"Woo!!!"
The sharp alarm pierced the tranquil night sky, reaching the ears of the sleeping.
Reno reflexively opened his eyes, rolled over, and sat up. He quickly put on his military school uniform and rushed out of the dormitory to the playground.
A drill instructor was blowing a whistle loudly on the playground.
Unlike most instructors Reno had encountered, the instructor in front of him did not look like a teacher at all; rather, he seemed more like a veteran who had just come down from the battlefield. One of his legs was lame, one eye blind, and he wore an eyepatch on his forehead, emanating an air of ferocity.
In an age where medical technology had advanced to the point of cell regeneration, usually, only one condition would lead to such circumstances: when he lacked the necessary medical conditions during his disability and the period of injury was too long, lasting for at least over three months, causing the wound to completely heal and be unable to regenerate.
With the soaring sound of the whistle, the playground quickly filled with students running around like a group of startled rabbits.
Moments later, the whistle in the lame instructor's hand stopped, and he shouted loudly, "Time's up! From now on, anyone who hasn't entered the queue will be considered late and deducted one point."
Upon hearing this, the students who hadn't made it to the queue lamented with sighs.
In the Alpha Academy, points were an important criterion for assessing the performance of each student.
Each student would start with one hundred standard points upon entering the academy, and then their performance would be adjusted accordingly. From zero to unlimited.
Failing exams would result in graduation failure, and running out of points would lead to the same outcome.
Conversely, if points were not deducted and even exceeded the one hundred standard line, it would be considered excellent performance. These achievements would be included in their graduation remarks, becoming important evaluation criteria for the future.
After uttering these despairing words, the instructor shouted again, "Anyone with unkempt appearance will be deducted one point."
Upon hearing this, those who hadn't dressed properly due to haste sighed again, emitting sounds of frustration.
"Anyone causing loud noise will be deducted one point!" The instructor's voice echoed once more.
The playground fell silent immediately.
The instructor's stern gaze swept across the entire field before he announced, "The first arrival will receive a three-point reward, the second two points, and the third one point. Now, I announce the first place, Johnny Reno."
Envious glances fell upon Reno.
Reno remained motionless.
"The second place, Parlon Sverd." The bald Parlon Sverd proudly puffed out his chest, then glanced provocatively and dissatisfiedly at Reno.
He was only two seconds slower than Reno, which left him feeling dissatisfied.
"The third place, Claire Jia."
In an instant, countless eager gazes lingered on the angelic girl.
As Reno's gaze met Claire's, both of them smiled simultaneously.
After the gathering incident, with Claire's suggestion, Reno successfully drove away the unwanted guests and even made them compensate a large sum of money. This incident left Matthew furious but powerless, and Reno and Claire became good friends because of it.
Today's class was physical education, taught by Dandy Bag.
This was their first physical education class, which was why many people forgot the notice sent to them yesterday. In fact, everything today had already been written in the notice they received yesterday, but some people didn't pay attention to it, and some didn't even read it. For those who hadn't arrived yet because they hadn't read the notice, Dandy Bag announced, without hesitation, that they would be marked as absent and deducted ten points.
As the instructor put it, the situation on the battlefield changes rapidly, and messages won't automatically remind you of what's important and what's not. Everything needs to be discovered by yourself. For those students who didn't take the opening notice seriously, they would only miss more important information on the battlefield in the future.
"So, welcome everyone to my physical education class. Today, I'm going to teach you combat." Dandy Bag said in a cold tone, "Hand-to-hand combat."
Upon hearing that it was hand-to-hand combat, everyone's faces showed a disdainful expression.
Seeing the expressions on the faces of these young people, the instructor said, "I know some of you don't agree. After all, for you future starship captains, hand-to-hand combat is something you won't have much chance to use. These things should be done by cannon fodder soldiers at the bottom level. As for you guys, you should be sitting in the command room of the starship, drinking coffee, looking at star maps, casually giving irrelevant combat orders, and then letting your soldiers go to die as noble beings."
"But I must remind you, this kind of thinking is damn dreaming!" The instructor's thunderous voice began to echo loudly in the playground, as if someone had really said such words: "Good physical fitness is the basic guarantee for you to drift in space for a long time, and it's an important foundation for you to adapt to various harsh environments and emergencies. A small screw may cause the gravity system of the starship to malfunction. A small operation mistake may damage the entire starship's self-circulation system. How can you keep your brain functioning properly without good physical fitness? Without a good body, you can't even maintain the basic oxygen supply for your brain, nor can you survive in the harsh environment of star wars!"
"As for individual combat capabilities. First, I need to admit one thing, that is, I hope you never have to use it in the future. But it cannot be denied that even in the era of great universe, boarding battles are still an unavoidable form of combat, not to mention the more valued mech battles. I won't ask each of you to have good individual combat skills, but you should at least understand the strength difference between soldiers on both sides during boarding battles."
"As a starship commander, if you can't accurately analyze the difference in strength between the enemy and us in the shortest time possible, then you have opened up another gap from victory. Good individual combat skills can not only protect your own safety in some special situations but also help you judge the situation of the enemy and us in boarding battles and mech combat. Only then can you make the right judgment when facing the incoming enemy, knowing whether to fight or how to fight!"
"Finally, don't think that danger only exists on the battlefield. The universe is full of crises, and sometimes danger may not only come from the enemies deep in the universe but also from around you. At that time, having excellent combat skills might save your life!"
The instructor's rough voice continued to reverberate in the sky over Alpha Number Three's playground, but to the ears of the students, it was no longer so difficult to accept.
Under the instructor's long exposition, various encounters a captain might face were unfolding before them, and what they were learning now was the fundamental guarantee for survival in the face of all this.
This was why the instructor spared no effort to explain.
Only by truly understanding its significance could they learn it well.
However, there were always some self-righteous guys who weren't so easily convinced. They regarded challenging the instructor's authority as a means to make a name for themselves and attract the attention of girls, using it to showcase their extraordinariness.
"Bang!"
After the instructor finished speaking, someone laughed.
"Who's laughing?" The instructor's face immediately darkened.
Following the sound, he looked at a freckled youth who was shaking his body nonchalantly.
Facing the instructor's stern gaze, he loudly replied, "Maybe combat skills are useful for mechs, but we are captains. Even though you've said so much, hand-to-hand combat still has limited significance for us!"
"Limited significance?" The lame-legged instructor didn't explode or deduct points; instead, a meaningful smile appeared on his face.
He limped over to the freckled youth, suddenly took out a gun from his waist, and handed it to the youth: "Hold it."
The youth was stunned and instinctively took the gun.
In the moment he picked up the gun, the instructor suddenly made a move, grabbing the youth's arm and pushing it outward, diverting the muzzle from himself while forcefully twisting the youth's hand. The gun fell from his grip. The instructor then pulled the youth into his embrace, followed by a knee to the youth's abdomen, bending him over, and finally, he leaped up, slamming his elbow fiercely on the youth's back, sending him crashing to the ground.
At that moment, he was agile and nimble, showing no signs of being disabled.
When he stopped, the youth couldn't get up anymore—his spine was broken.
Looking coldly at the freckled youth on the ground, the instructor said, "What I just used are the basic hand-to-hand combat movements I'm going to teach you next. And from the example just now, you can see that in some special situations, facing the threat of armed militants, hand-to-hand combat still has a very important defensive significance... Thank you very much for the cooperation demonstration, student."