Rebirth of a Mercenary: The Ace Mercenary Forced to Be the Beloved of the Group

Two weeks is neither a long nor a short time, but it's enough to turn twelve special forces soldiers from "the elite of the elite" into a group of zombies who want to die every day as soon as they open their eyes.

The morning exercise ended almost half an hour later than usual. The reason was that three people had fallen behind in the last part of the weighted cross-country run, and Shen Zhuo made them run it again.

When Li Mo blew the final whistle, everyone collapsed on the parade ground, gasping for breath. The white mist from their breath mingled in the cold air, and their training uniforms, soaked with sweat, clung to their bodies, chilled to the bone by the December wind.

Lu Xiao stood by the playground, holding a training record board and reviewing the data from today's morning exercise. A mask covered half his face, obscuring his expression, but his narrowed eyes still betrayed his dissatisfaction.

"Today's trail run was almost five minutes slower than yesterday. During the final sprint, three people's heart rate readings were completely outside the normal range, indicating that your endurance reserves are still insufficient." He tucked the record board under his arm. "The intensity of the endurance training this afternoon will be increased as appropriate. Now, dismissed. Meet at the cafeteria in twenty minutes."

Just then, someone stood up from the ground.

He was a tall, thin lieutenant, around twenty-six or twenty-seven years old. His uniform was covered in mud and snow from a fall, and there were several fresh cuts on the back of his hands from the bushes.

"I've had enough." His voice wasn't loud, but everyone on the quiet playground could hear him clearly.

Lu Xiao turned around and looked at him: "Oh? What have you had enough of?"

"This kind of training is completely unreasonable!" The lieutenant ripped off his training cap and slammed it to the ground.

The hat bounced off the frozen ground and rolled to the side of the track. "We get up at three every morning, doing weighted cross-country runs, hand-to-hand combat, sniper training, and infiltration—training from morning till night, without even a moment to catch our breath! Meal time is compressed to ten minutes, and sleep time to four hours! Do you know how long it's been since we called home? Do you know that some people hide in the bathroom and cry after lights out? We are special forces soldiers, not machines! Do you even treat us like human beings?"

The air on the playground suddenly became quiet, with only the sound of the wind blowing from the distant mountains continuing, causing the snowflakes on both sides of the track to swirl.

One by one, the team members who had been sprawled on the ground sat up. No one agreed with the lieutenant, but no one refuted him either.

Fourteen days of grueling training had indeed pushed them to their limits. Everyone was feeling exhausted and resentful to varying degrees, but no one dared to voice their opinions. Now that someone had taken the lead, everyone was watching Lu Xiao's reaction.

Lu Xiao didn't speak. He pulled the clipboard from under his arm, casually placed it on the cement table next to him, then put his hands in his pockets and tilted his head to look at the lieutenant.

Seeing that he didn't react, the lieutenant's pent-up anger only intensified. He took a step forward, pointed at Bai Ye and Xuan Xiao standing by the parade ground, and raised his voice even higher.

"And those two!" He pointed directly at Bai Ye and Xuan Xiao. "What are they even doing here? From day one, they haven't participated in training, haven't taught anything, just stood there watching every day—are they instructors? Are they trainees? Or are they tourists you brought along? Why is it that while we train like crazy every day, they can just stand around and watch?"

Bai Ye, standing slightly behind Li Mo, paused upon hearing this. He was flipping through the communications encryption textbook Xie Huai'an had lent him, his fingers between the pages, when he looked up at the lieutenant.

Xuan Xiao stood beside him, holding a thermos. Hearing his name called, he paused for a moment, then frowned. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but Bai Ye gently tugged at his sleeve.

Bai Ye didn't look at him, only shook her head almost imperceptibly. Xuan Xiao swallowed his words, but his fingers tightened around the thermos, his knuckles turning white.

Lu Xiao glanced at Bai Ye and Xuan Xiao in the direction the lieutenant was pointing. Then he turned back, his tone still light and cheerful, but those who knew him could hear a thin, cold sharpness beneath that relaxed surface: "Are you finished?"

The lieutenant was taken aback by his reaction.

He thought Lu Xiao would explain, refute, or at least give an explanation. But Lu Xiao only said, "Are you done talking?" and then pulled his hand out of his pocket.

His right hand reached for his waist, the movement slow but precise and composed—unfastening the holster buckle, drawing the pistol, and cocking it. The sound of metal scraping against metal was exceptionally clear in the quiet playground.

Everyone's expression changed.

The lieutenant stared at the pistol pointed at him, his pupils contracted sharply, and he froze on the spot. His face, which had been full of anger just moments before, was now filled with only primal fear.

Lu Xiao held his gun, the muzzle pointed at the lieutenant's forehead. His posture remained relaxed and casual, but his usually smiling eyes were now devoid of any smile, so cold they seemed to penetrate the body and freeze to the bone.

"Listen." His voice wasn't loud, but every word was like a frozen nail, hammering into the ears of everyone on the parade ground. "You can question my training methods. You can think the training is unreasonable. You can feel tired, you feel it's tough, you feel I'm treating you like machines. You can raise your opinions anytime, and I can even hold a meeting for you to discuss them point by point. But you—" His gun barrel shifted slightly, pointing towards Bai Ye and Xuan Xiao, then moved back to the lieutenant's brow. "You just mentioned those two people with your mouth. If you utter another word about them—any single word, any single sentence—it won't just be a gun pointed at you."

The parade ground was so quiet you could hear the wind blowing snow off the distant mountains. The lieutenant's lips trembled, and sweat trickled down his temples, leaving glistening streaks on his cheeks.

The lieutenant's lips trembled for a while before he finally managed to squeeze out a few words: "I...I understand."

Lu Xiao stared at him for a few seconds, then slowly lowered the muzzle of his gun. He didn't immediately put the gun away, but instead glanced at the lieutenant again after lowering the muzzle, his voice returning to its usual relaxed tone, as if the chilling warning from before was just a collective illusion.

"Very good. Feel free to offer suggestions on training anytime; I don't hold grudges. But please remember the line I just mentioned." He turned around, smoothly and naturally holstering his pistol, then waved to everyone. "Dismissed. Training this afternoon as usual, plus a two-kilometer cross-country run—consider it a little interlude for today."