The Strongest Brain in the Interstellar

“Ding ding, the total energy block L7 has been located. The simulated chest armor is now entering charging mode. The charging limit is 40%.” Upon hearing the familiar notification, the boy with a stern expression slightly relaxed his furrowed brows, as the displeasure from seeing his score earlier was quickly alleviated.

Suddenly, a bright and clear number appeared on the simulated chest armor, right in front of him. If someone were behind him at that moment, they would notice that the same large “2” had appeared on his back as well.

“…I was careless.” The boy immediately understood that he had inadvertently stepped into a trap.

The teammates who had followed their captain into the energy charging circle paused and instinctively asked, “Captain, what’s wrong?”

“…Nothing.” It wasn’t a big deal. Just a little trick, nothing that would affect his eventual victory.

“Captain, look above. There’s a map with… lots of numbers.”

“Could those be our numbers?”

“Definitely. Didn’t you see the large L7 in the circle? And my rank is 18, also in that L7 circle. We’re connected to the total energy block L7, aren’t we?”

Soon, the other team members also realized that their ranking numbers were within the L7 total energy block’s circle. Now it was certain… the map above was showing their exact locations.

There hadn’t been any issues earlier, but once they connected to the energy, their movements were suddenly exposed. It was supposed to be an announcement of their scores, so what exactly was the event organizers trying to do? How could they…

“Of course, they can,” Huo Qi sneered, seemingly reading the group’s unspoken thoughts.

“It’s fine, let them be. You all focus on charging. Once you’re done, take your shot at them one by one. Anyone who dares to come after us, just kill them directly.” The boy said coldly, his tone filled with a dangerous certainty, as if he was already convinced that the others wouldn’t be able to do anything to them.

Meanwhile, at the same moment, similar scenes were playing out all over the arena.

The screen displayed more and more participants’ rankings and locations, and soon, ten out of the twelve total energy blocks, from L1 to L12, became visible.

Only L3 and the farthest one, L11, still showed no participants connected to them.

And the top-ranked contestant, Jiang Hui, had yet to appear on the map. Her position seemed to have disappeared, as if she had vanished.

Of course, it wasn’t just her—Huan Xian, ranked eighth; Zhou Xiuwen, ranked 133rd; and Xierman, ranked 196th—none of them appeared on the simulation map either. Only the total scoreboard nearby still flashed with their names, indicating that they were still in the competition and had not been eliminated.

Thanks to Zhou Xiuwen’s intervention, none of the four rushed toward the total energy block immediately.

But when asked, he couldn’t explain why. He only said he had heard of similar scenarios in past actual combat competitions, which, while different, shared the same basic logic and rules.

The organizers canceling the supply points and directly providing them with total energy blocks seemed like a simplification, a temporary solution. But from the organizers’ perspective, it was unnecessary, as their main goal was still to test the participants. And when they had suddenly announced the rankings of the contestants earlier… it just didn’t sit right.

There was definitely some connection between these events. As Huan Xian said, they were missing a marker—something that would allow everyone to match names and rankings. Zhou Xiuwen also agreed after thinking about it. The person behind all of this was clearly planning something else.

So, they waited patiently for a while.

Sure enough, the enemies they had been worried about didn’t rush into the energy block before them.

Instead, another simulation image appeared next to the simulated scoreboard above. Within a few star units, the coordinates of most of the participants in the arena were exposed, revealing not only their locations but also which total energy block they were currently connected to.

Now, even those who were hiding understood what was going on.

No, they couldn’t rush in recklessly. Otherwise, with Jiang Hui’s current situation, she would be exposed right under everyone’s noses, an obvious target.

And luckily, none of the four had entered the total energy block range. Otherwise, if any of their information was read, the others might trace it back to Jiang Hui. Given her current state, if someone got too close, escaping would be nearly impossible.

In short, they absolutely could not expose their coordinates recklessly and needed to choose the right time and place. However, their remaining energy was running low, and they had no idea what the exact code for the total energy block in front of them was—unless one of them was willing to step in and scan it for them.

But whoever entered would essentially be indirectly exposing Jiang Hui’s location. Wasn’t this a vicious cycle?

…This problem was too difficult. What should they do?

Fortunately, while they were anxiously thinking, the screen suddenly revealed two supply points, showing the status of all ten supply points at once. Only the energy points at the center, L3, and the one at the farthest southeast corner, L11, had not been connected to anyone.

So the supply point in front of them had to be either L3 or L11.

Once they confirmed one of these, they would know their current position, and the real-time locations of all participants would be immediately revealed to them.

If their energy levels were full at this moment, it would be great news, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Time was passing, and their energy could barely last. Jiang Hui and the others could not afford to wait any longer.

Huan Xian made a decisive decision: “Let’s split up.”

Yes, this was the only option they could think of. Exposing their positions while charging was inevitable, but they could choose ‘when’ and ‘how’ they would expose themselves.

L3 and L11 weren’t too far apart, but they were not exactly close either; there were two total energy blocks in between them.

However, the difference was that L3 was very close to the L7 where Huo Qi was. It was so close that they could reach it in about 20 star units. If they unexpectedly chose L3, a large battle would be unavoidable, and they wouldn’t have much time left.

If they chose L11, considering their current energy, they could barely make it there. Even if they couldn’t make it halfway, they could switch to one of the other two supply points for an emergency. Most importantly, it was far from L7. It would take them over an hour to get there, and they would need to bypass four or five total energy blocks along the way. They believed that even if the enemy wasn’t easily distracted, a portion of them would be forced to attack, making it harder for the enemy to get there quickly.