Chapter 87: You Have to Have a Child with Me

Chapter 87: You Have to Have a Child with Me

“Chen Feng, my condolences.”

Tang Tianxin, wearing a neat military uniform, took the urn of Ding Hu’s ashes from Chen Feng’s hands and placed it on the Bell Tower beside them.

Chen Feng nodded expressionlessly.

Grief? Not really that much.

He just wasn’t used to the feeling of an acquaintance dying in front of him before the story was over.

He really disliked this feeling. It was also why he always tried to keep his distance from others when he served in the military in the past.

But being in this world, one’s actions were not always one’s own.

This time, without realizing it, he had spent too much, too long a time with Brother Hu. Before he knew it, that square-faced man had carved a little mark in his heart with a graver.

He leaped up, holding the Alloy Blade, and carved another name on the massive Bell Tower.

Ding Hu.

“Salute! Order arms!”

Tang Tianxin took a step forward and shouted loudly.

Below, tens of thousands of instructors and new recruits throughout the entire Great Snow Mountain Base saluted in unison.

The military song “Baptism of Fire” rang out in the air once more.

Everyone paid their respects.

A strong wind whipped the bright red flag, making it flutter and snap. The atmosphere was solemn and desolate.

Accompanied by the loud military song, Tang Tianxin used her clear, firm voice to shout powerfully.

“A general may die in a hundred battles, his body returned wrapped in horsehide. Instructor Ding has gone ahead. We will definitely not let his blood be shed in vain! Return to the training base, continue training!”

The massive, dark crowd once again moved silently back to their respective training grounds.

Chen Feng threw himself back into his training, more focused and more driven than ever before.

He even forgot his original purpose for coming here to copy songs.

His motivation was simple.

Whenever he let his mind idle, he couldn’t help but recall Brother Hu’s final words.

Although the hope was slim, almost zero, this time he would follow Brother Hu’s wish and try to fight once at the front lines.

To try the taste of striving hard towards the distant goal of becoming the Savior.

After all, he had to live for his share, striving to live until the end of civilization.

Chen Feng driving himself this hard, however, was a disaster for the technicians responsible for equipment maintenance and logistics at the base.

He could easily handle accelerations above 23G, but the Azure Dragon Armor itself couldn’t withstand it.

His training equipment failure and damage rate was simply too high. Almost every training session would cause large-scale cracking in important components and joint areas of the Azure Dragon Armor.

“Can I beg you? Can you take it a bit easier? You’re ruining one set a day. The General Assembly Department has already customized seven sets for you according to your size, and it’s still not enough for you to use up. Do you know how much it costs for a full repair of the Azure Dragon Armor? Not to mention many of your components are irreversibly damaged! You’re burning through tens of millions of credit points every day, enough for tens of thousands of ordinary residents to live on for a year!”

Watching the Azure Dragon Armor shedding metal fragments again, Professor Ouyang felt heartbroken and said this.

It was too painful.

Only half an hour had passed since Chen Feng used the Serum, and another set was already destroyed!

Chen Feng did a quick mental conversion to his own era. It was roughly equivalent to spending hundreds of millions of RMB per day.

Not bad.

He retorted, “Professor Ouyang, according to the consistent philosophy of the Military, isn’t this exactly as it should be? Good steel should be used on the blade. Isn’t the meaning of my existence to probe the limits of human individual combat power? Am I doing anything against the regulations?”

Professor Ouyang’s mouth twitched. “That’s true, and I’m not blaming you. I just feel bad for this good equipment. Sigh.”

Chen Feng argued, “I’ve trained for so long and still haven’t touched my own limit. It’s all because these things are holding me back. How is that good equipment? If the operator has to suppress their own abilities to adapt to the equipment, then what’s the point of this training? If I don’t improve, then what’s the point of practicing?”

What Professor Ouyang actually wanted to say in his heart was that there really was no need to train anymore.

Chen Feng had already raised the operational limit of all humanity by far too much.

The Military had long since used the data collected from his daily training to recompile the Azure Dragon Armor training manual.

This new manual raised all of humanity’s Azure Dragon Armor piloting skills to a level that was almost unattainable for nearly all operators.

So far, even the fastest learner, the second-greatest talent in the entire army, had only completed less than a quarter of the new manual.

And this manual became increasingly difficult towards the end.

According to the Central AI’s data simulations, in the remaining year, no one could complete even half of this already compiled new manual.

So, in a sense, humanity really didn’t need Chen Feng to train so hard anymore.

Just like Chen Feng’s own past viewpoint, even if individual strength broke through the heavens, it was still just a drop in the bucket when facing the bigger picture.

Chen Feng might become the longest, tallest board in the barrel, but that couldn’t make the barrel hold even one more drop of water.

Now, the upper echelons of the World Army still indulged Chen Feng in this extravagant waste of resources. On one hand, they still desperately hoped that through his progress, they could see just how high the peak of human combat ability could be. On the other hand, it was also a kind of compensation for the contributions Chen Feng had made.

There was even a faintly emerging view among the military high command.

The human body, as a carbon-based mammal, limited Chen Feng’s height.

Although humanity’s steps had left Earth, and they had even established bases with production capabilities on Mercury, Venus, and Mars, the total amount of energy humanity could currently master had only just surpassed the total amount Earth received annually from solar radiation.

Therefore, humanity had only just barely crossed the boundary of a Type I Civilization—Planetary Civilization. Like a baby, they were advancing towards the stage of a Type II Civilization—Stellar System Civilization, still at the very bottom of the Kardashev civilization scale.

The human brain and nervous system had not yet evolved; they had not adapted to the new interstellar age.

The current low level of the parent Civilization limited the ultimate height that someone like Chen Feng, with extraordinary potential, could reach. And the Universe had not left any more time for humanity and Chen Feng to continue advancing.

If not for this disaster, if Chen Feng had been born a few thousand years later, after the human race completed its next stage of evolution, obtaining more powerful brains, more perfect cosmic observation abilities, more stable and faster-transmitting nervous systems, then perhaps he could unleash his true power limit.

Perhaps Chen Feng even represented the next stage of humanity, could be seen as a “Superhuman,” or a “Posthuman.”

But everything came too late. There was no time.

The parent Civilization of humanity owed Chen Feng.

So, even though his training like this burned through resources, it was still acceptable, and there was some expectation. That’s why the military high command had not ordered him to stop.

“Fine, I can’t persuade you. But you should still take it easy yourself. Don’t train yourself into a stress injury.”

“Mhm.”

Professor Ouyang left.

Chen Feng switched to the Simulator again, to experience the false feeling of 28G.

It was a pity the real machine really couldn’t withstand that intensity; it would fall apart instantly. He could only imagine what that felt like in the training Simulator.

After using the real machine, no matter how realistic the Simulator was made, it couldn’t satisfy his needs.

Not long after, a notification came through Chen Feng’s helmet.

“Second Lieutenant Chen Feng, please pause your training and report to Major General Tang Tianxin’s office.”

Chen Feng went to the Command Headquarters with a puzzled heart.

After the All-Army Competition ended, Tang Tianxin had disappeared for a while. No one knew what the General had been busy with.

Why did she summon him as soon as she returned?

He knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Chen Feng entered the room.

Tang Tianxin had her back to him, looking up at a three-dimensional star map constructed against the background of the Solar System, lost in thought.

Just as Chen Feng was about to ask her why she wanted to see him, she turned around and looked Chen Feng over carefully for a few seconds. Then she walked to the side, picked up a cup from a shelf, and poured Chen Feng a glass of orange juice. “Have a drink?”

Chen Feng took the cup and took a small sip. “Um, General, you wanted to see me?”

Tang Tianxin sat down beside him and nodded. “Yes. Have you decided which Spacecraft to choose?”

Chen Feng was confused. “I’ve been sending you reports for a while now, wanting to see the information about the various Spacecraft in the fleet group. You weren’t at the base, so I haven’t seen any materials. I can’t make a decision.”

Tang Tianxin smiled slightly. “I deliberately didn’t let you see them.”

Chen Feng indicated he wasn’t surprised, it was as expected. “But this is the right of the All-Army Competition champion. General Tang, if you don’t let me see them now, naturally I’ll see them next month when it’s time to board.”

“Can’t you just simply choose the Tianxin?” Tang Tianxin asked unwillingly.

Chen Feng shook his head. “That wouldn’t be fair to me, or to the other ship captains.”

Tang Tianxin seemed to see through him. “Excuses. That’s not your real aim.”

“Isn’t that unimportant?” Chen Feng smiled calmly.

Tang Tianxin took a deep breath. “I’m afraid you still don’t understand me well enough. You might be considered a groundbreaking genius in the field of Azure Dragon Armor control. And I, Tang Tianxin, the youngest Commander of a battle cruiser in history, am a genius in the field of combat command! Only on my Warship can you truly become the sharp blade humanity needs.”

Chen Feng was amused by her. “Really? Then can you tell me, what kind of enemy are we actually going to face? How do you plan to use me then? In what posture will I face what kind of enemy? What kind of enemy is this sharp blade of mine supposed to stab?”

Tang Tianxin’s expression froze.

Chen Feng’s question stumped her.

To date, regarding what kind of Civilization the enemy was, and how the war would break out, the Military had spent hundreds of years, running simulations for hundreds of millions of possibilities. But not a single one could be considered a definite result.

“Forget it, let’s not talk about this. I’ll let you look at the materials tomorrow.”

“Thank you, General.”

“I will also use my private connections to ask researchers at the Xuanwu Institute to specifically design and improve the performance of the Azure Dragon Armor for you, trying as much as possible to come up with a higher-performance modified version. I’ve been busy with this very matter recently.”

Only then did Chen Feng become overjoyed. “Thank you, General!”

“But, you have to agree to one condition.”

“Please go ahead.”

Tang Tianxin took a deep breath, fixing Chen Feng with a burning stare. “You have to have a child with me.”