Chapter 165: A Strange Coincidence
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“That’s true.” Meng Chao nodded. “You usually act really gungho in front of girls.”
“Of course I have to do that. Honestly, if that woman hadn’t provoked me, I wouldn’t have been able to last even one week in the heroic spirit course. It’s just too full of suffering, too tiring, and too brutal!” Chu Feixiong said in an aggrieved and frustrated tone.
“But you didn’t see how she looked at me. She always looks at me with this almost smirk, and there’s scorn all over her eyes. There’s also this mocking look on her lips, and even when she breathes, she breathes scorn. What’s that supposed to mean?
“All I did on the first day when I enrolled in the school was to say boldly before everyone got to know each other that I want to become the greatest general in the history of the Red Dragon City and defeat all the current generals, even Thunder G.o.d Shao Zhengyang, which she accidentally heard.”
“Thunder G.o.d Shao Zhengyang is a Deity Realm elite and an eight-star superhuman. He has led three of the ten great expeditions of the Red Dragon Army, and he’s indeed a mighty general. You can’t win against him so easily,” Meng Chao said. “Speaking of which, didn’t they say that a soldier who doesn’t strive to be a general isn’t a good soldier? Even if you’re reaching for something beyond your grasp, it shouldn’t have made her target you in every aspect, right?”
Chu Feixiong’s face suddenly turned red. “I was foolish in the beginning,” he whispered, “and I criticized the mistakes in Thunder G.o.d Shao Zhengyang’s three expeditions. I also said that if I had led the expeditionary army, I would have done it better than Shao Zhengyang. I might have used rather cra.s.s words, but that woman’s expression changed completely.
“I only learned later that her dad is Thunder G.o.d Shao Zhengyang.”
“Um...”
Chu Feixiong continued now that he had started. “Anyway, from that day onwards, that woman treated me like a thorn in her side and an eyesore. Ever since she was paired up with me, she even started picking faults in everything I did. She either starts mocking me by wondering how I managed to get into the heroic spirit course or persuading me earnestly to switch courses, since I would sooner or later die during training.
“She then adds that she would send me out with fanfare and give me a grand farewell if I switched to the logistics course. She would even reach out to the middle-aged men and women over there to make sure that I would enjoy my time and get the fifty kilograms I lost back. She has said stuff like she would do anything just so that I would change courses. Tell me, is that the way to look down on someone?”
“I think that you should consider the last option, you know?” Meng Chao pondered over it.
Chu Feixiong glared at him.
Meng Chao raised his hands. “I was just joking. You need to fight for your dignity, after all. Even if you have to leave, you can’t leave defeated.”
“That’s right. If that woman hadn’t said anything, I would have left a long time ago. The more she provokes me, the more I want to stay in the heroic spirit course to fight against her. Even if I rank last in every cla.s.s, lose another fifty kilograms, and die, I will die in the fields of the heroic spirit course.
“Then, I will turn into a toad and jump on her foot and bite her! Even if I can’t kill her, I’ll disgust her!” Chu Feixiong said. “Anyway, ever since that day, I fought against her with everything I had. I did whatever training programme she set for me, but if my movements were off and I was too slow, that was not my problem. I knew that I needed to improve my skills and strength, but at the very least, I was determined!
“But I have to say, that woman is seriously brutal. She just had to leave me covered in wounds every single day, and even when she saw that I really couldn’t get up from the ground, she didn’t feel sorry for me nor lightened the training load.
“In the end, after training for more than a month, I became exhausted and got myself a really bad fever. I stayed in the medical cabin for three days and three nights and still couldn’t get up.
“Coincidentally, there was going to be a loaded one hundred-kilometer cross-country race in the next few days. It’s incredibly hard, which is why it’s known as h.e.l.l’s Road. All freshmen have to partic.i.p.ate in it, but that woman used her power as the squad leader and deleted my name. She said that I was sick and couldn’t take part in the race, which was just humiliating me at that point.”
Meng Chao was slightly stunned. “What do you mean?”
“Everyone in the heroic spirit course is treating me and that woman as a joke at this point. In fact, there are people who have started a gambling pool betting when I’d leave. I have been persevering all this while, and even if I rank dead last in all the matches, I join it to show those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds my determination!”
Chu Feixiong gritted his teeth and said, “But that woman didn’t even say anything and just deleted my name. It was all because she wanted to get rid of me and increase the average score of the squad. But no one else knew about it and just thought that I backed out because I’m a coward. They said that I don’t have the guts to go on h.e.l.l’s Road and pretended to be sick to avoid it!
“I got angry after that and argued back. I told her that I’m part of the Red Dragon Army, and even if I’m sick, it’s nothing. When the monsters invade, would a sick man not need to fight just because he’s ill? Who was she to prevent me from going on h.e.l.l’s Road without even talking to me about it?
“That woman then smiled coldly and said that with how I am right now, even if I partic.i.p.ate in h.e.l.l’s Road, I will definitely not be able to reach the end. Instead of giving up halfway and becoming the subject of everyone’s jokes, it’d be better if I didn’t register for the race at all. It’d be better if I just stayed comfortably in the medical cabin.
“We argued and argued, and the fight increased in intensity. In the end, we made a bet on whether I’d be able to last the one hundred kilometers with a three hundred-kilogram weight on my back in the obstacle course around the heroic spirit course’s field.
“If I could do it, she would admit that I am a jade worth polishing, and one day, I can become a mighty general. But her methods are too crude and rough, so she can’t train me. She would apologize to me in public and be gentler when she sets up a new logical training programme according to science.
“If I lost, there was nothing else to say. I’d leave.”
Meng Chao scratched his head. “You’re in university, man, and you’re even in military school. Is it really okay for you to be so childish?”
“Childish? What are you saying? Do you think I care about that woman being gentle? I just couldn’t take such an insult lying down,” Chu Feixiong said. “Honestly, I signed the form to change courses and even left my thumbprint on it. It was in my pocket. I had been bothered by that woman for a month, and it was time for me to end things.
“But even if I left, I had to leave with my head held high. I already thought about it. I definitely had to complete the one hundred-kilometer obstacle course with three hundred kilograms on my back. Then, while the woman was dumbfounded, I’d bring out the form to change courses and slap it against her face.
“It’d show her that she just ended up making an outstanding person leave in anger and that Dragon City had lost a great general who could win all fights just because of her pettiness and harsh nature. I wanted to humiliate her and make her beg me not to leave.
“Of course, I’d definitely not leave. Heroic spirit course? I don’t care about that! Think about it, wouldn’t it be really elegant? You’d feel good too, right?”
Meng Chao said, “I think that you have a really good imagination.”
“Anyway, before I fully recovered, I ran that obstacle course. And let me tell you, a one hundred-kilometer obstacle course with a three hundred-kilogram weight is really freaking hard. If I were my usual self, I’d have started begging for mercy after about fifty kilometers, but that woman was beside me, watching me with an intense gaze!” Chu Feixiong said.
“Every time I finished a lap, I saw her dumbfounded expression, and I imagined her feeling ashamed and regretful after I finished. Heh, and then, without realizing it, all my fatigue and pain disappeared. I was filled with an endless amount of motivation. As I ran, I actually—”
“Finished one hundred kilometers?” Meng Chao asked.
“Hahaha! You wouldn’t expect it either, but I ran one hundred and twenty kilometers, which shocked that woman. Based on what she said later, I ran as if I were possessed, and even when she called out to me, I wouldn’t listen. When she went to stop me, I just stared straight ahead and bypa.s.sed her. If I couldn’t bypa.s.s her, I moved forward while pushing her.
“I was so strong that she couldn’t stop me. In the end, she had to ask the lecturers for help, and they carried me to the medical office. Each of them held one of my limbs.”
Chu Feixiong first laughed, but then he covered his face, and his shoulders shook. “It’s only later that I learned that at some point in time, Stupid Soldier Xu Wanshan’s heroic spirit bound itself to me, and with his help, I managed to run more than one hundred and twenty kilometers!”
Meng Chao connected the dots in his best friend’s words, pondered them for a while, then understood what happened.
“So, Stupid Soldier Xu Wanshan’s heroic spirit had been lingering around the field in the heroic spirit course while looking for a heroic spirit user who would resonate with him? And he was searching for someone who is honest, foolish, determined, perhaps not very outstanding in terms of his martial arts, gun technique, and intellect, but determined?”
Meng Chao smacked the table and said, “But even if he turned into a heroic spirit, he still couldn’t wrap his head around it, huh? He didn’t remember that all the students who managed to get into the heroic spirit course were elites among elites. Their determination was definitely strong enough, but they weren’t honest, foolish, only had average skills in martial arts, gun technique, and normal IQ.
“Fortunately, G.o.d never forsakes those who work hard. He waited for many years, and he finally found you, you joker. At first glance, you’re practically the same as him.
“Heroic spirits have no will, so he didn’t know that you made a bet with your squad leader. He just thought that you’re the same as he was in the past, and by some strange coincidence, as you ran, your vitality magnetic field and his spirit energy magnetic field resonated and fused together. You inherited Stupid Soldier Xu Wanshan’s strength and dying will, and you became a glorious heroic spirit user, is that it?”
“That’s right. That’s what happened,” Chu Feixiong said with a depressed face. “Since Xu Wanshan’s strength as a heroic spirit was too weak, in the beginning, the lecturers in the heroic spirit course and the medical doctor couldn’t even sense him. They sent me to be treated in the medical cabin.
“In the end, I got up with a muddled head in the middle of the night as if I was daydreaming. With great familiarity, I went to the corner of the school campus and practiced the Army Fist the entire night before I was discovered. Everyone was shocked and sent me back to the medical office.
“I didn’t know what was going on myself. I seem to remember it, but I don’t seem to know anything either. I just felt numbness and pain all over, and that my muscles had no strength. I didn’t even have the strength to p.o.o.p, but there was this urge in my heart. When I saw a field, I wanted to run in it. When I saw a horizontal bar, I wanted to rotate over it. When I saw grenades, I wanted to throw them. When I saw nothing, I wanted to practice my Army Fist. Not even five men could stop me.
“In a short week, this sort of thing happened four times. In the beginning, the doctor thought that I was obsessed or had started sleepwalking. Later though, a veteran in the military school saw me sneaking out to train and realized that my gait, posture, and foolish demeanor was exactly the same as Stupid Soldier Xu Wanshan’s!
“So, he asked the most powerful lecturer and the greatest specialist from the heroic spirit course to examine me. They used the most advanced equipment and finally found Xu Wanshan’s heroic spirit. They also discovered that his heroic spirit had embedded deep into my brain and even fused into one with my soul. We can’t be separated anymore!”