Free Web NovelChapter 153: Chapter 109: I Want to Pretend to be This B, Too!
Ye Jiahong, once both men were ready, put on his safety helmet with great seriousness and stood before the training tower to explain the rules.
"The rules are as follows: no kicking off the walls, stepping on windowsills, or jumping onto the rope. The moment you move, the timer starts!
Reach the fourth floor, get your legs through the window and shout ’Done!’ to be considered complete! Which squad leader wants to go first?"
"I’ll go first!" Huang Yong immediately raised his hand.
Hao Chengbin nodded his approval and positioned himself to the side of the training tower.
Huang Yong stood beneath the rope, raised his hand to signal readiness, and assumed a half-crouched, ready stance.
With a leap, he grabbed onto the rope.
A "ding" sounded, and the stopwatch began.
Huang Yong’s climbing technique was like that of a monkey. Unlike the usual method of loosening the rope before pushing up, he relied on his arm strength to yank the rope and climbed by stepping with one foot after the other.
This method, despite wearing shin guards, inevitably scraped his legs, but its efficiency was incredibly high, and his ascent looked stable. If not for the empty calls that made him swing down repeatedly, he probably could’ve been even faster.
By the third floor, including Hao Chengbin, everyone was cheering him on.
Huang Yong’s method of climbing the rope relied heavily on hand strength. The added weight of 18 pounds began to tell, and he momentarily slipped a foot.
"Done!"
The moment Huang Yong peaked and got his foot on the windowsill, he immediately shouted out.
"22.36 seconds!"
Zhao Jinchen, timing from below, called out loudly.
Once this time was announced, everyone looked somewhat begrudgingly at Hao Chengbin.
With this performance, half of the people here, northerners used to eating noodles, didn’t stand a chance.
The others had only a glimmer of hope left.
Could this old non-commissioned officer make it?
Yet, Hao Chengbin appeared unfazed and avoided their gazes, focusing only on the large rope, flexing his hands slightly.
"Ready!"
He said, and without crouching, straight away jumped onto the rope.
Ding.
Hao Chengbin’s rope climbing with foot changes was textbook, with large movements executed very swiftly.
After four or five motions, six seconds in, he reached the second floor.
This display revealed his strength, prompting the non-commissioned officers to shout words of encouragement.
"Squad Leader Hao, keep it up!"
"Strong!"
By the third floor, at just over 13 seconds, the oxygen cylinder on his back wobbled, but seemingly unaffected, his speed did not decrease as his hands reached for the highest part of the rope.
Nearing the fourth floor at 19 seconds, Hao Chengbin suddenly clutched at the rope, his legs springing up to the windowsill as he steadied his center of gravity and braced with his waist.
With a mighty roar, "Ugh!"
He hooked his entire body through the window using only his calves!
The two soldiers below assigned to safety hesitated for a second, as the safety rope attached to Hao Chengbin slipped quickly past their waists, prompting them to hastily tighten their grip on it.
This incident left the two safety officers sweating cold beads on their backs.
If Hao Chengbin had fallen, his weight combined with the acceleration generated in just one second could have dragged them several meters.
"Bang!"
"Done!"
The thud of landing and the shout of completion sounded simultaneously.
"20.88 seconds!"
A moment of silence ensued.
The score stunned many, and for a while, they forgot their personal "positions" and "notions" as they erupted into vigorous applause, loudly praising him.
"Awesome!"
"Old squad leader, that was fierce!"
At that moment, however, Hao Chengbin popped his head out from the fourth-floor window, his face serious as he pointed down at the officers below and scolded:
"I practiced that window flip for half a year! Don’t try it if you’re not skilled! And you! The safety officers, what in the world were you thinking? Not even pulling at all! The safety rope went slack, causing me to miss my leverage! I might as well have been protected by a friction device!"
During a regular competition, if protected by a friction device, the safety rope would follow the person closely without slackening. If that had been the case, he would have been able to use his waist to draw much strength from the safety rope with his position just now.
But even without drawing any strength from it, he still managed to flip inside.
The scolded officers below fell silent.
Gone was their earlier sense of superiority as they quietly listened to the old squad leader’s reprimand, as if they were back to their new recruit days.
Ye Jiahong was inwardly giving thumbs-up!
This is the non-commissioned officer platoon leader that Second Squadron needs! Old Fang was a little too soft in both temperament and ability. Good at leading by example but not strict enough with the younger officers.
Only offering encouragement.
While gaining collective respect from the officers, it didn’t motivate training much.
This stubborn lot needs a good scolding!
Fang Huai, watching from below, felt a surge of excitement within.
The squad leader he’d been following was a real powerhouse!
This was the perfect sparring partner he needed!
Ye Jiahong, observing the reactions of the soldiers around, also noticed the admiration on Fang Huai’s face. He walked over, patted him on the shoulder and said:
"Fang Huai, learn well from Squad Leader Hao! He’s determined to help you excel, and that’s your good fortune. Put in the effort, and you can certainly become a star in firefighting tomorrow!"
But Fang Huai did not respond, his gaze fixed on the tower’s top.
The System, sensing his inner turmoil, popped up with a line of text.
[Airborne window entry detected, waist strength meets the requirements, do you wish to spend 10 military points to learn?]
Fang Huai took a deep breath.
A star of tomorrow?
Unconcerned about whether tomorrow’s blossoms will bloom or fade, only seeking to have wine flow through my guts today, with the sword’s spirit bathed in moonlight!
Learn!
Knowledge flashed through his mind, empty, yet leaving something behind.
Recalling Squad Leader Hao’s movement just now, he felt that the hooking of the foot lacked fluidity.
The move should involve using the arms and waist simultaneously to exert the greatest force, swinging the rope and leaping through in one fluid motion.
"Captain, I’d like to go first!" Fang Huai immediately spoke up.
As these words were spoken, the officers present murmured with surprise, "Yo!" 20 times over.
"Young man, do you really think you’re a prodigy, just watching once and you’ve got it?" Liu Jianfeng, as the deputy squad leader for new recruits, spoke up first.
What he meant by "got it" was climbing the rope.
"Got it!" Fang Huai nodded.
What Fang Huai had learned was exactly what the old soldiers below were striving to master.
The new recruits looked on with triple envy.
Fang Huai’s speed of learning things was just too fast.
In these two days, they had already seen plenty of Fang Huai’s genius. Anything that reached his hands, he didn’t have to ask the squad leader—just look it over like reading an instruction manual for a few seconds, and he could tell its function and even demonstrate how to use it a couple of times.
The squad leaders saw Fang Huai from a maximum angle of 30 degrees, and they were already full of admiration, while the same year soldiers like them saw the super wide-angle view.
By now, Squad Leader Xiong said he would teach them the rest slowly over time, but Fang Huai had already secretly demonstrated and taught them.
If Fang Huai said he had, they had no doubt about it.
"Little Fang, you haven’t learned this yet, so let the squad leaders go first. I’ll give you a good lesson later on, hoping you can achieve some results on your first try."
Squad Leader Xiong sat under the large tree next to the flower bed, also beginning to advise him kindly.
He feared an accident might happen halfway through. Safety was not an issue, but he was concerned it might affect their confidence in future training.
Yet Ye Jiahong interrupted: "This kid is too confident, let him have a shot!"
He just needed an opportunity to disrupt Fang Huai’s thoughts of achieving merits and seeking promotion, to make him realize that the Grand Martial Arts Competition was not that simple. If he couldn’t even handle this simple 12-meter rope climb, how could he manage more complicated tactics in the future?
With that, the captain had spoken, and the non-commissioned officers ready to mock a little didn’t say a word, just waiting, preserving their strength for later remarks.
Who knew, Fang Huai walked toward the empty call apparatus that Huang Yong had just taken off.
"You want to wear the empty call?" Ye Jiahong was taken aback.
Fang Huai had enough strength; as long as his method was correct, climbing up would naturally be no problem, but with added weight, the difficulty certainly increased.
Fang Huai smiled: "If the squad leaders are using it, I will too."
At that moment, Fang Huai raised the difficulty level for himself again, and the surrounding people, each with their own thoughts, didn’t object.
Those who wanted to see him make a fool of himself, hoped to see it even more so. Those who were kind to Fang Huai also wanted to see if this kid could go even further.
Fang Huai quickly put on the gloves, belt, safety helmet, and empty call.
Then he jumped twice and expertly tightened the loose straps.
This preparatory move even allowed Ye Jiahong and Captain Wang, who had inspected the rules that day, to feel a certain degree of empathy toward him.
He scored some points.
Once Fang Huai was ready at the foot of the training tower, Hao Chengbin finally revealed his head, cigarette in mouth, ready to give some safety reminders.
Upon seeing this, the cigarette in his mouth almost fell down from the fourth floor.
"Fuck! Fang Huai, you haven’t been taught..."
Fang Huai heard him and immediately shouted back, "Squad leader, you taught me, didn’t you? When did you not?"
Just taught him!
Old Hao, you’re the source of all my genius rationalizations. Don’t slip up!
Hao Chengbin also shut his mouth. freēwēbnovel.com
Alright, I imparted the knowledge to him in a dream.
These little brats must have stolen their skills from somewhere else. Alright, alright, keep pretending.
The four people who believed in him the most: three were downstairs, one was upstairs.
"Alright!" Fang Huai shouted once more, raising his hand.
"Climb!"
Fang Huai leapt up and grabbed the rope. At 179 centimeters and over 140 pounds in weight, the added weight seemed to have little effect on him.
Drip.
The timing began.
Using traditional techniques, just like Hao Chengbin, he kicked off the wall and pushed upwards with his waist, but his hand changing maneuvers were not as smooth as Hao Chengbin’s.
The calluses recently formed on his hands from the horizontal bar were a bit painful.
His legs didn’t provide enough explosive force, but his recovery function was an advantage. Moreover, since his hands were taking some of the load, he didn’t tire at all.
At 17.5 seconds, he reached the third floor.
"Come on! The pace is good!"
Hao Chengbin, sitting by the window sill, started to cheer him on steadily, but his heart was in turmoil. With such a performance, how could he convince everyone that he had trained Fang Huai multiple times?
Everyone was amazed; those sitting on the flowerbed also stood up, stretching out to take a look at the stopwatch in Zhao Jinchen’s hand.
Zhao Jinchen holding the stopwatch, however, was looking up.
He was about to clock the time.
As he reached halfway to the third floor, the timer hit 20 seconds.
"Damn it, this kid is fierce, is this really his first time?"
Before the non-commissioned officers below had finished expressing admiration, Fang Huai took a big step up and reached under the fourth-floor window sill.
Seeing Hao Chengbin staring in shock at the edge of the window, he shouted, "Squad Leader, move aside!" freewebnøvel.coɱ
After saying that, he pulled hard, making the rope swing a bit.
Hao Chengbin, sensing something wrong with this familiar yet surreal movement, quickly got out of the way!
As the rope swung back near the window sill, Fang Huai swiftly pulled up his legs and leapt, confidently letting go of the rope!
"Damn..."
"Fuck!!"
"Holy shit!"
There was a collective gasp from below.
"Great!" A loud shout came from above. Fang Huai was still in mid-air, yet he was able to distract himself and shout back, clocking seconds.
Drip.
Zhao Jinchen, intensely focused, saw that Fang Huai was half into the window and quickly stopped the stopwatch.
In the eyes of the old soldiers, the figure that rose looked like a fish leaping over the dragon’s gate, smoothly reversing through the window without a scratch!
That leaping action, could have made gymnastics teams performing stunts look professional!
"Bang," just one sound, and Fang Huai landed quite neatly.
"23 seconds 83!" Zhao Jinchen shouted.
Amazement expanded in everyone’s minds, time was no longer important. It was that soul-piercing leap they aspired to replicate.
Two seconds later, Fang Huai’s nonchalant face appeared at the window sill. Looking down, his voice tightly controlled, he spoke steadily:
"Squad leader, send the safety rope down. I’m sending the belt down!"
That figure, hands in pockets, had no idea what it meant to have a rival.
People downstairs felt a flash of ’awesome’ as they were slightly dazzled and blinked.
Upstairs, Squad Leader Hao stared wide-eyed at Fang Huai, his lips dry.
It was over. Dammit, now there was really no way to explain.
He didn’t even know how to do that move!
