Chapter 184: Chapter 184 I Bet One Hour! (10th Update)
Translator: 549690339
The venue for this military competition was chosen to be in a mountainous area in the outskirts of Zhongdu.
The headquarters were set up in a hotel at the foot of the mountains.
By the time General Lin and Xue An arrived, Commander Hu had already been there for quite a while, and he was accompanied by a tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed foreign woman.
“General Lin, if you hadn’t arrived, I would’ve thought you had decided to skip the competition this year!” Commander Hu laughed heartily.
General Lin coldly replied, “Of course I had to come, not only here, but after winning this competition, I’m also planning to have my troops participate in the international special forces contest abroad!”
Commander Hu, hearing this, smiled broadly, “Indeed, that’s a great ambition. But unfortunately, what kind of training can you accomplish in ten days?”
General Lin was left somewhat speechless.
He still did not know how the Fire Phoenix training was progressing, and he had wanted to ask Xue An on the way here.
However, Xue An merely smiled and then said the words “rest assured.”
At this moment, the foreign woman smiled slightly and said with perfect pronunciation in Chinese, “Commander Hu, don’t talk about ten days. A real special forces squad cannot be honed in less than a year!”
As she spoke, the foreign woman extended her hand to General Lin, “Hello, General Lin, I’m Su Shanna, a special military advisor from Country E! I’m also the chief instructor of Commander Hu’s Fire Phoenix special forces!”
General Lin’s expression darkened, and he reached out to shake hands with this Su Shanna.
He knew who Su Shanna was.
She was touted as the foremost expert on special forces in the Far East and had authored many training manuals for special forces.
He had not expected this woman to be invited by Commander Hu, let alone become the chief instructor of the Fire Phoenix!
“General Lin, when I was in Country E, I heard a lot about your exploits and admired you greatly, but for this competition, you have been a bit too hasty. No one will be able to stand against Fire Phoenix, especially not your squad that has only trained for ten days!” Su Shanna said with a light smile.
This woman was unlike most women from Country E; her age had not made her overweight, but rather added to her grace.
Her smile carried the sharpness of vodka.
General Lin’s expression turned gloomy.
At that moment, Xue An sighed softly, “Sometimes, weakness and ignorance aren’t the causes of failure; arrogance is the real reason!”
Having said that,
Su Shanna’s expression changed subtly, then she looked at Xue An with more interest.
“Who might this be…?”
With a faint smile, Xue An responded, “Hello, I’m just a civilian, the training instructor for Fire Phoenix.”
This introduction made many people cover their mouths to conceal their laughter.
Su Shanna smiled and then said, “I’m sorry, although my Chinese isn’t very good, was your last remark mocking me for being too arrogant?”
Xue An nodded, “No mockery, just stating a fact.”
Commander Hu’s face began to look unsightly, and he spoke with some dissatisfaction, “General Lin, I know you don’t plan to win, but there’s no need for self-deprecation, is there? Choosing a civilian as your training instructor?”
The atmosphere in the room became somewhat tense.
Before General Lin could speak, Xue An shook his head with a light chuckle, and then extended a single finger.
“I bet one hour!”
“An hour for what?” Su Shanna asked in surprise.
“Within an hour, my troops will end the battle and win first place!” Xue An said calmly, yet with immense confidence.
These words made everyone in the room look at each other, and some couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Commander Hu laughed even more joyously.
“Great! General Lin, I admire you for finding such a man as an instructor! What a bold move!”
Su Shanna, however, frowned.
She thought Xue An was deliberately spouting grandiose nonsense just to catch her attention.
She had seen plenty of such tactics before.
Therefore, a mix of scorn and disdain flickered in her eyes.
Xue An paid no mind to the looks he received, instead, he looked up at the clock.
“When does the competition start?”
“It’s already begun! All the troops have just been deployed into these mountains,” someone laughed.
Xue An nodded, “Well then, in one hour! The answer will reveal itself.”
Meanwhile, the Fire Phoenix team parachuted into the vast mountains.
After landing, Sun Ling immediately sought out the tallest tree nearby and scaled it like a monkey.
Soon, he noticed that the shapes of a few trees on a nearby hillside were somewhat different.
These were the prearranged secret signals of Fire Phoenix.
Sun Ling climbed down the tree and began to stealthily approach the hill.
At this time, nearly all members of Fire Phoenix had seen the signal and were converging towards it without any prior arrangement.
Cheng Hao was the one who had set up the signal.
After enduring the hellish Inner Demon Trial for ten days,
Cheng Hao, with his strong leadership, had become the captain without any dispute.
In those ten days, each one of them had possibly “died” for each other several times!
The camaraderie forged in blood and fire is the most solid.
Just then, a slight noise came from a distance.
Almost subconsciously, Cheng Hao took cover in a concealed spot.
It was a three-man squad approaching.
They moved in a triangular formation, staying alert and searching for any suspicious activity around them.
But Cheng Hao’s ability to hide had been honed to perfection through hundreds of “deaths.”
They didn’t detect him at all.
Then, the three sighed in relief.
“Heh, I heard that a team that was formed just ten days ago has also joined us, are they here to boost our scores?” one of them said with a chuckle.
“Probably so, and I heard they’re called what, Fire Phoenix? I think ‘Roast Chicken’ would be more fitting!”
The three started to mock and laugh freely.
Hidden in the corner, Cheng Hao remained expressionless.
In his eyes, their current behavior wasn’t just a lack of tactical discipline; it was akin to courting death!
Cheng Hao approached them silently.
Suddenly.
Cheng Hao leaped up, and in the stunned eyes of the three special forces members, he knocked one to the ground with a kick, then took another down with an elbow strike.
The last one had just begun to react when Cheng Hao smashed a punch towards him.
If he hadn’t remembered that this was a competition, not the battlefield, and had pulled back some strength, Cheng Hao’s punch could have ended the man!
The fight was over in three and a half seconds!
Cheng Hao estimated the time to himself.
He was fairly satisfied!
Then he bent down, took the communicators off the three men, and crushed them into powder.
Three dots disappeared from the computer screen in the command center.
“Reporting to General Lin, we have casualties!”
Commander Hu, who was sitting in the hotel lobby drinking tea with a confident smile, laughed, “Hehe, how about that, General Lin? You’ve put too much faith in some street magician! How could a team that’s only been together for ten days…”
“Confirm the report, the three casualties are members of the Fangs special forces. The killer, a member of Fire Phoenix!”
Commander Hu’s smile froze on his face.