Chapter 439 – Simulation Drill, Whose General Is This?!

Over the next three days, the ‘recruits’ endured high-intensity training.

Domain resistance training; Filth resistance training; reconnaissance training; defense training; command training; resonance training;

A full dozen training programs arrived one after another.

Under these circumstances, even those in the Legendary Realm felt immense pressure, not daring to slack off for even a moment. A brief rest or a single blink could leave them far behind the others.

With over twenty Legendary Realm experts present, the competitive pressure was extreme.

Even if they couldn’t rank at the top, they at least couldn’t afford to be among the worst, lest they shame their respective Lords.

If the Legendary Realm experts felt this way, the Third-Order and Fourth-Order Experts were even worse off. Many cycled through fainting, recovering, fainting again, and recovering again.

The training programs didn’t have rankings, only evaluations of Excellent, Good, Average, and Pass.

Naturally, Legendary Realm experts mostly received Excellent ratings, but there were differences even among the Excellents. Their performance, whether superior or inferior, was clear to the instructors and the few off-site Legendary observers.

“Uta’s performance…”

As Mu Yuan expected, it was only slightly below Average.

In Domain resistance and Filth resistance, Uta seemed relaxed, but in other programs, he was scratching his head in frustration.

Reconnaissance training?

Could killing all the enemies be considered perfect reconnaissance?

Defense training?

This required learning to utilize various defensive weapons and facilities within the camp. Uta found these things tedious, far less satisfying than simply throwing a punch.

Command training and resonance training went without saying.

The latter referred to generals using special ‘Military Banners’ to unite the troops under their command into a cohesive whole, similar to Military Soul resonance.

While Banner resonance wasn’t as powerful as Military Soul resonance and had drawbacks like limited mobility, forming military formations was much easier than creating a Military Soul Legion. Soldiers could achieve it after some practice.

During wartime, multiple legions from different territories or professionals from different cities could resonate under a Military Banner, gaining the ability to confront and engage monster armies head-on.

“Actually, many Legendary Realm experts here seem even ‘clumsier’ than Uta, but they’ve likely undergone resonance-type training before, so they aren’t unfamiliar with it.”

Of course, Uta was still a Legendary Realm expert after all; despite stumbling, he managed to secure an Excellent rating.

Some Legendary experts were even worse than Uta in command.

Compared to Uta, Rakshasa was the best of the best, handling every assessment with ease.

…

“These assessments are still too basic for Legendary Realm experts; they don’t reveal their full capabilities.”

That night, in the training camp cafeteria, an instructor eating a late-night snack remarked.

“Even so, the performance of some Legendary Realm experts is disappointing.”

“Don’t be too harsh. How long have these Legendary experts been cultivating? Three years? Two? Maybe even less. Our own performance when we first entered the Legendary Realm was better because we had accumulated enough experience at the Fourth Order.

“Now, the battlefield is the perfect training ground for them. Believe me, they’ll be completely transformed soon.””Let’s see if these young people can bring us surprises or disappointment in tomorrow’s assessment.”

…

The training on the fourth day was comprehensive training.

The performance score for this training would far exceed that of the previous dozen or so items.

Because it was comprehensive.

It comprehensively utilized all the previous training exercises.

“This training is a simulation exercise. The content is simple: you will act as garrison commanders of a camp, leading soldiers to defend against enemy attacks.”

“Such defense and guarding are the most common situations faced by guardians in our Great Warzone.”

“Go—”

said the Ice Fist General.

As soon as they finished speaking, a flash of purple light appeared in the distance. Within the flowing pale purple radiance, a miniature 3D terrain map gradually became clear.

At one end of this 3D model was a camp built as solid as a fortress.

The camp had high walls, with machine gun barrels pointing outward, along with numerous Arrow Towers and artillery emplacements. Soldiers wearing sophisticated armor patrolled inside and outside the camp.

At first glance, there were dozens of defensive structures and hundreds to thousands of garrison troops.

This was the standard configuration of a regular garrison camp in the Great Warzone.

In the distance, at the other end of the 3D model, faint Crimson Mist drifted, as if some giant shadow loomed within it.

“Sandbox exercise,”

Mu Yuan murmured to himself.

This was a training method only available in the Great Warzone, a Divine-Grade training ground built on the foundation of some epic treasure, combined with various means.

Mu Yuan felt envious just looking at it.

Not to mention owning such a thing, even using it required an application. It was only because the recruits were in their training period that they had a certain number of uses.

One of the instructors spoke, “Wang Liu, Li Qiang, Zhou Kaibin, you three will enter first.”

The three were momentarily stunned but then strode forward.

They had initially wanted to ask the instructor how to use this thing, but when they approached the sandbox model, an esoteric force enveloped them.

They were drawn into it without any resistance.

The next moment, the three found themselves inside a heavily guarded camp. Through the observation ports of the fortress, they could see the surrounding Arrow Towers and artillery emplacements, as well as the drifting gray and Crimson Mist in the distance.

“Enemies will arrive at the battlefield in 30 seconds. Trainers, prepare for battle quickly.”

Outside, the light and shadow of the sandbox model split into two, outlining three scenes in total, depicting the three recruits undergoing the exercise.

Soon, the battle began.

In the distance, the gray mist churned, and the Crimson Mist drifted. Tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of monsters surged out from the mist, crashing toward the camp like raging waves.

“Rat-a-tat-tat—”

“Whoosh-whoosh—”

“Boom—!”

Spears, artillery, and Arrow Towers fired continuously.

It somewhat resembled the Hero trial.

However, what was different was that the commanders could not directly command their troops through the Hero’s authority using their thoughts. They could only direct their soldiers through shouting, relaying orders, signals, and other means.

This made it much more difficult.

The 300-second preparation time was far from sufficient for the trainees.

Before they could fully implement their arrangements, the monsters surged forward.

“Trial Participant No. 1’s camp has been destroyed. Defense time: 366 seconds. Rating: D-.”

“Trial Participant No. 3’s camp has been destroyed. Defense time: 389 seconds. Rating: D-.””Trial Camp No. 2 has been destroyed. Defense duration: 412 seconds. Rating: Ding-Middle.”

The three trial participants emerged utterly bewildered.

They wore expressions of “Who am I? Where am I? How did I lose?”

From the very beginning, they had been unable to coordinate properly, failing to utilize the camp’s defensive forces and facilities effectively. Of course, the enemy’s ferocious assault had also prevented them from gathering their strength before having their bones broken.

Because there was a Legendary Realm monster!

The legendary existence pierced through their defenses like an arrow.

“Next group.”

Three Fourth-Order Experts exchanged glances before nervously stepping forward.

Within a few hundred seconds, they returned with dazed expressions.

“Next group.”

…

“Next group.”

…

“Next-next group.”

The three instructors sighed as they watched the stream of “Ding” level evaluations.

Was this training exercise difficult?

To be fair, it was somewhat challenging for those below the Legendary Realm.

But enemies wouldn’t show mercy just because you weren’t at the Legendary Realm. Fair duels didn’t exist on the battlefield. Especially not on battlefields facing monsters and the Crimson Mist.

Even when led by ordinary commanders, there was a small chance of encountering legendary monsters.

In such situations, if commanders couldn’t hold out even briefly, how could they await reinforcements?

In the Great Warzone, one must have the courage to face overlords and legendary beings.

With a camp as their foundation, commanders only needed to perfectly utilize their forces – not just holding their ground, but even repelling Legendary Realm opponents wasn’t difficult.

“It’s challenging, but they’re also quite unskilled.”

“With this level of performance, they absolutely cannot lead a combat team independently in the Great Warzone.”

The trial participants suffered consecutive crushing defeats.

At first, those who failed miserably felt disheartened, but they soon found balance.

Turns out it wasn’t that they were unskilled – everyone was unskilled… no, the assessment was just too difficult, so that was fine.

It wasn’t until the 12th group of trial participants took the stage that someone finally achieved a Bing-level evaluation.

It was a Lord.

While all the recruits present had undergone training in resonance, command, weapon utilization, and other exercises, professionals ultimately lacked the experience of commanding large forces compared to Lords.

Of course, even among Lords, few present… or rather, not a single one could be found who had experience commanding hundreds of elite Third and Fourth Order soldiers.

Those who went first were typically those who had performed relatively ordinarily in the previous days’ training.

Their performance in this particular exercise was naturally unsatisfactory.

Those who followed were inherently more outstanding and had some psychological preparation for the assessment, making their defense process finally less miserable.

“Bing-Upper rating!”

An unknown Lord achieved the current highest score.

Recruits took their turns on the field.

Soon, it came to several well-known strong individuals.

The training results, however, proved somewhat unexpected.

“They lost! Red Hair failed so miserably, only achieving a Bing-Middle rating. I thought they were certain to get Bing-Upper or even challenge for a Yi-level rating.”

“There’s no helping it. While Red Hair’s individual combat prowess is indeed remarkable – capable of defeating several Fourth-Order BOSSes single-handedly – such personal combat ability seems rather useless in this context.”

“Oh dear, Sister Crescent Moon fared even worse… She demonstrated even more formidable power than Red Hair, but consequently drew the attention of the legendary monster and was slain in just five moves.””Being able to withstand five moves from a Legendary Realm expert, Crescent Moon An Qianqian’s combat prowess can be considered top-tier on the Dragon Gate List. However… she only received a Third-Class Lower evaluation, which is quite poor.”

Some instructors shook their heads.

“On the battlefield, being too conspicuous is most taboo, especially for commanders. If this young lady doesn’t understand this principle, she’ll be in great danger.”

The successive failures of Fourth-Order celebrities made people realize that combat strength and the Recruit Training Camp’s assessments weren’t equivalent.

But soon, Behemoth Lord defended the dignity of Fourth-Order celebrities.

“One thousand seconds! Behemoth Lord has lasted one thousand seconds!”

Behemoth Lord himself rarely took direct action. He continuously manipulated defensive structures to intercept the monster legend’s assaults while constantly micro-managing camp soldiers to reinforce one precarious defense line after another.

Who would have thought such a macho man like Behemoth Lord would be a micro-management master?

At that moment,

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

Massive giants emerged from the blood mist.

They were even larger than hundred-meter-class war machines.

Crystalline structures spread across the bodies of these three 140-meter-tall flesh giants with cracking sounds. They slightly crouched, assuming a poised charging stance.

The next moment, the three giants charged forward with speed completely disproportionate to their size.

Boom—

One section of the city walls was shattered upon impact, its protective barrier flickering twice before disappearing.

“Third examinee, evaluation: Second-Class Lower.”

Behemoth had obtained the best evaluation so far.

Next came the main event of this assessment – the Legendary Realm competition!

“The Legendary Realm experts are about to enter the field.”

“But in such a battlefield, even Legendary Realm experts probably can’t turn the tide through sheer personal strength alone.”

Three Legendary Realm entrants entered the sandbox.

Initially, they handled things with ease. When the monster legend appeared with its spreading Domain, the Legendary Realm examinees also deployed their own Domains.

These three were relatively new Legends, with Domain radii ranging between 700 to 1,100 meters, inferior to the monster legend’s.

However, using their own Domains to resist the enemy wasn’t difficult in the short term.

Their combat capabilities could match the monster legend’s, even slightly surpassing it.

With Legendary Realm experts leading from the front, the camp’s defenses became quite solid, if not impregnable.

Until,

Until the one-thousand-second mark…

“Boom!”

Three 140-meter-tall flesh crystal giants appeared, charging madly forward.

Legend A prepared to intercept but soon became overwhelmed, and the camp was quickly breached.

Legends B and C faced similar situations.

All three were successively eliminated.

The three instructors shook their heads repeatedly.

“Too weak, too weak! This is truly the worst batch of Legends I’ve ever trained!”

“Indeed, aside from their Legendary combat strength, they have nothing else. Their performance isn’t even as good as some Lords from earlier!”

“Ah, this batch of Legends really only has passable combat strength, being of epic unit origin after all. The truly outstanding ones, in my opinion, are just a handful – Dragonblood Royal Cavalry from Dragon Rise, Holy Light Sage from Celestial Splendor Territory, Nether Ghost General from Tianyuan, Blazing Flame herself… just these few.”

“The others need training, lots of training. They’re far from capable of garrisoning a region yet.”

The second batch of Legendary Realm examinees soon entered.

Just like before.

Easy start, immediate collapse during the middle stage.

When the battle situation turned unfavorable, the Legendary Realm experts’ performance wasn’t much better than their Fourth-Order counterparts.Even Legends can panic, be bewildered, lose composure, and make seemingly simple mistakes.

“But they are still Legends after all.”

“Uh, yes, indeed.”

Uta was among the third batch of Legendary Realm trial-takers.

His command over the camp’s warriors was essentially non-existent.

Old U knew his limits.

Forcing himself to command would only hinder his warriors’ performance further. It was better to issue a few general orders and then step back.

This was his grand strategy!

Soon, the Legendary Realm assault began.

In the adjacent Battlefield Two, a Legendary Realm Evil-Eyed Dragon burned its Dragon blood, unleashing unparalleled combat power and severely wounding the monster Legend on the spot.

“Such power, incredible!”

“As long as the monster Legend is heavily injured, dealing with it later will be much easier.”

Some thought this way but were startled to realize the monster tide was boiling over.

Three giants emerged ahead of schedule.

New monster Legends also appeared.

Battlefield Two’s assessment concluded.

Rating: C+.

This rating wasn’t entirely proportional to time, but this trial-taker was the only Legend who failed to achieve a B rating.

Meanwhile, in Battlefield One.

Uta leaped back and forth in mid-air. “Warm-up’s over.”

He clicked open his shackles.

Not by severing his Flesh Shackles, but by releasing his self-imposed Seal, returning to his normal state.

Uta stepped directly into the monster Legend’s Domain.

He threw a punch.

“Boom—”

The monster Legend was sent flying like a meteor, crashing into the vast earth.

Uta advanced, his steps like shooting stars.

He threw another seemingly ordinary punch, the force blasting through the monster Legend’s arms and striking its chest.

One punch, two punches, three punches.

The monster Legend’s entire chest shattered, a massive bloody hole torn through its back.

“This one also forcefully annihilated the monster Legend—another powerful Legend!”

“But this will provoke the monster tide into chaos, and it’s over anyway.”

The Crimson Mist boiled.

The three giants roared, gathering momentum to charge.

Uta’s eyes lit up. “Perfect timing!”

Uta stepped forward, a sonic boom exploding around him.

The next moment, he appeared before the crystal-infused Flesh giant.

“Serious… Punch.”

Boom—

A mountain shattered, the howling fist storm tearing through the sky and earth, leaving a long trench.

Before him, the upper half of the massive Flesh giant had vanished without a trace.

Uta stepped, charged, clenched his fist, and struck again, obliterating another crystal Flesh giant.

But at that moment, the third Flesh giant slammed heavily into the camp’s City Walls.

The walls crumbled, warriors perished.

The Legendary Realm entity emerging from the monster tide didn’t even glance at Uta, instead charging into the camp to begin a massacre.

In the distance, the Crimson Mist still churned, and three more Flesh giants emerged.

“Dammit!”

Uta grew anxious.

Black Battle Intent armor covered his fists, the shackles within him humming violently.

Sever the first and second shackles!

Scarlet Qi flames erupted.

Shrouded in crimson flames, his features blurred, Uta instantly appeared beside a Flesh giant. As the giant raised its fist to continue destroying the camp, Uta threw a punch.

“Boom—”

A rain of blood fell from the sky.

Uta was already gone.

A red line appeared amidst the clouds, mist, dust, and tides of the world.

Uta pierced through the clouds.

The monster Legend was fleeing incessantly.He fled, Uta pursued.

The monster legend found itself cornered within mere seconds.

“Dragon God Fist!”

A golden dragon silhouette surged from the camp, crushing everything it touched.

By this time, the camp had been shattered beyond recognition, with less than one in ten warriors remaining—only the core fortress swaying precariously in the storm.

But,

But Uta no longer needed to hold back.

“Dragon God Fist!”

“Dragon God Fist!” ×20!

One golden dragon silhouette after another roared forth, obliterating everything in their path.

Flesh giants, monster tides, monster legends…

All were reduced to dust and returned to nothingness under the onslaught of his furious fists.

No one knew how much time had passed when Uta finally stopped.

Before him, not a single monster remained.

Beyond the battlefield, whether it was the legends who had just withdrawn or those yet to enter with brimming confidence, all stared dumbfounded at Uta, who resembled an invincible war god.

The Scorching Flame Lord murmured, “Whose bloody general is this?!”

5K

(End of Chapter)