Chapter 34

34

On the road, Lu Yan seriously considered whether he should pretend his "precognition" had failed.

After all, a one hundred percent success rate seemed a bit too terrifying.

But the traps the instructors had laid were vicious. Falling into one would be downright humiliating. So, he abandoned the idea.

System: [I thought you were a master of half-assing things. Turns out you're an overachiever at heart.]

Lu Yan wasn't actually obsessed with coming in first. He just had a genuine, deep-seated aversion to filth.

In daily life, mud on his shoe soles was his absolute limit. Anything beyond that was unacceptable.

When Lu Yan reached the destination, the timer on his watch clicked to exactly one hour.

His body temperature was far lower than a normal person's. Still, after the run, his skin flushed a boiling red. Pale as he was, the color looked good on him—like peach blossom.

A staff member stepped forward to unbuckle his weighted harness.

"What place?" Lu Yan asked.

"You're first. Everyone else is still on the course."

Many combat-type Awakened were still halfway, battling pollutants that had suddenly appeared. Support-types had it slightly better, but they weren't unscathed either.

Director Hu had already used his Cell Division talent to treat his wounds multiple times.

But even with different obstacles, this was still a thirteen-kilometer cross-country mountain run.

"You have far better stamina than the average support-type Awakened," the staff member remarked with genuine admiration. "Many combat-types at your level can't match your performance."

"Thanks. I do a lot of endurance training." Lu Yan wiped his sweat with a towel. "Can I head back first? I'd like to shower."

The staff member was about to say "yes," but then remembered the people watching the monitors—especially this term's head instructor, Tang Xun'an, notorious for his discipline. He hesitated, unsure how to answer.

That hesitation lasted half a minute. Then, a voice came from the monitor hanging in the tree.

Tang Xun'an's voice, filtered through electronics, held a slight distortion. It sounded like old ice cubes dropping into a glass of brandy.

"Granted."

*

Lu Yan went back and soaked in the bath. He then took out his cleaning supplies and scrubbed his current dorm room until it was spotless.

By the time he arrived at the classroom in the afternoon, most trainees were slumped over their desks, resting. A few sat dazed against the wall, being spoon-fed by attentive staff. A touching, considerate scene.

The big guy who'd mocked him on the mountain was there too. He sat up, a teasing glint in his eye. "Well, if it isn't the support-type from the next class over? What, quit halfway and just now dragging yourself back?"

The big guy's ID was Iron Fist. His talent was Diamond Body, a decently-ranked combat ability.

He'd completed the afternoon's orienteering in one hour and twenty minutes. Asking around, he found everyone else was at least half an hour behind him. He was confident of victory.

Lu Yan opened a yogurt, not really in the mood to talk. Even after two hours of rest, the intense training had left his entire body aching.

A few minutes later, the assistant instructor pushed the door open.

"Let's announce the rankings for this afternoon's physical assessment." Tonight's instructor was a bespectacled, scholarly-looking man, codename Viper. "First place: 503, Lu Yan."

The number prefix was both their room number and student ID.

Numerous surprised glances immediately shot toward Lu Yan.

Lu Yan kept a low profile, but with a face that stood out and a high spiritual power threshold, many had already noticed him.

After reading that one line, Viper set down the results sheet. "Alright. Aside from first place, I don't think the rest of you need an introduction. For the Academy's purposes, if you're not first, you're meaningless."

"This term's top performer is a support-type. Not that there's anything wrong with support-types. But it seems the quality of this batch's combat-types is lacking. Makes me worry about the practical exercises two months from now."

"After all, the worse you are, the harder we assistant instructors have to work. We do have a casualty quota, but if too many of you die, I'll just have to punish myself with three drinks."

Viper clearly lacked pedagogical virtue, but what he said was the truth.

A staff member watching the monitors buried his face in his hands. "This is exactly why I keep advocating for increasing the proportion of female Awakened among instructors."

Among those with pollution-induced mental issues, roughly sixty percent of male Awakened exhibited outward aggression. Female Awakened more often turned that aggression inward. The latter, at least, didn't harm others.

The Awakened selected as assistant instructors were already among the more mentally stable within the Special Operations Department.

The evening's training lasted only one hour: Extreme Temperature Endurance.

System: [It's about improving your body's tolerance to extreme weather. Some places, due to pollution, experience highs of sixty or seventy degrees Celsius and super-low temperatures of minus one hundred. This hour isn't just torture. They'll also teach you how to improve your survival rate at different temperatures.]

[The cabin temperature ranges from 55 to -35°C. Staff will monitor and control it in real-time. Overall, it's bearable.]

Lu Yan: "That doesn't sound bearable for a human at all."

The system's voice was cheerful. [Do you really still think you're human?]

Lu Yan felt an itch from the four rows of shark teeth in his mouth and couldn't resist pushing at them with his tongue.

The metal cabin for extreme temperature training resembled a sauna. Small, easy to control.

For Lu Yan, the cold was easy to endure. But when the temperature gradually climbed past fifty degrees, fish scales began to emerge uncontrollably across his skin.

He turned on the faucet and plunged his head into the sink. The gill slits near his ears opened, breathing, expelling water. Yet a desperate, bone-deep thirst remained.

The speaker crackled with the assistant instructor's voice. "When the temperature exceeds forty-five degrees Celsius, heat begins to impair human activity. Every degree beyond that is lethal to ordinary people. All organs responsible for cooling down go into overdrive. Awakened develop heat resistance. Monitor your physical condition closely. If you feel unwell, press the door release or the emergency button immediately."

The moment he finished speaking, Lu Yan decisively hit the release.

He wasn't the first trainee to open the door, but his adverse reaction was particularly severe.

Upon leaving the high-temperature environment, he leaned against the wall, wracked by painful, dry heaves.

Before the monitors, the recording researcher noted, "His pollution source is aquatic. Historical data shows Awakened of this type have exceptionally poor tolerance for high temperatures."

Bringing all new recruits to headquarters for unified training served not only for instruction but also to allow relevant staff to better understand their characteristics for future assignments.

Tang Xun'an gave a slight nod and deleted the "Dry Spear Desert" exercise field from the list of options.

……

……

True to his status as a top-scoring university entrant, Lu Yan excelled in both theoretical and practical courses.

Especially in combat training.

His chosen weapon was the bow. He had practiced with compound bows before, and after his physical enhancement, his arrows found their mark with uncanny precision, with an effective range of three hundred meters. Like a hunter who never missed, this accuracy carried over to his use of firearms.

If not for the fact that the arrows were rounded and padded, the first casualty might have occurred not during the exercises two months later, but right there in the classroom.

The other combat-type Awakened had been thoroughly ground down, their spirit broken.

"Lu Yan has that Precognition talent. Can't even sneak up on him. Damn it, he just pulls back and shoots from range. Cold weapons are so unfair!"

"Recommend kicking Lu Yan out of the support category and into combat. If I recall correctly, missions usually allocate one support-type per team. Don't let him occupy a precious support-type slot!"

During these times, Iron Fist always remained silent, quietly increasing his own training load.

He didn't understand. His physique was twice Lu Yan's, their spiritual power thresholds were similar, and he had awakened a top-tier combat talent. By all logic, he should be the top of their class. So why couldn't he beat Lu Yan?

As for Director Hu, the second-highest scorer in the national exams back in the day, his performance during training was… lackluster.

He had considered quitting countless times. But then he remembered his grandson's school district apartment in the capital and his son's household registration in the metropolis were still unresolved. So, he gritted his teeth and persevered.

The benefits of good performance were obvious. Aside from the 10-point reward at the end of each month, starting from the second week, staff delivered medicinal bath packets every evening.

[For physical enhancement. Made from a lot of stuff from pollutants. Tastes awful.]

Tossing one into the tub produced a strong herbal smell. Out of curiosity, King Fish took a lick and promptly retched.

Lu Yan rested his arm on the edge of the tub, letting it vomit to its heart's content.

Thankfully, there were no cameras in the bathrooms.

"That bad?" Lu Yan thought it smelled rather pleasant.

But he wasn't one to court trouble, nor did he plan on drinking his own bathwater. However, one day, exhausted from training, he accidentally fell asleep in the tub. Water flooded in through the gill slits behind his ears. It tasted exactly like a sewer.

The first month of training passed amidst the collective groans of the trainees.

Theory classes ended, all replaced by practical training. Everyone was too exhausted to even think about complaining.

Time flew by, and soon it was the week before the live combat exercise.

Less than two months of training wasn't long, but for someone with a friendly, enthusiastic personality like Chen Anzhi, it was enough to make many "good friends" at the school.

He seemed to possess a certain magnetism; men and women alike were drawn to him once they got close.

Lu Yan, however, had absolutely no interest in the delicate, pitiful type.

If he had to say, his tastes were rather traditional—he liked them with ample chests and slender waists.

Just as this thought crossed his mind, Instructor Tang, whose waist looked very slender indeed, walked in with his dog.

Xiao Tian spoke: "Congratulations on completing the first phase of your training. Within this month, only two trainees have voluntarily withdrawn, and none have had their points reset to zero. This brings me great satisfaction."

"While you've been relatively isolated here at the Training Center headquarters, I can inform you that over the past month, the world has recorded sixty-four new cases of Pollution Disease. Over seven thousand fatalities, with six Awakened among the dead. The 'B-Class Infectious Cannibalism' case alone claimed more than five thousand lives in the infected city."

"The second phase begins now, in preparation for the final live exercise. This time, after deliberation, we have chosen P City as the location—the same city that hosts the A-Class polluted zone, 'Luo River Botanical Gardens.' But rest assured, you will not be penetrating deep into the gardens. Headquarters has observed that the spore virus is showing signs of spreading from the gardens' periphery. We are deploying personnel for cleanup. It won't just be you; the instructors will be accompanying you."

As he spoke, staff members carried two heavy metal pods into the room.

Lu Yan was intimately familiar with such pods.

Back at the hospital, the infected officer had been brought in the same way.

A staff member addressed the class. "Let me introduce these. They are aberrants infected with the spore virus, currently in the second stage."

The mention of aberrants stirred unpleasant memories for many in the room.

To become Awakened, one must have encountered a pollution source. Many had been rescued by Special Operations Department members, which was why they joined the organization.

The pod door slid open slowly, revealing the aberrant inside.

The man's face was a mask of terror, his entire body secured within the pod. He was emaciated, in stark contrast to the vibrant red mushrooms with white spots covering his skin.

They were the kind of red mushrooms often seen in fairy tales—fly agaric, a type of amanita.

These mushrooms even sprouted from his eye sockets, their roots a deep, bluish-green fungal network beneath.

"Individuals infected with this spore virus exhibit three main characteristics. This is the most common one: becoming a growth medium for toxic fungi. However, these mushrooms are still classified as flora and can be used medicinally."

The system added, its tone flat, [Many of the Research Institute's findings come from pollutants cultivated on the bodies of aberrants.]

"These aberrants are largely non-aggressive. However, caution is required regarding the mushrooms growing on them. Some are highly toxic, others have hallucinogenic properties."

The second pod opened. What emerged first was a root-like tendril.

The appendage shot outward with alarming speed. Tang Xian'an glanced at it, drew Huang Chen from his waist, and severed it cleanly at the source.

A pained shriek echoed from the pod. Wisps of gray, decaying energy spread from the wound. In mere moments, the tendril aged, attempted to regenerate, and then withered completely.

Such was the power of time.

Visibly shaken, the staff member opened the pod door. Inside lay a ginseng-like humanoid form, completely desiccated. It had likely struggled before death, its dried tendrils twisted in the air.

"This is the second type of aberrant. We call them 'floramorphs.' They are active during the day, possess vigorous vitality, and are highly aggressive, though with low contagion."

"The Institute has developed a specialized pesticide for this condition. Your live exercise mission, accompanied by instructors, is to enter the polluted zone in small groups and spray the pesticide." Xiao Tian raised a paw at this point, speaking solemnly. "That is the sole objective. There is no competition, nor is any required of you. Should an uncontrollable danger arise within the zone, we will notify you to evacuate immediately."

"Even so, I must state clearly that almost every year, trainees lose their lives in this final stage. This applies not only to this exercise but to every mission you undertake in the future. The possibility of sacrifice is always present."

The classroom fell utterly silent, the atmosphere heavy.

The moment Xiao Tian finished speaking, the head instructor, who had barely spoken throughout the entire training period, suddenly said, "I have lived this life for eighty-four years."

Only now did some trainees realize, with a start, that Tang Xian'an was not mute.

Tang Xian'an looked at the new recruits below him and said with genuine feeling, "I have no regrets. But I understand many cannot accept this. It is not too late to withdraw now."

Director Hu felt the urge to raise his hand, but a glance around showed not a single person backing down. With a pained expression, he used his left hand to firmly grip his right.

He was nearly fifty. He'd arrived with a beer belly. After over a month of training, taking off his shirt now revealed solid muscle. Anyone would praise him for being hale and hearty in his advanced years.

A faint, elusive smile still played on Chen Anzhi's lips. These two months of training had been fruitful for him as well. In his dreams recently, the Great God had even patted his head in encouragement.

Iron Fist clenched his hand into a fist, his gaze resolute. Even though the mission had no competitive requirement, he vowed to become the sanitation worker who sprayed the most pesticide.

Lu Yan had saved twenty-nine points. One more point, and he could buy that silver bow. Withdrawal was naturally out of the question.

For the trainees, their task was simply to eliminate the pollution at the periphery, preventing the pollution source from spreading.

For Tang Xian'an, however, his mission was to penetrate deep into the botanical gardens and thoroughly cleanse several A-Class pollutants within.

The flora and fauna mutations in P City were growing more severe. Without cleanup, millions in the surrounding area could be at risk.

No one withdrew. Having trained this far, quitting meant their points would be reset to zero. It simply didn't seem worth it.

The system clicked its tongue. [He says that, but maybe he should put the knife away first.]