The Rise of a Special Forces Soldier Abandoned by a Wealthy Family

The Zeng family's old residence in the capital of China.

The atmosphere in the study was so heavy it was almost palpable. On the huge screen, the encrypted video sent back by war correspondent Zhao Yuan was playing repeatedly.

The video was a bit shaky, but the boy's profile and eyes were etched into Zeng Sheng and He Jing's hearts with unparalleled clarity.

He Jing covered her mouth tightly with her hand, tears silently streaming down her face, her body trembling slightly.

On the screen, Zero's calm yet playful demeanor, his control over everything in the midst of crisis, and his deep, dark eyes that seemed so much older than his age... struck her soul like a heavy hammer.

"Brother Sheng..." Her voice was broken, filled with disbelief, longing, and fear. "Look at him... look at his brow bone... and the way he purses his lips... doesn't he look like you when you were young? And that spirit in his eyes... I... I feel... indescribable..."

It was a throbbing sensation deep within the blood, a maternal instinct that could not be explained by reason.

Zeng Sheng stared intently at the screen, his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

His reason told him it was absurd to make a conclusion based on just a blurry video and a feeling... but the image of the boy strangely overlapped with a vague idea deep in his heart about "how a son should be".

Especially his composure in the face of danger, which could even be described as ruthless, is something that a spoiled brat raised in a pampered environment could never possess.

"Dad, look..." Zeng Sheng's voice was hoarse as he looked at the silent old man in the main seat.

Grandpa Zeng had keen eyesight and had already watched the video countless times.

He has weathered many storms in his life and has an exceptional eye for people. The young man on screen possesses a sharpness and composure honed through trials and tribulations, as well as an... indescribable sense of familiarity.

He slowly closed his eyes, took a deep breath: "So alike...so alike...not just in appearance, but in that...spirit, that energy hidden in the bones! Investigate! Investigate at all costs!"

The Zeng family's massive machine is running at full speed once again.

This time, the search was no longer aimless; instead, there was a specific target image.

Security agencies, intelligence agencies, and even some clandestine channels overseas have all received top-priority instructions: to find out the identity and information of the Asian teenager in the video.

However, the mystery remains.

The flight information was quickly retrieved. The identity information used by Team Zero had been processed flawlessly by the Fortress experts, pointing to several overseas orphans who no longer existed or whose identities had been stolen, making them impossible to trace.

The passenger list of the flight from which the video originated was also carefully reviewed, and no abnormalities were found.

When war correspondent Zhao Yuan was secretly questioned, he could only provide a video and knew nothing about the origins of the four men.

The boy and his companion appeared briefly on an international flight, as if they had sprung from a crack in a rock, before disappearing completely into the crowd without leaving any trace.

The flame of hope had just been ignited when it was brutally doused with cold water by the harsh reality.

A profound sense of loss enveloped the Zeng family.

He Jing stared at the frozen video frame, her finger gently touching Zero's face on the screen. Her heart ached, yet she remained steadfast: "It must be him... My feeling can't be wrong... He must still be somewhere in the world..."

The old man classified the video as a top family secret, kept it strictly confidential, and kept the number of people who knew about it to a minimum.

He knew that without any concrete evidence, this faint hope could be both a driving force and a weakness that could be exploited by his opponents.

Meanwhile, overseas fortified bases.

Without a moment's rest, the returning Zero Squad immediately threw themselves into a new round of more professional and even more rigorous high-intensity training.

Baroque, Xueyan, and Jianmo seem to have reached some kind of consensus, and their training has entered the "refined processing" stage.

The Little Sparrow's Cyber ​​Abyss and Electronic Hive

The little sparrow was practically welded to the computer and electronics workbench. Her mission was no longer simple eavesdropping and interference, but rather venturing into a more terrifying realm.

Network attack and defense (intrusion and defense):

Xue Yan somehow obtained the latest firewall system and intrusion detection algorithm code snippets (some of which even seemed to have "leaked" from some large companies or government agencies).

The task is for the little sparrow to find vulnerabilities and write a penetration test script within a limited time.

She also had to design defense programs for the "fortress network" she built herself and undergo attack tests by Xue Yan and outsiders (suspected hired hackers).

She often sits for more than ten hours at a time, staring at a screen full of scrolling code, muttering to herself, as if she were having a mental battle with an invisible enemy.

Electronics R&D:

Her "Little Bee" drone has begun to be upgraded and iterated.

The requirements are smaller size, longer battery life, and stronger stealth capabilities (optical and radar).

And loading non-lethal weapons (such as miniature stun guns, tear gas, and even miniature syringes provided by Xue Yan).

The workbench was piled high with chips, circuit boards, micro motors, and various chemicals.

She busied herself around like a little witch, occasionally bursting out with exclamations like, "Oh no, it's burning again!" or "Haha, this frequency interference is effective!"

Ironclad's heavy firepower art: Wind God's point shot.

The training ground at Tiedun is always filled with deafening roars and the smell of gunpowder.

Baroque's demands on him were no longer simply about overwhelming him with water, but had been elevated to the level of "art of heavy firepower".

Fengshen heavy machine gun burst fire:

Baroque brought in an old M134 "Mini Cannon" rotary machine gun (nicknamed "Wind God") and its power supply system.

This thing has a theoretical rate of fire of thousands of rounds per minute, so it can spray water at anyone.

But the Baroques demanded:

Burst fire. This requires Iron Button to control the ignition switch at an extremely high rate of fire, firing 2-3 precise bursts!

Furthermore, the bullet impact points must be controlled within an extremely small range to accurately destroy distant targets (such as weak points in light vehicles, exposed limbs behind cover, etc.).

Training methods:

First, they practiced the feel of the switch control with a dry gun, and then they shot live at increasingly smaller targets in the distance (from oil drums to tires to wine bottles).

If he didn't perform well, he wouldn't get any food, or he would be taught a lesson by Baroque himself using the same machine gun (of course, he would be shot at the dirt around him, scaring him so much that he would wet himself).

Iron Dump was tortured to the point of screaming, but his muscle memory and feel for the game improved rapidly during the insane training, and he gradually became able to achieve amazing short burst accuracy in a frenzied rate of fire.

Cold Thorn's Bullet Ballet: Evasion and Blind Block

The training of silence for Cold Thorn is even more extreme and inhuman.

Dodge bullets:

Not in a game, but in a near-realistic environment.

The Silent Ones use real guns equipped with laser-simulated combat systems (sometimes even live ammunition passing by) to "hunt down" Cold Spikes in complex terrain.

The Cold Assassin skill requires him to rely entirely on observing the muzzle flash, listening to the sound to pinpoint the location, predicting the firing trajectory, and using all environmental obstacles to dodge.

On the training field, Cold Thorn is often seen rolling, leaping, and slithering in all sorts of unbelievable ways, with dense laser beams or the whistling of bullets behind him.

Blind firing:

Silence can blind the cold, piercing eyes, or reduce ambient light to extremely low levels.

Then, by throwing objects, creating specific sounds, or even directly touching different parts of Cold Thorn's body with gestures, the direction and distance of the target are indicated, requiring Cold Thorn to draw his gun and fire instantly.

This is about honing a sniper's intuition, spatial awareness, and muscle memory to the extreme.

Coldthorn is often bruised all over (training rounds also hurt), but he gradually learns to "sense" the presence of his target in the dark and deliver a fatal blow.

Zero's life appears... "peaceful" yet eerie.

Because Xue Yan was extremely fascinated by the activity of his blood samples, although the frequency and amount of blood draws returned to normal, subsequent observation and research took up a lot of time.

So, Xue Yan "granted him special permission" to temporarily reduce some of his physical and combat training, and instead gave him a bunch of thick books.

A cultured person? Majoring in finance and economics

Xue Yan's theory:

Top-tier warriors cannot be just muscle and brains. Modern warfare is driven by resources, capital flows, and the interplay of economic entities.

Understanding the flow of money is understanding the flow of power.

You need to learn how to destroy a country's economy, or... how to secure a continuous stream of funding for our future "cause".

Thus, Zero's "study" was piled high with copies of "Currency Wars,"

Principles of Macroeconomics

Securities Analysis

International Finance and Settlement

"Offshore Companies and Tax Havens"...and even a wealth of information on cryptocurrencies and dark web transactions.

For Zero, this is a battlefield in another dimension.

He learned very quickly; those complex mathematical models, financial terms, and economic laws were like another form of code and tactical deduction in his eyes.

He can quickly understand how Soros shorted the pound and analyze the weaknesses in a multinational corporation's financial chain.

He would even take some cases to "consult" the Baroques:

"If we were to paralyze trade in this region, which would have a higher cost-benefit ratio: blowing up the ports or bombing its central bank servers?"

Baroques would usually be stumped by the question, then become enraged: "I'll just blow it up! Don't ask me about the accounting!"

Zero would shrug and continue studying his candlestick charts and international exchange rates.

This sudden change in style often left Tie Dun, who delivered the meals, dumbfounded: "Boss, is your head filled with nothing but money now?"

Despite their different roles, the team members remained closely connected. Zero was tasked with "teaching."

He would take the time to check the little sparrow's code and point out the logical flaws (using the analogy of flanking maneuvers in battle).

He would go watch Tiedun practice target shooting, using economics as an analogy:

The theory of "diminishing marginal returns" – he was told why he shouldn't blindly pursue the number of shots in a burst, but rather to improve the "return on investment" of single shots (although Tie Dun was confused, he roughly understood that it meant hitting the right spot).

During Cold Thorn's breaks, he would discuss with him how to use the fluctuations in the international financial market to provide financial cover for covert operations (Cold Thorn usually only responded with "hmm" or "oh", but would silently take notes).

At the same time, Zero also keenly sensed the state of his companions.

He would secretly save the nutritional supplements Xue Yan gave him (because he expended relatively little energy on "cultural classes") and mix them into Little Sparrow's drink, or give them to Iron Dun, who had a lot of training.

He would prepare some herbs to relieve muscle strain and mental fatigue based on Xue Yan's medical books (the effect was minimal, but the intention was there) for Leng Ci to soak in.

This silent care is a rare touch of warmth in the cold base.

Training continues day after day. Everyone strives for excellence in their respective fields.

The little sparrow's drones are becoming more and more like real bee swarms, capable of performing complex coordinated reconnaissance and electronic attack missions.

The "Wind God" heavy machine gun, controlled by Tiedun, had a burst firing accuracy that even exceeded Baroque's expectations, capable of hitting a high-speed moving tire from 100 meters away.

Under the "torture" of silence, Coldthorn's dodge success rate became higher and higher, and the hit rate of blind blocking shots also reached an astonishing level.

Zero navigates the ocean of financial data while silently integrating all the knowledge.

He was even planning a bold "practical exercise"—using his financial knowledge to conduct a small-scale "sniper attack" in a virtual overseas securities market to test the results of his theories.

Xue Yan seemed pleased with this, and even provided some "initial funds" (the source of which is unknown).

Outside the fortress, the Zeng family mobilized all their resources, but still could not find the boy in the video, their anxiety and hope intertwined.

Within the fortress, four sharp blades are being honed to an ever-brighter edge, and an undercurrent triggered by blood research and a "real-world" battle in the financial sector are quietly brewing.

The calm before the storm is often the most oppressive.

Zero would occasionally stand on a high point in the base, gazing at the distant horizon. No one knew what he was planning in those deep eyes.