I enlisted four times! My former unit blacklisted me.

Zhao Yihang reacted quickly, grabbing his arm and pulling him up forcefully, pulling him back from the brink of falling.

"Be careful!"

Hao Qiang steadied himself, his face flushing red and then turning pale.

He was so ashamed he wanted to die.

In the Third Regiment, he was known as the fastest runner, the fastest in the five-kilometer race, and there was never anyone he couldn't outrun.

But now, he actually needs two one-year-old soldiers to help him run.

"Brother Qiang, grab my backpack strap," Zhao Yihang said, moving closer to him.

"Yes, Brother Qiang, put your arm around my shoulder." Qian Kun also slowed down and approached from the other side.

Hao Qiang's eyes immediately turned red.

"What...what are you doing? I can still run! I don't want to be pushed!"

"Brother Qiang, nobody said you can't run." Zhao Yihang smiled at him. "We just thought it would be too lonely for you to run alone, so we wanted to run alongside you for fun."

Hao Qiang was stunned for a moment.

A surge of heat rushed up from my chest, a sour and throbbing sensation.

He knew that the two soldiers were saying that on purpose because they were afraid he would lose face.

This feeling of being understood made him both ashamed and moved.

But precisely because of this, he couldn't back down.

He gritted his teeth, straightened his back, and his eyes rekindled their fire: "Okay... run side by side!"

Thus, a peculiar scene appeared on the playground.

The five members of the elite class changed from an arrow formation to a single line.

Zhao Yihang and Qian Kun sandwiched Hao Qiang between them, each putting their arm around one of his arms.

Ma Teng and Sun Dawei also slowed down and followed on the outside.

Wu Hanfeng ran in the lead, glancing back every now and then with a smile on his lips.

On the edge of the playground, Qin Gang's face was so black it looked like ink could drip from it.

He originally thought that these six guys would run out of energy after three to five kilometers, and then fall behind, fall down, and make a fool of themselves one by one.

As a result, they not only didn't fall behind, but they also developed feelings for each other and formed a brotherhood.

"These bastards..." Qin Gang gritted his teeth in hatred, "Do they think they're special forces?"

Liu Zhen was also frustrated, his chest aching: "Captain, something's not right. Are they even trainees? I have a feeling they're here to cause trouble!"

"They're trying to cause trouble?" Cao Meng stared blankly at the figures on the track. "Other people cause trouble with violence, but they're causing trouble by running like crazy. What kind of stunt is this?"

"I don't care what their methods are," Qin Gang took a deep breath and said decisively, "Now that we've started, we're not letting them stop! I refuse to believe I can't defeat them!"

"Also, all students in the regular classes who have already run five kilometers, please assemble outside the track!"

Liu Zhen was taken aback: "Captain, what's going on...?"

"Duck walk!" Qin Gang sneered. "Let them see what the difference is! If they can't outrun others, they'll make up for it with a duck walk!"

"Everyone in the regular class, put on your weights! Those who haven't finished running, keep running! Those who have finished, go to the outer perimeter and do a duck walk! Don't stop without my order!"

"yes!"

At Qin Gang's command, the class leaders on the side of the playground immediately dispersed and began to herd people to the side of the track.

Those regular class students who had just finished running five kilometers and were lying on the ground panting heavily were glared at by their class leaders before they could even catch their breath.

"Get up! Get up! Stop lying down! The captain ordered that those who have finished running continue training!"

"Continue...training? Squad leader, my...my legs are weak..."

"It's just right that it's a bit soft; let's start walking like ducks and loosen up our muscles!"

"A duck walk? Holy crap! Seriously, class monitor?"

"Nonsense! Everyone, bring your gear and assemble outside the playground! Twenty seconds! Latecomers will have to walk an extra lap!"

At the command, the regular students on the sidelines of the track immediately began to wail in pain.

I just finished running five kilometers, and my lungs feel like they're stuffed with bellows. I can't even catch my breath, and now I have to keep walking like a duck?

What's the difference between this and making you do squats right after you've just run 800 meters?

"I don't want to be a soldier anymore! I want to go home!"

"If my mom saw me waddling around like a duck on TV, she'd cry her eyes out!"

"I want a Coke... I'm so thirsty... I feel like I'll get dehydrated if I take just one step..."

No matter how much they wailed, the squad leader's order was a military command.

A group of people gritted their teeth, braced their weak legs, stood up unsteadily, slung their backpacks over their shoulders, and began to move towards the outer edge of the playground.

The students in the regular class had barely walked fifty meters when some of them couldn't keep going.

"My...my thigh...feels like it's on fire..."

"I'm getting a leg cramp! It's going to cramp! It's going to cramp!"

"Class monitor... can I rest for a bit... I can't move my legs..."

"Take a break? Ask those guys in the top class, they can run ten kilometers without getting tired, but you can't even walk a few steps?" A class leader pointed at the top class on the track in the distance and shouted indignantly.

As a result, an extremely spectacular scene unfolded outside the playground.

More than a hundred students from the regular classes lined up in two rows, squatting like ducks and swaying as they moved forward on the perimeter.

Meanwhile, on the inner circle of the track, the six members of the elite class were running the eighth kilometer.

They ran as fast as ever, each one of them like they had a perpetual motion machine, without even breaking a sweat.

"Look," Zhao Yihang said, panting, "the guys in the regular classes are waddling around like ducks!"

Qian Kun turned his head and exclaimed, "Good heavens, are they here to be our backup dancers? They're even lined up quite neatly!"

"Brother Qiang, look at them, don't they look like a flock of ducks taking a stroll?" Ma Teng said with a grin.

Hao Qiang was so tired he could barely speak, but the scene still made him grin: "Don't...don't laugh at them...wait...wait until we finish running...we might be even worse off than them..."

"How could that be!" Sun Dawei chuckled sheepishly. "Brother Feng said we'd get an extra treat after the run! How could we possibly have the same thing as them!"

"An extra meal?" Hao Qiang was taken aback. "What do you mean?"

"It means exactly what it says." Zhao Yihang raised an eyebrow at him. "Brother Qiang, you didn't think ten kilometers was all there was for today, did you?"

Hao Qiang's heart sank.

He suddenly realized a very terrifying fact.

It seems I've really... boarded a pirate ship I can't get off.

Finally, the top-performing students reached the nine-kilometer mark!

We're just a few hundred meters away from completing the 10-kilometer mission!

Wu Hanfeng shouted from the front, "We're almost at the ten-kilometer mark! Since the leaders think so highly of us, how about we treat them to an extra meal and give them a ride around the area?"

An extra meal?

Do you need to do extra training after running 10 kilometers?

Hao Qiang felt like the tendons in his calves were about to pop out.

He really couldn't keep up.

His breathing was erratic, his legs felt like they were filled with lead, and every step required all his strength.

He even hallucinated, feeling that the trees along the track were spinning.