After Being Reborn, I became a firefighter again?

The captain really wanted the new recruits to experience firefighting rope climbing.

The squads of his squadron had only left the corps not too long ago.

During the concentration training for the new recruits, the old soldiers didn’t provide much psychological preparation for them. The rope climbing exercise was often met with fear, with many people claiming acrophobia and reluctance to climb.

The People’s Armed Police don’t have the same conditions as the firefighting unit to specially build a training tower. To be honest, climbing up into the empty air can be quite frightening, and the psychological barrier is not easy to overcome.

Moreover, there were so many new recruits, and it was unrealistic to provide the kind of extensive guidance the firefighting unit did.

He hoped to use the bold new firefighters to spur on his own men.

But the "king of the new recruits" from Special Duty started by talking big as soon as he arrived.

"How do you want to bet? What are we betting on?" The captain had already become a bit serious.

Fang Huai immediately shouted:

"Reporting to leadership! I can train first and then enter the ring!

If I beat all your squadron’s new recruits and then win in the ring, could you let the few of us who came shoot some targets?"

Damn.

This exclamation of ’damn’ arose within the hearts of the three firefighters.

Ni Ma, it’s valuable now.

To touch a gun!

Agree to it! Agree to it! Agree to it!

The three internally chanted like maniacs.

However, the captain suddenly burst into laughter:

"Little brother, you really are inexperienced! You too are part of the People’s Armed Police system. If you want to train at friendly shooting ranges, all you have to do is get your leaders to talk to our detachment, and it’s easily arranged!"

Hearing this, Fang Huai’s mouth twitched.

You must be the one with connections, right?

Me, a new recruit, ask the higher-ups?

Do you even know how to write ’scram’?

What if something goes wrong? Who isn’t afraid of taking responsibility among the leadership?

It sounds easy for you, but I never touched a gun once in my previous life of five years.

But looking at the captain, who seemed quite young, there might be a chance he had some connections.

His sayings were akin to suggesting the penniless should rent out rooms or drive for Didi.

"Leadership, just say if we can bet or not, we just want to touch the guns today."

The "impecunious" Fang Huai was full of speechlessness, feeling like he was begging for food from a landlord.

Although the Armed Police Internal Defense’s duty squadrons shoot real bullets less frequently than the Mobile Division and People’s Liberation Army, there are a lot of people.

Just for the few of them, five bullets per person would be no pressure at all.

The captain merely narrowed his eyes before making a decision:

"Alright, it’s you who talked big! Later, if after the training you say you can’t enter the ring, and you don’t get a kicking from everyone in turn, you can’t leave today!"

Fang Huai just chuckled: "I can’t leave, then I can’t leave. Just feed me, and that’ll be fine!

I take a ten-minute break between each training round!"

"Hahaha... Refreshing! I like this kind of new recruit who volunteers for extra training! Platoon leader, get him suited up and record his score!"

The protective gear of the People’s Armed Police isn’t just a pure belt but is rather a harness protective suit that supports the buttocks, which honestly was much more comfortable than the stiff waist belt used by the firefighters.

During firefighting operations, if a comrade clenched their hand, the belt could easily constrict upwards on oneself.

Seeing that Fang Huai was about to start, and they hadn’t been arranged for anything, Song Lin immediately raised his hand and shouted loudly:

"Leadership, we want to train too!"

"Good!" The captain bellowed, hands on his hips, turning back to face his squadron’s new recruits:

"Do you see that! Our new comrades from the firefighters are as aggressive as tigers. As soon as it comes to training, not a single one wants to be left out!

How good is our unit? On weekends, we even let you take afternoon naps! Still not satisfied?

I’m telling you, the firefighters have it much tougher than us!

Look at them, learn from them!

If I catch anyone hiding a mobile phone, secretly smoking, or mumbling behind my back not following the squad leader’s orders, I’ll send you to a firefighting training class so you can really learn what hardship is!"

My goodness.

Fang Huai felt like his soul of sarcasm was close to awakening.

The leadership’s PUA tactics are truly pervasive!

What does all that have to do with training? Plus, we firefighters have all those same problems!

If they really came to firefighting, they’d only be more comfortable, right?

After the captain finished speaking, he even shot a look of encouragement over: "Come on, climb it, and show them! I don’t see what’s so hard about climbing a rope! If others can do it, why can’t we?"

Alas, you have to cooperate when you’re under someone’s roof.

Fang Huai sighed, raised his hand, and agreed.

"Up!"

Fang Huai leaped up, grasped the main rope with both hands, and quickly alternated his grip as he climbed upward.

The same feeling, the same method of climbing ropes.

The only difference was the scenery.

Fang Huai was climbing rapidly, without the preparatory leap towards a window, undistracted, reaching 12 meters in about 14 seconds.

The next 6 meters were not simply an extra 6 meters to the average new recruit.

That was the additional 6 meters after one’s strength was already spent.

But Fang Huai was no ordinary individual, even appearing to climb faster as he ascended.

Because he took one look at the surrounding scenery, and it truly was a bit creepy.

The emptiness all around, no cover from the training tower, even the slight cool breeze of March could be felt.

The higher he went, even the noise below became quiet.

There’s an inherent instinct in the body to avoid danger, urging him to get out of there quickly.

The people below on safety duty were not the comrades he knew well, unfamiliar with the performance of the protective gear on his body. If he were to lose grip, there were no windows to grab for an emergency escape...

A mind that usually had many thoughts couldn’t help analyzing these potentially dangerous situations.

For the first time, Fang Huai clearly realized that he was afraid of dying.

Previously, he was too confident, believing he knew the domain of firefighting inside out. But now, just a plain rope and a safety rope were enough to threaten his life.

Employing hands and feet alike.

"Alright!"

As soon as he reached the top, Fang Huai immediately raised his hand.

There was no sound from below.

All he could hear was the wind whistling by his ears.

Looking down, the captain was just waving for him to come back down.

Fang Huai didn’t feel much of the safety rope’s tension either.

Damn it, this Armed Police really deals with the flesh and blood, long ropes being one thing but after climbing up, you still have to climb down on your own.

No wonder so many people struggled with this exercise; of those who came with him, probably only Song Lin could climb up and down twice.

Fang Huai alternated his hands, loosening the rope on his feet slowly to descend.

Once on the ground, he could hear the captain enthusiastically shouting:

"Applause!"

Fang Huai smiled and joined in the clapping with everyone else.

"Awesome, brother! You almost broke our detachment’s record of 19 seconds! 20.53!!" the captain cheered and clapped excitedly.

Upon hearing this, the corners of Fang Huai’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch.

Freaking hell, 1.53 seconds off and you call that close?

But with rope climbing, the gaps in performance were indeed big. He wasn’t sure about an 18-meter rope, but take a 12-meter rope, for instance—top performers could reach up to just over ten seconds, and the slower ones could take forty to fifty seconds.

Once you have enough arm strength to easily control your body, it’s a whole different story.

If you can do a 12-meter rope in fourteen or fifteen seconds, your arm strength is definitely ample. After that, it all comes down to technique.

As for an 18-meter rope...

He had hesitated for a moment when he was climbing up high just now.

Otherwise, he could have been even closer to their detachment’s record.

The captain was going crazy with praise again:

"Look, look! What skill, huh? You guys with your pitiful results, always comparing with each other, what’s there to compare? If you don’t train to reach this level, do you even have the face to speak up?"

His words made the new recruits feel somewhat ashamed.

The lean and dark Zhou Quangen led the response loudly: "Yes, squadron leader! We will definitely train hard!"

Fang Huai couldn’t hold back and added, "Leader... my level is also at the front in our detachment... and I’m going to participate in the corps martial arts competition later this year! Not to mention new recruits, quite a few special duty old soldiers can’t even beat me."

The captain was stunned for a second.

Then he got excited again: "See, this new recruit is participating in the army’s grand martial arts competition! Can you guys do that?!"

"Cough," Fang Huai choked, not daring to keep up with the conversation.

You’re quite something, leader.

If I’d come here, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have discovered I’m so awesome by now, and you would have PUAed me to max level before I could get out of the newbie village.

Fang Huai silently moved back into his own squad’s lineup and signaled for Song Lin to go up.

Song Lin was also eager as he approached.

Rope climbing was his forte.

How could he not seize the chance to put on a textbook demonstration?

But once he started, the same thing happened to him at 12 meters; he stumbled just like Fang Huai had.

However, unlike Fang Huai, who hesitated for just half a second, this guy hesitated for a full one or two seconds.

When he came down, the captain loudly announced the time: 30.05 seconds.

Again, a bunch of "look, look" and "as soon as he starts, that’s your limit" kind of talk.

By the time Song Lin returned to the lineup, there was already a sullen look on his face, muttering under his breath:

"Damn... it’s just not the same as climbing the training tower... getting up there with everything so bare, I was scared pissless."

Fang Huai laughed inwardly.

As long as I’m not the only one scared to piss myself.

Xiao Haishan, 38 seconds, the difference became apparent, and for once the captain kept quiet.

Han Yong actually managed to climb to the top too.

It took him a full 50 seconds.

But to Fang Huai’s great surprise, the captain got all fired up again, pointing at a couple of slightly overweight new recruits and bellowed:

"If he can get up there and make it to the top, even carrying some extra weight, why can’t you even dare to try climbing? Why? Is the rice you eat different, or did our People’s Armed Police not put oil in your meals? Climb! You must climb for me today!

Don’t give me any crap about being afraid of heights. Even if you get scared to death up there, I still have casualty quotas to fill during training! Deputy platoon leader, these are your soldiers, make sure they climb!"

They were thoroughly intimidated.

Truthfully, Han Yong wasn’t considered fat anymore; you could see the cheekbones on his face now, he just had a bit of a soft chin.

The guy, with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, was actually quite handsome.

...

Horizontal bar, a confidence event for the People’s Armed Police.

After resting a bit, Fang Huai jumped up to the bar and nailed 48 reps.

Spot on.

The captain didn’t go on about "look, look" this time.

Rope climbing wasn’t their regular practice, but horizontal and parallel bars were where the armed police were at home.

That horizontal bar result was like a tag for every old soldier, a daily must, with twice the training frequency of firefighting.

reps, already challenging most of the old soldiers in the squadron.

And that was right after climbing the rope.

minutes rest, then 48 reps. Is this guy even human?

Of course, strictly speaking, Fang Huai’s recovery ability was no longer human. Give him another 20 minutes, and he could achieve his peak performance.

"Brother, are you sure you never trained before?" The captain moved in, somewhat incredulous.

Fang Huai didn’t speak but lifted his hand, palm up, showing the thick, repeatedly hardened calluses that never stopped growing.

Very thick, the build-up from dozens of repeated sessions.

Among those 56 reps, half of it might be thanks to the system, but no doubt the other half was his own effort.

He didn’t want to take off his socks to show the blood blisters on his feet; it was more frightful to behold.

The recovery ability the system provided allowed him to train longer and more desperately than the others.

"Good soldier."

The captain praised and patted his shoulder.

"But if you dare to challenge our squadron, you must be prepared to take a beating."

Fang Huai smirked: "Maybe not, leader."

...

Five o’clock sharp.

In a simple tent.

"Come on! Go, Class Leader Wu, go!"

The entire squadron’s chanting was as thunderous as a World Cup stadium, rhythmically cheering for their own class leader.

Sun Jingwu also watched Fang Huai with amazement, occasionally leading the three new recruits to shout "Go Fang Huai" during the brief quiet moments of the others’ cheering.

The weakness in their voices made it seem almost like a draft was blowing through.

Fang Huai and the physically fit old soldier from the second intake, both were in a space that wasn’t particularly large, wearing boxing gloves.

There wasn’t even a ring, just a large square carpet on the ground with a makeshift rope barrier around it.

Poverty, the bitter poverty of the Armed Police.

Fang Huai cursed inwardly.

If I happen to fall, there’d be no cushioning at all.

As he watched the old soldier before him don the gloves and throw some quick jabs and kicks to warm up in the confined space, Fang Huai began to feel a little uncertain.

If the space was too cramped to dodge and he took a hit...

If he initiated the challenge, did it count as an on-the-job injury?