A single-player post-apocalyptic game, but with an all-female teammate mod.

Coco turned her gaze away from the azure sky and the system notification.

She lowered her hand from her eyes, opened her narrowed indigo eyes, and nodded in agreement, saying, "It seems so."

Seeing that the two people in the group who knew the most about "games" had said so, the other three girls naturally had no objection.

Aono withdrew his hand and took out the rudimentary map he had drawn from his system inventory.

He pointed to the marker at the top of the map, "This is where we are now."

Then he pointed to the left and right sides of the map and said, "We are currently at the general hospital on the right and the general school on the left. The distance is about the same."

Aono's gaze swept over the four women.

"We have no idea what the specific challenges will be, so it doesn't matter which one you choose. Just pick one based on your gut feeling."

Dudu, with her red hair tied in a high ponytail, spoke first: "I don't like hospitals, I want to go to school."

Aono glanced at the calm Kage and the carefree Tsunade; the former shook his head slightly, while the latter shrugged.

The actions are different, but they express the same meaning.

It doesn't matter which one you choose.

"Then let's go to the left and get to school first."

Coco's indigo eyes shone brightly in the sunlight. "If it doesn't work out, there's always a chance. It's not like we only have one chance."

Aono nodded; he didn't care where they went first.

He put the map back into his system inventory and turned to walk towards the mirror-like metal avenue on the left side of the square.

The directions on a chessboard-style map are easy to discern.

Walk along the road to the end, then turn left and walk a short distance, and you'll see a comprehensive school that's clearly different from the surrounding metal buildings.

Aono stopped in front of the school gate.

Before us stands a massive arched school gate, constructed of gray-white stone in a simple and ancient style.

But each stone's surface was covered with a very faint, data-stream-like, ethereal blue halo.

"Let's go."

Just as Aono and his group of five stepped through the gate, another line of bright red text appeared before their eyes.

[Number of participants exceeded limit; current maximum capacity is 3 people.]

"Only three can enter at most."

Seeing the system prompt, Qingye didn't rush in. Instead, he asked Coco and the others, "Should the three of us with the strongest combat power go in to explore, or should we switch?"

"This is the first time I've encountered a level with a limit on the number of players."

Dudu flicked her high red ponytail behind her head. "It seems that the key to breaking through the barrier really lies in these special buildings."

Ying remained indifferent, completely uninvolved in decision-making.

He fully embodies the style of a top-notch enforcer.

Tsunade stroked her chin, thought for a moment, and still honestly said, "You guys figure it out. I don't understand anything about this game or challenge."

At this moment, Coco walked to Qingye's side, her indigo eyes scanning the system notification.

"Since it wasn't said that we had to go in now, I suggest we go and check out the other two special buildings first."

"Okay, let's continue to the left, check out the supermarket to the south, and then go to the hospital, which will make a loop."

After saying that, Aono turned around first.

Coco is right, they have too little intelligence right now.

Blindly splitting up teams when the rules are unclear is an extremely risky move.

Aono led the group to continue to the left along the mirrored metal avenue.

The silver metal buildings on both sides of the road still maintain that cold perfection and silence.

It clearly reflects the azure sky and white clouds, yet it reveals not a trace of human presence.

About fifteen minutes later, a huge cube-shaped building with a completely transparent structure and a very modern design appeared at the edge of the field of vision.

This is the superstore located directly south of the Ark.

The building's exterior is made of a single piece of ultra-high-transparency glass, and inside, shelves stand in rows, with some colorful product packaging shimmering under the lights.

However, like the comprehensive school, this huge shopping mall was also shrouded in a faint, eerie blue halo.

“It looks pretty normal.” Dudu took a few steps closer and stared into the glass door. “At least it’s more pleasing to the eye than that school with blue light emanating from the cracks in the rocks.”

Aono stopped and looked up at the area above the mall entrance.

There were no bright red text prompts popping up there like at school.

"It seems there's no limit to the number of people allowed here."

Aono didn't rush in. Basically, all metal buildings are easy to enter but difficult to leave. It would be troublesome if they didn't let him out.

"Since there are no restrictions, shall we go in and take a look?"

Tsunade stared at the dazzling array of goods with a look of interest, "How many gold coins are all these supplies worth?"

Aono shook his head, his expression remaining calm.

"No rush, we haven't seen the last place yet. Let's finish it first and then make a decision."

He has never liked taking risks; instead, he prefers to crush the competition with absolute strength.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have spent half a month training in the Ark, but would have come to check these special landmarks as soon as their level reached the cap, or even before reaching the cap.

Since we've already decided to go around gathering intelligence, we can't let the fact that we can directly enter the challenge from the shopping mall in front of us disrupt our plans.

The women nodded in understanding, and the group continued forward before turning ninety degrees to the left.

A moment later, the group arrived at the entrance of the general hospital.

The style of a general hospital is the complete opposite of that of a supermarket.

If shopping malls are transparent and modern, then hospitals are solemn and pure white.

The tall building resembles a huge piece of white marble, with a red cross symbol standing at the entrance.

The only thing they had in common was the outer layer, which shimmered with a faint light like a stream of data.

Aono stood in front of the hospital gate.

This time, before they even stepped into the light screen, bright red text appeared as expected.

[Number of participants exceeded limit; current maximum capacity is 3 people.]

Looking at this line of text, Aono revealed a knowing expression.

"really."

He turned to look at Coco, and a hint of understanding flashed in Coco's indigo eyes.

"Schools and hospitals have a maximum of three people, only the supermarket in the middle has no limit on the number of people."

Aono concluded, "The first place we should explore is still the super mall. There's strength in numbers. No matter what changes may occur in the challenges within these buildings, it's safer to work together."

After resting for a while, the group of five turned back.

After leveling up, Aono and the others were able to travel much faster again.

Since these four landmarks are in the center, not on the very edge of the map, it only took a little over an hour to complete the loop.

When we arrived at the supermarket entrance again, it wasn't even noon yet.

Aono led the four girls closer to the mall entrance. The huge, translucent glass door slid open silently, just like the metal building they had explored before.

"Stay close to them, and don't touch anything."

Aono gave a word of advice and then stepped inside first.

The mall is spacious and bright, with cool white lights shining on the gleaming floor tiles, reflecting a somewhat dazzling glow.

The shelves were eerily neat, filled with colorful goods.

But under that layer of eerie blue light, these items all exuded a sense of artificiality, like virtual data.

Just as all five of them entered the mall, the glass door behind them clicked shut and locked completely.

Immediately afterwards, the lights overhead dimmed.

As if receiving a command, the surrounding shelves slowly moved to both sides, clearing out a large open area.

In the center of the mall, a huge floating light screen appeared out of thin air, with colorful pixelated text jumping on it.

[Challenge Begins]

This challenge consists of nine questions. Answer correctly to advance; answer incorrectly to be penalized. Please be prepared.

"A building game-style game..."

Looking at the light screen, Qingye muttered to himself. This was a type of level challenge that he was extremely familiar with.

Connect-the-dots, match-3 games, idiom fill-in-the-blank games, brain teasers...

These were some of the few pastimes he had in this world.

If there weren't penalties for failure, he would definitely go and raid one or two of these metal buildings whenever he had free time.

"It's probably not that simple."

Coco's indigo eyes narrowed slightly as she stared intently at the screen.

No sooner had she finished speaking than the first question appeared.

[Question 1: How long does it take for the Earth to rotate once?]

A.24小时B.23小时56分4秒C.365天D.一个月

After glancing at the four options, Aono instinctively wanted to choose A, but Coco said first, "B."

[Correct answer!]

Aono twitched the corner of his mouth. Coco was right, this level wasn't that simple!

They even set traps!

It's not that he learned anything; he's already forgotten everything he taught!

[Question 2: What is the chemical formula for water?]

[Question 3: What is the largest organ in the human body?]

The next two questions were also a piece of cake for Coco.

H2O.

"skin."

With the third question passed, the progress bar on the screen lit up to one-third of its height, and the atmosphere became much more relaxed.

The little cook, who blinked throughout, even chuckled and said, "This is too easy. We should have come earlier."

However, the style of the image on the screen changed abruptly the next moment.

[Question 4: According to *Critique of Pure Reason*, what two forms of intuition does Kant's "transcendental sensibility" primarily address?]

[Question 5: Under non-steady constraints, how should the generalized force terms in the Lagrange equations be corrected?]

[Question 6: Under the "official in charge of industry and commerce" system in the Western Zhou Dynasty, who were the "Guoren" (people of the state) primarily?]

If the first three questions were about the knowledge of an average high school student, now they have risen directly to the level of a postgraduate entrance exam.

Tsunade and Dudu looked at the string of obscure technical terms and shook their heads like rattles.

Ying remained expressionless, but a hint of confusion flickered in her eyes.

Aono turned her head to the side. "It's up to you, Coco."

He appeared calm, but in reality, he had no other choice.

Coco rolled her beautiful indigo eyes, looked at the question and thought for a while before giving her answers one by one.

[Correct answer!]

[Correct answer!]