Chapter 110 Chapter 110 "Unfavorable Conditions"...
Upon entering the hall, Bai Xianglei quickly spotted the team and Fang Zhou's group.
The students were clearly already familiar with all of this, while the members of the special forces team were curiously observing their surroundings, moving their hands and feet, and experiencing the differences between the simulated body and the real body.
The conclusion is that, if they were not informed in advance, they would not even realize that they were being transformed into a string of data, and would mistakenly believe that everything was real.
Isn't this the holographic game pod that modern people have been dreaming of?
Everyone was astonished.
Fu Qing stood aside and watched them warm up. After about a minute, he confirmed that everyone was ready before using his permissions to pull everyone into the same instance.
She turned off system tasks and used only the background map as the battleground.
This was quite common in the later training of the elite class. Given the intensity of their training at the time, they had already run through the dungeons in the simulation pods countless times. There was no point in repeating the same tasks, so Fu Qing reused the various environments on the map and, disregarding the system tasks, designed his own daily training content for the students.
This was a hellish difficulty dungeon, five years after the virus outbreak, and it wasn't the first time Song Rushuang and her group had come here.
But every time I enter, I still feel oppressed and painful.
Not to mention that this is right now, when the virus has just broken out and everyone is on edge.
As the scene before her changed, Song Rushuang couldn't help but take a deep breath and her expression darkened.
Bai Xianglei, Zhou Lingxi, and the others were entering for the first time. They didn't expect the map to load so quickly; in the blink of an eye, the scene before them was completely different.
They were standing on an abandoned high-rise building.
This used to be an office building, surrounded by cubicles. A quick glance told Zhou Lingxi that many young people must have worked here. Some desks were covered with figurines, and the felt boards against the wall were covered with photos. Some people kept a lot of green plants, but due to lack of care, even the flower pots below were dry and cracked, with soil scattered all over the table.
Some office chairs were casually pulled out, and cartoon-patterned air conditioning blankets were draped over the back of the chairs, as if their owners had just gone home for the weekend and would be back soon.
Those vibrant, brightly colored ornaments, worn and faded by time, have yellowed and aged, losing their original colors. It's like a long-abandoned amusement park, bizarre and disjointed.
The stench of dust filling their nostrils reminded them that everything here had been frozen in time, just before the end of the world.
Zhou Lingxi scanned the entire room intently, finally looking at the large floor-to-ceiling window that occupied an entire wall on the west side.
Perhaps affected by a storm in recent years, one side of the French windows shattered on the ground. She carefully stepped over the countless shards and stood on the edge of the window to look out.
Several teammates also curiously approached.
It's about thirty stories high here, offering a panoramic view of the outside world.
What appeared before them made them suddenly hold their breath.
Contrary to their imagined apocalypse, what they saw was merely a forgotten city.
As the timeline was dragged forward, all the chaos and bloodshed subsided, just as when a human dies and his flesh rots, the city became the bare skeleton left after the flesh and blood were stripped away.
Sooner or later, it will be eroded into dust by the wind, just like the human skeletons that fill the city, and will be completely gone with a gust of wind.
Zhou Lingxi looked up to observe the position of the sun and realized that it was still afternoon, which should have been the busiest time of day.
However, without human activity, the city is so quiet that you can almost hear the sound of plants growing.
The sunlight on my face was warm and gentle. Birds fluttered their wings across the sky, vines quietly climbed all over the roadside signs, and countless zombies wandered aimlessly through the streets. Without any targets to attack, even their "expressions" looked surprisingly peaceful.
Zhou Lingxi couldn't help but take a step back.
When she thinks about the apocalypse, she imagines scenes of corpses strewn across the fields and rivers of blood.
She never imagined she would witness such a scene.
The city that had survived the apocalypse was not the completely desolate place she had imagined; on the contrary, it was full of life.
But all of this has nothing to do with humans anymore.
Even when she stood by the window breathing, the outside air smelled fresh, without any rotten, deathly odor.
Humanity has disappeared, and soon, even the traces they left behind will be erased.
This is perhaps the instinctive fear of extinction that exists deep in the soul of every species, more despairing than any bloodshed or death.
Not to mention that they are soldiers who defend their country, and their concern for their country and its people is deeply ingrained in their bones and blood.
The roadside signs and the familiar street layout made it impossible for them not to recognize that this was China.
Zhou Lingxi couldn't help but tremble physically.
She gritted her teeth, trying to calm herself down with deep breaths, but her mind felt stagnant, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't muster any hope.
Not only Zhou Lingxi, but every team member who came to this instance for the first time felt the same way.
One of them couldn't resist and took another step closer to the window, wanting to get a better look. As he got closer, one hand instinctively grabbed the window frame, but to his surprise, the floor-to-ceiling window that his fingertips had just lightly touched detached from the frame and fell straight down!
It slammed heavily onto the ground after crossing a height of more than thirty stories, instantly shattering into pieces with a deafening "BOOM!!"
The team member was completely dumbfounded: "H-How could this be?"
He felt a sense of helplessness, as if he had made a mistake. Su Huaijin, who was standing next to him, immediately comforted him: "It's okay, that's not your fault."
Actually, just by looking at the shattered window next to it, you can tell that this French window has been flimsy for a long time. Every time they come here, it breaks eight out of ten times. Either it's because of a slight movement by someone, or it's simply because of a gust of wind that appears out of nowhere.
Over time, they got used to it and treated it as a mandatory trigger condition, similar to a boss in a game, which they couldn't avoid.
After Su Huaijin finished speaking, he hesitated for a moment: "However..."
She fell silent, but the voice that followed immediately finished her sentence.
The deafening sound of the glass hitting the ground created sound waves that spread in all directions, and almost immediately, a series of roars, like a tsunami, echoed throughout every place it passed, inside various buildings and in alleys.
That was a city that no longer belonged to humans, its screams erupting against the invaders.
*
Almost instantly, countless zombies poured out from the empty windows of buildings, the entrances of underground passages covered with plants, and all sorts of imaginable and unimaginable places in the streets and alleys.
Some of them were just ordinary zombies that moved slowly, while others were on all fours, moving quickly toward the direction from which the sound came.
Regardless of their speed, these countless zombies had already formed an encirclement. As far as the eye could see, there seemed to be no end in sight.
Even if they were only a dozen or so people with only melee weapons, the chances of them breaking through would be extremely slim, even if a fully armed army came without helicopters.
Although Zhou Lingxi couldn't immediately identify which city they were in, he could tell from the scale of the buildings that it must have been quite prosperous before the apocalypse.
A city like this could easily house millions of people. But in the apocalypse, imagine half the population dies, and the other half turns into zombies…
So how many zombies will they be facing?
Even if only a portion of them have arrived now, the commotion they've caused is so great that it won't be long before all the zombies in the city flock here.
Zhou Lingxi felt a chill run down her spine as she recalled that Song Rushuang had mentioned before the game that this dungeon was set to "hell difficulty"—and it truly was hell difficulty!
Being besieged by millions of zombies, even real hell might not be this terrifying!
The zombies had poor eyesight and couldn't see the people standing at the window on the 30th floor, but the special forces soldiers had excellent eyesight and could see them clearly.
The more I looked, the colder my heart became.
The building is over thirty stories high, and the exterior walls are all glass, leaving almost no foothold. If you take the stairs, you'll probably run into the first wave of zombies halfway up.
How do we escape?
How do I escape?!
Faced with extreme situations, they won't panic like ordinary people, but that doesn't mean they won't feel desperate because they can't think of a solution.
"Captain! We..."
Chu Hai instinctively reached for instructions, but halfway around, he suddenly stopped, his anxious words stuck in his throat.
He opened his mouth, seemingly realizing something only half a step too late.
Bai Xianglei was looking at Fu Qing, who spread her hands as if it were nothing out of the ordinary: "I warned you before, staying here for too long can easily confuse you with reality."
The more critical the situation and the less time there is to react, the faster one can immerse oneself in the situation.
Even if just a second ago they could still remember that this was just a dungeon and had the leisure to look around, when faced with such an extremely tense life-or-death moment, people would instinctively want to escape.
Like the tilted house in the amusement park, even if you know the principle behind its arrangement, standing inside will make you feel dizzy, and you will involuntarily adjust your body, or even lose your balance and fall.
The senses can deceive the brain, and the brain can in turn deceive the body; they simply cannot resist this physiological response.
If you can't get used to the feeling of being "surrounded and chased by hordes of zombies," it's hard to stay calm even if you know it's a virtual scenario.
Bai Xianglei paused for a moment: "Is this also part of your daily training?"
When the competition was initially arranged, Fu Qing said that the content of the competition would be entirely based on their daily training.
This is also why Bai Xianglei agreed.
The competition was secondary, and whether or not he had to compete with the students was completely unimportant. What he truly cared about was Fang Zhou's training content.
Therefore, he fully accepted that every game was conducted under conditions that were in the students' best interest, and did not feel that there was anything "unfair" about it.
But now, Bai Xianglei was somewhat moved, his tone filled with undisguised astonishment.
Because he couldn't believe that the current situation could actually become a "favorable condition" and a part of daily training.
If it were an ordinary person, entering this instance once would probably result in them being sent for psychological counseling.
Do Fangzhou's students usually train in places like this?
“No, only the thirteen selected elite students can withstand long periods of training in this instance. For other ordinary students, training in this instance is far less effective than training in other instances.” Fu Qing shook his head. “Moreover, even the elite students rarely come here.”
Because this instance is extremely special, there are no humans in the entire city. If a human appears and makes the slightest noise, or is even just detected by a zombie with an exceptionally keen sense of smell, it will immediately attract a siege from all the zombies in the city.
Such an environment is too extreme. When the difficulty of a dungeon is too high, the training effect will be worse than that of slightly easier high-level or even mid-level dungeons.
Because the students died too quickly.
This instance focuses more on psychological repression and fear.
Therefore, Fu Qing only occasionally brings the elite class students over for short periods, allowing them to adapt gradually. However, both the frequency and duration are controlled to avoid leaving any real trauma.
Unlike physical training, mental training is difficult to quantify in terms of its growth, but its destruction can happen in an instant.
Fu Qing has seen countless people who, after the apocalypse, finally reach a safe environment like a shelter, only to suddenly commit suicide.
I've also seen people who survived countless battles, living for months or even years, suddenly lose their minds one day and become no different from walking corpses.
Even the strongest soldiers cannot resist invisible emotions, and there are countless examples of soldiers suffering from PTSD after retirement.
So just as she would carefully avoid leaving any marks on her students, no matter how rigorous the training was, Fu Qing was equally cautious in this matter.
Bai Xianglei breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
If students really train in this kind of environment every day, that would be truly inhuman.
"so……"
So her purpose in bringing them here was merely to show them this scene?
The competition that followed...
His words were interrupted by Fu Qing: "Captain Bai, we don't have much time left."
She drew a military knife, twirled it, and calmly assumed a fighting stance: "If we're going to fight, we'd better do it as soon as possible. The first zombie will probably arrive on this floor in about fifty seconds."
Fu Qing's expression remained unchanged, but his tone was playful: "Otherwise, when the zombie horde arrives, the conditions you face will probably be much more unfavorable."
Is it much more disadvantageous?
Bai Xianglei was stunned for a moment.
Fu Qing's words implied that he was also at a disadvantage, even though the two faced the same combat conditions before the zombies arrived.
Unable to understand, he stopped thinking about it. The approaching footsteps of the zombie horde merged together, forming an endless, almost chilling rustling sound.
Bai Xianglei forced himself to ignore the voice and stopped thinking about the hidden meaning in Fu Qing's words, focusing solely on the battle in front of him.
When the first sharp clang of blades clashing rang out, Zhou Lingxi heard the sound of something shattering.
The saber was specially made, so it was obvious that the sound wasn't coming from it.
While everyone around was watching the competition intently, Zhou Lingxi suddenly realized what was happening, took a quick step to the window, and looked down.
At the very bottom of the building, the first zombie leaped high into the air, about to slide down the smooth glass facade, when suddenly it reached out its hand. Its sharp fingernails, like blades, dug deep into the glass beneath it, instantly shattering it.
Kara.
She found the source of the cracking sound.
Seeing yet another evolutionary direction of zombies, Zhou Lingxi's eyes twitched. She could almost imagine how easily those fingernails would slice through a person's throat.
Each step a zombie takes can propel it two or three meters high, leaving behind holes in its fingernails that are comparable to those pierced by bullets.
It was approaching them step by step.
If they were climbing stairs, they couldn't possibly run this fast. Zhou Lingxi finally understood what Fu Qing meant by "the first zombie will arrive in fifty seconds."
She calculated the zombie's climbing speed and was somewhat convinced of the accuracy of Fu Qing's calculations.
The battle lasted only fifty seconds.
The clanging of blades clashing was incessant, and the speed was so fast that several bright arcs of light were left in mid-air at the same time.
Bai Xianglei gritted his teeth and held on as he blocked another attack, deeply shocked.
It wasn't just because of Fu Qing's extraordinary strength that he found it difficult to withstand a head-on confrontation, but also because he realized that his hands were trembling.
It was an extremely slight, almost imperceptible tremor.
However, when the opponent is exceptionally strong and he cannot win easily, this becomes a fatal disadvantage.
First, they witnessed the apocalyptic ruins after humanity was almost wiped out, and then they were surrounded by endless hordes of zombies, constantly facing the danger of being torn apart by the zombies that swarmed them.
The immense psychological pressure he constantly bore was clearly reflected in his body before he even noticed it, and was then captured by Fu Qing.
Bai Xianglei finally realized what the disadvantages she was referring to were.
But……
He gritted his teeth, meeting Fu Qing's eyes, which were so close to his, in disbelief.
He was focused, calm, and even showed a hint of excitement at facing a rare opponent. There was absolutely no sign of him bearing any pressure.
Why does she seem completely unaffected?
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