Chapter 128: Chapter 112: The Lone Ranger in the Storm
Translator: 549690339
The vast data square was magnificent.
The new generation of neural link simulation technology made the virtual images exceptionally real.
If viewed with the naked eye, every building and detail in this data square would appear entirely authentic.
However, the resolution of thought was obviously much higher than the naked eye; thus, when people entered this data-composed universe, they could still perceive a distinctive sense of illusion.
The sense of illusion did not hinder people from actively immersing themselves in it; just don’t resist it and tell yourself that it’s real.
Then it becomes real enough.
Around the square, well-known historical buildings of different nations were scattered.
Only when they were here, would people of different skin colors recall their race from a thousand years ago.
Creating these virtual images of buildings was not to remind humanity that they came from different nations, but to tell everyone that humans have a long history and must have a better future.
In the thousands of years before this, we had wars and struggles among ourselves.
But now, we dwell together, protecting the same expanse of stars.
To defend our existence, we will fight until the last moment.
Harrison Clark was sitting at an outdoor tea table in a coffee house called Caesar Building in the corner of the square while savoring the long-lost Wuyi Mountain Mother Tree Jamaica Blue Mountain.
The sweet tea entered his throat, and the chilly sensation soaked into his stomach.
The perfect neural link allowed Harrison Clark’s taste buds to enjoy pleasure that could not be experienced even with money.
He planned to call out for an auxiliary intelligence and choose a holographic simulation task to test the waters.
“Friend, are you new here?”
Someone took a seat next to him.
Harrison lowered his head and glanced at the dimly gleaming badge on his chest.
The badge, representing the lowest intern status, exposed his newbie identity.
He nodded, “Yes.”
The person exchanged five credit points for a cup of Inland Taipan, and asked, “Need help?”
Harrison looked at him with suspicion.
He appeared calm, not overly enthusiastic. However, under the circumstance of not knowing each other, he still took the initiative to offer assistance.
It felt strange.
Harrison simply asked, “Do you know me?”
“No.”
“Why are you so eager to help me?”
“There are 361 days left before the war, and no one knows what will happen in the future. The more we help our comrades improve, the greater our chances of winning. Maybe you will save me someday?”
He said with a beaming smile.
Harrison was taken aback.
He recalled Oliver Yeoman’s apology yesterday.
Oliver told Harrison that his bad attitude was actually a well-prepared teaching plan, but it was completely disrupted, making things awkward.
Harrison accepted his apology.
Coming back to his senses, Harrison let out a sigh.
“Thank you for your enthusiasm, buddy, but I can handle it on my own.”
“No problem, just let me know if you need anything.”
The man picked up his teacup and left.
Harrison let out a breath.
He dared not interact with more people.
With more acquaintances, there would be more flaws and heartaches; however, under this environment, those in the military were so kind and passionate.
Their emotions had been suppressed to the extreme, yet it made them more determined in their goals.
As long as they had a common goal, they could instantly become bosom friends.
We need not worry about lacking friends on our journey, because those traveling together share their hearts.
It took Harrison about four hours to fully understand the holographic simulation task library.
The massive database with up to tens of millions of options seemed overwhelming.
However, these were not his focus.
After looking through the tasks, he sighed.
None of the simulation tasks considered the situation he had actually encountered before.
Humanity exhausted thousands of years of development and painstakingly prepared a huge interstellar fleet, only to be instantly destroyed from within, leaving one or several soldiers in Summit armor.
In this situation, how can they counterattack?
Or how can they escape and continue their race?
How can the barrier lying over the Solar System be broken?
All simulated operations were based on equal strength or not too disparate, with humans having a certain chance of winning.
Everyone seemed to indulge in wishful thinking, believing that they could fight for a long time in real battles.
Harrison couldn’t find the reference he wanted.
However, this was within expectations. Since there’s no hope of winning, why simulate training?
Just wash their necks and wait for death.
But Harrison had long passed the stage of being easily discouraged.
He checked his watch, and there were still more than four hours before his scheduled chess match with Nora Camp. He decided to try out some tasks and see how far he could go.
“General, Harrison Clark has entered task K197354.”
Nora Camp stood with her hands behind her back in the command room.
In front of her, the projection showed Harrison Clark in the simulated task.
“The objective of this task is to infiltrate the battleship of humanoid alien creatures and obtain their navigation chip. The aliens are codenamed ape K19, who are designed to be incredibly strong, thick-skinned, impulsive, and irritable.”
“The best past strategy of intern soldiers is to infiltrate from the top turret of the enemy ship, using a heavy metal cutting package.”
“Then move through the enemy’s ammunition transport channel, successfully entering the turret chamber. The enemy’s firing rate is once every three minutes. As long as Sergeant Clark observes carefully before boarding, he will definitely notice this pattern.”
“However, Sergeant Clark’s actions will fail this time because he hasn’t brought any auxiliary packages.”
The assistant officer explained to Nora Camp at a fast pace.
In the screen, Harrison appeared ten kilometers away from a disc-shaped battleship, quietly floating in space.
The battleship’s design was inspired by the classic space television series “Star Trek” from a millennium ago.
Harrison’s comment was that after so many years, the technicians were still so unimaginative, only copying the ancients, which was very disappointing.
“Harrison Clark begins silent gliding, seven kilometers… three kilometers…”
Nora Camp nods slightly.
Before this, no one had told Harrison Clark about the silent gliding operation before boarding.
Many rookies need to fail dozens of times or get guidance from veterans before figuring out how to approach enemy ships.
Harrison Clark’s combat intuition is as excellent as his operational talent, only lacking some experience, which can be gained through training.
“He’s speeding up!”
“He’s rushing towards the left curvature engine of the enemy ship!”
“The enemy ship has detected him and is on alert! The Repulsion Field shield is up!”
“He fired a neutron bullet, using the curvature engine’s set spatial interference, successfully broke into the shield!”
“Instead of choosing the top turret, he’s going straight for the enemy ship’s external access! He’s going to be surrounded by the Ape K19 space fighters.” “Five K19 space fighters are surrounding him, only a veteran A-Class fighter could…”
Ten minutes later.
Harrison Clark, holding a large basket filled with dozens of thumbnail-sized chips, jumped into space and pressed the return ejection button.
Behind him, a disk-shaped spacecraft, about the size of eight football fields, was experiencing a series of explosions before turning into ash.
“Mission complete.”
During the entire battle, he demonstrated A-Class fighting power, crushing everything in his path.
He exploits the weaknesses of the enemy’s designs to the extreme, is highly efficient at killing, and is not influenced by the enemy’s blood splattering in the realistic simulation.
He’s as cold as a killing machine.
Not just like one, he’s exactly that.
Black Bear Training Base simulation command room is dead silent.
No one could have expected that this rookie, Harrison Clark, would complete the task in such an overbearing and unscrupulous manner.
Nora Camp is the first to recover, “See his self-evaluation of the simulation task design.”
“The battleship lacks imagination. The force field shield is too easily broken. It is unreasonable to assume the energy field fluctuations during commissioning of the curvature engine without understanding it. There is no clear evidence that the curvature effect will affect the force field shield. The Ape Ki9’s design has flaws, shouldn’t have a tail, and the fatal weaknesses in its back are too deliberate. The irritable and hot-headed nature makes it easy to break through the Ape Ki9’s coordinated attacks. As an interstellar civilization, their willpower shouldn’t be so weak…”
Harrison Clark wrote a long list, none of it positive, making the technicians responsible for the design of this level at the far end of the planet lose face.
Dr. Owen, who had rushed over after hearing the news, looked at Harrison Clark’s results, “He collected almost all the chips in one pot, completing the task with a 1,400% surplus, which is pretty good.”
Nora Camp read aloud the last line of Harrison Clark’s written evaluation: “It’s ludicrous that they have such technology to conquer us across star systems, yet their ship’s internal structure is virtually identical to ours, even down to the location of the chips.”
Dr. Owen: “Uh…”
Nora Camp shrugged, “Call him over, I have to give a good compliment to this arrogant kid. Who does he think he is, looking down on our technicians, does he know what aliens should look like?”
The assistant officer was about to send a message to Harrison Clark but noticed a change.
“He’s entered the next task.”
“What? He just completed a D-Class simulation task with A-Class evaluation and he’s starting the next one already? Doesn’t he get tired?”
The assistant officer nodded, “Yes, and his overall military ranking has just risen from over 1,320,000 to 163,000. He’s already D-Class.”
“Only D-Class?”
“Well, he did demonstrate A-Class fighting power, but the task he did was originally for D-Class and below rookies.”
Four hours later.
When Harrison Clark was about to exit the Holographic Simulation System, the badge on his chest had already turned into a red, hot gold five-star.
The 99th S-Class-rated player was born.
It took only four hours, a historic top-three achievement.
Thirteen missions in total, all completed perfectly, all with the highest ratings, and no survivors left behind.
“Congratulations, Sergeant Clark, you are now an honorable S-Class Summit soldier, extreme environment level permissions have been unlocked, do you wish to begin your challenge now?”
Harrison Clark murmured to himself, “Extreme environment?”
It’s getting a bit interesting, as these tasks must set enemy conditions to be so strong that it is appalling.
Unfortunately, there isn’t enough time right now as he needed to play chess with the general.
“I’ll come back next time.” He instructed the Al assistant.
“Would you like to choose an exclusive code name or simply display your military number on the leaderboard?”
Harrison Clark thought for a moment and snapped his fingers.
“Call me Lone Ranger.”
Al Assistant: “Are you sure? Can’t be changed once confirmed.”
Harrison Clark nodded, “Confirmed.”
A leaderboard immediately appeared in front of him, listing the rankings of many soldiers in the Holographic Simulation System.
Going from top to bottom, his name was now ranked 99th.
Information details are as follows:
Name: Ch**
Military Number: Hua-89757-711
Exclusive Code: Just call me Lone Ranger, please
Snort!
“I meant I want to be called Lone Ranger, not ‘Just call me Lone Ranger, please’!”
“I’m sorry, the code names cannot be changed once confirmed.”
Ah, such an eyesore.
Pushing open the door to Nora Camp’s office.
Nora Camp was looking at him with a pair of cold eyes.
“Hello, Just call me Lone Ranger, please.”
Harrison Clark: God damnit.
Bitter wine goes down, causing heartache.
But she’s clearly making a joke about me without even laughing.
It just hurts even more.
It must be so tiring to live such a repressed life, right?
Before making a move, Harrison Clark wondered how to break through her cold-hearted logical mind.
Just becoming a breeding tool won’t achieve his goal.
He must make her willing to challenge the rules for him!