Chapter 4: Night Talk at the Shelter
Twilight gradually swallowed the light in the sky above the bastion. The shading net framework at the top of the city slowly descended, and the long strip lighting tubes arranged along the framework lit up one after another, casting cold white light across the streets. L City Bastion had no true night. The artificial light sources maintained a minimum level of brightness, both to facilitate patrols within the city and to soothe the hearts of the people, dispelling the unease lurking in the darkness.
Following the address marked on the back of his temporary identity card, Lin Yan made his way to the temporary shelter in the central part of the city district. This was a resting place specifically reserved by the Military Affairs Bureau for unregistered newcomers and external refugees. It was a five-story reinforced building, its exterior walls covered with dense metal rivets. Two security checkpoints were set up at the entrance on the first floor, where two on-duty personnel took turns verifying identity cards.
The shelter's manager was an elderly man with white hair. The left sleeve of his shirt was empty; he had lost his arm in a defensive battle on the city wall years ago. He spoke slowly, but his eyes were sharp. He took the temporary identity card Lin Yan handed him, swiped it on the terminal, and after verifying the information, took a metal key from the counter.
"Temporary room, single compartment, valid for thirty days. Water is supplied in fixed quotas, once in the morning and once in the evening. Rations are available at the first-floor cafeteria; you can claim one basic ration daily with your identity card." The old man handed over the key, paused, and added an extra warning, "Most of the people living in the shelter are outsiders preparing for the newcomer assessment. At night, people often discuss training and the scaled beasts outside the city. Do not get into disputes with anyone. Once a conflict triggers Sea of Consciousness agitation, it will set off the floor's psychic alarm, and the consequences will be troublesome."
"I'll keep that in mind." Lin Yan took the key.
The compartment was very small, containing only a simple iron-frame bed and a small metal table, with a small ventilation vent in the corner of the wall. The walls were bare, reinforced concrete, feeling cold and hard to the touch, with no extra decorations. The room did not have a private bathroom; washing up had to be done in the public area at the end of the corridor. The conditions were rudimentary, but at least it provided shelter from the wind and rain, giving him a place to rest and think quietly.
Putting down his only belongings—a bundle of coarse cloth tunic—Lin Yan tidied up the room briefly. He did not rest immediately. Instead, he walked out of the compartment into the corridor. Most of the doors on both sides of the corridor were open, and there were people talking in low voices in many of the rooms. Like him, most of these people were unregistered refugees or those who had migrated from other bastions, planning to gamble on the newcomer assessment to get a qualification to enter the training camp.
In the public washing area at the end of the corridor, a row of metal sinks was arranged. Several young men were washing their faces while chatting in low voices. Lin Yan walked to the sink, splashed cold water on his face, and quietly listened to the conversation beside him.
"I heard the difficulty of the Sea of Consciousness assessment for this newcomer evaluation has been raised. Last month, during the assessment in a neighboring bastion, two people suffered direct mental overload, fainted on the spot, and were sent to the adjustment room. They still haven't recovered." A dark-skinned young man said in a hushed voice.
Another tall, thin young man sighed, "That's still considered lucky. Three years ago, during one assessment, the Sea of Consciousness detector overloaded, and a candidate's Sea of Consciousness shattered completely. The person was still alive, but their consciousness was completely gone, turning into an empty shell that only knew how to breathe. The Military Affairs Bureau doesn't publicize such things widely; it only circulates internally."
"There's no other way; this world is just like this. If you want to get resources and gain the power to fight scaled beasts, you have to gamble with your Sea of Consciousness. If you stay in the shelter and do logistics work, you'll only ever get the lowest ration quota, trapped at the bottom for life. But participating in the assessment means gambling with your own mind."
"My hometown was in the southern bastion. Last year, a large rift suddenly expanded, and a tide of scaled beasts broke through the outer wall. The entire residential area was lost. I escaped all the way to L City with the retreating forces. If I don't have enough strength, when the next disaster strikes, I'll still just have to wait to die."
The words of the group were heavy. There were no passionate, heroic declarations, only the helpless choices made under desperate circumstances.
Lin Yan listened quietly without interrupting.
He had seen countless battles and partings of life and death in the Jianghu. But in the Jianghu, what harmed people were swords, blades, fists, and feet; the dangers in this world, besides the claws of monsters, included the invisible and intangible mental erosion. Once the Sea of Consciousness was damaged, the harm took root directly in the consciousness, far more terrifying than physical wounds.
After washing up, Lin Yan returned to his compartment. He did not close the door, leaving a crack, and leaned against the iron-frame bed with his eyes closed to regulate his breathing. He tried to mobilize his mind to feel the weak, scattered psychic residue in this space. There were large-scale psychic barriers inside the bastion that isolated the massive mental turbulence from the rifts outside the wall. However, in densely populated areas, the thoughts and emotions of countless people would unconsciously spill outward, weaving into a faint psychic haze.
For ordinary people in this world who had not undergone any training, being in such mixed emotional fluctuations for a long time would easily lead to irritability and fatigue. But for Lin Yan, these scattered psychic ripples were like tiny ripples on a lake surface, unable to disturb the stability of his mind.
After night fell, the sound of conversation in the corridor gradually diminished, and many people returned to their rooms to rest. However, the voices of two people talking in low tones could still be heard from the adjacent compartment. They were not deliberately keeping their voices down, and through the thin concrete wall, their words drifted into Lin Yan's ears intermittently.
"Did you hear? The venue for the physical fitness test for this assessment is set in the abandoned old defense zone on the inner side of the bastion. That area used to be a temporary camp outside the city wall. Later, it was breached by scaled beasts. Although it has been cleared, occasionally, small scaled beasts that slipped through still hide in the crevices of the ruins. The guard team will be arranged to stand watch on the perimeter during the assessment, but no one can guarantee absolute safety."
"The abandoned defense zone? Doesn't that mean throwing us into a semi-dangerous area?"
"How else are they supposed to filter people? Simple running and jumping can't test a person's adaptability. The Sea of Consciousness test looks at potential, while the wilderness ruins test your on-the-spot reactions and stress resistance. Only those who pass both can enter the training camp."
"But what if we encounter scaled beasts..."
"The assessment comes with an emergency signal device. Once pressed, the guard team will arrive immediately. But triggering the signal device means an automatic failure in the assessment. If you want to pass, you can only rely on yourself to find a way to evade and escape."
The conversation next door slowly stopped, leaving only a long sigh.
Lin Yan slowly opened his eyes.
The risk mentioned by the clerk at the Military Affairs Bureau earlier was not a simple warning. The newcomer assessment was never a purely static test from the beginning; it hid real life-and-death crises. What the government wanted to select were not just people with high Sea of Consciousness potential and good physical fitness, but warriors who could steady their minds and protect themselves under desperate circumstances.
He raised his hand and touched the temporary identity card in his pocket.
The logistics position was safe, but it meant losing the opportunity to become stronger forever. Participating in the assessment presented opportunities right in front of him, but beneath his feet was an abyss. One wrong step, and his Sea of Consciousness would be damaged, ruining his entire life.
The purpose of coming to this plane was to fulfill a wish and awaken himself. But until now, he still didn't know whose wish he had to fulfill this time.
Outside the wall, endless scaled beasts lurked in the deep-sea rifts, eyeing humanity's last bastion at all times. Every ordinary person in this city was struggling to survive under a massive shadow.
Lin Yan stood up and walked to the ventilation vent in the room, looking out the window at the silhouette of the towering city wall in the distance. The thick wall divided two worlds; inside the wall was a human civilization clinging to life, and outside the wall was an endless purgatory of alien beasts.
He still had two days to continue observing and weighing his options.
End of Chapter
Following the address marked on the back of his temporary identity card, Lin Yan made his way to the temporary shelter in the central part of the city district. This was a resting place specifically reserved by the Military Affairs Bureau for unregistered newcomers and external refugees. It was a five-story reinforced building, its exterior walls covered with dense metal rivets. Two security checkpoints were set up at the entrance on the first floor, where two on-duty personnel took turns verifying identity cards.
The shelter's manager was an elderly man with white hair. The left sleeve of his shirt was empty; he had lost his arm in a defensive battle on the city wall years ago. He spoke slowly, but his eyes were sharp. He took the temporary identity card Lin Yan handed him, swiped it on the terminal, and after verifying the information, took a metal key from the counter.
"Temporary room, single compartment, valid for thirty days. Water is supplied in fixed quotas, once in the morning and once in the evening. Rations are available at the first-floor cafeteria; you can claim one basic ration daily with your identity card." The old man handed over the key, paused, and added an extra warning, "Most of the people living in the shelter are outsiders preparing for the newcomer assessment. At night, people often discuss training and the scaled beasts outside the city. Do not get into disputes with anyone. Once a conflict triggers Sea of Consciousness agitation, it will set off the floor's psychic alarm, and the consequences will be troublesome."
"I'll keep that in mind." Lin Yan took the key.
The compartment was very small, containing only a simple iron-frame bed and a small metal table, with a small ventilation vent in the corner of the wall. The walls were bare, reinforced concrete, feeling cold and hard to the touch, with no extra decorations. The room did not have a private bathroom; washing up had to be done in the public area at the end of the corridor. The conditions were rudimentary, but at least it provided shelter from the wind and rain, giving him a place to rest and think quietly.
Putting down his only belongings—a bundle of coarse cloth tunic—Lin Yan tidied up the room briefly. He did not rest immediately. Instead, he walked out of the compartment into the corridor. Most of the doors on both sides of the corridor were open, and there were people talking in low voices in many of the rooms. Like him, most of these people were unregistered refugees or those who had migrated from other bastions, planning to gamble on the newcomer assessment to get a qualification to enter the training camp.
In the public washing area at the end of the corridor, a row of metal sinks was arranged. Several young men were washing their faces while chatting in low voices. Lin Yan walked to the sink, splashed cold water on his face, and quietly listened to the conversation beside him.
"I heard the difficulty of the Sea of Consciousness assessment for this newcomer evaluation has been raised. Last month, during the assessment in a neighboring bastion, two people suffered direct mental overload, fainted on the spot, and were sent to the adjustment room. They still haven't recovered." A dark-skinned young man said in a hushed voice.
Another tall, thin young man sighed, "That's still considered lucky. Three years ago, during one assessment, the Sea of Consciousness detector overloaded, and a candidate's Sea of Consciousness shattered completely. The person was still alive, but their consciousness was completely gone, turning into an empty shell that only knew how to breathe. The Military Affairs Bureau doesn't publicize such things widely; it only circulates internally."
"There's no other way; this world is just like this. If you want to get resources and gain the power to fight scaled beasts, you have to gamble with your Sea of Consciousness. If you stay in the shelter and do logistics work, you'll only ever get the lowest ration quota, trapped at the bottom for life. But participating in the assessment means gambling with your own mind."
"My hometown was in the southern bastion. Last year, a large rift suddenly expanded, and a tide of scaled beasts broke through the outer wall. The entire residential area was lost. I escaped all the way to L City with the retreating forces. If I don't have enough strength, when the next disaster strikes, I'll still just have to wait to die."
The words of the group were heavy. There were no passionate, heroic declarations, only the helpless choices made under desperate circumstances.
Lin Yan listened quietly without interrupting.
He had seen countless battles and partings of life and death in the Jianghu. But in the Jianghu, what harmed people were swords, blades, fists, and feet; the dangers in this world, besides the claws of monsters, included the invisible and intangible mental erosion. Once the Sea of Consciousness was damaged, the harm took root directly in the consciousness, far more terrifying than physical wounds.
After washing up, Lin Yan returned to his compartment. He did not close the door, leaving a crack, and leaned against the iron-frame bed with his eyes closed to regulate his breathing. He tried to mobilize his mind to feel the weak, scattered psychic residue in this space. There were large-scale psychic barriers inside the bastion that isolated the massive mental turbulence from the rifts outside the wall. However, in densely populated areas, the thoughts and emotions of countless people would unconsciously spill outward, weaving into a faint psychic haze.
For ordinary people in this world who had not undergone any training, being in such mixed emotional fluctuations for a long time would easily lead to irritability and fatigue. But for Lin Yan, these scattered psychic ripples were like tiny ripples on a lake surface, unable to disturb the stability of his mind.
After night fell, the sound of conversation in the corridor gradually diminished, and many people returned to their rooms to rest. However, the voices of two people talking in low tones could still be heard from the adjacent compartment. They were not deliberately keeping their voices down, and through the thin concrete wall, their words drifted into Lin Yan's ears intermittently.
"Did you hear? The venue for the physical fitness test for this assessment is set in the abandoned old defense zone on the inner side of the bastion. That area used to be a temporary camp outside the city wall. Later, it was breached by scaled beasts. Although it has been cleared, occasionally, small scaled beasts that slipped through still hide in the crevices of the ruins. The guard team will be arranged to stand watch on the perimeter during the assessment, but no one can guarantee absolute safety."
"The abandoned defense zone? Doesn't that mean throwing us into a semi-dangerous area?"
"How else are they supposed to filter people? Simple running and jumping can't test a person's adaptability. The Sea of Consciousness test looks at potential, while the wilderness ruins test your on-the-spot reactions and stress resistance. Only those who pass both can enter the training camp."
"But what if we encounter scaled beasts..."
"The assessment comes with an emergency signal device. Once pressed, the guard team will arrive immediately. But triggering the signal device means an automatic failure in the assessment. If you want to pass, you can only rely on yourself to find a way to evade and escape."
The conversation next door slowly stopped, leaving only a long sigh.
Lin Yan slowly opened his eyes.
The risk mentioned by the clerk at the Military Affairs Bureau earlier was not a simple warning. The newcomer assessment was never a purely static test from the beginning; it hid real life-and-death crises. What the government wanted to select were not just people with high Sea of Consciousness potential and good physical fitness, but warriors who could steady their minds and protect themselves under desperate circumstances.
He raised his hand and touched the temporary identity card in his pocket.
The logistics position was safe, but it meant losing the opportunity to become stronger forever. Participating in the assessment presented opportunities right in front of him, but beneath his feet was an abyss. One wrong step, and his Sea of Consciousness would be damaged, ruining his entire life.
The purpose of coming to this plane was to fulfill a wish and awaken himself. But until now, he still didn't know whose wish he had to fulfill this time.
Outside the wall, endless scaled beasts lurked in the deep-sea rifts, eyeing humanity's last bastion at all times. Every ordinary person in this city was struggling to survive under a massive shadow.
Lin Yan stood up and walked to the ventilation vent in the room, looking out the window at the silhouette of the towering city wall in the distance. The thick wall divided two worlds; inside the wall was a human civilization clinging to life, and outside the wall was an endless purgatory of alien beasts.
He still had two days to continue observing and weighing his options.
End of Chapter