108: Chapter 108 Combat Power is Never Just About Four Dimensions

"Your analysis is correct, but the premise is pointed in the wrong direction."

Fang Che slowly stood up and looked at the three people in front of him.

"You are confusingly comparing our past selves with our present selves."

He walked to the window and looked out at the pitch-black wilderness.

"Jiang Ning's attributes might not be increasing anymore, but have you calculated how terrifying her base four dimensions are?"

"After so many Critical Hits, her physical fitness is long past the normal range for this stage."

"Even if it doesn't increase at all from now on, if you threw her into any other Train carriage, she would still be able to slaughter everyone on the opposing side single-handedly."

Fang Che turned around to face their gazes directly.

"All this talk of crisis, panic, and internal strife... it's not that we've become weaker, it's purely that your brains have gone haywire."

"You've just gotten used to taking shortcuts, and now that the path is blocked, you can't handle it. But you've forgotten one thing: even if we only took a shortcut once, we've already left all those other people far behind."

Mu Waner immediately realized and followed his Train of thought.

"You mean... we're just scaring ourselves right now?"

"Correct."

Fang Che nodded in agreement and continued to lay out his plan.

He took the opportunity to look at Su Qingxue beside him.

"Qingxue, you were right earlier. We must control the information, but we can't hide everything. We need to release half the truth, and then... point them toward a new path."

He paused for a few seconds, his tone unyielding.

"We have to drag them out of the dead end of obsessing over attribute points. We must make everyone realize that how strong their combat power actually is is not determined by those few lines of useless numbers on a panel."

The next morning, a broadcast sounded abruptly throughout the carriage.

"Everyone listen up. Assemble in the holographic training room within five minutes."

The girls rose from their bunks, bleary-eyed, hurriedly tidied their clothes, and headed toward the training room. The corridor was filled with hushed whispers.

"Hey, did you hear? Last night, Jiang Ning and the other two snuck off to find Team Leader Fang for extra lessons."

"Of course they did. Didn't you see how exaggerated Lin Xinyi was yesterday? She was a completely different person overnight. How could the other veteran members not be anxious?"

"I just don't know how many times they've boosted this time... They're so lucky."

Lin Xinyi, mixed in the crowd, listened to these words. She lowered her head, her fingers clutching the corner of her clothes tightly. The surrounding gazes kept darting toward her. A few girls who had chatted with her last night instinctively gathered by her side, and before they knew it, they had formed a small clique.

Once everyone had arrived, the atmosphere changed instantly. Fang Che stood on a high platform, expressionless. Behind him, Su Qingxue and Teacher Qin Bing had tense faces, while Jiang Ning, who usually charged to the front, was nowhere to be seen.

The chattering quickly died down, and a sense of panic gradually began to spread through the crowd.

"I know what you all are thinking about right now."

Fang Che looked at the group below with an extremely cold expression.

"You are all waiting for the next protocol to trigger, hoping for those attributes to skyrocket."

"However, I have some bad news to tell you today."

"We just discovered a problem last night: when this protocol is applied to the same person, the bonuses will drop more and more severely."

"After taking the lion's share of the benefits the first time, it will only get less and less, until it stops increasing entirely."

The crowd instantly erupted.

"Are you kidding?"

"It stops increasing entirely? Then... then isn't this protocol useless?"

The girls below who hadn't even gotten a taste of the benefits turned pale, their eyes wide with panic, their minds filled with the thought that they would never be able to turn their fortunes around relying on this.

The girls who had already received the dividends also looked extremely grim, thinking they would be stuck at this level forever.

All kinds of anxious emotions spread wildly through the crowd.

Seeing that the people below were about to lose control, Fang Che suddenly raised his voice, his volume cutting straight through all the noise.

"But this absolutely does not mean we can't get stronger!"

"It only means one thing!"

He spread his arms and surveyed the whole room.

"Our most basic accumulation is complete, and now we can move on to a higher stage!"

Fang Che looked at the stunned crowd below and immediately threw out his subsequent plan.

"Starting today, we will split into four paths!"

"The first path is to obsessively push class potential. As long as Jiang Ning takes a beating for her Iron Wall Battle Body, she will sooner or later Train into a body of steel. This is what it means to get stronger through battle!"

"The second path is to crazily grind skill proficiency. Like Su Qingxue's frost skills, use them more and practice more. Accuracy and range can all be increased. Eventually, freezing an entire area isn't impossible. Every one of you can dig into the potential of the skills in your hands like this!"

"The third is to dump resources into this Train for armed upgrades. Exchange all the materials you have for firepower and defensive armor. Only if the Train is tough enough can we fight steadily!"

"And the final path is to cultivate core synergy. The cooperation honed through actual combat can turn us into an iron wall. This is much stronger than you going out alone to show off!"

Fang Che laid this grand plan out clearly, using Jiang Ning and Su Qingxue as examples, and tied combat power directly to the Train and mutual cooperation.

The panic in the eyes of the people below was finally suppressed a little.

Everyone felt vaguely that there were indeed other paths to take.

After the dismissal, the atmosphere in the venue was a bit different. Most people listened to Fang Che's words and went back to training and working, but what they were thinking about was already different.

Lin Xinyi felt awkward being stuck in the middle. More and more girls circled around her, all hoping to get a bit of her heaven-defying luck. These girls who hadn't received any benefits had unconsciously pushed her to the front.

Meanwhile, Jiang Ning, who hadn't shown up, was currently pushing herself to the limit.

Someone passing by the gravity room happened to see the miserable scene inside.

Triple gravity, extreme pressure.

Jiang Ning, barefoot and wearing only a sweat-soaked sports tank top, was fighting for her life against a simulation robot. The sweat on her body mixed with the blood from her abraded skin, leaving dark marks on the floor as she stepped.

She didn't stop at all, determined to use this torture to shatter the fear in her heart, trying to prove that even without bonuses, she could still handle things.

Gu Nanzhi, on the other hand, quietly blended into the crowd, performing basic movements, while her eyes discreetly observed the subtle reactions of everyone around her.

During breaks, she didn't join the groups of strong people. Instead, she specifically sought out the girls with grim expressions and extreme anxiety, comforting them softly by following their Train of thought. She would also share her own rations and water, slowly winning over these marginalized people who were most likely to be left behind by the changing rules.

Su Qingxue stood not far away, watching these movements with cold eyes.

She walked up to Fang Che and lowered her voice.

"People's hearts are in chaos. Lin Xinyi is being propped up there and doesn't know how to handle it. Jiang Ning is down there killing herself. And then there's Gu Nanzhi... she certainly knows how to pick her moment, specifically targeting those marginalized people who are about to fall behind to win them over."

Fang Che glanced in each of those three directions, his eyes calm, but the corners of his mouth curled into a slight arc.

"Competition is a good thing; at least it proves they still have some fight left in them."

He turned his head to look at Su Qingxue and gave his final instructions.

"Let them stew for a while. Qingxue, keep a close eye on Gu Nanzhi's movements and see what she's trying to do by going to such lengths."