Reboot the Galaxy

Chapter 9 Take Away

"Dream on." The Middle Eastern man suddenly launched an attack, immediately engaging Di Yan in a fistfight.

Explosions echoed through the air as the two unleashed their signature moves as soon as they clashed.

The Middle Easterner's fighting style is fierce and swift, incorporating many styles such as Taekwondo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, and Marine Corps close combat techniques. Coupled with his strong physique, the two were evenly matched for a time.

After blocking Di Yan's horizontal slash, the Middle Easterner delivered a Thai-style whip kick to Di Yan's side.

Di Yan staggered a few steps to the side, moved his body slightly, and seemed to be unharmed.

"Hard Qigong?" The Middle Easterner was a little surprised.

"You know your stuff." Di Yan stepped forward again to engage in fierce combat.

Although both are from the Chinese region, Di Yan's martial arts skills are much stronger than He Xu's.

He Xu previously worked for the Central Security Bureau, mainly responsible for security work, where the requirements for close combat were not very high.

Di Yan's special operations brigade is one of the most elite units in the China region, where soldiers undergo grueling, devilish training in various skills.

The fight between the two was incredibly fast and intense, and everyone had to stay far away from the battlefield. Fists and kicks have no eyes, and you could get hit if you weren't careful.

The bedroom, which was originally simply and neatly furnished, is now a complete mess: sheets, blankets, and pillows are scattered all over the floor, and the mattresses of two beds have even been pulled up and used as shields.

Di Yan picked up a pillow, which was instantly torn apart by the Middle Eastern man. The cotton wadding flew through the air like snowflakes, covering the shoulders and hair of both men.

Taking advantage of the vast expanse of white snow obscuring their vision, the Middle Eastern man thrust a punch at Di Yan. The punch was swift and accurate, striking Di Yan squarely in the jawbone.

Di Yan quickly regained his senses after being hit, and took advantage of the Middle Eastern man's defensive gaps to sweep his leg. His hard shinbone struck his ribs solidly, with even more force than the opponent's previous whip kick.

The Middle Easterner felt a sudden, sharp pain in his side, and the air in his lungs was coughed up. The violent shock made his heart stop for a moment.

He didn't have Di Yan's hard qigong, so this blow would break at least two of his ribs.

Taking advantage of the Middle Eastern man's unsteady steps, Di Yan circled around behind him and prepared to perform a rear-naked choke.

Even though the Middle Easterner was in pain, his mind remained clear, and he was able to immediately judge Di Yan's intentions. He put his forearm on his neck in advance, and Di Yan's naked choke locked his forearm in as well.

The two men fell to the ground simultaneously. The Middle Eastern man's face turned red, and he used his locked forearm to create space for his head, pushing Di Yan's arm upwards and breaking free from the rear naked choke. The two then engaged in a ground fighting contest.

On the ground, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu clearly had the upper hand. After a tense exchange, Di Yan was locked in a lock by the Middle Eastern man and couldn't move. The man punched him hard in the cheek, and a metallic taste filled his mouth. Di Yan spat a bright red stain on the pale floor.

Di Yan did not give up. Knowing that he could not engage in ground fighting with the Middle Easterner, he resolutely twisted his joints despite the pain, pulled out his arm, and gouged out the opponent's eyeballs.

"Ah! Bastard!" the reckless man cursed as he let go, covering his eyes and backing away.

Di Yan immediately stood up, took two steps in three quick leaps, and delivered a flying kick that landed squarely on the Middle Eastern man's chest.

He was sent flying backward, crashing into the wall like a cannonball.

Di Yan wiped his mouth, his hand covered in blood. He glared hatefully at the Middle Easterners a few meters away. As long as they didn't go underground, his chances of winning were better.

The Middle Eastern man coughed dryly, clutching his chest, and stood up awkwardly, looking at Di Yan with the gaze of someone scrutinizing prey.

The tension remained high, and the duel between the two was about to enter its second half.

Just then, the arched hatch of the room opened, and two people strode in.

"Stop it, all of you! What are you doing!" Han Qinghe shouted sternly, staring at the Middle Eastern man and then at Di Yan.

"Aziz Khalid, you'd better explain yourself." Lieutenant Li Guangyu was unusually stern, arms crossed and teeth clenched.

The Middle Eastern man named Aziz, still clutching his chest with a cocky air, pointed at the people around him and said, "I was just sparring with them. I was itching for a fight, is that a problem?"

"Take him down!" Lieutenant Li ordered.

Three soldiers burst in shortly afterward, carrying some kind of strangely shaped, slender gun. Two of them raised their guns to guard against Aziz, while the third handcuffed him with electromagnetic handcuffs.

Aziz turned his head and smiled at Di Yan, but was immediately pushed by the soldiers behind him, and was forced to stumble forward a few steps.

"Stop looking, let's go!" the soldiers urged, and Aziz was escorted out of the room by the three men.

Li Guangyu and Han Qinghe walked into the room with solemn expressions, observing the messy state of the dormitory along the way.

"He started the trouble first." Di Yan moved his not-so-flexible jaw and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his thumb.

"We know, but it will take time to get here." Li Guangyu nodded in understanding, his attitude much gentler than before.

She put her hands on her hips, took a deep breath, and said, "I'm sorry we're a little late."

"It's alright, even if you don't come, I can still beat him." Di Yan smiled, his face covered in bruises, and he spat out a mouthful of blood onto the ground.

"I hope so... You did a good job. Xavier has it all on camera; Aziz did indeed start causing trouble for those Africans as soon as he walked in, and his behavior was appalling."

Li Guangyu looked at the pitiful Africans, while Han Qinghe surrounded them, asking them questions.

"Why did you hire someone like that?" Di Yan questioned in a low voice. "Don't you understand how dangerous he is?"

Li Guangyu considered for a moment, then looked at Di Yan seriously: "In our view, you are all in the same danger. Besides, the list belongs to our superiors. I am only responsible for recruiting you from all over the world to this starship and preparing for future operations."

Di Yan narrowed his eyes in confusion: "Operation? What is it?"

"What I can tell you is that it involves a planetary landing operation," Li Guangyu said softly, as if afraid that others would hear. "Don't tell anyone about this. Even if everyone will experience it in the future, don't reveal it beforehand."

"Landing operation? You want us to go back and attack Earth?" Di Yan's eyes showed wariness.

Li Guangyu immediately shook his head: "It's not Earth, it's a satellite of Jupiter. You'll all find out later."

Di Yan looked at the ground, lost in thought, his mind a jumbled mess.

Li Guangyu patted him on the shoulder: "I trust you, that's why I'm telling you this. I promise Aziz will never come here again, nor will he train with you. He will be taken away for interrogation."

"Then it's best if I never see him again." Di Yan's sharp gaze pierced Li Guangyu.

"If there is a next time, I will kill him without hesitation."

Li Guangyu gasped, looked away, and nodded gently: "Okay, I promise you."

She turned to leave, then seemed to remember something, turning back halfway to Di Yan behind her and saying, "We'll help you clean up the house. So, you should take your roommates to the hospital first and get your injuries treated. Xavier will tell you how to get there."

Di Yan nodded slightly and watched Li Guangyu and Han Qinghe leave.

He Xu struggled to his feet, clutching his stomach and leaning on Di Yan's shoulder, painfully staring at the gradually closing arched hatch: "Don't worry... I'm not dead yet."

"I'm not worried," Di Yan said coldly. "Go check on An Zaiyin's condition. I'll take you to the hospital."

……

It was already evening when everyone returned from the hospital. There was no distinction between day and night here; the only way to tell the time was through the tablets they carried.

Carrying such a bulky thing around is inevitably inconvenient, and Di Yan hopes that they can be fitted with eye masks as soon as possible, as that would be the most convenient thing.

He Xu clutched his stomach, still experiencing waves of cramping pain: "They've probably packed everything up by now." The dormitory's arched hatch was not far ahead.

"Yes, Lieutenant Li made that promise."

Di Yan stepped forward, reached out and opened the hatch. The scene inside made his eyes light up.

The bright and spacious room had everything replaced with new items, and each bed had a package on it that looked like a set of clothes.

He picked up the things from his bed and found that it was indeed a set of clothes, the gray uniform of the Viyin Starship Army.

There was also a small light green plastic box on the bed, which he picked up and examined closely.

"Hehe, just what I wanted, here it comes." He threw the tablet on the bed, solemnly opened the small box with both hands, inside lay a pair of crystal clear, round, transparent membranes.

This is the eye mask, which was distributed to everyone along with their uniforms.

The small box contains eye masks and an earphone. It's small, exquisite, and as thin as a sticker. You can use it simply by attaching it to the outside of your ear canal.

This is the first time I've seen a non-in-ear headset like the DiYan. This design doesn't have noise cancellation, but it has many advantages, such as being able to be worn 24 hours a day and being able to pay attention to surrounding sounds.

"This beating wasn't for nothing, here comes the good stuff." He Xu lay back on the bed and started putting on his eye mask and headset.

Just like wearing contact lenses, Di Yan applied the eye mask to his eyeballs, blinked, and felt no discomfort.

He quickly slid his gaze from left to right, a motion that unlocked the eye membrane.

The eye membrane was removed, and an interface appeared in front of Di Yan's eyes, covering part of the scene before him. It was very three-dimensional, as if it really existed, and it was floating in the air not far in front of him.

After clicking around in the air, Di Yan found that the pair of eye masks were very clean and had very strict permissions. Apart from the necessary components such as communication, maps, and internal emails, there were no extra functions or options, and no changes could be made.

"As expected, these are military-grade eye masks," he thought to himself.

Mpuente and his teammates had changed into their new uniforms and were all smiles, even though they had been soundly beaten up by Aziz just hours earlier.

Ahn Jae-in's right wrist was immobilized by the doctor and he was lying on the bed, feeling frustrated as he tried to operate the eye mask. He discovered there were no entertainment options, which only deepened his gloom, so he picked up the tablet again. But then a sharp, stabbing pain shot through his wrist, and the Korean man felt utterly miserable.

According to Li Guangyu, today is for everyone to adjust to the time difference. They must rest on time tonight, and they will be adjusted to the time difference after waking up tomorrow.

Time flew by, and for the next two weeks, everyone trained regularly according to the plan arranged by their superiors.

There was a cultural class every three days in the morning. Ever since that teacher experienced Di Yan's chilling gaze, he never dared to look Di Yan in the eye during class and always deliberately avoided looking at Di Yan's seat.

The academic courses mostly focused on the laws and regulations of the Viyin Starship Force, which were rather dry and boring.

In the classroom, a large number of students were laughing and playing around, completely ignoring the teacher in front of them.

This frail man was helpless; he knew all too well that these people were unlike any of the students he had ever taught.

They were all ruthless killers.

Di Yan listened attentively in the first few classes, but when he realized he wasn't getting the information he wanted, he gradually became lazy.

The two-day theoretical classes were the most troublesome, while another teacher was constantly popularizing scientific knowledge among everyone.

During the class, someone slammed their hand on the table and raised it. The teacher asked them to ask a question, and the person replied, "What's the use of learning all this? Is it to help us unlock more scientific postures?"

As he spoke, the man stood up and roughly moved his hips back and forth, immediately causing a burst of laughter to erupt in the room.

The teacher simply rolled his eyes at him and continued lecturing.

He had received a warning from Lieutenant Li and knew exactly what kind of people these men were, so he chose to focus on doing his job and avoid provoking them.

Di Yan listened attentively. Even though these theories were still far removed from the technology already realized in the surrounding area, he was willing to learn more, because he never knew when he might need to use them.

Furthermore, in the theoretical classes, he also found the feeling that Jeremy had when he was explaining technical principles to him.

Back on Earth, whenever Jeremy Godwin made a new discovery, he would enthusiastically grab Di Yan's hands and talk at length. As for the tools and firearms specially made for each mission, he would explain in detail the ingenious design he had put into them.

He was a very pure person; he saw almost nothing but machines and procedures.

In his words, the edifice of science is already extremely tall, reaching an unscalable level. Therefore, rather than overestimating his abilities to reach the top of the edifice, he prefers to study some small things. These small objects give him a greater sense of accomplishment, even if they are not very practical most of the time.

As a result, the place where the two lived was filled with Jerry's miscellaneous "masterpieces," and Di Yan didn't know what most of them were for.

Looking at the teacher giving a perfunctory lecture on the podium, and the unfamiliar and complicated mathematical formulas and charts on the electronic blackboard, his mind had long since drifted back to Earth.

"Jerek, how are you doing now?"

In the established training plan, apart from academic and theoretical classes, the rest were all tactical training exercises, which were led by Instructor Xue Jingyi in a large hall as spacious as a football field.

This is a real military officer, holding the same rank as Li Guangyu as a lieutenant, and has nine years of military service.

Xue Jingyi's training program was very rigorous. She knew that these people were elites from Earth, so she trained them with an intensity that matched their abilities.

The daily weighted long-distance running of dozens of kilometers, coupled with massive strength training, is rapidly wearing down the temperament of these battlefield prodigies.

At first, those usually loud and boisterous people would occasionally laugh and talk about Xue Jingyi's beautiful appearance and curvaceous figure. As a result, when others heard them, the whole team was punished with double the amount of training.

From then on, these people became much more obedient, and each of them worked hard to complete many training programs, as if they had returned to that summer when they served in the military.

Two weeks later, during Xue Jingyi's tactical training session, the group had just completed a 10-kilometer warm-up run and were scattered in the center of the field.

Xue Jingyi's bright eyes swept over everyone, and she announced loudly, "We will not be doing physical fitness and strength training today."

Everyone looked up in surprise. Two weeks had passed, and the gazes directed at Xue Jingyi no longer carried a frivolous provocation.

"Today we will be working on a new project, which will be the skills you rely on to survive on the battlefield in the future." Xue Jingyi paused deliberately to create a solemn atmosphere.

"Are we finally going to get to handle weapons?" someone shouted from the crowd.

A slight smile appeared on Xue Jingyi's face: "What's so special about touching a weapon?" The person who asked the question blinked.

"Today I'll teach you how to pilot a mech."