101 Training Grounds

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 single glance.

Even Lin Xiaosu's Peerless Divine Eye could only make out the flashing lights, not why they were flashing.

There was no one inside. It was unmanned.

Changye settled comfortably into a reclining seat and casually said, "101!"

Then, with a flash of flowing light and a sudden lightness in his body, Lin Xiaosu went along with the flying car.

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

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

"It was a very interesting symbol." A faint smile touched Changye's lips.

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

"It was a number, but to understand what it meant, it might be more accurate to start from its shape... The '0' represented Earth, and the two '1's beside it represented pillars."

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

"We could, but you did not currently have the authorization."

"When would I get it?"

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

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

Changye gently shook her head. "You still couldn't let go of the income issue."

"Of course. Wasn't that what job applicants should care about most?"

"Couldn't your horizons be a little broader?"

"They could! Let me ask something wild, then... If I worked hard in the future, could I buy a car and a house within a year? A car like this, and a house in the provincial capital..."

Changye's head bumped against the backrest behind her. Muttering, she said, "Comrade Lin, don't talk like that at the base. Any words you utter that were tied to worldly money would make your review more difficult. If a Qianlong member had his heart set solely on making money, that would be a major taboo..."

"You and I seemed to have a huge difference in outlook," Lin Xiaosu said. "I know you devoted yourself wholeheartedly to serving the country, but serving the country and pursuing personal goals weren't contradictory, right? One of my old friends once said something that sounded damn ridiculous, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. She said, if a person completely lost all personal pursuits, could you still expect him to seek welfare for the people? Extending that, there was that age-old saying: If one room could not be swept clean, how could one sweep the world? If a man could not take responsibility for his own wife and children, how could he take responsibility for everyone under heaven?"

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

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

"Mhm..." Changye nodded lightly. "Although the stink of copper had not yet washed off you, and hedonism had seeped into your very marrow, you at least had one fine quality. You were loyal and righteous. You did not cause trouble for your comrades. That was not bad. If our first meeting today had been an assessment, you would not have been too far from the passing line..."

Now it was Lin Xiaosu's turn to let his head fall back and bump against the chair.

This trip came with an assessment.

Every word and action was being assessed. Fuck, I'm just an ordinary college student. I have a whole heap of human emotions and desires. If you people judged me by the rules of some assessment machine, I might as well roll up my bedding and go home...

About three hours later.

The flying car landed.

The moment its door opened, Lin Xiaosu was dumbfounded.

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

There was not a second piece of land in sight.

Where sea and sky became one, he had no idea where he was.

"Guess where you are right now?"

Changye's voice came from behind him. As the sea breeze rose, her hair did not stir. There was only one reason: she was a poison wielder. Every strand of her hair was a weapon that could kill, so under normal circumstances, not a single hair of hers would ever be out of place.

Lin Xiaosu took out his phone.

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

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

"Completely cut off?"

"There was naturally satellite signal on the island, but you did not have authorization to access it. Fortunately, you had already asked your mother for leave. More fortunately, according to the information I collected, you did not have a girlfriend."

Not having a girlfriend was considered fortunate!

Fuck, shouldn't that have been tragic?

Lin Xiaosu's gaze flickered. "So the question you asked was also an assessment?"

"Assessment... Assessment of what?" Changye asked.

"You were testing whether, without any technological assistance, I could deduce where I currently was."

Changye smiled. "You were wrong! An assessment question only existed if there was theoretically an option to pass it. What you imagined had no possibility of being passed, so this was not an assessment... I merely wanted you to understand your current situation!"

Lin Xiaosu's heart gave a slight jump.

He seemed to have touched upon Qianlong's foundation. That foundation was unfathomably profound, but it ultimately had boundaries.

For instance, Changye, as an important figure in Qianlong, had also made a mistake.

She had said that without any technological assistance, it was theoretically impossible to deduce where he was.

That was the mistake.

In fact, there was theoretically a way.

How could it be deduced?

All he needed was the sun and the time!

Earth revolved around the sun. As the seasons changed, the direction of sunlight shifted in regular patterns.

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

If that enormous database was implanted in one's mind, matching changes in sunlight at every point in time, one could calculate one's location in reverse.

That was the theory.

Of course, turning theory into reality was easier said than done.

A supercomputer might be able to calculate it, but the human brain clearly could not.

But who could know just how powerful Humanity Orchidheart 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.

Qianlong's training area for newcomers was different from the barracks of ordinary armies. It was ten thousand times more high-end, grand, and upscale.

The room was like a hotel guest room.

And it was a five-star suite.

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 woman with beauty comparable to Hu Ya's standing before him. Smiling, she told him, "Mr. Lin, I am your personal assistant, Xiao Luo."

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

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

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

"Mhm. I know all eight major cuisines and seventy-two kinds of local snacks!"

"Could you make Phoenix City's Snowflake Baba?"

"Yes!"

"Could you make me some?"

"No!" Xiao Luo said. "You had not yet unlocked the authorization."

"Fuck, authorization again? I'm saying we were all in the same trench from now on. There was no need to talk about authorization in everything, right? Be flexible. Eating a meal wasn't some matter of principle."

"No! Because I am not human. I am a simulated robot!" Xiao Luo said, blinking her eyes.

Lin Xiaosu's eyes widened.

His Divine Eye could truly perceive the tiniest details, yet when he had looked at her just now, he had genuinely failed to see that the person before him was a simulated robot. Only after she pointed it out and he examined her closely did he discover that she really was a simulated machine—her hair, skin, eyeballs, lips, and teeth, all of them.

It was perfect to the utmost degree, but perfection itself made it unreal.

"How could I unlock the authorization?"

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

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

Her functions were incredibly numerous and immensely powerful, but the corresponding authorizations were also complicated.

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

One category was combat.

One category was firearms and equipment.

One category was espionage and strategy.

One category was medicine.

One category was special operations.

No one was required to be an all-rounder. Anyone could choose a direction suited to them.

Every training area had its own assessment standards. Pass the assessment, and you could unlock your assistant's authorization.

Perhaps the assistant's real function was to set up a motivating target by your side, making you think about passing the assessments at every moment. Otherwise, when other people's assistants had unlocked high-level authorizations while your assistant stood beside you with her little mouth pouted in grievance, could you bear it?

After reading all that, Lin Xiaosu was somewhat speechless. "Clearly, I have a little assistant by my side who was proficient in all eight major cuisines, but when my stomach was growling with hunger, I could only take a broken bowl to the cafeteria and get food myself?"

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

Lin Xiaosu took her bowl and headed for the cafeteria.

Along the way, he finally saw others headed in the same direction.

In fact, there were quite a few of them.

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 the kind that had shed several layers under the sun.

Without any surprises, nine out of ten of them were soldiers, and the kind who were kings among soldiers.

Qianlong itself had two selection methods.

The mainstream route was still choosing kings among soldiers from the major military regions and selecting the best police officers from the public security system.

The unconventional route was civilian selection.

A pretty boy like him, walking among a crowd of battle-hardened soldier kings, was an oddity.

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

Yes, before these soldier kings who had risen above the rest in the military sphere, those selected from civilian society lacked three parts of confidence.