Training Grounds.
Zhou Yueming looked at the list of team members and leaders, a meaningful smile playing on his lips.
“Leader Evans… passed through force, I see.”
Evans’s face was covered in bruises and cuts, yet he still smirked triumphantly, casting a provocative glance at Chu Li. The next moment, Zhou Yueming’s voice rang out again.
“Chu Li is also a team leader? Elected unanimously?” Zhou Yueming lifted his gaze from the list and looked toward Chu Li.
Evans’s face instantly dropped.
The surrounding Alphas were dumbfounded, looking at Chu Li with disbelief. Their group contained two top-tier Alphas; why on earth would they choose a Beta from the Lower District as their leader? Was the world going mad?
Chu Li stepped forward. “Yes.”
Zhou Yueming nodded, continuing to confirm the other team leaders. “Very well. Since no one has any objections, let us wait and see which group completes the training first.”
With that, Zhou Yueming put on his sunglasses and sat on the high platform, comfortably watching the competition among the new recruits.
Some groups went straight to the course, while others huddled together to discuss strategy. In Chu Li’s group, the five of them stood looking at each other. Chu Li, who had always considered himself an introvert, felt like an extrovert in this company.
He spoke tentatively. “We can observe the visible obstacles first. The hidden ones can only be discovered once we are on the course.”
“Can we watch the other teams and record their problems?” Jiao Yi asked.
“Theoretically, yes,” Chu Li replied, “but I suspect we might get punched for it.”
The others chuckled, and the tension eased slightly. This competition did not reward individual heroes; the entire group had to pass. Success was defined by the last member crossing the finish line within ten minutes.
“Should we do a practice run first?” Chu Li suggested. “Let’s determine how long it takes each of us to finish the course, then we can discuss a strategy.”
“Agreed.”
The first stage consisted of high and low balance beams, only ten meters long—a warm-up. All five finished at top speed. Next was the swinging horizontal ladder.
This stage tested balance, coordination, and arm strength. One had to grab the rungs, climb up, and then crawl across using both hands and feet. Chu Li noticed that it was the two top Alphas, Mo Yizhou and Feng Yuming, who looked the most unnatural. Looking at their bruises, he understood: the “death matches” they fought last night had turned into today’s struggle.
By the third stage, the rope net, Chu Li took the lead. Muddy water hid the floating bridge beneath, and white elastic nets flickered in and out of sight.
Chu Li whispered, “I heard screams from the neighboring group during the third stage. I suspect there are hidden traps here.”
“How do you know they were at the third stage?” You Feiran asked.
“Calculating the timing, the screams were heard at the one-minute-thirty-second mark.”
“…” Mo Yizhou, Feng Yuming, Jiao Yi, and You Feiran all stared at Chu Li’s back with newfound depth in their eyes.
Chu Li stared at the elastic net, his body tightening like a wire as he raced across. He moved so quickly his soles barely touched the water before lifting again. He wobbled but managed to pass.
Mo Yizhou followed smoothly, then Feng Yuming. Feng seemed to have a leg injury; he moved slowly but maintained excellent balance. Next were Jiao Yi and You Feiran. Midway through, a “hand” suddenly emerged from the calm water and grabbed at You Feiran.
“Ah!” You Feiran jumped, stumbled off the net, and fell onto the floating bridge, taking Jiao Yi down with him.
The hand in the mud was a holographic projection. After scaring them, it made a “peace” sign—a petty gesture that vaguely reminded Chu Li of Evans. Chu Li jumped down to pull them up. You Feiran’s face was flushed with embarrassment. Chu Li had warned them, yet he still failed.
As an Alpha, he was performing worse than a Beta. He expected Chu Li to scold him, but Chu Li only asked, “Can you still run?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Let’s finish this lap first.”
The fourth stage was the ruins battlefield. They had to cross nearly three hundred meters of a ruined city filled with infrared sensors and virtual laser guns. Touching a sensor deducted five seconds from the group’s total; being hit by a virtual bullet deducted ten.
“In this stage, besides the sensors and lasers, we need to be careful of something else.”
“What? Did you hear something again?” Feng Yuming asked. They shared a small smile.
Chu Li pointed at the structure of a building in the ruins. “The base is recessed downward at a forty-five-degree angle. The surrounding ground is covered in red sandstone. There might be a mechanism beneath this.”
Feng Yuming nodded thoughtfully.
The five-man squad advanced. After a few steps, a dense wall of infrared sensors rushed toward them at high speed. They dodged, but the next second, the “ruined city” beneath them shuddered and rose like a waking giant.
Two laser guns projected from above, sweeping the area. Virtual bullets made a beep-beep sound upon impact. Jiao Yi couldn’t dodge in time and was hit.
“Group A: 10 seconds deducted,” a mechanical voice announced.
Chu Li grabbed Jiao Yi’s clothes, rolling with him to hide under a broken wall. Mo Yizhou and Feng Yuming also found cover. You Feiran luckily evaded the attack and escaped the ruins, but a laser gun deployed from a trash pile behind him.
You Feiran didn’t see it, but Mo Yizhou, being closer, lunged and tackled him to the ground just as the virtual bullet vanished into the air.
The ground shook violently again, rotating ninety degrees. All five lost their footing and slid downward. Chu Li grabbed a protruding piece of rebar in the wall, and Jiao Yi caught his coattail. They barely held on. Mo Yizhou’s arm strength was unstable; he failed to catch the railing and fell out of the obstacle course.
The mechanical voice droned again: “Participant left the obstacle field. 20 seconds deducted. Participant left the obstacle field. 20 seconds deducted.”
Hearing the double report, Chu Li looked toward Feng Yuming. Feng had also been thrown out. The two S-grade Alphas had become the ones losing the most points.
Outside the ruins was a pile of literal trash. The two stood up, covered in dust and looking utterly defeated. The timer showed that their time was up, and they still had the fifth stage to go.
“Group A: Eliminated.”
A heavy silence fell. Jiao Yi and You Feiran looked between Chu Li, Mo Yizhou, and Feng Yuming. Chu Li walked over. “Are you two okay?”
“…We’re fine.”
“Good. Let’s go through the final stage anyway.”
In the ruins, they had failed simply due to a lack of experience. When the city tilted, they had panicked. But Chu Li had noted the timing: there was a six-second window between the shaking and the ninety-degree tilt. This meant they could use those seconds to sprint through or sabotage the mechanism rather than waiting for it to stop.
Behind him, Feng Yuming stared at the back of Chu Li’s neck. In a voice only Mo Yizhou could hear, he asked, “Why isn’t he angry?”
“Being angry doesn’t solve problems,” Mo Yizhou replied.
Feng Yuming pursed his lips. He regretted fighting Mo Yizhou last night; otherwise, they wouldn’t have performed this poorly. It wasn’t that Chu Li was “social climbing” by being with them—it was that they were dragging him down.
The fifth stage was the hardest: a pitch-black tunnel. The sides were covered in black flowers, and the end was invisible. Based on the distance they had covered, Chu Li estimated it was 300 to 500 meters long.
The moment they entered, the lighting shifted violently. A blinding white light erupted, and when the world became clear again, they seemed to be in another dimension—a sealed, white metal world.
“What is this?” Jiao Yi gasped.
Suddenly, the sealed world began to spin like a hamster wheel. The five were forced to run just to stay upright.
“Are they treating us like hamsters?” Chu Li murmured.
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” Mo Yizhou said. He ran while reaching out to touch the walls. He had assumed it was a holographic virtual world, but the white stone walls felt real.
Was this an escape room? If they couldn’t find a way out, they would run themselves to death. Feng Yuming’s leg injury made every step agony, but he gritted his teeth. He slowed for a second and was immediately swept backward; Chu Li and Mo Yizhou reacted instantly, dragging him back.
“It’s getting faster!”
“Should we try to smash our way out?” You Feiran suggested.
“We don’t have weapons,” Jiao Yi noted.
“We probably can’t break the walls anyway. We’re still in the tunnel,” Mo Yizhou thought back to the blinding light. “This tunnel might not even exist. It could be a holographic projection causing a visual error, making us think there’s a tunnel when we are actually in a drum-shaped room.”
“So we just need to find the exit?” Feng Yuming frowned.
“Mhm.”
“The exit might have something to do with those black flowers,” Chu Li said suddenly.