The Strongest Brain in the Interstellar

Although they knew the simulated armor provided protection, Jiang Hui and Huan Xian exchanged a glance and immediately went to turn the person over. Looking at him again… fortunately, his eyes were still open, blinking, but he couldn’t move.

Wait, did they just deplete this guy’s simulated vest’s energy to zero?! Jiang Hui’s eyes widened in shock.

The countdown on the simulated armor jumped from 23 to 22, 21… this student was about to be teleported out.

Jiang Hui felt a bit frustrated about what they had just done; they had almost missed the best opportunity to collect resources. If they had been any later, he would have been teleported out.

Fortunately, it was not too late. Under the “unblinking” gaze of the unfortunate guy, one took charge of carrying the gun while the other grabbed the backpack, quickly stripping him of all his remaining resources, leaving nothing behind. Just as they finished collecting, the ground beneath him began to distort, and he vanished into thin air, apparently teleported away.

Since entering the competition, this was Jiang Hui’s first time obtaining resources empty-handed; previously, she had always gone head-to-head with guns drawn. Well, in truth, she had been hiding and taking down opponents one by one from her concealed position.

Now that they were at this supply point, where guns were useless, they had to rely on their bare hands. She hadn’t expected to gather resources this way, which was a pleasant surprise.

However, if they had to use this method to gather resources here, going one by one would be way too difficult. Jiang Hui pondered to herself.

“Better than nothing. Until we find the real supply resources, we can at least recover a little health this way. We can only take it one step at a time,” the boy said as he crouched down and dumped the contents of the backpack they had just acquired onto the ground. He rummaged through it for a moment, dividing the items in half, then let Jiang Hui choose.

Jiang Hui took a moment to look and found that the other person was indeed choosing casually. Anything that could be divided was split evenly, while the items that couldn’t be divided were assigned arbitrarily. Only the stored bullets, nutritional fluids, and potions were divided equally, so no one lost out.

It was quite fair.

Jiang Hui raised an eyebrow, casually picked one portion, and selected a weapon. The two of them dusted themselves off and continued wandering through the tunnel as if nothing had happened.

They almost repeated what they had done earlier; they encountered very few people—only three or four times—but it allowed the two of them to cooperate more skillfully. Jiang Hui even felt a vague illusion of defeating monsters and collecting equipment, which, well… in a way, wasn’t entirely wrong.

However, despite their journey, aside from defeating a few people to gather some resources, they still hadn’t made any progress on charging their simulated armor.

Meanwhile, Outside the Arena

Although the school had upgraded its comprehensive monitoring equipment to ensure the students’ safety by observing their movements from all angles, even the training grounds had been simulated by a master in mechanical design specializing in mechs.

However, displaying each person’s individual footage on the screen was still somewhat challenging, so the streaming images were taken from broad angles, showcasing the group as a whole.

Of course, to enhance the audience’s viewing experience, many small screens surrounded the main area, showing exciting moments of participants scoring. So, if someone performed well, the audience could see their performance from various angles.

As for the teachers and instructors, they had different privileges, having access to individual footage, allowing the class leaders to record and analyze each student’s performance in this round. This was essentially the first real assessment for the new students after enrolling, and the scores would contribute to the final evaluation for the term.

When the score of Jiang Huai, whose name still appeared at the top, suddenly increased by 0.5 points, it became quite noticeable among the otherwise static names on the leaderboard. Ah, she had gained another 0.5 points in this short time…

“Hmm. Haven’t they already reached the supply point?” someone wondered aloud.

“Yes, they went in a while ago. If they don’t enter now, they probably won’t be able to continue with the competition, and they’ll be sent out soon,” someone replied.

“But I remember the rules at the supply point are somewhat different; many people should still be… trying to figure it out. How did these few manage to score?” A dark-skinned young officer pointed at the few people whose scores had changed. The additional scores weren’t much; some had gained 0.25 points, some 0.5 points, and there were even those who jumped directly by 1 point.

In this situation, being able to score points was already quite impressive.

“Look, small screens are showing just a few of them differently; you can see it just by glancing… Hah, what a bunch of clever little kids, always coming up with new tricks.”

This was the teachers’ area, where class leaders and instructors naturally focused on their own students.

Each one hoped that all their students would make it onto the leaderboard, showing off their brilliance and excellence, making them feel as if they themselves were basking in glory.

Even those who preferred to keep a low profile and avoid trouble couldn’t help but look for the students they believed in among the participants, harboring silent hopes.

However, as time went by, this desire began to fade.

Perhaps they hadn’t realized that they were gradually broadening their focus beyond just their own students, starting to evaluate the performances of students from various majors and classes.

These energetic kids were truly moving.

Yes, moving. It was remarkable that a group of adults, who had at least been exposed to war, if not directly involved in military roles, could be touched by a group of children playing a game… But it wasn’t something entirely incomprehensible.

Because no matter how much they had experienced, how skilled they were, or how high their positions, they all shared the same goal—to protect the Empire, to protect humanity, and to safeguard this hard-earned starry world. The hearts they had when they decided to enlist were mostly the same.

From these children’s brave and determined postures, they saw a reflection of their own beginnings, which was touching.

Perhaps it could be said that this was part of their willingness to devote themselves, risking life and death.

In the crowd, Stark quietly watched the central leaderboard, then shifted his gaze to one of the small screens nearby, subtly curling the corners of his mouth.

“That little brat is quite clever; being smart will help her live longer, to keep on living well. I hope she can persist and go far… even farther.”

At that moment, Jiang Hui had no idea that her instructor was thinking about her outside.

She also didn’t know how long this unknown journey had lasted; it felt neither too short nor too long. However, wandering like this wasn’t a sustainable plan.

Ultimately, the two chose a relatively secluded spot to pause and see if they could find some useful clues.