# 98
**Chapter 98: Public Humiliation on a Grand Scale**
**Splash!!**
The moment Baili Pangpang finished speaking, a drone burst out from the woods behind them and shot a round that struck a recruit in the back.
The recruit froze, took two more steps, then felt the world spin. His legs buckled and he collapsed on the spot.
Immediately, two instructors sprang from the undergrowth, grinning wickedly as they dragged the unconscious recruit into the trees.
Baili Pangpang yelped, “What the hell!” and sprinted forward.
“What the heck! Aren’t those paintball guns? Why did he pass out? And those two instructors—judging by their faces, that guy’s chastity is in serious danger!”
He caught up to Lin Qiye and Cao Yuan, ranting the whole way.
Cao Yuan was silent for a moment. “So the penalty for failure is… losing your virtue?”
“I doubt it’s that bad,” Lin Qiye said, the corner of his mouth twitching. “We’ve got female recruits here too!”
“True. Then what are they doing in the woods?”
Baili Pangpang glanced back, tiny eyes wide with massive confusion.
…
The two instructors hauled the stunned recruit onto a stretcher and carried him straight back to the starting point at the foot of the mountain.
“First elimination of the year from the extreme training, huh? Hehe, this is getting fun…” One instructor’s eyes lit up with excitement.
“Slap the Truth Ring on him, switch on the mike, and patch it into every recruit’s backpack Bluetooth speaker…”
Instructor Hong directed the setup with calm efficiency. Moments later the recruit was awake, lashed to a chair and unable to move.
“Testing, testing—can you hear me?”
The voice burst from the speakers on every recruit’s back, making them jump. Lin Qiye’s trio skidded to a halt.
“They put speakers in our packs? What are they up to?” Lin Qiye exclaimed.
Before he finished, the voice rang out again.
“Good, you can hear. Ahem… Let the punishment begin. Name: Wang Liang. Tell us the most shameful thing you’ve ever done.”
“When I was seven I peeked at the older girl next door while she was bathing.”
“Oh? Was it a good view?”
“Great. Amazing figure, curvy and sweet. I hid by the wall, peeked through the window crack—saw everything clearly.”
“Ever caught?”
“Once. She told my mom. Got the beating of my life that night.”
“Oho~ Did you like that big sister?”
“Yeah. I still dream about her. Sometimes I even…”
“……”
Wang Liang’s face was crimson, every muscle straining, but the words poured out unchecked. His hands were clamped to the chair; he couldn’t even cover his mouth.
Across from him, Instructor Hong kept a straight face while firing off social-death questions.
Outside, the other instructors fought to hold in their laughter, then lost it completely, howling together.
Inside Mount Jinnan, all 238 recruits—except the one tied to the chair—stopped dead… and burst into riotous laughter.
“Hahaha! Wang Liang, you little perv, never knew you had that in you!”
“Animal! Peeping on the neighbor and didn’t even invite me?!”
“LMAO—brags nightly about his ‘size’—turns out it’s four centimeters! Four!”
“……”
The laughter died as suddenly as it began.
An icy chill swept through everyone. Faces turned the color of frostbitten eggplants.
Baili Pangpang swallowed, his small face white as paper. “S-so that’s the penalty for getting shot?”
“Must be a relic that forces the truth… brutal,” Lin Qiye muttered.
The three exchanged a single glance, then bolted deeper into Mount Jinnan. Baili Pangpang—don’t ask where he found the stamina—shot to the front, eyes blazing like blow-torches.
Is this even a punishment anymore?
This is public humiliation on a grand scale!
These shameless, bottom-line-free instructors will ask anything!
Under that relic’s power even your measurements spill out. If I end up in that chair…
Unthinkable!
Every recruit was now rabid with motivation, red-eyed and charging like berserkers.
At the foot of the mountain, in a hastily-pitched command tent, Instructor Hong watched the swarm of red dots racing across the monitor and nodded contentedly.
“How’s that for results?”
Instructor Han, clutching his aching sides, gave him a huge thumbs-up.
“Bloody brilliant!”
…
**Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!!**
Several more drones streaked through the trees; screams followed, then the thud of bodies.
Lin Qiye frowned, glanced at the woods to his left, then lightning-fast leapt back, dodging two shots.
“Drones circling from the left,” he warned.
“Only way is right,” Cao Yuan said, eyeing the other side with a grimace. “Rougher terrain—more energy drain.”
“I-I swear they’re herding us on purpose!” Baili Pangpang panted. “They want us in those hellish spots!”
“We don’t have a choice,” Cao Yuan said flatly.
Lin Qiye plunged first into the jumble of boulders and ancient trunks—running, vaulting, twisting, slashing vines with his small knife. His uniform was soon filthy, hands criss-crossed with tiny cuts.
After all, he was still a high-schooler. A month of cram-training couldn’t change raw physique; continuous exertion ate his stamina fast and his pace began to flag.
Cao Yuan, in contrast, looked annoyingly fresh—only slightly winded.
As for Baili Pangpang… he wore the expression of a walking corpse. Yet some mysterious force kept one foot dragging after the other.
Whatever secret he harbored, the terror of that punishment drove him like nothing else.
Lin Qiye hacked through a curtain of vines ahead, ready to push through, when rustling and a faint buzz sounded from the opposite side.
At that exact moment Shen Qingzhu slashed through the undergrowth in front of him.
Eyes met; both froze.
In the next second, two groups of drones boxed them in from front and back.
“Crap—surrounded!” they cursed in perfect unison.