Chapter 139 – Fading Civilization
Other than the few students concentrating to resist the radiation, the rest including w.a.n.g Zhong were curiously observing the environment of the restricted region.
It was said that the Disorderly Burial Lake Region had been a flouris.h.i.+ng resort location of Tianjing City before the great catastrophe. It even had a beautiful patio lake. But due to the invasion of dimensional energy, the place was thoroughly wasted and changed to its current status as a C Grade restricted region.
Behind the messy, chaotic shrubbery were signs of the many traces mankind had left from the old era. Broken steles, stone park chairs, and many other landmarks were covered with grown weeds. They could even see in the far distance a high-rise, twenty-story building covered completely with moss and creepers. Only faint traces of the building’s rotten walls could be seen through the few exposed patches of the plants.
From time to time there would be groups of strange mutated birds flying in and out of the building’s windows. They would emit ear-piercing chirps that echoed within this wasted land. The skies were also tinted a dark-greenish haze that increased the feeling of unpredictability the group felt by a few points.
For the adventurers, the restricted regions were like a paradise. There were vast amounts of mutated lifeforms and many mercenaries were required to keep them in check. Even the refugee camps set up spontaneous organizations of stragglers to enter and hunt the mutated lifeforms. They would then sell the corpses to the government of various smaller powers for the resources they so desperately needed.
In addition to this there were many government branches that would experiment and research these regions. An example was dimension research on the dimension energy or biological research on the mutated lifeforms.
While these kinds of places were admittedly filled with danger, it was also a place br.i.m.m.i.n.g with enormous vitality and future. Ever since the arrival of dimension energy humans have focused greatly on researching this new scientific system. But along with this, most of the precious research material for such knowledge was scattered throughout the various restricted regions of the world.
Danger was always opposite opportunity. This was a fact both for the old era and the current one…
Their off-road vehicle penetrated the restricted region until it arrived at a location four to five kilometers deep. No mutated beast sneak attacked them along the way; it was obvious that this route had already been purposefully cleared for their arrival.
After a slow advancement for another thirty to forty minutes, they appeared at a reasonably sized camping ground. Only then did the vehicle stop. The group stationed here was made up of roughly twenty people. The camp was made up of seventeen to eighteen camp tents and a solid defensive structure encircled everything. At the center of the camping ground was a large-screen skylink receiver erected to display the entirety of the restricted region.
This couldn’t be called a very advanced achievement, nor large-scale, but it was just like a sparrow. Although the sparry was small, it still had a complete set of organs. Tianjing was similar in that it lacked a large-scale permanent army and abundant military resources. Only Grace could work with this to successfully set up a positioning system that mapped the entirety of the restricted region. Even the Tianjing government couldn’t achieve such a thing.
Grace didn’t give this group of students time to rest and adapt. She sent the positioning signals of their skylinks to the the central skylink of the camp and they appeared on the gigantic screen. She gave it a conscientious check and verified that everything was properly in order.
“When you reach an effective range of fifty or so kilometers, your skylinks will automatically receive the token’s signal. Remember, every group needs to acquire a token. If not, the group is eliminated.” Grace gave them all one last warning. “If you cannot survive here, send a signal and I will immediately arrange for a help and rescue. However, don’t expect for help and reinforcement immediately. It’s best to give it at least two hours of time between the signal and your time of rescue.”
Markis helplessly shook his head as he heard her explain this to them. Captain treated these little fellows too softly. If this were the army how would there be such nonsense. If you died then you died. If you die early then you can reincarnate early. So long as you avoid implicating your groupmates, all was fine. Furthermore, to actually give them hope for rescue in this place wasn’t that good a thing.
The greatest difference between the elite division and heroic division wasn’t as simple as their soul power gra.s.so levels. Instead it was on their combat skill level and techniques, their combat awareness and combat thinking, these deep level aspects of fighting.
Tianjing Academy’s foundation was in fact quite good. It was just that their lives were too easy and comfortable. The first group training was just introducing them to a bit of pain and suffering. If one didn’t use genuine life and death training to grind off the greenhouse effect from this group of students, then they wouldn’t have any sort of fighting chance in the outside world.
“Once you’re prepared you can set off. There must not be anyone here by the time night arrives.” Grace gave them those last words before waving her hands. Any more mobilization and advice now was useless. She had long said all she needed to say.
She originally held confidence in being able to train this group amply enough so that they would be stronger before undergoing this final training. Yet, the urgent summons from the front lines meant she was unable to get out of leaving. She could only antic.i.p.ate that they could rely on themselves to cross this stage on their own.
“Captain Scarlet, I hope Black Rose can obtain a good harvest. I look forward to seeing the results.” Reeves took the initiative to greet Scarlet. “We’ll decide who is captain between ourselves.”
While acquiring the task token was the criteria for pa.s.sing, the number of mutated lifeforms one hunts and kills was the criteria for advancing. Even if the two big groups pa.s.sed the stage, it wouldn’t guarantee that everyone in the group could acquire one of the ten-person quotas.
Even if one hunted and killed the most, the concentration of resources and distribution of resources offered for the ten-person group would ultimately lead to great changes in the results of those who would advance. This test looked simple but contained many smaller tests that looked at one’s group management and leaders.h.i.+p qualities.
Reeves’ heroic spirit soared to the skies after he spoke to Scarlet. He liked this kind of challenge the most. Regardless of whether it was a compet.i.tion in intelligence or bravery or anything, Saint Judgement as the number one great society was without doubt. As for trash like Lu Zhan Tian, he was just one of Reeves’ methods for governing the society and not an established trump card. One needed people who were willing to do the dirty work for them.
Scarlet simply smiled faintly and said, “We’re still one group. The one to become captain is still unknown.”
Reeves smiled confidently and didn’t continue to deal with her. He brought along his Saint Judgement group and advanced along the starting path.
“Truly pretentious!” Emily exclaimed while curling her lips. She didn’t like Saint Judgement as they repeatedly provoked the Prodigy Society. Yet, she knew there was no value in wasting saliva on this kind of person.
It was clear on the outside that this task wasn’t fair for the Prodigy Society. Yet, there was no other way. At least in the eyes of quite a few people it would be hard for the Prodigy Society to even successfully acquire the token needed to pa.s.s the task. Between entering the core region as a five-person group and a ten-person group, it wasn’t as simple as the difficulty doubling. Then there was the number of mutated lifeforms they had to kill.
But other than Barran who was the weakest, the five-person group didn’t consider it that much of a problem and appeared to be in high spirits.
Scarlet originally wanted to travel together with the Prodigy Society, but the three groups had to leave by three different locations. This had been one of the rules.
“w.a.n.g Zhong, I hope we can smoothly complete this task!” Scarlet shouted with heartfelt emotions. She felt w.a.n.g Zhong would develop into someone great in the future and wouldn’t rest his feet here.
w.a.n.g Zhong smiled and replied, “We’ll enter the CHF together!”