Death Progress Bar

een talking with, to leave temporarily.
Looking at Shi Jin’s photo he set as his desktop wallpaper, he answered the questions one by one: {Uncle Long changed my diet a while ago, and the new dishes taste awful.
Exercise is going well, I’m slowly getting better.
I’ve been a bit busy recently.
I don’t sleep well—I often wake up because I miss a certain someone very much.}

As Shi Jin listened, he imagined Lian Jun frowning while eating nutritional meals and waking up at night frequently, and his smile vanished.
His heart aching, he whispered, “Lian Jun, I want to see you.”

Lian Jun reached up and touched the picture of Shi Jin on the desktop, his smile fading as well.
{Me too.} I want to see you, I want to see you so much I’m beginning to hate my identity for not allowing me to step into the world of light you belong in.

Hearing the tone of his lover’s voice, Shi Jin couldn’t endure any longer.
He hung up, browsed through Xiang Aoting’s phone, found the messaging app, and opened it.
Not paying any attention to the chat group pinned on top that showed a large number of messages, he logged out of Xiang Aoting’s account, logged in to his own, and made a video call to Lian Jun.

Barely a second later, Lian Jun appeared on the phone screen.

Shi Jin stared at it without blinking, only relaxing after Lian Jun’s image was completely clear.
Trying to look as if everything was normal, he smiled at the camera.
“You look a little thinner,” he said.
“You’re not allowed to do this, you know? You need to eat properly.
I’ll check when I go back.”

{Then I’ll try to eat a little more at every meal.} Lian Jun leaned closer to the screen, as if to take a better look at Shi Jin.
Suddenly, he frowned.
{Why are your eyes swollen?}

Um… because I went to sleep right after crying.

A bit guilty, Shi Jin covered his expression by raising a hand to scratch his hair.
“Today, we had half a day’s free time, and I spent it sleeping.
I guess they’re swollen from sleep.”

Lian Jun was not so easy to fool.
He scrutinized Shi Jin’s face, his frown deepening.
{You have such heavy dark circles under your eyes.
You aren’t sleeping well over there?}

He had nightmares every day, it would be strange if he slept well.

A bit regretting making a video call, he evaded, “No, I don’t have dark circles, it’s just a tan.
It’s hard to avoid getting tanned during military training since we’re outside almost all the time…”

Lian Jun’s gaze fell on his body again.
His expression darkened as he noticed a bruise on Shi Jin’s exposed arm.
{Why do you have bruises? Are you getting bullied? Is this how Xiang Aoting looks after you?}

“No, no, I fell down while sparring.
Don’t worry, my brother is taking good care of me—see, didn’t he secretly let me use his mobile phone?” Shi Jin explained hurriedly.
Adjusting the camera angle so that only his face would be visible, he reassured, “Really, I’m fine here, I’m not hurt and I’m not being bullied.
You don’t need to worry.”

After his face was magnified, Shi Jin’s dark circles became even more evident, and looking closely, one could see how bloodshot his eyes were.

This clearly wasn’t the appearance of someone who’d just woke up.

Lian Jun’s hands clenched tightly, but he didn’t show anything on his face.
Seeing Shi Jin anxiously thinking of an explanation, he forced his expression to relax and changed the topic.
{Is military training hard? Are you tired?}

Shi Jin breathed a sigh of relief and began to describe the events of the past few days, deliberately picking the most amusing incidents in order to make him smile.
Lian Jun listened attentively; watching the teenager gradually become more and more energetic, his clenched hands relaxed.

The two had chatted for only ten minutes when Luo Donghao came back, interrupting their call.
Shi Jin reluctantly logged out of the messenger app, erased his login information, and hid the phone.
Then, knuckles cracking, he went to have a “man-to-man talk” with Luo Donghao!

At the club, Lian Jun looked at the dark phone screen, remembering the expression of dismay that appeared on Shi Jin’s face when they had to end the call.
His hand clenching again, he raised his voice to call Gua One back.

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The next day, Shi Jin went to the training ground ahead of the assembly time.
As expected, he saw Xiang Aoting, who had also come there early.

“Thank you for lending me your phone,” Shi Jin said, stopping next to his brother and passing him his cap.

Xiang Aoting glanced at the mobile phone hidden inside and suppressed a smile.
He took the phone and handed the cap back.
“Did you sleep well last night?”

“Yes, very well.
When I got up this morning, my hand didn’t ache anymore,” Shi Jin replied, putting the cap back on.
Out of blue, he asked, “Say, will they award a cadet with a medal and award certificate for taking the first place in training?”

Xiang Aoting eyed him.
“Yeah, why?”

“I want to bring my boyfriend some souvenirs back,” Shi Jin replied, domineeringly raising his chin.
“And my boyfriend deserves only the best, so naturally I’m going to get him the best.”

Xiang Aoting frowned and reached out to tap his cap.
“Nonsense, the training is for your own sake.”

Shi Jin quickly leaned back to protect his hat and added, “Oh, I don’t know, when I first arrived here, I seem to recall somebody saying that his younger brother wasn’t allowed to do just ‘well enough’.
Who was that, though?”

Xiang Aoting faltered, then tried to explain, “I didn’t mean it like this, you…”

“Okay, okay, since when have you become such a nag?” Shi Jin interrupted him, straightening up.
Seeing his brother frown again, his expression abruptly turned serious.
“Fourth Brother, if I get first place in the military training, go back to the Air Force,” he said firmly.

Taken aback, Xiang Aoting began, “Xiao Jin…”

“Don’t give up on your career because of me.
The time for a soldier to be able to fight freely is too short—I’d rather watch you soar in a blue sky than stuck in a military base like this.” Shi Jin looked up at him and said solemnly, “My, Shi Jin’s older brother, is not allowed to be just an ordinary soldier.
You have to go all out and become the best in the field where your talents lie, only then I will acknowledge you.”

Xiang Aoting was deeply moved.
Suddenly, he smiled and put his hand on top of Shi Jin’s head, pressing down.
“Okay, I will try my best to make you acknowledge me.”

Shi Jin slapped his hand off and glared at him, annoyed.
“I told you not to touch my head! Are you picking a fight with me?”

Not far away, Luo Donghao stared in shock at Xiang Aoting and Shi Jin “flirting”.
In his mind, there appeared all kinds of messy romance novel titles—“Overbearing Instructor Fell in Love With Me”, “Quarrelsome Couple: From Hate to Love”, “The Man Who Made the Spoiled Young Master Grow Up”, and so on.
He couldn’t help but stagger a step backward, raising a hand to his chest.
Was-was it really like this? The reason why the instructor liked to make things difficult for Shi Jin was…

Xiang Aoting and Shi Jin both noticed Luo Donghao’s gawking and turned to look at him.

By now, Luo Donghao had completely convinced himself the story his mind produced is true.
He turned and hid behind a tree, trying to pretend he’d never been here.

“What’s wrong with him?” Xiang Aoting asked, frowning.

Shi Jin shook his head.
“I don’t know.
Maybe he ate too much for breakfast and now couldn’t help but throw up?”

Death Progress Bar is translated by Betwixted Translations.
Read on the original translator’s site to get the fastest updates!

The squad members found that after the half-day’s rest time, Shi Jin’s enthusiasm for training suddenly increased.

Up to this point, none of them had realized it about Shi Jin—after all, the cadets were still only doing the basic exercises.
Everyone already knew that Shi Jin’s physical fitness was very good, so they didn’t feel particularly shocked or incredulous that Shi Jin performed better than an average freshman; at most, they only sighed that he really didn’t look like a rich young master.

However, when the basic training was over and they moved on to the obstacle course race, it finally dawned on them—this “young master” was simply a monster!

When everyone was still learning how to crawl properly, Shi Jin had already made it through the low crawl like a breeze, making the cadets behind him eat dust; when everyone was still trying to climb the first wall and failed miserably, Shi Jin had neatly climbed over the last one and sat down to have a drink of water and rest; during combat practice, Shi Jin had to spar with the instructor because he could easily defeat any student, even when they were allowed to cooperate and go against him in twos or threes… In short, everyone stood on the land of mortals and looked up at Shi Jin sauntering in the world of the strong, feeling so frustrated they almost couldn’t breathe.

“What the hell they’ve been feeding him when he was growing up…” Liu Yong collapsed on the side of the sand pit.
As he watched Shi Jin—who had been training for the whole afternoon but still had the energy to spar with Xiang Aoting—Liu Yong felt he wasn’t worthy to breathe the same air as him.

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Luo Dongao plopped down next to him and wiped the sweat on his forehead.
Also watching Shi Jin, he said, “I’ll tell you something even worse—during the room inspection, Shi Jin got the highest score.
On our second day here, he could fold his quilt into a tofu block.”

“Argh, I don’t want to live anymore.” Heartbroken, Liu Yong turned to lie on his side.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the scene of Shi Jin hitting Xiang Aoting’s shoulder with a punch, and felt his own shoulder ache.
Shrinking his neck, he commented, “The instructor seems to like Shi Jin very much.
He spars with him every day and teaches him moves and everything.
Ah, I’m really envious.”

Luo Donghao’s expression froze.
He watched Shi Jin stop after hitting Xiang Aoting and rush forward to check his arm with a look of concern and Xiang Aoting pat his head saying he was okay, and closed his eyes forcefully.
“Don’t be envious, this isn’t something you should envy…” he uttered in a voice of someone who’d experienced the vicissitudes of life.
“That aside, you’d better train.
The day after tomorrow, we’re supposed to learn shooting—if you don’t pass through the obstacle course until then, do you want to bet whether the instructor will leave you to train here alone?”

Liu Yong shuddered and hurriedly got up from the ground.
As a thought crossed his mind, he cheered up.
“Shi Jin is good at everything else, but maybe his marksmanship sucks? My uncle has a shooting range, and I basically grew up holding a gun.
Maybe I can beat him? What do you think?”

Seeing the look of optimism on his face, Luo Donghao wanted to speak but bit his tongue.
In the end, he only let out a quiet sigh and walked away.

Death Progress Bar is translated by Betwixted Translations.
Read on the original translator’s site to get the fastest updates!

Two days later, the shooting range.

Luo Donghao gestured with his chin towards the target Shi Jin had just hit, asking, “Liu Yong, can you win?”

“The fuck…” Liu Yong was about to cry.
“Is Shi Jin a monster? Even at shooting, he’s the best! Isn’t it enough he’s good at everything else? Let others live, will you…”

Luo Donghao patted him on the shoulder, comforting, “It’s alright, you still have a chance—there’s one more activity we haven’t done.”

Liu Yong angrily pushed off his hand.
“Chance, my foot! The last activity tests physical strength and endurance! You think I can win at that?!”

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Extra: what if Shi Jin hadn’t ignored the chat group messages when he used Xiang Aoting’s phone but actually read them

Rong Zhouzhong: Fourth’s photography skills suck.
There’s not a single picture showing the face! Just look at these, they’re all taken from the back blah blah blah… [picture]

Shi Weichong: Indeed, there aren’t any.

Fei Yujing: This one is passable. [picture]

Li Jiuzheng silently forwarded the photo, then changed his profile picture.

A few seconds later.

Rong Zhouzhong: Hey! Despicable, Fifth! How dare you use Xiao Jin’s photo as the profile picture?!

Li Jiuzheng: .

Rong Zhouzhong: Don’t fucking pretend to die, change it back right now!

Rong Zhouzhong: Fifth, you #￥%@%￥

Shi Jin: “……” The heck is this?

He swiped his finger to browse through the chat history.

Crack.
Ten minutes later, Xiang Aoting’s phone gave up the ghost under Shi Jin’s foot.

#Who needs older brothers anyway#