Of course, sitting quietly now doesn’t mean he’s already distanced himself from the group. They’re all young people—any quarrels or dissatisfaction come and go quickly, and a month of basic training hasn’t left any real grudges in anyone’s heart. Who knows what kind of future these comrades-in-arms will have?

The reason he’s sitting quietly is because Henry Brooks has realized that it feels like he’s on the verge of remembering something crucial, but it always remains a bit blurry and just out of reach. He only knows it’s important—so close, just a little bit more!

“Smack”—a big hand landed on Henry Brooks’s shoulder: “What are you doing? Henry Brooks!”

The speaker was one of the only two guys in the squad who stood just a bit taller than him on his left, named Brian Carter, a Black man, strong and sturdy. Other than Henry Brooks, it seemed no one in the whole squad could match his build. He was simple and honest, without any scheming. He didn’t have any bad habits, but he always held a grudge when he got punished because of Henry Brooks’s mistakes.

“Nothing, just thinking about what kind of gun we’ll get.” Henry Brooks replied calmly. He would never casually share what was on his mind—if others found out, the psychiatric hospital might immediately reserve a VIP spot for him.

“Oh, you’re thinking about that too.” Mentioning firearms, the big Black guy immediately perked up. He joined the army because he loved guns, but you couldn’t buy real firearms in civilian stores. Hearing that Henry Brooks was interested in this, he immediately pulled him into a small group nearby.

“The standard infantry weapon on Alpha Planet now is the Longbow-3 energy assault rifle. It’s 0.8 meters long, weighs 1.3 kilograms, and with the standard energy magazine, it’s 1.8 kilograms. It comes with a 16x magnetic thermal scope and a built-in combat control module that can interface with standard tactical helmets. It looks really cool.” This was the white guy Johnson talking—he was a classic weapons enthusiast.

“That’s Alpha Planet’s standard issue. We’re not even on Alpha Planet right now—keep dreaming.” The Black man Brian Carter interjected. “We don’t even know which artificial satellite training ground we’re on. Looks like we can’t decide what guns we’ll use yet. Hey, Henry Brooks, what do you think?”

Henry Brooks was also very interested in this kind of discussion. These days, there aren’t many boys who don’t like guns, and Henry Brooks was no exception—in fact, he was a super weapons fan. He quickly joined the lively discussion: “I think it’s like this…”

The whole group was enthusiastically discussing, and Henry Brooks also threw away the unpleasantness of being interrupted earlier, speaking with renewed energy.

It didn’t seem to take long for the maglev vehicle to reach its destination. As soon as he got off, Henry Brooks felt the gravity was a bit off. Of course, compared to the 1.5x gravity track he’d been practicing on in the last few days, it was still a bit less. However, the other comrades didn’t seem to have his level of adaptability and all showed some discomfort.

“Good, you got here quickly. Line up immediately!” The familiar loud voice rang out again. Seeing the familiar black face of the stern Instructor Hack not far away, everyone groaned. Why was he still the one training them here?

The new base gave everyone half a day to get familiar with the place. But the excitement was ruined by the appearance of Instructor Hack, and everyone was in a mess. No one felt like exploring the new base anymore. After a quick look at the cafeteria, training ground, and theory classroom, they all listlessly returned to the dorms to rest.

The conditions here seemed even more basic than at the basic training site, but no one felt like complaining anymore. Just thinking that the black-faced Instructor Hack would be with them for another six months was enough to kill their appetite for lunch.

Of course, not everyone was like this—at least a few carefree guys were now wolfing down their food at the table. At the satellite training ground, half the food was canned and half was artificially synthesized, with all kinds of flavors, and it actually tasted pretty good.

Among those wolfing down food at the table was Henry Brooks. Having long gotten used to being punished by the black-faced Instructor Hack, he didn’t care who his training instructor was. Anyway, given his current state, no matter which instructor he had, he’d end up getting the same punishments.

The advanced training was clearly much more intense, with more activities. Firearms were the basics, and performing various combat maneuvers with firearms was the first thing to practice. What made the recruits complain the most was that everyone had to carry huge tactical backpacks stuffed with all sorts of things besides gun energy packs and high-explosive energy packs. Of course, the guns and energy packs weren’t real—just models. The real firearms hadn’t been issued yet.

This stage of training demanded much more physical strength. The gravity in the combat training ground had been adjusted to 1.2 times normal, and some of the weaker comrades were really struggling.

Of course, this level of gravity adjustment was nothing to Henry Brooks. In fact, this guy, who was always daydreaming, hadn’t even noticed the change in gravity. His relaxed demeanor every day made a few of the smaller guys around him green with envy.

Henry Brooks also started to get used to recalling some things from before during daily training, and his thoughts gradually connected, forming a clear and systematic memory.