Monthly Exam Day
"By the way, where are Noi and the others?" Several familiar faces who had been around her every day for the past few days were suddenly absent today, and Yuqing found it a little strange, especially the absence of Noi's Spirit Entity, the little golden retriever named Duoduo.
"Today is the military district's monthly exam day. They've all gone to take their assessments." Shang Yu seemed to recall something, and a trace of sympathy appeared between his brows.
"Monthly exam?" Yuqing tilted her head curiously.
"Physical fitness tests, mech operation assessments, that sort of thing. Not everyone has to take them. Every month, the military district randomly selects a thousand soldiers for assessment. They can choose their own opponents or have the system assign them at random." They were called assessments, but in practice, they also gave those hot-tempered sentinels a chance to spar freely. After all, fighting at other times counted as brawling and carried severe penalties.
"They were all picked?" Although Yuqing still hadn't learned everyone's names, she remembered that there seemed to be quite a few people in the Third Special Service Group. Surely the odds of all of them being picked weren't that high?
"They weren't picked... but they were all chosen as opponents."
The sentinels picked this time had all chosen members of their third group as opponents, and they were taking turns fighting them. By now, Shang Yu and the others had probably used up most of their strength and were getting beaten up in the ring.
Yuqing: ...
Why did it feel like the third group wasn't very popular in the military district?
Yuqing was a little curious and a little worried. If she had known today was the Ninth Military District's "monthly exam" day, she would have gotten up early to watch the excitement no matter what. Back at the base, the base's ability user academy had held similar assessment matches, but because there were so few ability users, basically everyone had to participate.
"Don't worry, Miss Guide," Ers said evenly. "They'll suffer a few flesh wounds at most. That's nothing to sentinels."
It didn't take much thought to know that the other teams were jealous that they had been able to care for the guide up close lately and were deliberately using the monthly exam as an excuse to vent their grievances. They wouldn't try to kill them, but a thorough beating was unavoidable.
[Ding-dong~ Ground floor.]
The elevator car came to a gentle stop, and the matte metal doors slowly slid open to either side.
Yuqing glanced down at the smart device on her wrist.
Ten o'clock sharp.
There was still half an hour before her usual work began, so she had plenty of time.
She looked up at Ers and asked softly, a little tentatively, "Can I go take a look at the ring?"
"I won't get close. I'll just peek from the outside..."
"Of course." The corners of Ers's lips lifted slightly. He was certain she wanted to go because she was concerned about the people in the third group. "You're the military district's resident guide. You have high-level clearance, so you can go anywhere."
"The sunken arena is just to the right. We can take the path across and be there in five minutes." Ers stepped aside to lead the way, taking her down an inconspicuous side path.
The path wasn't long. At the end stood a raised viewing platform.
From there, they could look down over the entire sunken arena without anything obstructing their view.
"The design of this arena is so interesting," Yuqing murmured.
The entire arena was sunken, its cold, hard metal giving it a distinctly high-tech feel. At its center stood a ring cast from a single piece of high-strength alloy, its surface gleaming with a cold, matte silver light.
Tiered spectator stands encircled the ring, rising level by level with the terrain. Several enormous LCD screens hung above the stands, broadcasting the action in the ring live.
A pale blue energy shield, flecked with tiny particles of light, stood between the ring and the stands. Several silver-gray surveillance spheres floated around the ring, circling it at a steady speed and capturing the battle from every angle, then transmitting it to the large screens in real time.
"Sentinels are too destructive. High-ranking sentinels in particular have high contamination levels and can't hold back once they start fighting." Ers pointed to the massive metal structures embedded in the ground at the edge of the ring as he explained, "The sunken design allows the shield to be firmly anchored in the rock, maximizing its protective effect. If things escalate, only the underground arena will be destroyed, without affecting the buildings or people above ground."
He pointed again to some thick metal pillars buried beside the ring. "These are the shield's stabilizers."
"The dedicated arena for mech battles is in a safe zone outside the military district. It's sunk more than three times as deep as this one. Otherwise, a full-power strike from a mech could flatten the surrounding area in an instant..."
Seeing that Yuqing was genuinely interested, Ers explained in even greater detail, while Yuqing listened more intently. As he spoke, she was already piecing together a rough design for the arena in her mind. Many of its design principles were perfectly applicable to the base's shield. If they borrowed those principles, their base could effortlessly hold off a level-three zombie horde!
Yuqing was so excited that she didn't notice that a small silver-gray surveillance sphere floating above the ring had drifted over to her at some point...
The surveillance sphere's feed was transmitted live to a window on its corresponding floating screen. At first, not many people noticed, but... that was a guide.
In the stands, the sentinel who first spotted a young woman in the screen's split view rubbed his eyes in disbelief. He thought he had gotten so excited that he was hallucinating. Only when his vision cleared again did he tug dazedly at the sleeve of the comrade beside him. "Old Lu, look, isn't that the guide?"
"The fight's just getting good. Why are you pulling me... The guide?!" The sentinel being tugged on tried impatiently to pull his arm free, but he still instinctively looked where his teammate was pointing. At the sight, his voice turned shrill with excitement for the second half of his sentence. At the word "guide," the surrounding sentinels all turned to look in that direction.
"Whoa, that's the new guide, right?"
"It has to be. She's wearing our Ninth Military District uniform, and Admiral Ers is standing behind her. Who else could it be?!"
"Good heavens, she's beautiful! She looks so gentle!"
"The military opened the appointment window yesterday, but there were only five slots. I'd barely gotten through before they were all taken. Damn it!"
"All right, keep your voices down. Don't scare the guide away!"
Soon, the restless stands gradually fell strangely quiet. More and more people's gazes slowly shifted from the ring to the corner of the raised platform...
The atmosphere in the arena grew a little strange. Even the sentinel fighting in the ring noticed something was off. His movements instinctively faltered for an instant, and Noi immediately seized the opening to counterattack!
Noi had been the one who showed off the most. Back in the Dark Forest, he had already started boasting about his close contact with the guide. Now he was also the one getting beaten the worst.
This was his tenth match since eight thirty that morning. Although he had won the first few impressively, his strength had drained rapidly. His handsome, fair face was already covered in bruises, and his combat uniform had been slashed open in several places.
Beside him, Duoduo was even more tense, his tail stiff and his body leaning slightly forward, poised to attack at any moment.
He bared his teeth, a vicious growl rumbling in his throat. His beautiful light golden fur was soaked and matted with blood. He looked nothing like the cute, obedient dog he had been in front of Yuqing before; he was an evil big golden retriever through and through.