017 Surpassing Limits

Physical training, obstacle course navigation.

Following a 500-meter warm-up run, Bai E's group began the first official item of today's training.

Queued behind his teammates, Bai E recalled the introduction to the four basic attributes from the official website—

Physical attributes are a general term for a composite of attributes including strength, endurance, muscle power, self-healing ability, and even the ability to extract energy from food.

Perhaps in the later stages, when attributes are higher, the same number of physical points but different strengths may make a world of difference. However, in the early stages, the physical point count is the absolute expression of those finer abilities.

Insight relates to a character's observational abilities or, more specifically, the ability to collect and receive information, describing the strength of the five senses.

Reflex represents the body's coordination ability, the speed of nervous reflex transmission, and so on. According to the official explanation, this is quite important in latter-stage combat—whether a person's reactions can be faster than a bullet depends on this attribute.

As for the last, the mysterious... it's indeed mysterious, known only to be related to Spiritual Energy, with the specific effects left unsaid by the official site, leaving players to find the answer in the game themselves.

And the main target of the current training is—physical attributes.

Jumping, running, climbing, crawling... all these methods undoubtedly share the same goal—

To drain every ounce of their physical energy.

"When you feel your strength has been exhausted, advance one more meter! And then another meter!"

This is the absolute secret to attribute enhancement.

Wood wandered by the side of the obstacle course, observing the arduous progress of the artificial humans under his command.

Upon reaching their limit, every step forward was accompanied by torrents of sweat and trembling bodies.

The path of thorns cut into many a warrior's arms and thighs, and the diluted blood turned a pale pink as it mixed with sweat and was absorbed by the dark earth.

Among them, some of the more clumsily controlled artificial humans quickly exhausted their energy and stopped, unable to move an inch further.

This group of 50 individuals were all artificial humans with an initial physical attribute of 11 points. In theory, their performance should be the same, but reality proved otherwise; even with the same attributes, there would be differences in performance.

However, it didn't matter, as they would naturally learn how to conserve energy during training.

And moreover...

Wood's mouth twisted into a wicked smile as he walked to a point on the course and marked a boundary.

"You are a team, and should learn to help each other. Now, if someone is lagging behind, it's up to the others to make up the distance. However far from the finish line they are, somebody will have to go that extra distance. If you don't complete it, none of you will get to eat. And besides... the whole camp will know your fame! They'll know what sort of... weaklings the 358th squad is!"

Artificial humans might not fear death, but that doesn't mean they don't tire or lack the mindset and emotions typical of humans.

The normal punishments for human training apply to artificial humans as well.

Upon hearing Wood's words, some artificial humans instantly found the essence ingrained in their DNA.

"F*ck!"

"Crap!"

"Geneva!"

Bai E remained silent, continuing to climb forward at a steady pace.

This was a stretch of rope net in the air, shaking and swaying with large holes that made it easy to step through.

His nearby comrade, overwhelmed with emotion, stepped through and ended up in pain.

Bai E had no objections to the instructor's directions.

The finish line drawn by the other party was actually within sight, but Bai E did not feel his body had reached its limit.

With a physical attribute of 11.3 and reflexes at 10.1, he was already starting off at a different point from the other artificial humans. Without touching his limits, there would be no benefit to his attribute growth.

Every bit of growth was crucial for survival on the battlefield in two days.

Not to mention there was also a mission: buy three, get one free.

Even without the encouragement from his teammates or the demands of the instructor, he would push himself as much as possible.

…

Watching the figure on the rope net who strived to maintain balance yet couldn't stop swaying, a group of four from a special team discussed softly from a distance.

"Who's going to be the bad guy later?"

"I'll go."

You's tone was cold, "Ordinary progress can't keep up with the demands of battle."

They too had come from the new recruit phase and knew that there would be a period of rest after the initial training.

But rest? Why rest? Only the useless, those of no benefit to humanity, would rest.

Since Bai E had been assigned to their special squad and was about to assume more severe responsibilities in combat, he should be stronger than anyone else.

If Bai E couldn't meet their standards, perhaps he would be temporarily unable to participate in the special operations as their teammate.

Even if he reached the finish line, Bai E could forget about resting!

...

He crossed the finish line!

Bai E kept his head as low as possible, sweat droplets fell like rain from the tips of his soaked hair.

Advance one meter!

Then another meter!

His body was far from its limit, he couldn't stop now.

Seeing Bai E still moving forward, You narrowed his eyes, his footsteps, which had just showed signs of movement, stopped instantly, "He didn't stop?"

...

"The targets set by our instructor are precisely calculated, only the most excellent of the new artificial humans can reach the endpoint. Among those, only the exceptionally outstanding individuals who break their limits directly in training might progress further."

On the high platform, the young military officer continued to demonstrate humanity's technical excellence in front of Yue Ying.

"Is that so?"

Yue Ying's gaze slightly narrowed, easily locking onto the three figures that had surpassed their limits.

"Damn those losers, now I have to make up for them!"

"Why did I have to end up with such losers as teammates!"

By Bai E's side, two well-built brutes slowly marched forward, cursing their teammates through gritted teeth.

Eight meters...

Ten meters...

One fell.

Twelve meters...

Fifteen meters...

"I can't go on..."

After reaching their limit, every step felt like moving mountains, both legs as heavy as if they were filled with lead.

The muscles in their arms ached, and the rope they tried to grip tightly in their hands became loose and slack.

They probably wouldn't be able to get past this slope...

The brute looked up at the wooden plank slope in front of him, which was at an angle of roughly 70 degrees, let out a forceful exhale from his chest, and his body immediately flopped onto the ground, every fingertip spelling out "total collapse."

Shadows overtook his eyes, he turned his head and saw that the average-sized guy beside him was, as before, calmly tightening the rope in his hand, his black leather combat boots softly stepping onto the plank, slowly yet steadily climbing upward...

"Where did he get that fierce gene from?"

"That's not right... wasn't this kid registered as a sharpshooter yesterday?"

"Proficiency is one thing, attributes are another..."

Lacking enough resources for the training ground, the other artificial humans who had finished training earlier and were now resting on the side watched this continuing figure and uttered gasps of amazement.

Despite the short time they had been training, they had already dubbed that slope "The Terminal Chasm," and not a single new recruit had managed to cross it.

And now, was it about to be conquered?