All five clones Qin Ze had sent out were killed by He Bi.
The clones could have avoided He Bi.
But after the first clone had both legs cut off, the others started messing around.
They went looking for He Bi just to tease him.
As for exploring the map, how could that be more fun than teasing a high school boy?
Qin Ze was utterly speechless.
"Don't pass the buck. We share a processor, so our thoughts are your thoughts."
"That's right. You were clearly the one who wanted to mess around, so we went."
"That kid's practically developed a split personality now. I'm dying laughing."
"When the fifth brother showed up, he was so scared he pissed himself."
"The brothers all self-destructed with their last breath. They didn't leave a hair behind, so we can't even make them a burial mound for their clothes."
"It's all Qin Ze's fault."
"Plus one."
Qin Ze rolled his eyes, too lazy to argue with them.
"All right, we've finished exploring every part of the area assigned to us." Teacher Yao took out a tablet and tapped it.
The squad's trial mission was now over.
After a whole morning, Qin Ze and the others had explored only a small part of the alternate realm.
The rest of the map would probably be left to martial exam candidates from other high schools.
Along the way, each person had killed ten exotic beasts on average.
Although they had ended up a little disheveled, their eyes were sparkling. After all, it was their first real battle.
"All right, let's get ready to head back."
Teacher Yao submitted the map and put the tablet away.
Qin Ze, who was wandering around at the front, suddenly spotted a collapsed wall. Behind it was a large, dark hole.
It looked as though something had dug it out. Broken stones and dirt were piled all around the entrance.
Creak, creak, creak-
A strange sound came from the hole.
"Qin Ze, we're getting ready to leave," Teacher Yao called out.
"Oh, coming."
Qin Ze glanced into the hole. It was pitch-black, and he couldn't see a thing.
As soon as he turned around, he saw that several of his classmates had gone deathly pale.
"Are you feeling unwell?"
"B-behind you..."
A female classmate pointed with her right hand, her body shaking like a sieve.
Qin Ze abruptly looked down and realized he was covered by a huge shadow.
"Get down!"
Teacher Yao shouted, and a burst of fist force blasted toward the space above Qin Ze's head.
Qin Ze covered his head with both hands and hurriedly dropped to the ground.
An explosion rang out behind him immediately afterward, making his head buzz.
Qin Ze shook his head and caught a glimpse of a huge black shadow darting out from behind him and pouncing straight at Teacher Yao.
It was a humanoid exotic beast over two meters tall.
Unlike the exotic beasts they had encountered before, this one was noticeably stronger and had extremely sharp claws.
Bang!
Teacher Yao traded a punch with the exotic beast and was sent flying the next instant.
"D-rank exotic beast!" (Note: equivalent to a level-three martial artist)
"Run, all of you! I'll hold it off."
Teacher Yao quickly got up and stood in front of the students.
Once the four students came to their senses, they hurried back the way they had come.
Qin Ze was out of luck.
The passage was only so wide, and Teacher Yao and the exotic beast were fighting fiercely ahead of him. There was no way he could get past.
Qin Ze turned to look at the pitch-black hole, gritted his teeth, and ducked inside.
"Hang in there, Teacher Yao! I'm going to get reinforcements!"
The hole was dark and cold.
At first it was so narrow that a person could barely squeeze through.
After another few dozen steps, it suddenly opened up.
"What's that smell?"
Qin Ze suddenly smelled an extremely concentrated gas.
At the same time, he noticed that the qi and blood in his body were rapidly declining, so he hurriedly transferred his original body into a clone.
That way, if anyone died, the clone would die first.
"Qin Ze, you mother-"
The clone died before he could finish.
Qin Ze immediately switched to the next clone.
The gas was poisonous, and highly so.
The clones couldn't survive in it for even half a minute.
Bang-
Qin Ze kicked off hard with both feet and shot forward like a cannonball.
He left a trail of clone corpses in his wake, as if he were laying eggs.
After leaving ten or so corpses behind, Qin Ze finally saw a light.
He quickly moved up to the light source and reached out to feel it. It was an iron plate with a crack in it.
Thud, thud, thud-
Qin Ze knocked on it and found that the iron plate wasn't very thick.
He gathered his qi and blood and punched straight through the plate, finally making his way out of the pitch-black hole.
Qin Ze looked around. He had emerged in a completely unfamiliar passage, and there was no poisonous gas here.
Locked gray gates stood at both ends, each bearing a large Arabic numeral 10.
"Organic life-form detected. Beginning scan..."
"Scanning..."
A red light shone down on Qin Ze from a corner of the ceiling.
Qin Ze jumped, his whole body tensing.
But after a while, nothing happened.
"Scan result: carbon-based life-form, Earth human."
"Starting identity verification... verifying..."
Qin Ze looked toward the source of the red light. It looked a lot like MOSS from a movie he had seen before.
"Verification failed. Not a resident of this shelter."
"Identify yourself, or you will be dealt with as an intruder."
Qin Ze panicked a little and hurriedly pulled out his student ID.
"I'm a student, a student at No. 2 High School!"
The red light shone on his student ID.
"Connecting to database..."
"Identity confirmed. Qin Ze, graduate of Jiangcheng No. 2 High School. Died in the Jiang City beast tide on July 27, 2050, Great Xia calendar..."
Wait a damn minute!
I'm dead?
Am I not alive and well right now?
And what the hell is this about the year 2050?
It's only 2025!
Qin Ze's mind was full of questions. He felt he had uncovered one mysterious corner of the alternate realm.
The so-called secret realm was actually a shelter.
The things it sheltered people from seemed to be the exotic beasts in the passage outside.
"One who has returned from the dead, please disarm. I will take you to see the shelter's administrator."
Qin Ze obediently tossed his shortsword onto the ground.
A mechanical arm emerged from the floor, picked up the shortsword, and put it away.
Rumble-
The gears on the gate ahead began to turn bit by bit, producing a deafening mechanical roar.
"We're going into a new dungeon!"
"Will there be a boss standing right behind the door?"
"How are we supposed to play if that happens? They're not even giving us time to develop. That's a scripted death."
"The shelter's AI is pretty reasonable. It didn't just shoot an outsider like us with an unknown identity on sight."
"This place feels so high-tech."
"Isn't this a high-martial world? How did it turn into sci-fi?"
"Could the shelter's administrator be a gorgeous woman?"
The clones all chimed in, excited about the scene awaiting them.
Qin Ze felt the same way.
After all, this was a place even the authorities hadn't explored.
The air in that passage was not only poisonous but also highly corrosive.
Even wearing a gas mask, a person's body would be corroded into a puddle of rotten flesh in less than two minutes.
Unless they exploited the clone bug like Qin Ze, there was no way for anyone else to get in.
Click-
The mechanical gears seemed to have reached their limit, and the alloy gate slowly slid open to one side.
"Strange outsider."
"Welcome to Shelter No. 10."
(P.S. The worldbuilding is starting to unfold, bros. Give it a nudge for more updates and leave a like, and send some free little gifts if you have any. Thanks, godfathers.)