24: Chapter 24 Detecting mines with the naked eye? You call this a student?

As soon as Instructor Su Qing finished speaking, the tablet in her hand lit up, projecting a red virtual grid that covered the entrance to the forest ahead.

"Let me add a rule."

Instructor Su Qing pointed at the grids.

"To make things more interesting, the instructor team stayed up all night setting up some little gifts. 'Data-Invisible Traps,' the latest military technology."

"They are invisible to the naked eye and can only be scanned through detection skills or specific instruments. Once triggered, the bracelet will automatically record the damage value, deduct five credits, and gift you a session of electrotherapy."

A chorus of wails rose from the crowd.

"Five credits? That's way too harsh!"

"Electric shocks? How many volts are we talking about?"

Instructor Su Qing ignored the complaints and swiped her finger across the screen; the virtual grid vanished.

"Now, the traps are active. Your mission objective is to collect ten sets of Source Beast Materials. Depart."

After saying that, she stepped aside, looking like she was ready to enjoy the show.

Li Shaobai was the first to move.

A blue light flashed in his eyes, and a circle of pale golden runes appeared around his originally black pupils.

Skill: [Eagle Eye].

In his vision, dense clusters of red light spots immediately emerged on the previously empty grass.

"Follow me."

Li Shaobai glanced back at his team members, his chin slightly raised.

"Watch your step and don't get too far from me. These low-level traps only fool blind fools without skills."

Not to be outdone, Wang Gang pulled a palm-sized radar from the backpack of his power exoskeleton, which beeped incessantly.

"I have a military detector with 98% accuracy. Let's go this way!"

The students quickly split into several small groups, either following Li Shaobai or Wang Gang, cautiously moving toward the depths of the forest.

Zhang Wei looked at the empty-handed Lin Qi, feeling a bit panicked.

"Brother Qi, what do we do? As an Alchemist, I don't have any detection skills either. Should I go hitch a ride with Wang Gang's radar?"

"No need."

Lin Qi adjusted the straps of his weighted vest and stepped forward.

"Eyes can sometimes deceive you, but the environment won't."

Zhang Wei didn't understand, but he still followed obediently behind Lin Qi.

The group advanced very slowly.

Everyone acted as if they were clearing mines in a minefield, taking a long time to confirm every single step.

Lin Qi walked at the back of the group, calmly scanning the surroundings.

In his vision, there were no red dots or data prompts.

But he saw something else.

Three meters to his front-left, the direction in which a cluster of wild grass was bent looked very strange.

A southeast wind was blowing, yet these blades of grass were slightly tilted to the west.

Furthermore, within a two-meter radius, there were no insects flying around, and not even an ant could be seen.

That was an energy field interfering with biological instincts.

The intuition of a Martial Saint told him there was a big one there.

"Move, move! Don't block the way!"

An Agility-type boy who had awakened [Gale Walk] rushed up from behind.

He felt the group ahead was moving too slowly and wanted to overtake them from the side.

And the route he chose was directly toward that abnormal cluster of wild grass.

Lin Qi didn't say anything; just as the other person passed him, his left foot seemingly casually extended outward.

A tripwire move.

"Ouch!"

The boy was completely unprepared; his foot caught, he lost his balance, stumbled forward to the right, and took a nasty spill.

"Are you crazy?!"

The boy scrambled up, glaring at Lin Qi with a face full of rage.

"The path is so wide, yet you had to stick your leg out? You did that on purpose, didn't you!"

Lin Qi ignored him and simply pointed to the boy's left.

*Beep—*

A sharp alarm sounded.

This was followed by the sizzling sound of electric current passing through flesh.

A student nearby, who had tried to take a shortcut, stepped right into the area Lin Qi had been staring at.

"Argh!!!"

That unlucky fellow twitched all over, his hair standing on end as if he had been kicked hard. He fell straight to the ground, foaming at the mouth.

A bright red notification popped up on the bracelet: [High-Voltage Electric Shock Trap triggered, 5 credits deducted, current status: Paralyzed].

The entire area fell silent.

The boy who had just been cursing hung his mouth open, and cold sweat instantly poured down.

He looked at the still-twitching unlucky soul, then at the spot where he had been about to step.

If not for Lin Qi's trip, he would be the one lying on the ground now.

"Th... thank you..."

The boy stammered, his back completely drenched in sweat.

Lin Qi didn't look at him; he turned and continued walking forward.

"Keep up."

Zhang Wei swallowed hard and hurriedly jogged to keep up, looking at Lin Qi as if he were looking at a god.

The rest of the journey became somewhat eerie.

Lin Qi walked very fast.

But the route he took was very strange.

One moment he would take a large step to the left, the next he would suddenly stop and circle around, and sometimes he would inexplicably jump over a flat patch of grass to step on a protruding tree root nearby.

There was no discernible pattern.

He looked like a drunk person wandering aimlessly.

"Brother Qi, are we performing some kind of ritual dance?"

Zhang Wei cautiously stepped in the footprints Lin Qi left behind, not daring to make a single mistake.

"Shut up and watch the path."

Lin Qi didn't look back.

His perception was pushed to its limit.

This so-called "Data-Invisibility" was full of flaws in his eyes.

The color of that mound was slightly darker than its surroundings, indicating something was buried underneath and the soil had been recently disturbed.

The break in that branch was too fresh, clearly having been set up not long ago.

The airflow there had a slight sense of resistance; it was the edge of an energy field.

To a Martial Saint who had spent decades struggling in the martial arts era, these traps might as well have had the words "I'm here" written all over them.

At the very back of the group.

Instructor Su Qing held the control terminal, watching the green dot representing Lin Qi on the screen.

Her eyebrows arched higher and higher.

The screen showed that on the path Lin Qi had just traversed, three high-sensitivity traps were densely distributed.

There was even a chain mine; as long as the first one was triggered, a three-meter radius would be covered by an electric net.

But he had avoided them.

He had avoided every single one.

And the way he avoided them was practically an insult to the designer.

He had even walked right along the trigger edge of the traps, with a margin of error of no more than two centimeters.

"Interesting."

Instructor Su Qing watched the back of the figure in the school uniform, a sharp glint flashing in her eyes.

No skill fluctuations, no equipment assistance.

Purely relying on observation and intuition?

This kind of ability was something she had seen in battle-hardened veterans, but in an eighteen-year-old student, it was a first.

"Since you're so good at dodging, let me spice things up for you."

Instructor Su Qing's finger slid across the screen, inputting a string of commands.

[Trap Concealment Rank increased to Lv.3]

[Dynamic Sensing Mode enabled]

The traps that were originally stationary and waiting to be triggered suddenly began to move slowly, and their sensing range doubled.

Lin Qi's footsteps ahead came to a sudden halt.

He felt the surrounding Qi change.

That originally rigid sense of danger suddenly came alive, as if countless invisible eyes were peering from the shadows.

"What's wrong, Brother Qi?"

Zhang Wei almost bumped into Lin Qi's back.

Lin Qi stared at the seemingly peaceful woods ahead, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"The difficulty has increased."

He glanced back at Instructor Su Qing behind him.

Instructor Su Qing was holding the tablet, waving it at him with a smile that made one's skin crawl.

"Keep close, Fatty."

Lin Qi cracked his wrists, his voice low.

"Next is when the real combat begins."