57: Chapter 57 Simulated Beast Tide

The third underground level of the Special Recruitment Camp.

This was one of the most core areas of the entire camp: the independent simulation training zone.

Wang Pingan stood before a heavy alloy door, its codename marked upon it.

B-3.

Behind him, some Students who had heard the news stood far away, craning their necks, their eyes filled with complex expressions.

There was sympathy, there was pity, but more than anything, there was a sense of gleeful schadenfreude.

S-Rank Training Program.

It sounded badass, a unique honor.

But who didn't know that Chief Instructor Thunderstorm was a complete and utter lunatic!

None of the training programs he cooked up ever let anyone come out in one piece.

And "Extreme Potential Squeeze"?

Plainly speaking, it was just trying to torture people to death.

"I respected the kid for handing over his money, but now it looks like he's just an idiot."

"Exactly. Wouldn't it be better to take those two thousand spirit crystals back to Heaven Grade Room Number One and just lie there cultivating? Why come to this hellhole to suffer?"

"Hey, what do you guys know? This is called striving for a future! If he actually manages to survive this, he'll soar into the sky!"

"Survive? Look at the mission objective: solo confrontation against a Third-Rank Elite Beast Tide, and he has to take out the leader. I bet he won't even last half an hour."

Wang Pingan turned a deaf ear to their discussion.

He inserted the data pad in his hand into the slot next to the alloy door.

"Identity authentication passed."

"S-Rank Training Program 'Extreme Potential Squeeze' Phase One, commencing soon."

"Student Wang Pingan, please enter the training pod."

The cold electronic voice echoed through the empty corridor.

The alloy door slid open silently to both sides, revealing a pure white space only a few square meters in size.

In the center sat a silver-white metal pod, shaped like a giant egg.

Wang Pingan stepped inside.

Behind him, the alloy door slowly closed, shutting out everything from the outside world.

He lay down in the metal pod, the soft lining automatically adjusting to his physique, and a cool liquid surged from all directions to envelop his entire body without affecting his breathing.

His vision went black.

The next second.

The world turned upside down.

A biting cold wind, mixed with the stench of rust and blood, rushed wildly into his nostrils.

Beneath his feet was a cold, hard sensation, and in his ears, the wind howled.

Wang Pingan opened his eyes.

He found himself standing atop a massive wall that stretched beyond the horizon.

The wall was cast from an unknown black metal, covered in hideous scratches and dark red bloodstains.

The sky was a desolate, leaden color, so oppressive it made it hard to breathe.

He looked down at his hands, then touched his face.

The sensation was incredibly real.

This was the full-sensory simulation technology the Special Recruitment Camp prided itself on.

Here, the feeling of death was no different from the real world.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Heavy, rhythmic vibrations traveled from the distant horizon, clearly passing through the metal wall beneath his feet and deep into his bones.

Wang Pingan narrowed his eyes and looked into the distance.

At the edge of the horizon, a black line appeared.

That line was thickening and rising at a speed visible to the naked eye, sweeping crazily toward his direction.

That wasn't a line.

That was a tide.

A black tide of death composed of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands, of mutated creatures of all shapes and sizes!

"Roar!"

The shrill, frantic, and chaotic roars of beasts converged into a destructive wave of sound, crossing the vast distance to strike him with force.

Even with his current physique, he felt his blood qi value surge.

The beast tide had arrived.

Instead of feeling the slightest bit of tension, Wang Pingan took a deep breath.

A look of enjoyment even appeared on his face.

In the air, besides the scent of blood, there was a smell that fascinated him immensely.

It was the smell of pay-to-win points.

...

Inside the monitoring room.

On the massive light screen, divided into dozens of different frames, everything inside the B-3 simulation battlefield was being broadcast in real-time from various angles.

Thunderstorm's burly frame sat before the main control console, holding a cup of steaming hot strong tea, his eyes carrying a hint of scrutiny.

"Pull up his physiological data and blood qi value consumption curve separately and put them on the main screen."

He ordered without turning his head.

"Yes, Instructor."

Soon, a series of complex, constantly jumping data streams appeared on the right side of the light screen.

Thunderstorm's gaze landed on the steady curve representing Wang Pingan's blood qi value.

The beast tide was getting closer and closer.

Close enough to clearly see the hideous appearances of those mutated beasts.

There were four-legged giant beasts as large as moving hills, wolf-like creatures with lightning-fast speed, and even flying species circling at low altitudes with wingspans exceeding ten meters.

Most eye-catching among them were the Elite-grade individuals mixed into the beast tide, clearly a size larger than their kin and carrying special energy fluctuations on their bodies.

Their strength was at least Third-Rank Early Stage!

And for Third-Rank Mid-Stage ones, Thunderstorm discovered no fewer than ten with a rough glance!

This was a destructive force capable of easily trampling a small human base.

And now, the target of this force was only one.

It was that solitary figure on the city wall.

Thunderstorm took a sip of tea.

He wanted to see what choice this kid, who had surprised even him, would make in such a desperate situation.

Would he defend the wall to the death, resisting step by step?

Or would he choose a direction to break through at all costs?

Or perhaps... get scared into a mental breakdown and choose to force an exit?

Boom!

The first wave of the beast tide finally slammed heavily against the towering city wall.

The entire metal fortress emitted a violent tremor.

Countless relatively smaller mutated beasts, like geckos, used their sharp claws to climb rapidly up the vertical face of the wall.

In the blink of an eye, dozens of Second-Rank Peak "Sickle-Claw Velociraptors" had rushed onto the city wall, launching a death charge toward Wang Pingan.

In the monitoring room, several assistants responsible for data recording subconsciously held their breath.

However.

Just when everyone thought Wang Pingan would fall into a bitter battle.

He moved.

There was no earth-shattering eruption of blood qi value.

Nor were there any flashy, dazzling combat techniques.

He simply took a step back the moment those Velociraptors were about to pounce on him.

Immediately after, he shifted a step to the left.

Phantom Step, perfected!

His figure left a blurry afterimage in place, which was torn to shreds by the sharp claws of several Velociraptors.

Yet his true self, like a ghost, appeared outside the encirclement.

The entire process was smooth and fluid, without a single wasted movement.

He even still had his hands in his pockets.

"Interesting."

Thunderstorm's eyes lit up.

This movement technique already had a touch of a master's demeanor.

But relying solely on dodging wouldn't keep him alive.

Just then, Wang Pingan made a move that everyone in the monitoring room couldn't understand.

He did not continue to dodge and maneuver on the city wall.

Instead, he turned and leaped.

He jumped straight down from that hundred-meter-high wall!

He jumped into the churning, roaring black ocean of endless mutated beasts below!

"Is he crazy?!"

An assistant cried out involuntarily.

How was this any different from jumping into a meat grinder?

Thunderstorm didn't speak.

He just stared fixedly at the screen, his hand gripping the teacup tightening unconsciously.

On the light screen.

During his descent, Wang Pingan's figure lightly tapped his feet against a protrusion on the city wall.

He dissipated most of the impact force.

His whole body, like a weightless feather, landed silently on the back of a huge "Iron-Armored Savage Pig."

That Third-Rank Early Stage Elite mutated beast didn't even notice an extra person on its back.

Wang Pingan crouched down, restraining his aura to the absolute limit.

[Eye of Truth] activated.

In his vision, the entire chaotic battlefield instantly turned into a world composed of countless data streams.

The strength of each mutated beast's blood qi value, the location of their energy cores, their movement trajectories, and even their next attack intentions were all presented in his mind in the most intuitive way.

He didn't look at the dense swarms of Second-Rank fodder.

His gaze, like the most seasoned hunter, swept rapidly through the herd, searching for his prey.

Soon.

He locked onto a target.

It was another Third-Rank Early Stage Elite monster, the "Three-Eyed Demon Wolf."

It had just shredded a simulated city defense cannon with its sharp claws and was roaring at the sky, appearing arrogant and unconquerable.

You're the one.

Wang Pingan exerted a slight force under his feet, and his figure, like a cannonball, catapulted from the pig's back, tracing a trajectory in the air that was almost impossible to track.

He landed precisely in the Three-Eyed Demon Wolf's visual blind spot.

The Demon Wolf seemed to sense something and turned its head vigilantly.

But it was too late.

Wang Pingan's fist finally came out of his pocket.

There was no astonishing momentum.

It was just a simple, straightforward punch.

His fist was covered in a layer of condensed blood qi value.

Pfft.

A soft sound.

That wolf head, capable of crushing alloy, was like a smashed watermelon, splattering red and white everywhere.

He didn't even look at the falling corpse, tapped his toe on the ground, and his figure vanished once again into the chaotic herd.

He was like a ghost.

The most efficient battlefield harvester.

He never engaged in direct conflict with the main force of the beast tide.

He only utilized [Phantom Step] and [Eye of Truth] to weave through the gaps in the battlefield, searching for those straggling, high-value targets.

And then.

A single killing blow.

In the monitoring room, there was dead silence.

Everyone stared dumbfounded at the figure on the light screen, strolling casually through the midst of thousands of troops.

How was this executing a life-or-death survival mission?

This was him walking in his own backyard!

Thunderstorm's hand holding the teacup hovered in mid-air.

The tea in the cup had already gone cold.

The expression on his face shifted from scrutiny, to surprise, to gravity, and finally into a bottomless confusion.

Twenty-four hours passed quickly.

When the prompt sound for the end of the simulation rang out.

Wang Pingan's figure appeared outside the training pod.

He was covered in blood, his combat suit was tattered, and his face wore just the right amount of fatigue and weakness, as if he could collapse at any moment.

He was acting very hard.

However.

In the monitoring room, Thunderstorm looked at the incredible data report that had just been generated, but couldn't say a word.

[Mission Duration: 24 hours]

[Mission Objective: Survive. Completed.]

[Bonus Objective: Slay the Beast Tide Leader 'Blood Roar'. Not Completed.]

[Combat Results Statistics: Slayed 12 Third-Rank Mid-Stage Elite mutated beasts, 58 Third-Rank Early Stage Elite mutated beasts, Second-Rank...]

[Self-Loss: Peak blood qi value consumption 12.7%]

Thunderstorm's gaze was fixed firmly on the last item of data.

12.7%.

Are you kidding me!

Having killed so many Third-Rank Elites, his own blood qi value consumption didn't even reach twenty percent?

This combat loss ratio was simply outrageous to the extreme!

He immediately pulled up the entire combat recording of Wang Pingan and played it back at ten times speed.

On the screen, Wang Pingan's figure turned into a gray lightning bolt, weaving between countless hideous giant beasts, and every time he struck, an Elite monster inevitably fell in response.

Precise.

Efficient.

Calm to the point of being cold-blooded.

His control over his own power, his grasp of combat opportunities, and his energy utilization rate were high to an appalling degree.

Thunderstorm watched the recording repeatedly, the confusion in his eyes deepening.

This was fundamentally not the combat style a teenager should have.

There was no passion or fervor of a young person.

Only absolute rationality and the optimal solution.

This didn't look like a genius.

It looked more like... a battle-hardened veteran who had crawled through mountains of corpses and seas of blood for decades, wearing the skin of a youth.

Thunderstorm turned off the recording, leaned his burly body against the chair back, and tapped his fingers unconsciously on the tabletop.

He muttered to himself.

"Interesting little guy."

"It seems that 'toys' of this level are no longer enough to test your depth."