Chapter 29

More than ninety-nine percent of the students were encountering the Simulation Combat Zone for the first time. They had no idea what they would face once they entered the Simulated Combat Area.

Even though Qin Su had held everyone's attention, as soon as Duan Lin finished speaking, countless students forced themselves to look away from him.

Following the rules, they each took a deep breath, walked toward the edge, and focused on themselves.

After all, they weren't like the calm and unhurried Qin Su, who seemed unafraid of the Simulation Combat Zone. He not only had extensive theoretical knowledge of weapons, but perhaps also had ample combat experience against the Zerg?

As most of the students apprehensively approached the edge of the simulation area, they were so nervous they could almost hear their hearts pounding like drums.

[It's starting! What are we going to see in a moment? The same virtual scene the students see? Or will we really only see what's visible to the naked eye right now?]

[Who cares? We'll find out soon enough! Let's admire how calm, carefree, and confident our darling Su looks instead!]

[Mu Bao looks so sexy with his Adam's apple bobbing from nervousness!]

Qin Su was glad Teacher Duan's voice had drawn the students' attention away. Contrary to the comments' guesses, he was no better off than his classmates: this was his first time in the simulation area too, and he was just as nervous inside.

Qin Su's nerves were actually taut, though his expression remained composed. He walked forward at an unhurried pace with his classmates, then followed their example and stopped at the edge of the simulation area.

At that point, two seconds remained before the simulation area started.

Once in position, the students put on the sunglasses they had been holding, as required by the rules.

The punk-style sunglasses had a distinctly futuristic look. Following the equipment instructions, Qin Su settled them on the bridge of his nose.

The moment he put them on, Qin Su distinctly felt something behind the sunglasses fasten at the back of his head, forming a closed loop that kept them from falling off.

At the same time, Qin Su heard a faint hum beside his ear, as if something had been activated.

It was his first time encountering this kind of equipment. Based on the simulated combat rules he had read when collecting his gear, Qin Su guessed that putting on the sunglasses had indeed connected them to the Mechanical Outerwear, forming a coordinated protection system for his entire body.

From the comic readers' perspective, the moment Qin Su's slender fingers gently set the sunglasses on his high-bridged nose, his mechanical combat suit activated. Blue light swept across the Mechanical Outerwear like a flowing streak and traveled over his limbs, looking impossibly cool.

[I am light!!!]

[For a moment I don't know where to look (rubs hands awkwardly). I hate that I was only born with one eye. Does anyone know what kind of sack darling Su likes?]

[We beauties need to see more good stuff like this to have the strength to get through life.]

In the final second, an invisible shield activated around the simulation area.

The students, who had naturally formed a circle around the perimeter, suppressed the jumble of emotions in their hearts and stepped inside one after another.

Qin Su didn't know what the other students were experiencing, but the moment he successfully entered the Simulation Combat Zone, he could no longer sense the classmates who had been beside him. It was as though he were the only person left in the entire world.

As far as he could see, heaven and earth stretched vast beneath a sky full of yellow sand. Even the windblown grit striking his body felt so real that he might actually have been standing in an endless desert.

Looks like the Simulated Desert Map.

Qin Su had no time to marvel further at the realism of the simulated scene, nor to read the comments drifting across his view.

As he surveyed his surroundings, Qin Su committed every bit of cover within sight to memory.

The reason he couldn't see anyone now... no, according to the rules, the students in the simulated battlefield were all "bugs" now. The reason he couldn't see the "bugs" was probably that weapons hadn't been distributed yet and the simulated combat hadn't truly begun.

As the thought crossed his mind, Qin Su heard Teacher Duan's familiar voice coming from high overhead:

"Next, initial weapons will be distributed. Once you have your weapons, students, begin your first battle."

Qin Su didn't know what the other students had received. He only knew that as soon as Teacher Duan finished speaking, a weapon appeared in midair before him...

Compared to the other weapons, which looked unusually formidable in both shape and destructive power, it was far too small and delicate. It had no high-energy laser and relied solely on conventional ammunition, resembling an ordinary handgun from the real world.

The only difference was that ammunition fired from this delicate weapon dispersed as a "laser" upon impact, spreading across the "enemy's" whole body and burning them, rather than leaving one hole per bullet.

Meanwhile, He Muzhi stared at the excessively small Laser Round handgun before him and fell silent.

Honestly, he felt a little like pressing his philtrum.

[Boss 1:......]

[Mu Bao: ...]

[They're just a teeny bit unlucky.]

[That's right, there are two such unlucky souls (doge).]

[The only two “tiniest weapons” in the whole place went to Boss 1 and He Muzhi, respectively. What can I say... Forget it, I won't say anything. Let's skip the analysis and just laugh, everyone. Hahahaha!]

[How can the author not be called a master of treating everyone equally after this move?]

[A c-couple's set meal?]

[Little handgun (straightens collar) (let me meow a few words): Next, I'll be joining the set meal for the two authorities, the mysterious boss and the comic's protagonist (bows).]

[You really can't blame people for shipping them. Poor Wendi next door couldn't get this even if he wanted it.]

The comments covered the screen with laughter and jokes about this "perfectly matched" scene.

Qin Su, who had finished surveying the area and had time to glance at the comments: "..."

No, for the natives with their explosive strength, who could lug dozens of pounds of weapons around as they dashed back and forth, this might have been a handicap.

But for him, who was accustomed to using handguns and sniper rifles in the Real World, which typically weighed five, six, or seven kilograms, how was this a handicap?

It was clearly a reward.

As for destructive power... although it was practically nonexistent against bugs, he clearly remembered that destructive power didn't matter on the simulated battlefield. What mattered was that as long as a "bug" was hit, it would be eliminated and disappear from view.

In other words, the only person being handicapped was He Muzhi.

But...

He couldn't see He Muzhi right now, and He Muzhi shouldn't be able to see him either. Yet he had appeared in the comic's frame even though he wasn't in He Muzhi's field of view?

Was it because this was a "simulation," which only blocked the vision of those "inside" it? The obstruction was "magical," while in the "physical" sense, he was still in front of He Muzhi in the eyes of the readers and the teachers watching this "combat exercise" from outside the simulated battlefield.

In other words, He Muzhi wasn't far from him.

Qin Su observed a second of silence for He Muzhi, his thoughts racing. In the readers' eyes, the moment he saw the weapon appear, he reached out and took it without any hesitation.

He Muzhi was a second slower than Qin Su.

Duan Lin: "..."

Qin Su and He Muzhi really were a teeny bit unlucky.

But...

Qin Su had taken his weapon so quickly because, no matter what weapon he got, it made no difference to him, right?

While Duan Lin and the readers were having similar thoughts, Qin Su, weapon in hand, saw a hurricane suddenly rise around him where no "bugs" had been visible moments before.

Amid the flying sand and rocks, the figures of the "bugs" abruptly appeared.

The bugs came in all shapes, each more hideous and terrifying in its own way.

Qin Su: "..."

The little oddities still looked like something else.

Fortunately, during his "course of treatment" to forcibly desensitize himself to the bugs, he had grown so accustomed to them that he could instinctively strike and kill "them" before his brain even had time to be afraid.

At that moment, he could even remain composed as a mountain collapsed before him. Moreover, based on where the students had been standing before entering the "simulated battlefield," some places where a student should have been standing appeared to him as "cover," while others appeared as "bugs."

Qin Su thought that each student might appear in a different form to different classmates because of the different "mimicry" settings of their equipment.

And...

The numbers were nowhere near right. There were clearly far more pieces of "cover" than "bugs."

Right now, the "bugs" were in a daze, apparently because the "students simulated as bugs" were seeing much the same thing he was.

The students hadn't undergone a long period of "abnormal" desensitization; they had only attended one day of the Zerg Research Course. Suddenly, the bugs that had looked so frightening and disgusting in videos and pictures had appeared all around them, and "they" were surrounded by bugs of every shape...

The scene was so realistic and terrifying that, even after receiving their weapons, they couldn't immediately recover.

That was perfectly understandable.

But understanding aside, a battlefield was a battlefield. War wouldn't stop for anyone's mental state or behavior.

To avoid disrupting his plan to "finish the battle as quickly as possible," and even more so to leave the "readers" with the stereotypical impression of a "ruthless" boss,

Qin Su gave his classmates no chance to react and mercilessly opened fire on those "mimicking" different bugs.

Bang, bang, bang—

Countless tiny Laser Rounds shot from the muzzle.

To demonstrate his knowledge of the mimicked bugs "in front of the teachers," Qin Su aimed every bullet he fired at a "bug's" vital point as best he could, based on what he knew about them.

Qin Su didn't stand still while firing. Instead, he immersed himself in "hunting" mode, seeking cover and doing his best not to expose himself within the "bugs'" range of attack.

He balanced attack and defense.

"As expected of Qin Su. Decisive, ruthless, and lethal in a single hit..."

The "simulated battlefield" was too large to take in entirely with the naked eye. Standing before an instrument that gave her a view of the whole field, Duan Lin watched the scene and sighed softly.

The instant they received their weapons, the students discovered they were surrounded by countless sinister, vicious bugs. Some of them hadn't even had time for their mental defenses to collapse under the intense visual shock before searing pain struck their bodies.

The students who had been hit looked down to see Laser Rounds striking them. A hole appeared at the center of each burst, then the damage spread outward like a burn from flames.

The rule that "in simulated combat, not only the scenery is real, but also the pain of being hit by a weapon" was vividly demonstrated at that moment.

"Ah—"

"Fuck!"

"It hurts..."

Cries of pain came one after another from the students who had been hit.

Then they fell and vanished from the sight of the students still engaged in the simulated combat, leaving only the weapons in their hands.

To each student who cried out in pain, the sound was a human scream. But to Qin Su, it was the shrill, high-frequency shrieking of countless "bugs" after he shot them, piercing his eardrums and making his head throb.

Qin Su: "..."

Even the "bugs'" voices were simulated. It offered a glimpse of how, on a real battlefield, soldiers could be attacked not only by the bugs' bodies, but also by their voices.

And their heavy bodies when they fall.

Qin Su added this silently as he nimbly dodged the falling corpse of a gigantic bug.

[From receiving the weapon to sending bullets flying, he didn't hesitate for even a second. So decisive and ruthless—what a cold heart!]

[They were mercilessly eliminated by Qin Su without hitting a single "bug." Doesn't that mean they'll get zero points for this exercise?]

[Does this count as a sneak attack?]

[What sneak attack? If you can take someone out with one bullet, why wait for an honorable showdown? Boss 1 is teaching the students a lesson through his actions, so they won't still be frightened when they face real bugs on the battlefield someday.]

[Being merciful to the "enemy" is being cruel to yourself. If you go soft in a life-or-death war, do you think your life and your comrades' lives are too long?]

The comments confirmed that Qin Su had left the readers with a "ruthless and decisive" image. He proceeded to the next step:

Taking the "spoils of war."

In plain terms, looting the bodies.

That meant selectively taking the weapons left behind when the "bugs" he shot died.

By "frequently switching weapons," he would also give the readers the impression that he was so powerful he could change weapons at will, while putting on an air of casual disdain for powerful weapons.

With the plan in mind, Qin Su rolled swiftly and neatly from one piece of cover to another.

By the time his back was against the cover, the readers saw that the weakest weapon originally in Qin Su's hand had already been replaced with a somewhat more "high-end" one.

Among the dropped equipment were clearly weapons stronger than the laser gun in his hand, but Qin Su refused to choose them. He insisted on picking one only a little more "high-end" than the handgun that fired Laser Rounds.

Only by denying the readers satisfaction could he stir their emotions, draw their attention, and leave them hanging in frustration as they continued to watch him.

[The move really was cool, but... you picked the wrong one!!! What a waste.]

[??? That's like a kill leader looting someone he just killed, ignoring the AWM in the death box, and taking a fancy to the crowbar inside instead.]

[I imagined myself in that situation, and I'm already getting angry through the screen.]

[Uh... is it possible that, to Boss 1, it doesn't matter whether it's an AWM or an Mk, and he could win the championship with a frying pan?]

[Even if that's true, couldn't Qin Su give the "AWM" he isn't using to our Mu Bao, considering they both started with "little handguns"?]

Qin Su watched the comments about him visibly increase thanks to the "point of controversy": "..."

Plan successful √.

At the same time, after a brief hesitation, He Muzhi also reacted quickly. While the other students were still dazed, he killed them and exchanged his weapon for the best one currently within his reach.

Some of the other students also came to their senses quickly and began fighting back.

Qin Su: "..."

For some reason, when Qin Su realized that the "bugs," which should have made his scalp crawl, were using weapons, he suddenly found it comical. The "bugs" had abruptly become a little... so absurd they were cute?

To every student other than him, the scene was:

The bugs were in an uproar, scurrying everywhere and trying to kill the weak, pitiful, helpless person in their midst.

The explosive force born of stress and extreme fear filled the battlefield with Laser Rounds, Laser Rounds, electromagnetic cannons, particle pulse cannons, electromagnetic missiles...

In each student's eyes, they were fighting alone in a life-or-death struggle against numerous enormous, terrifying bugs.

Before the comic readers and teachers on-site, who could see the whole field, the battle was taking a dazzling, nearly annihilating turn toward no survivors.

Countless students were hit. After letting out shrill, agonized cries, they vanished from the sight of those who hadn't been hit.

Meanwhile, the students acting as "cover" changed along with their "mimicry," transforming into bugs and replenishing their numbers without end.

Qin Su was glad he firmly believed the cruel fact that "when you find one earwig, your entire home has already been taken over by earwigs."

From beginning to end, he hadn't dared relax in the slightest.

Thus, Qin Su wasn't at all surprised that the more "bugs" he fought, the more there were.

And under the "chaotic and disorderly" indiscriminate barrage, he could dodge attack after attack with apparent ease, though in truth he was gritting his teeth and concentrating completely as he narrowly avoided them.

Whenever an attack left him room to "perform," Qin Su immediately seized the opportunity he couldn't afford to miss, killing the attacking "bug" in the midst of dodging with an air of ease.

At times, drawing on his solo combat experience, Qin Su would accurately detect movement to either side or behind him and strike first, killing the "bugs" before they had a chance to attack.

In any case...

On the entire simulated battlefield, he truly had no teammates. At the slightest sign of movement, his indiscriminate approach of "better to kill a thousand by mistake than let one go" could never be wrong.

All the while, Qin Su still remembered to "switch to more high-end weapons one step at a time."

As time went on, the number of bugs on the battlefield dwindled.

That meant the remaining "bugs" were stronger.

And the weapons in the bugs' hands were also relatively more high-end.

Although Qin Su didn't want to, after killing another bug with a hundred densely packed, wriggling brown legs like a cockroach's, he gritted his teeth and picked up the familiar thirty-jin AOM390 from where it had disappeared.

Qin Su: "..."

If he'd known this would happen, he wouldn't have attacked that "bug." He'd seized an "ancestor" and brought it back with him.

What goes around comes around. Not long ago, he'd used it to act strong, and now retribution had come: he had to hold all thirty jin of it while "skillfully and elegantly" "showing off his moves and dodging" as he went rat-tat-tat.

It was asking too much of him.

I have to get rid of it as soon as possible.

With that thought in mind, Qin Su picked a "bug" at random and, while he still had the strength to hold the thirty-jin weapon and stylishly "crawl and roll around" on the battlefield, stood unmoved in the face of the electromagnetic cannon fire coming straight at him.

When the electromagnetic cannon fire was still some distance away, Qin Su seized the moment and suddenly dropped low, leaning back to evade it.

Then he slid feetfirst toward the "bug" attacking him and activated the AOM390 as he reached it. The instant the dazzling laser engulfed the "bug," Qin Su had already straightened up, an explosive report and a blinding white light erupting behind him.

Clang...

Hearing a weapon hit the ground behind him, he judged from the sound that it wasn't a very large one.

Having deduced that, Qin Su kept his eyes and ears open in every direction. While the other "bugs" attacked him, he dodged their attacks, reached the fallen weapon and successfully swapped for it. He hefted the laser gun in his hand; it weighed only about three and a half kilograms.

A "light weapon" was clearly better suited to acting strong.

Satisfied, Qin Su began another round of "roaming" among the bugs, letting them see him but not hit him. He even deliberately darted around using his "movement technique," making multiple "bugs" attack one another while he "reaped the benefits."

Qin Su spared no effort to seize every opportunity he could to act strong. In the viewers' eyes, his every move showed how effortlessly he handled the situation, with everything under control.

He frequently changed weapons, and even when he got a good one, he didn't hold on to it for long. This left the viewers even more baffled and dumbfounded.

[Wait, uh, that's the most destructive weapon in the whole match! And Boss 1 just tossed it away like that?]

[Raymond: I went through hell to get my hands on it, and you snatched it away before I'd even had time to warm it up. Fine, but what's with throwing it away after taking it?]

[He looks down on a highly destructive weapon. What does that mean? It means "he's so powerful and outstanding that he no longer cares about a weapon's destructive power at all"!]

[That just goes to show, a true boss doesn't rely on the false sense of security that "weapons with enough firepower" bring!]

As the "bugs" grew fewer, Qin Su had more time to pay attention to the comments and discovered that he'd taken the AOM390 from Raymond. "..."

It was simply because, with a weapon weighing twenty or thirty jin in his hands, he couldn't maintain an "elegant" posture for long at all times.

Unlike the other natives, who "had no image to maintain," he couldn't just grab a weapon, fire off a wild barrage regardless of its weight, and pay no attention to whether his movements looked cool or his posture was elegant.

If he could do that, carrying several at once, whether in his hands, over his shoulder or in his arms, would have been no problem.

Unfortunately, he couldn't. With the viewers watching him from every angle, he had to maintain a dignified appearance.

Thinking of Raymond reminded Qin Su of the protagonist, He Muzhi, who had been spending a lot of time with Raymond lately.

He wondered whether He Muzhi had been eliminated yet.

Qin Su: "..."

He hoped He Muzhi would be "taken out" soon. He didn't want to run into him in the "grand final."

Thanks to his deliberate evasions, he had yet to experience the pain of "being hit by a weapon." But judging by the "agonized" reactions of the other "bugs" when they were hit by various weapons, it had to be excruciating.

He didn't want He Muzhi and his fans to "hate" him because "He Muzhi was in agony because of him," just because he had to win the "final showdown."

Praying inwardly while being forced to maintain a dignified appearance, Qin Su kept changing weapons, taking the opportunity to gain more "experience using different weapons in combat."

By the time only one "bug" remained on the battlefield, Qin Su had "upgraded" the weapon in his hand to a Super-Energy Particle Pulse Cannon that weighed just 2.5 kilograms.

It was lightweight and easy to use, and according to its description, a single shot was enough to let a "bug" experience firsthand what it felt like to be in purgatory.

At this point, only Qin Su and He Muzhi remained on the simulated battlefield.

The viewers following Teacher Duan's perspective erupted when they saw this.

[What do you call this? The ultimate showdown between "two, two unlucky guys who picked up little pistols at the start"?]