(3 days later)
"What are you all?!" roared Franz with a loudspeaker.
"Morons!" yelled the cadets, answering in the self-demeaning answers they were forced to adopt. They are doing an intense physical course, running through the humid Indonesian jungle at noon time carrying giant logs, exposed under the blazing Sun.
In a textbook display of being evil for the sake of evil, they were made to run in winter coats, and if a cadet tries to cool himself or herself down by generating ice before they reach the finishing line, it will be an instant disqualification.
A stark contrast to the cadets being cooked are the instructors, who are following them in a mobile command vehicle, enjoying air-conditioning and iced water.
"Why are you all Morons?!" asked Franz.
"Because we lack IQ when we chose to come here willingly to suffer!" yelled the cadets.
"Good! Then why are you all still so stupid? You can quit you know!" yelled Franz. "Half of you all are eliminated by now. There's nothing embarrassing about it!"
"Sir, WE WILL RATHER DIE THAN QUIT!" yelled Clara proudly.
"WILL RATHER DIE THAN QUIT!" yelled the cadets in unison.
"WE ARE HERE TO BE THE BEST!" roared Karl, "Am I right guys?"
"YES!" yelled the cadets in unison, pumping each other on.
Franz laughed. "Best in what? IN FAILING?!"
"If this is the best you got, this planet is in deep sh*t! I suggest you save yourselves energy and save us our saliva," berated Herbert
"Kindly kick yourselves out of the door!" he yelled.
Karl dashed forward, leading the cadets, Sean followed after him closely, with Clara and Ariel tied at third place behind them, followed by the other cadets.
Sean caught up to Karl, his throat parched and sweat raining down his body.
Upon arriving at the finishing line, the 2 dropped and immediately pulled off their winter coats, panting heavily. Sean took off his boot, pouring out streams of sweat and forming puddles on the ground, throwing the rubber training prop meant to stand in for his gun one side.
Karl's ghostly face is as red as a tomato now, looking like as if he had sunburn, he emptied the flask of water in his assault backpack, generating sheets of ice onto his body to cool himself down.
The other cadets steadily arrived, their actions similar to that of Sean and Karl, and very soon the entire area is filled with sheets of ice as cadets generated ice on themselves and each other to cool themselves down.
"Motherf******…" panted Albert in Cantonese, leaning against a tree, placing a giant block of ice on his forehead after throwing his assault backpack one side, his flask of water now empty. A dazed Vera stumbled beside him, almost collapsing face first onto the ground had Albert not grabbed the hand grip on the back of her body armour, guiding her to sit down on the ground.
"Thanks…" she muttered as Albert condensed water vapour around her while she thirstily drank from her water flask.
Seeing the cadets, Nanami's anxiety finally subsided. The instructors had repeatedly consulted with the medical team when designing this course, and fortunately all of the things ended up as they had intended, none of the cadets have signs of heatstroke.
Ariel wrung sweat from her sleeves like a soaked-up towel. Clara did the same, Ariel.
"Not bad," she commented.
Ariel smiled, thanking her. The 2 then went to help Eddie and Erika who just stumbled over the finishing line, helping them to unload.
"Why…did…I…choose…to…be…a…a…machine…gunner…?" cursed Eddie, dropping his assault backpack. His specialisation has one of the heaviest loads among all of the cadet.
"Relatable…" muttered Erika, putting down her toolkit and explosive models on her assault backpack, issued to her for her role as an EOD specialist.
Albert chuckled, sitting down below the tree, with Vera holding on to him for some support.
"On the battlefield people like you are priority targets for us snipers," he joked at Eddie.
"And people like you are priority targets for grenade launchers," joked Sean, who had moved over.
"Just messing around," said Albert in Chinese.
Eddie looked around him. "Where's Louis?" he asked.
"Was Louis not with you guys?" asked Clara.
"Was he…" muttered Eddie, his brain not functioning from the fatigue and heat, only having a faint memory of Louis running with them.
Sean scanned through the rest of the cadets coming in, finally finding the cadet numbered 92 among the last group of cadets.
Louis is close to breaking, he stumbled along, momentarily losing his balance and fell, some of the cadets around him also falling.
He tried to get up, but he has no energy, struggling to even crawl forward.
"IF YOU CAN'T TAKE IT, I SUGGEST YOU QUIT!" yelled Herbert at the cadets on the ground.
"C'mon Louis, you are almost there!" yelled Sean, encouraging him.
Louis tried to stand up, only to instantly fall back down, panting and crawling forward painfully.
"Just a bit more! You can do it!" yelled Albert.
"C'mon, Louis, Si vis pacem, para bellum!" yelled Eddie, saying a Latin adage that translates to, "if you want peace, prepare for war", the slogan of the PMC company Spades International, which Louis had once worked for.
Hearing the slogan of his former employment, Louis immediately sprang up from the ground and dashed forward with all of his energy, he has a frightful expression. Having been reminded of the bad experience he had with a certain Bethorian; his brain is left with only one intention: run away.
"Using his dark history to embarrass and scare him into running, how nice of you…" mused Sean, recounting what Louis told them last night at the dormitories when Albert asked him about his sparring techniques. Louis' techniques heavily resembled those used by Spades International contractors.
"It's working better than I had expected…" joked Eddie, seeing Louis running forward, throwing up the yellow soil like contrails behind him.
In a flash, Louis dashed over the finishing line. Sean and Eddie immediately helped him to remove his assault backpack and winter coat, while Albert generated sheets of ice around Louis to cool him off.
"Thanks…guys…" muttered Louis, panting.
He then jabbed Eddie. "Was that really necessary?" he complained.
Eddie shrugged.
The break time of the cadets was limited as soon Nanami blew the whistle, and the cadets all hurriedly gathered together.
"Push-ups ready!" she yelled. "100 each!"
All of the cadets got down and started doing push ups.
Franz got down from the command vehicle, holding sticks of barbecued meat in front of the cadets. Sean rolled his eyes internally at this ploy employed by the instructors to break them. They had woken up at 3am in the morning and did PT and drills all the way until now (12pm), and had not eaten a bite since 3.30am. Hence, all of the cadets are hungry and worn out.
Franz dangled a barbecued sausage in front of Sean, waving it like as if it is a carrot at the end of a stick, and Sean is a donkey.
Sean simply closed his eyes shut and started mumbling Shakespeare lines he had memorised when he learned theatre acting, successfully distracting himself away from the hunger pangs.
"To be or not to be, that is the question: whether' tis nobler in the mind to suffer. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them…" mumbled Sean.
A confused Franz stared at him. "Number 9, did you get heatstroke?!" he yelled.
"No sir," replied Sean firmly.
"Then?!" he asked. "What are you saying?"
"Shakespeare, sir!" replied Sean, not stopping his push-ups nor his mumbling. "From Hamlet!"
Franz chuckled, "are you mocking me for my lack of understanding on the more fanciful aspects of life? Like literature?"
"Won't dare to, sir!" replied Sean.
Finding no fun in "tormenting" Sean, Franz moved to another target.
"After you are done, run eastward, instructors Maia and Reza are there for the next section!" yelled Herbert, looking at his stopwatch. "A reminder that you are also ranked on time!"
Soon, Karl, Sean, Clara and Ariel finished their 100 push ups, and ran eastward. After 400m or so, they arrived at an outdoor shooting range, where Maia and Reza are waiting at.
"Segment here consists of 2 sections," instructed Reza. "First, you all need to assemble weapons blindfolded, afterwards, there will be a tactical shooting course!"
The cadets are ushered in front of 4 tables, each table has the field-stripped parts of guns in them.
The 4 put on blindfolds.
"Begin!" yelled Maia, activating her stopwatch. The 4 immediately started to feel around, trying to recognise the guns that use these parts and what part are they specifically.
Soon the 4 figured out and started assembling them. Out of the 4, Sean is the slowest due to the decreased familiarity.
Just as Sean is about to assemble the bolt carrier of the HK-416 he is assembling, he found it missing. Panicked, he started feeling around for it.
"What the hell? That was the first part I recognised!" he thought. He cannot carry on to the next step without the bolt carrier. Calming himself down, he assembled the Glock 19 pistol that he had recognised too first, only to find to his shock that the recoil spring is now missing too, he hurriedly felt around for it, panicked.
"DONE!" yelled Karl, finishing his assembly.
"DONE!" yelled Clara.
Sean further panicked as a result. Just then, he felt something being rolled in front of him, he reached forward, finding the missing bolt carrier and missing recoil spring, quickly grabbing them and assembling the guns, just moments after Ariel finished hers, coming in last by a narrow margin.
The 4 pulled off their blindfolds. Sean pulled off his to see Maia standing with her back turned against him in front of his table. His eyes darted to her hands, which showed marks of gun oil used to maintain the guns. He then stared down at his own gun oil-stained hands from the assembly test.
Reza raised his clean hand, directing the cadets to the shooting range. They put down the rubber training props and grabbed their guns from the range officers, which they had used for the morning during stationary target shooting at low-visiblity conditions.
"Action!" yelled Maia, and the 4 advanced forward, shooting and moving…
(10pm)
"Numbers 64 and 90 eliminated!" announced Nanami, looking at the list.
Sean snuck a peek at the instructors, seeing Maia fuming at the name list. He sighed, understanding that he had again barely scrapped past.
With that, the cadets headed back to their dormitories. Sean entered the shower rooms, only to find to his confusion that the other male cadets inside are showering for long periods, keeping him out.
After finally showering, he dressed up and left for the simulation rooms, only to find himself blocked out of the room, the other cadets inside refusing to let him in and insisting that they are full, when unused AR gear are clearly visible to Sean. Not wanting to get into trouble for fighting, Sean returned to his dormitory.
Similar events happened the following day, ranging from his food being "accidentally" spilt by the other cadets to cold violence and other acts of exclusion and harm, like a cadet "accidentally" being too strong with her fire punch in a sparring practice which sent Sean to Phineas and the medical team straightaway and ending up getting stiches on his arm.
While Sean had no way of knowing, Karl, Erika and Clara's plan at bullying him out is in full swing, not helped by the deliberate closing of one eye by Maia and some of the instructors. Despite Sean's friends in the "gang of 6" remaining firmly by his side, 6 people have no chance at overpowering the might of 40+ others. Nanami is also powerless to help him as all of their actions do not constitute punishable offences.
After a few more days of such bullying, Sean's mental state has worsened to a dangerous level, not helped by the fatigue and stress of training and his own trauma.
"To be, or not to be?" Hamlet's words raced through his mind, drilling his willpower as he swayed between quitting and staying on.
After being blocked out of the simulation for the 7th time in a week, Sean dejectedly returned to his dormitory, bumping into Xiao Tian along the way, surprising him. The 2 greeted each other.
"I see that the rooms are full and you want to train more?" asked Xiao Tian.
Sean nodded.
"Well, you can always go to the live ranges," suggested Xiao Tian.
Sean glanced at him, puzzled. "Don't you need an instructor to be present to access?"
"And isn't there one standing in front of you now?" joked Xiao Tian, pointing to himself.
"Which reminds me, how about I guide you along the way too? Your shooting skills are frankly atrocious now," he suggested.
Sean frowned. "Is that not cheating?"
Xiao Tian shrugged, "no where did it say in the rules that the cadets cannot approach the instructors for extra practice? And besides, it is still up to you to absorb what is taught."
He handed Sean a shooting range access card. "To be, or not to be?"
With that, Sean is thoroughly convinced and the 2 headed over to the range, putting om high cut tactical helmets and body armour.
Sean readied his SCAR-H, while Xiao Tian loaded a custom-build QBZ-97, equipped with a QBZ-95-1 trigger group, LHG lower handguard, custom Chi Xiao rail system which he used to fit a red dot sight and magnifier combo onto, as well as the laser designator pack. Both of their guns are equipped with suppressors.
"Alright, first we will do a 2-men tactical shooting drill with simunation rounds, then a shooting down the 300m range with live rounds for rifles and 50m range for pistols," instructed Xiao Tian, loading his guns.
"Copy," said Sean, loading his guns, not noticing that he had accidentally loaded a live magazine for his FN 5-7 pistol, thanks to his horrible mental state.
The 2 moved forward, shooting, with Xiao Tian holding onto Sean's shoulder, using his hand to calm and guide Sean's breathing and tempo.
"Good, keep your breathing steady, pull the trigger unconsciously," instructed Xiao Tian.
After finishing their rifle magazines, they switched to their pistols, Xiao Tian rapidly pointing and shooting, hitting targets with his QSZ-92A equipped with a tactical light accurately and quickly.
"You try," said Xiao Tian.
Sean shakily aimed his pistol and fired as he pointed, missing the shot.
The recoil plus fatigue plus shaky hands caused Sean to lose his control of the gun, dropping it, and it landed on the back.
In a extremely unlikely event, the pistol drop fired, which shot a bullet straight into Xiao Tian's torso, flooring him.
The strong smell of powder in the air made Sean realise to his horror that live ammunition was fired.
"OH NO!" he exclaimed, immediately checking Xiao Tian.