CR CH12

Chapter 12: Sudden Inspection

Even though the Star Net hosted a massive volume of mutant files and combat compilation videos, those clips ultimately paled in comparison to high-level, unedited real-combat materials.

The Federation Central Channel’s viewership remained perpetually sky-high. From escape tutorials and rescue science to high-octane battle edits and the daily lives of the basic forces, the content was massively popular and heavily scrutinized by the public.

Jiang Tianji had never been particularly interested in it. However, because his three roommates chased the updates daily, he had ended up watching a fair share by osmosis. Still, none of it could even begin to compare to the recording he had witnessed today.

Amidst the noisy chatter ringing around his ears, Jiang Tianji continued to zone out, his mind repeatedly flashing back to those high-energy battle sequences.

It wasn’t until the space around him gradually quieted down that his vision finally snapped back into focus.

“Alright, let’s wash up and get some early rest.” After addressing the other two, Ji Yandong turned to pat Jiang Tianji on the shoulder, offering words of comfort. “You’ll get used to it. On our first day, we couldn’t snap out of it either. We constantly felt like our daily training and their actual combat belonged to entirely different dimensions.”

“We were young back then, and our ideas were naive. For a period of time, I kept fantasizing about becoming a combat vanguard just like them. But the moment we actually encountered our very first, most basic real-combat mission…”

Ji Yandong stripped off his uniform jacket. Letting out a soft, self-deprecating chuckle, he gathered his toiletries and began walking toward the collective bathroom down the hall. His voice drifted back down the corridor, slow and tinged with irony.

“When you actually look real danger in the eye… forget trying to be a hero, just keeping your hands from shaking is a massive achievement.”

Huang Qi showed absolutely zero intent of preserving his captain’s dignity, grabbing his own gear and jogging to catch up.

“Haha! Captain, so your hands used to shake back then?”

Ji Yandong laughed and cursed, “Screw off.”

Jiang Tianji couldn’t help but smile. He pulled open his locker, his gaze instantly landing on the silver badge attached to Ling Kongmiao’s jacket, pausing for a long moment.

“What are you staring at? Did you hide a secret lover in your locker?” Feng Huo was waiting by the door. Seeing him completely frozen, he couldn’t help but urge, “Yawn… alright, let’s hurry up. Wash up and go to sleep, I’m dead tired.”

Jiang Tianji snapped out of it. “Coming.”

He sighed quietly to himself. There was no secret lover in his locker—only a massive hot potato. He would just have to find a proper, discreet opportunity to return it.

Feng Huo naturally draped an arm over Jiang Tianji’s shoulder. Even though he was a bit shorter than Jiang Tianji, he would rather tiptoe slightly just to maintain his preferred brotherly posture.

The two silhouettes merged into the sea of moving bodies, quickly swallowed by the thick, rising steam of the massive communal bathhouse.

A life completely stripped of personal communication devices proved far easier to adapt to than they had initially imagined.

The physical exertion was absolute. The moment their bodies hit the mattress, exhaustion would pull them under; there wasn’t even a spare second to overthink before they plunged straight into a deep sleep.

Ji Yandong’s words were indeed born of experience. Young men of this age loved to dream of glory, and after returning to the dorm from the washroom, the group spent some time chatting idly about everything under the sun.

But once the lights flickered out, the voices gradually dissipated.

As synchronous snoring began to echo through the dark room, Jiang Tianji’s sleep remained fitful. In his semi-conscious state, his brain was entirely hijacked by thrilling, perilous imagery—colossal marine beasts whipping up violent gales, massive tidal waves crashing down, and himself trapped dead center in the eye of the storm.

Rumble…

A bolt of lightning sliced through the dark horizon, exposing countless perils beneath the gloomy firmament.

Boom-boom-boom—!

Another thunderous roar erupted. But this time, it was drastically different—the explosion felt as though it had detonated directly against his eardrum!

The terrifyingly authentic vibration caused Jiang Tianji to leap straight up from his bed, rolling and crawling in a panic until he crashed onto the floor on his knees.

He gasped for breath, his heart hammering against his ribs. Before he could fully untangle his consciousness from the lingering nightmare, a blinding white flash suddenly flooded his vision.

Jiang Tianji raised his head in utter bewilderment, an intense, piercing light reflecting in his eyes.

Bang—!

An energy bomb detonated flush against their dormitory window, unleashing an earth-shattering explosion.

Jiang Tianji scrambled backward in a blind panic. Amidst the absolute chaos of the pitch-black room, his flailing hand accidentally shoved against someone, right before his teammates began shouting at the top of their lungs.

“Holy shit! Who’s touching me… it’s the middle of the night, I’m literally going to have a heart attack!”

“Stop wasting words! Move, move, move!”

In the middle of the frantic scramble, someone grabbed Jiang Tianji—who was completely paralyzed by the unprecedented chaos—and forcefully shoved a uniform jacket into his hands.

“Don’t just stand there like an idiot! Get ready to fall in downstairs!”

“Oh—right, okay!”

Muddle-headed and operating entirely on adrenaline, Jiang Tianji shoved his feet into his shoes, hastily threw on his jacket, and bolted out the door alongside his roommates.

The moment they hit the corridor, they found it completely choked with people. Everyone was muttering and shouting over one another; Jiang Tianji couldn’t make out a single coherent sentence, hearing only a chaotic cacophony of complaints and terrified ramblings.

Once they exited the dormitory building, the explosions—which had sounded slightly muffled inside—turned piercingly loud. A sharp ringing erupted in Jiang Tianji’s ears, but he had absolutely no time to process the discomfort.

An energy bomb struck the ground directly ahead of their unit. Although it didn’t score a direct hit on anyone, the kinetic shockwave sent a small cluster of recruits flying through the air.

Through his blurred vision, he could vaguely make out Ji Yandong cutting a path through the smoke up front. Feng Huo and Huang Qi were cursing up a storm, flanking Jiang Tianji and physically dragging him forward at a dead sprint. As energy rounds continuously impacted the earth around them, his two teammates screamed directly into his ears.

“Don’t fucking freeze up! Watch where you’re going!”

“Holy shit! Who the fuck just tripped me?!”

“Don’t worry about it! You probably tripped someone else anyway!”

Jiang Tianji’s vision was a chaotic blur of sparks and flashing electricity, the noise around him so deafening it felt as though he had crossed over into the underworld. He relied entirely on his body’s raw survival instincts to navigate the hazards, successfully evading the blasts mostly due to his teammates’ coordination and a heavy dose of sheer luck.

By the time they successfully reached the Main Training Zone with the rest of the mass exodus, he managed a hasty glance backward. He spotted the medical teams swiftly loading injured recruits into medical transports.

“Is this the absolute best a two-month training cycle can produce?”

Because Jiang Tianji’s squad was positioned near the very front of the assembly, they stood remarkably close to the commanding officers. Hearing a voice laced with simmering fury, he quietly peeked upward.

A stern, rigidly old-fashioned middle-aged man stood with his brows locked in a deep scowl. Looking toward the lines of wounded being carried onto the medical ships, he let out a harsh, cold snort.

“An antiquated, basic energy projectile with its attack metrics dialed down by 85% and its velocity capped by 39%! If that thing hits our automated defensive grid, the system protocols wouldn’t even register it as a threat or trigger a base-wide alarm. It creates nothing more than a loud, theatrical bang. Look at yourselves! Look at this pathetic display!”

The Main Training Zone was massive. Tonight, every single basic force unit had been forcefully mobilized here, and the elite instructors had gathered as well. Jiang Tianji recognized several familiar faces among them—all individuals who had featured prominently in the textbook recordings they had reviewed just hours prior.

The middle-aged man let out a heavy, weary sigh, his face etched with profound worry.

“Every year is worse than the last. These kids lack the raw grit and bloodlust your generation possessed. The Federation Police, the Military, the Special Support, the Special Combat units… we are all desperately starved for fresh blood. The frontline sectors are severely overextended, and the frequency of energy instability anomalies has skyrocketed in recent years…”

“Officer Zhou, you need to rest.” Ling Kongmiao, who had stood silently beside him the entire time, finally spoke up. He casually deactivated his constantly flashing communicator and lowered his voice. “You’ve only just rotated down from the front lines. You are pushed past your limit; do not force yourself.”

Looking closely, Officer Zhou Xiong’s eyes were severely bloodshot, his face radiating an inescapable exhaustion. Realizing his choice of words in front of the recruits had been slightly inappropriate, Zhou Xiong wiped his face with a heavy palm, choosing not to argue.

Understanding the deep-seated anxiety plaguing the veteran commander, Ling Kongmiao reached over, picked up a thermos that had been resting nearby, and handed it to him.

“Animals only bolt when they sense immediate, life-threatening danger. If you expect them to stay red-lined and hyper-vigilant within a designated safety zone, you’d be criticizing them for being jumpy and neurotic.” His voice remained perfectly measured, carrying a smooth cadence that naturally put people at ease. “They haven’t even been deployed to an active theater yet; fundamentally, they are still just kids. When I was a kid, I used to cry whenever people bullied me too.”

Hearing his words, the severe frown on Zhou Xiong’s face finally smoothed out, a hint of amusement flickering in his tired eyes.

“You aren’t much older than them yourself, yet you always talk like an old codger.”

Seeing the commander smile, Ling Kongmiao subtly shifted his gaze toward Tang Min, who was standing nearby.

Standing amongst a crowd of towering Alpha officers, her petite figure appeared exceptionally small. With practiced, clever familiarity, she slid forward and looped her arm through Zhou Xiong’s.

“Alright, Uncle Zhou, leave the situation here to us. Let me take you back to get some rest!”

Zhou Xiong let out a helpless sigh but offered no further resistance. He merely patted Ling Kongmiao on the shoulder before turning to leave. Tang Min was incredibly vibrant and lively; as she walked away whispering something to the veteran officer, Zhou Xiong’s rigid posture visibly relaxed.

As the pair walked toward the exit, Jiang Tianji’s eyes lingered curiously on Tang Min for a brief moment. He recalled her appearance in the recorded battle file—that petite, seemingly fragile girl standing entirely alone against a colossal, mutated nightmare, wielding an unbelievable depth of raw, destructive power.

Tang Min happened to turn her head slightly. As the flashing utility lights flickered across the courtyard, the night wind caught her short hair, lifting it to expose a jagged, clearly defined scar running along the back of her neck.

It didn’t look like a standard blade wound; it was highly uneven and profoundly shocking to look at.

Suddenly, a series of highly exaggerated, entirely deliberate coughs sounded right from his flank. Jiang Tianji instinctively snapped his head sideways, locking eyes with his squad captain’s thoroughly helpless expression.

“Have you looked your absolute fill yet?”

A polite, smooth inquiry drifted down from the commanding platform directly ahead.

Jiang Tianji’s entire body went rigid. It was as if he had just heard a literal demon king invoke a curse; an icy chill instantly shot down his spine. He slowly, agonizingly forced his head back into a perfectly straight line.

Directly ahead, Ling Kongmiao stood with his arms crossed, casually leaning his frame against a steel support pillar. He was staring right back at him, his lips curled into a faint, mocking smile.

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Author’s Note:

Here is part two of the Special Support Team One member profiles!

• Name: Zhao Hengyi
  • Classification: Male Alpha
  • Role: Combat Division
  • Ability: Monstrous Strength
  • Beast Form: Mutant Variant – Giant Bear
• Name: Wei Jiangming
  • Classification: Male Beta
  • Role: Combat Division
  • Beast Form: Unawakened
  • Ability: “Shell” (Primary Defense; highly capable of both tanking damage and dealing strikes)
• Name: You Li
  • Physical Features: Red Hair
  • Classification: Male Alpha
  • Role: Combat Division
  • Ability: Dual Attributes (Water & Wood); exceptionally proficient in aquatic and maritime warfare
  • Beast Form: Phantom Beast Class – Silver Merman