The morning training session ended. Jack's role switched from instructor to student. Starting today, he and Leo would study under General Cyril 's guidance.
When they arrived at Cyril 's office, the general didn't even look up. He simply pointed at a massive pile of books.
"Basic theory," Cyril said. "Two days. Memorize it."
Jack's face went pale. "That many? These are textbooks, not novels!"
Leo was already flipping through the first book, taking notes.
Cyril finally looked up. "You think becoming a competent commander is easy?"
Jack opened his mouth, then closed it. Those were his exact words to the trainees this morning. Karma was fast.
Cyril 's lips curved into a slight smile. Jack's stomach dropped. This was going to be payback.
"Those books are for your own time," Cyril continued. "Right now, we're starting class." He looked at Leo. "You'll focus on tactical deployment and troop formation."
Then he turned to Jack. "You'll focus on command decisions and battlefield judgment."
"You two," Cyril paused, "need to learn how to work together."
Leo glanced at Jack. Jack shrugged.
Cyril pulled up a holographic display. "Let's begin."
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Over the following days, Cyril 's teaching method became clear. He wasn't training them the same way.
During one session, Cyril presented a historical battle scenario.
Red force: 300troops. Blue force: 2,00 troops. Red's commander chose to assault directly. Leo, if you were the staff officer, what would you recommend?"
Leo immediately pulled up data, his fingers flying across the interface. "Red has a numerical advantage, but the terrain is unfavorable. Direct assault casualties would be 30-40%. I'd recommend a flanking maneuver through the western ridge..."
Cyril nodded. "Perfect analysis."
He turned to Jack. "You're the commander. Leo just gave you his recommendation. What do you do?"
Jack studied the map. "I'd assault anyway."
Leo's head snapped up. "But the casualties—"
"I know," Jack said. "But flanking takes time. If enemy reinforcements arrive, we lose. Sometimes you have to take the risk."
Cyril 's eyes gleamed with approval. "That's the difference between you two. Leo provides the optimal solution. Jack decides when to execute it. One is the skeleton, the other is the soul."
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The contrast between them became more evident as days passed.
While memorizing battle cases was torture for Jack, he had to admit Cyril was brilliant. Each battle Cyril dissected revealed layers Jack had never considered. Confident tactical choices—moves Jack would never dare attempt—suddenly made sense when Cyril explained the underlying Logic.
Even famous battles Jack knew by heart became different under Cyril 's analysis. The general would shift perspective, examine the data correlations, the terrain selection, and the deception methods. Everything became crystal clear.
For Leo, Cyril took a different approach. He deliberately avoided imposing his own tactical thinking. Instead of systematically teaching formation and deployment—Leo's weakest areas—Cyril used battle cases to guide Leo's thinking, helping him develop his own tactical philosophy.
After class, Leo would return to his quarters and study until midnight, memorizing every formation, every deployment pattern, every numerical model.
Jack would head straight to Nova's lab and fold himself into impossible yoga positions inside the gravity chamber.
The next day, Cyril would test them.
Leo could recite every detail flawlessly—troop numbers, casualty rates, terrain advantages.
Jack forgot half of it.
Cyril shook his head. "Can't you study like Leo?"
Jack scratched his head. "General, I can't remember all those numbers. But I know when to listen to Leo and when not to."
Cyril was silent for a moment. "Maybe... that's enough."
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Outside of combat theory, Cyril also discussed broader topics—international politics, the Dragun Empire's internal affairs. Jack found these conversations fascinating.
"The Tartarus Legion," Cyril said one day, "is the Empire's elite special forces. They've been active in warfare for centuries."
"Are they strong?" Jack asked.
Cyril shook his head. "Individual combat capability? Average. Due to Dragun's economic and technological limitations, their mechs and equipment can only intimidate military-weak nations like the Federation. Against superpowers' special forces, they don't have an advantage."
"However," Cyril paused, "in terms of small unit coordination and battalion-level officer capability, Tartarus Legion ranks in the top five special forces across human space."
Cyril provided Jack with a comprehensive data package on Tartarus Legion tactics, including their mech operation training protocols.
Jack accepted it like treasure. Know your enemy.
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On another day, Cyril guided Jack through an analysis of the current international situation.
"Today's human society," Cyril explained, "aside from a few neutral fringe nations, most countries have joined either the FPA or the PACT."
The two military alliances had been in confrontation for over a century. Previously, conflicts were limited to regional wars.
"But in the last fifty years," Cyril 's expression grew serious, "the war has escalated step by step to what we see today."
This half-century had been humanity's darkest period.
From 2230 to 2450, resource wars and political turmoil, including the loss of the Genesis, caused a technological winter. Research into artificial intelligence and laser-sail propulsion stagnated for over a century.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Many central nations had ceased to exist.
"Humanity's first universe-scale war is coming," Cyril said, looking directly at Jack. "No nation can stay neutral."
These conclusions troubled Jack deeply. Fighting Dragun was one thing. However, if an actual universal war were to erupt, the Federation's fate would be uncertain.
For the first time, he felt genuine survival pressure.
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Life fell into a routine. As military preparations continued on Epsilon II, propaganda on the Epsilon home planet ramped up. The military, in particular, hyped the "Mysterious Captain" and "Mysterious Staff Officer" as a media sensation.
Jack worried his identity might be exposed. If that happened, everyone would pile responsibilities on him. You're the hero—bear the burden until it crushes you!
During his spare time, Jack would run to Nova's lab. He'd converted his simulation pod into a gravity chamber. His growing sense of crisis drove him to punish himself again.
Inside the gravity chamber, Jack pushed himself to the limit. He had the advantage of Mars gene modification—his hands were naturally faster than those of average people. But his potential seemed stuck. No matter how much he trained, he couldn't break through. He barely maintained APS40, and even then, only for under a minute before cramping.
This frustrated Jack immensely. Whether it was Tartarus Legion's elite officers, the top 500 players in "The Crucible: Infinite Warfare," or the masters in Leo's "Mech Warrior Rankings," none had hand speed below APS40.
With no other choice, Jack sought alternative methods to compensate for his speed deficit. After all, on the battlefield, hand speed alone didn't guarantee victory. Only the flexible use of various tactics could defeat seemingly invincible enemies.
Pure speed wasn't the answer.
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Within a few days, Loki challenged several top players.
Since this devious player was so famous, each battle attracted millions of viewers.
This time, his opponent was "Iron Knight," ranked 47th—a player known for his direct confrontation style.
The battle began. Iron Knight charged forward aggressively, spear aimed at Loki's cockpit.
Loki's mech retreated in apparent panic, completely suppressed.
The audience cheered: "Kill that bastard!"
But just as Iron Knight prepared his killing blow...
Loki's mech suddenly extended a mechanical arm from between its legs—a custom modification, typically hidden in the armor.
Crack!
The arm precisely grabbed Iron Knight's left leg joint and twisted hard.
The entire mechanical leg tore off.
Iron Knight's mech lost balance and crashed to the ground.
Loki's mech stood there, the mechanical arm still waving the detached leg.
The audience chat exploded:
"That move again!"
"Too shameless!"
"Killing with his dick—this bastard is humanity's disgrace!"
Related commentary articles appeared everywhere:
"The Little Brother's Hand Strikes Again"
"Angel or Satan? On Loki's Mech Modification Skills"
"Beware His Little Brother—It Hurts!"
"Analyzing Loki's Operational Progress Through Recent Battles"
In reality, Jack watched these comments with a silly grin.
Being devious is the way.
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The gravity device in the lab was initially designed to test mech performance under varying gravity conditions. Jack was the only person in the entire Federation using it to train hand speed. Even if others had thought of it, they lacked such convenient access.
During the rescue mission for Cyril, fighting the [Kingkong] had taught Jack the true meaning of mech combat. After hitting his speed bottleneck, he focused his real training on combining basic commands with hand-to-hand combat techniques, as well as using devious tactics.
In Jack's view, being devious came naturally—no training needed. He just wondered what Nova's reaction would be when she saw [Logic] equipped with that thing.
Since he planned to incorporate hand-to-hand combat techniques, Jack began researching ancient Earth martial arts data.
Very few martial arts records had survived. Nova helped him search for a long time before finally finding a file in Professor Dr. Aris Thorne's lab—an ancient computer containing human training data from an old Earth military laboratory.
Jack was ecstatic.
No wonder he was excited. This research data, dating back to before the formation of Earth's Human Alliance, contained information on grappling, combat, Jeet Kune Do, Karate, and various Earth martial arts schools. Many techniques Jack had never heard of, let alone seen.
These techniques had gradually been abandoned after humanity entered the space age. For several centuries, humanity didn't even have infantry units. Close combat was considered a joke. Wealthy humanity poured resources into warfare, with most combat occurring through long-range air strikes.
Besides combat method changes, the loss of martial arts techniques was related to the transition period between the Earth era and the space age. During mass migration, various martial arts schools were scattered across the endless universe. Without communication and under pressure to survive, many schools gradually disappeared.
Those that barely survived were mostly just forms—flashy but hollow.
Another critical reason was class discrimination. The division between the upper and lower classes completely severed mutual exchange.
During the centuries when space combat dominated, military hand-to-hand combat was largely abandoned. Civilian schools either scattered or perished.
Later, when mechs appeared and seized ground control from fighters, warfare returned to its previous form. Combined mechanized infantry and mechanized armies ultimately became the foundation determining ground war outcomes. Air strikes remained essential but no longer dominated everything.
Training in hand-to-hand combat gradually regained attention from national militaries. However, after centuries of neglect, rebuilding these skills inevitably involved changes. After many years of refinement, modern military combat techniques differed significantly from ancient Earth—combat had become a pure killing technique.
If we are truly comparing, ancient Earth soldiers would likely be outmatched by modern soldiers. Technology had advanced too far. Modern soldiers could train in specialized facilities and recover in medical pods. After exhaustion or injury, one day in a gene bio-chamber would completely heal wounds. Ancient Earth soldiers had no such treatment. Unless individually gifted, modern soldiers held an absolute advantage in raw speed and power.
This didn't mean ancient Earth's rich combat techniques were useless. On the contrary, in Jack's eyes, these were treasures money couldn't buy.
Examining the data's impressive grappling methods, fierce instant-kill techniques, brutal Muay Thai, and agile Taekwondo, as well as techniques compensating for modern combat deficiencies, ancient body training methods also held significant value.
Jack could completely imagine what these techniques would produce when converted into mech commands. And training with these methods in the gravity chamber would help him break through his bottleneck.
He quickly determined his training subjects: Yoga and Jeet Kune Do.
With Jack's current physical condition—speed, strength, and explosive power all far exceeding those of normal people—grappling and instant-kill techniques were merely a matter of familiarizing himself with the moves. Muay Thai could help toughen various body parts, but wouldn't help break his speed bottleneck. Other techniques, such as Taekwondo, relied on explosive power and speed, not much different from modern combat methods, although some technical elements could be borrowed.
Jack realized what he lacked was flexibility.
Current training methods have reached their limit. Only combining hard and soft would allow a breakthrough. Relying purely on force wasn't the right path.
Yoga's flexibility and coordination could help unlock his untapped potential.
After memorizing and practicing both disciplines, Jack locked himself in the gravity chamber again. Every day, under ten times the force of gravity, he constantly moved in circles or folded himself into various shapes. While folding, he'd think: If I added this position to the 72 sex positions, would it count as a new move?
Jack undoubtedly had a strong ability to comprehend. Through continuous Jeet Kune Do and Yoga training, his hand speed gradually showed signs of breaking through the bottleneck.
Combat techniques were just a small part of this research project. Another section discussing scientific methods to assist human development had many similarities with modern human training methods—surprising, considering this was research from centuries ago during the Earth era!
Beyond that, the research discussed many other incredible potential development methods. The most comprehensive and successful was a training system that combined world martial arts schools with military training. By selecting beneficial elements through research and combining them, the warriors trained showed remarkably high performance statistics—in Jack's view, not much less than those of modern ordinary soldiers.
So Jack began another round of self-torture.
Nova had seen enough that she stopped paying attention. This fat guy feared death—if anything went wrong, he'd stop without prompting.
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Late one evening, Cyril stood at his office window, looking at the dual stars in the sky.
His adjutant, Keane, entered with a report.
"General, about the two students..."
Cyril didn't turn around. "What about them?"
"They're very different. Leo studies until midnight every night. Jack..." Keane hesitated. "He spends most of his time in that gravity chamber, doing... yoga?"
Cyril smiled slightly. "Leo will become the perfect staff officer. Give him data, and he'll calculate the optimal solution. Every time."
"And the fat one?"
Cyril finally turned around. "He'll never be a good staff officer. His memory is terrible, his patience worse. But..." Cyril 's eyes gleamed, "When the optimal solution takes too long, when you need to gamble everything on one move—he'll make that decision without hesitation."
"If they can truly cooperate," Cyril said quietly, "the future will be... interesting."
Outside the window, the dual stars continued their eternal dance.
Inside the gravity chamber, Jack's hand speed data slowly but steadily climbed.
APS40... APS41...
The bottleneck was finally beginning to crack.
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(Chapter 89 End)
