The young officer who introduced himself as an assistant instructor for recruit training wore a warm, gentle smile, and spoke in an even, tranquil tone.
To the recruits who had just endured Zhang Dao'an and Old Geng from the mess hall, he seemed like someone from another world.
"My name is Hu Haipeng. I'm your assistant instructor for this session, as well as the psychological counselor for the 426th Regiment under the 77th Division of the Ninth Army. It's a pleasure to meet all of you, and I'm very glad to embark on my fifth time assisting with recruit training together with you...
"However, there is one rather unfortunate thing: the time I'll be able to serve you won't be very long.
"Because my application was just approved. When your recruit training concludes and the day comes for you to set out on your journey, I too will head to the front lines of sighting operations for the very first time in my life."
Having said this, Hu Haipeng smiled with heartfelt joy, then turned around to switch on a fairly simple piece of film-and-video projection equipment.
Yet the footage that appeared on the screen was not from any movie.
"All of this is something that, as ordinary civilians, you would never have been able to see... authentic historical footage," Hu Haipeng said solemnly, sounding like the narrator of a historical documentary.
The next second, gasps and cries of shock erupted across the massive auditorium. Even their terror of Zhang Dao'an could not suppress such horror.
Including the grave-robber guy from Dormitory 11, Wen Jifei, and the rest, many people present—whether they had come voluntarily or involuntarily—were truly sighting a Great Spike for the very first time.
The grainy, black-and-white footage flickered with static. Two black-armored robots wielding massive, hideous column swords ejected from a shuttle craft, slamming their blades down into the earth.
Earth and stone burst outward across the lens.
Soldiers with Western features rose from the trenches, eyes squeezed shut or staring wide, spewing curses or simply shrieking in madness.
Over a dozen men, over a dozen heavy machine guns, strafing frantically. So intense was the fire that muzzle flashes and rising clouds of bullet-churned dust almost completely obscured the screen.
Yet when the dust cleared—
The black-armored robots were unscathed. Turning unhurriedly, posture dripping with utter disdain, they raised their column swords horizontally and charged straight ahead into the torrential hail of bullets.
Too fast. They were far too fast.
In the blink of an eye, sword and armor had already reached the lip of the trench.
In the next shot, machine guns and human bodies were shattered together, the soldiers' severed limbs scattering across the dirt like ears of grain during harvest.
In the following scene, even more soldiers were in frantic retreat.
Yet it was futile.
Leaning forward, column swords held level, the black-armored robots charged back and forth in continuous sweeps. Every pass plowed a gory path through the crowd, strewn with shredded flesh. Soon, the entire field was carpeted in mangled corpses and severed limbs. The dead were already gone, while the maimed and dying still wailed in agony...
To call this scene a living hell might not even do it justice.
"I'm sorry to show you all this," Hu Haipeng said.
The entire hall fell dead silent. Then, from some unknown corner, came a first choked sob, followed by a wave of crying and wailing that erupted from nearly every row, every section. Many had come here voluntarily, full of fiery passion, but facing the grim reality, they were powerless to bear it.
Amid the auditorium's weeping, Hu Haipeng's voice rang out, clear and resolute. "I am truly, deeply sorry. But this is the reality of our enemy. An enemy we still do not understand well enough, an alien civilization constantly probing Azure, searching Azure, with no telling when they might invade on a massive scale... In the tradition passed down through history, we call them Great Spikes."
Beside Han Qingyu, Wen Jifei was trembling. But putting on a brave front, he tried desperately to hide it, his mouth involuntarily spewing a steady stream of profanity. It was completely understandable, so Han Qingyu naturally didn't stop him.
"Qingzi, did you piss yourself back then?" Wen Jifei suddenly turned his head and asked out of nowhere.
Han Qingyu smiled wryly. "...No. I was so scared that I forgot to be afraid."
"How could that be? Are you... out of your mind? You didn't even piss yourself at that?" Speaking between friends, Wen Jifei had no reservations, though his words were somewhat stammered.
"Maybe I just didn't need to go at the time."
Han Qingyu tried to make a joke.
Wen Jifei didn't laugh, nor did he pick up the thread. He continued muttering to himself, "Guns can't hurt it. That thing... Lao Jian and the others really just... grab their blades and charge in to hack at it?!"
"Yeah." Han Qingyu thought for a moment, then said, "So maybe it wasn't that I didn't need to pee, or that I was crazy... It was because back then, they were there."
The two exchanged a few brief words.
Meanwhile, on stage, Hu Haipeng cued up the next segment of footage and began to introduce:
"Throughout the long history of human survival and development, humanity has tirelessly explored various branches of science—such as physics, chemistry, mathematics, and medicine—and enjoyed the fruits of corresponding scientific breakthroughs and advances.
"This is undeniably the greatest endeavor humanity has ever undertaken, and continues to undertake.
"However, one day, we discovered that what brings about the most disruptive shifts and leapfrogging breakthroughs—to the point where we feel unable to keep pace—is actually something else: the sudden emergence of entirely new substances.
"For instance, absolute new energy and absolute new materials."
Han Qingyu already knew what was coming next. Raising a hand to stop Wen Jifei from speaking any further, he sat up straight and focused his attention.
Soon, the footage on the screen froze, displaying illustrations and text side by side.
[Absolute New Energy: Source Energy.]
[Absolute New Material: Dead Iron.]
The video didn't delve into detailed explanations; presumably, it wasn't intended as a popular science lecture. After a brief pause, the scene shifted, revealing a blade-wielding "human" clad in bizarre sheets of iron plate, bristling with connecting tubes.
His movements looked clumsy, laborious, almost comical.
Yet, with a single stroke of his blade, he sheared through the main gun of a tank.
"The first-generation source energy three-dimensional maneuver gear was born in the 1910s, jointly created by three outstanding scientists of that era to bring glory to Azure and redemption to mankind... yet it was never revealed to the world." Hu Haipeng's expression turned solemn. He paused, then continued with the impassioned fervor of reading a battle manifesto: "From that moment on, we could apply source energy to the human body. We could arm ourselves with dead iron... We could cleave Great Spikes... and we could earn the right to fight."
Silence, deep emotion, bewilderment, anticipation.
Hu Haipeng said no more, and the video continued to roll.
In the shifting images, successive generations of the source energy three-dimensional apparatus were upgraded, their power demonstrated one after another.
The film's color also gradually transitioned from black-and-white to full color.
By the seventh generation, Han Qingyu spotted the structure of a circular disc combined with an equilateral triangle—the very rig worn by the two Cleansing Faction members he had ambushed and killed that day.
By the eighth generation, Han Qingyu saw the equipment Lao Jian and his squad had worn.
*So it seems the Cleansing Faction—or at least the ones I saw—still lags behind the Azure Alliance in equipment. But the gap between the two generations isn't an insurmountable chasm; otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to kill that Azure Coalition soldier.*
*Right, Lao Jian mentioned a new apparatus might be coming out soon. Will they show the Generation 9 source energy three-dimensional apparatus?*
*Barring any accidents, that will be my first set of gear, the thing my very life will depend on...*
Tense with anticipation, Han Qingyu kept his eyes glued to the screen.
However, it was not to be; the film concluded its showcase at Generation 8.
The footage that followed resembled a wartime propaganda film. It was a montage of Generation 8 gear in combat, highlighting only the soldiers' victorious moments and spectacular feats as they felled Great Spikes.
The opening shot was virtually still, save for the wind... A group portrait of forty-eight soldiers facing away from the camera, clad in grayish-blue shirts, trousers, and combat boots, bearing tactical cases on their backs and girded with metallic belts.
Perhaps designed with flexibility and fluidity of movement in mind, the uniform was relatively formfitting while preserving elasticity. With shirts neatly tucked into belts, every soldier—male or female—looked remarkably tall and straight.
*Wait, that's not right. Lao Jian's squad had a whole mix of tall, short, fat, and thin... Was this specifically staged with handpicked models?* Han Qingyu suddenly realized.
"Fuck, that's awesome," Wen Jifei blurted out beside him.
Many others shared his reaction. In that moment, plenty of recruits forgot all about their own builds and looks, imagining that once they put on that gear, they would look just like the soldiers on screen.
The next shot elicited outright exclamations from them.
The scene cut to the soldiers donned in dark gray jackets, culminating in the precise moment they pulled up their hoods... This was the autumn-winter combat uniform.
In the subsequent cut, the lethal assault was launched.
*Is it really that exaggerated?* As someone who had witnessed a real battle from start to finish, Han Qingyu had to admit that this scene—soldiers charging at breakneck speed with straight blades in hand, ethereal blue crystal light gleaming at their backs—was real, and genuinely cool.
The problem was, the combat footage after that was far too fake.
Were Great Spikes really that easy to dodge? Oh, look—a dodge, then the back of the knee. Oh, another dodge, then the small of the back... The side of the neck, chest, ankle joints, wrists... Were Great Spikes really so easy to carve up? Did they think they were slicing vegetables?
On screen, the soldiers struck again and again, repeatedly slicing through the Great Spikes' armor. The thrilling, heroic battle scenes and continuous triumphs fired up the passion and boiling blood of everyone in the room.
"Way too fake. What is this, the Azure Fraud Brigade?" Han Qingyu muttered under his breath amid the cheers, his voice barely audible even to himself.
Yet Wen Jifei, who was just about to say something to him, caught it. He whispered, "Fake? You mean the Great Spikes in the footage are fake?"
"Not that. It's just that an actual battle isn't anything like this at all. In reality, we're at an absolute disadvantage, you get it? Even with an overwhelming numerical advantage, we're still completely on the back foot most of the time. Maneuvers like the ones on screen, clean cuts like that—they're exceedingly rare. Every single one of these clips was probably dug up after painstaking effort..." He spoke on and on.
"But doesn't that also prove somebody actually pulled it off?" Wen Jifei chimed in out of nowhere.
Han Qingyu froze completely. A thought struck him: *He's right. Even if these clips were gathered through painstaking effort, even if it's just an edited montage, it still proves... someone really managed those dodges, delivered those attacks, and actually sliced open a Great Spike like that.*
A jolt shifted his perspective. After a moment of silence, Han Qingyu turned to Wen Jifei, saying with earnest sentiment, "You're right."
By this point, the film had finished playing. The hall was ablaze with fervor, burning away every trace of fear.
...
In the second half of the session, once the clamorous recruits had finally settled down.
Hu Haipeng abandoned his standing posture. He sat down somewhat casually at the edge of the stage, then spoke in a relaxed manner with a smile: "Next, let's talk about another topic... love."
Talk about a sudden shift... The crowd reacted in every imaginable way: some chuckled, some looked indifferent, some blushed, while others feigned deadpan seriousness.
"Once Azure, forever Azure—that is our destiny. So, first of all, I want to say that the Azure Coalition... is not opposed to love.
"Second, I can tell you frankly that here, due to certain objective circumstances, love actually tends to blossom much more easily."
Amid low chuckles and whispered chatter, Hu Haipeng's expression darkened. His tone grew heavy, and he raised his voice:
"And finally, what I must solemnly tell you is... it is also very easily lost. Even easier than falling into it... In a sudden instant, it's gone."
Chapter 22