“Everyone, please sleep peacefully.” This was what the officer who took them inside said. “Learning to rest is another important aspect of training. I know that you are all elites. It’s nothing to you to hold out for a couple of days without sleeping. Our training period isn’t long, so in order to prevent this circumstance, I’m going to announce a rule—each night from 12 midnight until 6 AM the next morning, apart from using the toilet, you aren’t permitted to leave your room. Of course, you don’t need to worry that there will be a problem with your quality of sleep. Our rooms are all equipped with enforced sleep devices.”

Then he saluted efficiently, turned, and left, leaving behind a roomful of RZ Unit members staring blankly at each other. 

“What’s an…enforced sleep device?” Su Qing felt like he was bungee jumping between AD 1850 and AD 2100; he was getting a little oxygen-deprived from it. 

“A newly invented intervention therapy for insomnia,” Lu Qingbai said. He plopped down on the bed and felt that the bed under his ass didn’t feel especially sturdy. “It causes a powerful feeling of exhaustion and helps relax the mind. I’ve heard that the clinical results have been quite good. It’s ready to go into production, except that the production costs are too high, so it can’t be circulated on the market.” 

Chang Dou gave a timely yawn. Lu Qingbai glanced at him and sighed. “Comrade Xiao Chang, the enforced sleep device in this room clearly hasn’t been activated yet. You’re early for your role.” 

Chang Dou got halfway through his yawn, then forced it back. Blinking his watery eyes, he looked at him pathetically. 

Before nightfall, Xue Xiaolu and Qin Luo went into the little compartment partitioned off by the curtain, and the others for the first time lay in this sort of multi-person bed. Before sleeping, they held a brief meeting concerning the question of “should we have our heads out or our feet out.” Before they had reached a conclusion, the lights in the room suddenly went out, and all the windows shut automatically. High intensity light-blocking shutters came down, and the room immediately became so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. 

Su Qing, just drinking out of an enamel cup with a red star drawn on it and “Serve the People” written on it, nearly poured the water into his windpipe.

Lu Qingbai said, “Now the enforced sleep device has been activated.” 

Just as he finished speaking, there was another yawn from beside him. Lu Qingbai: “…” 

Fang Xiu coldly said, “Chang Dou, move over that way, I’m not used to being so close to others when I’m asleep.” 

Chang Dou immediately obeyed his orders reverently, striving to shift sideways. Lu Qingbai was just bending down to get into the covers, so his chin bumped right into Chang Dou’s head. Lu Qingbai hissed. After a long time, he said indistinctly, “Chang Dou, is there something wrong with your balance? You’re always bumping into things left and right. Aren’t you worried about getting a concussion?” 

“I’m…I’m sorry!” 

“You knocked my glasses off.” Lu Qingbai began to grope around wildly. “Don’t sit down, Captain Hu, my glasses will break if you sit on them.” 

“I’m already sitting down,” Hu Bugui said. “And you’re lying crooked, Dr. Lu. You’re kicking me.” 

As he spoke, Hu Bugui felt a faint buzzing drilling into his ears, as though it was drilling directly into his brain. This sound was bizarre and extremely subtle; when you listened closely, it wasn’t there. It wasn’t irritating. Instead, it made you feel relaxed. After a moment’s daze, you felt as though you were immersed in warm water. 

Suddenly, there was a click behind him, and the small flame of a lighter appeared. Hu Bugui’s head cleared instantly. He turned and saw Su Qing standing up and feeling for the table. “I hadn’t even put down my damn cup, and they turned the lights out just like that. They ought to at least give us some notice, no?”

Hu Bugui frowned. In a low voice, he asked, “Didn’t I confiscate that? Where did you scare up a new one from?” 

Su Qing pulled a face at him. When he had just found a place to put his cup, the shoddy one-yuan-a-piece lighter in his hand emitted two sparks and wouldn’t light anymore. Su Qing cursed quietly. Hu Bugui knocked on the side of the bed. “Over here.” 

Su Qing felt through the dark, following his voice. He felt around on the side of the bed for a long while before finding Hu Bugui’s arm lying there. Then he gently pinched that beautifully muscled arm. Hu Bugui sucked in a breath. “What are you up to now?” 

“I pinched it to see whether it was your arm,” Su Qing said matter-of-factly. He unhurriedly climbed in bed and got under the covers, bringing a cool draft with him. 

None of them knew what tricks this ST Training Course involved, and they weren’t used to sleeping in company with so many people, so they all went to sleep in their clothes. It may have been a figment of his imagination, but Hu Bugui felt that he could sense Su Qing’s body heat through his sweater. The frequency of his heartbeat quivered twice, and he woke up entirely. 

Meanwhile, Lu Qingbai was no longer moving, and Chang Dou also seemed to be sound asleep. But Su Qing didn’t seem sleepy in the least. He raised a hand to rub his ear and quietly asked, “What’s that’s noise?” 

“It must be the enforced sleep device.” When Su Qing spoke, a slight breath puffed directly into his ear. Hu Bugui trembled imperceptibly and somewhat unnaturally turned his head away. “Stop talking and go to sleep. We have training tomorrow.” 

Su Qing’s ears were too good. He could even hear the sounds of Xue Xiaolu and Qin Luo breathing in the partition. He had slept very little over the last few years, and he had a bad habit—he could only sleep when he was alone in the room. Even Tu Tutu slept apart from him. 

The tiny sound emitted by the enforced sleep device did indeed have a powerful soporific effect. After a while, Su Qing’s body and limbs felt as heavy as though lead had been poured into them, just as though he were extremely tired. 

But tired was one thing. When some sleepiness had just welled up, the next moment he would be startled awake by the sound of someone breathing or turning over. After a while, in the dark, it felt as though even time had slowed down. Next to him, Hu Bugui’s breathing was very steady, but Su Qing still had his eyes open, lying face up on the painfully hard bed, his nerves becoming more and more tense. 

Not sleeping for one night was nothing. He could also bear not sleeping for a week. But this enforced sleep device really was a racket. For some reason, Su Qing slowly began to feel a pain in his chest—just as if something were slowly blocking the operation of his energy crystal. 

Su Qing had lived for years with the double core energy crystal system supplying him with power. When his supply chain suddenly broke off, it was like an ordinary person being injected with a muscle relaxant. He felt as though he hardly had the strength to open his eyes or breathe. But his tensed nerves wouldn’t be influenced by this thing. They remained as tense as before. 

Su Qing closed his eyes and began to silently count sheep. As he counted, he desperately repeated to himself what Hu Bugui had said to him the other day—the people in this room were all his colleagues, people he worked with and risked his life with. He had to trust them. It was only closing his eyes and sleeping, it was only…

But the more he thought this, the more uneasy he felt. When he had counted enough sheep to eat mutton for the rest of his life, Su Qing still couldn’t get to sleep. The longer he couldn’t get to sleep, the more irritable he became. It was as though this enforced sleep device could only make his body enter hibernation. The supposed calming function had no effect on him. 

After another while, Su Qing heard the sound of some gas leaking out by his ear. He laboriously opened his dry and heavy eyes and saw that at some point a blinking little red light had appeared next to the pillow, as though some instrument had been activated. Then a tube came out of the little red light and sprayed white smoke. 

Su Qing wanted to sit up immediately, but his body wouldn’t move no matter what. He held his breath and used all his strength to raise one hand. He grabbed Hu Bugui’s wrist. But perhaps Hu Bugui was sleeping too soundly, or perhaps his grip was too light—Hu Bugui didn’t react. He only turned over and put an arm on Su Qing’s waist, very naturally embracing him. 

The movement was natural, but its strength was considerable. Su Qing had been barely holding his breath to start with. Strapped down like this, the breath came choking out. He thought indignantly, Why can other people move?! 

A moment’s carelessness, and Su Qing breathed in quite a lot of the smoke. The stuff was visible but tasteless. When he breathed it in, there was no obvious unpleasant sensation. But as it permeated further and further around, the whole room seemed to become encircled in white smoke. 

At first, Su Qing felt a slight pressure pressing down on his temples. Slowly, the pressure increased. In the end, it simply felt like a hoop binding his head. Sweat came up on Su Qing’s temples. He wanted to struggle, but he had entirely lost control of his body. There was nothing but whiteness before his eyes. He bit through the tip of his tongue and drew blood. Finally, all sensation disappeared entirely. All that remained was that enormous pressure that seemed about to crush his head. 

Su Qing felt that his head was about to explode. Then his vision blurred, his body relaxed, and all the pressure disappeared. He opened his eyes and found that the people next to him were all gone. He was alone, lying in an enormous forest. Above his head were leaves blotting out the sky. Light leaked in through the gaps between the leaves, falling on his skin. He could feel a slight warm itch. The undissipated white smoke filled the air. 

“This isn’t right,” he thought. Then he tried to get up, but the next moment, he fell back. Su Qing looked at his own arms and legs in astonishment. They felt as flabby as though someone had pulled out his bones. There was still a faint taste of blood at the tip of his tongue, reminding him of that strong pain he had just experienced. 

He struggled where he was for ages, then finally stood up, swaying and supporting himself against a big tree. He flexed his hand. The feeling of his fingertips touching his palm was very authentic. This truly didn’t seem fake, but it also didn’t seem real. Otherwise, Su Qing simply couldn’t think of how he had instantly gone from a carefully sealed room to a forest. 

Just then, through some low bushes, Su Qing saw someone sit up not far from him and look up to meet his eyes. It was Hu Bugui. 

Hu Bugui still seemed a little confused. As soon as he saw him, he automatically asked, “Su Qing? What are you doing there?” 

So Su Qing walked over, half-paralyzed, his knees shaking like stalks of wheat. He had only gone two steps when they finally couldn’t support his weight anymore. They went weak, and he went to one knee on the ground. Hu Bugui, to his extreme envy, vigorously leapt up from the ground and ran over to him. “What happened? What’s the matter?” 

The moment Hu Bugui’s hand touched him, the white smoke suddenly cleared from in front of Su Qing’s eyes.