Jane stood in a field, panting, her uniform was torn in places, and she was bleeding from her back. Her face was pale, and the mood was terrible. She was not alone, the entire group of people with her called the Galactic squad, a temporary name, was more or less in a similar situation.

It has not even been a day since they landed on Mythya. Shi Lang dumped them straight into training mode, and a team of cruel instructors welcomed them with a barrage of attacks from all sides, and all types.

The instructors were members of the Ace division. Jane could only remember a sudden streak of red, and she was left with a dizzy head, the assailant punched her temples and sent her flying. The gap in their skills and strength was that of sky and earth. They were rendered completely useless. They had no idea what they could do to deal with the enemy.

Jane raised her head to the sky and screamed loudly, she was venting her frustration, but the next moment, she felt her world turn dark, and all of the people fell to the ground with her. Yuu, the battle expert has appeared. She was the only person stronger than Shi Lang in terms of battle prowess.

She looked at the group of people laying on the ground and said, “You sure they are cut out to represent the Federation? Can you tell me if you have no enmity with these people and are not sending them to die deliberately?”

A voice rang in her communicator, “Instructor, are you looking down on my character?”

Yuu nodded and said, “Old Carlos and John are still making rounds of the fleets because of you.”

Shi Lang chuckled and said, “They will be able to rest in a few years, I have no such agenda against these people, it is just their fleets that sent them over saying they are the best. What else can I do.”

Yuu sighed and said, “Firstly, have them patched up, and secondly, we need to break them a lot before they can be refurbished into their better self. You better not ask me to go soft.”

Shi Lang assured her that not only will he not ask her to go easy, but also support her in her actions. The unconscious people were then sent to the infirmary, they were all dipped in a recovery solution and the medicines sped up their healing capacity. When the team woke up after a couple of hours, they were refreshed.

They came out of the recovery tanks and looked at each other, suddenly they heard a voice, “Hello, everyone, welcome to the Tartarus Training Camp. When you go out of the room, you will be greeted by a chain of phaser guns. What you have to do is be mindful of the small blinking lights and follow them throughout the maze.

These lights will lead you to your rooms. Just so you do not think it is too easy, the whole maze is a fire zone, and you can die. I repeat, this is not a drill, and you can die. Also, the floor of the maze is laced with booby traps. If you are hurt, you will be taken back to the infirmary by a bot. Now you can go out in a group, or one by one, that is your preference.

The administration wishes you a pleasant stay.”

Jane yelled, “LANG, YOU DEVIL!”

The voice on the speaker belonged to Shi Lang, and Jane could tell that this guy was serious and that he was enjoying this. Ryan said, “I volunteer, to go out first.”

Steel patted his back and said, “Godspeed.”

They all wished the young soldier as he moved ahead. He was the youngest among them and his skills were the best when it came to hand-to-hand combat. Shi Lang had them all be tested in their knowledge of anatomy and pure skill. He barred the people from using the cultivation level to compare.

Ryan stood at the door of the infirmary and looked at the corridor, the eerie silence made his heart beat faster. He swallowed a mouthful of saliva and said back to his people, “The white has never scared me like this before.”

Jane said, “Don’t you make us more nervous, move it.”

Ryan nodded and rushed out, he quickly noticed a blinking light and ran in the direction, he was nervous at first, but the said phaser beams did not come as told. Just when this innocent child thought that Shi Lang was probably joking with them, his foot landed on a trap trigger and a click echoed in the corridor.

The sides of the walls changed, revealing a lot of holes and giving a cold vibe. Ryan knew these holes, phasor guns, and he ran, the place he stood was showered with deadly phaser beams. Ryan’s soul almost yeeted his body at this moment. Shi Lang was no more the angle that he seemed to be inside the conference room, but he was a devil and this place was hell.

As he ran, the intensity of the attacks increased, followed by the various traps he triggered.

Back at the infirmary, everyone waited for a few minutes before they thought that things were not as severe as they imagined, Steel stood up with his broad chest and said, “I will step out as well.”

The rest nodded to encourage him, they thought, that if Steel managed to go out and survive, they will also go out. Steel walked ahead in big strides and just as he was about to step out, a loud scream echoed in the corridor. He stopped in shock, this voice belonged to Ryan.

He could not help but think twice about what could have made the young soldier scream like this. The others also heard this voice, and they could sense the agony. Just when they were in doubt, a clanking sound echoed in their ears. Steel saw a bot standing in front of him, holding Ryan bleeding from his chest, with a big hole in it.

The bot said in a mechanical voice, “Please step aside.”

Steel responded and the bot carried Ryan inside the infirmary, dumped him in a med bay, and after initiating a treatment program, it left. The people were shocked, Ryan had been out for not more than four minutes. They all subconsciously gathered around the self-operated med bay and watched as the machine was repairing the body of the injured soldier.

They were all scared of stepping out now. Suddenly, the floor tiles under their feet lit up with white light, and they all were immobilized, the speakers lit up and Shi Lang’s voice sounded again, “Hello, ladies and gentlemen. The time for relaxation is up, now you all can step up to measure the level of our dedicated training course. Enjoy the maze.”

That said, the floor tiles slid, and the people fell inside with loud voices, they slid down in ducts, all leading to a different route of the maze. Shi Lang had named this place Tartarus, based on the fictional mythological prison of gods. This place was a maze, X had this place made to train his troops about scouting, and assassination, but Shi Lang had tasked him to lace the entire place with phasers and death traps.

Not only this, he made it so that multiple people could run through the maze together from different entry points. The original place was expanded by a thousand percent under the ground and now had seven levels. Each was more dangerous than the other. Shi Lang was a complete devil and even X was impressed by the cruel manner of this young general.

…

While the participants were suffering, Shi Lang sat in the control room with members of the Ace Division, Yuu, and X. Amelia was sitting in front of a console, operating the traps. Every tile of the place was a potential trigger. They had assigned multiple triggers to a single trap, and if they let it be triggered by the people stepping on them, they would have died almost twice within two steps.

So, they were doing manual intervention to regulate the pace slowly. It may look like Shi Lang was a devil, but at least, he was considerate to the level of the soldiers. Yuu asked, “When do we start their battle training?”

Shi Lang said, “They need to develop a danger perception, that will need them to run the maze daily. However, battle training cannot be neglected as well. Have them attend classes when they are unconscious or asleep, using simulation technology. Then slowly incorporate that knowledge in the real life.”

Yuu nodded and said, “Good time management skills, General. How about you also check your bones for rust? Would you like to try the maze, and see if Ragnarok was hell or is Tartarus a hell?”

Shi Lang leaned back in the chair and said, “The idea is not bad. I shall go and run along, this will increase their morale. Good job, Instructor Yuu.”