The memories of all humanity are awakening, except for mine.

Chapter 176 Is he a born leader?
On the high wall, Jiang Chuan looked down at the zombies that had regrouped below, his face somewhat pale.

Pale as she was, at least she didn't faint.

Jiang Chuan breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, this is not the real world, and his actual body has not been suppressed to the level of an ordinary person.

"What's the situation now?"

"Why...didn't I clear the game?"

He looked around and saw that nothing had changed around him. There was no notification sound indicating that he had completed the game, and the zombie world in this virtual reality had not collapsed or anything.

"Does that mean we have to walk down the wall?"

"Does it only count if you actually go to prison?"

Jiang Chuan didn't think much of it. He went down the ladder and landed on the ground.

The first thing you see are several four-story office buildings, followed by the prison's inmate detention area. The barbed wire and similar materials inside the detention area have been removed and piled up at the main entrance to reinforce it. A huge flower bed stretches from the main entrance all the way to the office buildings.

It's unclear what real-world model was used to create this "refugee camp," but the prison's design far exceeds Jiang Chuan's understanding of what a prison is.

The prison is rectangular in shape. Apart from the desolate feeling caused by the withered flower beds, it looks no different from a civilized society and seems to have been unaffected by the zombies.

Jiang Chuan also noticed some small details, such as some dried bloodstains and some limbs left in the garden.

"Isn't the first step to enter the shelter?"

Why hasn't the completion notification triggered yet?

There's no one here either...

Are you really that relaxed?

He felt somewhat helpless, but this also aroused his desire to explore, and he continued walking towards the prison office building.

……

Headquarters in Yanjing, Planning Team.

Wang Xuejun looked at Feng Xiaobo and asked, "What should we do?"

Feng Xiaobo looked grim, and when he spoke to Wang Xuejun, he became even angrier.

Especially seeing Wang Xuejun's smile, which was even harder to suppress than an AK, he felt even more ashamed and indignant: "What are you laughing at?"

"You also bear responsibility for this mistake!"

Wang Xuejun was surprised, and AK finally suppressed his anger: "What responsibility do I have?"

Feng Xiaobo pondered for a moment: "This third phase of training is a collaboration between our two groups, and you haven't fulfilled your responsibility to identify and solve the problems."

Wang Xuejun said helplessly, "Just tell me what to do."

Feng Xiaobo said, "The first stage should end after the rescue from the detention center. But this first stage didn't even include any people from the detention center. The entire prison is just an empty shell. What am I supposed to do?"

"Just kick him out."

Although that's what he said, Feng Xiaobo felt he couldn't be so hasty.

Jiang Chuan's ability to break into the containment facility, while extremely absurd, is still a possibility.

What if someone can do that in the future? Are we just going to kick them out every time?
He pondered, watching the surveillance footage of Jiang Chuan walking towards the prison office building, gritted his teeth, and looked at the staff behind him:

"Let's add a hidden ending to the first level!"

"He finished as soon as he entered the office building!"

……

Jiang Chuan walked into the office building.

At the same time, a notification sound rang in his ear:

"Congratulations to 'Jiang Chuan', you cleared the level in 3:44:56."

"First hurdle, cleared."

His vision blurred for a moment, and a faint light began to emanate from the walls of the buildings around him.

The light rapidly increased in brightness, and the buildings were absorbed into it. After a final, extremely dazzling flash of light, Jiang Chuan returned to the huge, empty, milky-white space where he had just entered the virtual reality.

[021010101D Jiangchuan, Level 1 successfully cleared];
[Level 1 (Part 2) access has been granted];
[First level completed in 3:44:56]
[Number of reopens: 0];
Number of injuries: 0;
[First level completion rating: A]

[Current overall ranking: 1].

Jiang Chuan looked at the impressive final evaluation and nodded silently.

However, Jiang Chuan frowned when he saw the prompt about the first level (second level) permissions.

However, he quickly understood what it meant.

Others have a total of 9 levels, while I have 18.

Following this line of reasoning, shouldn't my final challenge be labeled as Challenge 9 (Part 2)?
Just as he was thinking, he heard a notification sound in his ear:

"Should we continue to the next level?"

Jiang Chuan originally intended to proceed to the next training stage.

But moving on to the next level now will affect my lunch.

So he gave up on continuing to improve the game and left the virtual reality environment.

……

Feng Xiaobo breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Jiang Chuan log off.

"He didn't continue to break through!"

"Quickly find a way to fix the second half of the level!"

"Let's connect this to the ending of his first level!"

"Complete within two hours!"

The staff member said, "Boss, there's not enough time. We don't have time to redo the transition..."

Feng Xiaobo said, "Then just do it like this..."

After Feng Xiaobo finished speaking, Wang Xuejun looked at him and emphasized, "Don't forget, one month."

Feng Xiaobo remained calm and gave a cold snort.

The two continued watching the giant screen in front of them, preparing to see how the other experts were acting.

Seeing everyone still groping their way in the unknown, fighting zombies in their escape...

Feng Xiaobo and Wang Xuejun recalled Jiang Chuan's actions, and the comparison made them realize that the young man was extraordinary.

Feng Xiaobo frowned and asked, "How exactly did he break through the restrictions?"

Wang Xuejun shook his head: "I don't know."

Just as Feng Xiaobo was about to say something, he heard Wang Xuejun speak again: "But there are also some guesses."

Feng Xiaobo: "Can you stop breathing so heavily?"

Wang Xuejun nodded: "After all, the helmet was produced by the technology team. One part of the helmet, simply put, is to capture brainwaves, identify emotions and hormone levels, and then generate feedback to the user in the virtual reality environment."

"If Jiang Chuan can break through the values ​​we set, it can only mean that he also has such means in reality... that the helmet can recognize this change in values ​​and apply these values ​​to virtual reality."

Feng Xiaobo nodded, and said thoughtfully, "We need to find a way to fix this bug."

Wang Xuejun smiled and said, "This is a hardware issue."

"The only solution is to redesign a whole batch of helmets."

Feng Xiaobo looked somewhat helpless, but he quickly calmed himself down: "It's okay."

"Although Jiang Chuan has broken through some limitations, he hasn't broken through many."

"If we take into account the actual situation of facing the enemy on the battlefield, this variable must also be taken into account."

"His own physical advantages aren't exactly a bug."

Wang Xuejun asked in surprise, "What about others? Wouldn't that be unfair?"

Feng Xiaobo said, "Jiangchuan's total number of levels is already twice that of others. Is that unfair? Let's see who says it's unfair."

Wang Xuejun agreed, and nodded without saying anything more.

The two watched as the other students progressed through the challenges. While Jiang Chuan had already completed his level, the others had only covered about three-quarters of the total distance, still quite a distance from the finish line. Some had even restarted several times, given the sheer number of zombies.

It's worth mentioning that this route, which covers three-quarters of the way, is the same sewer route used in Jiangchuan.

It's not that no one else thought like Jiang Chuan; it's just that the sewer manholes in the community have all been thoughtfully moved away.

As for the roads leading to the shelter in the city... they were meticulously designed by Feng Xiaobo and his project team.

The difficulty level is quite high.

If you don't carefully plan your route and constantly observe where you can hide while you're escaping, you're very likely to encounter two or three waves of zombies surrounding you at the same time.

Looking at all this, Wang Xuejun muttered to himself, "If Jiang Chuan hadn't gone through the sewers, it would have been very difficult for him to get from the city to the shelter."

Feng Xiaobo nodded, then froze.

Jiang Chuan can even break through plot-driven deaths... And considering his little trick with the radio, who knows what methods he might come up with if he goes into the city?
……

Jiang Chuan's helmet indicator light went out. He took off his helmet and looked around.

Tang, Song, and Ming were still in the virtual reality environment. They looked behind them and saw that everyone in Class One was wearing helmets and remained silent.

The scene looks rather eerie.

Cao Zhigang noticed that Jiang Chuan had taken off his helmet. He looked up from his phone and asked Jiang Chuan, "Have you finished the first level?"

Jiang Chuan nodded: "Yes, it's quite difficult."

"We finally managed to break in."

He was initially surprised that Jiang Chuan had already broken through the first barrier.

However, he was immediately taken aback, feeling somewhat confused by Jiang Chuan's description of "breaking in".

Although Cao Zhigang had never actually worn the helmet to experience it, he had a general idea of ​​the challenges involved.

Fight your way in? Shouldn't it be fighting your way out?
However, he didn't ask any further questions, only assuming that there was a slight problem with the adjective Jiang Chuan used.

He looked at Jiang Chuan, nodded in satisfaction, and said:
"Hold on!"

"They came out soon too!"

Jiang Chuan nodded.

Cao Zhigang didn't exchange any more words with him at this time.

Jiang Chuan took this opportunity to observe the helmets of the other people.

"The technical team, planning team, and field support team are donated to Jiangchuan..."

"This special gift mark is not present in Tang Songming, Song Xi, Li Yi, or Liang Cheng."

"Does that mean there's something different about my helmet?"

"Is it related to the subsequent levels?"

Before long, Tang Songming and the others also logged off from the virtual reality.

Tang Songming was still a little dazed after taking off his helmet. He paused for a moment before saying, "It's truly extraordinary...it's frightening."

Song Xi was very excited: "This is so exciting!"

Liang Cheng shook his head, rubbed his face, and was still in a daze.

Li Yi then asked Jiang Chuan, "Jiang Chuan, where are you?"

Jiang Chuan said, "I've passed the first hurdle."

Li Yi paused for a moment, then nodded in surprise.

Her face remained calm, but her heart was in turmoil.

He was cautious and careful, and according to the map, he was only halfway through. Jiang Chuan had already passed the level?
How did you get through it?

Just as she was about to ask, Liang Cheng blurted out the question first: "You've already passed? How is that possible?"

"With so many zombies, how did you manage to clear the level in just four hours?"

Jiang Chuan nodded: "There are indeed quite a lot..."

"But once you climb up, it's over, so the difficulty isn't too bad, right?"

They're not talking about the same thing.

Later at lunch, Lin Ci and the others were even more astonished to hear that Jiang Chuan had broken through his cultivation level. Only when they learned that Jiang Chuan had come through the sewers did they realize why he was so fast.

Aizhe sighed, "Looking back now, we really should have tried the sewer system. Why didn't we think of that back then?"

Chen Ming said, "I originally thought it wouldn't be too difficult, but I didn't expect it to be so torturous..."

"My physical fitness has been weakened, and I didn't expect my endurance to be weakened as well."

"Running two or three hundred meters already feels a bit strenuous, and with so many zombies on top of that, it's really tough."

Liang Cheng frowned: "Can't you even manage two or three hundred meters?"

"I feel fine."

Ai Zhe asked doubtfully, "Are you alright?"

Li Yi mentioned: "Endurance in virtual reality should be linked to mental strength."

"The higher the mental strength, the longer the endurance."

"In this third phase of training, those with a mental focus have a comparative advantage."

Lin Ci nodded: "That should be it..."

"During these four hours of escaping, I also feel that my mental strength has increased..."

"But so many zombies... it's really a bit of a torture."

Lin Ci added, "Let's talk about it tomorrow, let's finish our meal first..."

"That thing is really disgusting."

Everyone felt the same way.

They were all planning to try going into the sewers, but the problem was that they had already used up their four hours for the day and could only try again tomorrow.

……

Jiang Chuan and Li Yi went to practice in the afternoon.

As Jiang Chuan's skills improved, Li Yi no longer held back. Her movements became more graceful, and her power and swordsmanship were significantly enhanced compared to before.

At first, Li Yi was just a sparring partner, helping Jiang Chuan improve his dagger skills quickly. Now, Jiang Chuan has not only improved his dagger skills but has also developed a set of mental blade combat methods. This improvement has finally brought the two of them to the same level. Each spar is also a form of progress for Li Yi.

After practicing for several hours, it was time for dinner.

After dinner, Jiang Chuan and Zhong Huahua went to practice with the white mice.

Jiang Chuan looked at the white mice in the classroom and felt that it would be better to start practicing with two white mice first, otherwise he would not see any progress and it would affect his condition.

Zhong Huahua thought Jiang Chuan's idea was very good, and she also decided to start training with two white mice.

Jiang Chuan once again felt the gap in talent.

Zhong Huahua is too fierce.

The fifth training session on mental strength didn't last long for Jiang Chuan; it only lasted about half an hour before the two of them left the classroom.

Jiang Chuan did not return to his dormitory, but went to the classroom instead.

After all, he still needs to hurry up and complete the second half of the first stage.

This is the life of the King of Scrolls.

……

Fortunately, the third phase of training was not inherently dangerous, and Coach Cao Zhigang didn't need to be there to supervise...

He sat in the dark classroom and put his helmet on again.

[Identity verification successful!]

[Number 021-010101D: Jiangchuan.]

Welcome!

"Please select the training level you wish to complete."

【Level 1 (Part 2): Rescue Team】

[Mission Objective: The shelter director admires your courage and happily accepted you as a member. However, once inside, you must accept the tasks assigned to you. The shelter received a distress signal from County C, and a rescue team is preparing to launch an operation. You have also become a member of the rescue team and will enter County C under the leadership of the team leader to carry out a rescue mission… This mission is fraught with danger. Good luck!]

Jiang Chuan frowned upon seeing this mission objective.

Why do we have to go from one danger zone to another?

The scene around him changed again, and the city reappeared before his eyes.

As the city was loading, long passages of text floated before Jiang Chuan's eyes.

You fought your way out of the zombie encirclement. The entire containment facility was utterly astonished and awestruck by your strength and courage. The facility's director was incredibly impressed and excited by your abilities, and you subsequently received an incredibly warm welcome and hospitality.

In this desolate, post-apocalyptic wasteland, you felt an unparalleled sense of familiarity and a joy akin to rebirth.

This is the team you've always dreamed of, the driving force that keeps you going in this apocalypse. If you could, you'd be willing to spend the rest of your life here.

There's no such thing as a free lunch. By joining the containment facility and becoming a member, you've come to shoulder considerable responsibility. Therefore, you accepted the director's assignment. Because of your strength, you replaced the original security team leader as the overall security officer of the camp. However, your subordinates aren't entirely convinced of your abilities, but you don't seem to care, believing they'll eventually accept you.

On your second day after entering the shelter, you received a mission from the shelter's director...

When the text ended, Jiang Chuan found himself in an armored vehicle.

There were five or six people in the car, and I sat there silently.

No one spoke in the car, but Jiang Chuan could notice that the fully armed soldiers' glances occasionally weren't so friendly.

"..."

Jiang Chuan thought about it for a moment and felt there was something wrong.

"The mission objective states that I will be leading a rescue operation under the leadership of the squad leader..."

"How come I became the squad leader in the text just now?"

Jiang Chuan didn't take this typographical error seriously.

He looked at his equipment: a rifle, a pistol, some bullets, a dagger, a bulletproof vest, knee pads, elbow pads, and metal wrist guards on his forearms—he was armed to the teeth.

But Jiang Chuan himself felt no sense of peace.

Based on his understanding of the game's mechanics, the more luxurious the initial setup, the greater the difficulty of the mission.

Just think, the first level only gave me so little—a few books and a screwdriver—and I was supposed to brave a horde of zombies...

Now that they've been given such luxurious equipment, doesn't that mean they have to physically withstand nuclear bombs?

Jiang Chuan quickly finished his internal monologue and then turned his attention back to the mission itself.

"Rescue mission..."

"This shelter also has rescue missions?"

"Why isn't anyone coming to save me?"

"And... how did this armored vehicle get out of the prison? There were so many zombies surrounding it..."

"..."

"Never mind, I can't think about it too much."

……

Headquarters in Yanjing, Planning Group Office.

"Jiang Chuan is online!"

Feng Xiaobo was taken aback: "He's online again?"

"I'll update again after he logs off!"

"Put his perspective on the main screen!"

He looked at the screen, a slight smile playing on his lips.

In the afternoon, Feng Xiaobo and the members of the planning team discussed how to bring Jiang Chuan back to the main storyline.

After all, he wasn't injured, but everyone else's second challenge started with injuries, so he increased the difficulty of the task again.

Although it wasn't a plot-driven death, Jiang Chuan couldn't possibly escape unscathed this time, as Feng Xiaobo had planned.

Besides getting Jiang Chuan's mission back on track, Feng Xiaobo also had some other ideas.

"Although this kid made me lose face, he does have unlimited potential. If we nurture him, our planning team will have done a great job."

"His ability to make the impossible possible is enough to demonstrate his enormous potential."

"I have many ideas, and my thinking is quite divergent."

"A person like this will definitely not be a lone wolf in the future."

"He wants to become the alpha wolf."

"This was originally the reason for giving him extra training, to take advantage of this opportunity to develop his leadership skills and understand the various variables involved in task execution..."

"Hopefully he can understand our good intentions."

Feng Xiaobo looked at the screen and saw Jiang Chuan sitting silently in the armored vehicle, and a sense of anticipation suddenly arose in his heart.

He was eager to know what kind of surprise this kid would bring him in this mission.
……

Jiang Chuan cleared his throat, breaking the silence inside the armored vehicle.

Several people looked at Jiang Chuan.

Jiang Chuan said, "Gentlemen, shall we discuss the details of our mission again?"

The previous text didn't cover enough specific issues, so Jiang Chuan needed to learn more about the mission details before reaching his destination.

As soon as he finished speaking, someone in the car let out a disdainful sneer.

Jiang Chuan was shocked that the AI ​​in this virtual reality could have such amazing intelligence.

Is this kind of disdainful sneer something an NPC would say?
Another person said, "You're the captain, do we need to report the mission details to you?"

Is this sarcastic remark an NPC's response based on the context?
Jiang Chuan quickly realized that this level was quite difficult; even obtaining mission information was proving to be incredibly challenging...

It would be great if it were like the first level, where you could just get a diary or something.

Although Jiang Chuan was thinking this in his mind, he subconsciously gave the answer aloud.

His voice became much more serious:

"This is an order!"

"I need to know your thoughts on this mission!"

"We need to know all the intelligence that everyone currently possesses!"

"I don't care what you think of me, but since we're on a mission, we must work together!"

"Only in this way can I bring you all back alive!"

"understand!?"

"Now begin reporting the mission details!"

……

However, Jiang Chuan's offhand remark caused Feng Xiaobo's expression to change.

In the scene before him, besides the various information above Jiang Chuan's head, several numbers were also displayed above the heads of the NPCs.

That's a number indicating favorability.

There were six people in the carriage. Of the five people other than Jiang Chuan, four had a favorability rating between 3 and 6 towards Jiang Chuan, while the other person had a favorability rating of 0.

However, after Jiang Chuan uttered these few simple words, the favorability rating immediately changed.

其他四人的好感度从“3~6”立即变成了“15~30”、那个原本好感度设置为0的，此时也是飙升到了“20”。

That's right, this favorability rating is out of 100.

Feng Xiaobo set the favorability rating very low, originally intending to make Jiang Chuan realize the difficulty of being a team leader...

But he raised his favorability rating with just a few words, and in that confrontational situation, he made a textbook response.

Although they are AI, these AIs possess powerful logical algorithms, and the weighting of favorability calculations comes from multiple sources, making them even more lifelike than real people...

Such a response not only avoids being underestimated, but also powerfully emphasizes the captain's identity, establishing the necessary authority, while also demonstrating a responsible yet aloof image...

Feng Xiaobo thought with some shock:

"Could it be... that he's a born leader?"

(End of this chapter)