How About Turning Into a Tunnel Boring Machine?

"Qiye, what happened after I passed out? How did you get out of the mountain?" Baili Pangpang asked, holding a steamed bun in his left hand, a fried dough stick in his right, and a piece of flatbread between his teeth.

Cao Yuan, sitting on Lin Qiye's other side, leaned closer as well. He was curious too. After all, apart from him and Lin Qiye, there shouldn't have been anyone else left at the time.

He had been the second-to-last to fall, so even if Lin Qiye hadn't passed the training, he fully deserved first place for making it out of Jinnan Mountain.

But he wanted to know what had happened afterward, too.

The night before, nearly everyone's physical and mental strength had been completely drained by the combined pressures of extreme training and social death.

When they woke up, they found themselves soaking in foul-smelling medicinal bath tubs, and none of the instructors told them how the previous night's training had turned out.

"I walked out." Lin Qiye picked up the meat bun Cao Yuan had quietly placed in his bowl and took a sip of soy milk.

"Walked out? You passed the test?!" The flatbread fell from Baili Pangpang's mouth onto the table in shock. He was so loud that half the cafeteria heard him.

"Uh, walking out might not be quite accurate. I guess you could say I drilled my way out?" Lin Qiye swallowed his mouthful of bun, paused, and spoke with a rather strange expression.

Drilled his way out?

Cao Yuan and Baili Pangpang's eyes filled with confusion.

"You used that transformation ability? Your ability wasn't restricted by the forbidden object in those mountains!" Realization dawned on Baili Pangpang.

"So what did you turn into?" Cao Yuan pressed.

Lin Qiye's ability to transform was no longer a secret at the training camp. Ever since the female soldiers learned he could transform, their dormitory had been equipped with electric flyswatters and the like, making him feel thoroughly singled out.

"I originally wanted to turn into an owl. Flying would've been faster, wouldn't it? But then I thought about it, and I'd have been too big a target. I don't know if you noticed, but there were a lot more drones around the three of us, so I decided to try something different."

"Instead of going over the ground, I went under it!"

"Oh! I get it! You turned into a pangolin! Or a gopher or something!" Baili Pangpang blurted out.

"Maybe a mole, or a rabbit," Cao Yuan guessed.

"Uh, none of those." Lin Qiye's expression was strange. "It was a big drill bit. After I turned into one, I drilled all the way out underground."

Baili Pangpang and Cao Yuan narrowed their eyes and looked at Lin Qiye with a certain helplessness.

"All right, I guess we're the ones with no imagination. We thought you'd turn into an animal, but you went and turned into a machine! If there's a shooting competition in the future, does that mean you won't need a gun? You can just turn into a submachine gun."

Lin Qiye thought about it and answered seriously, "That probably wouldn't work. I... I can't aim."

His shooting was bad enough to make Leng Xuan want to cry without tears.

If he hadn't pinned Cao Yuan to the ground first and pressed the water gun against his forehead yesterday, Lin Qiye even thought he might have missed.

As for what he had just told his two companions, it wasn't entirely true.

He had indeed turned into a drill bit, but the idea hadn't been his own. Zhou Meng had suggested it!

For Lin Qiye, turning into a bird was the best choice. No matter how many drones there were, hiding from them with Starry Night Dancer activated would have been child's play.

"Qiye, I've got to say, you're really uncreative. Isn't playing it safe with a bird a waste of your Seventy-Two Transformations? How about something a little more original?"

Those were Zhou Meng's exact words.

Zhou Meng had then explained to Lin Qiye how he could go underground and scare the instructors who had devised such an inhumane punishment, making them watch as he approached without being able to see him.

Lin Qiye had to admit that, when it came to this sort of thing, Zhou Meng's words really were persuasive.

He had decided on the spot to go underground.

Just as he was about to turn into a pangolin, Zhou Meng spoke up again.

"Another animal? Has the crystallization of human ingenuity over all these years failed to leave a single mark on your smooth cerebral cortex? A Tunnel Boring Machine. Ever heard of one? Turn into that!"

Lin Qiye was so angry he almost laughed.

"A Tunnel Boring Machine? Why don't you ask me to turn into a Photolithography Machine while you're at it? Have I ever seen one of those? If you don't like it, come out and turn into one yourself!"

"You haven't seen one? Right, I suppose not. All right, how about a drill bit, then?"

That's more like it.

Lin Qiye had snorted and transformed into a large drill bit covered in camouflage, with the three characters of Lin Qiye's name engraved on it.

With a whirr, Lin Qiye had easily broken through the soil and drilled underground. The clods of earth he dug up naturally closed over behind him, leaving no trace whatsoever.

Just like that, Lin Qiye had sped forward underground, but after a while, he began to regret it.

The drill bit did move quickly underground, traveling in a perfectly straight line without having to worry about drone attacks. But he himself was constantly spinning at high speed through 360 degrees, and he was about to make himself dizzy!

But by then, he was riding a tiger and couldn't get off. It was no longer suitable to transform into something else underground, so he had to stick with the drill bit all the way to the end.

Lin Qiye could only grit his teeth and endure the physical and mental discomfort, cursing the damned Zhou Meng in his heart as he charged toward the exit.

Finally, he reached the surface just before spinning himself sick.

His mental strength had run out at the very moment before he broke through the soil.

That was why, when Instructor Hong and the others saw Lin Qiye come out, half his body was still in the ground.

He hadn't wanted to be half-buried either, but all that spinning had left him with no mental strength whatsoever. Using the last of his willpower, he had asked Instructor Hong whether he had passed the trial. After seeing the shock and horror still on the faces of Instructor Hong and the others, he had passed out, only waking up alongside Baili Pangpang in their respective medicinal bath tubs that morning.

But he couldn't tell Baili Pangpang and Cao Yuan any of that.

It was far too embarrassing!

If anyone was to blame, it was that hateful Zhou Meng!

Whenever he was about to trust Zhou Meng, the man always found some way to pull something lousy on him!

If I ever believe another word he says, I'll write my surname backward!

Baili Pangpang watched as Lin Qiye viciously took several bites of his bun and fried dough stick as though he had some deep-seated grudge against them, then told the two beside him that he had something to do and left first. Baili Pangpang was completely baffled.

"What's wrong with Qiye? This breakfast is delicious, isn't it? He's acting like he's got some deep-seated grudge against it. Don't tell me he tired himself out so badly yesterday that he's got mental problems?"

"Don't talk behind Qiye's back. Eat your food!" Cao Yuan stuffed a bun into Baili Pangpang's mouth.

"Hey! You simp, you're getting more and more out of hand!"