What Should I Do If My Ex-Girlfriend's Pheromones Smell Too Good? - Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Rules: She Has a Competitive Streak, Too.

After the instructor finished explaining the training content, he began distributing protective suits.

He Xuchou directly collected six sets for the team.

The moment Shu Qiong took hers, she realized the suit was quite heavy. The outermost layer was stiff and a bit troublesome to put on; there were likely sensor components embedded inside. The padding was noticeably thicker around the neck, arms, and legs. Once the helmets were on, everyone in the arena looked like identical mass-produced robots.

“All suited up?” the instructor asked. “Alright, open the lap counters you wore earlier. It displays your lap count and overall ranking. Your ranking determines your lane number.”

Someone immediately asked, “Report! Are there difficulty differences between the lanes?”

The instructor laughed with his hands behind his back. “Put away your naive thoughts. If there weren’t differences, why would we rank you? The higher the rank, the higher the difficulty of the combat robot in that lane. The intensity increases every twenty slots. Rest assured, we’ve provided ‘tailor-made care’ for every one of you.”

That “rest assured” only made everyone feel more uneasy.

Shu Qiong checked the numbers of the others. She and Chang Xichun were 81 and 83—close enough. Qin Liang, the endurance specialist, was in Lane 26. Yan Xiangyu and He Xuchou had charged into the top ten, placing them half a stadium away from the lanes in the eighties.

Shu Qiong navigated the crowd to find Lane 81. As soon as she stepped within a meter of the combat robot, its featureless head tilted up. Red lights on its face flashed rapidly before the indicator turned green.

Simultaneously, one of its legs swept out in a horizontal kick without warning. The speed was so fast it barely gave her time to react.

!!

Shu Qiong exploded with the fastest speed she had ever summoned, jumping to the side. To her surprise, as the flying leg landed, a punch followed immediately. She hurriedly raised her arms to block. The heavy force of the robot pressed against her right arm; even through the protective suit, she felt a dull throb of pain.

The number “1” lit up on the robot’s face, accompanied by a small animated firework.

Shu Qiong hadn’t expected special effect animations. Stunned for a split second, she was caught off guard and knocked down by the robot’s palm strike. Immediately after, a red dot flashed on her forehead. Hit in a vital spot, her score reset to zero, and the combat robot retracted its fist and returned to the start.

“So sneaky!”

In the nearby lanes, many others had fallen for the same trick, howling that the designers were heartless. It actually knew how to play psychological warfare!

Shu Qiong rubbed her arm, recalling the robot’s strength and the frequency of the ceiling shots. It felt tricky. She stepped forward back into the attack range. This time, the robot didn’t lead with a kick; it went for a palm strike to the head. Just as Shu Qiong was about to block, the robot shifted the palm into an elbow strike mid-motion.

The elbow came out of nowhere. No matter how fast Shu Qiong’s reflexes were, she only had time to twist her body so the hit landed on her upper arm instead of her chest, causing her to stagger. Logically, this shouldn’t have counted as a successful block, but the robot still registered a point.

“Heh, if you’re tough enough to take a beating, you can try letting it hit you all the way to the end without resisting,” the instructor suggested maliciously while patrolling. “I guarantee it’ll count as a pass.”

Shu Qiong silently backed away. However, once she retreated past the one-meter mark, she realized the robot didn’t reset and return to the start. It stayed in place, frozen in its punching posture.

Shu Qiong: !

The student in Lane 82 happened to see this and was shocked. “That works? Can we just exploit that bug?”

Before the words fully left their mouth, the red dot from the ceiling aimed at Shu Qiong’s chest with extraordinary speed, sniping her back to zero points.

“…”

Fine, it seemed bugs weren’t allowed.

Shu Qiong shook her head regretfully. The girl in Lane 82 seemed embarrassed by her “jinx” and offered comfort: “At least you explored a new path.”

Even if it was a dead end.

Shu Qiong: “…Thanks.”

She chose to honestly figure out the combat robot’s patterns. After a few rounds, the stadium was filled with wails. Everyone realized the rules sounded simple, but the actual operation was a nightmare. The robot’s patterns were unpredictable: punches, kicks, elbows, and even headbutts. It even knew how to feint.

Shu Qiong reached over a dozen points several times only to be sniped back to the start. The only good news was that the frequency of the robot’s strikes was constant; it didn’t speed up or slow down randomly.

After being sniped a few more times, although she still couldn’t predict the robot’s moves perfectly, she began to anticipate the behavior of the intelligent sniper system on the ceiling.

The AI system pre-aimed very quickly, which wasn’t surprising—the protective suit acted as a beacon. However, the system seemed to have certain strange, cautious “habits,” such as fixating on specific spots. Furthermore, there was a roughly 0.3-second delay once it confirmed a lock. Combined with the virtual bullets’ speed—fast, but not instantaneous—dodging the sniper wasn’t impossible.

As Shu Qiong received strikes, she thought: Just give me a little more time. I can figure out this AI’s shooting habits.

This feeling was a bit eerie when applied to a non-human intelligence, but Shu Qiong had an intuition that the one aiming at her wasn’t a machine, but a human with specific preferences and habits. She was close to guessing the “sniper’s” hidden location—about one-fifth of the way toward the finish line above her lane.

It was a pity she didn’t have a gun; otherwise, she would have tried to counter-snipe to see if it worked.

Putting that aside for now, Shu Qiong focused on the training. She began to intentionally and skillfully leave openings for the AI sniper, trying to draw out its patterns. This caused her score to stall, hovering between ten and twenty points.

Trading blows with the robot was mentally exhausting. The constant state of apprehension was draining. Chang Xichun was right—this was a double-torture of body and mind.

One person lay down on their track in exhaustion to rest, but once five minutes passed, their combat robot activated on its own, clanking toward them to resume the beating. A nearby instructor mocked: “Don’t slack off. These are ‘nanny-style’ training robots; they’ll chase you down to spoon-feed you lessons~”

Shu Qiong was hitting her limit, too. She retreated from the attack zone for a temporary break. Five minutes of rest was better than nothing. As she sat on the floor, she found herself making eye contact with Chang Xichun, who was a lane away.

Chang Xichun flashed a smile and glanced upward. Shu Qiong knew then that the other woman had also figured out the patterns of the sniper system. She wasn’t surprised; Chang Xichun was an experienced sniper who had spent far more time with guns than she had.

Shu Qiong nodded and mouthed the word: “Keep going.”

Chang Xichun’s smile widened. This junior really didn’t disappoint. She mouthed back: “Let’s race.”

Shu Qiong raised an eyebrow.

Chang Xichun continued: “Charge to the high-level lanes. Go find them.”

“Them” referred to the other main members of the Military University team.

Shu Qiong smiled, patted her pants, stood up, gave an “OK” sign, and headed back to the start.

She had a competitive streak, too.

Shu Qiong’s previous high score was only in the low twenties, yet she had “died” nearly ten times. Statistically, she was performing below average. The patrolling instructor didn’t pay her much attention, intending to move on after a quick glance.

At that moment, Shu Qiong moved. The combat robot’s attacks were as fierce as ever. She kept receiving blows—blocking what she could, and dodging what she couldn’t without caring about the lost points. She was meticulously careful not to let any hit land directly on an undefended part of her body, maintaining absolute control over her posture and positioning.

This approach wasn’t fast, but it was steady. Her score ticked slowly but resolutely to twenty.

The instructor paused, sensing something interesting. This student lacked power, but her reaction speed was fast, and there was clearly a lot of room for improvement. However, this training wasn’t something you could pass just by being cautious. As soon as the AI sniper hit a few non-vital spots, her hard-earned points would vanish.

“This method has too low a risk tolerance,” another instructor commented as he passed by. “Unless she can guarantee she won’t get hit by the sniper even once…”

The first watching instructor agreed: “True. But so far, she hasn’t been hit. Good luck, I suppose.”

The two instructors moved on, observing and recording the weaknesses of various students. Ten minutes later, they looped back and found that Shu Qiong was still “alive.”

Now it was their turn to be surprised. They asked the student in Lane 82, who was watching: “Did she restart a new round?”

The girl in Lane 82 was already dazed. She turned her head: “No… she hasn’t been hit by the red dot once since you left.”

She had rested too long, and her own robot was coming to discipline her. She had to unwillingly trade a few blows, taking two punches before rushing back to continue watching Shu Qiong.

Instructor: “…Did you figure out the trick?”

The girl shook her head: “No! But I’m sure there’s some secret technique; I just haven’t found it yet.” She went back to staring unblinkingly at Shu Qiong.

Shu Qiong had already reached 40 points. During this time, she had “lost” over twenty points due to dodging, but she didn’t mind at all. She was nearly halfway through the track. At this rate, reaching eighty points wouldn’t be a problem.

She adjusted her breathing. Her left arm, which was feeling numb and swollen, rose to block a punch. Simultaneously, she tilted her head and ducked her torso, narrowly avoiding a red dot.

The two instructors were fascinated now, discussing it with great interest: “That red dot was already locked on her, wasn’t it? How did she dodge?”

“Dodging once or twice is luck. Doing it this long… there must be a technique.”

So, they crouched down alongside the girl from Lane 82 to watch Shu Qiong train.

At 10:00 AM, Yan Xiangyu finished her training task with a high score. After verifying her results with the instructor and clocking out, she walked toward the low-ranking area under the envious gazes of others. When she reached Lane 80, she found six or seven people crouching in the way, seriously obstructing the path.

Yan Xiangyu couldn’t get through, so she grabbed a familiar face from the crowd to ask what was happening.

Chang Xichun saw her and looked excited: “Yu! You’re here!” She stepped aside to offer a spot. “Quick, look! Our Little Shu is almost at the finish line!”

To join the fun, she had even stopped her own training, despite being the one who suggested a race. Her nature as a “spectator” was clear.

Yan Xiangyu helplessly squeezed forward and finally saw the center of attention.

Shu Qiong had actually reached eighty points already, but she was still pushing toward the finish. Every so often, a firework of a different color popped up on the robot’s face. She was at 83 points now. One look at her posture revealed she was nearly at the point of exhaustion, holding on by sheer willpower.

Yet, however weak her steps or soft her movements became, she still hadn’t been hit by a red dot. Her anticipation was becoming even more precise. Despite her brain being strained and tired, and the muscles in her blocking arm aching from the impacts, her movements were becoming increasingly practiced and fluid.

As they watched, Yan Xiangyu heard someone muttering in disbelief: “Why… I still can’t see anything… is this all just my hallucination…”

At that moment, the speaker’s rest time exceeded five minutes. The combat robot for Lane 82 clattered over to initiate a fight. Halfway there, it was blinded by the row of military students in sensor suits blocking its path.

Which one should it hit?

The program didn’t specify.