"All the residents in Smokeless City are the first batch of volunteers to undergo consciousness upload."
These were Zhou Ling’s exact words.
The main difference between the Modified Human system and the New Martial system lay in whether consciousness was uploaded. The forr had completely abandoned old ways of thinking, wholeheartedly embracing the new path of "Flesh is weak; chanical ascendance is strength." For Modified Humans, the physical body was already equivalent to a tool that could be discarded and replaced at any ti. As long as the consciousness backups in the consciousness library remained undamaged, they could continue to "resurrect" and be "reborn." Although, if a consciousness backup was copied too many tis, unavoidable issues like "consciousness confusion" and "personality collapse" would occur due to factors currently unexplainable by technology. It was impossible to truly achieve "immortality." But compared to other systems, the advantages were still imnse.
The New Martial path, while also taking a semi-modified approach, still maintained ideological consistency with Pure Martial. Great importance was placed on the original, individual consciousness. There was only one body, and only one life.
Smokeless City was the final experint conducted by the Sum Country governnt before the official implentation of the Modified Human system.
「 」
A large number of people suffering from terminal illnesses, old age, disabilities, and various other conditions—people who yearned for healthy bodies, to defy the laws of nature, escape death, and live "immortally" in the world—voluntarily joined this experint. Their consciousnesses were copied and uploaded, their genetic material sampled and preserved. After their current bodies "died," the governnt would imdiately provide a new clone, free of charge, as a replacent. The only requirent was that they must live within a designated area. This was how Smokeless City ca to be.
In other words, the entirety of Smokeless City could be seen as a giant petri dish. And the people living in Smokeless City were akin to lab rats in this giant petri dish, available for observation and research at any given mont.
Truman’s World...
As Lu Yuan watched the ground rapidly approach, the na of a movie he’d seen in his past life surfaced in his mind. But he quickly shook his head, feeling the analogy wasn’t quite apt. The people in Smokeless City were much luckier than Truman in the movie. Smokeless City boasted abundant resources; it was even more advanced and civilized than most other cities. Moreover, not many people were observing them and, as observed subjects, their population was quite large. Ignoring their status as test subjects, the inhabitants of Smokeless City led far better lives than most people in the world. They had no worries about food or clothing, no suffering or illness, and possessed a form of alternative longevity. In a way, it truly did align with the descriptions of the Land of Smokelessness, a fairyland from folklore.
Lu Yuan slowly withdrew his gaze from Smokeless City and turned to the few individuals inside the Fly Shuttle with him. Including himself, there were a total of six people in the Fly Shuttle. Their ages ranged from seventeen to twenty-two, and he was among the youngest.
Of the six, the most conspicuous was a youth in a white T-shirt and jeans, with long hair parted in the middle. An ostentatious-looking exoskeleton was fitted to his arms and back. It was pure black with a sandblasted surface, clinging tightly to the youth’s back like a giant skeletal fra, reminiscent of super special forces soldiers from science fiction movies.
Another was a boy with brightly dyed blue hair, who looked slightly younger than Lu Yuan. This boy wore a garish sports jacket, his neck adorned with nurous iron necklaces, and air-cushioned platform sneakers on his feet. A faint, mischievous smirk played on his lips as he kept his head down, staring at his palms, which crackled and sparked continuously with blue electric currents.
New Martial!
Lu Yuan was certain this person must have implanted so kind of palm or fist-based New Martial art.
Apart from these two, there were three others. One was a burly, dark-skinned young man who looked rather old for his age. His arms were exceptionally thick, his knuckles large, and his palms were covered in calluses—clear signs of a Fighter who followed the Pure Martial path. Lu Yuan faintly sensed the presence of "Vigor" from this young man.
Of the remaining two, one was a punk girl with her hair in many small braids. She was attractive but wore heavy smokey-eye makeup, chewed bubble gum, and constantly fiddled with a black pistol. The last one was a short-haired young man with an emotionless, cold deanor, his entire being screaming "stay away."
Compared to them, Lu Yuan—who had suppressed all his aura, was dressed like a high school student, and even wore black-frad glasses—appeared utterly unremarkable. Aside from being handso... he had no features that distinguished him from an ordinary person.
The six individuals had no interaction with one another. They were all aware that the others were competitors for this trial assessnt, and a subtle, palpable tension filled the air.
Giving the guide to Zhou Ling had no impact on my assessnt. It seems the guide is fake... Lu Yuan found himself idly staring at the punk girl’s fair, smooth legs opposite him while lost in thought. In fact, he had suspected the guide was fake for a while. It wasn’t that he believed the Yellow Bear Organization’s discipline was particularly strict, but simply that he felt... given Gao Qing’s abilities and thods, she probably couldn’t have obtained a real guide. How much faith could one place in a woman whose only conceived thod of destroying evidence was to write the words "Burn after reading" on its final page?
"What are you looking at?! Keep staring, and I’ll blow your head off!" Perhaps feeling Lu Yuan’s prolonged gaze, the punk girl opposite him suddenly tucked her feet under her seat and warned him fiercely, brandishing her pistol.
Lu Yuan just smiled at her and said, "Your shoelace is untied."
The punk girl’s fair face flushed red. She muttered sothing under her breath, turned her head away, and pretended she didn’t want to speak to Lu Yuan anymore. Yet, she couldn’t stop herself from sneaking glances at him.
Their brief exchange drew the attention of the other four, though most rely glanced over before looking away. At this mont, the Fly Shuttle suddenly dipped, and all movent ceased. This was followed by the crisp sound of hard-soled leather shoes stepping on the steel floor, and a middle-aged man in a White Bear uniform appeared before them.
"The assessnt will begin shortly," the middle-aged man said, handing a small stack of docunts to the mature-looking, dark-skinned young man closest to him, giving him an instructive look. "You were all recomnded at the White Bear level, so I won’t go into excessive detail on certain matters. I’ll mainly cover the key points for this New Blood assessnt."
The latter, caught off guard, paused for a mont but still took the docunts and began to look through them.
"Below us is Smokeless City No. 3, which is also the mission site for your assessnt."
"This assessnt will be conducted as a simulated mission, lasting fifteen days. Its primary purpose is to evaluate your comprehensive abilities..."
"Sir, I’ve finished reading," the mature-looking young man suddenly said, looking up at the middle-aged man.
"Have you signed it?"
"Yes."
"Mm." The middle-aged man nodded. "Then pass it to the next person."
"Alright."
Lu Yuan and the others glanced curiously at the docunts in the mature-looking young man’s hands before their gazes returned to the middle-aged man.
"...We have set up nurous missions within Smokeless City. You will work as a team to select and complete one of them. During the process, any damage to buildings, personnel casualties, or disruption of order within Smokeless City... will all be factored into your final overall assessnt. Of course, you can also choose to complete a mission independently, though I personally wouldn’t recomnd it."
"...We do not oppose competition amongst examinees, but if you maliciously harm a teammate, your qualification for the assessnt will be imdiately revoked."
"...The entire assessnt will be conducted under our surveillance. That is to say, your every action, every minute behavior after you step into Smokeless City... will determine your final assessnt score."
As the middle-aged man was speaking, the punk girl sitting opposite Lu Yuan suddenly called out, "Hey!" Then she handed him the docunt and pen she was holding.
Lu Yuan glanced at another person sitting closer to the girl, hesitated briefly, but ultimately reached out and took them, whispering a quiet, "Thanks."
With the docunt in hand, Lu Yuan didn’t rush to examine it. Instead, he recalled what the middle-aged man had just said. Simulated mission, teamwork, casualties... He now had a general understanding of the New Blood assessnt’s format. The Yellow Bear Organization’s role was similar to that of an elite police force specializing in handling special hazardous incidents. They usually operated in small teams, and their mission locations were often in residential areas, inevitably involving ordinary people. Therefore, aside from strength and talent, the qualities the Yellow Bear Organization likely valued most in New Bloods were teamwork, leadership ability, and crisis managent awareness.
The reason it was being held in Smokeless City was because its environnt was realistic enough to perfectly simulate a residential area. And the people living in Smokeless City weren’t afraid of "death." Even if these clumsy New Bloods accidentally got a few civilians killed during a mission... well, afterward, it would just be a matter of replacing a few clones.
In that instant, Lu Yuan’s perception of Smokeless City’s inhabitants began to change. Peeling back the seemingly glamorous veneer, these so-called "immortals" living in the Land of Smokelessness... were, in reality, just a group of "lab rats" with no control over their own fates.
"Hey, are you done yet? Stop dawdling!" an impatient voice urged from beside him as he was thinking.
Lu Yuan turned his head to look, an unintentional gleam flashing in his eyes. The blue-haired young man sitting beside him was t by Lu Yuan’s gaze—eyes as deep and tranquil as a waveless sea. An inexplicable sense of panic surged in his heart, and even the electric currents crackling between his palms faltered for a mont. He instinctively avoided Lu Yuan’s eyes.
"Almost," Lu Yuan said, adjusting the black-frad glasses on his nose. He saw the words on the docunt in his hand: "Death Liability Waiver Agreent."
anwhile, the blue-haired young man, having regained his composure, looked at Lu Yuan again, only to find him utterly unremarkable. The inexplicable panic from monts ago felt like an illusion, leaving him sowhat bewildered. He turned to look to the side and found the punk girl diagonally opposite him glaring "fiercely" at him with her pistol... which only added to his confusion.
Psycho.
"...Detailed mission content and materials will be distributed to you after you enter Smokeless City. You’ll naturally know what to do then. Now..." After the middle-aged man finished explaining all the rules and information, he raised his eyes, looking for the liability waiver that had just been distributed. "Has anyone not signed the agreent yet?"
"." The cold-tempered, short-haired young man sitting at the back of the cabin stood up and stated expressionlessly, "I withdraw." He then muttered with a mix of dissatisfaction and disdain, "What kind of trash trial is this? Even if you pass, you just beco a grunt. And there’s even a death quota... Ridiculous, heh..." He slumped back into his seat, completely ignoring the stunned expressions of the others.
The middle-aged man responsible for explaining the rules seed unfazed. He collected the docunt, glanced at it, nodded, and announced, "Alright, prepare to be deployed into the assessnt site in order. First, Xiang Shenghao."
The mature-looking young man sitting closest to him stood up with a serious expression and followed the middle-aged man to the Fly Shuttle’s forward cabin exit.
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