After explaining most of the world's truth, Betty began to introduce the place they were in.
Training Ground Number 1001 was a venue specifically for the Imperial Military Academy's assessment, targeting disciplines like Command, Piloting, and Combat. Betty was a student in the Piloting discipline.
"Students will be sent to the central area of the training ground. After leaving their basic equipment, they need to leave the training ground within a certain time. As long as they can successfully reach the finish line, they are considered qualified. The specific score is calculated based on the time taken."
Ethan nodded. This wasn't difficult for him to understand, and he also learned why this world had a clear hierarchical division.
The environment of the initial Sea of Calm was relatively peaceful, allowing students to adapt here before setting sail to challenge the next sea area, which was the area Ethan was currently in.
Here they could accumulate some strength, mainly focusing on ship upgrades, and then, after their equipment met certain requirements, enter the route, pass through the second Sea of Storms, and reach the outermost Sea of Miracles.
The increasingly complex sea conditions along the way, in addition to testing the students' piloting and command abilities, also had corresponding requirements for combat capabilities.
"Do you all participate in the assessment in teams of several students?"
Betty didn't expect Ethan to notice this, but there was nothing to hide, so she nodded directly. "This is also a reference standard for calculating the final score. Before the assessment begins, it will be determined whether students participate in teams or individually."
Participating individually would yield a higher overall evaluation than participating in a team. Basically, students who achieved high scores completed the exam individually, as this meant the student had no obvious weaknesses in both piloting and combat.
However, students in the Command discipline who wanted to achieve high scores must choose to participate in teams. Otherwise, no matter how well they completed it alone, they could only get a passing score. This was because one of the reference standards for testing the command ability of Command discipline students was the speed at which the team completed the assessment and the condition of the team members.
If there were casualties among team members, the score would not be very good. If the entire team died and only the commander came out, not only would they not get a passing score, but they would even be held accountable, ranging from expulsion to facing a military tribunal.
Ethan just listened to a general overview of these matters. He wasn't very interested in these details. What he cared about was something else.
"Does this training ground have an energy field on its outermost layer?"
"Of course."
Outside the training ground was an energy field, which served as a partial atmosphere. Besides that, it had many other functions, such as making the sky look more like a real sky. It also ensured that people inside couldn't leave this place easily and that people outside couldn't enter here easily.
"The energy field can also create corresponding weather conditions."
This was why the lid in the sky and the clouds were almost at the same height, because various weather effects were created by these energy fields.
Ethan thought for a moment and then asked a more important question.
"Then what about the exit?"
Since it was a training ground, it wouldn't be a completely enclosed facility. At the very least, there had to be an entrance and exit passage.
Hearing this question, Betty looked at Ethan in surprise, as if she hadn't expected him to be thinking about the exit. The thought in her mind was, Does this person want to escape this place? Does he really understand what the universe means?
It wasn't surprising that Betty had such thoughts. In her impression, the natives of this world were controlled at a rather backward level of civilization. With the level of civilization the natives possessed, they couldn't even conquer a single planet, not even if there were no higher-level civilizations on it.
Someone like this, actually attempting to leave this training ground? Betty felt Ethan was thinking a bit too much.
"Using a special controller, a temporary passage can be opened at a specific location on that energy field. That's how I came in originally."
Ethan nodded. Actually, it didn't matter to him whether there was an exit or not. At worst, he could just open a portal directly on the energy field and teleport his spaceship outside.
For Ethan, who had mastered more and more abilities, a mere energy layer couldn't stop him at all.
"How did you get trapped here?"
As soon as this was mentioned, Betty seemed very down, but she still briefly recounted her experience.
The story was nothing special. Basically, Betty and her classmates were undergoing the assessment together, but their team was very unlucky. The progress wasn't smooth, and they even suffered casualties not long after setting off.
The most terrifying thing wasn't the casualties, but that the first person to die was actually the commander.
This was too bizarre, so bizarre that no one had ever heard of such a precedent. Betty and her companions were a bit at a loss, not knowing what to do next.
Some even suggested giving up this assessment and just waiting for the rescue team to arrive.
Betty and her companions did not choose to give up the exam, but instead continued to push forward, eventually successfully reaching this route. It seemed that the only remaining challenge was the Sea of Storms not far ahead.
As for the various monsters along the route, as long as they were careful and dodged in time, they didn't need to worry too much. Even if they occasionally encountered them, there were combat students with decent strength in the team.
For Betty's team, the biggest problem was still the lack of a commander. When encountering issues, everyone acted on their own, each having their own ideas, and they often got into arguments over small matters.
This resulted in the team's progress always being slow, so they had another argument when they arrived at this island.
"This island is actually a resting point before the Sea of Storms, but it's also a test."
"A test?"
After Betty's explanation, Ethan learned that although this island had no mental interference, the entire island was deliberately designed to make people feel comfortable.
Beaches, grasslands, mountains, forests, coupled with the almost imperceptible passage of time, made it easy for people to have the idea of staying here comfortably for a longer period.
If too much time was accidentally wasted here, then the assessment could easily result in failing due to the wasted time.
There was also an option here, which was to choose to give up the subsequent exams on this island. In that case, although this exam would be judged as a failure, they would receive an additional opportunity for a retest.
So, upon arriving at this island, Betty's team had an argument. The result of the argument was that the team split, and they even almost broke out into physical conflict.
Betty watched her classmates' relationships become increasingly tense and lost confidence in completing this exam, so she chose to stay here and give up this exam.
This time, Betty instead became the target of concentrated attacks from her classmates. These companions not only didn't leave her anything but even wanted to snatch all the equipment she carried. Although they were ultimately prevented by another classmate who had a good relationship with her, it also made Betty completely lose trust in these companions.
Betty escaped from the team while everyone was resting at night, then found a hidden mountain cave, sent out a distress signal from inside, and quietly waited for the rescue team to arrive.
In the following days, she secretly observed her classmates from a distance. They didn't look for her and quickly left by ship. Betty thus remained on the island waiting for rescue.
As the awaited rescue was slow to come and she had to find food every day, Betty eventually chose to go into hibernation.
The Empire's hibernation pod technology was very advanced. One only needed to carry a nano-device about the size of a finger on their person. This small thing could transform into a huge hibernation pod when activated, and could also serve as a single-person life support device to wait for rescue in space when necessary.
However, once deployed, it would be completely fixed in shape and could not revert back into such a small nano-device to be put away.
"This island doesn't sink into the sea like other islands?"
More questions arose in Ethan's mind. Since this island wouldn't sink, why didn't the so-called Guild develop it into another unsinkable island base? Considering it was next to the Sea of Storms, it seemed it could serve as a transit station between the two sea areas?
"This island will always remain on the surface of the sea. It's said that some very special technology is used to ensure the environment on the island always remains in a beautiful state."
Ethan was somewhat interested in this so-called special technology. Unfortunately, Betty didn't know much about this technology. She was just a student participating in the exam and only knew the names of many technologies the Empire possessed. She hadn't even heard of many advanced technologies.
She hadn't known about the magical technology that kept the island in a beautiful state for years before. She only heard about it when she participated in this exam, but she didn't know the specifics.
"Since this island is always on the surface of the sea and is so beautiful, why haven't any natives come to live on the island?"
Betty did know this point, because before participating in the assessment, there were detailed explanations regarding various situations.
"Ships belonging to non-students cannot approach this island. First of all, there are often Floating and Sinking Islands appearing long-term around the island's periphery. Without the positioning device specifically for students, the island pointer used by ordinary navigators will only lead them to other islands."
Ethan this time just proceeded in a straight line and didn't use the island pointer to look for Floating and Sinking Islands, which was why he unexpectedly discovered this place.
"When ships without a special identification device approach this island, they will be subjected to things like lightning, storms or blizzards, giant whirlpools, etc... However, these facilities may have lost their effect, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to approach here at all."
Ethan rubbed his chin. He now really wanted to tell Betty: he had just charged through blizzards and countless giant whirlpools.
(To be continued.)
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