Soul Land IV (Douluo Dalu) : Ultimate Fighting

‘What is a simulation pod?’ Lan Xuanyu was actually very curious as this was the first time he saw it. It wasn’t that Lan Xiao and Nan Cheng couldn’t bear to spend the money, he was just too young to see one.

Generally speaking, only children ages 10 and above, when one has relative self-control, would be allowed into the simulation pod as it would bring one to a completely different world. If a young child enters, he might lose himself and be confused with the real world.

But Lan Xuanyu heard that with the advancement in science and technology, the simulation pod had already reached the capability of almost completely replicating the real world.

For example, the training of a mecha user could be completed with the use of a simulation. One didn’t have to suffer any injuries and the simulation could completely replicate the state of battle and piloting which makes the quality of training was exceptionally good. But usually, this sort of training would involve some sensation of pain to make it more exciting but it wouldn’t be too overbearing.

Ten silver simulator pods were glistening and each took up about four square meters, it was able to accommodate anyone regardless of their size.

Under the teacher’s guidance, ten students each entered a simulation pod. The simulation pod was very strange; it wasn’t a seat and rather, it seemed like a transparent substance made of a sticky liquid.

When Lan Xuanyu entered, he immediately felt like he stepped into a muddy pond and it was very strange.

“Turn around and sit down.” Mu Zhongtian directed Lan Xuanyu personally. He was quite interested in this child with a Spiritual Power of close to a hundred.

Lan Xuanyu sat down slowly and immediately felt his entire body sinking into it. He panicked slightly when he saw that he was about to get caught into that transparent glue but at this moment, a metal mask descended and covered his face before his body was completely soaked with it.

When he was totally immersed in the transparent glue, the sticky feeling disappeared. He suddenly felt free and the metal mask brought a sense of numbness, causing his sea of consciousness to lightly tremble continuously.

“Don’t panic, students, what you guys are experiencing is perfectly normal. After this, you will enter another world and what you have to do is to survive in that world. Once you’re killed, it is the end of your assessment. During the assessment, it would be a battlefield of life and death and you may resort to every conceivable means to survive. You may even attack other students who you meet and with that, the comprehensive assessment begins.”

“Buzz——”

With the light buzzing sound, Lan Xuanyu only felt his body relaxed all of a sudden like his entire body was falling and in the next moment, the darkness before him suddenly lit up.

The soft sunlight brought a sense of warmth and Lan Xuanyu woke up instinctively. He blinked and to his surprise, he realized that he was by a small riverside and the river water was flowing in front of him. The air was fresh as it was filled with the smell of mud and the river sitting in between two dense forests.

His heart was filled with shock as he looked at his hands and everything around him. ‘This? This is a simulated world? But it seems so, so similar to the real world!’

He pinched his arm subconsciously and it didn’t hurt much more than a slight sensation. This allowed him to find some feelings in the virtual world. ‘Science and technology are simply amazing! This feeling is too fascinating.”

He jogged two steps ahead and everything was, as usual, there wasn’t any difference to his normal self. He felt the Spirit Power in his body and it was the same too.

He did some light stretching as he looked around and he recalled the teacher’s words just now.

Survive! This was the theme for the assessment this time but it felt amazing to be here! This feeling of being in the big forest was simply amazing. All he saw was sunshine and greenery, and the air was fresh too. He had never been to such a beautiful place in the real world.

Lan Xuanyu pondered for a moment and was slightly stirred in his heart as a smile appeared on his face because he suddenly realized that he was quite lucky. The place he appeared at actually had a little river!

This little river was more like a brook; it was less than two meters wide and its depth was about two chi [1].

But no matter what, it was still a river! There were more water elements here than any other places and as someone who controlled water elements, this place was undoubtedly where he could better showcase his strength.

The teachers taught them before that the strength of a Spirit Master was related to their environment. For example, plant type Spirit Masters would be able to display greater abilities at places with plants while fire type Spirit Masters were stronger at noon.

It was without a doubt that this environment benefitted Lan Xuanyu. His spirit was the Blue Silver Grass and he was a plant type Spirit Master. Plus, with an abundance of water elements, it allowed his overall strength to increase quite a bit.

I just have to survive, right? At this place where it was most suitable for my spirit, I should be able to live better. With that though, Lan Xuanyu had made up his mind and directly looked for a rock to sit down. He looked at his beautiful surroundings and was extremely delighted.

Zi Luo Branch, gymnasium.

Mu Zhongtian and a few teachers from the academy stood in front of a big screen. The screen was split into ten different sections and it displayed the various locations of those ten students in the virtual forest.

The simulated world wouldn’t be an ordinary forest for sure, it was a spirit beast forest. As to what the students would encounter in the forest, it was all random but their performance was recorded and they will be graded based on the situation and their reaction.

As for Lan Xuanyu who had a shocking 99 points for his Spiritual Power test, Mu Zhongtian paid a little more attention to him as his split-screen display was intentionally placed in the center and when he saw that this child found a rock by the river to sit, he drew a strange expression on his face.

“Children these days lack some common sense, huh!” Mu Zhongtian said in a slightly helpless tone.

Another teacher next to him laughed. “Isn’t it understandable? They grew up in the city and had never been to a place like the spirit beast forest. Of course, they wouldn’t know the habits of the spirit beasts. The existence of the Spirit Souls coupled with the isolation of spirit beasts on another planet caused the knowledge of spirit beasts to be less important to the point that it is an optional course in some advanced institutes. He is only eight years old, so how could he have any knowledge about the high possibility of encountering a spirit beast at a water source in the forest.”

Mu Zhongtian shrugged and said, “What is the strongest level of intensity we set for this assessment?”

“Thousand-year spirit beasts. These children are too young, it’s highly possible that even thousand-year spirit beasts could kill them in seconds but we adjusted the settings and these thousand-year spirit beasts are relatively mild-mannered. Still, wen can’t leave a psychological shadow in these children.”

Mu Zhongtian smiled. “Let’s wait and see, then.”

Riverside.

Lan Xuanyu looked around, he was bored. ‘There isn’t anything eh! Why did that teacher make it sound like it’s so dangerous?’

“Huff, huff, huff!” Then, Lan Xuanyu heard some weird noises. His reaction was pretty quick and he instinctively leaped off the huge rock and quickly hid next to it.

[1]: One-third of a meter