What Should I Do If My Ex-Girlfriend's Pheromones Smell Too Good? - Chapter 31

Chapter 31: Crushing the Weak

Hearing Shu Qiong’s words, Qin Liang also squatted on the ground to look closely: “Now that you mention it, it is weird. This floor tile looks incredibly expensive.”

The second floor was covered in a strange, pitch-black substance that felt slightly elastic to the touch. In such a vast hall, not a single seam could be found between the tiles. Before entering, the instructor had specifically made everyone put on silicone shoe covers, proving this was no ordinary floor.

“Finally noticed?”

The instructor pushed out a cart of equipment, distributing a pair of glasses and a training sniper rifle to everyone. “Come, come. Everyone randomly claim four to five lanes. Then, put on your glasses and ruthlessly snipe your brothers and sisters downstairs. No holding back! This morning, everyone must hit fifty points in every lane. If you don’t reach it… hehe.”

The instructor gave a sinister, “you know what I mean” smile.

Immediately, a cadet spotted a loophole: “Then isn’t it harder for the people assigned to five lanes? That’s not fair!”

The instructor nodded: “You have a point. So, to motivate the capable to do more work: anyone who chose five tracks and hits the point target before 10:00 AM gets their physical training workload for tonight cut in half.”

The students whispered among themselves—this was blatant temptation! A deal with the devil!

Ignoring the reactions of others, Shu Qiong put on the glasses to test them. The scene before her eyes transformed instantly. The floor beneath her feet seemed to vanish, faithfully revealing the movements of the people below. Looking at it for too long even gave the illusion that she was hovering in mid-air.

The cadets downstairs were putting on protective suits fitted with sensors. Looking through the specialized glasses was completely different from the naked eye. Shu Qiong discovered their suits were covered in small targets of various colors. The auxiliary glasses automatically assigned different point values to these targets based on difficulty.

She raised her silenced training rifle, aimed at a particularly lively and familiar figure, and pulled the trigger. Immediately, she saw the corresponding small target light up.

On the first floor, Chang Xichun, who had just finished putting on her suit and hadn’t even entered the track, froze. Why was there a point deduction notification? Is the training device bugged? She looked up at the ceiling, searched fruitlessly, and eventually turned back around in confusion.

Having tested the feel of the weapon, Shu Qiong felt confident and decisively raised her hand: “Instructor, I’ll take five lanes.”

The instructor couldn’t stop smiling: “Go on, go on. I have high hopes for you. Look at this, this is a role model! You’ve come to the intensive camp; shouldn’t young people have some ambition? You have to have dreams; what if they come true!”

The students who had been preparing for a collective protest all turned to glare at Shu Qiong. A traitor had appeared among the masses!

Shu Qiong, now the target of their collective ire thanks to the instructor, cleared her throat: “Don’t look at me like that. I’m taking the burden of five lanes—doesn’t that mean your extra burden becomes lighter? This is a good thing!”

She asked the instructor: “Report, Instructor! If I choose two more lanes, can I be completely exempt from physical training tonight?”

The instructor, who had looked gratified a moment ago, immediately darkened his face: “Get out of here! You think this is a vegetable market? No bargaining during training! Go stand over your assigned tracks!”

Shu Qiong spread her hands innocently at the crowd, her face wearing a look of regret that said, “See? I wanted to contribute more to the group, but the instructor wouldn’t let me,” before strolling away.

Cadets: “…”

The instructor assigned the lanes and waved them off to start.

Shu Qiong finally understood why, when she was on the first floor, she could guess the general location of the snipers overhead—because she was now in that very position. Her field of fire was limited, so she had to choose one lane at a time, hit fifty points, and then move to the next. While she wasn’t at a station, the intelligent system took over the empty lanes.

Bang! Bang!

After adjusting her angle, Shu Qiong fired twice at the moving figures below. Some target placements were very tricky. Unlike the first floor’s AI, the targets on the armpits, wrists, knees, and eye sockets carried higher points for the second-floor trainees, while larger areas like the forehead or chest—though “lethal”—carried lower values.

Shu Qiong guessed that the intelligent shooting system had probably just copied the habits of a second-floor cadet from a previous year. That would explain why, during her training on the first floor, the “sniper” had ignored her exposed vitals several times in favor of specific targets.

It took Shu Qiong only half an hour to accumulate fifty points on the first track. She shouldered her rifle with a relaxed expression and moved to the next station. Compared to the previous combat training, this was far too easy for her.

Before 10:00 AM, she had secured her own freedom at the cost of the wails and screams of her comrades on the first floor.

“I protest!” a cadet on one of the first-floor tracks wailed. “Is your shooting system cheating? Why is the difficulty different from yesterday? Why is my lane especially hard!” He had been sniped repeatedly all morning; his progress was sluggish, and he was nearly in tears.

The instructor looked at the back-end data with his hands behind his back. “Mhm, the average score for the second floor is decent this year.” He turned back to the wailing student. “The excellent control the fate of others. It’s very realistic. This is the consequence of not being able to break into the second floor immediately.”

Chang Xichun had already guessed the truth from the distinct shooting style overhead. She grumbled to Jin Yan: “I’m certain that first shot was from Xiao Shu. This afternoon… this afternoon, I will get to the second floor!”

It had to be said that once the snipers overhead switched from AI to the manual shooting of the second-floor cadets, the training on the first floor became a matter of luck. The difficulty of dodging the red dots in certain lanes would suddenly spike, leaving no time to react and specifically targeting joints. Without realizing it, trainees were pinned down and forced back to the starting line, rendering their hard work moot.

Fortunately, once the second-floor snipers reached their points, they stopped. After suffering for thirty minutes to an hour, the “monster difficulty” shooter would revert to the default AI.

Shu Qiong became the first person on the second floor to clock out. She wanted to check on Yan Xiangyu’s progress, but the instructor shooed her away. “The second floor isn’t like the first; don’t lie around here blocking people’s views!”

Wrapped in her jacket, Shu Qiong strolled toward the exit, not forgetting to remind the instructor: “Instructor, don’t forget your promise! My physical training is halved tonight!”

“I know, I know! I didn’t forget!” The instructor’s mouth twitched as he drove her away. “Kids these days, why are they so heavily specialized…”

Shu Qiong left satisfied, thinking that she would finally have time for a hot bath tonight!

She returned slowly to the dorm and finally found time to open her wristband and pull up her mecha design drafts. Lately, she had been completing the modeling for the Mecha Design Competition in her spare time while brushing up on theoretical knowledge. She curled up comfortably on her bed, a holographic screen floating before her. Her fingertips moved rapidly, and before long, a prototype of a mecha appeared.

Compared to physical training and combat, this was her true domain. Shooting counted too, but that was more of a hobby for stress relief. She had always gone to the range to blow off steam; the effect was immediate. Now, in the intensive camp, where her physical energy was drained daily, learning and mental activity had actually become her way of relaxing.

At 11:00 AM, the others hadn’t returned. Shu Qiong hesitated, sent them a message, and seeing no reply, went to the canteen to pack some food back.

When she pushed the dorm door open again, there was someone inside. Yan Xiangyu was fiddling with her wristband, seemingly having just seen Shu Qiong’s message and preparing to reply.

“Where are the others?” Shu Qiong peered around and set the lunch boxes on the table.

Yan Xiangyu stopped her movements. “Captain He and Qin Liang went to wait for the people on the first floor.”

Shu Qiong was surprised: “The first floor isn’t done yet? That shouldn’t be…” With the top fifty gone, the second tier of cadets should have had an easier time finishing.

Yan Xiangyu’s expression turned strange: “You don’t know?”

Shu Qiong looked blank. She had left the hall at 9:30 and had no idea what happened afterward.

“The shooting intelligence was upgraded,” Yan Xiangyu said with a rare hint of lingering fear. “The shooting habits it adopted… were those of the first person to clock out on the second floor.”

“…”

Shu Qiong opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed it.

Just then, Jin Yan and He Xuchou opened the door. Jin Yan looked at Shu Qiong with deep resentment, tilting her head and letting out a “Hmph!” as if she were possessed by Fang Yingying.

“Our class friendship, our camaraderie, our sisterly love—” Jin Yan waved her hands dramatically, “all shattered!”

Shu Qiong soothed her: “Come to the second floor this afternoon. Use the second floor to vent your anger.”

Jin Yan snapped her chopsticks together: “That is inevitable!”

That afternoon, the shooting range on the second floor hummed with an indescribable enthusiasm after welcoming fifty new people. They roared, they fired wildly, all to vent the frustration they had suffered in the morning.

The first-floor trainees could endure the wild firing of the other cadets, but they could not accept the “monster difficulty” Shu Qiong-version AI. They collectively protested to the instructor.

“This mechanism is irrational! The difficulty spike is too high!” one person shouted. Another racked their brain: “This is surely unfair to the student who came in first this morning! It means we all have an understanding of her shooting habits, and she’ll be at a disadvantage in the University League because of it!” Another tried a different angle: “Change it, Instructor! Even if you can’t go back to the original AI, change it to the habits of the second person to clock out!”

The instructor thought about it and agreed.

That afternoon, Chang Xichun finally got her wish and moved to the second floor. She contentedly rubbed the stock of her rifle and also chose five tracks, following in Shu Qiong’s footsteps. Shu Qiong, having trained once in the morning, was very adapted; her progress was lightning-fast, her red dots hitting true with an error rate of about 6%.

Chang Xichun took some time to adapt. Her style was completely different from Shu Qiong’s; her firing frequency wasn’t as high, but her accuracy was terrifying. Her error rate reached a haunting 2%, demonstrating the power of a naturally gifted, veteran sniper.

The instructor behind the data console was stunned and shared the news with the instructor on the first floor. The first-floor instructor, who had just promised to switch the AI to the habits of the “second person to clock out,” suddenly wore a very complicated expression.

The afternoon session went exceptionally smoothly. Chang Xichun finished right after Shu Qiong. As the two walked down the stairs, they paused for a moment, hearing strange wails coming from the first-floor hall.

Like a pig being slaughtered? Chang Xichun shook her head, unable to understand.