However, when this group came out of the cafeteria and faced those striding past from the outer perimeter back to their rooms, they too stopped in their tracks. Those people did not eat in the cafeteria but returned to eat meals prepared by their assistants. That alone showed they had passed the assessment!
Passing the assessment meant becoming a reserve member of Hidden Dragon. As long as their points met the standard, they would become the true Hidden Dragon Gold Medals that everyone dreamed of.
"Hey, brother!" Lin Xiaosu patted the shoulder of the timid young man eating beside him.
The young man looked up and gave him a small smile in response.
"What's your name?"
"Zhou Zhen. And you?" the young man asked.
"Lin Xiaosu." Lin Xiaosu said, "What are you good at?"
Zhou Zhen said, "It might have been an accident that I came here. I... I just like tinkering with computer viruses."
"A hacker?"
"No. The big brother who brought me here said I can't be called a hacker anymore. I should be called a Red Hacker."
"When did you get here?"
"Just now! What about you, Xiaosu?"
"Me too, just now... You probably chose the Intelligence and Strategy Zone, right?"
"Yeah, the Network Control subdivision within the Intelligence and Strategy Zone. Which zone did you choose?"
It was an ordinary question, but Lin Xiaosu hesitated. After a long while, he said, "Firearms, I guess."
After lunch came training time. Lin Xiaosu and Zhou Zhen parted ways at the entrance to the training area. Zhou Zhen headed for the Intelligence and Strategy Zone, while Lin Xiaosu entered the Firearms Zone.
On the mountaintop behind them stood a small courtyard like something out of a Jiangnan water town. A woman sat on a swing, lightly tapping the ground with her toes as the swing rose. She looked utterly relaxed.
She was Chang Ye.
But the Chang Ye at that moment was completely different from the one Lin Xiaosu had met.
Her facial features had not changed, but her skin was several shades paler than it had been outside because she had removed her simulated protective skin. Once it came off, her skin looked like that of a baby who had never seen daylight.
Her hair was no longer perfectly neat, instead flying high in the air.
It was as though she had cast off her shackles, revealing an airy, carefree grace like a fairy floating through the sky.
Across from her sat a petite beauty with extraordinarily lively eyes and a very busy little mouth, eating grapes. The grapes on the table vanished at an unbelievable speed. In just moments, as her mouth moved wildly, the pile of grapes visibly shrank, flattened, scattered into a few remaining dots, until only one was left.
The petite girl spoke. "Sister Chang Ye, you really haven't managed to develop medicine to cure the poison in your own body?"
"I have some leads, but I have not truly succeeded yet."
"You need to work harder. Really, you're already fully ripe now. You need to make arrangements for your future man. Otherwise, wouldn't all that boundless charm of yours have grown for nothing?"
"Xinyue, Xinyue, can't you think about something normal at your age?" Chang Ye sighed softly.
"I've always been thinking about normal things. I keep wondering which god I offended. Why is it that every time my reserve points get close to the one-thousand threshold, some accident always happens and knocks me back down?"
"Cough..." A trace of conflict appeared on Chang Ye's face...
Suddenly, her eyes fixed on a certain direction.
Xinyue followed her gaze.
A projection appeared in the empty space before them.
It showed a handsome guy walking toward a testing area with the swagger of a john. Two large words marked the testing area: Zone B.
"Zone B! The Firearms Zone!" Xinyue cried out. "Didn't you say this guy you brought back was a criminal investigation genius? Why isn't he entering the fourth subdivision of the Intelligence and Strategy Zone? Why did he go into the Firearms Zone?"
"This guy... this guy is pretty strange. Sometimes he looks very smart, but other times he gets muddled up. It's fine. Once he walks around inside, he'll quickly learn what it means to be in the wrong profession. Once he hits a wall, won't he turn back?"
Lin Xiaosu entered the Firearms Zone.
He swiped his card across the door, and his personal information appeared on the large screen in front of him, along with the basic rules of the Firearms Zone.
The Firearms Zone covered a vast range of categories, including all kinds of guns and tools. Whether guns or equipment, everything was laid out there for use at any time, with instructions displayed beside them.
Lin Xiaosu walked along the racks ahead, taking in sights impossible to find in the outside world.
Dragon Dagger, seven inches and eight-tenths long, made of tungsten gold, capable of stabbing, hooking, and chopping. The blade could withstand two hundred jin of weight...
Dragon Rope, eighteen meters long, capable of withstanding five hundred jin of weight...
Hair Needle, range of fifty meters, a weapon for espionage...
Dragon Blade, three chi long, specially designed for special operations...
Reverse Shield, for women only, concealing Hair Needles within, a weapon for espionage...
As Lin Xiaosu looked over the assorted equipment, his thoughts completely wandered off. Damn, what kind of place did I enter? Fine, cups, plates, briefcases, and umbrellas can be turned into killing weapons, but even bras and hairpins can be used to kill people? Aren't you afraid everyone will end up traumatized, tense even while dating? Are people not allowed to enjoy life happily anymore?
Lin Xiaosu did not touch the cold weapons.
Ahead were the proper firearms.
There were all kinds of guns.
Submachine guns, machine guns, rocket launchers—every model was available. There were even miniature missiles.
Of course, they were all loaded with training rounds...
Lin Xiaosu picked up a small pistol. It was only about eight inches long, roughly the size of a larger phone. He figured that if he were truly carrying out missions outside, this was probably the only kind of gun he would be willing to choose.
Then, holding that gun, he pushed open a nearby door.
Beyond the door was a huge platform surrounded by walls on all four sides.
But the moment Lin Xiaosu entered, the lights came on, and the platform transformed into a wilderness out of thin air, as if by magic.
He knew it was not magic. It was modern holographic projection technology.
The gun in his hand was not a real gun either. It was more like a game controller.
Essentially, he was playing a game. But this game was highly realistic. If he could hit targets in the game, then replacing the gun in his hand with a real one would allow him to hit targets in the same real-world environment.
That was why it counted as training.
A target appeared ahead, about a hundred meters away from him.
"He chose the G2 Pistol. It's a compact gun with good concealment, but its weakness is that accuracy is difficult to control. How many shots do you think it'll take him to hit the target?" Chang Ye lightly tapped the ground with her toes.
The projection before her displayed the full scene in front of Lin Xiaosu.
Xinyue laughed. "For someone whose brain has been ruined by studying, he'll be lucky if he can even see the target. You expect him to hit it?"
"You're wrong about that. You can say his combat skills are poor, but never say his eyesight is poor. I bet he'll hit the target within three shots!"
Whoosh!
Lin Xiaosu pulled the trigger. The first bullet landed at least ten meters away from the target.
That was the drawback of pistols.
Pistols were short, making their accuracy extremely difficult to control. In modern society, being able to hit a criminal from fifty meters away was already considered expert marksmanship. At a hundred meters, it was purely a matter of chance.
"See? That's what it means to be in the wrong profession!" Xinyue called out happily. Somehow, she had produced a bag of sunflower seeds and started cracking them...
The second shot rang out, and Xinyue froze. "Damn, he hit the target! A blind cat stumbling into a dead mouse?"
The third shot. The electronic display showed: 8 rings!
The fourth shot, 9 rings!
The fifth shot, 10 rings!
The sixth shot, 10.5 rings!
Lin Xiaosu spun the gun around his fingertip, raising the difficulty for himself. He lifted his hand, and the seventh shot struck 10.5 rings!
Chang Ye sprang up, her eyes shining brightly.
Xinyue let out a strange cry. "Damn, that's fierce! He's trained before, right?"
"According to the records, he really hasn't! And his 10.5 rings climbed up gradually from missing the target. He was clearly unfamiliar with the gun at first, but after only seven shots, he was already completely proficient. Watch his movements carefully."
Lin Xiaosu suddenly spun in a circle, turning a full 360 degrees before raising his hand and firing!
From the moment he raised his hand to the moment the bullet fired, there was not the slightest delay. Yet the electronic display showed 10.6 rings!
Xinyue said, "That's insane. Back then, it took me a full three months to reach the accuracy of over one hundred rings in ten shots. That was already unprecedented among Hidden Dragon... Well, there were very few predecessors at that level anyway. But this kid did it in an instant! And you still dare say he never trained?"
Chang Ye's eyes flickered. "Shooting depends on three things: eyesight, the coordination and stability of hand and eye, and the instinct to correct parameters. I have never doubted his eyesight, and his instinct is clearly outstanding as well. Now we need to see his stability. If every shot after this remains above 10 rings, then he will be the second Sharpshooter after 066!"
Lin Xiaosu fired ten shots in a row, every single one scoring 10.8 rings.
After those ten shots came another ten, all at 10.9 rings!
The highest standard!
Over the next fifty shots, every shot scored 10.9 rings.
Both Chang Ye and Xinyue had their mouths hanging slightly open.
They had been stunned by his stability.
Then Lin Xiaosu actually began showing off. He spun around, ran a few steps across the ground, fired while running, even suddenly leaned backward and fired. His movements completely overturned shooting-range norms. Ordinary people needed to remain relatively still to maintain good results, afraid that even a tiny mistake in stance would cost them the optimal shooting angle. But he leaped around like a monkey, yet every shot from the gun in his hand scored an unquestionable 10.9 rings.
This stability was unprecedented.
One hundred shots!
Two hundred shots!
Three hundred shots!
Five hundred shots!
With a boom, a huge flower appeared on the electronic screen. A bullet flashed through it like a streak of light, piercing straight through the display in a breathtaking, shocking sight.
Xinyue and Chang Ye cried out together, "He triggered the Sharpshooter Line..."
Five hundred consecutive shots above ten rings had triggered the Sharpshooter Line. It represented directly clearing the fixed-target course, and it also marked the best result ever achieved on the firearms training range.
Before you continue