Shen Dan, as the top recruit of the Alliance, was not the least bit afraid of the written test. Her hand moved so fast that it caught everyone completely off guard. But now, standing still in place, she could feel cold sweat beginning to trickle down.
Chen Huayue looked at her speechlessly and said, “The next time you pull a stunt like that, could you at least give us a heads-up first?”
Shen Dan replied innocently, “Why? If even we can’t answer the questions, who can?”
“What if something goes wrong?” Chen Huayue said. “We’re an elite squad. One explosion, and the entire hope of UFU goes up in smoke!”
Shen Dan waved her hand magnanimously and declared, “If even I can’t do it, then the rest of you should just make a run for it.”
But no sooner had she said that than she reconsidered and realized that wouldn’t work.
This exercise had been tailor-made for her rise to greatness. The examiners, as twisted as they were, were as rare as the hair on a dean’s head. A moment in the spotlight like this – one made just for her – might never come again.
If she ended up as a glorious casualty, reduced to cannon fodder before she’d even had a chance to shine, what a terrible loss that would be.
Realizing the weight of her role as the protagonist, Shen Dan reflected on her actions and solemnly apologized. “No, you’re right. I won’t do that again.”
Chen Huayue: “??” Are all you girls this hard to read?
Soon, a squad from UMU arrived. Seeing Cheng Feng and the others standing around a large supply crate without making a move, they circled the crate and asked, “Why haven’t you started? How difficult are the questions?”
“Go over and take a look for yourselves,” Chen Huayue said, holding his rifle with its muzzle tilted diagonally. “No idea about the difficulty yet, but the reward is generous enough to be worth a shot.”
The UMU student immediately objected, “Why should our people go first? Is it our job to clear mines for you?”
Chen Huayue shot him a cold glance, the corner of his eye slightly downturned behind his glasses, his usual easygoing demeanor gone. “What’s all the fuss about? There are ten questions – no one said you have to take them all. Each side sends one student to open a question and gauge the difficulty. Our people haven’t arrived yet, so if you have someone suitable, go ahead. We’re all on the same side now. Do we really need to be suspicious and scheme against each other?”
Another senior student chimed in, “Let’s not waste time on bickering. Call your commander out. Tell them that Cheng Feng, Chen Huayue, and the rest are here. As long as the questions are normal, there won’t be any major danger.”
Cheng Feng hesitated as if wanting to say something, but ultimately remained silent. She had a nagging feeling that a supply crate dropping at this moment might not necessarily be a good thing.
The young man walked around to the back of the crate, had a brief discussion with the allied forces commander, and finally put forward a candidate.
The moment his name was called, the young man’s face darkened rapidly. His brows drooped, and he let out a soft sigh as he stepped forward. After all, being assigned this kind of task already showed that they didn’t recognize his abilities.
Cheng Feng and the others stepped back to a distance of about three meters, found a spot for cover, and peered out from behind a large rock.
The young man chose to begin the question-answering. At the same time, a block of black problem text appeared in everyone’s field of vision, hovering in midair.
The content of this test was clearly much more complex – it could be said to be on an entirely different level from the difficulty of ordinary supply crates. This was evident just from the sheer volume of interference data – the additional models and plain text descriptions alone already took up two-thirds of everyone’s visible screen.
A miniature, rotating model of an irregularly shaped building appeared. The system highlighted a small area in the middle-lower section with a blue box, requiring the student to complete the code combination for the blank.
The time was only fifteen seconds, and there were six options.
Cheng Feng’s thinking speed was already quick and sharp. She had just finished looking at the model and was moving on to the options, about to call out “A” as the answer, but unfortunately, she was still a step too late.
The red number in the corner ticked down to zero. The explosion sounded at the same moment as her shout, sweeping a wave of heat across the scene. The blast pushed back the surrounding vegetation, stirring up a turbid ring of dust and wind.
Even though it was just an illusion, Cheng Feng still closed her eyes instinctively.
When the wind and dust settled, the young man who had stepped up first to answer the question had already been ejected from the examination site, while the large supply crate remained firmly in place, completely unchanged.
Cheng Feng’s eyes darkened, and her lips tightened into a thin line.
Hearing the explosion, the UMU commander demanded over the public channel, his voice harsh, “He couldn’t solve it? Where’s UFU’s commander? Aren’t Shen Dan and Chen Huayue both there?”
“The difficulty is very hardcore,” Chen Huayue said in a low voice. “We weren’t prepared for it. We were just a split second short.”
The UMU commander wasn’t on site and couldn’t assess the actual situation. Though displeased, he swallowed his frustration and asked, “So what now? You need to give me some kind of follow-up plan.”
Cheng Feng walked straight to the front and activated the question-answering mode again.
Fortunately, the question hadn’t changed. Cheng Feng directly selected A and passed smoothly.
Chen Huayue wanted to stop her but couldn’t. Half exasperated and half amused, he said, “Are all you freshman girls this reckless? What if the question had been different? Would the commander just sacrifice herself first?”
Even though the position of commander was largely nominal, it had still been unanimously agreed upon by everyone. If something happened to her for no good reason, it would throw off everyone’s rhythm.
Cheng Feng replied calmly, “If the questions were going to change, I don’t think either the Red or the White team would choose to keep trying to crack this airdrop package. Because the supplies from thirty supply crates just wouldn’t be worth the number of soldiers sacrificed.”
Chen Huayue had to admit she was right. But the conclusion that followed from that was even more frightening than the hypothetical.
Clearly, this airdrop package didn’t exist primarily for the purpose of assessment.
Even with Tao Rui, Cheng Feng was sure he couldn’t have absolute confidence in getting the answers right. Or rather, even he probably couldn’t maintain a 50% accuracy rate, let alone ordinary students.
Under such severe time constraints, the moment a test-taker made even the smallest slip in their thought process, an explosion would occur. These extreme conditions were utterly meaningless for testing a team’s actual capabilities.
So this was actually a much simpler choice.
Pick ten students and use them as human minesweepers.
For test-takers like Cheng Feng and Tao Rui, when faced with questions that played to their strengths, they might indeed be able to solve them through skill. Even if they couldn’t, the student who opened the question still had a one-in-six chance of guessing the correct option.
With good luck, maybe it would only take one or two casualties to unlock the airdrop package.
Even for the unluckiest of squads, the total number of casualties wouldn’t exceed ten.
Cheng Feng didn’t have much faith in her own luck, but a rough estimate suggested that five casualties would be about average.
By sacrificing five people, aside from gaining a significant boost in points, they would also acquire thirty pieces of random advanced thermal weaponry.
In addition, the food and water would be enough to keep more than half of the students in the team in optimal condition – well-fed and well-hydrated – for the remainder of the competition.
From any angle you looked at it, this was an extremely worthwhile deal.
And yet, Cheng Feng still found it unsettling. It was as if the base was guiding the students toward sacrifice. This also included a brutal internal selection process.
The crowd gradually gathered. Dozens of people milled around the airdrop package, standing in scattered positions. The scene grew increasingly noisy and animated with the rising clamor, yet no one stepped forward willing to take responsibility for solving the questions.
The battle situation was urgent. The faction that unlocked the supply crate first would clearly gain absolute initiative. The enemy wouldn’t grant them any time for hesitation. Behind every single step of their rhythm, countless gun muzzles were already pressing forward, urging them on.
Seeing that the few students from UFU who had any say in the matter were still standing blankly on the sidelines, the UMU commander began pacing about anxiously. He was secretly frustrated – how could the other side have picked such a rookie to lead their team? Faced with such a critical situation, she still hadn’t stepped up to organize anything.
The young man stood firm, leaning sideways against the supply crate, and said urgently, “Just open it. I think this trade-off is perfectly reasonable. We’ve already lost ten people – we don’t have any room to choose.”
Cheng Feng pondered for a long moment, then said something startling: “No. Precisely because we’ve already lost ten people, I don’t think we should open this supply crate.”
The UMU commander unconsciously raised his voice, a bit shrill as he asked, “Why?!”
He glanced at the time and added forcefully, “We have to make a decision within five minutes. Even if the two sides can’t reach an agreement, we still have to open it! Chen Huayue!”
Chen Huayue was holding his rifle with one hand. At those words, he looked up and swept his gaze around, but made no promises. He leaned slightly closer to Cheng Feng, tilted his chin upward as a gesture, and said, “Your reasoning.”
“I think the rules might not be that simple. This isn’t a pit-filling game where you just invest a fixed number of sacrifices and complete the objective. Does that really make sense?” Cheng Feng laid out her reasoning clearly. “We’ve only tested one question. What we currently know is: the questions are difficult but solvable, there are six options, and the questions don’t change. But what if the difficulty ramps up later? Or what if, by the last question, the question bank starts changing again? What do we do then?”
The UMU commander found this somewhat amusing for some reason. He shook his head and said, “Your reasoning has no basis. If we think like that, we’d have to be suspicious of everything throughout this entire exercise.”
Cheng Feng walked toward him step by step. Her tone was flat, but her expression was serious. “In every war, there are enticing gains. This exercise is no different. What I’m trying to say is this: once you start a ten-question trial and you’ve already made an investment, it becomes very hard to find the resolve to back out – because sacrifices are irreversible. But no one knows the rules that lie ahead. All we have are our predictions. Is reality really that ideal?”
Her words shook everyone present. They exchanged uncertain glances with one another.
Even the UMU commander began to waver. His fingertips lightly rubbed against the smooth surface of his gun stock as he considered the possible developments.
Cheng Feng placed one hand on the supply crate, looked up at the virtual text floating above it, and continued her analysis. “Under normal circumstances, based on the base’s scoring standards, for thirty units of supplies, a loss of more than fifteen people would be considered normal.”
“Both teams have only 150 people in total. A ten-person gap is already quite significant. Even if everything develops in the most optimistic way possible – if we open this crate now – our casualties might not necessarily be lower than the white faction’s. If luck isn’t on our side, we’ll only widen the gap between the two sides again. We take on tremendous risk, and in the end, we don’t find a turning point in the battle. So what’s the point? If we follow the rhythm the instructors have set for us, we’re just depleting ourselves. How is that any different from suicide?”
The UMU commander had to admit he was convinced.
There was still less than five minutes left. He looked down at the girl, who was half a head shorter than him, and asked, “Then what do you suggest we do?”
Cheng Feng said, “Instead of gambling on the difficulty of this airdrop package and betting on the instructors’ mercy, why not take this opportunity to go and snipe members of the White team instead? That would effectively narrow the gap in manpower between the two sides. That’s what I call taking the initiative. Don’t you think?”
Everything she said came out as questions, but in reality, she left no room for anyone to respond.
The UMU commander didn’t pick up on any sense of respect in Cheng Feng’s words. Instead, from her expressionless face, he read a distinct undertone of veiled sarcasm. It was deeply unpleasant.
