Chapter 5: Brutally Abused

And so, Lei Bin lost count of how many times he was hacked to death that day. Apart from meal breaks, Xing Meng subjected him to this inhumane training method without pause. When evening arrived, Xing Meng finally declared, "Today's training has reached the limit of your mental endurance. We continue tomorrow."

By then, Lei Bin lacked the strength even to curse. His entire body ached, his head felt heavy and foggy, and he drifted into a deep sleep. In his dreams, he drifted in and out of consciousness, imagining himself as one of those legendary, powerful heroes, possessing peerless ancient martial arts skills, brandishing a sharp blade, and commanding the winds and clouds—a man whose single strike could cleave a warship in two.

These images played continuously, and before he knew it, they had seeped into his subconscious. The subconscious is an incredibly mysterious domain. The reason humanity later achieved such massive physical improvements and produced powerful martial artists was precisely due to the development of latent potential—potential that resides within the human subconscious.

Developing the subconscious is extremely difficult and can only be achieved through specific methods. Many martial artists use techniques like hypnosis to assist in this process. By existing directly within Lei Bin’s mind, Xing Meng could influence his dreams, surreptitiously infiltrating his subconscious.

However, this process could not be rushed; if it were too fast, Lei Bin’s mind would shatter. It had to be done slowly, through the level of his ordinary dreams, gradually exerting a subtle influence. Over time, these martial arts techniques would become part of his subconscious, ready to be unleashed under the right conditions.

Lei Bin was unaware of this. His mind had been reduced to a chaotic mess by Xing Meng, making it impossible for him to distinguish between reality and dreams.

The next day, after finishing his meal, Lei Bin had barely returned to his dormitory when Xing Meng began the torment again. No matter how much he resisted, begged, or cursed, it was all in vain.

Driven to the brink of madness, Lei Bin threatened to report Xing Meng to the Federation and expose the chip in his brain. But Xing Meng provided a cold analysis: those powerful figures would never allow such a secret to leak. If Lei Bin were to expose it, they would surely silence him permanently. Lei Bin pondered this and realized the logic; those elites cared nothing for the life of a lowly soldier, so he had to abandon the plan.

With no other options, Lei Bin was forced to endure Xing Meng's torment every day.

"Even if you force me to train like this, don't think you can make me willingly help you save the Federation. I just won't do it. You can ravage my body, but you cannot conquer my will!"

Lei Bin confronted Xing Meng fiercely, but Xing Meng ignored him completely.

After five consecutive days of torment, Lei Bin finally managed to escape that scene, avoiding the fate of being hacked into mincemeat. However, over these five days, he had been dismembered thousands of times.

Now, Lei Bin looked at people with a murderous glint in his eyes. His roommates all thought he was sick; he spent almost all his time sleeping, and whenever he woke up, he looked at everyone as if they were his mortal enemies, radiating a desire to kill.

Consequently, everyone steered clear of him, avoiding any interaction. Exhausted to the point of collapse by Xing Meng, Lei Bin had no interest in communicating anyway.

Once this second stage of training was complete, Xing Meng did not stop, but immediately proceeded to the next phase.

"You are now facing two combatants. You must defeat them to complete this stage. To ensure your fighting isn't entirely blind, I will first teach you some combat fundamentals."

As Xing Meng spoke, the scene in Lei Bin’s mind shifted. This time, it became a scene Lei Bin knew well—a martial arts film he had once loved. The protagonist was a master of ancient martial arts, and his movements were standard, precise, and incredibly lifelike.

Lei Bin had once idolized this actor. Now, he found himself inside the film, possessing the protagonist’s body.

"Damn it, Xing Meng is playing with me in every way possible," Lei Bin thought, trying to move, only to find he could not.

"What is going on?" Just then, the body began to move on its own, acting without Lei Bin’s conscious command.

It was an uncomfortable sensation, as if his own body were being controlled by another. Despite it being his own limbs, they refused to obey his will.

The scene began: the protagonist was facing two powerful combat experts. They roared and charged, attacking the protagonist, who immediately unleashed his martial arts to engage them.

Since Lei Bin was fully inhabiting the protagonist, he experienced the moves and combat awareness firsthand, as if he possessed these formidable skills himself.

The feeling of such power fascinated Lei Bin. As a child, he had often dreamed of being such a hero. Now that he had the chance to become one without any effort, he was quickly addicted, regardless of Xing Meng’s motives. After all, this was far better than being hacked to death thousands of times a day.

Four minutes later, the two opponents were elegantly defeated. Lei Bin was still intoxicated by the thrill of the victory when the scene suddenly changed.

Lei Bin expected to be sent to fight those two combatants, but to his surprise, the scene returned to the beginning of the film, where the fight first started.

"Damn, you're replaying it?"

In fact, Lei Bin was wrong. Xing Meng wasn't replaying it once—it was replaying it a hundred times.

Lei Bin had once enjoyed this film, but now, the sight of this scene made him want to vomit. A hundred repetitions were enough to break anyone, especially since he was in the protagonist's body, feeling every punch thrown and every dodge executed in vivid detail.

Yet, he could not resist Xing Meng’s torment and had to endure it.

"I %￥#@*..." Lei Bin cursed Xing Meng’s ancestors for the hundredth time.

After the hundredth repetition, the scene finally shifted to the combat training scenario he had first experienced. Only this time, instead of one combatant, there were two, and their strength was significantly greater than before.

"Crap, two of them? I could take one with a brick, but two is going to be tough." Lei Bin sneered, knowing he had no choice. If he didn't fight them, he would be the one getting beaten.

*Fight it is.*

With that thought, he roared and charged at the two figures. To his own surprise, his attack perfectly mimicked the protagonist’s movements and posture from the film. With two precise kicks, he actually forced the two burly combatants back.

"Holy... am I actually this good now?" Lei Bin was pleasantly surprised, but his distraction caused the feeling he had cultivated to slip, and the two combatants rushed him, beating him mercilessly.

"Damn it... how do I handle this? Screw it, a brick is safer." Lei Bin looked around, and though he found no bricks, he spotted a broken iron door.

He grabbed it and began to swing it wildly at the pair. With the door as a shield, his confidence surged. The protagonist’s combat moves flooded his mind again, and he delivered a series of kicks that drove the opponents back.

However, Lei Bin had only experienced those hundred repetitions; he had learned the moves but lacked true combat experience, preventing him from unleashing their full potential.

In the end, he was beaten until his bones were broken and he was covered in bruises, reduced to a limp, pathetic heap, unable to move a single finger.

"Training failed. Resuming in one minute," Xing Meng’s voice echoed.

"Damn you, you're really trying to kill me, aren't you?" If Xing Meng were standing in front of him, Lei Bin would have done everything in his power to crush it into dust.

One minute later, Xing Meng replayed the film a hundred times before letting him face the combatants again.

This time, Lei Bin memorized the techniques more carefully, absorbing them into his muscle memory. Being beaten half to death was no fun, and since he couldn't fight back against Xing Meng, he decided it was better to master the technique quickly and finish off these two combatants.

In this round, Lei Bin fared much better. Although he couldn't gain the upper hand, he used the environment to his advantage—throwing bricks, swinging the door, kicking at groins, and tossing dust into their eyes. He managed to hold his own.

Xing Meng did not stop him from using these underhanded tactics. According to its programming, as long as the objective was achieved, the method didn't matter. Once Lei Bin could finish them off, it would count as a success.

Lei Bin fought them for over an hour. Eventually, exhausted, he was beaten half to death once more, bloodied and broken.

"Motherf***er, next time, I'm going to kill you guys."

Through this second battle, Lei Bin had mastered sixty percent of the protagonist’s techniques.

Soon, the third round of film playback and combat began. With the lessons from his two previous failures, Lei Bin gained a deeper understanding of the techniques. Even before the actual fight, the hundred repetitions of the film and his firsthand experience had boosted his mastery to ninety percent.

Sure enough, when the two combatants appeared again, Lei Bin curled his lips into a cold smirk. He grabbed a handful of sand, charged, threw the sand into their faces, and followed up with a flying kick that sent one of them soaring through the air.

This time, Lei Bin held the advantage. Using every trick in the book, he took down both opponents in just four or five minutes. He didn't stop there; holding the broken iron door, he continued to smash them until every bone in their bodies was shattered and they were reduced to a pulp.

After all the torture he had endured, his pent-up rage exploded. He couldn't just defeat them; he had to pay them back with a hundredfold the pain. Even though he knew they were just programs, it felt immensely satisfying to vent his fury.

Once they were finished, Xing Meng’s voice announced, "Stage complete. Proceeding to the next phase."

The scene shifted again, returning to the street where he had been hacked to death thousands of times before.

"Wait, this again? Didn't I already pass this?" Lei Bin yelled.

"The mission this time is not to escape, but to eliminate all enemies. Beginning now..." With Xing Meng’s announcement, a dozen armed men charged out from nearby.

Their strength was significantly greater than the previous opponents, and this time, they were armed with modern weaponry.

"Damn it, are you trying to kill me?" Lei Bin was driven to madness and immediately turned to run.