Chapter 357: Chapter 356 This is the Guardian of Humanity!

“Attention!”

“At ease!”

The company commander looked at the rows of soldier standing in formation and bellowed, “Everyone, this is the first time our Fifth Legion is conducting a military exercise in Virtual Space. All enemies will be set according to real combat standards.”

“In this exercise, we will also lose electronic devices on the spaceship to simulate the war that happened eleven years ago…”

“There have already been four legions that failed in their exercises. For our Fifth Legion, to achieve our first victory would be the greatest honor!

“If we fail, we’ll be ridiculed for no reason, especially by the Seventh Legion, who won their battle. Do you all want to win?”

“We do!” Chen Mengjie, Yu Tiancheng, and all the other soldiers roared in unison.

The company commander smirked, “So, if we truly fail, each person must write a 5,000-word self-criticism. I personally will write a 10,000-word self-criticism!”

“Now, let me inform you all in advance. The map of the entire Kunlun Mountain in the Virtual World — we will enter the Virtual World five days early to familiarize ourselves with the terrain. Any questions?”

Hearing this news, all the soldiers were surprised.

Yu Tiancheng hurriedly raised his hand, “Reporting, I have a question!”

“Speak!”

“Has the entire structure of Kunlun Mountain changed?”

The company commander said loudly, “Yes. According to past war exercises, if the Badit people knew the location of all control rooms on Kunlun Mountain, it would be impossible to defend it. So we are entering early to familiarize ourselves with the spaceship and to make plans. Any more questions?”

This time, no one else questioned. Instead, the soldiers were rubbing their hands together, eager to enter the Virtual World ahead of schedule.

“Are you ready?!”

“Ready!” everyone shouted loudly.

The company commander continued, “Another thing to note is that if you get hurt inside, you will feel pain, though it’s reduced by 50% compared to real pain. If you die in the war, your consciousness will be ejected! This is a highly difficult exercise, a test of real military skills, but I hope we can win this battle!”

Soon, the soldiers were led to a large device and then lay down inside boxes that resembled hibernation chambers.

…

Half an hour later, they all woke up.

Chen Mengjie found himself lying in his bedroom, sleeping!

He squeezed his five fingers and whispered, “Old Yu, why do I feel a bit panicked… Is this now the Virtual World or the real world? Was I just dreaming?”

“Damn, I don’t know. It must be the Virtual World.”

Yes, the scene settings of the Virtual World were identical to those of the real world, causing all soldiers to immediately fail to distinguish between virtual and reality.

This strange sight made all the soldiers who had entered feel somewhat fearful.

This fear stemmed from the unknown in their hearts, from worrying they might never be able to distinguish the fake from the real.

Then, as all the soldiers regained consciousness, a blue frame suddenly appeared before their eyes.

With this blue frame, everyone finally calmed their deepest fears — this must be the Virtual World… Such incredible technology!

Yu Tiancheng and Chen Mengjie quickly came out of the bedroom, dressed in their Power Armor and took up their patrol duties, familiarizing themselves with the entire structure of the spaceship.

Given the amount of information they already knew, the difficulty of the exercise was certainly more than just a notch simpler than real warfare.

“But the first few legions actually still lost, so be careful, it’s not as easy as we imagine.”

Chen Mengjie kept looking around, fiddling with various electronic devices, “This is the Virtual World, if it weren’t for the blue frame right in front of me, I really couldn’t distinguish the real from the fake. Hey, can these instruments still be used?”

“Should our bodies outside be hooked up to glucose, right?”

“Alright, pay attention. We don’t know when the exercise will start… By the way, how many robots do you think I can take down?”

“With you? I’m definitely going to take down more than you!”

Although they joked, both were extremely cautious. These jokes were merely a relief from their tension.

“Now that the exercise hasn’t started yet, what’s our battle plan? Right, we should first find the company commander.”

As they talked, the assembly command from their Power Armor sounded, gathering everyone back to the same field, with the familiar company commander shouting loudly.

The entire scene was somewhat eerie, causing many to blink forcefully, experiencing an indescribable emotion.

The company commander shouted, “You should be scared! All you need to know is that this is happening in Virtual Space! Stick to the plan, eat what you need to eat, drink what you need to drink, and you won’t gain any weight from it here!”

All the soldiers burst into laughter.

Just like that, three days flew by.

Everyone had basically familiarized themselves with their assigned defense areas, discussed response plans, and got used to life in Virtual Space… which was actually not much different from the real world, even down to needing excretion–it was really quite strange.

“Only two more days, so boring… I’m going to sleep before the war starts; I haven’t been able to sleep at all these past few days, almost working myself to death,” Chen Mengjie felt his spirits slackening, not knowing when the enemy would arrive.

The constant tension was consuming a great deal of his energy and was making him almost see stars.

“Alright, go get some sleep… taking some sleeping pills might help too. You have to rest well before the big battle.”

Suddenly, Chen Mengjie realized he couldn’t hear the other person speaking anymore and was suddenly shocked.

Then, the ground shook violently, even making it hard to stand.

He reacted quickly, shouting, “The Mother Ship is under attack!”

His headset lapsed into a deadly silence.

The drill had already started unexpectedly, but the entire command system was still in a daze, unresponsive.

“Damn it, who said they had to attack after five days? We’ve been deceived!”

“Damn the Badit people!”

He was just about to dial his headset to call for reinforcements when he paused again…

Right, light signals, light signals!

To prevent the soldiers from being complacent, the location of the attack on the Mother Ship was chosen randomly, and it happened to be right where he was, with a swarm of military robots already on their way!

Chen Mengjie swallowed hard; the air seemed exceptionally hot!

The war had begun.

…

Four hours later, all the soldiers had withdrawn from the Virtual World.

Regrettably, over 50% of the soldiers had been “killed” once.

Chen Mengjie felt like he was going insane; the war came so suddenly that his leg had been hit by a laser. Even though the pain was halved, the boiling sensation of blood was still vivid in his memory, and even now, it lingered.

Then the next second, he “died.” Not truly dead but existing in a ghostly form, unable to move or even turn his eyes–almost no different from real death.

Yes, was this real… war?

His friend sitting beside him, Yu Tiancheng, didn’t say a word either; all traces of “playing a game” had vanished.

The outcome of this simulated war was, of course… a disastrous defeat!

The humans had suffered their fifth crushing defeat.

In fact, they had completely collapsed in just two hours after the surprise attack.

Nearly every soldier, including the commanders, had been confused; they had been deceived by their superiors. But to be honest, in war, deception is to be expected, and being deceived was their own folly.

Who schedules a war, after all?

Even aspiring to replicate historical victories was hard.

After such a defeat, it was natural to write reviews, introspect, hold meetings to summarize, and figure out how to keep the casualty rate as low as possible while also protecting their spaceship to drag out the time as long as possible.

…

In the years of reformation at Mount Kunlun, each batch of soldiers would undergo such training…

Through repeated simulated wars, the soldiers quickly grew mature, learned when to relax and when to be vigilant.

In adverse situations, such military personnel would remain calmer, composed, unlike their initial panic and disarray.

Not only were they physically strong, but their mental and intellectual capabilities were vast as well; they were adept at various mechanical systems and programming languages, equipped with high individual combat skills.

Only then could they really be considered true interstellar soldiers, the true… Guardians of humanity!