101 Training Ground

Inside the flying car, it was like a starry sky.

Everywhere he looked, points of light flickered.

An ordinary person would be dazzled at a glance.

Even Lin Xiaosu's Peerless Divine Eyes could only see the flashing lights clearly, not understand why they were flickering.

There was no one inside. It was unmanned.

Chang Ye comfortably settled into a recliner and casually said, "101!"

Then, with a flash of flowing light, his body went weightless, and Lin Xiaosu was carried away with the flying car.

He could not see outside—not even a little—but he could feel the speed. In an instant, it had reached an unimaginable level.

"What does 101 mean?" Lin Xiaosu sat down beside her.

"It's a very interesting symbol." A faint smile touched Chang Ye's lips.

"A symbol? Isn't it a number?"

"It is a number, but to understand its meaning, it may be more accurate to look at its shape... '0' represents Earth, while the two '1's beside it represent pillars."

Lin Xiaosu leaned his head back slightly. "Earth's two pillars... You said I was narcissistic, but I think you people are the real narcissists... Can't we see outside from this flying car?"

"You can, but you don't have that clearance yet."

"When will I get it?"

"In principle, you'll need to obtain the Hidden Dragon Gold Medal. At the very least, you'll need to pass the training assessment. Any more questions?" Chang Ye asked.

"One last question..." Lin Xiaosu touched the exquisite interior decorations of the flying car. "With our salary, how many years would it take to afford a flying car like this?"

Chang Ye gently shook her head. "You really can't let go of income, can you?"

"Of course. Shouldn't that be the main concern when applying for a job?"

"Could you broaden your horizons a little?"

"Sure! I'll ask something wild, then... If I work hard in the future, can I buy a car and a house within a year? A car like this, and a house in the provincial capital..."

Chang Ye's head knocked against the recliner behind her as she muttered, "Comrade Lin, don't talk like that at the base. Any words you say that tie you to worldly money will make your review more difficult. If a Hidden Dragon member is single-mindedly focused on making money, that's a major taboo..."

"It seems our values differ greatly," Lin Xiaosu said. "I know you're wholeheartedly devoted to serving the country, but serving the country doesn't conflict with personal pursuits, does it? One of my old friends once said something that sounded incredibly damn stupid, but made a lot of sense when I thought about it. She said, if someone has completely lost all personal pursuits, can you still expect them to seek benefits for the people? Extending that thought leads to the ancient saying: If one cannot sweep one's own house, how can one sweep the world? If one cannot take responsibility for one's own wife and children, how can one take responsibility for everyone in the world?"

Chang Ye glanced at him. "That friend of yours was Li Diandian, right?"

"No, how could it be? Her mind is very pure... The only impure one is me!"

"Mm..." Chang Ye nodded lightly. "Although the smell of money hasn't faded from you and hedonism is ingrained in your bones, you at least possess a good quality. You're loyal and won't cause trouble for your comrades. That's not bad. If our first meeting today had been an assessment, you wouldn't have been far from passing..."

It was Lin Xiaosu's turn to lean his head against the chair and knock it once.

This trip included an assessment.

Every word and action was being assessed. Damn it, I'm just an ordinary college student. I have all the usual human desires and emotions. If you assess me according to the rules of some assessment machine, I might as well pack up and go home...

About three hours later.

The flying car landed.

The moment the door opened, Lin Xiaosu was dumbfounded.

Before him was an island. It was huge, with mountains, water, forests, and all kinds of modern buildings. It looked like a lavishly built resort, while behind him, as far as the eye could see, was nothing but seawater.

There was not a second patch of land in sight.

Between sea and sky, he had no idea where he was.

"Guess where you are right now?"

Chang Ye's voice came from behind him. As the sea breeze rose, her hair did not flutter. There was only one reason: she was a Poisonous Person. Every strand of her hair was a weapon capable of killing, so under normal circumstances, her hair was never the slightest bit disheveled.

Lin Xiaosu took out his phone.

The time was displayed, but his location was listed as unknown, and the signal showed restricted.

Chang Ye smiled. "You were actually hoping to use your phone to look up the address here? What were you thinking?"

"Completely cut off?"

"There are naturally satellite signals on the island, but you haven't been granted the relevant clearance. Fortunately, you've already asked your mother for leave. More fortunately, according to the information I gathered, you don't have a girlfriend."

Not having a girlfriend was considered fortunate too!

Damn it, shouldn't that be tragic?

Lin Xiaosu's eyes flickered. "So this question of yours is also an assessment?"

"An assessment... Assessing what?" Chang Ye asked.

"You're testing whether, without any technological assistance, I can deduce where I am."

Chang Ye smiled. "You're wrong! An assessment question must, in theory, have a possibility of being passed. What you're imagining has no possibility of being passed, so it isn't an assessment... I simply want you to understand your current situation!"

Lin Xiaosu's heart skipped slightly.

He seemed to have touched upon Hidden Dragon's foundation. It was unfathomably profound, but it still had limits.

For example, even Chang Ye, as an important figure in Hidden Dragon, had made a mistake.

She said it was impossible, even in theory, to deduce one's location without technological assistance.

That was a mistake.

In fact, it was theoretically possible.

How could it be calculated?

As long as there was sunlight and time, it could be done!

Earth revolved around the sun, and as the seasons changed, the direction of sunlight changed in regular patterns.

In winter, the sun shone directly on the Southern Hemisphere; in summer, it shone directly on the Northern Hemisphere. At the same time, every latitude and longitude on Earth received different sunlight.

By implanting this massive database in one's mind and matching the changes in sunlight at different times, one could deduce one's location in reverse.

That was the theory.

Of course, turning theory into reality was hardly easy.

A supercomputer might be able to calculate it, but a human brain obviously could not.

But who could know just how powerful Humanity Orchid Heart was?

Lin Xiaosu did not continue discussing that bizarre question with her. Taking the card she had given him, he entered his own training area.

Hidden Dragon's training area for newcomers differed from ordinary military barracks. It was ten thousand times more high-end and impressive.

The rooms were like hotel guest rooms.

And they were five-star suites.

There was a reception room, a bathroom, a restroom, and even a kitchen. What Lin Xiaosu had not expected was that there was even a hostess...

The moment he entered, he saw a tall, beautiful woman standing before him, her beauty rivaling Hu Ya's. Smiling, she told him, "Mr. Lin, I'm your personal assistant, Xiao Luo."

"Personal assistant? What do you do?" Lin Xiaosu asked.

"I cook for you, wash your clothes, and answer all your questions..."

What great treatment. Training even came with a personal assistant. Lin Xiaosu sat down. "Xiao Luo, you said you can cook?"

"Mm. I can make all eight major cuisines and seventy-two kinds of regional snacks!"

"Can you make Fengcheng snowflake baba?"

"Yes!"

"Can you make some for me?"

"No!" Xiao Luo said. "You don't have the clearance yet."

"Damn it, clearance again? I thought we were all in the same trench from now on. There's no need to talk about clearance for everything, right? Be flexible. It's just a meal, not some matter of principle."

"No! Because I'm not human. I'm a humanoid robot!" Xiao Luo blinked.

Lin Xiaosu's eyes widened.

His divine eyes could truly perceive the finest details, yet with one glance earlier, he had genuinely failed to notice that the person before him was a humanoid robot. Only after her reminder did he examine her closely and finally discover that she really was a humanoid machine—her hair, skin, pupils, lips, and teeth, all of it.

It was perfect in every way, but such perfection itself was unreal.

"How do I get clearance?"

"This is the clearance chart. You can take a look..."

Xiao Luo lightly blinked, and a holographic projection appeared in the room, displaying a clear chart of corresponding clearances.

Her functions were incredibly numerous and powerful, but the clearance system was also complicated.

The training area had five major categories, or perhaps five major directions.

One category was combat.

One was firearms and equipment.

One was espionage.

One was medicine.

One was special operations.

No one was required to be proficient in everything. Anyone could choose a direction suited to them.

Every training area had its own assessment standards. Once you passed an assessment, you could unlock your assistant's clearance.

Perhaps the assistant's real function was to set up a motivating target at your side, constantly making you think about passing the assessment. Otherwise, when everyone else's assistants had unlocked high-level clearance while yours stood beside you with her lips pouting miserably, could you stand it?

After reading all that, Lin Xiaosu was somewhat speechless. "Clearly, I have a little assistant beside me who's proficient in all eight major cuisines, but when my stomach is growling with hunger, I can only take a lousy bowl to the cafeteria and get food myself?"

As if performing a magic trick, the assistant produced a bowl from behind her back and handed it to him.

Lin Xiaosu took her bowl and went to the cafeteria.

Along the way, he finally saw others like himself.

In fact, there were quite a few.

Three long lines had formed in the cafeteria ahead. There were men and women, and what they had in common was their bronze-colored skin. Clearly, they were the kind who had shed their skin beneath the sun several times.

If nothing unexpected happened, nine out of ten of them were soldiers, and the king-of-soldiers type at that.

Hidden Dragon had two selection methods to begin with.

The mainstream route was still to choose elite soldiers from major military regions and the finest police officers from the public security system.

The unconventional route was civilian selection.

A pretty boy like him walking among a group of battle-hardened elite soldiers was an oddity.

Another person who was just as obviously from civilian society was a thin young man who kept his head lowered, appearing somewhat shy.

Yes, before these elite soldiers who had risen above the rest in the military field, those selected from civilian society lacked a measure of confidence.