Chapter Six: Carrying an Armory Wherever I Go

The next morning, Lei Dong and Wu Yun were awakened by the roaring sound of trucks. In Lei Dong’s mind, over a dozen heavy trucks rumbled into the underground base under the cover of darkness. A large group of people jumped off the vehicles and began unloading cargo. Soon after, the clanging of tools echoed through the air.

“What’s going on? Midnight demolition?” Wu Yun grumbled in dissatisfaction.

When the squad gathered and prepared to start the day’s training, they were shocked to find that a huge area in the center of the vast base—over three kilometers on each side—had been cordoned off with tall green fences and rope nets. Around the perimeter, heavily armed soldiers stood guard every hundred meters. Inside, workers busily labored, but from outside, nothing could be seen.

“Damn! They really are demolishing something!” Wu Yun shouted.

Although a large section was cordoned off, the Dragon Fury Battalion’s base was so expansive that there was still plenty of space for training. Yet, throughout the entire day, all the squad members were somewhat distracted during drills, especially during breaks and transitions—they couldn’t help but glance repeatedly at the fenced-off area, endlessly speculating about what was hidden inside.

Inside the enclosure, construction advanced rapidly. Rows upon rows of “skyscrapers” were quickly assembled in modular fashion. Wu Yun’s mouth hung open in astonishment. “Wow, what is this?”

Lei Dong was equally surprised, hesitating before saying, “A miniature city model? Does it have to be this big?”

Everyone’s eyes lit up instantly.

The answer was revealed the following day.

Early that morning, after hearing the trucks’ engines roar away, Lei Dong and Wu Yun could no longer contain their curiosity. Before the reveille sounded, they donned their combat uniforms, grabbed their comrades, and rushed to the training ground.

What they saw stunned them utterly.

“Holy hell, holy hell!” curses exploded from every mouth in rapid succession. “This is freaking amazing!”

Before them lay hundreds, even thousands, of skyscrapers standing over ten meters tall, each with a unique shape, densely packed. Every building bore a nameplate. Between the towers, narrow and wide passageways crisscrossed like a spiderweb. Urban high-speed train stations, suburban classical-style buildings—all vividly recreated.

If that wasn’t enough to clarify what it was, then the fake mountain at the southwest corner, over twenty meters high and oddly shaped like a heap of dung, made it unmistakably clear: this was a massive, unprecedented scale model—the miniature capital city of Jepan’s Kyoto!

Sure enough, it was Jepan.

“God, how much money did this cost?” Wu Yun wailed.

Lei Dong laughingly slapped Wu Yun’s back and scolded, “You idiot, all you think about is money. Damn, that’s embarrassing—you should be saying how much effort this took!”

Everyone burst into laughter, sharing the sentiment.

They had trained with miniature models before, especially for urban combat drills, where such models were indispensable. But none were anywhere near this scale. Usually, models spanned only sixty or seventy meters in length and width, with two hundred meters being exceptional. This one was not only over a hundred times larger, but each building was a precisely scaled replica. Upon closer inspection, beneath every building’s name was a dense block of text detailing its structure, materials, vulnerabilities...

Just this fact alone implied countless intelligence operatives had to investigate, numerous designers had to draft blueprints and molds, and if these were all produced in an extremely short period, then an entire arsenal of factories must have cranked out the work with huge manpower and overtime!

“The headquarters definitely splurged big this time!” Lei Dong sighed, then shouted, “Brothers, let’s get to training!”

Everyone understood that until the headquarters issued the final battle plan, no one knew how the war would be fought or to what extent. But one thing was certain: the main battlefield they would soon face was the capital of that rogue nation!

Headquarters had rushed the production of the large-scale Kyoto city model at this precise moment to familiarize the troops with the operational environment in advance, enabling the shortest possible preparation time. From this, it was clear that the most thrilling battle was imminent!

The first step of training was to memorize every corner and street of the city until it was second nature. Like a taxi driver knowing every location and the fastest routes between them—that was the fundamental requirement. Without this, any tactics, operational plans, or improvisation would be mere empty talk.

The squad spent the entire day navigating the miniature city model, which stretched over two kilometers in both length and width, weaving through its maze-like streets. Occasionally, they would pause to compare it with satellite maps and Jepan’s original Kyoto transit charts.

Despite the complexity far surpassing ordinary imagination, driven by excitement and the anticipation of the upcoming mission, not a single person complained—not even Wu Yun, who was usually quick to grumble.

After a day’s training, they had a basic grasp of Kyoto’s terrain and transportation. The next morning, a roaring military truck arrived, bringing a full load of weapons and ammunition—all Minya Federation special forces gear!

This was expected.

In recent years, the Republic’s special forces had crossed borders for operations, mostly targeting small neighboring countries and terrorists. Even so, these operations were carried out in utmost secrecy, striking swiftly and withdrawing quickly to avoid giving international opponents any grounds for criticism. This time, however, the target was a strong nation with a relatively small land area but one of the world’s top economies and a rapidly expanding military. Naturally, they couldn’t afford to give any excuse to their adversaries.

As a result, although all foreign weapons were standard training subjects, and Minya Federation’s equipment was mandatory practice, the troops were accustomed to their own national weapons and even their personally crafted and modified arms. To use Minya gear with perfect fluency—to reach a level where man and gun were one—would require extensive adjustment.

Thus, the training plan was altered on the second day.

After the usual twenty-kilometer armed cross-country “warm-up” in the morning, they continued familiarizing themselves with the terrain. The afternoon began with an hour of shooting practice to get comfortable with the weapons, followed by repeated tactical drills carrying firearms inside the miniature city model.

However, plans were soon disrupted. On the second night, just after completing the day’s training, the squad welcomed a new instructor—an interpreter from the International Political Academy specializing in Jepanese relations.

This instructor’s task was clear: to provide intensive Jepan language training, rapidly elevating the squad’s proficiency to a level indistinguishable from native Jepan speakers.

This greatly increased the pressure on the soldiers.

Although Jepan had long been one of the Republic’s main theoretical adversaries and a key research subject for the Dragon Fury Battalion, and despite Jepanese being one of the soldiers’ foreign languages—derived from the ancient language of the Republic itself—achieving native-like fluency was no easy feat.

On the first day alone, the troops were completely baffled by the instructor’s constant repetition of “a... a, ao, a... a, ao.”

“I’m screwed!” Wu Yun clutched his head, shouting, “Can I apply to be mute? Can we get subtitles—?”

Lei Dong slapped him sharply. “Shut the hell up! You messed everything up, and now you want subtitles? Should I get you a hundred Jepanese war dramas to study with?”

“Yamete—” Wu Yun whined, grinning shamelessly, “Cavalry or infantry dramas?”

“Get lost!”

...

By the third day, Lei Dong issued a firm order: from that day on, all conversations among the squad—including casual exchanges and tactical commands—must be in Jepanese. Anyone caught uttering a single Chinese character would be executed on the spot, no exceptions!

Meanwhile, the dormitory doors were locked, and aside from two hours of language training daily, the whole squad spent twenty-two hours immersed in the training ground, studying various terrain layouts and contingency plans for different scenarios.

Of course, there were unexpected surprises.

On the fifth day of training, Lei Tian’gang—who had been missing for several days—suddenly called Lei Dong to his office.

Upon entering, Lei Dong found not his father waiting, but the ever-elusive old mystic master!

According to the mystic, unusual spiritual energy fluctuations had appeared recently in the far southern region, and he had come specifically to investigate.

No one knew what the two talked about, but over an hour later, the master emerged from the office, looking more disheveled than ethereal, clutching his head with a pale face, and dashed away like a gust of wind.

Lei Dong, on the other hand, strolled out leisurely, holding a modest green ring in his hand, smiling broadly as he returned to the training ground. Yet his words were laced with humor and sarcasm: “I knew that old guy must have some treasure hidden. All that nonsense about cultivators not meddling in worldly affairs—turns out he’s just serving the country like the rest of us!”

“What’s that, boss?” Wu Yun, curious as ever, hurried over and stared at the ring. To him, it looked like nothing more than a plain green stone. Beautiful? Not really.

Lei Dong smiled mysteriously but said nothing. With a gentle wave of his hand, Wu Yun’s eyes blurred, and the 32 automatic rifles lying on the ground vanished silently—just like that!

This stunned not only Wu Yun but also Lang Tianyu, Bei Shiliang, and others. Their eyes nearly popped out. In a stunned silence, Lei Dong grinned proudly and drew a circle in the air. Suddenly, the pile of guns on the ground disappeared again.

Then, to everyone’s disbelief, without any visible movement from Lei Dong, the rifles abruptly reappeared before them, clattering loudly on the floor, producing a metallic symphony.

“Could this be... the legendary...” Wu Yun’s voice trembled with excitement, unable to finish his sentence.

“That’s right. The legendary Storage Ring!” Lei Dong laughed heartily. “How about that? Pretty good, huh?”

The crowd nodded blankly, eyes fixed on the unassuming ring. They swallowed hard and mechanically agreed, “Good stuff... really good stuff...”

Suddenly, Wu Yun recalled an important question: “How big is it?”

Everyone’s expressions turned serious. Indeed, capacity was crucial. If it were too small to hold only a few guns, even a legendary artifact would be useless.

Lei Dong shook his head. “Not too big...” Seeing the faint disappointment on his comrades’ faces, he laughed heartily. “Damn, it’s only about the size of a basketball court in area and less than ten meters high. Pretty lame!”

“What? No way! That’s awesome!” The others paused, then erupted into thunderous cheers.

Amid the excitement, Lei Dong sighed, “Too bad that old guy’s poor. I searched him all over but only found this one. If there were ten or eight of these, we’d have nothing to worry about…”

“Slap!” Before he finished, Wu Yun smacked him on the back, nearly knocking him to the ground. “Don’t be so ungrateful. Do you think these things grow on trees? Ten or eight? This is practically a portable arsenal!”