49: When the airdrop landed, why was my parachute torn?

At this moment, above the Virtual Reality Survival Island, a massive blue teleportation light screen was like a giant mouth devouring heaven and earth, spitting out thousands of freshmen.

The wind howled, and clouds streaked past beneath their feet.

This was ten thousand meters in the air.

"Is this virtual reality technology? This feeling of weightlessness is exactly like the real thing!"

"Stop talking! Open your parachute quickly! Otherwise, you'll be a loot box the moment you hit the ground!"

In the sky, countless small white and colored dots bloomed instantly; the freshmen had opened their parachutes.

According to the rules, everyone was equipped with a standard tactical parachute pack. Landing locations were completely random, but most people tried to control their parachute cords to move toward the resource-rich central area or the forest edges, which were easy to hide in.

Only in one corner did the style suddenly change.

"Aaaaah! President! Why is our landing point right above a lakeshore in the Central Lake Area!"

Xiao Fan screamed while frantically pulling his parachute cords and looking at the virtual interface map on his wrist. "And it shows a high density of red dots nearby; it's all an Advanced Vicious Beast area!"

Not far beside him, Gu Fan was free-falling in an extremely relaxed "X" posture. He wore windproof sunglasses, and his hair was blown into a broom-like shape by the gale, yet he still maintained that calm vibe.

"What's the panic?"

Gu Fan's voice was somewhat broken in the wind, but that lazy tone was clearly audible. "High risk means high reward. Besides, don't we have a 'secret weapon'?"

As he spoke, he pointed below at the free-falling, flailing Flame Lion Wangcai, who was letting out a howl like a pig being slaughtered.

"Roar—!!!" (Help! This lion is afraid of heights!)

On Gu Fan's other side, Lin Xue had already skillfully opened her parachute. She controlled her body and slowly approached Gu Fan, her gaze sinister.

"Gu Fan, your time of death has come."

Lin Xue sneered in her heart. As a secret agent, she had stealthily tampered with the pull ring on Gu Fan's parachute pack in the final second before entering the teleportation.

She had already cut ninety percent of the crucial cord connecting to the main parachute. As soon as Gu Fan pulled it... humph.

By now, the altitude had dropped to three thousand meters.

"President! Open your parachute! It'll be too late if you don't!" Xiao Fan shouted anxiously.

Gu Fan glanced at the altimeter and yawned. "Alright, although the feeling of flying is quite nice, being smashed into meat paste really isn't very aesthetic."

He reached out, grabbed the red pull ring, and gave it a hard tug.

Snap.

A soft sound.

The pull ring was pulled off.

But the parachute pack... had no reaction.

Gu Fan froze for a moment, looked at the bare pull ring in his hand, and then looked back at his still-closed backpack.

"Oh? Which manufacturer made this inferior product? How can there be a ring but no parachute?"

Seeing this from not far away, Lin Xue smiled triumphantly.

"Success!"

She cheered in her heart. "Falling from three thousand meters, even if you are a Hua Jin Martial Artist, you'll be smashed into meat sauce! Not to mention this is a virtual space, and the pain is simulated at one hundred percent! Goodbye, Gu Fan!"

Xiao Fan also noticed something was wrong, his face pale. "President! The reserve parachute! Open the reserve parachute quickly!"

Gu Fan felt around and pulled the switch for the reserve parachute.

Whoosh—

The reserve parachute popped out.

But... why was there a huge hole in the parachute? And the shape looked like a skull?

"Tsk tsk tsk, even the reserve parachute is broken." Gu Fan didn't panic; instead, he looked like he had discovered a new continent. "This is very targeted. It seems someone doesn't want me to land."

Because there was no resistance, his downward speed suddenly accelerated, and he smashed toward the ground like a meteorite.

[Ding! Extreme malice trap detected.]

[Source of malice: Lin Xue (cut the main parachute), a temporary worker in the Logistics Department (instructed by Zhao Zhengyi to swap the reserve parachute).]

[Intention: Death by falling from a high altitude, creating a competition accident.]

[Malice Rank: A+.]

[Backlash triggered! Multiplier: Ninety times!]

[Mode loading: Newton's Tears: Aerodynamics Failure Version.]

[Description: Gravity exists objectively, but on you, it sometimes becomes less objective. Perhaps, the wind loves you a bit more?]

Just as Gu Fan was less than five hundred meters from the ground and about to crash into a sharp stone forest.

A sudden change occurred.

Below the originally calm valley, a strange updraft suddenly erupted.

This air current came extremely abruptly, as if a giant Dragon underground had sneezed.

The original path of this air current should have blown toward a cliff dozens of kilometers away, which was the scheduled landing point for the Student Union's elite squad, intended to provide them with gliding acceleration.

But now, the Law of Karma had rewritten the wind's direction.

"Whoosh—!!!"

The violent air current instantly caught Gu Fan's rapidly falling body.

That feeling was like being held gently, as if catching a feather.

Gu Fan's falling speed, which was so fast it almost deformed his face, instantly dropped to zero, and he even floated up a bit.

He just suspended there in mid-air, with the howling wind beneath him, but his whole body was motionless; he could even sit cross-legged in the air.

"Is this the legendary riding the wind?"

Gu Fan sat on the air current, tidied his hairstyle, and waved at Student Lin, who was already stunned and had almost hit a tree because she forgot to control her parachute.

"Student Lin, your landing posture should be elegant. Look at you, your face is turning white from fear."

Lin Xue: "..."

The scene before her completely overturned her perception.

You can still play like this even if the parachute is broken? Is this a freaking cheat? Or a hack?! That's gravitational acceleration! If Newton knew, even his coffin lid wouldn't be able to hold him down!

[Ding! Detected 'Lin Xue's' extreme shock and self-doubt. malice points +400!]

Meanwhile.

In the real world, inside the Academy Monitoring Hall.

Zhao Zhengyi was sitting in a wide leather swivel chair, holding a glass of expensive chilled happy water, with rows of monitors in front of him, monitoring the competition footage in real-time.

He had two band-aids on his face and was smiling sinisterly.

"Humph, Gu Fan... by now, he should have turned into a meat patty, right?"

Zhao Zhengyi was in a pleasant mood. He had spent a lot of money to bribe logistics, not only breaking Gu Fan's parachute pack but also specifically setting the supply crates for the elite squads to the most perfect locations.

"As long as Gu Fan exits the stage, this grand competition will belong to our Student Union."

As he thought this, he raised his glass to take a sip of water to moisten his throat.

Just then.

A red warning window suddenly popped up on the screen: [Abnormal air current detected in the Central Lake Area airspace!]

Zhao Zhengyi was startled by the sudden alarm, and his hand shook.

"Gulp—cough cough cough!"

The icy happy water choked directly into his trachea. The suffocating pain made his face turn red and his neck thick, with tears and snot spraying out together.

"Cough cough... cough cough cough!!!"

He coughed violently, his hands waving wildly in the air, trying to grab the tissues on the desk.

However, due to the violent physiological spasm, his palm, as luck would have it, slammed heavily onto a large red button in the center of the control console.

Above that button, a line of eye-catching large characters was written: [Emergency Deployment: Super Supply Crate (Unique)].

That was the ultimate resource crate originally prepared to be deployed in the center of the map at the end of the first day to trigger a thousand-person melee. Inside, there was not only a full set of A-Rank individual equipment but also a large amount of food, medicine, and even a hidden map.

"Beep—! Command confirmed!"

"Coordinates locked... Personnel detected lingering below... Deployment target: Central Lake Area, Gu Fan!"

The System's electronic voice echoed in the hall.

While Zhao Zhengyi was coughing his life away, he looked at the big screen in horror.

On the screen, a giant supply crate painted in gold and draped with red silk ribbons was like a golden meteor, falling straight toward Gu Fan, who was sitting on the air current basking in the sun.

"No... cough... stop... that's... that's mine..."

Zhao Zhengyi reached out in despair, but could only watch helplessly as that golden box representing the "Super Supply Crate" became Gu Fan's exclusive delivery... above a lakeshore in the Central Lake Area of the virtual island.

Gu Fan was feeling a bit bored, wondering if he should take a nap on this air current before going down.

Suddenly, a whistling sound came from overhead.

He looked up, and his eyes instantly lit up.

"Wow, pie falling from the sky?"

A giant golden box slowly descended. Because it had an Advanced deceleration parachute, it landed very steadily, hovering right where Gu Fan could reach it.

Gu Fan wasn't polite either and directly reached out to grab the cable on the box.

At this time, the upward air current also gradually subsided. Gu Fan was like taking an exclusive elevator, clutching the giant supply crate, and slowly, lightly landed on a flat patch of grass by the lake.

Thud.

The landing sound was light.

Not far away, Xiao Fan and Lin Xue, who had just landed clumsily and were still untying their parachute cords, were both dumbfounded.

Especially Lin Xue; looking at the glittering golden box in Gu Fan's hand, her eyes turned red with envy.

That... that was the super airdrop that the guide mentioned would be deployed at the end of the first night?!

Getting a Divine Artifact at the start? How the Hell are we supposed to play!

Gu Fan patted the box and looked at the two with a smile. "It seems the organizers are quite humane; knowing I didn't bring food, they specially sent a delivery."

"Come, come, come, don't just stand there. Student Lin, I see your gaze is so fiery, you must be hungry, right? Come over and help unbox this delivery."

Gu Fan kicked open the lid of the box.

Instantly, a golden light flashed from within the box.

Neatly arranged inside were:

Three sets of A-Rank "Night Walker" nanoscale combat suits.

One S-Rank alloy saber, "Star Shatterer."

Ten boxes of self-heating hot pots.

Five vacuum-packed secret-recipe roasted chickens.

And a complete set of luxury outdoor camping gear (including a tent, grill, and generator).

Even... a crate of chilled beer and various ingredients, etc.

Xiao Fan rubbed his eyes, feeling like he was dreaming. "President... are we here to survive, or are we here on vacation?"

Gu Fan picked up a roasted chicken, tore open the packaging, and took a big bite, his mouth dripping with oil.

"Is there any difference?"

While chewing the chicken, he looked up at the sky, where many unlucky bastards were still floating down like dandelions.

"To them, this is Hell."

Gu Fan raised the roasted chicken and gave a remote toast to the sky. "But to us... this is called paid leave."

"Lin Xue, what are you standing there for? Put on that combat suit. Although it's a bit ugly, it's bulletproof. I'll need you to help chop vegetables later."

Looking at that S-Rank saber, which was sharp enough to cut through gold and jade, now being casually thrown on the ground by Gu Fan to be used as a meat cleaver, Lin Xue felt heartbroken.

That's an S-Rank weapon! It could be traded for a house on the black market! And you're using it to cut luncheon meat?!

"Yes... President."

Lin Xue gritted her teeth and forced a smile, walking over to pick up the saber.

Gu Fan, you just wait. The fuller you eat, the faster you'll be on your way!

In the distant monitoring hall, Zhao Zhengyi finally stopped coughing. Watching Gu Fan feasting on the screen, he shouted in despair:

"My roasted chicken... that's my roasted chicken!!!"

[Ding! Detected 'Zhao Zhengyi's' incomparable heartache and regretful complex emotions. malice points +600!]

Gu Fan let out a satisfied burp.

"Not bad, a god-tier start. Next, it's time for the real performance."