Chapter 481 - 427: Instructor, Are You for Real?

Anthony had a bad premonition.

"Don't panic! Nobody panic! Rear team, fall back; front team, head to the opposite bank!"

He used all his strength to roar, trying to organize and regather the team.

Just then, the sound of machine guns erupted from the sky.

Dada dada dada—

As the gunfire sounded, columns of water splashed up from the calm river surface not far away.

"They're shooting!"

"Run!"

The team, which had just stabilized, exploded into chaos once again.

This time, they completely ignored Anthony's commands.

The entire team was utterly out of control.

The helicopter roared overhead, sweeping across the sky, turning in the distance, and then banking back toward them.

Anthony could no longer care about anything else; with the situation this chaotic, it was beyond his control.

Run.

All of them run.

He hurried to the opposite bank, not caring about being soaked like a drowned rat, and awkwardly dived into the jungle with two trainees.

The helicopter raked the river surface with gunfire again until there was no one left, then soared away.

High above, inside the aircraft cabin, Jiang Feng watched Song Heping, who clutched the machine gun, and laughed until he was breathless.

"Hahaha! Old squad leader, are you for real!? Aren't you afraid of killing them?!"

"Kill my ass! If I don't even have this level of marksmanship, I shouldn't be a mercenary leader. Besides, during our training back in the day, we'd crawl under tactical machine gun fire over our heads, and I didn't see anyone afraid of dying then. Train as we fight, if you're afraid of casualties, go home and play lord, why be a soldier?!"

Song Heping was unambiguous.

After firing, he checked the PKM general-purpose machine gun and said: "Not bad, this machine gun is decently mounted, though the firepower is mediocre. Later on, I'll have those Da Maozi engineers come up with a retrofit, see if we can fit it with a Gatling."

Jiang Feng laughed wildly once more.

Suddenly, he asked with some concern: "Old squad leader, they all took the wrong path, and you still play tricks on them; won't it really be a problem if everything falls apart later?"

"If trouble arises, then it arises. We're only responsible for training, never promised safety."

Song Heping didn't care at all.

"I told their boss, I'm not guaranteeing anyone's life."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Feng felt sorry for Morins, who had spent money without control - no guarantee even in the event of death, and still had to give a hefty reward.

Song Heping said: "But what I must ensure is that those who leave our training are exceptional, capable of taking on a hundred men alone, otherwise we'd be smashing our own brand."

Jiang Feng said: "We only have two months of training time. What if these guys get lost in the jungle and can't find their way out for days?"

"Cool as a cucumber!" Song Heping said: "Didn't you notice last night? These guys, thinking themselves above everyone else, wouldn't pay us any mind. If you don't knock down their arrogance, will they listen to you? They didn't bring much to eat, probably just some snacks. Just wait, let them starve for a few days, and they'll become docile. Even if someone starves or gets caught by border troops, it's their fate. Only those who return to the school are officially enrolled; if they haven't enrolled, then it's not my problem."

The helicopter quickly carried Song Heping and Jiang Feng away.

Song Heping tested the aircraft, meanwhile inspecting the weapons on board and giving those ELN "elites" a good shake-up.

He estimated that if the discipline and organization of the trainees sent by the ELN were lacking, they would have a very tough time in the coming days.

In fact, things turned out exactly as Song Heping had predicted.

That round of machine gun fire had really put Anthony through the wringer.

He was the highest-ranking military official among all the trainees. Before they set out, Morins had charged him with the trainees' welfare and organization, indirectly making him the leader of the trainee team.

Now, after arriving last night, not only had they failed to find the school camp, but the team had also scattered.

It took Anthony a good twenty minutes after Song Heping's helicopter flew away before he dared to emerge from the jungle on the opposite bank.

Now he realized the situation was serious.

Because there were no radios among the trainees, nor even rudimentary communication tools like walkie-talkies.

Now that they had scattered, in the vast jungle, where could he start looking?

He could only begin a nearby search, aiming first to find the part of the team that had crossed the river.

After a brief conversation, tasks were immediately assigned, and the more than ten gathered people were divided into four groups, heading off in different directions to seek out and regather the scattered team.

They agreed to return here to regroup after searching for six hours.

This delay meant that by the time the entire team had regrouped, the sun was already setting.

Looking at the sunset dropping behind the distant mountains, Anthony gathered a few key members of the team to discuss the next steps.

"I suggest we camp here for the night and rest, then move out when it's light."

The reckless rush through the night had given Anthony a scare, and he was not willing to repeat the mistake.

Even hunters like Godwin could err at night in the primordial jungle. If they erred again, perhaps they would find themselves even farther from the school when daylight broke.

"Not travel by night? If we keep up this pace, even if we're on the correct path, it might take us two more days to reach the school."

Someone raised doubts.

Anthony decisively said, "Two days then two days, along with today that makes three days, three days are still better than getting further away! Right now we are lucky to not have encountered the Venezuelan border troops, but if we did, a firefight would be inevitable, and things would get more out of hand. We must travel by day, everyone with a map must constantly compare it to the surrounding terrain and features, and if any discrepancies are found, immediately halt the team. We cannot move forward until we are sure it's correct!"

"But our food supply is running low, although water is an easier issue, the problem is food..."

50 people is not a small squad; the food issue indeed needed solving.

"Godwin comes from a hunter background; he's familiar with catching animals in the jungle. Let's also send people to catch some fish by the river, gather some edible ferns and the like in the jungle, it's not hard to endure three days..."

Just as Anthony and his team were pondering how to escape and survive in the wilderness, Song Heping and Jiang Feng were leisurely spending their days at the school's campsite, aside from checking the progress of plane assembly and runway construction, every night they would bring in a sheep and have a grand barbecue celebration.

Without fail, every night after dusk.

On the evening of the fourth day, security personnel from the school construction site reported that a team had appeared about five hundred meters to the southeast, looking like those trainees.

Song Heping was flipping a big, fatty, sizzling sheep by the fire at that moment and upon hearing the news, he called out to Jiang Feng, "Jiang Feng, looks like those kids are back, let's go take a look."

He handed the sheep over to a security guard, saying, "Go, get a few more sheep out and put them on the roast."

After giving the instructions, he sliced off a big chunk of lamb leg to hold, jumped into an old American-made Willys military jeep with Jiang Feng, and drove off toward the northeast side of the school in a cloud of dust.

The dirt road was spacious enough to accommodate two-way truck traffic.

Solid ground underneath, so the sand was a bit slippery when stepped upon.

Anthony felt like he was down to half a life left.

Not just him, everyone felt the same.

Exhausted and hungry.

Nearly every trainee felt the same.

Everyone had lost the sharpness they had when they first entered the territory four days ago.

"That smells so good!"

"Did you guys smell that?!"

"It smells like lamb!"

"There's a vehicle coming from over there!"

"Spread out, take cover!"

Anthony roared, and everyone immediately dispersed on both sides of the dirt road, each raising their guns to be on guard.

"Don't panic, it's me, your instructor!"

Someone shouted towards them using a loudspeaker.

Recently, Song Heping's Spanish had improved a lot.

At least Anthony could understand it.

"It's the instructor, come out..."

He signaled to everyone to come out.

Song Heping's jeep had also reached them.

The first thing Anthony's eyes fell upon was the lamb leg in Song Heping's hand, his saliva almost uncontrollably dripping down.

Song Heping said, "Are you all tired?"

"Tired..."

From the team, scattered voices responded, their tones still carrying a trace of defiance.

"I can't hear you, louder."

"Tired."

The voices weren't defiant this time, but still very low.

"Seems like you're not tired..."

"We're tired!"

This time the reply was loud and clear.

"Ai, that's more like it. Having walked through the jungle for four days, it would be strange if you weren't tired," Song Heping said with a grin, ripping off a piece of meat from the lamb leg, fat oozing from the corner of his mouth. All the trainees felt like they were about to lose it, licking their lips.

"Is terrain knowledge important?" he asked.

"Important..."

"Louder."

"Important!"

Each time, Song Heping got a satisfying response.

Anthony suddenly realized he had lost the will to compete with Song Heping, only thinking about getting back to have a good meal, a drink, and then a sleep.

Not just him, even glancing around, it seemed like everyone's sharpness had been sanded away, all docile like little lambs in front of Song Heping.

"I've prepared a few roasted sheep for you back at camp, do you want to eat?"

"Yes!"

The response was thunderous.

"But—" Song Heping, holding the big lamb leg in one hand, stood up in the jeep, raising his other hand, extending an index finger.

"There's one condition!"