Chapter 98: Chapter 98 -Why Did the G.o.ds Speak Mandarin?
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
May 6, 20th day of the 3rd lunar month. Auspicious day for a grand opening, residence relocation, and travel. Inauspicious day for marriage, breaking ground for tombs, and burials.
Ren Suo arrived at the “Heavenly Inst.i.tution of Lianjiang” with his two luggage. He felt as if he had stepped into a fantasy world.
“The name of the school is too domineering…” Ren Suo muttered.
The Heavenly Inst.i.tution of Lianjiang was the newly-established Pract.i.tioner School of Lianjiang City. It appeared to be situated in the school district where the high school of Lianjiang University had previously been set to be located but was repurposed for the Heavenly Inst.i.tution of Lianjiang by the government.
Developing upon the foundation of the high school district, the Heavenly Inst.i.tution of Lianjiang encompa.s.sed the nearby forest and undeveloped land. The Heavenly Inst.i.tution of Lianjiang was located near the outskirts of the city, making it seem as big as a university campus due to the extremely large land area it occupied.
It was obvious that the government was not satisfied with just the six hundred students in the first round of admission. The Heavenly Inst.i.tution of Lianjiang would likely become a Pract.i.tioner Inst.i.tution that would comprise students of all education levels, such as from the junior and senior high school level to the university level.
Ren Suo entered the school compound without difficulty and managed to find the teachers’ halls of residence with the a.s.sistance of the security guard. The teachers’ halls of residence comprised three consecutive blocks of 11-story apartments and were located slightly further away from the cla.s.srooms. There was a small supermarket right beside the apartments. The apartments looked quite good and were access controlled. Ren Suo tapped his teacher’s pa.s.s that Yu Kuangtu had given him and he was allowed in.
Ren Suo stayed in apartment 402, which had two rooms and a living room, as well as a kitchen and a toilet. Any decorations had to be brought and installed by Ren Suo himself. The moment he opened the door, he saw two large carton boxes sitting silently at the entrance.
In the carton boxes were his computer and a portion of his clothes. Ren Suo looked around the apartment and was extremely satisfied—it was better than his uncle’s apartment, complete with brand new furniture. The government had spent the money to treat them well as the pioneering batch of Pract.i.tioners with extraordinary capabilities.
Ren Suo took out an electromagnetic radiation detector which he had purchased after he experienced the beneficial effects of “Enhanced Physique” and fully believed the extraordinary capabilities of the Mini Worlds Gaming Console. The electromagnetic radiation detector was used to detect any hidden audio-receiving headsets, wiretapped sim cards, pinhole cameras, GPS trackers or the like, and Ren Suo usually would perform a sweep in his house to check for the presence of such devices.
It was illegal to sell wiretapping devices, but anti-wiretapping devices were widely available.
The shop owner who sold Ren Suo the electromagnetic radiation detector had made it clear that higher-quality wiretapping and spying devices had disguise capabilities and could be hard to detect. However, if he directly scanned the areas where such devices were most likely installed, any wireless transmission device would still be exposed at a sufficiently close distance regardless of its concealment ability.
Ren Suo took a scan of his new home with the electromagnetic radiation detector. When he found that there was no presence of any such devices, it was as if a stone was lifted from his heart.
It was because it gave him a greater peace of mind that he had done so. After all, he was not a key observation target and was, at most, an emergency doctor who “had some talent but was of poor quality”. It was not worth wiretapping him—doing so would require additional manpower as well.
An important reason why he was willing to move into the Pract.i.tioner Inst.i.tution was that his safety would be the most highly a.s.sured there, as long as the government was not spying on or wiretapping him.
It was obvious that the Pract.i.tioner Inst.i.tution would definitely be a key-controlled area by the government, and any criminal would not be allowed into the area.
Subsequently, as long as Ren Suo laid low, he would be able to peacefully enjoy his time on his games.
Ren Suo took out the Mini Worlds Gaming Console carefully and looked around the living room. He opened the bottom cabinet of the television cabinet and put the game console inside.
There would not be any problems with a physical barrier between the game console and the television, since the game console connected to the television wirelessly.
It was noon by the time Ren Suo finished fiddling with everything. He looked at his phone and was intending to head outside to explore any good food options, when Yu Kuangtu called unexpectedly at that time.
“You have moved into your new apartment, haven’t you?” Yu Kuangtu asked.
“Just finished doing so,” Ren Suo said.
“The network has already been set up for you beforehand, you can access the internal forum site from there now. You would be able to submit a name list report to me before tomorrow, right?” Yu Kuangtu said.
“What report?” Ren Suo asked.
Yu Kuangtu was stunned and remained speechless for a moment. He said, “Bro, your research topic is Naisser_Ren… How could you not know by now what great move he had made an hour ago? I would have thought you already prepared a draft in your mind!”
“I was moving in for the past hour,” a nonchalant Ren Suo replied.
“Alright, the deadline is tight this time. Submit the name list by midnight today, as the other members of the Countermeasure Division are busy solving the problems caused by the monsters… Your suggestions could determine the decisions made by the Countermeasure Division. I shall not talk about other consequences, but this is more important than the ‘Encyclopedia of Monsters’, so spend more effort on it,” Yu Kuangtu said.
It looks like there was no chance of eating at a nice restaurant anymore.
After all, Ren Suo had to fulfill his duties as a paid worker. He shrugged and put down his mobile phone, and went to the small supermarket downstairs to buy a bowl of braised beef instant noodles and two fish sausage sticks, as well as his other daily necessities. After returning home, he set up his computer and cooked the noodles, then began work as he ate.
Ren Suo first opened up the GiliGili website and truly, in the list of activities of “Naisser_Ren”, there was an exception amidst a string of new episodes of “Over My Dead Body”.
“Holy Priest: Survival Battle – Part 1”.
“Eh? There’s only Part 1?” Ren Suo said to himself. He had estimated the duration of the training and thought that the Survival Battle training had already ended, and “Naisser_Ren” would release the full contents at once.
Ren Suo clicked into the video and realized that “Part 1” was 160 minutes long, longer than the total time of the first two rounds of the training.
Once the video started, Ren Suo saw the familiar figures of the Master of the Holy Light, the Heart of the Everlasting Warmth, and the Ruler of the Wind, Rain, and Snow.
“The one who emerges as a champion will be noticed by and receive the Talents of the Master of the Holy Light, the Heart of the Everlasting Warmth, and the Ruler of the Wind, Rain, and Snow.”
“And the rest who have failed will receive our care and mercy and will have your health restored as you leave the training.”
“The details of the training are already in your minds.”
“Please feel free to soar high in the training as no one will lose anything because of it.”
After the three G.o.ds spent three minutes explaining the rules of the training, the training process began.
However, the video was not just fixated on a particular training or a particular trainee. It was instead a video showing the highlights of 156 trainees!
A plump black girl traversed through the Land of Lava, with a submachine recovery gun in her hands, as if in a world of her own, shooting and turning other fat trainees into muscular men;
A plump white man and his three other teammates remained low in the wilderness of the Snowy White Land, each of them throwing a Holy Grenade at the same time, sending another team of trainees who were pa.s.sing by on their Pumpkin Carriage to the skies;
An untidy and frivolous-looking middle-aged man laid on the ground between the bushes in the Land of Light, each of his silenced shots sending a 7.62mm Holy Recovery Bullet at a poor soul more than 800 meters away;
…
The video editing was amazing with grand effects like a war blockbuster movie. It portrayed the exciting process of the trainees saving one another while preserving certain snippets where trainees failed to fully heal his opponent but were instead sent to the skies in a transformed healthy body. The viewers were made to feel that the transformation from a plump man to a fit and charming guy was so simple.
Ren Suo turned the bullet comments off halfway through the video. All of the bullet comments were about people “wanting to join the training too and lose”, asking the G.o.ds to “shoot me”, or saying, “Fatties please shoot me, I will not retaliate”.
As Ren Suo finished his instant noodles with the additional ingredients, the video also ended.
The editing by “Naisser_Ren” was simply incredible. In addition to the epic sound effects, the highlights video showed exciting moments one after another, and Ren Suo could not bear to skip any part.
Ren Suo also saw the highlights of Zhao Zili in the video, which was the character he had controlled. However, amongst the 156 trainees, she did not stand out strikingly.
Interestingly, Ren Suo noticed a number at the top right corner of the video, counting up from No. 1 to No. 156. Each time the trainee in focus changed, the number would also increase by one. For example, Zhao Zili’s segment was No. 98.
At the last minute of the video, the screen turned black, and a paragraph written in different languages appeared.
The Xuan Language version read:
“You have just watched the training snippets from the first and second rounds of training of the 156 trainees who made it into the third round of the training. To thank everyone around the world for your support towards ‘Naisser_Ren’, as well as to fulfill the callings of the G.o.ds, there would now be a guessing compet.i.tion. Comment in the comments section the trainee number whom you think will pa.s.s the third round of the training (the trainee number can be found on the top right corner of each segment). ‘Naisser_Ren’ will pick a lucky winner from those who guessed the trainee number correctly, and the lucky winner may receive a Recovery Set (contents to be confirmed, timing to be confirmed). Each person is only ent.i.tled to one vote, and the voting will close 24 hours after the upload time of this video.”
Ren Suo could barely read English and found that the contents of the English version were almost exactly the same as the Xuan Language version, about the guessing compet.i.tion.
Ren Suo had a sudden realization and uttered, “So that’s why… It’s no wonder Yu Kuangtu needs the information so urgently and wants me to submit the a.n.a.lysis report by tonight. He must have wanted to take part in the guessing compet.i.tion.”
But, the reward is so mysterious.
Thank everyone around the world for their support? Fulfill the callings of the G.o.ds? Lucky draw?
How did “Naisser_Ren” intend to send the prize? Wasn’t he only restricted to uploading edited videos on the internet?
Nonetheless, the event drew remarkable enthusiasm. On the GiliGili website alone, there were over 30 thousand pages in the comments section, which amounted to over 500 thousand comments—and that was only the amount on one site.
“Forget it, I will know what happens in 24 hours anyway,” Ren Suo said.
Ren Suo created a new tab in his internet browser and entered a strange web address.
He had remembered the web address a long time ago.
Upon entering the website, the account log in page was displayed. After typing in his details, a prompt appeared on the website instead:
[Connect a microphone and camera to your computer now. If you do not have these accessories, please connect your mobile phone to your computer with a USB cable.]
The request was strange, but it was nonetheless the internal intranet of the nation, so Ren Suo was not bothered by it and connected his mobile phone to his computer.
“Face the camera directly and recite the following within 10 seconds: ‘The boundless horizon is my love, at the foot of the continuous mountains flowers bloom’.”
Ren s...o...b..inked and thought, ‘Isn’t this a popular “brainwas.h.i.+ng” song that trended last time?’ But upon seeing the request, Ren Suo did not hesitate. He recited the lyrics of the song but naturally sung to its tune.
“Welcome, ‘Suo’. Level 1 Researcher.”
“Your nickname has been automatically set as one of the words in your name. You may change your nickname, but keep the forum clean.”
“Based on your a.s.signed research topic and level, you have been automatically added to the ‘Extraordinary Phenomena’ section.”
Ren Suo almost did not need to take any actions on the intranet, and automatically entered the corresponding discussion forum.
He knew by now that he had to connect a camera and a microphone and recite a line from the pop song likely as part of a three-factor authentication process to confirm his ident.i.ty on the intranet.
It was just that he was amazed by the technology within the intranet.
When did the web software technology of the nation develop to such a high standard? The computation power required must be immense, no?
How did it authenticate my ident.i.ty through the camera and microphone on my mobile phone?
Furthermore, it was just a part of the login process.
Ren Suo suppressed his shock and amazement and looked at the messages on the forum page. As he had expected, although it was the “Extraordinary Phenomena” section, virtually every message was discussing “Naisser_Ren”.
And amongst the most trending discussion, was–
“Why did all three G.o.ds, the Master of the Holy Light, the Heart of the Everlasting Warmth, and the Ruler of the Wind, Rain, and Snow all speak in Mandarin?”
Ren Suo muttered to himself, “… It’s because I can only understand Mandarin.”