"So, what kind of test is this exactly?" Cui Jinqi asked curiously.
"It's primarily a practical combat test," Lu Qingyun replied with a smile.
Seeing her vague response and her expression that seemed to say, "You'll find out soon enough," Cui Jinqi couldn't help but become even more curious and eager.
If the test stage proved to be explosively difficult, embarrassing Cheng Jinyang greatly, she would certainly be delighted—she could then mock and tease him thoroughly once he emerged.
If the test stage turned out to be ridiculously easy, with Cheng Jinyang effortlessly dominating, Cui Jinqi would be even more pleased—she disliked Lu Qingyun's brother intensely, and seeing him fail miserably would satisfy her greatly.
In any case, whatever the outcome, she was sure to find amusement in it.
Cheng Jinyang swallowed the medication, connected to the neural interface, and lay down inside the brain domain development machine. As the digital transformation modeling completed, he appeared in the server environment.
Simultaneously, the visuals from the test environment were projected outside.
At this moment, Cheng Jinyang found himself in an unfamiliar city, with drones buzzing around everywhere.
He checked his equipment: two handguns, three grenades, and a rifle, all weapons with unlimited ammunition.
In addition, he was wearing a jet propulsion flight suit strapped to his arms, legs, and back.
The flight suit, initially designed for creating rocket infantry capable of free flight on the battlefield, was found to be impractical due to the excessive energy consumption needed to overcome normal adult gravity, making it less cost-effective than producing lightweight military drones.
However, the Cheng family, being exceptions due to their gravitational manipulation abilities, found the flight suits to be excellent for overcoming slow initial acceleration in combat situations—nowadays, only Cheng family's Tianluo would use them in actual combat.
Undoubtedly, the fact that he had a flight suit indicated that the Fanyang Lu family had indeed come prepared, customizing their test stages to accommodate users of gravitational manipulation abilities.
After Cheng Jinyang completed this test, the Lu family would probably review the results again, carefully assessing his true strength...
In this way, it wouldn't be good to blatantly go easy on him, lest the Lu family see it as an insult and mockery.
Cheng Jinyang surveyed his surroundings again and saw a line of numbers in the upper right corner of his retina:
Enemy drones: 1000/1000
In the upper left corner was the countdown:
30:00
"So, the test content is about shooting down all these drones before the countdown ends, right?" Cheng Jinyang asked aloud.
"All of them? Just you?" came the mocking laughter of Lu Zhongyou from around him, as if ridiculing his capabilities.
In other words, the test content was indeed about taking down drones.
Cheng Jinyang didn't dwell on it with him, simply saying lightly, "Let's begin."
Let's aim for a passing grade, barely acceptable but not so obvious as to look like letting him off the hook.
As the countdown in the upper left corner began to roll, Cheng Jinyang activated gravitational manipulation and simultaneously maneuvered the flight suit to ascend from the sky.
Like stones suddenly dropped into water, the swarm of drones exploded like a school of fish and fiercely rushed towards him.
He was instantly startled: Damn, there are so many!
Initially, he hadn't thought much of the 1000 in the upper right corner. However, when he actually saw each number represent a drone, and saw thousands of drones densely rushing towards him, he realized just how terrifying this stage actually was.
Rising into the air, he quickly dove and changed direction, maximizing the output power of the flight suit just in time to evade the first wave of dozens of drones—sharp saw-toothed blades were rotating rapidly under the propeller casings, making it absolutely terrifying to imagine them scraping against flesh.
Having narrowly avoided the first wave of attacks, Cheng Jinyang glimpsed during his descent that more drones were hovering in the distance. Probes extending from beneath their fuselages were rapidly condensing into electric currents and beams.
Damn it!
He hastily pulled on the flight suit, accelerating his descent downwards. Just as he was about to crash into the ground and shatter into pieces, Cheng Jinyang suddenly adjusted his posture, directing all thrusters downwards to stabilize his figure. At the same time, gravitational manipulation locked onto a nearby abandoned old car, using his supernatural abilities to lift and hurl it, blocking the targeting lines of all distant laser probes.
The next moment, countless high-energy lasers pierced and cut the entire old car.
Outside the screen, Cui Jinqi was stunned, her eyes wide open. They started off so intensely—can Jinyang handle this?
Lu Qingyun smiled and remarked, "Designation Alpha-26, the drone urban warfare checkpoint, serves as the graduation test for our clan's shadow guards. It challenges not only the precision and speed of supernatural attacks but also the supernatural ability user's judgment and control over battlefield environments."
"If one only charges head-on, recklessly engaging numerous drones in direct combat, they'll never pass this checkpoint."
She deliberately spoke for the benefit of Cui Jinqi but indirectly informed the nearby Cheng family members like Cheng Yuexian. If they had any secret means to inform Cheng Jinyang, now was the time to do so, preventing him from being directly defeated without even downing a single drone, which would be too embarrassing.
Cheng Yuexian raised an eyebrow, quickly understanding her intent, and discreetly moved back to transmit a private message to Cheng Jinyang behind the equipment... But before she could act, Cheng Jinyang had already swooped down and skated through the street, crashing through a storefront window. Subsequently, a plethora of shop items clattered about, thoroughly blocking the transparent glass from the inside.
"It seems he heard your advice," remarked Cui Jinqi with a radiant smile.
Lu Qingyun maintained a composed expression, knowing Miss Cui's speculation was unfounded. Clearly, Clan Leader Cheng was not an inexperienced brute; he had immediately grasped her implications during the battlefield situation.
Meanwhile, Cheng Jinyang took cover in the shop, where another wave of drones shattered through the display window. With a spinning blade, he broke through the cluttered obstacles, penetrating into the store.
Soon after, the store echoed with rapid gunfire, and the number "1000" in the top left corner rapidly decreased, indicating the drones entering the store were being systematically eliminated.
"He's setting up an ambush," admired Cui Jinqi.
Lu Qingyun couldn't help but smirk. Is that how you execute an ambush tactic?
Yet, as the screen switched to the interior of the store, her amusement faded. The drones had rushed through the weakest part of the cluttered barrier created by Cheng Jinyang, surrounded by several clothing racks and shoe cabinets, creating a confined and restrictive environment (clearly his doing). As the drones entered, they had little room to maneuver and were precisely picked off by his gunfire.
But was such a straightforward response strategy assuming all external drones would foolishly follow the same path and be picked off one by one?
Lu Qingyun silently watched the screen. Soon, the swarm of drones outside the store received environmental data from those destroyed upfront.
Detecting the change in route environment, adjusting combat strategy, beginning to change!