Chapter 67

Because no one had explored the Ancient Wilderness world with Wen Jing, and no one knew whether Wen Jing or the second-year Operations Department members were stronger.

But one thing is certain: among the Awakened, the strong are respected.

When the time comes to take action in the Ancient Wilderness and demonstrate their respective strengths, everyone will naturally know whose advice to follow when it comes to making a real decision.

At this stage, we are only sharing intelligence unilaterally and drafting an initial action plan.

On the large conference table in the activity room was a huge sand table, which had now simulated the terrain where the Locator Stone might land, based on everyone's memories.

Ji Shuang's expression became much more natural as she spoke, "The area traversed using the Locator Stone will not exceed this region. We have divided this area into ten zones based on the terrain. It's important to note that zones two and seven may present dangers..."

"Upon entering the Ancient Wilderness, everyone should first determine which area they are in, then report their coordinates and contact the others."

As Ji Shuang finished speaking, she saw Wen Jing raise his hand.

All eyes were on her, and even Song Zhi, who was about to leave, stopped in her tracks.

Ji Shuang paused. "What's wrong?"

Her plan isn't good. Does Wen Jing want to rearrange it?

As Ji Shuang was thinking this, she heard the other person say, "How do you communicate in the Ancient Wilderness? Do you devise some kind of secret signal? You probably can't hear my shouts."

Upon hearing this, everyone present, including Brown, who was the default accessory, looked at her with disbelief.

Wen Jing: "Huh?"

Did she misunderstand something? It's not that she can't speak clearly; she doesn't even have vocal organs! Of course, it would be easy for her to find a way to make some noise.

Meanwhile, realizing the problem, Song Zhi's expression, which always wore a friendly smile, cracked.

He quickly composed himself. "Sorry, it was my oversight. I forgot to tell you that our Operations Department uses the secret technique ' Mental Link ' to communicate during our explorations."

"It was all my oversight; I forgot about this when I invited Wen Jing," Song Zhi apologized to everyone present.

Wen Jing immediately checked with his smart terminal and discovered that there was a special technique that allowed Awakened to communicate between the Ancient Wilderness.

This is different from algorithms; it's a secret technique that needs to be learned before it can be applied.

After all, Locator Stone are not something ordinary students can afford. It's impossible for a normal person to gamble on the minuscule chance of encountering other Awakened in the Ancient Wilderness just to learn this secret technique. At least the students in the winter class haven't touched on this yet.

Therefore, although Wen Jing enters and exits the Ancient Wilderness Lands as frequently as he goes home, he has never considered teaming up with others using Locator Stone and was completely unaware of this.

Song Zhi from the Student Council also fell into a mental rut.

Because Wen Jing was so famous, he had only recently returned from the Azure Jade Exchange and hadn't expected such details.

The same was true for everyone else present. Apart from the new recruits, almost everyone in the Operations Department knew this secret skill. They never expected that the operation arranged by the chairman would end up with such a blunder.

As for Wen Jing... Wen Jing glanced at the price of the secret technique, focusing on the key question, "Will they reimburse me for this secret technique?"

"Of course, of course." Song Zhi looked embarrassed and quickly purchased the secret technique, sending it to Wen Jing's account.

Looks like I won't be able to go today.

Everyone secretly thought to themselves, "We've been preparing nervously since yesterday, and now it feels like we've punched thin air."

If this happened to any newcomer, people would probably be angry and give them a hard time, and might even complain.

But this person is Wen Jing, um...

Everyone appeared calm and collected, but they couldn't help feeling resentful inside.

Song Zhi glanced around Wen Jing sitting in his seat with his eyes closed, seemingly blaming him, while the others were watching him, clearly waiting for his instructions.

He paused for a moment, then quickly said, "Since everyone is here today, let's discuss tactics first. After Wen Jing finishes learning the secret technique, we'll double-check it before taking action."

The technique isn't particularly difficult; the average learning time for members of the Operations Department is about seven days, with some learning it in as little as three days.

Now that everyone is here, it would be demoralizing to end the meeting abruptly.

At that moment, Wen Jing, who was sitting in his seat, suddenly opened his eyes and said:

"No need to postpone, I've already learned it."

Chapter 67

Upon hearing Wen Jing speak, everyone instinctively looked over, before belatedly realizing what she had said.

... No? What is she saying?

Song Zhi felt he had never encountered such a social dilemma before. He didn't know whether to laugh or not, and tried his best to adjust his expression, asking the question on behalf of everyone, "Haha... Wen Jing, are you kidding me?"

"No, I really learned it." Wen Jing said earnestly.

"..."

Everyone stared at her blankly, seemingly unsure what expression to wear, even the most sociable Song Zhi.

Seeing this, she didn't explain any further and directly used the newly learned secret technique ' Mental Link ' on everyone present.

She simply said "Hi" in the Mental Link, and the next moment, everyone present felt as if they had been gently tapped on the brow by some invisible substance.

"Hiss..."

The incident caused a huge stir. The five people were stunned, and then slowly realized the truth. Except for Ji Shuang, who was always reserved, the others grimaced and couldn't help but show their teeth.

Song Zhi recalled that when Wen Jing was learning the secret technique, he thought she was 'resting with her eyes closed,' and he couldn't help but laugh and cry.

The Mental Link is a secret technique applicable to Awakened in the Ancient Wilderness, allowing them to communicate with each other using their Wilderness Body. In the material universe, since the compatibility of everyone present has not reached the level required to transform their Wilderness Body, their physical bodies can only sense the connection without knowing the details.

But even if no one understands what Wen Jing 'sent', no one present would fail to recognize this feeling.

She actually learned it! And the whole process only took three minutes?!

Everyone present knew that Wen Jing was a genius; otherwise, the Student Council wouldn't have offered her such a cooperation contract. It could be said that the reason this exploration could be carried out a second time was largely because the Student Council wanted to understand Wen Jing's abilities as an advisor.

But... this talent is terrifying!

The three sophomores from the Operations Department were all restless. They were all outstanding among their Operations Department and were usually called geniuses.

Only now, compared to Wen Jing, do I realize what a true genius is.

As the culprit who made everyone on the scene question their existence, Wen Jing actually didn't expect that he could learn this secret skill so quickly.

Before her previous journey to the Ancient Wilderness Lands, it might have taken her half an hour to an hour to master this technique. However, after consuming the Basic Hive Mind trait, this technique became effortless for her.

Although it is called a 'link', the principle behind Mental Link is actually a kind of mental energy broadcasting.

Awakened are like signal towers, capable of transmitting and receiving spiritual energy from the outside world at the same frequency.

Because its nature is similar to the mind control of the ant queen, Wen Jing only needed to successfully adjust its frequency band to the ' Awakened Channel' to learn it directly, and thus quickly earned 5 Skill Points.

However, a question immediately came to her mind, "I have a question: will using Mental Link in the Ancient Wilderness attract Wilderness Beast?"

Hearing Wen Jing's question, everyone finally came to their senses.

Song Zhi replied, "Under normal circumstances, we wouldn't encounter such depths, but nothing is absolute in the Ancient Wilderness. It's possible that in some very rare areas, some powerful and special Wilderness Beast can also receive this kind of fluctuation. They won't understand what you're communicating, but they can sense your location through it."

"However, I've heard that in deeper areas explored by high-level Awakened, there's a high probability they'll be detected, so there are other versions of this secret technique."

Sure enough, Wen Jing opened the shop and saw the Secret Technique: Mental Link, worth 40 Integral, along with various upgraded versions.

She is currently only learning the basic version used by Awakened below Rank D. Based on this, there are also advanced versions used by higher-rank Awakened, as well as special encrypted versions, hidden versions, and so on.

It seems that the stronger the Ancient Wilderness, the wider the range of broadcast frequencies it can receive.

After this interlude, the tactical meeting naturally continued as planned.

Although the teammates were initially quite discouraged, they quickly recovered, thinking about the upcoming exploration of the Ancient Wilderness and how the stronger their Wen Jing, the greater the chance of success.

After getting to know each other and discussing tactics, the five of them took a special maglev car from the Student Council around 6 a. m. and arrived at the registration center.

When the staff saw Wen Jing teaming up with someone else for the first time, especially someone from the Operations Department, they couldn't help but cast surprised and curious glances at him frequently.

This was the first time Wen Jing had seen the Locator Stone up close.

"Is this another example of the Mastermind's cutting-edge technology?"

The Locator Stone resembles blue crystal with a diamond-shaped cut; its standard and regular shape clearly shows signs of human intervention.

If it is a pure Ancient Wilderness item, it usually will not have a symmetrical shape, and in order to maximize the use of materials, it will not undergo any further processing.

When the time came, the figures of the five people present and the Locator Stone in the center of the platform disappeared simultaneously.

"Click..."

Wen Jing seemed to hear a faint, shattering sound.

Then, she keenly sensed that if using the Gravity Silk positioning was like pulling a rope, then using the Locator Stone this time was like having a force pushing her from behind.

If Gravity Silk is used in this process, where will it eventually land?

Of course, the thought only flashed through her mind, and she wouldn't actually do it.

The next moment, the world before Wen Jing's eyes changed, and dry, fishy air rushed towards him.