The cafeteria at the base had already closed, so the instructor had set aside boxed meals for everyone in advance.
There was no braised pork knuckle, let alone boneless chicken feet – only the standard scrambled eggs with tomatoes and braised beef brisket with potatoes.
This was hardly the kind of treatment a victor deserved.
Upon hearing the grim news, the members of Red Team wailed in unison. Having endured the torment of an entire night with “Cheng Feng,” a simple boxed meal was clearly not enough to soothe their wounded bodies and spirits.
Before they could even muster a proper whine or coaxing tone, one of the more spirited young men took the lead and started the chorus of complaints. But the instructor’s icy glare had already shot their way. The threat in his smile was unmistakable – he bared a mouthful of stark white teeth, and from the shape of his lips, one could vaguely make out a word they had become all too familiar with over the days:
“Scram!”
The students were left speechless with frustration.
They had spent over a month together, day in and day out – how could someone be so heartless?
Drenched in hot sweat, the students were still ordered by the instructor to stand outside the base to cool off and air out their smell, while receiving comments on the exercise. Only after going through the entire process would they be allowed to return to their dormitories. His behavior was utterly detestable.
And so, the group had no choice but to stand under the dim yellow evening streetlights, patiently waiting for the smart robots to heat up the boxed meals and deliver them.
After returning her equipment in a corner, Cheng Feng made her way through the casually scattered crowd and stood on the highest step, ensuring she could look down upon everyone. Then, she raised her hand and, with a deliberately understated expression, waved in all directions.
The group, who had been lounging around lazily, immediately began to cheer and whoop with utter abandon – pumping their fists, shouting at the top of their lungs, creating a racket in the otherwise disciplined and quiet training base.
“Cheng Feng! The soul of the Red Team! The superstar of command!”
“All thanks to our leader’s wise leadership! Everything is the leader’s credit!”
“Let Tao Rui come all he wants – Cheng Feng never loses!”
“Our towering, magnificent, all-knowing, all-powerful commander!”
Their level of enthusiasm made Mr. Zhou suspect they were deliberately trying to set Cheng Feng up for a fall.
Last month, when the military district leader came to give a speech, they weren’t nearly this sycophantic!
These young folks were really something else.
Unable to stand it any longer, Mr. Zhou walked over and gave Cheng Feng a shove, signaling for her to get the hell down from there immediately.
“Got nothing better to be cocky about?” Mr. Zhou said, shooting her a sideways glare. “So young, and already you don’t know the first thing about modesty.”
Cheng Feng dusted off the spot where he’d touched her – though there was nothing there – making the vein on his forehead bulge. Then, without changing her expression and with complete confidence, she shot back, “What does a winner need modesty for? Do you know that after the liberation of Post-War Star, they set off fireworks for half an hour, sometimes even a full hour, at the celebration every single year? And Post-War Star is so poor, yet they were that generous!”
Her implication was clear: her little wave had already been painfully understated, a reluctant compromise made while being stuck in a foreign land at someone else’s mercy.
“You want fireworks too?” Mr. Zhou laughed despite himself. “How about you stay a few more days at the Red Team base and soak up some more of that victorious atmosphere?”
Cheng Feng shut up grudgingly, pulled a long face, and walked back to her own team. These base instructors really couldn’t take a joke. How could they be like this?
One of her teammates patted her on the shoulder in consolation and gave her a thumbs-up, showing their appreciation and admiration.
“Alright, let’s talk business,” Mr. Zhou said, raising his fist to his nose and clearing his throat. “No need to form up. Everyone, sit right where you are. Let’s have a relaxed chat.”
Despite his words, the group still sat down in the standard military training posture. As long as the training wasn’t officially over, they didn’t dare place too much hope in these people’s sense of decency.
Sure enough, the next second, Mr. Zhou clasped his hands behind his back and flashed a meaningful smile. “First, let me share a criterion with you – I forgot to mention it before the exam.”
Shen Dan’s skin prickled with goosebumps.
Mr. Zhou tried his best to project innocence and kindness, but it had been far too long since he’d last possessed such qualities. As a result, every muscle on his face was stiff and unnerving.
He used two fingers to form a circle and said, “For any student who fell in battle during the faction warfare, regardless of the reason, there will be one less little red mark on their final evaluation sheet.”
Cheng Feng raised her right hand high. Mr. Zhou looked at her approvingly and pointed. “Go ahead.”
Cheng Feng asked, “What’s the use of the little red mark?”
“On its own, not much. But if you collect all the achievement icons, your teachers have promised to award you an extra five thousand yuan as a subsidy for this training camp,” Mr. Zhou said. “Sorry, I forgot to tell you.”
The way he said “sorry” was exactly the same tone a normal person would use to say, “Go on, try hitting me if you dare.”
If anything, it was even more malicious.
The group grew anxious and asked, “Why?!”
“Because you didn’t live to see the next day’s sun,” Mr. Zhou said. His smile faded, his muscles dropping back into that stern, grim expression he usually wore. “You were ‘dead.’ What money are you still collecting?”
He then turned to Cheng Feng, who had been secretly gloating, lifted his chin, and whispered demonic words, “Don’t you get any ideas either. You lost your discipline mark from the very beginning.”
The group watched as the light in Cheng Feng’s pupils faded, and she stood there like she’d been struck by lightning – charred black inside and out.
Mr. Zhou’s mood immediately brightened. Even the trauma from his kindergarten days felt greatly healed.
“I don’t understand.”
Amid the noise, Tao Rui’s voice – though not particularly clear – was distinctive enough to stand out.
Mr. Zhou glanced over and saw the young man, sitting cross-legged on the ground, looking somewhat bewildered as he asked, “So what was the point of the airdrop supply crate? Did the base just include it as a distraction?”
Mr. Zhou shot a glance at the elegant lady standing by the side of the steps.
This particular scenario had been designed by the professional course instructor.
She stepped forward a couple of paces, moved to where she had a clear view of everyone, tilted her head slightly, and replied, “From the perspective of maximizing benefits, you made no mistake. In fact, in a simulated battle, over 90% of analysts would make the same choice.”
Tao Rui felt stifled. “Then…”
“But was it necessary?” the instructor asked. “In any situation that requires sacrifice, a commander should first ask themselves: was it necessary? Especially in situations like this, where the choice clearly leads to heavy casualties.”
The White Team had 80 people, while the Red Team had 70. Assuming a sacrifice of 15 soldiers as the benchmark, securing a single airdrop crate required sacrificing over 18% of the troops – by scale, a truly devastating loss.
Admittedly, early-stage supplies were very valuable, with each supply unit worth about three soldier’s worth of points. The points from one airdrop crate alone could match the value of 90 soldiers.
Even accounting for subsequent casualties, as long as the death toll did not exceed 70%, this would still be a guaranteed profit.
A young man nearby interjected in a low, muffled voice, “Advanced weapons decide a lot of things. On the battlefield, technology largely determines the strength of a faction. If a bunch of invincible pigs hadn’t suddenly appeared on the opposing battlefield, I don’t think we would have faced that turnaround.”
The instructor’s expression remained unchanged, and her tone stayed calm and even.
“So?”
The young man choked on his words. After a long pause, he mumbled weakly, “So… this failure isn’t really representative.”
The instructor nodded but did not respond directly. Instead, she walked over to Cheng Feng, placed a hand on her shoulder, and gestured for her to stand up.
Cheng Feng stood up, and her first move was to roll up her sleeves. The sight made Mr. Zhou’s scalp tingle. He took a deep breath and started rolling up his own sleeves in response.
It seemed the hunger she’d endured for most of the day had all been for nothing – this little owl clearly hadn’t had enough of society’s harsh lessons yet.
The professional course instructor gave a very faint smile and asked, “Cheng Feng, analyze this for us: why were the students on the Red Team willing to follow your command? What was the root cause of the division within the White Team? If you were faced with a collaboration from another military academy, could you still form a cohesive team?”
Hundreds of eyes turned from all directions and fixed on Cheng Feng’s face.
Every student except those from UFU found themselves asking the same question: would they have accepted Cheng Feng’s role as commander?
First Military University – definitely not. Tao Rui and Cheng Feng were practically at odds with each other.
The students from Second Military University were also hesitant. After all, they didn’t know Cheng Feng that well, and she was just a first-year freshman – hardly someone who could command authority.
Even the students from UMU, despite having fought through the entire faction battle alongside Cheng Feng, looked back to the beginning and realized they hadn’t truly treated her as a leader with real decision-making power. At best, they had just coordinated their actions temporarily because no one wanted the team to fall apart.
“Oh…”
The young soldiers from UMU seemed to have a glimmer of understanding.
Seen in that light, Cheng Feng actually had quite a bit of charismatic leadership.
Whatever the reason, once someone joined her team, they couldn’t help but follow her commands.
Under everyone’s gaze, Cheng Feng merely raised an eyebrow and said matter-of-factly, “It’s nothing. Because rather than sacrificing themselves to send their teammates to victory, I believe every individual soldier would much rather witness that result with their own eyes. As long as everyone agrees on that goal, we can unite and cooperate. Otherwise, there’s no helping it if the team falls apart.”
“We didn’t make meaningless sacrifices either!” a student from First Military protested, aggrieved. “Thirty supplies and fifty portions of food – that could have ensured more people’s safety, couldn’t it? The late-stage melee proved it too: explosive weapons had a clear advantage in this match! If Second Military had just kept a few more people alive, even if they did nothing but squat at home base, we wouldn’t have been so passive!”
“Wait a minute! What’s that supposed to mean? Look down on us, will you? If that’s how you’re going to talk, then let’s be clear – we didn’t rely purely on luck either!” Chen Huayue retorted loudly. “The Red Team didn’t formulate their strategy based on the assumption that Second Military would get themselves killed. We analyzed the situation, we didn’t foresee the future. That move of his caught us completely off guard! Maybe you should reflect on your own problems before shifting the blame!”
The Second Military students felt as though slaps were landing on their faces one after another. Every crossfire between the two sides seemed to hit them square in the chest, leaving them with a hollow, chilling sensation. Yet they had no ground to fight back on, so they could only shrink their necks and play dumb.
The UFU students shouted, “Cheng Feng! Teach them a lesson!”
“You want to talk about ‘what ifs’? Then why can’t we? Anyone can theorize – who hasn’t kept something in reserve?”
“Why all the useless talk? Winning is winning! Can we have a little more confidence, guys? Using every resource available – isn’t that a mandatory lesson for data analysts? Stop being so modest and start showing off a bit!”
Cheng Feng went ahead and explained anyway: “We already had a follow-up plan in place for when you opened the supplies. Centered around the question-answering team, we planned to intercept your rescue teams in reverse and prevent you from exchanging supplies. That way, even if you had powerful supplies, you wouldn’t be able to unleash their full destructive power anytime soon. If things went smoothly, we could press the advantage and widen the gap in numbers between the two sides. If not, we’d switch to harassment tactics and send a few people to open the crates. A bit harder, sure, but I don’t think we would have lost.”
A student from First Military argued excitedly, “Reverse interception isn’t that easy to pull off! Your analysis is way too idealistic…”
And with that, the students from the various military academies resumed their debate over the subsequent direction of the data.
Mr. Zhou was utterly speechless at the mindset of these tech-minded students. He pushed the switch on his headset, and immediately, a grating, static-laced voice came through the loudspeaker at the entrance of the building, forcing everyone to cover their ears and momentarily forget their arguments.
Frowning, Mr. Zhou made a stopping gesture and once again pointed toward the woman standing in the middle of the crowd.
“The format of simulated combat has fostered too much ruthlessness in the students. They come to think that death is an easy thing, and that arranging for teammates to sacrifice themselves is also an easy thing. But…”
The instructor paused for a moment.
“Do you think it’s unfair that pigs appeared on the Red Team’s side? Let me tell you -this unclear understanding of death is the most unfair aspect of simulated warfare. You’re already indignant about losing the red mark for fallen students. If this were real death, do you really think the White Team’s orders would have been carried out so smoothly?”
As she spoke, her gaze drifted toward Tao Rui.
His face had remained pale ever since he’d come downstairs. Hearing this, he didn’t argue back as he might have before. He just kept his head lowered and remained silent.
