271 Death.
As soon as Shi Lang’s words fell, the frontal assault team rushed at him without hesitation. They all held swords and knives, and although they were trained with many weapons, they all preferred different styles of swords and knives to enhance their close combat efficiency. The speed was quick and their figures were flickering in the room.
Shi Lang did not hide or advance in the face of this assault. He moved his sword and slashed at his right and blocked a phaser beam shot at him. The battle had begun, and the next moment, he vanished from his spot and appeared in front of Jane. The latter was shocked, but before she could attack, Shi Lang grasped her neck in his iron claws and then lifted her up to the ground.
Lucas saw this and shouted, “Lang, no!!!”
Shi Lang seemed to have turned deaf, and his forearm exerted strength. Everyone, who was shocked, clearly heard a crisp click. The neck was broken, and Jane’s shocked gaze gradually lost glimmer. Following that Shi Lang did not wait for the people to get back the rhythm, while holding Jane’s corpse in his left hand, he turned around, and then his right hand slashed at the administrator in front.
Shi Lang was cruel to the limit, he directly cut the person in front of him from head to toe. As the dead body fell to the ground, he asked, “Did you think that I was joking when I said that you all will die if you did not come at me with an intention to kill?”
He paused and let go of Jane’s body to fall to the ground. He cast a gaze at the people in front of him and said, “Every ten seconds I will kill two of you, come at me.”
Lucas woke up from his shock, and raising his phaser gun, he began to fire at Shi Lang with an indifferent gaze. He had no emotion in his mind and only knew that he had to kill Shi Lang before he was killed.
But was Shi Lang going to just stand and let them kill him? The young man was flickering all over the place, and his speed was not something the team could keep up with. They all started to focus on attacking him, buts suddenly, they noticed that the phaser beams fired by Lucas were the most annoying thing to Shi Lang at the moment.
Suddenly a technician said, “Guys, Lucas is engaging the general with indifference.”
This sentence was enough to make the people wake up and get the idea that they have been looking for. They all quickly calmed their thoughts and entered a state of indifference. The battle became intense. Shi Lang was facing a tougher front but he still kept his promise, every ten seconds two people fell down. Their deaths were anything but sightly.
Lucas died when a phaser nade was stuck at his back along with the man in front of him. The technician who passed on the trick to act with indifference became the next person to die with the administrator in front of him.
The rest of the team had already altered their mindsets and were completely indulged in battle, and with every passing ten seconds, they were getting more and more eager to kill Shi Lang. They were dancing around like monkeys and watching their friends fall down, was this not humiliation? This was a blatant shame for them, in the military where everyone does their best to make sure that their unit was alright and striving, they were just waving weapons in the void.
The team had taken out phaser handguns and rifles from the back of their suits and they were using all the methods they could to slow down Shi Lang. However, the Shura was moving around the level, with his big sword with ease and reaping lives. The compassionate younger general they all saw in the conference room, the spirited leader who led them to the new peaks of strength and skill, it was all gone.
At this moment, Shi Lang in front of them was nothing but a killing machine and in the past one minute, he had already killed twelve people and Steel was the last person to fall down with another member of the frontal force.
…
Amelia and the rest were still speculating when OB-One said, “You can now watch the test.”
The people were surprised but they did not hesitate and quickly started the monitors the sight in front of them shocked them. They all looked at the bot, who said, “Shall I play it from the starting?”
They all nodded with a dumb faces, they did not expect Shi Lang to really kill all those inside.
…
Shi Lang stood looking at the pile of corpses, and then shook his head, he mumbled, “Well, barely passable.”
Then he raised his hands and snapped his fingers, the corpses began to twitch and then come back to life. The people regained their consciousness, and when they saw Shi Lang standing in front of them again, they realized something was wrong. The young general looked at them and said, “You all might think that I am a god, but I am not. The skills you saw throughout the test were all real. The only thing that is fishy here, is your death.”
Jane and the rest were confused, they were very clear that they died and then their consciousness was stranded, actually, it was just a program that Shi Lang had created to make things realistic. Ryan asked, “Sir, may I ask, if you are not a god then how are we all alive?”
Shi Lang replied, “That is because when you were all inside the illusion, you had already fainted and I put you all inside simulation pots. For the test, I did not need you to physically participate. The pain you experienced during the test was real, and the parameters of strength and movement were also set to match the reality with just a slight margin.”
The people understood what was going on, and Steel asked, “Sir, was the motive of this test, to test our endurance, and then let us feel what it is like to die?”
“Half-correct, captain. Apart from what you stated, the motive was to make you understand, that you need to be indifferent in order to become a killing machine. If the other party displays intent while engaging, then respond to them with slight compassion in mind, but if they do not. You must not hesitate to go in for the kill.”, said Shi Lang.
His words were enlightening to the team. They did not know such a thing could be pulled off, like Shi Lang’s method to call this the test and then make them experience a state of death. Turns out this was not leaving shadows in their minds, but completely making them invulnerable to the fear of death.
Thinking about this, Ryan bowed to Shi Lang and watching him, the team followed the lead and bowed to Shi Lang. The young general watched the scene and said, “It is fine, this is my job as the captain. Now, if you all would like, we can either practice, or you can take a rest. The stress of stimulation in this situation would take a toll on you so take your time.”
That said, he vanished from his spot and left the simulation realm. The rest was left for the team to decide and discern. He will not meddle with them, after all, the experience of death will bring out different changes in different people. He did not want to influence them and disturb their natural change.
…
Shi Lang woke up from the simulation pod and sighed heavily. Then he looked around him and found the team still inside the pods, they seemed to have touched upon some profundity and it was better to leave them be. He walked out of the final level of the maze and came to the control room.
The Ace division looked at him and they gulped, they were unable to digest the fact that this young general, who was always righteous could be so cunning. The scenes they saw in front of them, were obviously real. OB-One showed them how the people were lying on the floor like corpses, and then how they were moved to their simulation pods, and then he showed them the test.
When they saw the whole thing, their hair stood up. The feeling of death, they wondered what it was like, but they gave up the idea to experience it. Milo asked, “Boss, why did you do this? I mean, would it really have any effect to make them fearless?”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “I am not making them fearless, I am just making them remember a few sensations to make sure that in a critical movement, they do not hesitate. There is a difference.”