I’m Addicted to your Pheromones from the First Moment We Met - Chapter 38

A vast expanse of water filled the view.

Yu Zhouyao piloted her mecha, shifting her perspective slightly to carefully observe the surroundings.

They seemed to be standing on a bed of pebbles, right by the riverbank. Looking into the distance, dense forests grew on both sides of the rushing current, lush and green, obscuring everything behind them.

Yu Zhouyao asked, “Eldest Miss, is this the same map you entered yesterday?”

“Yes. My starting position yesterday was near here too, right by the riverbank. I spent the whole time circling this section of the waterway.”

“Then… how did you finish the level yesterday?”

“I wandered around in a daze for over an hour and eventually reached a certain spot. A bunch of giant big-headed fish jumped out of the water, so I used my weapons to eliminate them all. Then the system announced I had cleared the level and gave me eight points.”

Yu Zhouyao fell into deep thought.

“Mm… that sounds a bit vague. Honestly, I’ve been confused. The virtual competition levels provide no hints, nor do they tell the pilots the criteria for passing or scoring. What exactly is the examiner trying to test?”

Yu Zhouyao sighed. “Let’s take it one step at a time.”

The two followed the current downstream.

After walking for about twenty minutes, the sound of the rushing water faded, and the waves gradually smoothed out as the river entered a calm phase. Ahead lay an endless stretch of flat terrain, yet deep forests still lined both banks.

Yu Zhouyao stopped in her tracks.

“Eldest Miss, don’t you think… the terrain of this map is strange? It gives me a sense of disharmony.”

“It does. I felt the same way when I played this map yesterday.”

“The flow slowing down as mountains transition into plains is normal. But the surrounding vegetation being deep canyon forest… that’s logically inconsistent.”

Yu Zhouyao continued, “I want to go back to the starting point and observe again.”

“Okay.”

The two returned to the starting area and examined the surroundings closely.

As they watched, a large school of big-headed fish leapt out of the white spray. Their color was like mud soaked in water, an unsettling sight.

“Eldest Miss, is this the group?”

“Yes,” Mu Mingyue said, raising her laser cannon. “Their movement speed is average. As long as we’re fast enough, we can wipe them out in one go. Come on, Zhouyao.”

“On it.” Yu Zhouyao also raised her weapon, aiming at the school of fish.

The laser beams struck the big-headed fish, leaving charred marks as they instantly turned from living creatures into carcasses. The bodies splashed onto the water’s surface, bellies up.

Yu Zhouyao flew above the river, intending to inspect the remains.

Before she could look for more than a few seconds, a system window popped up: “Congratulations on clearing the level. Scoring in progress… System score: nine points. Please keep trying.”

The two were ejected from the virtual battlefield.

Yu Zhouyao opened her eyes in the pod and took a deep breath.

It was too strange. Too frustrating. Before she could even do anything or wrap her head around it, the first level was over. The test-taker was forced to end the exam before even figuring out the examiner’s intent.

Rarely did Yu Zhouyao feel this sensation of throwing a heavy punch into a bale of cotton.

Mu Mingyue asked her, “Zhouyao, want to try again?”

Yu Zhouyao nodded. “Let’s go.”

They reloaded the first level and returned to the water.

To save time, Yu Zhouyao decided they should split up.

“Eldest Miss, I’ll stay by the rapids. You go ahead and guard the calm waters. If the core task is to eliminate big-headed fish, then the mission should clear as long as one of us encounters them.”

Mu Mingyue replied, “Understood. Contact me via comms if anything happens.”

Yu Zhouyao stared intently at the rushing river. The sound of the water was loud, and the environmental noise was chaotic. It was nearly impossible to judge underwater movements by sound.

Yu Zhouyao picked up her laser weapon and fired into the water at the lowest frequency, attempting to draw the attention of any aquatic creatures.

From the tactile feedback of the weapon, she was certain the laser had hit something solid and heavy. It wasn’t a fish, it wasn’t a wave, and it likely wasn’t an ordinary sandy riverbed.

Gradually, fish began to take the bait near her point of attack. The school seemed to rush into her line of fire, dying under her laser cannon.

Yu Zhouyao increased her output frequency, performing point-to-point attacks as if trying to lure all the fish in the area to one spot for a concentrated kill.

Groups of big-headed fish lunged at the laser pillars, their bodies covering most of the lake’s surface.

Seeing this, Yu Zhouyao knew the level was about to end again.

She counted down, “Three… two… one…”

The mechanical voice rang out again. “Congratulations on clearing the level. Scoring in progress… System score: twenty-one points. Please keep trying.”

Yu Zhouyao blinked.

Twenty-one points? A sudden jump like that?

Mu Mingyue was delighted. “Zhouyao, Zhouyao! You got twenty-one points all by yourself. That’s amazing!”

Yu Zhouyao rubbed her head, a thought forming.

She continued to team up with the Eldest Miss for three or four more rounds. They stayed together near the rapids, all four laser cannons firing at full power. They finished each match in less than twenty minutes.

Counting it up, they had earned nearly a hundred points that evening. At this rate, if they worked this hard for fifty days, they wouldn’t fail.

Wait! I only have twenty days at most!

Yu Zhouyao sighed.

Based on her understanding of the school, she was certain the faculty didn’t want them to complete the task by simply stacking hours. There had to be something they hadn’t discovered yet—like these damn rules.

From tonight’s experience, “time taken” was clearly a key scoring factor. Once they got better at gathering and farming the mobs, their scores hit twenty-six or twenty-seven.

Understanding the map, or how the flora and fauna interacted with the environment, was surely another crucial point of evaluation. For instance, why did the big-headed fish appear near the rapids?

What’s going on? Isn’t this a mecha class? Why are they testing me on “Battlefield Botany” and “Battlefield Zoology”?

With these doubts, Yu Zhouyao opened the second level alone.

“Welcome to the Black Rock Sands.”

Huh?

That sounded familiar.

Yu Zhouyao piloted her mecha, moving at a low speed to observe her surroundings.

The familiarity wasn’t an illusion; she knew the imagery provided by the virtual battlefield all too well.

“Black Rock Sands” was located on Planet M412 in the Border System. Its official name was Black Rock Sands, but locals called it the “Black Plague.” The region was famous for its massive population of giant black rats.

Yu Zhouyao blinked.

Nice. She had rolled into familiar territory. Perhaps she could try a speed run.

In her experience, the giant black rats moved in packs and were incredibly fast. If a person encountered a large swarm without protection, they were almost certainly doomed.

Since the targets moved so fast, the pilot needed high precision and attack speed. If your aim was off, every shot would miss.

But then again…

Yu Zhouyao smiled.

As a child of the borders, how could she not know how to deal with black rats? What a joke.

As the saying goes, within ten steps of a poison, there must be an antidote.

Yu Zhouyao pushed her mecha into a sprint.

Found it!

If these terrifying black rats were allowed to run wild, Planet M412 would be finished. Based on ancestral wisdom, the people of M412 discovered that a grey-white herbaceous plant could repel them. Local residents planted several layers of it around the “Black Plague” areas to block the rats’ movement.

Yu Zhouyao gathered a large bunch of the grey-white grass.

The grass alone wasn’t enough; it could only repel the rats, not gather and eliminate them.

She headed straight for the next collection point.

This time she needed to gather Snow Fox Orchids—a strange, snowy-white, fluffy plant named for its resemblance to a fox’s tail.

She had once accidentally set a Snow Fox Orchid on fire, which unexpectedly drew a massive swarm of black rats. She had quite a struggle escaping that time.

Alright, the materials were ready.

Yu Zhouyao returned to the Black Rock Sands with the grey-white grass and the Snow Fox Orchids. She laid a perimeter of the grass and placed the orchid right at the center.

Everything was set; she just had to wait for the rats to enter the trap.

Yu Zhouyao ascended to a suitable height, waiting for the giant black rats to appear.

Before long, the sound of the ground vibrating came from the distance, followed by billowing dust. A massive swarm of black rats charged toward the trap.

Seizing the moment, Yu Zhouyao used her laser cannon to ignite the Snow Fox Orchid, making the anti-rat drug’s effect burst forth even more intensely.

One by one, the black rats lunged toward the center, even crawling over their companions’ bodies to get in. Because of the grey-white grass perimeter, they were all squeezed into the innermost circle, with not a single one running outward.

Yu Zhouyao swapped weapons, adjusted the attack frequency, and charged up.

Three…

Two…

One…

With a loud boom, a massive crater was blasted into the ground, and a cloud of dust erupted, obscuring the view.

None of the black rats were spared; they had all died obediently in the trap.

Yu Zhouyao used the mecha’s forearm to pick up the largest rat and inspect it. Ah, the skin is scorched. Tsk.

After a few seconds, the mechanical voice rang out: “Congratulations on clearing the level. Scoring in progress. System score: sixty-five points. Please keep trying.”

Yu Zhouyao was quite satisfied with this score.

She had gained a deeper understanding of the virtual battlefield’s scoring mechanism.

Over the next few days, Yu Zhouyao and Mu Mingyue ground the second level together. Once they were proficient, their scores approached seventy.

Mu Mingyue was full of praise for Yu Zhouyao: “Our Teacher Yu is so amazing, discovering the secret to breaking the level so quickly.”

“Ah… I just got lucky. I might be the only person in the school who actually knows about the Black Rock Sands, haha.”

Yu Zhouyao added, “We’ll have to keep searching for tricks in the other levels. Eldest Miss, please help me look up info on ‘Battlefield Zoology’ and ‘Battlefield Botany’.”

“No problem!”

With Mu Mingyue’s help, Yu Zhouyao’s solo progress reached the tenth level. Although her scores on other levels didn’t break sixty, they remained stable in the fifties.

Only the first level remained a total mystery to her.

The turning point came from a certain complaint she made.

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