Infiltrating the Superhuman Training Girls’ School of the Republic of China!

Honestly, I had to admit it was a clever idea. It was undeniable that Zhou Lizhi’s workload seemed to be heavier than usual due to the presence of the Soviet colonel and the British “greatest talent of the era”.

The situation also supported her cunning. I’m not sure how credible my common sense is, but according to “common sense”, in such circumstances, it would be best to assign the position of platoon leader to the student with the highest military rank among those in the class, that is, the one with the most military authority or experience.

However, the highest-ranking person in this class right now is the Soviet colonel. Even assuming that Soviet colonel has some secret exchanges with the Chinese government, it would be burdensome to officially assign her the title of platoon leader. Moreover, she outranks Zhou Lizhi herself. Isn’t it awkward in many ways?

On the other hand, if we look for another soldier, we have the French lieutenant, Catherine Duey. Although Duey is only about four years younger than Barbara Tikhonov, the difference in rank is too great. While the foreign students are nominally “equal” right now, it’s clear that if a superior-subordinate relationship of platoon leader and platoon member were to be created between Duey and Tikhonov, especially with a lieutenant above a colonel, it wouldn’t look good.

So neither Duey nor Tikhonov can take this position. This means we need to find a candidate among civilians unrelated to the military… and I’m probably the only one who’s most suitable and won’t cause much dissatisfaction among other students. Although we’re still at the stage of judging based on first impressions, there’s certainly no reason for other students to object to Zhou’s proposal.

Except for one person, this British woman who sees through Zhou’s ulterior motives.

“I’ll take it instead.”

Briar Churchill raised her hand and stood up. The other foreign students just turned their heads silently, overwhelmed by her fierce aura.

“Sorry, but you’re unqualified, Churchill.”

As expected, Zhou firmly rejected Churchill’s volunteering. Briar Churchill drew out her baton and snapped in a sharp voice.

“Why? You’d admit that I’m the strongest in this group, Major. I don’t know exactly what a platoon leader does, but isn’t it obvious that the strongest person can exert the strongest control?”

“You’re inadequate for organizational life, British lady. Yes, in yesterday’s test, you were the only one who showed skills that could potentially match me equally. Of course, if I had been serious, you would have already been dead. But if refined, you could compete with me. No, you might even be able to win.”

“Huh?”

Churchill seemed a bit surprised by the unexpected praise.

“But even with such power, you showed not even a speck of charismatic quality. You’re more unsuitable as a leader than someone with neither skill nor charisma. If you had that quality, others should have followed you when they saw you blocking all the tank shells alone. But what were you doing? Weren’t you just verbally bullying the Indian next to you and playing with your weapon alone out of boredom?”

“It seems pointless to make such criticisms when you suddenly gathered people who’ve never met before and shoved a tank in their faces. No leader could command such a hastily assembled unit.”

“With an attitude like yours, you couldn’t command any unit.”

Zhou shot back without backing down. Honestly, Churchill didn’t have much right to argue. At the very least, it would have been better not to play around making a phoenix with Duey’s flames.

“Don’t make things more difficult for me. It’s already a headache having more than one problem child like you in a year. If you’ve been branded as a failure in your noble family and exiled to China, just enjoy your exile quietly. Even if it doesn’t meet the standards of British nobility, it’s not that bad compared to other exile destinations.”

“Well, I suppose it’s better than going to India.”

“Are you saying that for me to hear?”

Shradha Bhatt flinched and took a fighting stance. Briar Churchill, as if expressing that she had no intention to fight, reattached her baton to her waist and then stretched her neck towards the Indian exchange student with a mischievous expression.

“Of course I said it for you to hear, Shradha. If you weren’t here, wouldn’t I have mentioned Australia?”

She really has no filter when she speaks. I clicked my tongue, realizing that Churchill had insulted an innocent classmate to alleviate some of the humiliation she had suffered. Zhou heard me clicking my tongue and turned her gaze back to me.

“It seems there are no other objections. Then shall we hear the opinion of the person in question?”

Of course, I have no reason to refuse.

Zhou Lizhi’s temptation is one of the missions Marilyn Jefferson gave me. Judging from the major’s behavior so far, I’m successfully carrying out this mission in a way I didn’t quite expect. Zhou Lizhi’s intention is clear. She wants to increase the time she spends alone with me in any way possible.

She said that the student appointed as platoon leader would have many occasions to meet with her personally, and just yesterday she hinted at something similar.

So I pretended to hesitate for a moment. Zhou Lizhi stared at me intently, as if knowing I wouldn’t refuse, and asked again.

“What will you do, Shin Eun-young?”

“I’ll do it.”

I answered.

“I know that I didn’t show an impressive performance compared to my roommate Briar Churchill or the two soldiers with military experience yesterday. Also, I know that without Julia Curoo’s efforts that day, it would have been difficult to achieve even the small feat of destroying the tracks. But if the instructor has evaluated me so highly for whatever reason, I will humbly accept that honor.”

“Then take on the role of platoon leader.”

Zhou Lizhi said with a slight smile.

“There won’t be a separate appointment ceremony. Just remember, everyone. If I’m absent or too busy to receive your complaints, or if these 10 people need to move as one, the Korean student here is the one who can primarily act on my behalf as the teacher in charge. Does everyone understand?”

“Yes! Understood!”

Only Duey, the French junior officer, answered out loud. The other students either had no interest in the issue of platoon leader or were just looking around, reading the atmosphere. Obviously, no one was interested in this position that would clearly only bring troublesome tasks and not a speck of honor.

“Good. Now that we’ve dealt with this simple matter, shall we start the class, even if lightly? Skip the preface and such. If you’ve made it this far, none of you should be completely ignorant about basic war studies or the history of tactics. You’re not normal cadets to begin with. So there won’t be any boring and uninteresting kindness like orientation.”

“I, I don’t know anything about that…”

Hoang Thi Linh groaned. But Zhou Lizhi was clearly not a “kind” teacher.

She treated the textbook as almost useless and went straight to the ‘Superhuman Index List’ at the end. Honestly, I wanted to shout “Professor, you’re going too fast!” The other students, except for Tikhonov and Duey, seemed to feel the same way.

Despite probably knowing our reaction, Zhou looked around at us and said:

“Memorize it.”

“…Hahaha…”

The Soviet colonel laughed in a barely audible voice. Zhou Lizhi, though surely having heard that laughter, completely ignored it and said:

“In the field, situations where superhuman officers are deployed are mostly to deal with other superhumans. The 1920s are gone. The 30s and 40s have also disappeared into history. Modern warfare is a battle of information and advanced tactics. Now, even in border conflicts in Africa, powerful superhumans perform the most important military roles. Wars where unexpected superhuman abilities overwhelm conventional weapons of enemy countries have long since disappeared.”

…It’s true.

It’s common for CIA operatives to get caught by local superhumans and get hurt while recklessly operating in Africa without knowing better. Despite the enormous differences in equipment and training, even a single covert operation has become too dangerous for ‘non-superhumans’.

Superhumans are matched against superhumans. This common sense will be maintained until something new comes along that can make ordinary people completely equal to awakened individuals. The only time this common sense might be broken is in an all-out war between nuclear-armed nations where nuclear weapons are used.

“Therefore, superhuman schools teach what kind of enemy superhumans you might encounter in the field when commissioned as a superhuman officer, how to command troops or fight directly depending on the abilities of the superhumans you encounter. That’s why these superhuman training schools have value. It’s an education that regular schools don’t need to create a curriculum for, and couldn’t even if they wanted to. In ordinary military academies, the principle is to thoroughly spy on the enemy’s awakened individuals’ abilities, numbers, deployment locations, etc., if they deploy them to the front lines, and report this to superiors. If the superiors judge that the opponent’s awakened individuals are not threatening, they dispatch reinforcements to support the field commander, but if the opponent’s awakened individuals require supernatural countermeasures, they rush their own superhuman officers to deal with them. The role of regular officers ends there. After that, it’s up to the superhumans deployed for the superhuman battle.”

So we’re supposed to memorize this, is that it?

This thick appendix containing the types of superhuman abilities organized historically, their frequency of occurrence, limitations, strengths and weaknesses by type, and so on.

“There will be pop quizzes every week. These are tests that will be officially recorded as semester grades.”

Zhou said.

“You need a foundation to be able to apply. This is an essential step to move on to the next level, so if you have ambition, take it seriously. If you don’t have ambition, do as you please.”