Chapter 1619: Opening (4)

“Now, start running!”

“Oooohhhhh!”

“Haaaaaahph!”

American soldiers, kitted out in military uniforms, exploded forth into a maddened sprint. The sight of a mixed group of races running in unison deserved to be called a spectacle.

“Run faster, you stinking trash!”

“Aaaaaahk!”

In front of these strapping soldiers was a giant who made them look like little kids. His hair, reflecting the sunlight, his thick, quivering brows, and the sharp glare coming from his eyes…!

“Repeat! After me! I am! An insect!”

“I am! An insect!”

“That's right! Don't you forget that! You are all insects, so if you can't even run properly, I will slap you to death with my shoe! Run until your legs break!”

“Yes, sir!”

Vator continued to roar like a beast. The soldiers responded to his roar and continued to sprint like crazy.

Reynold Spencer could only chuckle hollowly at this spectacle. “I'm getting tempted to hire him as our permanent instructor at this point. Our soldiers have never been that obedient, as far as I can remember.”

Reggie Mercer smiled bitterly while saying nothing. Who would dare disobey a giant with such enormous biceps, after all?

Still, I had no idea how effective that man would be.

Kang Jin-Ho had dropped by once before already. Still, in terms of loyalty or their trust level, Vator seemed far better suited to this task than the Assembly Master.

Martial arts and cultivation were fundamentally unscientific. That meant the practitioners had to go along with the flow and try to comprehend what they were taught, but that left the fundamental question of trust still needing to be answered.

Unlike the Eastern martial artists, who were conditioned into accepting what they were taught without question, the members of the Special Operations Brigade, SOB for short, used to live in a society far removed from martial arts before joining this program out of necessity. It shouldn't come as a surprise that they would get confused and lost by the Eastern way of teaching things.

To such a group of people, Vator must've been at least twice as articulate and impressive as Kang Jin-Ho.

First of all, it was hard to miss the impressive aura oozing out from Vator's gigantic physique.

Kang Jin-Ho was someone who boasted skills and techniques that no SOB members could comprehend, never mind follow with their eyes. Which meant he'd remain as an enigmatic existence beyond their understanding. On the other hand, Vator was much, much more straightforward.

“I said, run! Not walk!”

As proof, behold!

The aura of GigaChad oozed from every pore of Vator every time he grabbed the struggling soldiers falling behind and tossed them aside.

He was so muscular and huge that if famous "manly" Hollywood celebs stood next to him, they would instantly morph into broad-shouldered kids. When someone like that was roaring like a dragon while leading the group, who would dare disobey him?

Reggie Mercer said, “Yes, I also think he’s a better fit for our soldiers.”

“Isn’t this weird? I heard he’s from Mongolia,” Reynold Spencer responded as a bitter smirk spread on his lips.

When people tried to imagine a country of diverse nationalities, they would automatically think of the United States of America. However, Reynold Spencer couldn't help but think that it was all pointless when compared to the Martial Assembly.

For instance, the Assembly’s executives were a mixture of Koreans, Chinese, a Mongol, and even a British national. Even its alliance partners were from other parts of the world, too.

It had entered into an alliance with the American government and a pan-European organization. Not only that, but it also had formed an alliance with the Chinese, at least on paper. As for Japan, the Assembly had pretty much completely subjugated the neighboring nation and lorded it over like a tyrant.

All in all, he is one remarkable man.

While others were impressed by Kang Jin-Ho's martial prowess, Reynold Spencer was moved by something else.

He glanced at Reggie Mercer. "Looks like their training is going pretty well. However, have we seen any tangible results yet?"

“It’s… difficult to comprehend, actually.” Reggie Mercer ruefully shook his head. “Even though they have only begun this program not too long ago, most soldiers have already recorded a near 200% improvement in every metric. Considering that the average improvement rate for an SOB member annually remained stuck at around eight percentage points…"

“…It's over ten times?”[1]

“All indicators point that way, at least for now. Of course, this momentum should not be sustainable. And I believe the environmental factors must’ve played a sizable role. Even so…”

Reggie Mercer didn’t finish his sentence and let his words drift away. But Reynold Spencer had no problem figuring out what the commander wanted to say.

In summary, our training system has proven to be utterly useless.

Since this system had been set up by their predecessors, both Reynold Spencer and Reggie Mercer found themselves being a little more… selective with their evaluation. Even so, this result had proven that the training regime the SOB members had gone through in the past was imperfect, to say the least.

And we wanted to create a completely scientific training regime, too…

Reynold Spencer chuckled wryly.

When he thought about it, it all seemed so obvious now. Martial arts and science were two very disparate fields of study, weren’t they? Any attempt to analyze martial arts and cultivation scientifically had all failed until now, after all.

The Americans had been trying to analyze something that was beyond scientific analysis, all for the purpose of setting up a scientific training system uniquely of their own. No wonder the results they had gotten until recently had been garbage.

Reynold Spencer muttered contemplatively. “Is this proof of the limitations? In the direction we have chosen?”

Reggie Mercer nodded. “I believe we should view it more as a proof of the East having amassed more knowledge than us. It implies that the ‘new’ isn’t necessarily better than the ‘old’.”

“Hmm…!”

“Of course, this won’t be the end of our story.”

“Mm?”

Reggie Mercer's expression grew determined. “You can never become the best by following in the footsteps of your predecessors. Our job is to create our own methods based on the lessons they provide us with.”

“Indeed…”

Reynold Spencer grinned deeply.

But that’s not our job.

He glanced behind him. More specifically, at the various cameras capturing the situation in the training area from every angle possible!

***

“How is it?”

“Compared to yesterday, they are faster by 0.3%.”

“Really? The rate of improvement has slowed down a lot, no?”

“Slowed down? Gimme a break, Jerry! Top-level Olympic athletes train like crazy for five years just for the chance of a 0.3% improvement. But our people are seeing that level of improvement every day, okay? This is unprecedented.”

“Yeah, I guess it looks that way to you. But compared to how exponential their growth was at the beginning? Can you still say their growth hasn't slowed down by a massive amount?”

“I disagree. In fact, I’d say we should consider another possibility. Our soldiers must’ve entered the realm of true elites.”

“The realm of… true elites?”

One of the scientists, Ohen, nodded. “Yes. It doesn't matter what type of sports you're talking about; it's not that difficult to set records in the beginning. Even if you're doing basic exercises, you will notice all the rapid improvements when you're a beginner, after all.”

“That’s… true.”

“But once you enter the realm of professional athletes, the difference of one second will determine the victors and losers. And when you are in the realm of elites? Now we're talking about fractions of seconds.”

“Hmm? Are you implying that the level of the SOB members was no better than 'amateur' before the start of the program?”

“With the data backing me up, do I have to explain anymore? We can deny it all we want, but the data doesn’t lie.”

“Goddamn… I haven’t felt this defeated in a long while,” said Jerry while grinning wryly.

Most of the Special Operations Brigade's training schedule and regimes had been created by this very team of scientists, including him, after all.

“So, science lost? Is that it?”

“That's the kind of excuse an ignorant bastard would use to dodge the blame. No, science hasn't lost anything. We the scientists lost, Jerry. Science is about logic, but it's still incomplete. Why? Because we still have not discovered all the rules governing the universe. Not being able to explain something through the scientific knowledge we've accumulated until now doesn't automatically mean science is bad or imperfect. No, it merely proves that humanity is imperfect, that's all!”

“Oh, wow. We have the birth of a new philosopher here.”

“Don’t be sarcastic. I’m merely telling you the truth here, after all.”

Ohen glanced at the graphs showing up on his computer monitor. He had already acknowledged that using the current scientific methods to comprehend the principles behind the Koreans' training regime was practically impossible.

In that case, they needed to build an extensive database from the incoming results and work backward from there to figure out the process.

“It’s not going to be easy, is it?”

Jerry chuckled again. "That's what makes it worth the challenge… I distinctly remember someone saying that earlier."

“And I told you to stop being sarcastic, too.”

Ohen grunted in slight irritation, then resumed glaring at the monitor.

Several things had changed since the program had begun a few months ago. The first change was that the scientists no longer had to wait for the recorded footage to arrive before they could start their analysis. They now had access to live footage. And various sensors had been installed all around the training area by now, too.

Several other minor changes besides those had taken place as well; unfortunately, none of them helped Ohen analyze the results of the unscientific training regime favored by Vator and Kang Jin-Ho.

“We need to rethink everything from the ground up,” said Ohen.

Jerry grinned bitterly again. “I’ve lost count of how many times you’ve said that already.”

“Redesigning the experiments from the ground up isn't anything new. And it's something we should be prepared to do that dozens, no, hundreds of times if needed.”

Ohen spoke with zero hesitation whatsoever.

Jerry rubbed his chin. "Scientific, you say… I have to say, I'm skeptical. I mean, look at that big guy. You think you can scientifically analyze a bad-ass like that?”

“Hmm…”

For sure, Vator exuded an overwhelming presence even through the monitor. So much so that even the scientists looking at the live footage shuddered in dread! So, how much worse would the pressure be for the soldiers directly facing him? They couldn't even imagine it.

“So, you think we need to consider the psychological effects as well?”

Jerry grinned bitterly again. “What you said earlier has the answer we’re looking for. It’s impossible for us to analyze them via the scientific methods we use. But in a few decades, that should be doable.”

“That doesn't mean our work right now is meaningless, though. Knowledge is accumulative, after all. And the next generation will carry on with our research. We might not get any appreciable results today, but that doesn't invalidate the data we've collected or the theories we've come up with.”

“Damn. I can’t win against you, now can I?”

In a way, Ohen’s mindset was the ideal example all scientists should strive to emulate. The problem was that most human beings would never be able to do that. Hell, they wouldn’t even be able to keep up with someone who held such ideals!

“Fine, fine. You do what you think is best. My job is to provide you with what you need. Within means, of course," said Jerry.

“Thank you very much. Why don’t we start with a cup of coffee, then?”

“…That’s not what I meant, though?”

Ohen smirked softly while watching the grumbling Jerry trudge toward the coffee machine.

Looks like this is going to be an uphill battle.

He shifted his gaze back to the monitor. Vator looked pissed off for some reason while swinging a soldier around in the air with one hand.

Right. We’ve set the limits of our soldiers far too low.

That was their biggest mistake so far.

The scientists estimated that the soldiers could gain a certain level of strength through martial arts. However, as it turned out, the uppermost limit they had predicted was no more than twenty percent of Vator's current strength. If they had known that a martial artist could become this powerful, the Americans' training regime would have looked radically different, too.

The core of the Koreans’ training was simple enough.

It’s the cycle of extreme physical abuse, then letting themselves recover. Rinse and repeat.

The Koreans criticized the Americans for severely underestimating the martial artists’ rate of recovery. That was undoubtedly true.

It's a good thing that we've figured out what our errors were before it's too late.

All scientific research was, in one way or another, searching for errors or falsehoods in the established theories and making sure they could produce the same results again and again. That meant the more errors they uncovered in the existing training methods, the closer they would get to the perfection Ohen had been thinking about.

We will not fail!

The light in Ohen’s eyes burned brightly as he continued to glare at the monitor.

The first hurdle was Vator. The moment he “comprehended” Vator, he’d be able to shift the bull’s-eye to the East’s Demon King.

“…Nope. I don’t think that’s even possible.”

Ohen shook his head.

Recent events helped him understand why myths and legends of gods existed in humanity. In the eyes of the ancient people, someone like Kang Jin-Ho must've looked like an apostle of some deity or the embodiment of divinity itself!

A good example was the legend of Hercules, who had allegedly killed the massive Hydra. Or something like the legend of Bodhidharma, who had crossed the Yangzi River on a reed.

Those humans who transcended the realm of humanity would naturally attract worshipers, and their worship would naturally evolve into a religion and even produce mythical tales to be passed on to subsequent generations.

“A man with divinity permeating within…?”

Ohen chuckled helplessly. What an unscientific idea that was.

1. This was from the raw. I didn't mess up the calculation, I swear.