Chapter 368 Sanbianpo

The sunset had completely faded, and a somewhat dim, yellowish light flickered on within the dormitories of the Special Operations Base.

Yan Poyue sat slumped in his chair, dazed. The thick manual in his hand had already slipped, hitting the hard concrete floor with a 'thud'.

He didn't immediately pick it up with his usual care.

At this moment, his proud heart—the heart of a top student—was riddled with holes.

...

Time passed minute by minute, and the night outside grew darker and heavier.

Even as evening arrived, Yan Poyue remained in a despondent mood.

He looked as if his spirit had been drained, sitting on the edge of the bed staring blankly without saying a word.

In his mind, the days and nights of the past three days flashed incessantly.

He remembered how he had gone without sleep or rest to calculate those sets of air pressure formulas regarding multi-warhead dispersion.

He also remembered how he had racked his brains to understand those outrageously complex infrared thermal imaging band analyses.

He had even secretly clenched his fist in excitement in the middle of the night because he finally understood the internal microscopic structural diagram of that modular mount.

He had thought he was researching some kind of ultimate individual weapon.

But what was the result?

That line of ant-sized text had stripped away all his effort and pride, leaving nothing behind.

...

Later that night, after the other team members had finished their personal rest, showered, and returned to the dorm carrying the fresh scent of soap.

Everyone immediately noticed the abnormality in the room.

The atmosphere in this spacious eight-man dormitory was unusually quiet.

On normal days, although Yan Poyue didn't speak much, he would definitely be holding a book whenever he had free time. That level of focus was something even his comrades-in-arms admired.

But why had he suddenly become so listless??

Seeing his state, everyone was very curious.

They gathered around and asked him what was going on.

"Xiao Yueyue, what's wrong? I didn't see you go to dinner. Are you sick?"

A young team member codenamed Lynx leaned in front of Yan Poyue, drying his dripping hair with a towel while carefully examining his expression.

"Did you fail to get a perfect score in the CQB assault training today and you're sulking here?"

Another burly demolitionist also pulled up a chair and sat down, asking with concern.

Faced with the barrage of questions from his comrades.

Yan Poyue felt this matter was truly a bit embarrassing.

A top student like himself, who had been at the head of the class since childhood, had actually been played for three whole days by a casual phrase like "one-click matching."

If he told the truth, these guys would laugh their heads off.

This would definitely become an indelible dark history in his Special Front career.

Therefore, even if it killed him, he wouldn't say a word.

He kept his mouth tightly shut.

Then he straightened his back, trying to keep his facial muscles natural, putting on a cool front, unwilling to say more.

...

However, no one who could join the Special Front was a fool.

These guys were all old foxes who had been tempered through countless life-and-death battles and counter-reconnaissance training.

Their powers of observation were sharper than the most precise detection instruments.

The eyes of the other members of this Special Front action team were incredibly sharp.

They keenly noticed his dodging gaze.

More importantly, everyone saw that thick book on the table.

That manual, which Yan Poyue had treated like a treasure and wouldn't even let others touch for the past two days, was now abandoned on the tabletop like scrap paper.

The men exchanged looks.

They signaled to each other with their eyes.

Then, one of them—it was Lynx, who was usually known for his speed and explosive power.

Like a hunting leopard, he suddenly kicked off the ground, his body turning into a blur.

The young member lunged forward and snatched the thick manual.

The movement was as smooth as flowing water, so fast that it was impossible to react.

Yan Poyue's nerves were already in an extremely sensitive state.

Seeing the manual taken away, his expression changed.

"Don't touch that!"

He cried out and lunged forward, trying to grab it back.

Seeing this, the team members burst out laughing.

"I knew it!"

Lynx dodged Yan Poyue's lunge with a graceful slide and waved the manual in his hand.

"So your state really was because of this manual."

It turned out they were just testing him.

If Yan Poyue had been indifferent to the book, it would have meant it wasn't the problem.

But his reaction, like a tiger protecting its food, was a complete self-incrimination.

...

Yan Poyue wanted to snatch it back.

But in such a cramped indoor space, facing a group of top comrades from the Special Front.

He was only one person; how could he snatch it from so many?

After darting left and right, he naturally did not succeed.

Seeing that Yan Poyue was getting desperate.

The team members' movements became even swifter.

"Brothers, use tactics!"

Several people worked together and pinned him directly onto the bed.

Once this group of muscular men made a move, Yan Poyue had no room for resistance.

Someone used a thick arm to hook around his neck.

Of course, this was just friends fooling around, so they didn't really use force; they just deprived him of his leverage.

Someone else grinned mischievously and pulled off his shoes, revealing his feet.

"Kid, confess and be treated with leniency, resist and be treated with severity! What's with this book?"

As he spoke, that team member began to tickle the soles of his feet vigorously, interrogating him while tickling, forcing him to tell the truth.

"Hahahaha... stop..."

The piercing itch from his soles caused Yan Poyue's defenses to collapse instantly, his body twisting violently like a fish out of water.

"Stop tickling..."

Yan Poyue pleaded for mercy and struggled, out of breath.

Under this level of special forces "tortured confession," he could only give in.

"I'll talk, I'll talk," Yan Poyue said, panting.

...

Hearing him soften, the team members laughed and let go, handing the manual back to him.

Yan Poyue rubbed his sore shoulders, sighed helplessly, and pointed to the last page of the manual.

"Look at the very bottom of the back cover yourselves..."

Shortly after, they all flipped to the end.

Several heads crowded under the desk lamp, their eyes following the page all the way down.

Finally, everyone saw that last line written on the back cover.

It was a line of extremely small text hidden next to the printing version number.

Lynx cleared his throat and read it out word by word:

"[Warm Tip: If the user does not wish to gain a deep understanding of the tedious parameter configurations, they may directly activate the toy gun's preset one-click intelligent matching function.]"

When he finished reading the last word.

The air in the entire dormitory seemed to freeze for a second.

All the special operations members looked at each other, their brains frantically processing the massive impact contained in those few dozen words.

Immediately after clearly seeing that line of small print, the entire dormitory erupted into deafening laughter.

"Hahahaha!"

"I can't take it, my stomach hurts!"

"What kind of 'warm tip' is that?! What kind of 'one-click intelligent matching' is that?!"

"Xiao Yueyue, you spent three days and nights without eating or sleeping to gnaw on this hardcore high-tech, and it turns out it comes with a one-click matching function?"

"You're killing me, your top student IQ was rubbed into the ground by this manual!"

The comrades laughed until they were doubled over; some held their stomachs and crouched on the floor, while others kept slapping their thighs.

This uninhibited laughter was particularly piercing in the quiet base.

...

Just as the dormitory was in an uproar, the door was pushed open.

Action Team Leader Old Wolf walked in.

He had heard the wild laughter of these Little Rascals from the hallway. He came in to ask and learned the whole story.

Old Wolf took the manual to look at it, then glanced at the grey plastic pistol tossed in the box.

Old Wolf rubbed his chin and said, "It's probably an experimental weapon that Old Wang got his hands on. He never intended for us to choose this. That kid Old Wang is just plain wicked."

The 'Old Wang' Old Wolf mentioned was the subordinate in the Ministry of Military Industry responsible for coordinating and delivering equipment to them.

In Old Wolf's impression, although Old Wang was serious at work, he was actually quite a mischievous person in private.

This semi-finished product labeled as a "toy gun" must have been thrown in by Old Wang as a filler.

Who could have imagined that the only bookworm in this team would actually treat it like a treasure.

Old Wolf stepped forward, patted Yan Poyue's shoulder, and said, "Don't overthink it. We're going on a mission tomorrow; just use your other weapon."

...

Yan Poyue nodded listlessly.

His gaze fell on the plastic pistol he had pinned such high hopes on.

He also felt this weapon was unreliable now.

To think that before, he had felt this might be the kind of high-tech weapon he had imagined.

After all, that manual was so tedious and thick, and the air pressure dispersion diagrams and temperature control parameters inside looked so professional.

That heavy feel and layout did indeed resemble the style of a high-tech weapon manual.

But now, he no longer thought so.

He had no hope left at all.

Time passed amidst the laughter of the group and Yan Poyue's depression.

The darkness gradually receded.

As the first light of dawn pierced through the glass, the next day arrived.