Chapter 412

Chapter 412: Talent Emerges in Each Generation

“Boss, is something up?” Meng Yinan asked with curiosity as she stepped closer to Lin Mo.

“You’re feeling nervous, right? I have a secret remedy—do you want it?” Lin Mo decided to help this young lieutenant, who had been calling him boss for quite some time, so his admiration wouldn’t be for nothing.

A boss is a boss, and he knows how to handle things. Meng Yinan nodded vigorously like Little Chicken pecking at grains, filled with excitement. “Yes, of course!”

“It might hurt a bit,” Lin Mo replied lightly, seemingly unconcerned. It wasn’t a big trick, just a little technique taught by the instructors at the Dragon Knight training camp. Lin Mo estimated that just a portion of the effect would be enough to benefit his junior.

Meng Yinan’s heart filled with anticipation as he patted his chest. “Soldiers aren’t afraid of death, so why be scared of a little pain?”

“Alright! Take a couple of steps forward.” Lin Mo nodded and gathered a gentle light element energy in his hand.

“Ah! Ouch! It hurts! It hurts so much!” Lin Mo slapped the forehead of the approaching Meng Yinan with ease.

Caught off guard, Meng Yinan staggered back a couple of steps while holding his head, turning around with a wounded expression. “Boss, you hit me! You’re not a good person!”

“Are you still nervous?” Lin Mo shrugged, completely ignoring the tears in the Tabby Cat’s eyes. Just a moment ago, Meng Yinan claimed not to be afraid of pain, but now he was whining—truly a case of being tough on the outside but fragile on the inside.

“Ah! Um! I think… maybe I’m not nervous anymore.” After Lin Mo pointed it out, Meng Yinan blinked a few times, and it seemed like his mind had cleared up quite a bit.

He didn’t even realize that his panda eyes were visibly fading away.

This guy took a hit and soon carefree happiness took over. He laughed joyfully, “I’m not nervous anymore! Haha, Boss, you really know what you’re doing! You truly deserve to be the boss. Why don’t you do it a couple more times?”

Having shifted his focus away from his nerves, and with the non-destructive light battle energy activating his life energy, Meng Yinan, who hadn’t slept well all night, found some recovery and lost his uncontrollable anxiety.

“You really have it coming; just be careful I don’t turn you into a panda again,” Lin Mo replied, smirking. The other members of Group E watched the young man’s antics, unable to hold back their laughter, covering their mouths as laughter echoed around them.

The group leader had said it well—after a couple more hits, it would truly be a case of going too far.

This week’s first round of potential tests had been distributed to the five group leaders. The autonomous group consisting of five candidates would test according to different projects. To save time, the group leaders took their members to conduct the non-physical portion of the tests in the morning.

During the testing, Lin Mo sensed someone was watching him. He turned his head to see number two, Wang Xuejun, looking at him with a hint of challenge, his chin tilted up.

The implication was clear: the second round of the challenge had begun.

“Not this guy again, how annoying!” Meng Yinan noticed that her boss’s attention had shifted. Following Lin Mo’s gaze, she spotted Wang Xuejun, who seemed like he wouldn’t survive unless he stepped on others.

Seeing Lin Mo notice him, Wang Xuejun gestured and pointed at the five 120-inch LCD screens displaying the testing items and rankings in the center of the testing area. Despite his previous defeat in the simulated air battle, Wang Xuejun aimed to regain his face through other aspects.

It must be said this was an intentional arrangement by the aerospace training center; competition meant better performance. It could stimulate astronaut candidates to push themselves beyond their limits and deliver their best, ensuring the tests were more accurate and contributing to the improvement of China’s astronauts’ quality.

The rankings were blank at this moment, and many people looked at the board with concern. This was because the test had not yet begun, meaning there were no codes or names displayed. Group leaders from Groups B, C, and F took on their roles and quietly discussed with their members how to pass smoothly and achieve better scores.

Most of these individuals were pilots and technical experts with excellent mental resilience, but the qualifications of astronaut candidates were exceedingly important. They stood at the pinnacle of China’s talent pool, even higher than in the aviation industry. Many still felt an inexplicable nervousness, just like the Tabby Cat, Meng Yinan.

To address this nervousness, the psychologists at the aerospace training center were deployed. They were arranged next to each test point to provide psychological intervention for candidates who might be affected by their mindset.

Even with this emergency measure, it was still not as effective as Lin Mo injecting a spark of vitality into Meng Yinan with his Battle Energy. The Dragon Knight had cheated, but no one knew.

The four non-physical foundational qualities—intelligence, memory, attention allocation, and imitation ability—relied heavily on talent and skills developed over time. Those qualified to be astronaut candidates did not lack in these areas, especially the technical expert candidates, who had exceptional intellectual advantages from years of scientific research.

The consciousness inhabiting this body still belonged to the Dragon Knight Morin from another world. He lacked the learning methods of this world, and whether it was rapid memorization or sustained memory, Lin Mo, who declined the help of the gold giant dragon for cheating, was at a distinct disadvantage compared to the native humans of this world.

Although Lin Mo’s intelligence and memory were not outstanding, they were still significantly higher than average. However, among the elite astronaut candidates, his ranking was only mid-level, and even the Tabby Cat, Meng Yinan, surpassed Lin Mo.

“Oh, Boss, I didn’t mean to! Please don’t hit me!”

As the testing began, the rankings on the 120-inch LCD screens started refreshing continuously. The examiners sent out the results directly, updating the screens every five seconds.

For the first test, the intelligence rankings surprised everyone. The top spot went to Group F’s leader, number four, Wei Yuni, whose IQ reached an astonishing 165. She was merely a J-10 fighter pilot. If she became a scientist, who knows what groundbreaking research she could achieve with such intelligence!

This woman managed to stay low-key, not making a sound until now when she stunned everyone with her brilliance.

In the intelligence rankings, number two was Wang Xuejun, who lived up to his reputation as the eternal second. Meng Yinan and others stifled their laughter, amused by Wang Xuejun, who always sought to outdo others but now faced this reality.

Seeing a woman’s IQ score surpass his, Wang Xuejun’s face darkened. He had underestimated the selection. Among the candidates, there were likely more tough challenges besides Lin Mo.

IQ is not an absolute measure, nor does a higher IQ necessarily mean someone is smarter. It serves as a relative reference standard influenced by personality, experience, memory, and other factors. For example, Zhao Kuo, from the Warring States period, could talk about military strategies with gusto—more so than his father, the famous general Zhao She—but ended up getting defeated by the Qin state in battle.

Lin Mo scored an IQ of 141, ranking sixth, just below Meng Yinan, who scored 143 and took fifth place. The top ten astronauts candidates had IQ scores mostly above 130, and even those not listed had scores above 120. Almost one-third of the candidates had IQs between 120 and 130, becoming rarer as the scores increased.

In the memory test, an apparently desperate Wang Xuejun ranked first, while Wei Yuni took third.

With a suppressed cheer, Wang Xuejun immediately waved his fist at Lin Mo and Wei Yuni, his chin held high, almost bursting with pride. However, Lin Mo, who had not yet reached the memory test and was currently undergoing the attention allocation test, merely smiled lightly, completely ignoring Wang Xuejun’s show of arrogance.

As a Dragon Knight, one must master controlling a giant dragon in flight while wielding weapons against opponents and keeping an eye on other enemy attacks. With a naturally advantageous combat environment and long-term practical challenges, the Dragon Knights from another world exhibited marked superiority in attention allocation, even far surpassing fighter pilots in this world.

Attention allocation refers to the ability to focus on two or more activities or objects simultaneously. It primarily depends on whether one has the skill to manage simultaneous actions. Of the activities, only one can require focus while the others should be well-practiced and only need to be done with minimal attention.

Moreover, the concurrent activities must occur within different cognitive processes; otherwise, one cannot truly multitask.

In the attention allocation test and action judgment test, whether for sound or light signals, Lin Mo consistently pressed the test buttons accurately and did not make a single mistake during the exhausting half-hour test.

Perhaps it was only this ability to handle complex operations and focus that gave Lin Mo the confidence to control the fighter jet with such astounding proficiency.

The first scores for the attention allocation test appeared promptly on the 120-inch LCD screen.

First place went to number one, Lin Mo, with a perfect score of 100. His performance in the test was flawless, while the other participants in Group E and Group B achieved an average best score of only 71, trailing far behind Lin Mo by a significant margin.