After Being Reborn, I became a firefighter again?

Chapter 598: Chapter 444: Scapegoat?

Fang Huai stepped out of the star-studded world and plunged into the competition area, attending to the tasks expected of a grassroots soldier.

Over the past half year, he had grown accustomed to the world seemingly expanding and contracting. Sometimes, he was the golden child in the eyes of the leadership; sometimes, he was the engine of the squadron; and at times, he was the war god of the bloodstained battleground.

But today, there were simply too many war gods.

Starting from the morning’s second comprehensive rescue technique drill, the Guizhou Brigade was feeling the strain.

Just in the morning’s competition of 15 teams, they had only managed to secure fourth place. freewebnovel.cσ๓

All morning, the members of the Guizhou team grumbled: Damn it, Guangdong is too fierce, Hunan is too fierce, Liaoning is too fierce, Shandong...

Of course, other teams were also looking at them with surprise.

Damn, Guizhou is calling others fierce, do you not know how fierce you are?

A first place and a fourth place, and still not satisfied?

In the afternoon, the stars had mostly disappeared, but the atmosphere of the competition remained intense. freewēbnoveℓ.com

"Come on!"

"Come on, Lian Xu!"

The underground rescue drill was quite straightforward.

Two firefighters equipped with breathing apparatus descended via rope to the ground, traversed through serpentine poles, and together rescued a victim to below the platform, then saved the victim to the platform. After securing the victim, the firefighters would then climb back to the platform.

The whole drill involved only four people, Lian Xu, Gui Qiang, Liu Shoulin, and Wang Maofa in one group, with two assisting in donning ropes and pulling the person, but the main effort was the two who descended with breathing apparatus, Lian Xu and Gui Qiang.

The rest were cheering from below the tower.

Fang Huai watched as Lian Xu, who had secured his safety rope below the 7.5-meter-high rescue platform, prepared to return to the platform, and he too shouted encouragement, not taking his eyes off the stopwatch.

Currently, the leading time was held by the Shanghai General Team at 54.78 seconds.

In the final step of returning to the platform, with Lian Xu still below, the timer was already at 48 seconds.

Shanghai seemed to be gunning for the gold in this drill this year as well, with team members who were tall and slim, with long legs and high jumps. When they went to grab the rope to climb the rescue platform, their initial leap seemed to start them a half-meter higher than everyone else.

With 30 brigades struggling mightily over the six drills, aiming for the gold seemed too daunting a task.

Moreover, this year the Guizhou Brigade was focusing on the overall ranking rather than pouring a great deal of effort into one drill, which resulted in them feeling slightly short of the gold-winning level in every drill.

In the current underground rescue drill, said to involve four men, there were really only two key players. For someone as outstanding as Fang Huai individually, this was the most promising event.

"Fang Huai, over at the Liaoning Brigade..." Huang Zhongjiu rushed to the rest area in a hurry, looking somewhat flustered.

Since Huang Zhongjiu didn’t need to participate in many drills, he kept an eye on the two events they had completed. It looked like he had discovered something, and his expression was not good.

His tone also carried a hint of "reporting... great king, there’s bad news".

Fang Huai’s heart tightened, and he quickly raised his hand, gesturing for him to keep quiet.

"Bang!"

Lian Xu, at 178 cm tall, reached the top and threw back his head, hitting the safety rope crossbar overhead.

Next to him, Gui Qiang quickly shouted, "Good!"

"56 seconds, 32!"

Fang Huai then turned his head: "What’s up?"

Huang Zhongjiu glanced upwards, sighed, and said, "In the One Hundred Meters Ladder Attack Drill, Liaoning just broke our record by 0.2 seconds."

As these words came out, surprise and disappointment were evident on everyone’s faces.

"Tsk."

Fang Huai raised his hand to his head, scratching it a couple of times, letting a few drops of sweat fall before thinking and saying, "Aren’t there just a few teams left over there? You mean, we’re second?"

Huang Zhongjiu furrowed his brow: "There should only be two or three teams left. I thought we had it secure, but I didn’t expect this. Now we’re second in the Hundred Meters Ladder Drill, seventh in the comprehensive rescue... and this one, how much?"

Fang Huai looked up and said with an even expression, "Eighth place and there are still seven teams to go. But we have another chance. I’m going next, securing a good ranking won’t be a problem."

Huang Zhongjiu nodded and said, "For the team drills, we have three left."

No one expected to dominate the competition, but there was hope to at least claim a single victory in the team drills. Unexpectedly, Liaoning, having lost a main player to them, now embodied the determination of a desperate army, breaking the record in the final moments and snatching away their rightful first place.

Yet Fang Huai’s internal calculations extended beyond just individual events; he aimed for the overall championship.

The whole corps ranking considered only the six team drills, and the top three rankings garnered more points.

Three events had been completed so far, and the points of the top ten brigades were relatively even. For the remaining three events, they could only commit all they had.

"In the upcoming fight-the-fire drill, let’s give it all we’ve got. Tomorrow’s high-rise stairway hose laying drill, after seeing Jiangsu and Guangdong, it seems unlikely for us.

High-altitude mountain rescue drill - that’s our forte. Plus, we’re the last group up tomorrow, so the champion’s score will be right before our eyes. This drill, tomorrow, it’s do or die!"

Having said that, he looked towards Wei Lijie with a smile.

"Ready for the next round?"

Wei Lijie’s gaze was firm: "If I can’t get first place working with you, Squad Leader Hao is going to kill me when I get back."

For the four-person and three-person drills, each brigade could field two teams and the highest score would count.

Their second team consisted of Fang Huai, He Zhijun, Wei Lijie, and Tao Dongdong.

Apart from Fang Huai, each member of the Guizhou Brigade team had their strengths. Through testing during training, Wei Lijie proved to have the fastest combined speed in rope climbing and rope-descending, even surpassing He Zhijun. Hence, he took the role of the leading attacker in the final group of this drill, assisted by He Zhijun and Tao Dongdong, the strongest in rope skills.