Chapter 79: Slump

Chapter 79: Slump

This meal was not very enjoyable for Chen Feng.

The military had a rule: alcohol was forbidden while in a state of combat readiness.

For several consecutive years now, they had been in a state of combat readiness, so the military had long been without a drop of alcohol.

A millennium had passed since then, and the status of alcohol in the military camp had greatly declined.

Alcohol reduced people’s reaction times and affected their control of the Azure Dragon Armor. Everyone had gotten used to not having alcohol anyway.

But Chen Feng came from a thousand years ago. He wasn’t an alcoholic, but having a couple of drinks when the mood struck him was a habit.

Today was clearly a great occasion, yet he couldn’t have a single drop, which left him feeling rather empty inside, but he couldn’t really complain.

“You don’t seem in high spirits. Aren’t you happy about winning first place?”

Tang Tianxin, sitting next to him, raised a wine glass filled with pure natural orange juice and waved it in front of his eyes as she said this.

Chen Feng shrugged. “It’s fine, I guess.”

Tang Tianxin suddenly said something rather unpleasant. “Did you catch it from Ding Hu? I’ve seen your file. You’re a Synthetic Human.”

Chen Feng retorted, “General Tang, is that racial discrimination?”

“I’m not discriminating. There isn’t really a concept of ‘race’ anymore. And no Synthetic Human has ever achieved what you have before. I’m not just talking about your rate of improvement, but your current abilities are unprecedented among Synthetic Humans.”

Chen Feng didn’t know how to respond to that. “Well, thanks for the praise then.”

“Although it’s a bit late, you might not understand the significance of your emergence. You’ve proven that the upper limit for Synthetic Humans is just as high as for ordinary people. What you’ve changed isn’t just your own citizen grade. I believe that starting today, many more Synthetic Humans like you will receive fair treatment.”

Chen Feng asked, puzzled, “What do you mean by that?”

His previous social status had been too low. He had never been exposed to or considered the complex social system issues Tang Tianxin was talking about.

Ever since he was secretly spreading Doomsday talk and got “silenced,” he had lost interest in criticizing the current affairs of this era.

“Not all Subsistence Allowance Recipients are content to be useless, especially the large number of Synthetic Humans among them. It was commonly believed that top-tier geniuses rarely appeared among Synthetic Humans. No matter how hard they tried, they could only end up in the most basic jobs at best. You’ve shifted the era’s perspective. Countless people will thank you for your contribution.”

“Oh, how touching. So, as a reward, can I get access to the Xuanwu Institute? Or at least open up the permissions for me to query past data in the Pangu Institute?”

“What do you need those for?” Tang Tianxin asked.

Chen Feng thought this was his chance. “Because I love learning. Learning makes me happy.”

“Sorry, no. Each field of knowledge is too vast. Especially now that you’ve proven your talent in combat, to protect your talent and ensure it’s used to its fullest, the Military definitely won’t allow you to be exposed to that redundant information.”

Chen Feng fell silent.

At this moment, he deeply understood the saying that no amount of mysticism can change bad luck, and no amount of spending can change fate.

I’ve worked so hard. My talent is off the charts. But all that effort was in the wrong direction!

Darn it!

“Moreover, the All-Army Competition and the Research Institute’s recruitment are two entirely different systems.”

“No crossover allowed at all?”

“None.”

Chen Feng shrugged. “This era is really boring then. Even the opponents in simulated battles are all humanoid. The imagination is so lacking. No wonder…”

He was about to say “no wonder you’ll lose,” but he caught himself, realizing it hadn’t happened yet, and saying more was pointless.

Just thinking about that inevitable full stop made him look even more listless.

He thought this time might be different from the past, but it turned out to be pretty much the same. It really was a bit boring.

Whatever. He had pretty much mastered the Azure Dragon Armor, and his citizen grade seemed to have hit the top. It was about time to take a break anyway.

From Chen Feng’s perspective, without a real war, he couldn’t earn military merits. So, the rank of Second Lieutenant and the corresponding first-grade citizen access he just got were probably the peak achievements of his trip to this era.

After all, that real war would be over too quickly, just a few minutes, and then all of humanity would be wiped out. There would be no talk of earning merits or getting promotions.

Fine. He would just stay put quietly, pick a slightly more durable Warship towards the inside of the fleet, and see what happens then.

As for how much he would see, he could only do his best and leave the rest to fate.

After seeing it, he’d probably just be waiting to die.

Chen Feng thought it over carefully. This situation, where no matter how hard you try during the process, you can still see the ending at a glance, was very boring and demoralizing.

But he also knew that what he had to do was try everything possible to change that ending.

Feeling dejected didn’t mean he would give up easily. He just didn’t want to get himself all fired up with passion before he could see a real hope of final success.

Being passionate for no reason wasn’t interesting. It was better to stay calm and do his best.

After all, achieving great things relied on perseverance, not short-lived bursts of fighting spirit.

Perseverance was harder than burning passion.

What really discouraged him was exactly what Tang Tianxin said.

He had shown off to such an extent, even punching a hole through the human ceiling, and yet he still wasn’t allowed to cross over.

The system was clearly creating artificial obstacles for him, hindering his work.

When he was a useless Subsistence Allowance Recipient, he was fascinated by this era’s high-welfare, specialized-division model. It was great, convenient for being a slacker.

But when he really wanted to climb up, he found the omnipresent access restrictions incredibly annoying.

Gradually, he came to believe that the current era’s system, while seemingly maximizing the function of every capable person, was too rigid. It stifled human creativity, depriving everyone, from birth, of the right to choose their own life.

Just as Tang Tianxin said, when a Synthetic Human was born as a Subsistence Allowance Recipient, lacking educational resources and proper guidance, even with talent, they would most likely still end up as a Subsistence Allowance Recipient.

A screw was always a screw. Wisdom born in the garbage heap would still be buried in the garbage heap.

Ordinary screws didn’t even have the most basic right to choose which machine to serve; it was invisibly killed.

On the surface, in this Timeline, human technology had indeed taken a huge leap forward due to the self-sacrifice of generations. But Chen Feng thought maybe it could have been done better. Maybe those over 1.3 million martyrs from the Pangu Institute’s predecessor didn’t need to sacrifice so cruelly.

But now it was all set in stone. He was powerless to change it.

All of this was dampening his enthusiasm since arriving in this era.

Well, whatever.

He had come this far. He would finish reading all the information he needed to see, then try to follow the rules and climb a little bit, see how far he could ultimately go, and then obediently wait for death.