Lunchtime.
Yan Shuang woke up to see Tu Sanqi holding a mirror she had somehow gotten her hands on, anxiously inspecting herself from every angle.
Tu Sanqi lifted her eyelids, looking around… so far, there was nothing unusual with her eyes.
For a moment, she didn’t know whether to feel relieved.
“No need to be so anxious,” came Yan Shuang’s voice from across.
Tu Sanqi paused, lowering the mirror and meeting Yan Shuang’s calm, slightly encouraging gaze.
“I’ve been at the school for two years, and I still haven’t awakened any abilities. Most of my peers either awakened early and were assigned to various sectors, or gave up after a year and returned to the base to live out their days.”
“You just got here; you have plenty of time,” she said, unusually talkative.
Tu Sanqi sighed and got to her feet.
“Maybe,” she murmured, her frustration hidden in the brevity of her words.
“Come on, it’s physical training this afternoon,” Yan Shuang called.
Tu Sanqi followed sluggishly.
The physical training instructor, a burly man surnamed Huo, stood in front of her. Just his presence made her feel the air grow thinner.
Warm-up times varied based on how long each student had been enrolled.
Yan Shuang had to run twenty laps around the track, Tu Sanqi ten.
Twenty minutes later, Tu Sanqi finished her laps and stopped at the designated rest area, glancing around for Yan Shuang.
But then she heard Huo’s voice from behind: “Tu Sanqi! Come here!”
Startled, she jogged over, slightly confused. “Sir?”
Huo looked at her warm-up data and said, “You run fast.”
And she hadn’t even broken a sweat.
Tu Sanqi scratched her head, explaining, “I’ve been chased by zombies outside, and I have several years of experience running for my life.”
Huo: “……”
He understood immediately, tinkered with something on a device, and after a moment, Tu Sanqi’s wrist vibrated.
Looking down, she saw a new warm-up notice: run another ten laps.
Tu Sanqi: “???”
Yan Shuang was on her twelfth lap.
Her breathing was still steady, her pace comfortable—but now… a struggling figure had appeared beside her.
Who else but Tu Sanqi?
Yan Shuang almost thought she was imagining things. “Haven’t you already finished?”
Tu Sanqi shook her head, expression grave. “Past things… best left unmentioned.”
Yan Shuang: “……”
She watched as Tu Sanqi pushed her legs, gradually creating distance between them. Surprised, Yan Shuang’s own legs unconsciously sped up, trailing behind Tu Sanqi.
Fifteen minutes later, the two of them stopped, one after the other. Tu Sanqi was finally panting; Yan Shuang even more so.
In the distance, Huo Wenwu was checking their stats, a hint of surprise in his eyes.
In the same twenty laps, Tu Sanqi had easily run into the top five of the class, finishing in better condition than everyone else.
Even Yan Shuang, whose endurance had always been weak, had improved her speed and broken her personal record that day.
“All right, prepare for the formal training,” Huo Wenwu blew his whistle.
Everyone automatically lined up to receive a special set of clothing from him.
Tu Sanqi was intrigued.
The outfit looked like a layer of durable, stiff fabric, but underneath were many components. Besides the torso and limbs, the helmet contained a device resembling sunglasses.
She mimicked Yan Shuang, putting on the full set and returning to her place. Huo Wenwu said, “Begin training.”
At his words, everyone pressed the button on their arm.
Tu Sanqi did the same.
Instantly, her limbs tingled with a strange sensation. Then, two grayed-out characters appeared before her eyes: [START]
Once the text disappeared, the scene gradually changed.
The other students’ forms faded, replaced by a chaotic environment. Tu Sanqi’s eyes widened as a group of middle-level zombies lunged at her with ferocious snarls.
A prompt appeared in midair: [Mission: Dodge]
Tu Sanqi reacted half a beat late—one zombie leapt straight toward her face!
Her arm was clawed… pain registered immediately, and a blood bar appeared on the screen, steadily decreasing.
Tu Sanqi: “……”
Finally snapping to her senses, she bolted.
After about half an hour, the scene shifted again. This time, she was on a road, atop a truck.
The prompt displayed: [Mission: Reach the Destination]
Thumps rang from the truck roof as the zombie hammered relentlessly, seeming ready to crush her head at any moment.
The sensation felt more real than the maxed-out training pod. Tu Sanqi instantly recalled the terror of fleeing from zombies and frantically tried to start the vehicle.
The engine roared, and she shot forward with the truck.
…
Thanks to the sensory suit, everyone felt as though they were truly fleeing, climbing mountains, driving, swimming… when in reality, they were confined to a three-square-meter area.
From a third-person perspective, it looked like a group of people convulsing in unison.
Huo Wenwu patrolled nearby, recording data and checking the devices for alarms.
As today’s new trainee, he observed Tu Sanqi several times.
The sensory suits were developed by engineers within the sector, like the training pods, intelligently matching tasks to the user’s physical and mental abilities.
Higher physical and mental strength resulted in higher-intensity training.
Watching Tu Sanqi in her suit, Huo Wenwu paused, then slowly looked away, recording two large marks of [EXCELLENT] for her row.
**
By 6:30 p.m., Tu Sanqi had devoured the cafeteria food.
Yan Shuang across from her stared in disbelief.
Tu Sanqi had eaten until half full and casually noticed Yan Shuang’s gaze. Curious, she asked, “What’s wrong?”
She’d only had two bowls… the boys across had eaten two bowls as well.
Yan Shuang looked away, complex emotions flickering, and opened her communicator.
Tu Sanqi grabbed another bite, and her wrist vibrated. She looked down to see a data report from Yan Shuang.
It recorded her afternoon training time, performance, and evaluation.
“How do you have this?” Tu Sanqi asked, surprised, putting down her chopsticks to examine the report.
It showed 4 hours, performance labeled as [Normal], and two evaluation columns for Physical and Mental Strength—both marked [EXCELLENT].
“I’m excellent?” Tu Sanqi was astonished.
She’d expected her first day to be mediocre!
Yan Shuang didn’t answer her question directly, simply saying, “Excellent means you are highly likely to awaken abilities in a short time… Sanqi, you’re a very promising potential talent.”
Her gaze carried a hint of admiration.
Tu Sanqi’s smile stiffened slightly at those words.
“That’s not guaranteed,” she sighed inwardly, picking up her chopsticks again. Then, lowering her voice, she leaned closer. “Yan Shuang…”
“Have you ever seen an ability user who can understand what zombies are saying?”