Volume 1 Chapter 17.3: The Price of Growth

- The Price of Growth

The female's face immediately fluttered between green and white. Her hands trembled a bit as she undid her belt under the captain's orders, removing her pants along with her panties. Then, she bent down her upper body and directed her round and firm bottom towards the captain.

The captain used the rubber rod to slap in between her legs a few times and coldly said, "Repulsive, I've lost interest. However, your posture isn't bad. You should just stand here for 5 minutes!"

The female cadet clenched her teeth and maintained her extremely obscene position without moving.

The captain walked to Su's face and sized him up. His right hand held the rubber rod and beat down on his left hand's palm a few times and said, "Even though I am unwilling to admit it, you are still the prettiest man I've ever met, to the point where you are even prettier than the women I've seen before. I believe that every man wants to fuck you in the ass, and who knows, one day, you might have a taste of seven or eight men. However, while you are still rather clean right now, I don't mind using my military rod to try your ass a bit. Why don't you take off your pants!"

"I refuse." Su calmly said. The expression on his face didn't show the slightest change.

"You have guts! Then in what way will you refuse me?" The captain smiled expectantly. His expression was extremely sinister.

"I will receive the punishment." Su said.

Soon, a cross was erected under the efforts of multiple cadets. Su's upper body was laid bear, and his arms were bound to the ends of the cross.

The captain first made a few circles around Su. The rubber rod in his hand was suddenly raised and ferociously beat down on Su's ribs! Su's complexion suddenly became deathly pale, and then he took a deep breath, but he didn't cry out. Only the streaks of muscles on his body continuously throbbed, making it quite clear just how much pain he was enduring.

Without waiting for Su to even slightly catch his breath, the captain beat down on Su's ribs again! The way the rod beat down was extremely special, special to the point where none of the cadets, including the girl who still had her bottom raised, could see what was special about the rubber rod. However, Su who had taken half a breath immediately stopped. His body that was covered in jade like skin suddenly became blood red, and then as pale white as paper. All of his muscles were clenched tight in that instant. Sweat poured out from his forehead in large amounts and continuously poured onto the ground.

Bang! The third strike landed on Su's right ribs! Su's head immediately raised. He seemed like he was roaring, but he still didn't release any sound! He couldn't breathe at all!

The forth strike landed on Su's lower back, the fifth on the tail of his spine, the sixth between his chest and abdomen.

Su's entire body released an astonishingly high temperature. His body involuntarily twitched back and forth, and his breathing became extremely short. The oxygen didn't reach his lungs at all and merely moved about in his throat.

However, from start to finish, Su didn't utter a single groan of pain.

Curtis revealed a look of astonishment. He noticed that Su's changes were due to the excessive intense feeling of pain, and that it was indicative of a collapse of his consciousness. The captain originally had confidence in his degree of using the rod to give Su the maximum amount of suffering without truly injuring him. However, he never thought that the amount of pain Su could endure was much, much higher than what the captain predicted. Being able to control oneself even to the point where one's consciousness was about to collapse and not release a single sound made even the captain's opinion of Su change a bit. He reckoned that Su's sense of pain should be 1.5x that of normal people, meaning that if both Su and the normal individual possessed two levels of physical defense, then Su's endurance should be much weaker than the other individual. However, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing, because the more sensitive one was to pain, the more potential one had towards the Perception Domain.

The captain cancelled the remaining three strikes he had planned. Different domains of individuals received different treatment. Since Su's ability was in the Perception Domain, then the 6 strikes he received were equal to a normal person's 10. The pain each strike inflicted was layered on top of the previous ones. Curtis reckoned that if he himself was the one on the cross, then he should be able to endure 15 strikes. After 15 strikes, the captain wouldn't even know what would happen. Perhaps he might go mad.

In Curtis' eyes, those that could endure 9 strikes were all true men! Among the 400 cadets he that had gone through his hands, there were only 3 people who were able to take on 9 strikes. As for Su, being able to endure 10 strikes of suffering without crying out already made him a man among men!

In the captain's eyes, Su's beautiful face and excessively exquisite skin didn't seem that offending to his eyes anymore.

What the captain didn't know was that his evaluation of Su still fell a bit short. Su's sensitive to pain was actually three times that of an ordinary person.

Curtis pointed towards Cook who was lying on the ground without the strength to climb up, as well as that the completely nude girl and said, "You two, it seems like there are families that are quite excellent behind both of you."

"While you..." The captain used the rubber rod to slap Su's chest, but of course, this time, he didn't inflict any pain on Su. "You have an enviable supporter! Only, your supporter isn't that steady, to the point where it might be burdensome to you in the future. In a few years, you might understand my meaning. I never counted on you being able to understand right now anyway."

The captain once again raised his voice. "All of you can see that even those with families backing them and supporters behind them ended up like this. All of you useless trash better dispel your fantasies. Even if I make you eat shit, you all better obediently eat it!"

The two results of refusing the captain's orders had already been clearly shown in front of everyone's faces. One was on the ground at near death, while the other was close to losing consciousness on the cross. Even though the fellow on the ground was already definitely crippled, after seeing the pain that Su endured, a completely unreasonable thought crept into many of their minds. They would rather be the one lying on the ground than become like Su.

The captain snapped his fingers, and two robust and fierce looking soldiers ran over and carried the seriously wounded cadet like a sack. Carrying him on their shoulders, they brought him to the medical room. Whether or not the wounded individual would feel even more pain from this was not in the scope of their consideration.

At that time, the female cadet that continued to maintain that posture on the drill ground was given a good look by the two soldiers. Four streaks of piercing eyes landed on her secret areas, making her smooth and glossy skin reveal a flush of humiliation. She didn't mind being seen by another or even fucked by them as long as the other party had enough strength or authority. However, in this era, she could still be considered to be high up in status, so being looked at like that by two soldiers of the lowest level made her truly embarrassed.

However, she didn't crawl up, nor did she dare to make any other movements. Even if five minutes had long passed, the captain didn't say she could stand up and put on her clothes, so she could only continue standing in this position without moving randomly.

"Right now, I am going to reiterate a rule. In the next three days, I will explain the art of abilities and battle. Then, I will give you each separate missions as well as give you an evaluation for each mission. When you are allowed to carry out your missions, the prohibition on fighting will be released. All of you can do whatever you please as long as you remember two things. One! My orders are absolute! Two! You have to be fair! Especially during your internal struggles. Fairness, I believe all of you recognize and comprehend. Don't think that you can play around with this word and challenge my intelligence. To those that challenge my intelligence, I will promise that from that day forth, they won't have any!"

The end of the morning exercises finally arrived, and only then did the captain remember to tell that female cadet to stand up and put on her clothes. Seeing the female cadet carry resentment, Curtis' large mouth cracked open and said, "Don't actually think anything of that little family! If your family had the strength, would they have sent you over to me? You would have long been sent straight to becoming a dragonrider!"

This sentence was, in fact, spoken for everyone to hear.

Su didn't know how he ended up on a bed. He only remembered that when the various pieces of his consciousness finally managed to piece something together, the ear-piercing alarm had already sounded again.

Su directly popped out of bed, and when he landed on the ground, his flesh suddenly twitched, and he fell back onto the ground. Even though his mind was awake, the extreme suffering his body experienced had not disappeared. Most of his muscles were twitching on their own, not listening to the commands his mind issued.

Su clenched his teeth and did everything he could to move his muscles. After rolling about, he smashed open the barracks door and then barely managed to stand up before bring his body step after step to the center of the drill ground. Then, he took another fall.

The captain's thick military boots appeared in Su's line of sight. "15 seconds perfectly. You luck is pretty good brat. Now, stand up!"

Su movements were extremely similar to a zombie's, and not like that of an extremely nimble living corpse's. However, he still stood up despite the fact that his body continuously shook.

"Hahaha..." Cook suddenly laughed from the side. "Look at this brat that's as weak as a chick! He only suffered a bit, yet he becomes so revolting. No wonder he looks more like a girl than a girl!"

When Cook began to laugh, those that followed him began to join in. Even though the others remained silent, they also looked at Su with a bit of disdain. Even if one who majored in the Perception Domain was more sensitive to pain, they still shouldn't only have such weak resistances.

"All of you, shut up." The captain's words were concise, and his voice wasn't loud, but its effectiveness was instant.