Chapter 16: The Days of March

Upon hearing the instructor's command, the trainees immediately set to work, processing the medicinal ingredients before them. The classroom was soon filled with the crisp clinking of metal and glass. Thirty minutes later, the various materials in front of Zhang Ran had been fully prepared. The female instructor resumed her lecture, this time explaining the method for concocting wound medicine.

Wound medicine was among the simplest of all potions, with straightforward preparation steps. The only complexity lay in adjusting ingredient ratios according to different types of injuries—a detail the instructor explained thoroughly.

When her lesson concluded, it was time for the trainees to practice on their own. With the aid of his chip, Zhang Ran could precisely determine the ratios, timing, and methods of combining the ingredients. Naturally, he passed the assessment with ease.

With his tasks completed, Zhang Ran’s training for the day was over. Because he worked so efficiently, he unexpectedly found himself with a full two hours of free time. Not one to waste a moment, he devoted this period to practicing the Eightfold Body Tempering Technique.

As his physical abilities increased, the effects of the Eightfold Body Tempering Technique gradually diminished. Yet, according to the chip’s analysis, though the technique no longer offered significant improvements to his attributes, it still promoted the absorption of evolutionary energy and honed his bodily coordination. For this reason, Zhang Ran continued to practice it diligently every day.

In the days that followed, the trainees’ schedules fell into a steady rhythm: physical conditioning in the mornings, followed by alternating sessions of firearms training, survival instruction, mutated beast combat, and pharmacology in the afternoons and evenings. One day would focus on firearms and survival, the next on combat and medicine.

Time sped by; three more months slipped past in the blink of an eye. It had now been half a year since the children first entered the camp.

By this time, Zhang Ran’s physical stats had risen to 1.9 in strength and constitution, and 1.8 in agility and spirit—nearing the upper limits of ordinary humans. He was indisputably the best among all five companies. Any trainee who was still alive now boasted attributes above 1.5.

Three months of firearms training had equipped every trainee with a solid grasp of handgun, rifle, submachine gun, and sniper rifle operation. While none could yet be called true masters, their skills were more than adequate. After all, unless one was a psionic evolver, firearms served mainly to clear out lesser foes; most evolvers relied on their unique abilities.

Thanks to special attention from Raylo, Zhang Ran received additional firearms instruction. Of course, most of this training fell within the bounds of what he had already mastered in his previous life, allowing him to complete it with ease and earning him several “genius” compliments from Raylo.

Furthermore, Zhang Ran was introduced to psionic firearms and psionic bullets during these sessions. As he was not yet an evolver, he could not activate the psionic weaponry himself. However, Raylo allowed him to test the effects of a “Heavy Core” psionic bullet and a “Scorching” psionic bullet.

Compared to Raylo’s own display of the heavy bullet ability, the Heavy Core psionic bullet was far less powerful—it could not shatter steel plating outright. Still, it dealt roughly five times the damage of an ordinary bullet. As for the Scorching psionic bullet, its effect was similar to incendiary rounds, but far more potent; it could burn through the hides and scales of many lower-level mutated creatures, inflicting severe burn damage, whereas regular incendiary ammunition could not.

According to Raylo, seasoned evolvers always carried a few psionic bullets when venturing into the wilds. Against a powerful mutated beast, a single psionic bullet could serve as a weakened version of an evolver’s ability—a lifesaver in desperate moments, and it didn’t drain the user’s stamina.

Naturally, such power came at a steep price: a single psionic bullet could cost thousands, even tens of thousands, of Black Hawk credits—on par with a Grade-1 gene enhancement vial, which itself cost ten thousand credits. For low-level evolvers, affording these bullets was no small feat.

In survival class, Instructor Darren imparted a wealth of wilderness survival knowledge. The trainees listened with utmost attention—even Zhang Ran. Despite his vast experience surviving in his previous world, he dared not assume he could thrive in these irradiated wastes teeming with deadly mutated creatures. After all, Earth had nothing like these bizarre, bloodthirsty, and terrifying beasts.

Darren painstakingly described the scents, tracks, and droppings left by hundreds of dangerous mutated beasts. Zhang Ran recorded all of this data with his chip, knowing it would prove crucial for environmental analysis when he eventually braved the wilds himself.

The combat courses were equally rigorous. Over three months, every trainee personally slew nearly fifty of the most common mutated creatures—rotting wolves, stone scorpions, corrosive ants, and more—and processed their remains. After each session, any edible parts collected would be consumed as an additional assignment.

Thanks to their initial experience with berserk mole meat, the trainees adapted to other mutated food sources with surprising ease. Having eaten almost twenty types of mutated creature flesh, Zhang Ran had to admit: nothing was worse, more revolting, or more nauseating than that first taste of berserk mole.

Naturally, most of the creatures used for survival training were not fully mature. For instance, adult rotting wolves in the wild could have physical stats of 2 or higher—far beyond what the trainees could handle. The camp therefore captured rotting wolf pups with constitutions around 1.2 as trial opponents.

Even so, not all survived. In Zhang Ran’s company alone, ten trainees perished to mutated beasts during those three months, reducing their number from fifty-two to forty-two.

And this was before they’d even set foot in the actual wilderness—merely facing the weakest, not-yet-mature mutated monsters. To lose a fifth of their number already spoke volumes of the dangers that awaited. Only now did the trainees fully grasp what Instructor Colin meant when he said, “Of those standing here today, only a third to a quarter will advance to become evolvers.” Behind every evolver lay a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

Finally, after three months of potion-making lessons, Zhang Ran had mastered the preparation of many medicines, learned to identify a wide variety of wild ingredients, and understood their proper handling.

At last, on the first day of the seventh month, the trainees were summoned once more to the familiar large classroom of the training camp, where Instructor Colin reappeared before them.