199: Chapter 199 First Round of Testing: Simulated Reboot

The floor of the Central Council Hall suddenly liquefied.

It wasn't an illusion—the solid metal ground beneath Lin Chen's feet turned into a writhing silver fluid within a millisecond. His body plummeted, and Zhang Hao’s exclamation and Su Qingyu’s shout rang in his ears, but the sounds quickly receded, swallowed by an absolute silence.

[Epoch Simulation Sandbox · Hundred Reboots Test Initiated]

[Loading...]

Darkness.

Then, light.

Lin Chen found himself standing on scorched earth. The sky was a sickly dark red, and the silhouettes of mountains were visible in the distance, but those mountains were slowly crumbling, turning into fine sand and flowing into cracks in the ground. The air was thick with the smell of sulfur and something more pungent, like scorched circuit boards.

[Test Civilization Number: 1/100]

[Current Era: Primitive Tribe Era (Early Stone Age)]

[Population: 127 people]

[Tech Level: Mastery of crude stone tools, drilling wood for fire]

[Time Remaining: Zeroing Storm will arrive in 30 days]

[Mission: Preserve the sparks of civilization as much as possible within the storm]

A data panel hovered at the edge of Lin Chen's vision. He looked back and saw a group of sallow, emaciated primitives wrapped in animal skins not far behind him, surrounding a weak campfire and looking at him—the "god" who had suddenly appeared—with terrified eyes.

"The first round is already this intense?" Lin Chen frowned.

He tried to mobilize administrator privileges—greyed out. Tried to open the mall—greyed out. Even the most basic consciousness communication was blocked. This simulation sandbox had cut off all external links; he was now just a primitive with modern memories.

[Note: All competitors will experience the same 100 reboots]

[With each reboot, the civilization will start from a different point and face different disasters]

[Scoring Basis: Final Tech Level × Population Retention Rate × Cultural Integrity]

Almost simultaneously, four meteors streaked across the sky—it was Morgana, Alpha, Qingyunzi, and himself, being deployed to different corners of this simulated world.

"I can't lose," Lin Chen whispered.

He walked toward the group of primitives. There was a language barrier, but he used the simplest gestures and drew diagrams on the ground, spending an hour making them understand: the sky was falling, and they had to build a large ship.

The tribal elder shook his head, pointing to the barren land and the meager food reserves, gesturing: "Cannot be done."

Lin Chen didn't waste words. He took two of the strongest hunters and spent three days crossing the scorched land to find another, more powerful tribe—they occupied a small oasis, had over fifty people, and stored food.

Negotiation? No.

Lin Chen had the hunters demonstrate his "invented" slings and trap technology (actually simple physics), and in exchange, demanded that the Oasis Tribe provide food and manpower.

"Isn't this just a scam?" Zhang Hao's voice suddenly rang in his mind—not a communication, but Lin Chen's own memory making a snide comment.

The Oasis Tribe agreed. Lin Chen obtained his first batch of resources.

On the seventh day, he established a primitive "joint-stock system": all tribes participating in the shipbuilding would be allocated positions on the future ship based on their contributions. Contributions included: providing food, timber, labor, or—most crucially—information.

A thin youth told Lin Chen that there was an "Iron Stone Forest" to the north where hard black stones could be found. Lin Chen gave him "1 share."

On the twelfth day, just as the ship's framework was being assembled, the first disaster arrived.

It wasn't the Zeroing Storm—it was biological mutation.

Tentacle-like plants burrowed out from underground, secreting strong acid; three loggers were dissolved. Panic spread.

Lin Chen had no time to study botany. He did two things:

1. Used food reserves to hire a suicide squad to burn out an isolation zone.

2. Issued "Disaster Bonds": promising that if they survived, bondholders would receive double food compensation.

On the fifteenth day, the ship was half-built. But Lin Chen discovered a fatal problem—not enough wood. At least thirty more giant trees were needed, but the nearest forest was a five-day journey away.

At that moment, Qingyunzi's voice transmission came from the sky (the test allowed limited communication between competitors): "Lin Chen, I have timber here. Trade it for your shipbuilding technology."

"What do you want?"

"That girl in your tribe with 'witch doctor potential.' I've calculated that she has a spirit root."

Lin Chen looked back and saw a teenage girl in the crowd; she indeed showed a sensitivity to herbs. The tribal people looked at him nervously.

"No deal." Lin Chen cut off the transmission.

Instead, he did something that stunned everyone: he ordered the half-built ship to be dismantled, using the wood to build ten crude wooden carts.

"Are you crazy?!" the elder gestured. "How will we escape without the ship?!"

"We're not escaping yet." Lin Chen pointed north. "We're going to the Iron Stone Forest to build a sturdier ship with the black stones there. Using the carts to transport the wood, the round trip will only take eight days."

A wave of doubt arose. But Lin Chen presented the data: according to the original plan, by the time the wood was brought back, only ten days would be left to build the other half of the ship, and quality could not be guaranteed. With the new plan, they would have a full twenty-two days to build the ship with black stones.

"Those who believe in me, get on the carts. Those who don't can stay and continue building the wooden ship."

In the end, seventy people went north with him. Fifty-seven stayed behind.

On the twenty-fifth day, the black stone ship was completed outside the Iron Stone Forest. It was a material similar to basalt, three times the weight of wood but ten times harder. The hull looked like a crude stone box, but it could float.

On the twenty-eighth day, the vanguard of the Zeroing Storm arrived—purple lightning split the sky, and the earth began to disintegrate.

Lin Chen led the seventy people onto the ship. The fifty-seven who stayed behind had also finished their wooden ship, but it was much smaller.

"Can we take them with us?" someone asked.

Lin Chen looked at the overloaded wooden ship and shook his head: "Our ship is also at full capacity. But we can make a deal—"

He shouted to the wooden ship tribe: "Exchange all your food and tools for ten spots on this ship."

A deal made in desperation. The wooden ship tribe handed over eighty percent of their supplies in exchange for the survival of their ten strongest members.

On the thirtieth day, the black storm swallowed the world.

The stone ship rocked violently in the raging waves, but it didn't fall apart. The wooden ship disintegrated in the third hour, and forty-seven people died.

[First Round Over]

[Civilization Score Calculating...]

A settlement panel popped up before Lin Chen's eyes:

[Your Civilization]

Population Retention: 80/127 → 62.9%

Tech Level: Promoted from Stone Age to Black Stone Craftsmanship (Level Skip)

Cultural Integrity: Institutional innovation (joint-stock system, bonds), but abandoned some elderly and weak → Points Deducted

Comprehensive Score: 71

[Comparison Ranking]

1. Alpha (AI Integration): 89 points (transformed the tribe into semi-mechanical lifeforms, everyone survived)

2. Morgana (Frozen Sovereign): 85 points (used magic to freeze the civilization in advance, but development stagnated)

3. Lin Chen (pay-to-win principle): 71 points

4. Qingyunzi (Cultivation Heavenly Dao): 65 points (only saved those with spirit roots, heavy population loss)

"Losing in the first round?" Lin Chen frowned.

But there was no time to think as darkness descended again.

[Loading Second Round...]

This time, the starting point was a Bronze Age city-state. Population: five thousand, with preliminary classes and trade. Zeroing Storm countdown: three years.

As soon as Lin Chen appeared, he found himself as the city-state's "Financial Officer"—the simulation had assigned his identity based on his traits.

The first thing he did wasn't developing technology, but unifying the currency.

The city-state had three currencies: shells, copper blocks, and food coupons. Trading efficiency was low. Lin Chen spent a year forcibly implementing "City-State Silver Coins," backed by the bronze reserves in the national treasury.

In the second year, he used silver coin tax revenue to establish a "National Shipyard" and began building a fleet. Simultaneously, he introduced "Storm Insurance": citizens paid silver coins for insurance, and if they lost property in a disaster, they would receive compensation.

Everything was going smoothly. Until the eighteenth month, when Qingyunzi's voice transmission rang out again:

"Lin Chen, in your city-state's southeastern mining area, there is the 'Earth Vein Spirit Jade' I need. Give it to me, and I'll tell you a secret—the truth about this test."

"What truth?"

"The Administration Bureau is watching. They aren't looking for the optimal solution; they want to choose the most obedient dog. Both your plan and mine are too independent, destined to be eliminated. Cooperate with me; let's team up to take out Morgana and Alpha, then pretend to have internal strife so the Administration Bureau feels everything is under control."

Lin Chen was silent for three seconds: "The Spirit Jade can be given to you. What about the secret?"

Qingyunzi sent a piece of encrypted data. After Lin Chen decoded it, he saw a line of text:

[Hidden Weighting in Test Scoring: Obedience to 'Administration Bureau Guidance' accounts for 30%]

This meant that if a civilization developed entirely according to the Administration Bureau's preset "optimal path," they could get hidden bonus points. Freely developing civilizations, however, would have points secretly deducted.

"Pretty good deal, right?" Qingyunzi laughed. "Now, an alliance?"

"No." Lin Chen cut off the communication.

Not only did he not give up the mining area, but he also increased mining efforts, using the Spirit Jade as a new currency reserve to issue a second set of "Gold-Stone Currency" pegged to the silver coins.

Qingyunzi was furious and sent cultivators to infiltrate the city-state to spread rumors of "Financial Officer embezzlement," triggering a bank run crisis.

Lin Chen's handling of the situation left everyone dumbfounded: he opened the national treasury's ledgers, making all transactions publicly verifiable, and announced that "during the bank run, payouts will be doubled."

Panic instantly turned into a frenzy. People scrambled to exchange their money, while Lin Chen used pre-stocked grain and salt to buy back silver coins at floating prices—those who participated in the bank run actually lost out.

Qingyunzi's plot failed.

By the third year, before the storm arrived, Lin Chen's city-state had already built thirty warships, stocked enough food for five years, and completed a full evacuation drill.

But just one day before the evacuation, the most terrifying thing happened.

A golden rain suddenly fell from the sky.

It wasn't rain, but a viscous liquid with a sickly sweet aroma. The eyes of the citizens who touched it suddenly became hollow, and they began to chant in unison:

"Obey the Administration Bureau's guidance... Abandon free will... Return to the embrace of order..."

"Mental pollution?!" Lin Chen understood instantly—this was the Administration Bureau's "hidden test" to see if a civilization could resist this "Order Indoctrination."

He ordered all citizens to board the ships and seal the hatches. But a third of the people were already infected, forming a human wall on the pier to prevent boarding.

Time was tight. The storm would arrive in six hours.

Lin Chen made a cruel decision: he ordered the fleet to abandon the infected and set sail immediately.

"You can't do this!" his adjutant roared. "Those are three thousand lives!"

"Stay, and everyone dies." Lin Chen looked at the sky, which was beginning to collapse in the distance. "Besides, they aren't 'them' anymore."

The fleet sailed away from the port amidst cries and curses.

[Second Round Over]

[Score Settlement]

[Your Civilization]

Population Retention: 5000→3400 (68%)

Tech Level: Leap from Bronze Age to Early Navigational Civilization

Hidden Deduction: Resisting Order Indoctrination, opposing Administration Bureau guidance → 30 points deducted

Comprehensive Score: 75 (Should have been 105, suppressed by hidden rules)

[Ranking Update]

1. Alpha: 95 points (proactively accepted Order Indoctrination, entire population converted to mechanical believers)

2. Morgana: 88 points

3. Lin Chen: 75 points

4. Qingyunzi: 70 points (penalized for interfering with others)

Total score after two rounds: Lin Chen trails the leader Alpha by 38 points.

Darkness shrouded everything once more.

[Third Round... Fourth Round... Fiftieth Round...]

Time accelerated. Lin Chen experienced:

· Establishing a "Brain Core Currency System" during a zombie apocalypse.

· Shorting energy futures of hostile alien civilizations during interstellar colonization.

· Promoting a "Spell Patent Law" in a magic world to trigger a magical revolution.

· Acquiring everyone's "memory data property rights" in a cyberpunk city.

Every time, he used capital and business logic to break through.

Every time, points were deducted by hidden rules.

Every time, Qingyunzi would send new "insider info" and alliance invitations, each rejected.

[Ninety-Ninth Round]

This time, the starting point was a hyper-information age, with the civilization nearing a dimensional breakthrough. Zeroing countdown: one hundred years.

Lin Chen became the "Economic Mastermind" of this civilization. In just ten years, he established a "Hyper-Star System Emotional Economy Community"—emotions became a resource that could be mined, refined, and traded.

In the ninetieth year, when the Zeroing Storm warning sounded, the civilization had already prepared millions of "Dimension Arks."

But just then, Inspector 117's voice suddenly rang out directly within the simulation:

"Lin Chen, this is your final warning. Abandon your independent route and accept the Administration Bureau's 'Orderly Transformation.' This is your last chance; otherwise, in the final scoring, you will be permanently eliminated."

The entire civilization could hear this voice.

Lin Chen stood before the main control console, looking at the billions of faces on the screen waiting for his choice.

He patched into the all-civilization broadcast:

"Everyone, there's a fellow calling himself the Administration Bureau who wants us to be dogs."

"My answer is—"

"Why don't you all come work for me instead? I'll pay."

He clicked a button that had been hidden for ninety-nine rounds.

It was a back door for administrator privileges that he had quietly purchased in the simulation system's bottom layer using the surplus funds from every round.

Instantly, the rule code of the entire simulation sandbox unfolded before his eyes.

He found the "Hidden Deduction Module" and deleted it directly.

Found the "Order Indoctrination Protocol" and changed it to "Paid Subscription Required, price is ten times the soul's market value."

Found the "Final Scoring Algorithm" and added a new variable: "Capital Freedom Weight +50%."

[Warning! Tester has illegally modified the rules!]

[Forced termination in progress—]

"Too late." Lin Chen smiled.

Using his privileges, he forcibly ended the ninety-ninth round early.

[Ninety-Ninth Round Settlement (After Modification)]

Lin Chen's Score: 150 (Out of 100, over-achieved)

[One Hundredth Round Loading...]

But this time, the scene didn't change.

Lin Chen stood in a pure white space. Opposite him, the phantoms of Alpha, Morgana, and Qingyunzi appeared simultaneously.

Inspector 117's voice was cold:

"Test suspended. Lin Chen, you have undermined fairness."

"No," Lin Chen said, "I proved that your rules themselves are the greatest unfairness."

"And so?"

"And so," Lin Chen looked at the other three competitors, "the real test begins now."

He pulled up the modified total leaderboard:

[Total Results of the Hundred Reboots Simulation]

1. Lin Chen: 9987 points (After modification)

2. Alpha: 8923 points

3. Morgana: 8765 points

4. Qingyunzi: 8012 points

"I win," Lin Chen said. "According to the rules, my plan gains dominance."

The pure white space began to disintegrate.

The moment he returned to the council hall, Lin Chen saw an emotion similar to "shock" flash in Inspector 117's eyes for the first time.

And the Starlight Humanoid in the center of the hall slowly announced:

"Simulation test over. Winner: Lin Chen."

"But before final implementation, there is one last stage—"

"You need to convince real civilizations to voluntarily join your plan."

Countdown updated:

[Zeroing Final Phase: 24 Hours]

[Number of civilizations available to join: approximately three million]

A notification popped up in Lin Chen's account at the same time:

[You have received pre-authorized credit from the Administration Bureau: 10 trillion dimension points]

[Please begin your 'Market-saving Roadshow']

Outside the window, at the edge of the real universe, the darkness began to boil.