CHAPTER 1453: 1,434TH CHAPTER: COME AND PRACTICE

The Black Demon, at its peak during the Soviet era, was selected by the most elite KGB from across the Soviet Union, then nurtured with the full power of the nation to cultivate these talents.

Comparing against the Black Demon in all respects, not to mention Satan, even the current US, Russia, China, UK, and France cannot field such a unit.

The Soviet Union had the ability and the willingness to nurture such a unit as the Black Demon. More importantly, the Soviet Union was willing to maintain a nearly omnipotent unit, but after the dissolution, Russia could no longer develop such a unit, and other countries lacked the willingness to nurture one.

The necessity for the existence of such a force as the Black Demon is truly hard to argue, because countries like the US, UK, and France prefer to cultivate units with specialized directions. Army personnel focus on skills applicable to the army, and the navy is trained for naval skills.

From a national perspective, it is unnecessary to train an all-round military unit, and it is unrealistic. A major power can dispatch its most suited troops to execute tasks they excel at. Why hand over the air force’s duties to one unit and also task them with army and navy responsibilities? It is purely impractical.

If the difficulty level for specializing in one skill for a unit is ten, then the difficulty for mastering two skills becomes fifty, and for three skills, it’s three hundred. Mastering all conceivable skills, the difficulty surges to ten thousand.

All-round talents are essentially geniuses. How many geniuses can a country have? The human and material resources consumed to train such an all-powerful unit could train hundreds of other units with the same scale but specialized capabilities, simply speaking, the cost-effectiveness ratio for a unit like the Black Demon is phenomenally low.

Besides the Soviet Union, no other country would actually train a unit like the Black Demon.

The British and Americans keep making films like 007. They might indeed have talents like James Bond, but even if they do, it would take years to see just one emerge, and certainly, they wouldn’t intentionally cultivate a batch of 007-like individuals.

But the Soviet Union was different. To prove the superiority of the Soviet model, and as the KGB, this giant power sought to showcase its strength, they intentionally trained a batch of individuals as impressive as 007 and assembled them into a unit.

The Black Demon is a product of its time. If it weren’t for the unique historical period of US-Soviet rivalry, and the existence of the giant KGB, such a unit would never have appeared. Therefore, after the Soviet Union disintegrated, the KGB immediately fell apart, and the Black Demon quickly disbanded.

Understand that not only cultivating the Black Demon required massive finances, but even maintaining this unit demanded vast resources, and just the resources needed to sustain this unit were beyond Russia’s capability.

From a national perspective, the Black Demon is akin to a beautiful but impractical ornament, with no real necessity for existence. However, for mercenaries, there is no better template than the Black Demon unit.

The form of the Black Demon unit is the perfect form for mercenaries.

Satan has been striving towards the Black Demon’s model, but it is certain that Satan will never be able to reach the same level as the Black Demon.

Satan’s model is where each person specializes in their direction, combining these individuals to form a team with a broad enough area of expertise; this is the most practical and cost-effective mode of construction.

The people of the Black Demon are old; their agility has faded, and some of what they learned is outdated, but much of what they possess still remains the best in the world, and their age does not hinder them from becoming teachers.

Gao Yang approached the old timer of the Black Demon, cleared his throat, and said admiringly, "The Black Demon indeed lives up to its name, formidable, truly undeniable."

To establish a good relationship, one has to flatter first, especially since Gao Yang had beaten up the old man in front of him, so he must flatter well.

"Go away."

The old man, unceremoniously, waved Gao Yang away like he was shooing a fly.

Gao Yang was stunned, then very carefully chose his words again, smiled and said, "Sir, I have something I wish to discuss with you, do you have a moment now?"

The old man glanced at Gao Yang, then shouted, "If it’s something related to operations, speak quickly, otherwise, there’s no need to say it."

Gao Yang cleared his throat twice, cautiously considered his words, and slowly said, "It’s like this, sir, this operation went smoothly, no, it went too smoothly. Your mission can soon be completed, and there’s plenty of time. I want to know if you are willing to take on another job. I greatly admire the capabilities of the Black Demon. If I could continue to work with you, it would be fantastic."

The old man glanced at Gao Yang, then lowered his eyelids and muttered, "Not interested."

Gao Yang was a bit anxious, but he still used the most peaceful and sincere tone to say, "Why? Do you have other plans? I think maybe you could listen to what I have to say before deciding."

The old man waved his hand firmly and said in a deep voice, "I’ve lost interest in carrying out such an effortless massacre in this godforsaken place, so there’s no need to say more."

Gao Yang hurriedly said, "No, it’s not to keep you here to fight, I want to ask you to stay as instructors, uh, train us."

The old man looked at Gao Yang, then pulled up the mask on his face and said with a half-smile, "Train you?"

"Yes, train us. We’ll pay commission, based on current standards, what do you think?"

The old man laughed heartily, then straightened his face and scolded Gao Yang unceremoniously, "I have no interest in being an instructor. Even if I were interested, don’t dream of getting our training with just a little money."

Gao Yang also pulled up his mask, smiled along, and said humbly, "Yes, yes, this money is not much. So, how much would satisfy you?"

The old man said very seriously, "How much would satisfy me? No amount would satisfy me. What we learned isn’t something to teach mercenaries, now get lost, don’t bother me."

People with big skills have big tempers, Gao Yang decided to tolerate it, and he still had to keep persisting, so he tried again, "Sir, we can talk about anything. How about this? You and your old comrades, we’ll pay thirty thousand per person per day for you to be instructors, what do you think?"

The old man said coldly, "I said, not interested."

Gao Yang smiled bitterly, "Why? This price is really not low. Of course, it’s not just about money, but I’m very sincere. You can propose any thoughts you have."

The old man said earnestly, "Coming here to fight, that’s okay, we can consider it a vacation, and there’s money to be made. But to teach you guys, huh, doing these things here is as simple as stomping on a nest of ants, but teaching you fools to a level I’m satisfied with is too difficult, and I’m a perfectionist. I don’t want to muddle through, whether or not you pay me to do so, so I won’t teach anyone."

Gao Yang thought for a moment, the old man was right. The difficulty of fighting a group that could be laughably considered strong here compared to teaching an already quite formidable group to improve further isn’t just average.

Gao Yang coughed lightly and smiled, "What you said makes sense, but you can still treat it as a vacation, train us occasionally and still get paid, isn’t it good?"

The old man impatiently said, "Scram, scram, scram."

This can’t be talked over, being submissive seems to be useless. Gao Yang decided to try a different method, so he sighed and said with a pained expression, "Sir, I know you must be dissatisfied with me, no wonder, we had a bit of an unpleasantness a couple of days ago. I did act a bit harshly..."

Gao Yang was prepared with a set of arguments, but before he could finish, the old man smiled and said, "You want to use my failure to provoke me? You want to goad me? Fine, let’s see if I’ll get angry, go ahead, keep talking."

Gao Yang was helpless. His arguments hadn’t even started, yet the old man directly pointed it out. These old men were almost like psychology masters; it would be strange if they fell for his goading tactic.

At this point, Albert angrily said, "Old man, enough is enough. Our boss is already speaking kindly to you, what more do you want? Let me tell you, don’t keep indulging in the glory of your own fantasies. Our boss wanting to connect with you is giving you face."

The old man smiled and said, "Do I need your respect? The Black Demon doesn’t need to be respected by anyone, never has. If being respected by a group of mercenaries is what it takes to prove Black Demon’s status, that itself is the biggest joke."

Gao Yang coughed lightly and said in a low voice, "Sir, don’t be angry at what I say. If we talk about individuals’ comprehensive abilities, Satan indeed can’t compare to the Black Demon, I admit that. If we compare team comprehensive abilities, Satan isn’t a match either. You were trained by the Soviet Union; we paid for our training, it’s incomparable, but if Satan and Black Demon were to face off, you wouldn’t be our match, do you believe that?"

The old man smiled slightly and lowered his voice, "Do you think changing the form of goading will be effective? Young man, don’t waste your efforts. Or do you want to fight us to prove your point?"

The Black Demon people seemed unresponsive, but Gao Yang could feel that these old men, each busy with their duties, were already preparing to turn their faces and take action.

Unseen but felt, because although the Black Demon old men didn’t show any abnormality, Gao Yang’s intuition told him they were preparing to act.

Gao Yang immediately said, "No, I don’t want to fight at all, but we can conduct an exercise, can’t we? Exercises can also prove a point, right? Real guns and ammo can be deadly, why do that? I don’t dare say I could win without casualties, that’s not realistic. But if our two teams face off, the ultimate victor must be us. If you don’t believe it, we can totally try it, of course, it’s an exercise, an exercise!"