Chapter 39 Aren't they all students of our school?

"Would you be interested in being the class monitor?"

Seeing a hint of youthful and shy modesty on Zhao Rui's innocent face at that moment, Liu Jie could not help but ask with a smile.

"The class monitor?"

Zhao Rui was momentarily stunned, then shook his head and said, "Teacher, I don't want to do it."

"Why? This can boost your student resume and be beneficial for your future job hunting and joining the organization!"

Liu Jie asked in confusion, her petite face fair and flawless, her delicate eyelashes trembling slightly outside her bright eyes.

"Teacher, actually, I still want to pursue a path in martial arts..."

Zhao Rui spoke the truth. After all, participating in the martial arts team and other matters in the future would require his counselor to know and communicate.

Hearing Zhao Rui's words, Liu Jie fell into silence for a moment before saying, "I support you. If you need anything, just tell me, and I'll communicate it for you."

"Thank you, teacher!"

"Why are you being so polite? I am your counselor, so naturally, I have your future in mind."

Liu Jie smiled and reached out, wanting to pat Zhao Rui on the shoulder, but realizing she was too petite, she could not help standing slightly on tiptoe.

Only then did she successfully look like an adult, giving Zhao Rui's shoulder a couple of pats.

"Work hard, I believe in you!"

"Teacher, actually I could have crouched down a bit!"

"You're asking for a beating, even making fun of your teacher!"

Liu Jie feigned a strike, and Zhao Rui laughed out loud, hurriedly dodging and returning among the students.

Aside from target shooting, the military camp's activities included military boxing performances and a bonfire party. After the camp activities concluded, the students would also have to march back to the school at night.

Hearing that they still had to walk back at night, the students complained incessantly, wishing they could immediately drag the school leaders over and give them twenty lashes.

The kind used for "combat arts"!

Unfortunately, complaints were complaints. When the garrison troops neatly lined up to perform military boxing, the students' fatigue instantly vanished.

One by one, their eyes widened in excitement, taking in the soldiers' performance without missing a beat.

The military boxing in this world was different from his past life. It was divided into two types: one was hard qigong, which had low entry requirements and could be practiced by ordinary soldiers.

The other was military martial arts, which, like the inheritances of universities and sects, had solid foundations and historical origins.

Those who practiced it to perfection became fierce generals in the army, slaughtering on one side and guarding another, surpassing even grandmasters.

Coupled with modern weaponry, how could it be a power that minor "rogue cultivators" could shake?

This was one of the reasons why martial arts flourished so greatly, yet the country still enjoyed long-term stability and peace.

"Zhao Rui, do you think the martial arts students from our school could beat soldiers of the same rank from the military?"

Beside him, Jian Congsheng watched the exceptionally brilliant martial arts performance on the field and asked curiously.

"That's hard to say. It depends on the rules and individual temperament!"

Zhao Rui said casually.

"Oh. I really envy you guys with a foundation in martial arts. From now on, our dorm will depend on you to protect us!"

Jian Congsheng said with a hint of envy.

"Don't. I'm not a genius student from the Martial Arts Academy; I just persisted a bit longer than you guys and didn't give up!"

As Zhao Rui was speaking, the queue suddenly became noisy. He tilted his ear to listen and realized that the martial arts performance had ended, and the troops were about to hold a competition with the students.

Although many boys did not know martial arts, they were young men with hot blood. Who wouldn't want to step into the arena to fight and show off in front of the girls?

"Each company selects two student representatives for a little fun. Students are allowed to wear protective gear..."

Following the camp commander's words, the various companies instantly fell into bustling discussions.

"I'm a level-three martial artist, I'll go!"

"Wow, you're level three? What a pity, if you were level four, you could test into a martial arts undergraduate university."

"I'm level two, I'll try. Anyway, there's protective gear! Which sister will cheer me on? Big brother is fighting for our company here!"

"Come on, come on! Let's go!"

The atmosphere at the scene instantly surged, and the cheers of the girls rose one after another. Soon, two contestants stood up from each camp and walked onto the field.

As for Zhao Rui's group, there was no need to consider anyone else; Zhao Rui was definitely one of them.

Before leaving, one of the girls whom Zhao Rui had previously helped had a fiery personality and shouted directly, "Zhao Rui, if you win, I'll be your girlfriend!"

As soon as her voice fell, a boy shouted along, "Zhao Rui, if you win, I'll be your boyfriend!"

The slightly ambiguous little atmosphere originally present instantly collapsed, and everyone burst into loud laughter.

Zhao Rui smiled and walked into the field together with another level-two martial arts boy.

Due to the large number of students in military training, only a portion came this time, excluding the Martial Arts Academy company.

Therefore, the camp commander did not let high-tier soldiers take the field, only sending out four level-three martial artist soldiers and one level-four martial artist soldier to show their faces.

He didn't even pay attention to the martial arts levels of these students.

After all, for non-martial arts major students, level four was already the limit of martial power.

After briefly introducing the rules, the competition officially kicked off.

There were forty students in total, five groups per round, held simultaneously.

The time limit was three minutes; being knocked down meant failure! Surviving three minutes meant winning.

The students put on the protective suits provided by the military camp, rubbing their fists and wiping their palms in eager anticipation.

As the whistle blew, the competition officially began.

The soldiers' eyes narrowed slightly like leopards spotting delicious prey, and their figures charged out fiercely and accurately, swift and ruthless.

Even if these students had level-two skills, they had only practiced them during middle school. Once they realized they didn't have much talent and transferred to ordinary classes in high school, who would still train diligently?

Therefore, after just a moment, the situation of these five students became precarious. Not to mention fighting back, even resisting was beyond their capability.

As one student was knocked to the ground, the others quickly followed suit, thud-thud, meeting the same fate.

"Sigh, lost so fast!"

The onlookers naturally sided with the students, letting out regretful sighs upon seeing this.

One round ended and another began. The entire student squad played six rounds, and only two students had decent skills, lasting two minutes before ultimately being knocked to the ground.

Such a result instantly caused a wave of disappointed wailing among the students watching from the sidelines.

"This is bullying! If you have the guts, wait until the students from our Martial Arts Academy arrive before competing? What kind of skill is it to bully us weaklings?"

"Exactly! If you have the guts, compete in academics; we'll crush ten of you!"

The opposition and unity of contradictions always seem so obvious when it concerns one's own interests and stance.

The students, who were originally bustling and watching the fun, unexpectedly became united against a common enemy in the face of defeat.

"Good morale. We can add a bit more difficulty later and drill them hard again!"

In the stands, the camp commander smiled and said to the accompanying school leaders beside him.

"They're all young people. If they didn't even have this bit of spirited blood, how could they become the pillars of the motherland? Whether students or young soldiers, they are all the hope of our future!"

The school leader wore a smile and said unhurriedly.

In his heart, however, he was cursing up a storm. This was clearly rubbing salt in the eyes of their intellectuals.

A bunch of grunts, what is there to be arrogant about!

"Haha, Principal Zhang is right, they are all the hope of the future!"

The camp commander smiled and continued to cast his gaze toward the drill ground below.

With the rapid defeat of the students, it quickly came to the last three groups.

Two of them were the level-three martial artist college student and Zhao Rui.

The level-three martial artist college student went up first. His strength was quite decent, and he traded blows evenly with his opponent, but alas, lack of long-term training and poor combat experience meant he only lasted two minutes before his opponent seized an opportunity and flipped him to the ground.

He regretfully lost the match.

Seeing that even a level-three martial artist had fallen, the college students let out disappointed wails.

After all, Zhao Rui was at most level three; which level-four student wouldn't test into a Martial Arts Academy?

Nevertheless, when Zhao Rui stepped onto the field, the entire scene still erupted with a round of warm cheers.

In the drill ground, Zhao Rui tidied the protective gear on his body, clanked his way to the center of the field, looked at the soldier opposite him, and then politely cupped his fists in salute.

Seeing that Zhao Rui was tall and well-proportioned, the opponent smiled and asked, "How many minutes do you think you can last?"

"Three minutes, I suppose. Any longer wouldn't be appropriate!"

Zhao Rui smiled. It was just for fun and amusement anyway.

"Good lad, quite the big mouth!"

The soldier sneered. He had originally just wanted to tease him, but didn't expect him to be so thick-skinned.

Usually, he looked down on these powerless college students who hung out with girls all day and enjoyed a wonderful campus life.

They, as soldiers, suffered hardships and trained day after day, yet had to pick from the leftovers for dating partners.

He already held some resentment in his heart and wanted to deflate these college students' arrogance even more.

As the whistle blew for the match, without another word, explosive physical force erupted from his feet, skyrocketing his speed as he suddenly threw a punch at Zhao Rui.

Zhao Rui waved his arm, gently blocking it, stepping in the Jiugong Bagua pattern while keeping his posture steady, cleverly shifting using the opponent's momentum.

No matter how fierce the opponent's attacks were like a storm, he stepped back securely, unhurried and calm.

At this point, anyone with a discerning eye could see the problem.

How sharp was the camp commander's gaze in the stands? He immediately turned his head to look at the accompanying school leader beside him and said, "It seems you have a high-tier martial arts student hidden in your ordinary classes."

The school leader did not understand martial arts, but he wasn't a fool either. Seeing that only Zhao Rui on the field was handling things with ease, he smiled and said, "Students have strong independent awareness nowadays, and our school also emphasizes the comprehensive development of morality, intelligence, and physique!"

"Could he be a Martial Arts Academy student who slipped over?"

"Does it matter? Aren't they all students of our school?"

The school leader chuckled noncommittally.

The camp commander nodded, waved to summon the orderly beside him, gave a few instructions, and then continued to watch the match with a smile.

On the drill ground!

Zhao Rui calmly watched the opponent's fierce attack, silently copying a newly added martial art on his system panel in his mind: Hundred-Battle Fierce Cloud Fist.

This was a crude military combat skill, a low-tier martial art, but something was better than nothing.

Anyway, learning it would still yield upgrade points.

The three minutes passed quickly. No matter how fiercely the opponent attacked, Zhao Rui stood as steady as Mount Tai in the center of the field.

Until the time ran out, in the large drill ground, he was the only college student standing tall, instantly attracting everyone's attention.

"You..."

The soldier who had fought him now knew he was no match for Zhao Rui, so he spat bitterly in frustration and left the arena in annoyance.

"Holy cow, he won! That really boosts our morale, damn it!"

"Exactly, this is from our class, awesome right!"

"Zhao Rui is so handsome."

"So his name is Zhao Rui, is he from the accounting department? I so want his contact info!"

"Zhao Rui, I want to marry you and have a bunch of little monkeys for you!"

This was shouted by some shameless boy.

Zhao Rui raised a hand and smiled at the crowd. A young man without romance lived in vain!

He wasn't going to be arrogant, but he also had to boldly showcase himself.

Seeing Zhao Rui's response, the boy who wanted to marry him lost his mind, lifted his military training top, and started dancing.

The atmosphere instantly grew even more enthusiastic, feeling comparable to a concert.

The troops originally wanted to suppress the college students' arrogance through combat drills, but didn't expect an anomaly in the middle who won steadily.

"Should we swap people?"

A soldier suggested.

"Swap what people? Continue!"

The company commander organizing the match glared at the soldier who spoke, a cold glint flashing in his eyes like lightning bursting across the sky.

"If you guys lose, I'll go up myself!"

Hearing the company commander's words, the soldiers present all revealed fierce glints in their eyes, looking like hunting wolves ready to devour someone.

Soon the competition entered the second phase, where winners dueled again.

Since the college student team only had Zhao Rui left, the entire second phase was directly simplified to a match between the winner of the soldier group and Zhao Rui.

The soldiers sparred frequently among themselves; without needing to compete again, they directly pushed this level-four martial artist forward.

"Come on, kid, let you experience what a real man is!"

The soldier took off his vest, revealing an upper body full of bulging muscles, with quite a few lingering scars.

Clearly, he had suffered quite a few injuries.

"It's just sparring!"

Zhao Rui smiled and waited quietly for the opponent to make a move.

This guy always charged forward bravely in battles. Seeing Zhao Rui standing casually at this moment without any flaws, he immediately realized he had encountered an inner-strength expert.

He hurriedly scraped the ground with his foot, instantly kicking up the dust on the drill ground to form a sky full of yellow sand and smoke.

Taking advantage of this yellow sand cover, his figure suddenly shrank, bursting forth with power as he charged straight at Zhao Rui like a spinning top.

Zhao Rui leaped deeply into the air, avoiding the brunt of the attack, and waved his sleeves to disperse the sky full of yellow sand.

Then, seizing the opponent's incoming heavy fist, he pressed down on a vital acupoint on the back of the hand while applying force to hook downward.

Instantly, he dragged the opponent crashing to the ground, executing a clean and neat throw.

"You flatter me!"

Zhao Rui gracefully stepped back, cupping his fists in salute. If not for the obstructive protective armor on his body, he could definitely be called dashing and elegant.

"I admit defeat!"

The soldier was quite straightforward. Climbing back to his feet and admitting defeat frankly, he retreated to the side.

"I'll come!"

At this moment, the company commander who had been supervising the battle from the side could no longer hold back and stepped forward directly.

Zhao Rui glanced at the restrained murderous intent radiating from the other party, stepped back, and said, "Leader, it seems you are not a contestant, are you?"

As soon as these words came out, the company commander's aggressive pace instantly stalled, his expression tangled and as ugly as it could possibly get.

He indeed was not a contestant.

Just as he was caught in a dilemma of advancing and retreating, the camp commander on the rostrum blew into the microphone and said in a ringing voice, "Young man, you won the match, but they were all lower-ranked than you. How about this, if you beat our company commander comrade, I'll take responsibility and grant you two hours of leave!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the gazes of the entire military camp instantly converged on Zhao Rui!