Chapter 2.1

Ling Xia's eyes opened, blinking fast due to the onslaught of light paining his eyes. He watched the glass above him open up, and he sat up, looking around the room.

Most of the capsules were closed, the people in them peaceful, as if at rest, but nobody could guess what was transpiring inside the simulation. They could be traversing mountains, overcoming hurdles, facing death, or simply just sleeping.

Ling Xia pushed himself out of the capsule, scanning the room for two people he hoped would be awake. If they weren't, he knew his contraption had failed, and instead of saving those trapped people, he might have killed them.

The thought was bone-chilling.

To his great relief, he sighted two familiar faces, bringing a warm smile to his face. He let go of the breath he didn't realize he was holding. Stepping out of the capsule, he strode over to them.

They were already chatting with each other. Wei Liqin looked like a child just discovering that one plus one was two, innocent childlike emotions on his face. Although already thought innumerable times, Ling Xia wondered how this personality of Wei Liqin's withstood the constant torment of the system once again, marvelling at Wei Liqin's strength.

On the contrary, Yang Lizhen stood with a neutral face, emotions hidden deep inside as always. Ling Xia frowned. This was what troubled him.

Why, when Yang Lizhen had allowed his mask to slip in the simulation, had he replaced it, rusty iron gates slamming closed again?

He approached them, Wei Liqin quickly noticing his movements out of the corner of his eye. "Ling Xia!" he exclaimed, making a show of waving his hand. "You're here!"

"I'm here," Ling Xia echoed. "How are you guys? Feel any different from when you first went in?"

Wei Liqin laughed. Yang Lizhen even provided them with a snort. "You act as if we remember that."

"No, I mean…" Ling Xia sighed. "The doctors told us that we got stronger once we left the system, and I was wondering if it applied to you as well."

"Why wouldn't it?" Wei Liqin inquired, suddenly growing quiet when he saw the seriousness engraved on the other's face. They had the same circumstances, why would the result be any different?

Ling Xia simply shrugged. "I don't know. I just thought that the conditions were a bit different. Like how I used different technology to free people the first time around than with you, or how Yang Lizhen looks weary and ancient right now." Noticing the stares directed toward him, he shrugged once more.

'Or a deal,' he wanted to say.

But his guilt—wariness—prevented his confession. It wouldn't for very long.

"Emm… I don't know. I don't feel very different," Yang Lizhen answered. The power that coursed through his muscles felt no different than before.

"Yeah, we probably have to do some activity to test it out."

"Then let's do it," Ling Xia headed towards the training room, the others following. As they walked, Wei Liqin noticed the nameplates next to the doors.

"Look, there's Marshal Han's room!" Wei Liqin pointed out excitedly as the door swung open, and the object of his ten-year-long admiration strolled out.

Everybody paused. A passing apathetic glance was cast at them before the marshal swept past them. A moment of silence coalesced in the area, thick as honey, then Wei Liqin's eyes turned big and sad, puppy dog eyes fitting of a needy child.

Ling Xia patted Wei Liqin on the shoulder softly.

"One day," he commented cryptically.

Wei Liqin nodded. Deciding that staying here would only make him wallow in his misery more, he dragged Ling Xia and Yang Lizhen further through the hallway.

Ling Xia allowed it, stepping in sync with Wei Liqin until his eye caught another name on the wall.

'Ji Shengge'

He froze, his thoughts and heart beginning to pick up speed, thinking his unheard suspicions had been confirmed. Before he could think further, his will was denied, a sharp tug pulling him forward. He stumbled after Wei Liqin hastily.

A single long step caught him up while he pondered on this new piece of information, now realizing that instead of his suspicions being confirmed, they had just become harder to confirm. He fell in line with Wei Liqin once more. He couldn't tell which was worse.

While in that world, he had debated many times whether or not to ask Ji Shengge if he was from the real world, but his actions had been too ambiguous, and it was too difficult to identify his intentions.

Even with Yang Lizhen, the chances had been very small, incomparably small when contrasted with Wei Liqin's. And if that leap had been a chasm, this one was a cliff.

It relieved him that this was the case. He didn't know what he would do if such a snake was real.

Now, with this intel, he could sleep even better at night. See, the chances of a person having the same name as a host were infinitely small. On his first day back, many stories were shared, a bunch of them from the same worlds, so he knew that the names were altered, a person never having the same name as their host. He didn't quite know why, but it was a common trend no matter who he talked to.

So Lieutenant Ji Shengge was just another person struck off the list for him. One less person that man could become… if he was real, that was.

But those were all thoughts for another time.

Wei Liqin let one staff member open the door, allowing them all to see the sight before them. Lots of equipment filled the inside to the brim. White walls bordered every side of the room, appearing pristine and untouched.

But it was touched—transformed even. All it took was one glance inside, and Ling Xia noted that it was much different from a conventional training room.

"Why is it so different?" Wei Liqin immediately asked after heading inside.

Yang Lizhen made an unbearably quiet noise of confusion. "What are you talking about? It's the same as always."

"…" Ling Xia felt the great need to step in, seeing that Wei Liqin was a bit speechless. "Um, Yang Lizhen, half of it is missing."

Yang Lizhen looked around the room. His eyes lit up, betraying his cold face and sharp voice. "I see it now."

A normal training room had two sides: One for physical training and one for mental training.

However, as Ling Xia surveyed the room, he could not find any space for mental training.

"How are we supposed to perfect our techniques if we don't have capsules?" Wei Liqin frowned, scolding the upper ranks of the military who were luckily not in earshot.

"Do they think that all of this new equipment will compensate for the lack of a mental training area? This isn't how this works! They both work together to improve our fighting abilities! If we lose one, it's gonna be so much harder to be better soldiers!"

It seemed like somebody had pulled the pin off of Wei Liqin, letting him explode for everybody to see. But Ling Xia couldn't allow the higher-ups to hear about this. That would only cause doubt about their intentions. More suspicion equaled limited freedom and grave, grave danger.

"Wei Liqin. Calm down. It's true that it's laughable, but consider their point of view. The capsules are devices that we now know can be hacked by the Axians." Wei Liqin hesitated in his steps towards the fighting area that sat in the center of the room. Ling Xia noticed the glint of confusion in his eyes, and he realized quickly what it was about.

" 'Axians' is the name the military dubbed our enemies with."

Wei Liqin narrowed his eyes, a bit perplexed. Why?—Nobody knew, but his confusion was swept away when he entered the ring. Almost immediately, a voice came over the intercom, as mechanical as its being.

"Welcome to the ring, Wei Liqin." Ling Xia and Yang Lizhen stepped in after him, and the intercom greeted them the same way, taking its sweet time to pronounce every syllable just right.

The technology that handled the intercom was set to scan the participants of the fight's spiritual power and then welcome them genially, although there was only so warmly a robot could speak.

Ling Xia leaned against the solid beams encircling the ring while waiting. The intercom crackled, and a little bout of satisfaction leapt through Ling Xia's heart as he noticed that a long fifteen seconds had passed. It triggered another response in the intercom. "Ready to begin?"

"Yes," the three chorused.

The intercom analyzed their voices, checking to see if the people saying yes were truly the same soldiers that had entered the ring.

Ling Xia heard the almost silent whirring of the machine above, having a quick epiphany about the actions of the machine that he was snapped out of when the intercom sounded again.

"Choose your weapons."

A screen popped up before Ling Xia. He instinctively went to press the button for a sword, but stopped himself. His lives in the system had taught him that he was actually better with a sword than with a sniper because of his discovery of the grand uses of spiritual power.

There was so much freedom while using spiritual power. Almost anything was possible, and it fascinated him to the point where he had picked up the sword, learning from a master in the small maintenance periods of the system. And then he had died, but it was all worth it.

His love for swordfighting would always have to be put on hold in front of prying eyes though. He raised his finger to the screen and swiped left. The machine sensed his heat signature on the screen and obligingly moved through the weapon choices.

They slid past his eyes, none the one he was searching for. He swiped left for so long that the magnificent array of weapons in the catalog ended. And then it clicked.

Of course a sniper wasn't on this list. It was considered a weapon for long-range combat, despite its users saying otherwise, and he was about to launch into close-range combat. He sighed. On to his second, or now third, choice, then. He swiped right with such fury and speed that he blew right past it. It was only a second later that the image registered in his mind, and he backtracked to get to it.

Once the display stopped moving, he pressed it. A description popped up, Ling Xia not bothering to even glance at it. He had seen it dozens of times before. Despite this hindrance out of the way, he still did not move.

His finger hovered just above the green equip button, rethinking his decision to refuse his favorite longsword. A moment of hesitation later, his finger lowered, jabbing the button to prevent any second thoughts.

He opened his palm as a light blue assault rifle materialized in it, flickering as he curled his fingers around it.

Oh, how he longed for the gun to be a longsword, but as it did with everything, victory felt so much sweeter when the battle was prolonged. But not too much, of course.

He pressed the final green button at the bottom of the screen, signalling to the machine that he was ready to fight.

A ticking sound echoed in his ear. A small smile formed on his face, a result of reminiscence of all those times he and his friends had sparred that the sound had brought him back to. He had been allowed to let go of all of his inhibitions and go all out. It had been liberating, the feeling of fighting as hard as he could and not having to worry about the consequences because the weapons only phased through his friends.

Like, for a moment, he had been able to forget about all of his problems and be immersed in this other world of sorts.

His smile widened as another tick sounded, and the number in the middle of the ring counted down. A large two appeared before his eyes, soon changing into a one and finally into a red oval accompanied by a blaring sound.

Into battle they launched.

It felt just like the old times. Bullet against bullet, metal against metal, sparks flew.

Grins formed as they were left gasping for air at the end. And then they started another round. And another. And another until they were exhausted, all energy dispersed from their bodies.

"Scores: Wei Liqin, 12 points; Yang Lizhen, 8 points; Ling Xia, 11 points," the cold voice read out how many wins each man got from the words hanging above their heads.

"I won!" Wei Liqin somehow found the energy to exclaim from his position on the floor. He was seated cross-legged, his hands placed behind him to keep him from falling backwards.

Ling Xia shook his head, indulging the other's antics. He grabbed Wei Liqin's hands and pulled him off of the ground in one motion. "Hup!" Wei Liqin shouted, using his own power to help the effort.

"Take a break?" Yang Lizhen asked from the side. Ling Xia's eyes went to him, noticing a bench behind him, backed up against the wall. He shrugged lightly, and they made their way over to it.

Exiting the ring and followed by two others, he let himself fall onto the bench. It was only as he leaned against the cold wall behind him that he realized how sweaty and sticky he was under his black military uniform.

The cold transmitted through the lightweight fabric of his clothes, seeping into his skin and cooling him beyond relief. A small breath was exhaled through his open mouth. He let his head hang down, hoping to get a little bit more contact with the wall on his neck.

As he rested there, a sudden weight on his shoulder startled him. His eyes moved to the left, watching Wei Liqin comfortably let Ling Xia bear the weight of his head. He tilted his head onto Wei Liqin's.

After the heavy breathing subsided, they began to talk about what the three of them missed in each other's lives while they were in the system. It was a long talk, a few things kept discreet, but a few also put out in the open.

They were in the middle of talking about spiritual power when the doors of the training room flung open, a woman sauntering through. Ling Xia and Wei Liqin flew apart, Yang Lizhen also trying to scoot a bit farther away from them, but he was already teetering over the edge of the bench.

Instantly, the intruding woman's eyes narrowed. She scanned the three figures on the bench, scrutinizing them.

"Why are you three in such a scandalous position?" she said, noticing their distance from each other was zero to none. Their arms grazed against each other, and with no viable reason, no less.

"The bench was too small," Yang Lizhen answered, monotone voice and all.

The woman was evidently still suspicious. "Then you should have pressed the button for a second bench," she pointed out, gesturing to the button right next to them that all three failed to spot.

"It seems," she began, a scowl on her face, "that the simulation has muddled your minds. Let me remind you, you may not be in a relationship while you are in the military."

The three silently glanced at each other, thoughts being communicated through their eyes. It was true, the simulation had made them forget about customs in the real world because they were so different, physical contact much more normalized in there.

Ling Xia stood first, backing away from the other two with an awkward smile. "We aren't, ma'am."

The woman's stern expression remained, only spitting out a "Good," before moving on. "Everybody must be in the meeting room in thirty minutes." She turned on her heel, exiting the room with her nose turned up at the sight she was just forced to witness.

"Yes ma'am," the three called out after her as the doors closed. They heaved a sigh of relief.

"That was a close call," Wei Liqin let out in another breath. "If they caught us sitting with our heads like that, we would've immediately been booted out of here," he joked, awkwardly moving past his unease.

Ling Xia also cracked up. "Mm, yeah. Wait, but Yang Lizhen, you're not even boris are you? So you couldn't even be in a relationship with us anyways."

"Yeah, I'm only ilati… and I've got a girlfriend," Yang Lizhen confirmed, an impending sense of doom rising.

Dread arose in Ling Xia as well. He had forgotten about that. But hopefully, the restrictions would loosen up. Either that or—

A slight shove on his back urged him to move to the door. He stepped forward hurriedly after realizing that he needed to take a shower and freshen up before the meeting. There was no way he would be allowed to show up like this without repercussions.

They strolled through the halls to the showers, which were already steaming because of the people already taken one. Ling Xia entered a stall, closing the door behind him and locking it tight.

He quickly finished his shower and took his clothes off the little hook on the door, putting them on. Luckily, the shower in this stall was far away enough from his clothes, so stray water droplets didn't create unnerving little spots on the uniform.

Leaving the shower stall in a neat and square black military uniform, he was surprised to see his friends chatting with other trainees, trainees he hadn't seen in a long time. He jogged up to them. "Hey."

"Oh, Ling Xia, greetings!" A smile graced another one of his friends' lips, lighting up her features. She was just as bubbly as Wei Liqin. "You recall me, right? I'm Xin Rui."

"Mm, yeah, the time we spent apart was insufferably prolonged." But she talked without going on and on and on with no heed to his input.

"I'm so jubilant that you have a recollection of me! Do you have any memories about my great feats?" And she used complicated words randomly.

Instantly, Ling Xia recognized this as Xin Rui's usual comical front of confidence. "No, actually, I can't remember any achievement of yours that deserves that title," he said with a small smirk.

His jab would have hurt most everybody else, but it only seemed to amplify the glow on her face. The reaction relieved Ling Xia more than he knew. After that first day back, the memory of the once confident Yan Chen haunted him. He was just glad one more person didn't change because of the simulation's tortuous methods after seeing Xin Rui.

"I despise you to no end."

Ling Xia raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Despise? Pretty sure most people know that word."

Xin Rui rolled her eyes in response. "Abhor. Satisfied?"

"Yes," Ling Xia nodded, a happy laugh escaping his mouth. He was about to say something else, but a voice rose above the crowd, drawing his attention away.

"You think we should head towards the meeting room?" a man raised his voice, asking everybody simultaneously. It was Jin Liang who had spoken. His genial expression was the same as always, warmly inviting everybody into the conversation.

Once everybody had agreed that that was the right course of action, the twenty-one of them made their ways to the room where it happened.

Every discussion happened there. As Ling Xia stepped past the door frame, the smell of the room wafted into his nostrils. It was a fresh scent, much like a new automobile, and although his hate for the system was warranted, he could only make that comparison because of it.

He sat conspicuously far away from the head of the table. Hearing footsteps outside the large room's door, he wondered what the topic of the conference would be. He watched as the doors swung open, and Marshal Han strode in.

Wei Liqin's expression lit up, but it only took a moment for it to dim. A grave expression had taken control of Marshal Han's face. It would not be fair to judge the situation simply based on this because, truth be told, the marshal always looked stoic.

It was his assistant that gave way for the alarms to ring. Her cold face could not hide the paleness just beneath the surface.

The beginnings of what seemed like dread settled in the pit of Ling Xia's stomach; This couldn't be good.

He watched as the marshal took his seat at the head of the table.

The meeting began.