Volume 1: Starting Chapter 23: Base

  The open metal space is very large, and it can accommodate more than a hundred people with ease.

  As the students swarmed into the metal space, Yan Duo didn't follow them in. He stood at the entrance, his mouth corners slightly raised, revealing a strange and terrifying sly smile.

  He patted his palm and smiled: "I hope you have a pleasant first day in the training camp."

  As he spoke, the wall that had just opened slowly closed again. The faces of all the students changed at once, and they looked up to see only Yan's face with a sly smile slowly disappearing in the door gap.

  Bang! As the walls closed in again, it became a completely enclosed metal space.

  The students involuntarily looked around, sometimes touching the wall with their hands.

  "What is this place? Why are we locked up here?" a student asked with dissatisfaction and terror.

  Xia Wenjie was equally perplexed, unsure what Yan Duo was up to. Tang Xin, standing beside him, suddenly grasped his hand and whispered, "Don't be afraid," while glancing around cautiously.

  He glanced at her and smiled secretly in his heart, it seemed that the one who was now feeling frightened wasn't himself, but her.

  Everyone was a stranger before, and this special training is the first time they met, and they are not familiar with each other. Since Xia Wenjie is the youngest and also from the same military region as her, Tang Xin will instinctively show more closeness to him.

  To others, after all, there is a concept of distinction between men and women, but to Xia Wenjie, he was still just a half-grown child in her eyes.

  Just as people were filled with doubts and fears, the metal space suddenly shook violently, and a gasp of breath was heard from the crowd. Before they could figure out what was happening, the metal space suddenly began to move rapidly downwards.

  "It's going down! It's going down! This is just a giant elevator!" one of the students cried out in alarm.

  Everyone present let out a silent sigh of relief after hearing his words. Yao Jia wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and said, "Fortunately it was an elevator, I almost thought I had been locked in a gas chamber just now."

  His words immediately drew dissatisfied glances from the people around him.

  The elevator moved downward for less than half a minute, but for those inside, it felt like more than ten minutes had passed.

  Now people can confirm that the Lei Feng training camp is not on the ground, but built underground. Everyone is full of expectations and wants to see how magnificent this mysterious underground project, which cost over 1 billion yuan, really is.

  At last the elevator stopped and its doors slowly opened. People looked out with curiosity, but they saw nothing except a large number of fully armed soldiers standing in black uniforms.

  These soldiers were all wearing black special combat uniforms, holding riot shields in their hands, and carrying batons in the other hand. The most frightening thing was that they all wore gas masks on their heads.

  The soldiers stood in a neat formation, blocking the elevator door, looking as if they were facing a formidable enemy.

  Yan's voice sounded behind the soldiers.

  "Thirty minutes, all students must stay in the elevator for thirty minutes, those who come out halfway will be eliminated."

  No sooner had he finished speaking than wisps of smoke began to rise from the soldiers' ranks, and before people could see clearly what they were, several objects emitting smoke like hand grenades had already been thrown into the elevator.

  "Tear gas! It's tear gas." The trainees who were able to come here for special training weren't any ordinary people, and they immediately judged what it was.

  Tang Xian lifted up the vest on her body to cover her mouth and nose, and at the same time urgently called out to Xia Wenjie beside her: "Quickly close your eyes, use your clothes to block your mouth and nose."

  Never eaten pork but seen pigs walking. Xia Wenjie reacted quickly, under Tang Xiang's reminder, he followed the surrounding students, lifted his clothes to cover his mouth and nose, while closing his eyes tightly.

  No matter how tightly you cover your mouth and nose with clothing, people still have to breathe, and clothes can't filter out toxic gases.

  Soon, the large elevator was filled with thick smoke, and except for the white fog, almost no one could see the shadow of people inside, only hearing continuous and intermittent violent coughs coming from it.

  Xia Wenjie now deeply feels the horror of tear gas, even with his eyes closed, he still feels a burning sensation, and tears flow out of his eye sockets uncontrollably. Every breath brings in a strong pungent smell into his lungs, the feeling is ten times, a hundred times more unbearable than choking on water, as if his throat is on fire, burning along the airway, all the way to his lungs, which feel like they're about to explode.

  His personality is one of not giving up, if it wasn't like that, he probably wouldn't be able to bear even a second.

  Not to mention him, even professional soldiers who have received years of training couldn't take it. In less than five minutes, some people were already stumbling out.

  However, the soldiers were blocking the elevator door, and their riot shields had formed a wall that sealed off the exit. No matter how hard they tried to charge forward, they couldn't break through the shield wall.

  "Let me out! Let me out quickly, I can't take it... Cough... Cough..."

  "Kung Pao." Unaware of when he had arrived at the underground Yanluo Station, he muttered a sentence among the soldiers and then pointed to the loudly shouting student.

  Under his direction, the shield in front of the student opened and the soldiers dragged him out by his clothes. Even after leaving the elevator, the student still covered his eyes with both hands, rolling around on the ground in pain.

  Soon, several medical staff rushed forward, lifted him onto a stretcher and quickly ran away.

  In the next 25 minutes, the same process was repeated, and more than a dozen students could not bear this abnormal and inhuman torture, crying and begging to quit the special training voluntarily.

  Yan Dui didn't accept everyone's withdrawal, some students rushed out, he quickly let the soldiers release them and drag them away, while some students rushed out, he signaled his soldiers to push them back into the elevator and not let them come out.

  Half an hour later, thirteen students had been eliminated, adding to the three previously, a total of sixteen students had been eliminated.

  Finally, after the stipulated time had passed, Yan ordered his soldiers to pull out all the remaining students from the elevator, and at the same time, a large number of medical personnel rushed forward to put oxygen masks on each of them.

  At this time, the remaining 104 students were unable to stand up, and even with oxygen masks on, they continued to cough and moan.

  Looking at the trainees lying all over the ground, their faces filled with pain, Yan walked slowly among them with his hands behind his back, smiling and saying: "Congratulations, you have passed the welcome ceremony of the Lei Feng training camp, but this is just the beginning, far from the end. The closed-air technique, how to minimize the damage to yourself in a limited space full of toxic gas, will be one of your daily training subjects. What happened earlier will be practiced frequently later, and you must prepare yourselves mentally. Still the same words: being eliminated passively is very embarrassing, but quitting voluntarily will save everyone's face."

  As soon as he finished speaking, a student wearing an oxygen mask trembled and raised his hand, saying intermittently: "I... I give up..."

  Yan Duo looked at the trainee, his face gradually darkening, his eyes deep and piercing. After a full ten seconds, he spoke loudly: "Alright, let him go, take him away! A bear soldier like this doesn't even deserve to stay in the training camp! Is there anyone else who wants to give up? Come out now!"

  No one spoke again. Yan's gaze was like lightning, and he slowly scanned the room once more before picking up the roster and striking out another name. The 104 people had suddenly become 103.

  After about fifteen minutes, the oxygen masks of the trainees were all withdrawn. It was not until then that the trainees with good physical fitness could barely get up from the ground.

  People looked around, outside the elevator, was a huge "air raid shelter", to be exact, this place is more like a giant underground stadium, with empty space in the middle and tracks on all sides, only it's several times larger than a regular stadium. Estimated from the eye, one lap of the track would be about 1,000 meters.

  The entire underground space can only be described as grand and unimaginable.

  As I continued to look around the periphery of the runway, it was a cave wall. The cave walls were all inlaid with silvery white metal. At regular intervals, a small door would appear on the cave wall, and I didn't know what the space inside was used for.

  "I think everyone has rested enough, let's give you all a welcome ceremony."

  Yan Duohan smiled and looked at the students, pointing to the not-so-distant track: "One lap of the track is exactly one kilometer. Five laps, within thirty minutes, those who can't finish, eliminated; those who exceed the time limit, eliminated. Did everyone understand?"

  This remark made all the students present pay their respects to Yan's ancestors for eight generations.

  They had just endured half an hour in tear gas, and their throats, airways, and lungs were still burning with heat and pain. Now they were being asked to run five kilometers - wasn't this trying to take lives on purpose?

  "Instructor, this training has no scientific basis at all. Are you trying to get us killed?" a trainee couldn't help but bellow in annoyance.

  "My words are scientific evidence, if you think it's inappropriate, you can also quit." Yan Duo Le said with a smile.

  That student gritted his teeth but ultimately had no choice but to quit.

  "Alright, stop wasting words and save your energy for the 5km run first! Everyone get up, now start timing!" Yan shouted repeatedly, holding a stopwatch like he was urging them on.

  This is Lei Feng Training Camp. It doesn't care about the hardships and sufferings you've experienced all the way here. As soon as you arrive, you'll have to endure training that's like purgatory.

  Tang Xiang pulled Xia Wenjie up from the ground and asked anxiously: "Wenjie, can you still finish running five kilometers?"

  Xia Wenjie was now dizzy and disoriented, not to mention the discomfort in his body. Even standing there made him feel like the world was spinning around him, and he could only open his eyes a slit, unable to fully open them.

  He forced a smile and said, "No problem, Xiang Jie, I can handle it."

  "Don't be stubborn, if you can't do it then quit, this isn't a place you should have come to in the first place." Yao Jia somehow appeared beside him, her eyes red and swollen like two ripe peaches, but filled with worry as she stared straight at Xia Wenjie.

  "Seventeen people have already been eliminated, so even if you quit now, it won't be shameful."