Meng Tian’s performance was not bad, and she had quickly adapted to the situation; it was clear that she had some training in this area. For the people from the Moon… those brats were extremely at ease and stayed upright… it was as though there was no difference in gravity to them!
The people from the Republic of Caragal and the Hades Republic also performed decently. These people from space cities were extremely familiar with weightlessness, so this was not difficult for them.
Zhang Shan covered his mouth. F**k this. He actually felt like vomiting after entering zero gravity.
Everyone was looking at him. Even those who had no common sense also knew that puking in zero gravity was extremely disgusting.
Zhang Shan tried to resist, he had to resist! He could not humiliate himself. It was said that when one was dizzy, they ought to focus their attention on something. He tried to focus on something… that’s right… beautiful girls! Beautiful girls! Beautiful girls! Nude girls! Nude girls! At this point, Zhang Runan’s image appeared in his mind. In a flash, Zhang Shan was finally at peace.
F**k! The supermanly sister was truly quite tyrannical and fearsome!
After approximately 10 minutes, everyone had gotten used to the zero gravity.
The three generals were also observing the participants’ performances. During previous IG trainings, they had no time nor interest in observing. However, this time it was different because other than the five captains, there were just too many other outstanding students. In the past, in order to ensure that more people would pass, they had to reduce the difficulty of training. However, this time, despite training being even tougher, the number of people that passed was even greater!
The three of them could see signs of the Solar System recovering from a state of decline.
“Those from the space cities will have an advantage in the third phase of training,” Lie Wuqing said as he shook his head. Lie Xin was still performing well, but the rest of the Martians were a bit slower.
“You can’t put it that way. This training is about giving them confidence in space.” Drachmach smiled. All those who had been pilots knew that as a pilot in space, it was easy to lose one’s sense of direction. This was considered just the smallest of things. In space, there wasn’t even the sense of up and down. If one was alert, that would be fine, but in the midst of battle, many soldiers would definitely become lost.
Hence, being able to identify their position in space and to gain that confidence was a basic skill.
“Su Yan, you can begin,” Meng Ao said. He was most concerned for Wang Zheng at the moment. He was extremely interested in this young man. It was clear that it was his first time in a zero gravity environment. However, what his eyes saw was that he was neither flustered nor helpless. Instead, he saw a sparkle of excitement in his eyes; it was as though war was a game to him.
This sort of person was either a genius or a madman.
“Yes, General,” Su Yan replied. “All participants take note, we are about to begin the rotation of the sphere.”
After he spoke, the only exit closed. The entire sphere began to rotate and everyone focused their eyes on the position of the exit. However, as the sphere rotated, the entire sky was filled with stars, which caused everyone to see stars instead.
The rotation was not fast, but when it finally stopped, everything had disappeared.
Edison immediately pushed against the center column and was the first one to rush out. He had memorized the position of the exit.
However, very quickly, Edison’s entire body slammed against the wall.
Failure!
“What is going on? The exit was clearly over here,” Edison said bitterly.
Bang!
An electric current coursed through the wall and Edison’s entire body was paralyzed for a moment. At this point, Su Yan’s voice was heard. “Don’t randomly guess where the exit is. Mistakes will be punished. Edison, minus 1 point.”
“This brat really is a fool. The circumstances have clearly changed, and his actions were pointless!”
It was clear that everyone became more cautious. Under thousands of staring eyes, making a mistake was minor, but embarrassing oneself in front of others was not.
Wang Zheng gave a small smile. He had been ready to launch himself forward, but he saw that Zhang Shan had already flown forward. Wang Zheng paused for a moment.
When everyone saw that it was Zhang Shan, they laughed. Earth’s “Relentless Mountain Maiden”.[1] This was his nickname given by the rest. He fought repeatedly but was defeated repeatedly, and even despite being defeated repeatedly, he continued to fight repeatedly! This was a strange group of Earthlings. Wang Zheng seemed quite reserved, but he had already performed two miracles. He had tied with Achilles for first place and had not been lapped during the training. Meng Tian was beautiful and capable. Zhang Runan looked like a real man; even Zhang Shan was like a maiden compared to her.
Zhang Shan did not hold back. He rushed in the direction of his choice with all his effort. If he made a mistake, the force of the collision would definitely almost knock him out. In addition to the electric shock, he would definitely take a serious blow.
Everyone’s mouths widened into large smiles. Just as they were expecting a human pancake to appear, Zhang Shan knocked open the exit…
Everyone was shocked. Su Yan also couldn’t believe his eyes.
Zhang Shan had created a new record for the quickest to exit!
Standing in the area where gravity was restored, he gently dusted his uniform. “Such a simple game. Does this even count as training?”
F**k… what a b**tard!
That’s right. This mountain grandpa liked to act cool. On the surface he seemed calm and composed, but deep down, he felt extremely redeemed. He had finally given those guys a taste of their own medicine. Too easy!
The three generals couldn’t help but smile. “Looks like we forgot something. Zhang Shan is from the Physics Department and his father is a famous physicist from Earth. Spatial awareness comes very naturally to him.”
The feeling of being first was absolutely refreshing. He could now leisurely watch the others while scratching his head.
Just because he looked large and muscular, it did not mean he was a fool. This brother was actually a traveler of the path of wisdom.
In battle, there was not much need for physics concepts. However, Zhang Shan had been looking at spatial models since he was young, and they were significantly more complex than this. Orientation and positioning was now ingrained in his very bones.
“Replay the scene slightly. Alright. Good. Stop.”
The screen froze. Drachmach’s eyes lit up. On the screen, just before Zhang Shan had moved, Wang Zheng had already started moving in the direction of the exit. From his position, it seemed as though he had chosen the same location Zhang Shan had gone to. However, when he saw that Zhang Shan had moved, he had stopped.
Drachmach did not miss that subtle action.
“This brat is truly heaven-defying!” Lie Wuqing couldn’t help but exclaim. To be frank, he was very conflicted. He was significantly conflicted. To see such an excellent seedling not possess Ability X, and as his gene score was just too low, his chance of awakening an ability was just too low. Even if Wang Zheng had a gene score of 60, they would definitely spare no resource in helping him awaken his abilities. His mind told him to let Wang Zheng go, but his heart told him otherwise. With his performance, Wang Zheng kept the generals at the edge of their seats.
Even Drachmach, who sought perfection, couldn’t let him go. Otherwise, he would never have noticed such a small thing.
“Perhaps it was chance. Continue,” Meng Ao said.
The zero gravity sphere started to rotate. After experiencing it once, everyone opened their eyes wide. It was as though their eyeballs would fly out of their sockets and stick to the exit. Yet once the rotation stopped, everyone was disoriented again.
In just a flash, Wang Zheng flew out.
There was no difficulty in this.
The door opened.
When he entered, Zhang Shan was already waiting for him and the two of them shared a high five. “Mighty 007!”
This was truly relaxing.
At this moment, everyone knew that it was not luck. In addition, he had made his decision so quickly. It only proved that such a degree of disorientation in space held no meaning to them.
Actually, it wasn’t that easy! It was just that these individuals were people who could very well win the Milky Way Alliance’s University Science Awards!
After several rotations, people would gradually become disorientated. Before long, people started to puke. It was fortunate that everyone had brought bags to puke into; if not, the entire place would resemble a garbage dump.
This task was significantly more difficult than the second phase. The second phase could be completed with sheer grit. However, for this phase, if one could find the exit, that would be great. If not? Well… one would have to pray to the gods.
Achilles, Lear, Raston, Taros, and Lie Xin were able to find the exit within 10 minutes before leaving in that order.
It was clear that the “ordinary people” would require quite a bit more time before they could find the exit. Without the orientation from the ground, it required one to first adapt their body to the zero gravity before they were able to get a feel for finding the exit.
There were also a few individuals who were punished. For example, their old friend Carl. He vomited from the start to the end and had been electrocuted over 20 times, but he was unable to find the exit.
Meng Tian and Zhang Runan were able to find the exit within 30 minutes and were considered average.
Student Zhang Shan was motionless with an imposing aura. One by one, those who came out finally realized that the Mountain Maiden had been acting cool, but they could say nothing about it. It was clear that in the third phase of training, he had performed excellently.
The slowest individuals actually vomited till they fainted, and some did not even get out of the sphere. There were nine of them.
The winds had changed and they finally blew in favor of the Mountain Maiden.
During the third phase of training, physical fitness was not important; what was important was the mind.
Wang Zheng, Zhang Shan, Achilles, and Lear were invincible in this aspect.
Achilles and Lear were the first ones to adapt to the situation. They were behind Wang Zheng and Zhang Shan, but not by much.
Some people were born with the ability to adapt effortlessly, with the ability to perceive multidimensional structures clearly.
Many of the participants also took quite a bit of time before being able to move in their desired direction accurately. Usually, it was easy to move in their chosen direction in space. However, in this situation, they realized that they were unable to. Furthermore, in zero gravity, performing difficult turns could easily spell disaster if they could not control their bodies well enough.
Many participants wanted to show off their abilities in zero gravity by coming up with a string of poses. However, when the training began, they couldn’t control themselves and ended up vomiting all over the place.
In the midst of all this, the third phase had finally been completed. The one with the best results was Zhang Shan, so naturally he felt very proud.
Actually, Zhang Shan knew that Wang Zheng had let him go first. Zhang Shan really needed the extra points. Being first would allow him to stay on the IG team, so this was incomparably important to him.
Back in space, the Mountain Maiden was extremely proud and he felt invincible.
The three phases of training had ended, and the IG selection would temporarily pause. Originally, the decision of who would pass would have been made immediately, but this time it was different. There had been changes to the schedule as there were 60 participants left. They would return to the college and await the second selection competition.
When faced with such an excellent number of reserves, Meng Ao and the generals had to be careful. They had to pick the best of the best.
Regardless, after this selection, everyone had made new friends… and new enemies.
To the people of Earth, the students of Ares College were incomparably proud. Zeus College only had two students left and Apollo College had been completely eliminated. Ares College’s most glorious point was that all four had participated and all four had been chosen. Additionally, Meng Tian had gotten the top score for phase 1, Wang Zheng had the top score for phase 2, and Zhang Shan held the top score for phase 3.
Ares College had not felt so proud in ages. The four of them realized that when they returned, the entire college would be there to welcome them back.
In truth, Wang Zheng and the rest were shocked. They had only left for a month; who would have expected that they would have received such a warm welcome.
“Wang Zheng, you’re awesome!”
“Zhang Shan, I love you! Give me your babies!”
After hearing all of this and indulging in cheers, Zhang Shan straightened his head and looked forward.
The one who received the warmest welcome was naturally Meng Tian. She was a female goddess.
Within the cheers, only Zhang Runan was silent. The upcoming IG selection would not be so relaxed.
[1] Zhang Shan’s “Shan” means Mountain in Chinese. Hence the nickname Mountain Maiden is a pun and an insult simultaneously.