Chapter 154: Chapter 148: That Female Captain of Yours Is Quite Something

In the monitoring room, the instructors were perplexed.

’Among Veridia’s Great Families of Martial Arts, none are named Sinclair. So where did this girl learn her skills?’

“Stop chatting. They’re about to enter the forest.”

The virtual world’s forest was filled with towering trees, their dense foliage blocking out the sun.

The archaeology students moved cautiously through the trees. The surrounding sounds of birds, insects, and dripping water seemed especially loud.

Seth Sterling was terrified of places like this. ’Who knew if a horde of zombies would suddenly appear and surround them?’

“Sterling the Rat, your cowardice is something else,” Danny Archer jeered, his voice jarringly loud in the open space.

But Seth Sterling still stuck close behind Aurora Sinclair, fearfully tugging on Danny Archer’s arm. “This place is just like a scene from a horror movie.”

“There are only some wild animals here, not all that other weird stuff…”

The words had barely left his mouth when two green lights suddenly appeared up ahead. A terrified Seth Sterling leaped onto Danny Archer, clinging to him like a koala.

Danny Archer rolled his eyes helplessly. “What did you see this time?”

“…W-wolf… wolf…”

The faces of the archaeology boys turned pale with fear.

Aurora Sinclair quickly drew two daggers and charged forward.

It turned out not to be a real wolf at all, just a specimen.

Just then, the system’s voice sounded in their ears again: “Congratulations, Soldier #01235 has obtained the Badge of Courage. Reward: 100 points.”

“What… what was that?”

All the guys from the archaeology department were stunned. They slowly walked over to Aurora Sinclair and stared at the wolf specimen lying on the ground.

“Damn, what a dirty trick!”

“It’s probably to test our courage.”

The guys watched the figure clearing the path ahead with mixed emotions, suddenly feeling like they were freeloaders.

“This won’t do. We can’t always let a girl take the lead.” Danny Archer was the first to step forward. He came up beside Aurora Sinclair and said, “Captain, I’ll take point. You follow me.”

Aurora Sinclair nodded.

The group followed Danny Archer forward. They didn’t encounter any danger along the way, but the path ahead was long, seeming to stretch on without end.

Both sides of the path were lined with dense forest. Behind the trees on one side was a cliff, and only the path underfoot was relatively flat.

Suddenly, Seth Sterling pointed ahead with a horrified expression and shouted, “Beau, quick, look! Is that the wolf specimen?”

Everyone’s expression changed. They rushed forward to check and saw the wolf specimen that Aurora Sinclair had tossed aside earlier, lying in the grass.

It even had the mark Aurora Sinclair had originally made with her dagger.

To their surprise, after walking for so long, they had just been going in circles.

“It’s over, it’s over! We’ve hit a ghost wall!” Seth Sterling’s face was pale as he squatted on the ground, clutching his head in despair.

Danny Archer swallowed, his throat tight. He suppressed his fear and said, “Cut the crap, Sterling! There’s no such thing as ghosts…”

“Then how do you explain this?”

Just as everyone was at a loss, a girl’s voice came from their side.

“This way…”

Everyone looked over and was dumbfounded.

Aurora Sinclair was pushing aside the undergrowth, heading into the trees at the edge of the path. But beyond those trees was a dangerous cliff.

“Captain, it’s dangerous over there…”

Danny Archer’s heart leaped into his throat. He shouted as he followed the path she made toward the cliff.

When he reached the cliff’s edge, he saw another precipice not far away. It was at a lower elevation than their own cliff, which was why it had been hidden from their view on the path.

“Captain, you’re amazing! How did you find it?”

“The sound of water.” Aurora Sinclair pointed to the stream flowing below between the two cliffs.

The stream wasn’t very fast, and you could only hear it when you got close to the cliff’s edge. Danny Archer was filled with nothing but admiration for Aurora Sinclair.

The distance between the two cliffs was about ten-odd meters, which happened to be about the length of the climbing rope they received as a reward for the first task.

Danny Archer finally had a smart idea and turned to shout for them to bring the climbing rope over.

Aurora Sinclair stood at the edge of the cliff, swung the climbing rope, and threw it forcefully toward the other side.

The hook on the end of the rope looped perfectly around a large tree trunk on the other side, lodging itself firmly and creating a simple rope bridge.

“So that’s what this rope is for. You guys are incredible…”

“Are we supposed to climb across now? It’s so high. What if we run out of strength halfway?”

“We slide,” Aurora Sinclair said. She unbuckled the belt from her waist, hooked it over the rope, and, to the utter shock of the men, slid across to the other side.

“That… that works too?”

“Stop dawdling and get sliding.”

Although Seth Sterling was afraid of ghouls and ghosts, he wasn’t afraid of heights, so he became the second person to slide across.

In the monitoring room, Sean Russell watched as the small red dot representing his students became the first to complete the second task. His perpetually stern, unsmiling face broke into a rare smile.

“Instructor Russell, that female captain of yours is pretty capable!”

Sean Russell offered a few polite, modest words, but inside he was extremely proud.

’I really didn’t misjudge her. This girl is perfect for a soldier.’

***

After all 28 members of the archaeology department had crossed the cliff, the system’s voice sounded in their ears once more.

“Congratulations, soldiers, on passing the Basic test phase. You are about to enter a real battlefield. Countdown commencing: 10, 9, 8…”

The familiar countdown once again sent everyone scrambling, truly afraid that the cliff might suddenly collapse.

But after the countdown ended, the scenery around them changed into an old battlefield.

Beside them were many wounded soldiers. One soldier, simply wrapped in bandages, ran over to them. “Don’t just stand there like idiots! The enemy is about to attack! Grab your weapons and prepare for battle.”

Following the soldier’s gaze, they saw sticks on the ground and were stunned. “Fight a war with sticks?”

“We’ve run out of weapons! For our homeland, we must fight to our last breath…”

The soldier didn’t seem to be answering their question so much as reciting NPC lines. The group had no choice but to pick up the sticks and follow him toward the front line.

“Watch out—”

A stray shell flew by. The soldier tackled them to the ground, and with a deafening BOOM, the ground behind them was blasted into dust. A shower of dirt and blood rained down on them.

The boys’ faces went white with fear. Trembling, they looked ahead to see the enemy forces closing in.

“This… this is too realistic, isn’t it?” someone said.

Suddenly, the sound of a bugle charge rang out.

The NPC soldiers beside them all charged out of the trenches, forming a human wall in front of them. They used their bodies as weapons, blocking the enemy’s advance.

They had all seen scenes like this in historical documentaries, but it had never been so powerful.

This was a battlefield from over a hundred years ago…

The primal fighting spirit in the archaeology students was ignited. They charged out, fists raised.

But, like ghosts, they passed right through the bodies of all the enemy soldiers.

“Why? How come we can’t hit anyone?”

“Fuck… but they can hit us!” one of the guys yelled after an enemy soldier’s punch sent him sprawling.

“He’s right…”

“So we can only dodge?”

“No, you have to use the sticks,” Seth Sterling said, tremblingly pointing at Aurora Sinclair, who had already joined the fight up ahead.

Right now, Aurora Sinclair was like a God of slaughter. Everywhere she went, enemies fell.

Just as they were standing there dumbfounded, a familiar voice came from behind them.

“Holy crap, what’s going on here?”

Turning around, they saw that it was students from other departments, including a few girls.

One of the pretty girls charged out with a stick and, to the astonishment of the guys, swept through a swath of enemy soldiers.

Another girl in the trench shouted excitedly, “Go, Eve—”

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