Tales of Soldier

Chapter 3.2

Tens of thousand of light year away, planet Lade.

*Dialing…

A lady was sitting irritably next to a 3D phone, waiting for the call to be connected.
A middle-age human head was formed on the projector, before the man can say anything. “Tang Long have not been communicated with me for the past 3 day, what should I do now?”

“3 days?” The middle-age guy was taken aback, “Maybe he forgotten? You know, he was known to enjoyed himself too much that he doesn’t even remembered where his bed was.”

“Impossible, you know that Tang Long is well behaved, he would remember to call back even when he was having fun. You don’t think that…he got himself into some trouble that he can’t even make a call?” The lady, who seems to be Tang Long’s mother began to sob a little.

“Tang Long is street smart, I know, that he at least has the capability of keeping himself save. Also, if really something did happen to him, the police would have notified us already. OK... you know…why don’t we file a police report 1st, let them investigate.” Tang Long’s father tried to sound positive and gave some word of encouragement.

“Yes, right, I think that is better.”
*adding call…
*Dialing Federation Police Force, Planet Lade.
*Dialing…
“Hello, this the Federation Police force of Planet Lade, how may I help you?” A lady in police uniform popped up next to the man, her sound was sweet and soothing.

“My son has gone missing; his identity number is LADE0125TANGLONG34140531221.” Tang Long’s mom knew she was talking to an AI, so she skipped all the pleasantries.

“Sure, please wait a moment” The female policemen kept her smile.

“…”
“…”
“…”

“Got it, Tang Long, Male, planet Lade Zone 0125, born UC 3414. He had been enlisted into the Federation Military Armed Forces in planet Kyla 3 days ago. He is currently training in the bootcamp.”

“What?!” Both of them utter the same word simultaneously, they could not believe the news. Never would they have thought in their widest dream that their son chooses to enlist.

“Impossible, this is impossible. Why did he enlist? That is impossible…”

“Then let him be, there are no active conflict right now, with minimal of 3-year active duty. Also, he got nothing to do here, and he is not in good health. Let the military train him for a while, you know, strengthen his body and mind and all sorts of good stuff” The father recovered from the news shock, and was trying to convince her that this is a good idea.
The quashed eyebrow started to relaxed after listening to Tang Long’s father. And the news that Tang Long was alive and well was a big relieve for the mom.

“Which camp is he trained on?” She wipes the tears off.

“…”
“…”
“…”

“Sorry madam, the information was classified.”

*urgh…
Tang Long’s father never knew that the title and location of bootcamp can be classified, the only classified information was the content of bootcamp.

“That is impossible, please check again, and be through please.”

“Sure.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…”

It was a long wait, both of them was looking at the policewoman with an anxious look.
“Sorry Sir, Madam, his bootcamp is SS. Is there anything else you need?”

Tang Long’s father opened his mouth dumbfoundedly. He was an accomplished businessman with good reputation, and he knew for fact that the final deterrent weapon of the Federation was only ranked S, but the camp that his son was trained right now was SS.

My son’s bootcamp was ranked SS secrecy level? Oh Tang Long, what have you gotten yourself into?
He shook his head, and instruct his wife to said nothing.
“Sure, that would be all, many thanks”

*Disconnected

“What is going on here? Why the SS? Where is Tang Long?” The mother was both dissatisfied and impatient.

“Do not ask any further, wait for me to return. I will explain what I know to you, and in the meantime, if anyone were to ask, you just say that Tang Long went study aboard. Remember, no matter who, that will your only reply. You need to remember this for the sake of his personal safety. Ok. Now wait for me, I am going home.”
Stunned, she had never reacted with such seriousness before. She just nodded and wait for him to come back.
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After few hours, the father reached home, sit next to his wife and whispered to her the meaning of SS. After several discussion, they decided to stop poking on the whereabouts of Tang Long for his sake, but they also wondered, how can a naïve young man get involved with something as high as SS?

+
In truth, Tang Long’s parent had overthought on that SS part.
Federation Central Terminal was operated by an AI, “she” was the only other AI that achieve sentiency, other than the 5 in 23rd. Hundreds of years ago, when someone found out about the 23rd, that person decided to scrap that base. When the order pass through the central terminal system, “she” belayed that order, fabricated a return report and put a SS seal any information pertaining to 23rd in order to protect her fellow friends. And now, even if the military were doing an asset audit, the information pertaining to 23rd will not showed up in any normal military databased and they will be safe.
When Tang Long was assigned to 23rd, the class rank automatically extended to him, because his family was searching for him, that left a trace on the central terminal. Tang Long was the only human that entered the 23rd, and the blip in the search engine get “her” excited on him, the only human “she” ever paid attention on.
+

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One month later.

The jungle simulation ended, returned to the original – white color brightly lit – hall. The 5 android instructors were standing on the side of the hall.
In the center of the hall sat Tang Long, leg crossed, heads down, eye closed, holding in his hand, a large machete that was shinier than a month ago, due to the indirect consequences of constant laser scanning. An aura of murderous intent was swirling around Tang Long.
The end of simulation does not invoke any reaction on Tang Long, when the android walked right up to him, he remained still.

As the 5 instructors observed him, a voice was coming from on top. “Player Tang Long, game time 29 days, 21 hours, 35 minutes and 53 second. Total enemy eliminated: 18,605”

All 5 of them was startled by the amount he managed to kill, their initial guess based on the elapsed duration was, at most 8,604, with the base kill rate of 5 per minutes. Tang Long more than double the amount.”
“Very well, Cadet Tang Long, you survived one month in the game. I believe you have conquered your fear.”

Suddenly Tang Long raised his head and stared back at the drill instructor.

Looking down at Tang Long’s gaze, its neural net calculation suddenly goes off the chart, and it realized it does not want to look at him in the eye. Only an android that achieved sentiency would have the reaction similar to human, else, no matter how murderous Tang Long’s gaze was, it would like staring at a computer, it has zero effect.

No emotion was elicited from Tang Long, when he saw all 5 together without any covering, unlike a month ago. Every day for the grueling one month, Tang Long practically slept on top of carcasses. Even thought it was virtual, but because of the “Shinigami System”, everything felt real, the slimy sensation, the rooting flesh, the creaking sound. Now, the skeleton looks like a child’s play to him and he was not over the fact that the 5 instructors was placing him in such a hellish game. So, he stood up, raised his machete and take a big swing at them.

+
The life in the “Shinigami Game” was unfathomable, he lived more like a wild beast, than a man. When the creatures and monsters attack and landed a hit, the pain sensation was real even in game. The worse part was when Tang Long killed them, the carcasses, the intestine, the rotten flesh, the blood and gut juice will burst and spilled over Tang Long, with that accompanied the horrible smell, the slimy sticky sensation when touched triggered the vomit reaction.

Tang Long had lost count how many times he puked, at the same time his hand non-stop dismembering the charging monsters, and felt like his stomach just committed suicide.
But, those intense feeling soon subsides, it is call: getting used to it. But during the gameplay, the most annoying things that there are no “pause moment” for when the player was eating, pissing or sleeping. Even at those “sacred” moment, the monsters still kept coming: rotten hand crawling up from the toilet bowl, bugs and parasites on the meal boxes, suckers and worms crawling up into Tang Long’s ass when he was trying to sleep. Shit just ever ends. So, Tang Long ended up loosing his appetite for whole 3 days when the zombie worms fall into his meal box when he was not paying attention, slept with one eye open to make sure no can ambush him. Tang Long knew, for a fact that they can tune the gameplay setting, but they choose not to, when putting all this together, of course Tang Long was supremely and royally pissed at the 5 android instructors.
+

*ting
*dang
*dang

3 swings, but not a dent in the metallic surface of the skeleton, but the recoil of the blade had numbed Tang Long’s hand.

Hmmm. Looks like their skeleton are made from alloy that are higher grade than my knife. Well, at least I got to chop them, so, silver lining.

“Attacking superior officer with a sharp blade. Get down and give me 300. Complete it or else no food for you,” Said the android instructor that was just got chopped by Tang Long.

“Sir, Yes Sir! You mutherfucking useless piece of shit!” Yeah, Tang Long did remember that he can curse them without any repercussion. And so, for the rest of the 300 push-ups, he cursed and cuss nonstop. Why nonstop? Because he was cussing nonstop during that one month in the game too, or else what can Tang Long do to kept his sanity?
“[email protected]#$%^&*()_){|}”:?><…”

After facing life and death situation constantly, Tang Long’s entire physical was completely transformed, 300 push-ups seem hard, but not something that will render him immobile like previous month. He still managed to stand up straight after the punishment.

“Good, take the rest of the day off. From tomorrow onwards, we will begin the adjoined training of both evasion and physical.

*thump
Tang Long falls backwards, unconscious.
Wait, not unconscious, asleep.
*zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
*zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
He has not been able to get a proper good night sleep for the past month.

All 5 instructors saw Tang Long fell down, give him a quick scan, then assembled around him. The floor below Tang Long began to raise up like an operating table and stopped at their waist height.
The eyes turned from green to blue, a total of 10 rays was swirling and spiraling around Tang Long.
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After 10 minutes, Tang Long’s skin turned from dark and dry, to radiant and pink. Their eyes reverted back to green, but just a tad less bright, less shiny. One of them carried Tang Long back to his room.
The rest of the 4 remained on the spot, unmoved.

“Looking at our reserved, I don’t think we can last one year.”

“Well, that was because all of us take turn giving Tang Long the cell rejuvenation stimulation once every few days. If not, I don’t think he can last such intense training.”

“Hehe, thinking about it, this kid is quite something. He can play ‘Teror’ for one month without any long-lasting psychological trauma.”

“Oh, you don’t say, if not for me giving him TMS ^2 neural combover every night, he could either: hurt himself trying to commit suicide, or go cuckoo.”

“Drop the scoreboard would ya, for the next 2 month we need to train his physical and combat skill. After that would be stratagem, command and flight.”

“Wait, that is far from enough, there are so much that I want to teach him, like persuasion engineering, spy craft, …”

“What, you want to shape him to SAS?”

“SAS? Nooo. I want to train him into the perfect soldier.”

If one just listened to the conversation, one would though that 4 good friends was discussion something exciting, and would not imagine it was coming from 4 naked androids.

At that moment, the android that carries Tang Long to the room returned. The 4 androids ceased the conversation and looked at it simultaneously.

“Cut the chase, we will proceed according to play. This is our one and only student, he cannot, and will not be just an average joe. We will intensify his training in all aspect!” Clearly that guy was the leader of the 5.

“Yes.” All 4 androids replied with a military salute.