A Post-Apocalyptic Journey to Another World

At four o'clock in the morning, a whistle suddenly sounded. In the darkness, before the lights were even turned on, the soldiers jumped to the ground one by one. Zhang Xi also quickly got up, dressed, and folded his blanket. In just over ten seconds, he had rushed out of the barracks, surrounded by other soldiers who rushed out with him.

Most of the soldiers were already lined up on the battlefield, their counts being called out in soft but clear voices.

Once the soldiers had assembled, they quickly boarded several infantry fighting vehicles and rushed out of the camp.

The tank jolted along the rugged mountain road. Zhang Xi felt nothing, and the other veterans had already gotten used to it, but Xu Liang was vomiting uncontrollably. The squad leader looked at Xu Liang, frowned, and shouted, "Xu Liang, it's been a week, and you're still vomiting like this! A soldier in the tank assault platoon getting carsick? People will laugh themselves to death if they hear about it!"

Xu Liang covered his mouth, but still vomited.

The other soldiers in the vehicle simply turned their faces away, refusing to look at Xu Liang. Long Wenzhang wasn't in this vehicle, so Zhang Xi leaned over and patted Xu Liang on the back. In his previous life, when he first joined the mercenary group, Zhang Xi also had this timid personality and was just as pathetic.

Company Commander Li Liansheng stood at one end of the obstacle course, coldly watching Xu Liang struggle to climb the high wall, only to fall down again in a disarray. He repeated this over and over. He said to Long Wenzhang, "I just don't understand, why did you recruit a soldier like this? The whole company can get through, but he can't! Even that 15-year-old student soldier got through!"

The training quickly came to an end, and Xu Liang ultimately failed to conquer that high wall obstacle.

The training intensity of the Eighth Company is far higher than that of the other companies. For example, the high wall that blocked Xu Liang was nearly a meter higher than the walls of the other companies.

During everyone's break, Li Liansheng brought up the glorious history of the Eighth Company, which he had already mentioned many times: "Comrades, among all the companies in our army, from the First to the Ninth Company, only our Eighth Company has been awarded the Collective First-Class Merit Citation three times!"

Li Liansheng's speech continued: "Three collective first-class merits mean that more than one-third of the soldiers died in the three bloody battles, that the enemy was annihilated many times or even ten times the number in the three bloody battles, and that we played a strategic role at the key points in the three bloody battles. Most importantly, my company is still here today and will continue to do so forever. Therefore, we are called the Steel Eighth Company."

Unfortunately, Company Commander Li Liansheng's pride couldn't change the results of the end-of-month assessment. Although Zhang Xi achieved excellent results in the individual competition, the presence of Xu Liang as a weak link resulted in a dismal team performance for the Eighth Company!

Several banners that had been displayed on the walls of the Eighth Company and my platoon had been removed. Now, not only the company commander, but also the soldiers looked at Xu Liang with disdain, turning it into complete indifference, as if he were invisible. Only Long Wenzhang continued to help Xu Liang with extra meals and training to improve his performance.

Zhang Xi wasn't much better off than Xu Liang; his absolute strength had made no progress during this period. If there was any gain, it was that his tactics and techniques had gone from being haphazard to being formally trained. But future battles wouldn't be just about accurate shooting and detailed terrain reconnaissance.

In his frustration, he simply helped Long Wenzhang train with Xu Liang. As a result, Long Wenzhang's burden was greatly reduced, and another unexpected benefit was that he gained Xu Liang's friendship.

In the entire company, only Long Wenzhang and Zhang Xi still treated Xu Liang with respect. Zhang Xi saw a reflection of himself in Xu Liang, but Long Wenzhang didn't know why. Perhaps it was because he had promised to train Xu Liang into a good soldier, and he was fulfilling that promise.

Over time, Zhang Xi gradually discovered that Xu Liang had a strength: he was serious and persistent. Sometimes, his seriousness bordered on foolishness. Once, when they were doing push-ups, Zhang Xi helped count, and he lied to Xu Liang, saying he hadn't done a hundred yet. This simpleton kept doing them until he had over 150, at which point Zhang Xi said he had done 100. Xu Liang actually believed him and didn't realize he had been tricked.

To help Xu Liang overcome his motion sickness, Zhang Xi led him to the horizontal bar and said, "Xu Liang, to help you overcome your motion sickness, I've come up with a method—fighting fire with fire. I'll teach you how to do a monoclonal antibody large loop."

"I don't know how, you have to teach me." Facing Zhang Xi, Xu Liang was very open and dared to speak.

So Zhang Xi jumped up and grabbed the horizontal bar, demonstrating and explaining at the same time: "The most important thing about the giant swing on the horizontal bar is not strength, but rhythm and finding the center of gravity. After the first swing, you can continue with the momentum."

Xu Liang started doing giant swings. He jumped onto the horizontal bar, started swinging, and then fell off. Zhang Xi was there to protect him and prevent him from getting hurt, so he continued swinging and then fell off again.

After much effort, Xu Liang finally got the hang of it and completed his first large loop. The two lay down on the grass to rest, feeling a huge weight lifted off their shoulders. Zhang Xi curiously asked Xu Liang:

"Xu Liang."

"Ok?"

Why do you care so much about what others think of you?

Xu Liang paused to think for a moment, then replied, "I didn't... I don't know."

Helpless, Zhang Xi changed the subject: "Are you an only child? What do your parents do?"

“I’ve never met my parents. I was raised by villagers, then I went to an orphanage, and then I joined the army.” Xu Liang’s expression was somewhat somber.

Zhang Xi changed the subject: "You must have had a lot of friends at the orphanage."

Xu Liang became even more dejected, almost becoming timid and submissive in front of others: "I'm too stupid, they all dislike me and bully me, only the dean is good to me! But I'm still stupid even as I grow up, and slowly the dean also stopped liking me. Now that I'm in the army, only the squad leader and you are good to me."

Zhang Xi raised his head and looked at Xu Liang, who was still in a daze: "So, you're afraid that the class monitor and I will dislike you for the same reason?"

Xu Liang remained silent and did not answer.

Zhang Xi comforted Xu Liang, saying, "Do you know why I've been helping you all this time?" Without waiting for Xu Liang's reply, he continued, "Because I feel that if I weren't an only child and had a brother, he would be like you." He looked at Xu Liang's dark, square face again and added, "I mean in terms of temperament and character."

Xu Liang seemed not to have heard the last sentence and sat up abruptly: "Really!"

"Of course it's true, and if you can overcome motion sickness and improve your training results, the whole class will like you!" Zhang Xi added.

"I understand. Let's continue practicing tomorrow. You still need to help me."

"Of course!"

As time went on, Xu Liang made gradual progress, while Zhang Xi's anxiety grew increasingly intense. He even considered leaving the army, regaining his freedom, and trying his luck in the countryside again. However, doing so would affect his future plans, so he continued to endure it.

By this time, some time had passed since the last large-scale rift appeared, and the invading monsters had been almost completely wiped out by the army. Of course, smaller rifts continued to appear in various places, but hunting those monsters was of little use except for obtaining a few elemental crystals.

No one seems to realize the value of the crystals that often appear on dead monsters, so Zhang Xi can easily obtain them from others without having to go out specifically for a few crystals.

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