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

At the Hellfire Mercenary Group base, the morning reveille is not a melodious military bugle call.

Instead, it was the Baroque Commander's roar, powerful enough to wake the dead, that blared through every loudspeaker throughout the base:

"Kids! The sun's high in the sky! Five minutes! Assemble on the playground! If you're even a second late, you'll be Dr. Xue's experimental snake's bed warmer tonight!"

Zero opened his eyes almost the instant the sound rang out, and nimbly rolled out of bed, his movements as precise as a Swiss watch.

He glanced at the bed opposite him—Leng Ci's bed was already empty, the blankets folded with sharp corners, as if no one had ever slept there.

"Does Coldthorn... simply not need to sleep?"

Zero muttered to himself, then casually grabbed a pillow and accurately smashed it onto the huge "mountain" on the upper bunk next to him.

"Ironclad! Wake up!"

"Mountains" (Comrade Shi Tiezhu) made a muttered sound that was hard to understand, clicked his tongue, rolled over while hugging the blanket, and muttered:

"...Chicken leg...don't run away..."

The snoring started again, even louder than before.

Zero was speechless. He took out a training mini stun grenade (non-lethal, but with excellent sound and flash effects) from his tactical waist pack (yes, it was always within easy reach when he slept), pulled out the safety pin, and threw it directly into Iron Block's bed.

"Bang—!"

A muffled thud was followed by a blinding white light.

"Enemy attack!!!"

Tie Dun sprang from the bed, his massive body nearly collapsing the upper bunk. Before his eyes were even fully open, his muscular arms instinctively unleashed a series of ferocious punches, swift and powerful.

"Where are you? Where are the enemies?! Take this!"

He looked around blankly and saw only Zero, who was watching the show with his arms crossed, and Little Sparrow (Lin Xiaoya) on the lower bunk, who was covering his ears and glaring at him with murderous eyes.

"Ironclad! You big dummy!"

The little sparrow, with its messy hair, pointed angrily at the still-smoking training missile on the ground:

"Your 'enemy' is here! And! How many times have I told you! Stop grinding your teeth and talking in your sleep! Give me back my chicken leg! Who stole the last can of synthetic beef last night?!"

Tie Dun finally came to his senses, scratched the back of his head, and gave a simple yet embarrassed smile:

"Hehe... Sparrow, I was wrong... I dreamt that a big rat was trying to steal my chicken leg... Wait, no, Zero! Did you throw it?!"

Zero shrugged innocently.

"I called you, but you didn't wake up. Commander Baroque said there are four minutes and thirty seconds left."

The mere mention of Baroque style jolted Iron Dun awake instantly, all sleepiness and complaints vanishing as he frantically began dressing and washing at a speed disproportionate to his size.

After a chaotic commotion, the three of them finally arrived at the playground just in time.

Coldthorn was already standing there like a javelin, his breathing rate unchanged.

Baroque stared with his one eye, scanning them like livestock, his gaze finally settling on the iron block's untied shoelaces.

"Ironclad! Two hundred push-ups! Now! Immediately! Right now! Your shoelaces remind me of Dr. Xue's overcooked spaghetti from yesterday!"

Tie Dun: "...Yes, Commander!" (Thinking to himself: What did my shoelaces do to deserve this?)

---

Breakfast time after training is the time when the base needs to "fight" the most, apart from combat.

The cafeteria auntie's hands are more unpredictable than any enemy's gun barrel. Especially when facing a metal block, her "Parkinson's-like" spoon-shaking skills instantly reach MAX level.

"Auntie...please...just one more spoonful...just one more spoonful..."

Tie Dun held a rice bowl bigger than his face, watching longingly as his aunt shakily poured a spoonful of stewed beef and potatoes into his bowl, leaving almost nothing but potatoes and broth.

The aunt rolled her eyes at him:

"Limited portions per person! That's the rule! Eating too much will make you vomit during training!"

Number Zero walked by carrying a plate and said slowly:

"Auntie, he just carried 100 kilograms in a cross-country run with heavy loads, and Commander Baroque said he needs to supplement his protein intake."

As he spoke, he tapped his fingers seemingly unintentionally on the edge of his plate a few times (some kind of code).

The auntie paused for a second, her eyes glazed over, then with a sweeping motion, she shoved three large spoonfuls of meat firmly into the iron block's basin, piling it up like a small mountain:

"Oh! It's Xiao Tie! You should have said so earlier! Eat more! Grow up strong and healthy!"

Iron Pier stared in disbelief, then exclaimed with wild joy:

"Thank you, Auntie! You're such a kind person!"

He lowered his voice and asked Zero:

"Boss, how did you do that?"

Zero smiled enigmatically:

"Information exchange and psychological suggestion. I just 'reminded' Auntie that you helped her fix her stuck kitchen blender last time (even though you almost took it apart), and... that her daughter seems to really like watching a certain muscular male celebrity's variety show."

The little sparrow scoffed at the cafeteria's synthetic food; she was secretly scanning her nutritional paste with her modified portable spectrometer.

"The protein content meets the standard... but the carbohydrate ratio is too high at 0.7%, and the trace element molybdenum is lacking... The viscosity index exceeds the comfortable threshold... Sigh, it doesn't even taste as pure as my motor oil..."

She took out a small bottle, poured some silver powder (her own "flavor enhancer") into the paste, stirred it a few times, and then held her breath and ate it.

Cold Thorn eats like she's carrying out a mission: precise, fast, and silent.

He chooses foods that are easy to digest and provide sustained energy, chews them a fixed number of times, and strictly controls his eating time to within 5 minutes.

After finishing his meal, he would wipe the tableware clean with a paper towel until it shone as if it had never been used.

---

During their lunch break, the four of them had a rare moment of leisure.

Zero was engrossed in reading a thick book called "International Financial Games and Geopolitics," occasionally jotting something down with a pen.

The little sparrow was completely immersed in her electronic world, with three screens lit up at the same time: the left screen was filled with dense code, the middle screen was drone design drawings, and the right screen... was actually a pink cartoon girl game interface!

Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she wrote a program to hack into the firewall, while simultaneously and precisely dressing up and ranking the virtual idols in the game.

"Ugh! The drop rates in the new SSR gacha pool are definitely suspicious!"

She suddenly let out a wail and slammed her face on the keyboard.

Tie Dun curiously leaned closer:

"Sparrow, what's SSR?"

"They're really powerful and hard to get!"

"Oh...is he even harder to deal with than Commander Baroque?"

Little Sparrow: "...In a sense, yes."

Tie Dun nodded as if he understood, then took out his treasured notebook, "Heavy Weapon Maintenance and Handling Optimization (Tie Dun's Illustrated Edition)", with great interest.

He began obsessively cleaning and maintaining his prized possession—a miniature machine gun model—while mimicking the "thump thump thump" of firing.

Cold Thorn... Cold Thorn is gone.

But if you look closely, you'll notice that at the top of the bookshelves in the darkest corner of the library, there seems to be an almost non-reflective shadow.

And extremely faint, rhythmic breathing—he was there conducting "static concealment adaptation training" (abbreviated as: nap).

---

The afternoon is strength training. It's at Iron Pier's home ground.

He roared as he lifted a barbell far beyond the limits of ordinary people, his muscles bulging and veins popping out, making the training instructors watching from the side secretly click their tongues in amazement.

Meanwhile, Zero was undergoing comprehensive physical training on the other side, his movements were efficient and coordinated.

After completing a set of maximum weighted pull-ups, he landed easily and said to the iron block:

"Explosive power has improved, but control during the eccentric contraction phase can be stronger, reducing muscle micro-damage by 15%."

Tie Dun put down the barbell and asked innocently:

"Boss, what is eccentric contraction?"

"It's the process of slowly lowering the barbell."

"Oh! Why slow it down? Can't we just throw it down? That would be easier!"

Zero…! I resisted the urge to use a tactical dagger to fix his brain circuits.

Even the little sparrows were required to undergo basic physical training.

She looked at the dumbbell in front of her, sighed, then took out a bunch of small tools and quickly transformed the dumbbell into a fully intelligent fitness aid that could automatically count, analyze force curves, and even play music.

Then, after only lifting it twice, she picked up the equipment and began studying how to optimize its algorithm…

Cold spikes appeared in the rope climbing area.

Without using his feet, relying solely on the strength of his arms, his body almost parallel to the ground, he silently and rapidly climbed to the top like a ghost, the sound of the entire process being softer than a pin dropping.

After getting off, he took out his stopwatch and looked at it. His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, as if he was not satisfied with being 0.5 seconds slower.

---

After dinner, there will be a short period of free time.

The four of them rarely got together... to watch the evening news, as was the custom of the Baroques, to stay informed about international affairs.

When the news broke that a certain country's leader had announced plans to increase military spending to address "growing, unknown threats," Zero chuckled softly:

"Ha, there were unusual transactions in his secret Swiss bank account last year, with at least a third of the money flowing into the accounts of his mistresses and illegitimate children. This 'threat' is probably aimed at his personal wallet."

The little sparrow immediately perked up:

"Do you need me to verify and 'help' by making this public? I recently wrote a new web crawler!"

Zero held down her eager hand:

"Not for now. This message might be exchanged for something more valuable later."

When a tech giant announces a new product, Little Sparrow will offer sharp critiques:

"A gimmick! Their underlying security protocol hasn't been updated in three years. I could create a backdoor in it using kindergarten-level code."

Tiedun was dozing off when the news showed footage of a new main battle tank being test-fired. He suddenly opened his eyes wide, pointed at the screen, and shouted:

"Wow! The barrel quenching process seems to have been improved! The heat dissipation efficiency is at least... uh... anyway, it's really amazing!"

He was so excited that he tried to gesture that he almost knocked over the water glass on the table.

Cold Thorn remained expressionless throughout, only his eyes slightly focusing when the news footage panned across important buildings or geographical __cpLocations, like a hawk assessing potential sniping positions or infiltration routes.

When a funny story about kangaroos fighting at a zoo was played, he casually commented:

"The left-hand kangaroo's punch angle is 17 degrees, and the speed is acceptable, but it exposes an opening under the ribs. Ineffective attack."

The other three: "..."