Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The Mecha Department teacher sighed inwardly. Generally, students with this level of skill were already sophomores or juniors in the Mecha Department, having experienced countless real competitions and drills to develop such unflappable tactical poise.

But Jiang Se was just a freshman.

*

Jiang Se took a deep breath as she looked at the Sharp-Horned Goat.

At this moment, she was about five seconds from landing on the ground.

Jiang Se raised her hand and rested her finger on the trigger.

She had never used a pulse gun before, only having seen its assembly instructions and schematics in various reference materials while reviewing mecha theory. Thus, her movements were a bit clumsy.

Jiang Se’s gaze remained firmly locked on the Sharp-Horned Goat.

The Sharp-Horned Goat was also watching her, its hind legs slightly bent, its entire body taut like a drawn bowstring, with all its focus concentrated on the sharp horn atop its head.

It was ready to launch a deadly charge the moment Jiang Se landed.

On flat ground, Jiang Se, with her flesh and blood body, was absolutely no match for the Sharp-Horned Goat.

So, before even landing, Jiang Se raised her hand and pulled the trigger.

Whoosh—

Accompanied by a faint buzzing sound, the pulse gun struck the Sharp-Horned Goat.

The pulse gun seared a coin-sized hole on the goat’s chest, from which black smoke continued to pour out.

But clearly, this shot hadn’t caused any real damage to the Sharp-Horned Goat; it was more like scratching an itch.

A hint of almost human disdain flashed in the Sharp-Horned Goat’s eyes, and Jiang Se even saw a flicker of contempt in its gaze.

Yet Jiang Se’s hand remained steady. Her face blank, she fired off all the ammunition in the pulse gun’s magazine.

The magazine held six rounds, all of which struck the Sharp-Horned Goat’s chest.

The moment the ammunition was emptied, Jiang Se landed on the ground.

Almost simultaneously, the Sharp-Horned Goat dug in with its hind legs and charged at Jiang Se.

Three, two, one…

Jiang Se counted down in her head.

Just as the final "one" echoed in her mind, a ball of intense flame suddenly erupted from the Sharp-Horned Goat’s chest.

The flames appeared abruptly and spread uncontrollably, quickly engulfing the goat’s entire body.

As everyone knows, wool is highly flammable. Jiang Se had briefly glanced at the instructions attached to the flame burner ammunition earlier—one round was enough for three bursts of flame.

However, Jiang Se had used all three bursts on the Sharp-Horned Goat, and the result was inevitable.

Within just ten seconds, the Sharp-Horned Goat had turned into a roasted whole lamb. Jiang Se could even clearly smell the aroma of lamb gradually filling the air.

Jiang Se: To be honest, she was a little hungry.

The Sharp-Horned Goat no longer had time to worry about Jiang Se. Its only thought now was to put out the fire!

But this was a grassland. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but endless plains. Streams were virtually nonexistent; the ones visible to the naked eye were thousands of miles away, more like textures generated by the holographic simulation than actual rivers.

The Sharp-Horned Goat tried every method to extinguish the flames, including thrashing around on the ground, but the fire continued to rage fiercely without any sign of dying down.

Jiang Se: The flame burner ammunition provided by this holographic simulation really works well!

About half a minute later, the Sharp-Horned Goat was successfully turned into a roasted whole lamb. Amid the overwhelming aroma, Jiang Se swallowed hard and decided to head over to try a piece of the Sharp-Horned Goat.

Really, the roasted whole lamb started it first!

*

The Mecha Department teacher, seeing Jiang Se’s sequence of moves to defeat the Sharp-Horned Goat, was cheering her on inwardly, but he maintained a composed facade. "She must have made a simple modification, combining the flame burner ammunition with the pulse gun."

The more nonchalant he seemed, the more burned the Individual Combat Department teacher’s face became. After all, he had been the one insisting earlier that Jiang Se was no match for the Sharp-Horned Goat. Now, Jiang Se had taken it down with a modified weapon, which was clearly a slap in his face.

He snorted coldly, "The exam's far from over. Just you wait!"

Before Jiang Se could step forward, the Sharp-Horned Goat turned into a string of holographic simulation data and disappeared into the grassland.

*

All that remained for Jiang Se in the grassland was a square black box.

Jiang Se: ?!

Where’s my roasted whole lamb? Where’s my big, delicious roasted whole lamb?!

The black box was square, bearing the emblem of Alliance University, and secured with a black latch at the front.

Jiang Se crouched down, opened the latch, and found inside a brand-new handheld flame burner and three rounds of flame burner ammunition.

This flame burner wasn’t like the makeshift contraption Jiang Se had assembled earlier with the pulse gun and flame burner ammunition. It was a genuine, high-yield flame burner.

"It seems that killing mutated beasts in simulated battles rewards you with corresponding weapons," Jiang Se murmured to herself as she looked at the flame burner.

And she reasonably suspected that the reason she was rewarded with this was because she had just carbon-roasted a whole lamb.

Jiang Se hefted the flame burner, and a wicked grin crept onto her face as if she had thought of something.

The next moment, a dark head suddenly popped out from the grass beside Jiang Se, and a clear male voice enthusiastically invited her, "Hello, classmate! Would you like to team up?"

Jiang Se looked at the figure wrapped in a ghillie suit and asked curiously, "Teaming up is fine, but can I ask where you got that green outfit?"

The long-haired boy scratched his nose somewhat sheepishly. "It seems like every student in our Command Department got one. It was given to us as soon as we landed."

Jiang Se: Great. Clearly, the teachers of both the Command Department and the Mecha Department were very worried that their students would be picked off by the Individual Combat Department as soon as they landed.

"Do you have any other teammates?" Jiang Se asked casually.

"Yes, but two students from the Individual Combat Department came to provoke us earlier. She got angry and chased after them."

"...Should we go help?"

"Probably not—" Before he could finish, a rumbling sound echoed from not far away, followed by a plume of black smoke rising into the sky.

A tractor drove over from the distance, with imposing and unstoppable momentum.

In the driver’s seat, a girl with voluminous wavy hair gripped the steering wheel tightly, barreling recklessly across the grassland on the tractor.

The tractor moved extremely fast and soon pulled up in front of Jiang Se and the boy.

As the black smoke dissipated, Zhu Jin finished his sentence: "She's already back."

The young woman looked over from the tractor, raised an eyebrow at the two, and asked, "New teammate?"

"Mecha Department, Jiang Se."

The girl jumped down from the tractor one-handed and held out her hand. "Individual Combat Department, Chu Yun."

As soon as she finished speaking, a loud bang suddenly came from the tractor's engine, accompanied by even thicker black smoke.

"Damn it!" Chu Yun cursed. "Stolen goods are always junk!"

With her left hand, she grabbed Zhu Jin, and with her right, she grabbed Jiang Se, ready to get her two weak, pitiful, and helpless teammates out of there.