The Strongest Brain in the Interstellar

Seeing the team leader suddenly appear in front of her, Jiang Hui finally let out a sigh of relief.

She wasn’t exactly familiar with the stars; this place looked eerie even while it was still light out, with shadows in the corners that seemed frightening. It was easy to imagine how terrifying it would be once night fell. She certainly couldn’t just wait here for the school staff to come find her.

Just as she was at a loss about what to do, the instructor had found her.

“?” Jiang Hui let out a foolish sound, resembling a silly goose, unable to control her reaction.

Then she quickly realized he was likely advising her to give up.

“Since you know your limits, you should stop while you’re ahead; otherwise, you’ll harm both yourself and others. Continuing like this will only hold others back,” Mace said to the girl.

This was almost an explicit accusation that she was dragging them down, and Jiang Hui, who generally had thick skin, felt a slight flush on her cheeks.

“Just wait here. The pack has a temporary tent; you can stay inside for safety. I’ve already notified the observation center, and someone should come to get you soon. You don’t need to stay with the group any longer.”

…What else could she say at this point?

Jiang Hui wasn’t the kind of person with strong willpower, but she was used to seeing things through to the end. No matter how difficult the path she chose was, she had to keep going. So, she had stubbornly followed along all this way because she didn’t want to be the one who succumbed to comfort.

But now, someone was pointing a finger at her, saying that she was a hindrance, completely unnecessary, and any anger she had was almost all gone.

Fortunately, the instructor wasn’t really that heartless. He seemed concerned that Jiang Hui wouldn’t know how to use the temporary tent, so he guided her on how to set it up before turning his back and leaving her behind.

Jiang Hui watched his departing figure for a while before finally turning around and entering the temporary tent as night fully descended.

So… was this how her training exercise was going to end, with such a lackluster conclusion? Now she just had to lie down and wait for someone to come get her?

The so-called temporary tent was actually of good quality. It seemed to use space-saving technology; it felt quite spacious for one person inside. From the inside, it resembled a metal structure; it felt light when lifted but had a sharp texture, providing a sense of safety while lying down.

Maybe she should just lie here and wait…

No! What if she fell asleep in this remote wilderness and couldn’t wake up?

Of course, Jiang Hui couldn’t actually sleep so soundly. Even being in this enclosed tent made her feel an ongoing sense of terror, as if she were a little sheep in the hunting grounds of a fierce beast.

The unseen darkness felt even more terrifying.

Jiang Hui regretted a bit; she shouldn’t have listened to the instructor’s scare tactics. She should have stubbornly kept up instead. She wasn’t particularly proud of her collective sense of honor, but she valued her own life more than anyone else. What would she do if something happened while she was alone here?

So—

When would the school personnel come to pick her up?

—————————————

“This cohort isn’t bad; they’ve nearly all reached the final checkpoint,” someone in the observation center noted after taking a look around.

“Has anyone arrived yet?”

“…Not yet. They’ve all reached the last checkpoint, so they’ll probably have to wait for a while. I wonder which team will break through first.” The speaker was dressed in a uniform similar to the instructors, but the insignia on the chest was slightly different from that of the first-year instructor.

“That means the last checkpoint must be the most crucial one. Instructor Vick, could you share some details? I heard that this part was designed by your second-year team, and last year’s ambush was really spectacular, giving those little ones a good lesson.”

“Ah, Ares, you’re right. I just hope this group of guys pays attention and doesn’t act recklessly. Last time, those little brats didn’t consider the consequences and almost injured a new student’s eye. Otherwise, whether the school could continue operations today would have been questionable.” The second-year instructor shook his head and laughed.

So this last checkpoint is also an ambush simulation? Others had already picked up on the implied meaning and guessed what the final test of the training would be.

In some areas, the exercises had basically already begun. As fewer people spoke, the instructors focused on the screens showing the designated areas in front of them. Because a cross-recording method was used, no one noticed that several of the real-time monitoring feeds had suddenly disappeared.

—————————————

Jiang Hui had been waiting in place for quite a while, from initial anxiety to growing doubt.

Did the leading instructor really contact the observation center for her? Or was it a school rule that they had to wait for the training to complete before rescuing someone left behind? If she had known this earlier, she would have stayed at the temporary resting place instead of standing here in the middle of nowhere, being eaten by mosquitoes.

Without her light brain on hand and without a clock or any tool to confirm the time, she could only estimate it based on her feelings. It felt like it had been at least an hour or two.

Waiting in the confined space made her increasingly restless.

“…” Jiang Hui suddenly sniffed.

She wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but it felt like a strange acidic smell had suddenly filled the air, gradually intensifying from faint to strong.

It’s normal for a special odor to disperse in the jungle. When she climbed Mountain Mingshier, she occasionally smelled various unique plant scents—sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty—some of which even had a sensory quality. After spending some time there, Jiang Hui felt that her sense of smell had improved significantly; she wouldn’t easily react to unusual odors anymore.

However, she had never encountered any acidic smell like this one, which carried obvious biological characteristics. Rather than simply being acidic, it was more accurately described as a rancid odor, with a foul, putrid scent.

This was an odor that made human beings instinctively feel very uncomfortable.

As the smell intensified and became increasingly irritating, Jiang Hui felt that something was terribly wrong with her body. Her skin, exposed membranes, eyes, nose, mouth, throat, and even the unseen nerves within her were all extremely uncomfortable. Her heart was pounding inside her chest, thumping loudly.

Even though her respiratory system was functioning normally and she could feel her breath coming in and out, there was still a suffocating sensation, as if both her internal and external environments were blocked by some kind of odor, making it hard for her to breathe.

She couldn’t take it anymore.

Jiang Hui grabbed her lamp and cautiously poked her head out of the tent.

In the pitch-black surroundings, her area was the only bright spot; there were no passersby or rescuers in sight. Jiang Hui felt as though she had been abandoned in this dark expanse.

She didn’t have time to panic about this. Taking a long breath, she inhaled the grassy scent unique to the wilderness. The space was also filled with that acidic odor that had almost suffocated her earlier, but perhaps because the air flowed more freely in this open area, it didn’t feel as stifling.

Just now, she had almost suffocated to death inside the tent.