Chapter 78: Numbed by Habit

Chapter 78: Numbed by Habit

“You, Chen Feng, have already gained a huge lead in the first three events. For these final two events, as long as you don’t make any major mistakes and don’t score zero in both, you are basically guaranteed a spot in the top one hundred of the entire army.”

In the small temporary combat briefing room, Ding Hu was repeatedly giving Chen Feng instructions and warnings regarding the precautions for space combat and ground combat.

Professor Ouyang and Tang Tianxin were also present in the room as observers. Ou Qinglan and the representative researcher from the Pangu Institute had also connected to listen in.

Chen Feng now possessed extremely high research value.

Not just because of his one hundred percent adaptation rate, but also because of his terrifyingly formidable talent.

The competition format was slightly different from what Chen Feng had initially imagined. It wasn’t one-on-one combat between contestants, but rather interaction between humans and machines.

Each of the twenty contestants would have their own identical combat arena. What each person needed to do was to continuously defeat the virtual opponents simulated by data within their own arena.

The parameters for the opponents were also set to the Azure Dragon Armor standard, specifically warriors in Azure Dragon Armor with a constant acceleration level fixed at 15G.

What the contestants had to do was to keep knocking down the virtual opponents in front of them.

First, defeat one, then face two simultaneously. After dealing with two, immediately face three simultaneously.

The number of opponents increased by one each time, continuing this pattern indefinitely.

The match ended under two conditions: either the contestant lasted for one hour, or they were continuously hit, sustained injuries to vital spots, and were judged by the system as dead or incapacitated.

The scoring method was also simple. It would be a comprehensive score based on the number of virtual opponents the contestant knocked down and the extent of damage they themselves received.

The scoring rules were the same for both space combat and indoor ground combat.

The nature of both types of combat was actually the same. The reason ground combat was limited to indoors was that the actual simulated combat scenario was still in space, such as inside a space station or a large spacecraft with artificial gravity.

According to the Military’s strategic guiding principles, if things ever developed to the point of urban ground warfare, humanity would have already lost.

“Anyway, everything that needs to be said is here. You may go.”

After finishing his instructions, Ding Hu waved his hand grandly, with a feeling of parting after a long farewell.

“Wait.” Tang Tianxin stood up.

“What are your orders, General Tang?” Chen Feng asked obediently.

Tang Tianxin thought for a moment. “Although you have some advantages in operational skill, which represents hard power, actual combat is different from simple maneuvering operations. It also includes abilities in close combat and the utilization of on-site resources. Don’t underestimate those data-simulated virtual opponents either. Each simulated warrior has been programmed with the combat techniques and fighting instincts of a regular enlisted soldier. They are not to be taken lightly. If you feel you cannot hold on, don’t force yourself. After all, you’ve already earned many extra points in the first three events.”

Hearing this, Ding Hu added, “Yes, although your talent is high, you haven’t trained in combat fighting. Although medical science is advanced now and can fix you up as long as you don’t die, a recovery time that is too long will also delay your future progress.”

Professor Ouyang immediately added his own comment. “That’s right. And there is a difference between armored combat and hand-to-hand combat. To combine the two, even for you, it would take at least a month, oh no, two or three weeks of training. And that’s on the premise that you have already mastered mature combat fighting skills.”

Chen Feng thought to himself, how should he explain this?

The concerns from others were well-intentioned kindness, which he shouldn’t refuse.

But in fact, everyone’s worries were completely unnecessary.

However, empty words wouldn’t prove anything now and would just be a waste of expressions. It was better to just step onto the stage and let his fists do the talking.

“Okay, I remember everything. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.”

Only after he entered the special combat Simulator, which wasn’t used much in the Base, did everyone begin to feel tense.

But the tension only lasted for about five minutes.

Space combat took place in a zero-gravity environment, something Chen Feng truly had not practiced. Especially since the virtual opponent he faced actually tore off a metal rod from the Warship’s porthole to use as a weapon, catching him off guard.

But his panic didn’t last long. After steadying himself, he quickly adapted to the environment of space combat and used the magnetic system with incredible skill.

Using positive and negative traction from the Warship’s metal surface, or using magnetic forces to disrupt the opponent’s movements.

He went from not knowing how to perform these sophisticated operations to mastering them in less than five minutes.

What was even more outrageous was that he completely broke his so-called promise to be careful, frequently pushing his own acceleration up to 23G, and even occasionally hitting the terrifying peak of 23.5G.

As for the combat skills everyone was worried about earlier, they were never a problem from the start. What he lacked was merely experience in combining armored combat with hand-to-hand combat, and he made up for this gap in five minutes.

As long as the competition didn’t allow the use of long-range weapons, he stood firmly undefeated, no matter how many opponents there were.

So, naturally, this space combat simulation battle became a one-sided massacre with no suspense.

The G-force levels of both sides were different; their combat power wasn’t on the same level at all.

As time passed, when the other contestants at most lasted until facing six opponents and were then judged as defeated and kicked out of the room, Chen Feng had already been maneuvering for quite a while, pursued by a full twelve opponents.

He cleverly used his own speed advantage and utilized the terrain of the Warship’s surface to the extreme, sometimes retreating like a nimble fish, sometimes killing a returning enemy like a ghost, then defeating the opponents one by one.

Even though the simulated opponent programs included combined attack techniques, Chen Feng simply didn’t give them the chance to attack him together.

One hour passed, and the number of opponents in front of him finally maxed out at fifteen.

Coming out of the Simulator, he said with some regret, “Sigh, the time was a bit short. Give me another ten minutes, and I could have taken care of all fifteen of them.”

The training building was dead silent.

Everyone had become numb to his act of speaking such arrogant words with an utterly indifferent face.

“How did it feel?”

Others didn’t speak, but as his operations assistant, Professor Ouyang felt he should at least say something.

Chen Feng actually thought seriously for a long time and offered his critique: “After all, they are all digitized things, less adaptable than real people. Once you find the pattern, taking on ten, even fifteen, is quite easy. But I believe real people wouldn’t be so weak. If the simulated opponents didn’t stubbornly chase after me but firmly stuck together, I would also be at a loss. In simple terms, it’s nothing special.”

Professor Ouyang turned his face away, thinking he shouldn’t have asked.

As the representative of the Xuanwu Institute, Ou Qinglan laughed heartily in her private channel with Tang Tianxin. “This soldier of yours is truly a talent. If others tried to talk like him, they’d be asking for a beating. But when he says it, it sounds perfectly natural.”

Tang Tianxin smiled. “Isn’t this the same as we used to be?”

Ou Qinglan pondered carefully. “No, it’s still a bit different. He’s even more arrogant than we were. But this feeling is familiar to us; it’s the feeling of loneliness at the top.”

Another one and a half hours passed. When the sun set in the west, the All-Army Competition for the T800 group finally ended.

Different from past situations, even though the T800 group received a lot of attention before, and to maintain competition efficiency, contestants would still continuously enter other group competitions.

But this time, on one hand, because Chen Feng pulled the acceleration too high and occupied too much of the Central AI’s computing power, the Military was forced to reduce the number of concurrently operating competition group venues. On the other hand, too many contestants were eagerly waiting to watch his matches and were reluctant to enter their own.

As a result, by this time, less than a quarter of the entire army’s schedule had been completed. A competition that usually finished in two or three days would probably be stretched to four or five days this time.

But no one blamed Chen Feng for occupying too many social resources.

The reason was simple: the significance of genius for an era is to raise the upper limit of people’s horizons and further improve the overall average level of the entire environment.

Maybe they were truly stimulated by him, or perhaps other contestants had accumulated skills through hard training and were now bursting forth. The overall performance of this competition was a huge leap stronger than previous ones.

But no matter how strong others became, the top spot of the All-Army Competition had already been predetermined.

To celebrate Chen Feng’s overwhelming victory, Tang Tianxin decided to have all officers at the captain rank or above in the Base come to the top floor of the cafeteria building for a victory celebration.

Of course, this also included Chen Feng himself, the man of the hour, and the newly promoted second lieutenant.

At the banquet, Chen Feng wore his newly custom-tailored uniform. He had also received his own officer ID and shoulder boards, signifying that he had completely left the ranks of a recruit.

From now on, he was a proper officer in the military system.

For him, ranks and titles were all superficial things.

What this represented was that he had truly gained freedom over his time.

This was the benefit he wanted the most.