Chapter 50: Let's Talk About That Panda

Still the Lower District, the garrison training grounds.

Cage number two.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"—a barrage of muffled blows.

Fang Ju rolled, leapt, ducked, and scrambled for his life—his movements were awkward, his expression fierce. Yet, upon closer inspection, it was clear that very few of the attacks from the three adult club rabbits actually landed on him; the vast majority he evaded or dismantled. The duration of his endurance spoke for itself: when he first entered the cage, he could barely last thirty seconds per round; now, he persisted for several minutes. The progress was obvious.

Outside the cage, on the wide parade ground.

The world here was silent, broken only by Ye Chao sprawled on the ground in a starfish pose, drenched in sweat, gasping for air, staring blankly at the sky as if utterly drained.

He had just completed an endurance test.

Six core subjects remained: four physical assessments and two combat evaluations. Though the number sounded modest, the physical tests covered strength, agility, endurance, and mental capacity, while the combat tests included ranged shooting and comprehensive fighting. Each major category was subdivided into numerous smaller items, much like the science and humanities comprehensive exams.

Strength, for instance, included weighted squats, heavy lifting, javelin throwing...

Agility involved sprints, obstacle courses, swinging a bat to hit balls...

Mental tests measured mental strength index, concentration, and imagination manifestation...

Ranged shooting assessed proficiency with grenades, firearms, bows, and crossbows...

The most grueling was endurance: ten-kilometer runs under sweltering heat, snowfield stealth in freezing cold, oxygen-deprived mountain climbs... Each pushed physical limits to the extreme.

Compared to strength and agility, endurance was relatively easier to improve and less dependent on innate talent—as long as one was willing to work hard. However...

"Sigh!" Alpha Ji let out a faint sigh.

Three days had passed in the blink of an eye.

Three days! She had watched Ye Chao's misfortune accumulate favorability points, and finally, his score returned to normal. She had cheered, encouraged, teased, lamented—said everything there was to say; now, all she could offer was a sigh. She truly had nothing left to say.

Gazing at the hollowed-out Ye Chao, Guan Junyuan's face was grim; even his bald head seemed dull and lusterless. He asked the sharply dressed officer beside him, "Well?"

This was the friend who lent him the training grounds—a garrison officer known by the nickname "The Big Official." His surname was rather unusual: Ximen, Ximen Qiong.

Even amidst disasters, classics might be distorted but never disappear.

Ximen Qiong and Guan Junyuan were classmates, roughly the same age, but the opposite in appearance. While Guan Junyuan was bald, Ximen Qiong had thick, handsome hair. He wore a dark gray, sharply tailored military uniform with a stand-up collar, making him look not older, but even more distinguished than the younger men.

When Alpha Ji first met him, she was so excited she cried out, saying he was the square-faced version of Wu Xiubo, instantly granting him a favorability score of 100.

The same treatment as Xu Tiange and Gun Gun!

But Ye Chao, tormented to the brink of death, struggling desperately, managed to raise his favorability to 997, then minus 997, where it stalled.

Numbers more deadly than their meaning!

But leaving Ximen Qiong's face aside, three days had passed, and Guan Junyuan was starting to realize that Ye Chao's problem might be beyond his ability to solve. So he had specially invited this professional.

Yet, after hearing Guan Junyuan's question, the handsome face—Wu Xiubo's doppelganger—twisted unconsciously into something grotesque.

Looking at his little notebook where he kept records, Ximen Qiong's molars trembled. "Where did you find such a rare specimen?"

Military training methods differ from schools.

Schools offer compulsory education, teaching everyone regardless of aptitude.

But the military only accepts those above the passing line, so their training and evaluation standards are entirely different.

Yet, by any measure, Ye Chao was the worst kind...

And it was obvious he was genuinely working hard, not slacking or cutting corners. No matter how much he trained, his results remained static—straight as if measured by a ruler!

"But that pet panda he brought along... has amazing potential! I've never seen a panda so small and yet so fast!"

You really don't know what to say, do you? Guan Junyuan thought silently as he leaned over to peek at Ximen Qiong’s notebook.

There were only a few records, just a table and several lines—

Physical Fitness: Extremely poor.

Reaction Speed: Extremely slow.

Training Acceptance: Never seen worse.

Combat State: Excessively calm.

Stress Response: Always chaotic.

Combat Instinct: Always seeks death.

Looking over this simple table from top to bottom, Guan Junyuan managed to say, "At least his combat state is decent!"

Ximen Qiong glanced at him. "Normal people about to fight experience accelerated heartbeat, heightened reflexes, and improved performance—no matter what, they're a bit stronger than usual. Even if they're doomed, there's a final struggle. Excessive calm means..."

Not even a final struggle! Guan Junyuan understood.

"But if he's excessively calm, why is his stress response always chaotic?"

"If something comes flying at your face, what do you do?"

"Dodge, obviously!" Guan Junyuan was puzzled—who wouldn't know that?

"Which way do you dodge?"

Guan Junyuan imagined it. "Right, I suppose."

Ximen Qiong pointed at Ye Chao. "Sometimes he dodges left..." Left-handed people might go left, but Ye Chao wasn't left-handed.

In other words, he could get even the most basic instinctive reactions wrong.

"In fact, looking at his data, the strangest thing is: how does he even have his current strength, agility, and endurance? He can at least complete the tests, even if he’s so, so, so... so, so, so far from passing. Shouldn't he be lying in a hospital bed waiting for death?"

"Perhaps we should talk about that panda instead..."

Guan Junyuan: "..."

Alpha Ji: "..."

Earlier, Alpha Ji had told Ye Chao, "If you don’t try, how will you know despair?"

Now she truly understood what despair meant...

"So, you understand..."

Sprawled on the ground, Ye Chao gasped, sweat pouring, his brain starved of oxygen, his thighs devoid of strength, beads of sweat streaming down his cheeks.

It was never that Ye Chao didn’t want to leap across rooftops, didn’t want to be a hero on the battlefield, didn’t want to ride alone against a thousand men. Who hasn’t been young? Who hasn’t dreamed impossible dreams?

But his body simply couldn’t carry him.

Before age ten, from first to third grade, Ye Chao struggled for three whole years, doing every exercise twice, three times, as long or longer than anyone else...

Yet the result was always the same—he still failed the standard physical assessment.

So after age ten, he had to give up that path and pursue his current dreams.

Even Fang Ju, who grew up alongside him, barely knew this chapter of his past.