“Boring!” Sophie frowned and said, “Warrior is just the most ordinary profession. Don’t you have any ambition at all?”

Eric Thompson sighed and said, “Special professions are nice, but the vast majority of people still have to be content with being ordinary warriors who follow orders. Without us as the green leaves, how could you, the red flower, stand out? Besides, my name is Eric Thompson—‘easy to get’—I really hate trouble, so simple things suit me better.”

Eric Thompson spoke quite humorously, causing laughter to ripple through the cabin.

Instructor Travis, hearing the conversation between Eric Thompson and Sophie, smiled and patted Eric Thompson on the shoulder, saying, “You’re right. Warriors are the backbone of the army. No matter what profession you pursue in the future, you must first become a qualified warrior. And being a qualified warrior isn’t as easy as you make it sound.”

Soon, the fighter jet landed in a hilly area in the northern part of the continent.

Since it was a secret military base, Travis naturally wouldn’t tell Eric Thompson where they were. The group hurried off the plane and quickly entered an underground room filled with oval-shaped pods.

The staff instructed Eric Thompson and the others to enter these semi-transparent oval pods, then attached a strange metal piece to their temples. The pod doors closed, and the testing system began guiding the students into a sleep state.

Travis and Principal Megan Hall went to the adjacent monitoring room, where they saw an elderly man and his two assistants—the military scientist Gavin King, who was in charge of this vocational assessment.

Gavin King smiled and said, “Old He, your Ninth Advanced Tactical School is really thriving this year. You’ve recruited a batch of excellent seedlings. Looking at the qualifications of these young people, they’re probably top-tier even on a global scale.”

Megan Hall was clearly acquainted with Gavin King. Principal He stared at the screens, each showing a student inside a sleep pod. At this moment, they hadn’t entered deep sleep yet, and the test was still counting down.

Besides gender and age—these routine indicators—there were also each person’s Force Index, Physical Toughness Index, Intelligence, and so on.

“Did you hear? The Ranger Corps lost another four squadrons—none of them came back.” Megan Hall didn’t answer Gavin King’s question, but instead spoke absentmindedly.

Gavin King sighed and nodded, “I heard. It’s really tough for them. The Rangers are the only corps that needs to go deep behind enemy lines. Thanks to these fearless men, we’re able to get more information about mutants and mutant beasts.”

“Four squadrons, swallowed up by a horde of mutant beasts in the blink of an eye. It seems their reports were right—after mastering the Force, humans have become stronger and stronger, but mutants and mutant beasts are also rapidly increasing their combat power. The dark forces remain our greatest enemy.”

At the mention of the Ranger Corps, the monitoring room fell silent.

The Ranger Corps, also known as the Dark Investigation Unit, constantly sends troops into the fallen zones, penetrating the most dangerous areas to investigate the evolution and gathering of mutants and mutant beasts, and to rescue humans trapped in those hellish places.

If you had to pick the bravest unit in the Republican Army, everyone would immediately think of this corps. They are the most honorable, but also the hardest working and with the highest casualty rate. Every year, nearly a third of the Ranger Corps is lost, the vast majority being new recruits.

Out of every hundred new recruits who join the Ranger Corps, fewer than ten survive their first year.

In other words, ninety percent of new recruits die on missions in just the first year. As time goes on, the number of survivors only gets smaller.

Because of the Rangers’ extremely high mortality rate, very few new recruits now volunteer to join. It’s only a handful of fearless veterans who continue to hold the line.

Just a few days ago, the Ranger Corps went deep into the Americas and suffered another devastating blow, with heavy casualties.

But at the same time, the Rangers brought back shocking news: those mutant beasts that used to fight alone have now started learning to form squads, with one mutant beast commanding several subordinates, greatly increasing their combat effectiveness.

From this, people concluded that the intelligence of mutant beasts and mutants is not fixed—they are also evolving toward greater intelligence!

In the past, the Republican Army most often used five-man squads to hunt down a single mutant beast. In the future, this tactic will likely no longer be effective in battles against mutant beasts.

Humanity needs new tactical combinations to cope with the ever-evolving combat power and organizational ability of the dark creatures.

“Interesting.” The elderly man’s eyes suddenly lit up. Stroking his chin, he stared at the numbers on the screen and said, “Among your students, the one with the highest intelligence isn’t actually General An’s granddaughter, Ashley White.”

“Then who is it?” Both Megan Hall and Travis were startled and asked curiously.

Gavin King, in his white lab coat, smiled slightly and pointed at one of the screens. “Ranked first is Kevin Stone. Ashley White is only in third place. Philip Young and Sophie are just a little behind her. Of course, the most peculiar one is this boy named Eric Thompson...”

Chapter 12: The Dignity of Being Human!