chin: "It sounds like an exam with different subjects. So, can I specialize in one subject over the other?"
"No," the three said in unison.
“Okay.” He shrugged. “How about we give it a try? If I suddenly die while practicing, remember to bury me somewhere far away so as not to spoil everyone’s appetite.”
The open space on the east side, which had previously been piled with scrap metal plates, was cleared out into a flat area that morning. Nana drew a starting line with chalk, then removed two slanted steel plates from a decommissioned section and stuck them into the ground as obstacles, and hung a section of old pipe as a crawling tunnel. The site was rudimentary, but it had everything it needed.
"First item: Weighted shuttle run," Nana announced. "Thirty meters from the target point, carry a bag of moss and run back and forth twice. Start the timer."
Chen Hao snatched the sack and draped it over his shoulders: "Watch my explosive power!"
He charged forward with incredible momentum for the first two steps, his strides were like the wind, but by the fifth step he started to grimace, and by the seventh step he was noticeably sluggish. When he reached the finish line, he was bent over, panting, and almost dropped the sack on the ground.
“That’s not explosive power,” Karl laughed, rubbing his knees. “It’s instantaneous shutdown.”
"I'm conserving my strength," Chen Hao said, panting. "There's a relay race coming up, I can't use it all at once."
The second item is signal response. Nana stands in the center and taps a metal plate; the length of the sound represents different commands. Hearing short-long-short, Susan has to bang on the wall, Carl has to jump, and Chen Hao has to spin around three times before crouching down.
In the first test, Chen Hao spun around and sat down on the ground without getting up.
"Was the instruction wrong?" he asked.
“You went around in circles,” Susan said.
"That was just something I did on the spur of the moment." He rubbed his neck. "My cervical spine needs lubrication."
The third simulation involved escaping a landslide. The three men tied ropes around their waists, crawled through a pipe, pulled a mechanism to "push aside the heavy object," and then dragged the fake injured person (a sack filled with soil) back to the starting point.
Chen Hao got stuck as soon as he climbed into the pipe, his buttocks dangling outwards for a long time.
"I'm stuck!" he shouted.
"You're too fat," Carl nudged him from outside. "Did you eat that chocolate again this morning?"
"That's supplies!" Chen Hao struggled. "Don't you understand strategic reserves?!"
Ten minutes later, they arrived at an open area, where the four of them sat in a circle and listened to Nana read the results.
"Overall rating: Karl has a perfect agility score, but his load-bearing endurance is low; Susan has the best coordination and moderate explosive power; Chen Hao has a strong initial performance, but his sustained output ability is insufficient and his recovery interval is relatively long."
"Translate this," Chen Hao said. "It means I have to rest for half an hour after working for five minutes?"
“Data shows that interval training is more effective for your physique,” Nana said. “Rest for 90 seconds after each set of exercises, which is actually beneficial for long-term improvement.”
Carl frowned: "We don't have that much time to wait for him to recover slowly."
“But we can’t let him train until he’s lying down.” Susan looked at Chen Hao’s flushed face. “He even set up a drying rack after he finished moving the goods yesterday. He didn’t slack off.”
“I’m not questioning his attitude,” Carl said in a lower tone. “I’m afraid he’ll mess things up at a crucial moment.”
Chen Hao caught his breath and suddenly looked up: "Aren't you afraid you're too thin? A strong wind could blow you away. If you really rush out to save someone and get swept away by the sand halfway, we'll have to save you too."
Carl was taken aback for a moment, then laughed: "You're quite good at making excuses."
“I’m good at shifting the blame,” Chen Hao grinned. “My teacher said I have a special talent for defense.”
Nana pulled up a new spreadsheet: "I suggest a differentiated training program. Chen Hao will focus on strength and basic endurance, performing three sets of weighted circuits daily, adjusting his breathing rhythm accordingly; Carl will be responsible for designing the agility training module and leading reaction coordination exercises; Susan will develop the overall rhythm schedule and monitor the fatigue index; I will be responsible for recording data and dynamically optimizing the plan."
“What about time?” Susan asked.
"From six to seven-thirty in the morning," Nana said, "it won't affect my daytime tasks."
"Another early morning?" Chen Hao clutched his head. "I've just gotten used to 5:30..."
“You can come in five minutes later,” Susan said, “but you must finish all the projects.”
“Then I’ll be five minutes late, and the training will be extended by ten minutes.” Chen Hao sighed. “This isn’t training; it’s punishment.”
“If you don’t want to train,” Carl patted him on the shoulder, “I can add your training load for tomorrow.”
"Forget it," Chen Hao waved his hand. "I'd rather suffer now."
The first day of training ended as the sun rose above the base's perimeter wall. The four men packed up their equipment, coiled up the cables, and repositioned the steel plate against the wall.
Chen Hao sat on the ground untying his shoelaces: "I feel like my legs don't belong to me anymore."
“You’ve only practiced for forty minutes.” Susan handed him water. “Add five minutes every day from now on, and you’ll thank yourself a month from now.”
"Impossible." Chen Hao took a swig of water. "A month from now, I'll only be cursing my present self for being stupid."
Nana put away her tablet: "The initial data has been archived. Tomorrow we will introduce a load variation mode to improve adaptability."
"There are still changes?" Chen Hao's eyes widened.
“For example, suddenly adding ten pounds,” Carl said, smiling at him. “Let’s see if you can run it while cursing.”
“This is collective bullying,” Chen Hao muttered. “When I become the captain, I’ll be the first to cancel morning exercises.”
“Then you’ll have to climb over that pipe first.” Susan pointed to the obstacle passage that hadn’t been removed yet.
"I can climb right now!" Chen Hao made a move to get up, but his knees buckled and he almost fell over.
Carl reached out and grabbed his arm.
The two looked at each other for a second, then simultaneously let go.
"Thank you." Chen Hao steadied himself.
"Don't fall." Carl turned around to move the steel plate.
The wind blew in from the east, carrying the dry smell of earth. The edge of the sky was a bit gray, but there was no indication that the weather was about to change.
Nana looked up at the direction of the vent, then looked down at the tablet.
She tapped her fingers lightly twice on the edge of the screen.
Chen Hao was bending down to pick up the shovel that had fallen.
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