Reactions from All Sides: Qi Lin

As a major frontline city in China, Tianhe City had no fewer than fifty thousand police officers. Moreover, rumors had long circulated online that troops were stationed outside Tianhe City's suburbs.

As for whether there really were troops there, no enthusiastic netizen had ever confirmed it.

Beyond Tianhe City's outskirts, deep within the mountain ravines, faint traces of vehicles could be seen. Following those tracks revealed several highly incongruous man-made structures amid the forest.

Perhaps because the secrecy level was not particularly high, this unnamed unit's camouflage was rather perfunctory.

At this unit's shooting range, two soldiers were competing to assemble firearms while blindfolded. One was clearly a soldier, while the other wore a police uniform.

Before this, they seemed to have completed other competitive events as well, because both were drenched in sweat.

Another soldier acted as the referee. He shouted, "Start!" and pressed the stopwatch in his hand at the same time.

The two simultaneously reached for the pistol parts on the table—the bolt assembly, firing mechanism, magazine assembly, grip assembly, barrel, and recoil spring—assembling them piece by piece before engaging the safety.

They placed their assembled pistols on the table almost simultaneously.

"Reporting, assembly complete." The soldier's voice was firm and powerful.

"Reporting, assembly complete." The person in the police uniform answered in an unmistakably female voice.

"Huh?" The soldier competing against the police officer froze. It was not because he found it strange to be competing with a woman, but because he was astonished that they had completed the firearm assembly at the same time.

Hearing this, the soldier serving as referee curiously looked at his stopwatch. It showed 11.32 seconds and 11.40 seconds, two nearly identical results.

Seeing those scores, even the referee could barely keep his expression under control. As a fellow soldier, he was not surprised by such a result. Most soldiers in this unit were trained as special forces.

If anything, this performance was somewhat below par.

What surprised the soldier was that he had heard from his superior that this stunningly beautiful police officer had supposedly been an outstanding student at the police academy.

"Could it be that police academy students these days are all this formidable, almost matching reserve special forces?" Just as the soldier was about to question his entire life—

Fortunately, an officer approached and interrupted his wild thoughts. Otherwise, this outstanding soldier might have remained trapped in that dead end forever.

"Since you've finished assembling them, it's time to test your work. Live-fire testing."

Upon hearing the order, both tore off the black cloths covering their eyes and carefully examined the pistols in their hands.

"Type 92 Semi-Automatic Pistol." Both immediately recognized it and raised their pistols toward the paper targets fifty meters ahead.

Bang, bang, bang. Fifteen rapid shots in succession emptied a magazine.

The results came out quickly. Bullseye. Bullseye. Both had hit the center of the target.

Then the targets were switched to one hundred meters. After replacing their magazines, the two fired almost at the same time. Bang, bang, bang—another fifteen rapid shots.

The result was still the same. Both hit the bullseye.

Next came the one-hundred-and-fifty-meter targets. This time, the beautiful police officer fired first, while the other soldier hesitated for a moment before opening fire.

The result was that all fifteen of the beautiful police officer's shots hit the bullseye. The soldier, meanwhile, only landed fourteen in the center; one shot went wide and scored only nine rings.

The officer watching from the side furrowed his brow. Although this was already an outstanding result for a Type 92 Semi-Automatic Pistol at one hundred and fifty meters—

The Type 92 Semi-Automatic Pistol had an effective firing range of fifty meters, with a maximum range of one hundred and fifty to two hundred meters.

But it also depended on who the opponent was. She was a police officer, yet he had lost to her. The officer glanced at the competing soldier and thought, Looks like this brat needs more training again.

For the next set of two-hundred-meter targets, the beautiful police officer finally made one mistake among her fifteen shots, landing a nine-ring hit. The other soldier, meanwhile, only hit the bullseye thirteen times.

Seeing this result, the officer suppressed his anger and said kindly to the beautiful police officer:

"Comrade Qi Lin, thank you for your cooperation. We have arranged a room for you to rest in. This afternoon, we will arrange a dedicated vehicle to take you to the Tianhe City Police Department."

That was right. The beautiful police officer who had just competed against a reserve special forces soldier was Qi Lin.

Earlier that day, Qi Lin had arrived at the police station as usual. To her surprise, not long afterward, the chief came to her with someone whose military rank was clearly quite high.

The chief told her that higher-ups had arranged a cooperative assignment for her. That was how Qi Lin had ended up in this unit and taken part in the earlier competition.

And just as Qi Lin headed toward the room arranged for her to rest—

A series of reports on Qi Lin's physical capabilities had already been sent to North Star.

At the same time, similar reports were being sent to North Star from military districts across the country.

It was still the same conference room. Though it was clearly full of people, not a single person spoke. Only the sound of everyone turning the papers before them could be heard.

Old Huang, seated at the head of the table, saw that everyone had finished reading the materials at hand. He drew their attention and asked, "What do you all think?"

"The soldiers who logged into the World Tree game have improved significantly. Even the newly enlisted recruits have physical abilities nearly comparable to soldiers with two or three years of service."

"Unfortunately, none of those who secured game access are special forces. If there were, I would really like to see whether this kind of growth is effective for special forces as well."

Listening to everyone's feedback in the conference room, Old Huang nodded in satisfaction. "It seems the elves are indeed providing us with support according to the contract. This is far more reliable than that Super Soldier Company Project submitted by those Deno people."

"At least with the elves' help, we can cultivate our own super soldiers."

Everyone below nodded in agreement at Old Huang's explanation.

"How about asking the elves to arrange some more slots for us?" someone suggested.

Hearing this proposal, Old Huang decisively shook his head and refused. "The elves placed a total of five hundred slots in our country, and my military alone has two hundred and thirty of them."

"And we still have not met the queen of the Elven Civilization. Rashly making demands could sour our relationship. We can discuss this proposal later."

"But the soldiers with game access say there are a thousand players in the game," someone said uncertainly.

"The elves distributing game slots overseas is their freedom. Besides, most of those holding the remaining slots are ethnic Chinese. That also shows that the elves are generally on China's side." Old Huang explained slowly.

"Do not forget, the elves arranged this in the form of a game. There will be plenty of opportunities in the future. There is no need to damage the relationship."

Everyone took Old Huang's arrangements to heart. In particular, they decided to raise the preferential policies already granted to Tianhe City within reasonable limits.

"Since we have so many people in the game, we could organize a guild," someone suggested.

"But as far as I know, there is no traditional guild system in the game," someone bluntly pointed out.

Old Huang smiled slightly upon hearing this. "What is so difficult about that? If we cannot have a guild, we can have a family or a merchant caravan."

"As for the leader in the game..." Old Huang pulled out a file and said, "This young lady seems quite good to this old man."

Seeing the file Old Huang had pulled out, everyone found the same file among their own documents and examined it carefully.

Everyone nodded in satisfaction. Whether in character, political review, or her performance in the game, this young lady was well suited.

"Then Comrade Qi Lin's position will remain unchanged, while her benefits will secretly be raised by two levels."

No one objected, and they began discussing other matters...

The topic of extraterrestrial civilizations...