Of course, Mr. Yesi's seriousness was always an illusion. After dropping the bombshell, the corners of his mouth twitched, and he quickly returned to what was "normal" for him. The blond, handsome older man stretched out with a big yawn, took off his already loose-fitting uniform, and sauntered out bare-chested, which was quite an eyesore.

"Don't just see me as a sheep, the green grass becomes more fragrant because of me—"

Oh right, he didn't forget to unleash his discordant and horrifying singing voice.

Fu Luo was stunned.

Yang Ning, however, seemed to be used to it.

"Come." He waved to Fu Luo with a gentle expression and swiped open the simulation system with his own access card.

Fu Luo had noticed earlier that the simulation system in the Second Department was very different from the one in the school and had much more powerful functions. What she was familiar with and could use was actually only a small part of it.

Yang Ning skillfully entered commands and connected to a huge database, which contained all kinds of spaceships from the first spaceship in the world to the latest models equipped with warp drives, large and small, ancient and modern, from all countries, including reconnaissance, combat, and even logistics and transportation ships.

Fu Luo's eyes went straight.

"The maintenance and usage fees for this database are very high, and schools don't have it, so you may not have seen it before," Yang Ning explained carefully. "You can use it to familiarize yourself with the operation of various types of warships from different countries. The system can help you simulate many extreme situations, such as being attacked, lacking energy, fire alarms, physical impacts, and so on, which can train your hands-on skills."

The so-called "hands-on skills" actually refer to experience and foundation. A commander needs to go through trials and hardships before becoming independent, because no matter how intelligent and fully automated the system is, it cannot replace human operation on the front lines of battle.

"But it's best to have some restraint," Yang Ning said softly. "The mental pressure of the simulator is still not small."

Fu Luo's eyes were still firmly fixed on the database, like a mouse seeing a jar of rice, with green eyes, and she didn't hear clearly what her superior said. She immediately nodded perfunctorily.

Yang Ning smiled faintly, as if he didn't mind, and lightly patted her shoulder, "Let's go, tidy up, and I'll take you to eat something."

As the head of the General Staff Office, Colonel Yang's rank was quite high, and he generally didn't eat with others. There was a special small dining room for him. It was Fu Luo's first time here, and she felt a little restrained.

She was especially afraid of encountering a few more leaders here, and she had an inexplicable guilty feeling of violating discipline.

However, after all, this was in space. Even though the Space Fortress had been built with a well-developed transportation system, in terms of quality of life alone, it was still not that great.

...Of course, it was much better than those belligerent people in the other star system who only ate paste.

The small dining room had a quiet environment, but the food was not much better than the cafeteria.

Yang Ning ate his food properly, wiped each finger meticulously, and then sat up straight to talk to her, "I don't know if Captain Ye of the special forces has told you in advance, but this time it's really hard on you."

It was the first meal in days that wasn't so painful for Fu Luo, and she ate it with a sense of comfort and intimacy. Her cheeks were bulging, and she was afraid of spraying Colonel Yang in the face, so she didn't dare to speak and just shook her head vigorously.

Yang Ning lowered his eyelashes, casting a heavy shadow under his lower eyelids. If it weren't for his straight uniform, he would have looked a little melancholic, reminding Fu Luo of the slightly furrowed brows she saw when she ran into him at the entrance of the Gold Standard.

"In some matters," Yang Ning said after a long time, "my rank has no say. You are my subordinate, and I will try my best to fight for what I can for you. If there is really no way, I can only..."

Fu Luo finally swallowed the food and said without hesitation, "Colonel, I just enlisted."

Yang Ning's brow twitched slightly, as if talking to himself, "That's right, the road is still long."

As he swallowed his words, the atmosphere between the two suddenly became heavy.

Fu Luo didn't know the reason. With her elementary school level of observing words and expressions, it was impossible for her to know Yang Ning's mood. She could only imitate others, stand up stiffly, pour a glass of water for him, and say bluntly, "Commander, drink water."

The corner of Yang Ning's mouth lifted slightly, then dropped again. He suddenly looked up, his pupils not pure black but somewhat brownish, not very distinct between black and white, but with a kind of deep clarity.

He said, "But what if one day, you find that you can't go on with your path, what will happen?"

Fu Luo was a little raw in dealing with people, but she had a unique keenness when it came to serious matters. She almost immediately understood Yang Ning's implication—Yang Ning, regardless of his connections or rank, could access first-hand information. From this perspective, the United Nations negotiations must be very unsmooth, even shaking the confidence of the higher-ups?

But she dared not ask. The duty of a soldier is to complete their mission, not to inquire about the affairs of their superiors.

Fu Luo immediately withdrew her curiosity, quickly drafted a speech in her mind, and then said cautiously, "Last time in the underground city, didn't you tell me that we never ask such questions? Besides, how can the road...not be able to go on? Even if you can't do it, you can still walk to your last step, right?"

Yang Ning looked at her quietly for a moment and nodded slightly, "Mm, you still remember."

Huh?

"I hope you will always remember this sentence." Colonel Yang solemnly stared into her eyes.

Fu Luo then realized in surprise that she had indeed misunderstood again. It turned out that it was not the confidence of the higher-ups that was shaken, but only a test for her personally.

The next moment, Yang Ning took out a small chip from his pocket and handed it to her, "This is your new card after the upgrade. Replace it in your personal information card, you know how to do it, right?"

Fu Luo took it with mixed feelings and nodded.

Yang Ning stood up, "Let's go. You don't need to come along for the next mission. Stay in the General Staff Office and familiarize yourself with various things as soon as possible...The opportunity on Yesi's side is rare. I don't know how you caught his eye, but it's something that can be encountered but not sought after. He has a quirky temper and not a very good personality, but he is very capable. You should be tolerant. You can learn a lot, and you will be a B-level soldier in the future..."

Fu Luo was originally nodding repeatedly behind him, until she heard this sentence. Suddenly choking on her own saliva, she coughed with a flushed face and red ears.

B-level soldier!

Is this a joke?

Wasn't it said to be only C-level?

No no... C-level is already very good, can't say it's "only".

An enemy warship was equivalent to ten years of service?!

Fu Luo felt she could really ask someone to buy a lottery ticket.

Yang Ning looked back at her, "What, any problems?"

In order to not appear too timid, Fu Luo hurriedly suppressed her coughing like a zombie, maintaining a stiff posture, and quickly shook her head.

Yang Ning didn't laugh, but his brows relaxed a bit, the corners of his eyes curving slightly, as if a flash of amusement passed.

"Go back and rest early."

Fu Luo returned to her dormitory with mixed feelings, her hand holding the chip covered in cold sweat. She replaced the chip, swiping it at the door of the dormitory, and sure enough, the D-level soldier next to the avatar changed to B-level.

Like a country bumpkin who had never seen the world, Fu Luo bent over and stared at the "B-level" for a long time, feeling that even her one-inch portrait directly extracted from her ID card looked much more high-end and atmospheric, no longer like a wanted criminal.

If it were on a frontline warship, B-level could independently command a medium-sized warship of about twenty people.

Although in the special institution of the General Staff Office, the level only represented treatment and the work done did not change much, an indescribable sense of accomplishment still arose from her heart.

However, this bit of elation had basically dissipated by the time Fu Luo had tidied up her internal affairs, turned off the lights and was ready to sleep.

Darkness enveloped the cramped and narrow dormitory, with only the environmental panel on the wall still flickering with a dim layer of light, dutifully displaying the temperature, oxygen content, and pressure.

Five minutes later, Fu Luo, who was already lying down, suddenly turned over, took her personal phone, and edited a text message.

"Mom, I'm doing well here."

The intelligent system of the phone's text message box quickly notified her that the message had been sent successfully. Fu Luo waited eagerly for a reply, the screen's fluorescent light illuminating her face dimly.

But there was none.

Later, she fell asleep waiting.

The next day, she got up early as usual. After completing basic physical training and eating something, she went straight to the simulation training room. Time was tight and no one dared to slack off, but it was rare to see someone as motivated as her. When Fu Luo arrived, the simulation training camp had not yet opened. She waited a while until the opening time, went in first, and plunged into the database Yang Ning had introduced to her alone.

An hour and a half later, Yesi arrived.

Yesi didn't greet her, but went straight into the simulation cabin, interrupting Fu Luo's simulation program and sending her an invitation to battle mode.

The life of the newly minted B-level soldier in a hellish environment began.

In Fu Luo's impression, Yesi was a person with a poor and despicable mouth, but for a whole week, she didn't hear Yesi say a word to her. The two of them almost didn't have time to greet each other or meet. The older man with a black heart and ruthless hands would start a one-sided abuse of her as soon as he came, and after finishing, he would hum a song and lift his butt to leave - and at that time, Fu Luo, who had canceled the damage threshold, was usually still lying in the simulation cabin unable to get up.

One day, she heard the tune of "The Painter" in her dream, and actually woke up in a cold sweat.

Very good, Fu Luo thought, in the future when she retires, the door to the kindergarten teacher profession is probably forever closed to her. Now when she hears nursery rhymes, she gets goosebumps all over.

On this day, after finishing her duty, Fu Luo ran to the simulation training room to find abuse again.

Just as she was about to be hit by a missile from Yesi, Fu Luo, who had already trained to "calmly face life and death", suddenly heard the system say, "Due to special circumstances, the simulation training room is closing urgently and will forcibly disconnect the neural connection in three, two, one..."

The prepared severe pain did not come. Fu Luo pushed open the simulation cabin door in confusion. As soon as she stood up, her feet moved as if there was an earthquake.

The next moment, she reacted. This was... the space fortress activating its power system?

The Chinese space fortress was moving?

Yesi's simulation cabin opened, and the handsome blond man, his playful expression gone, was saying to his own communicator, "You fools just self-destructed the Great Wall."

After saying that, he nimbly jumped out of the simulation cabin, his face still not looking good. He glanced at Fu Luo and said hurriedly, "The simulation training room will be suspended for twelve hours. I guess your General Staff Office will also have a meeting later. Go back."

Within less than fifteen minutes after he left, Yang Ning's voice came from the communicator, notifying all personnel of the General Staff Office to come to the conference room.

Only then did Fu Luo know what had happened.

After twenty-three rounds of the United Nations General Assembly, the heads of state of the United Nations countries, who had been unable to reach a consensus through negotiations, finally voted in such a chaotic environment to pass a "feasible" plan in an emergency situation - they decided to divide the entire solar system into multiple war zones, break up the alliances of major continents, with only small countries that had already fully achieved economic and political integration in peacetime advancing and retreating together. Other major countries each led a war zone independently, and only in a level one emergency situation did they have the right to seek help from neighboring war zones, henceforth fighting their own battles and being responsible for their own gains and losses.

The situation of the Earth Allied Forces advancing and retreating together disappeared like an epipheral flower, disintegrating after just one battle.

The space fortresses of the entire Earth Allied Forces needed to be redeployed, and the fortresses of various countries were moving as a whole. In ten hours, the protective umbrella outside the Earth would present a new pattern.

Listening to the mechanical voice flatly giving a briefing in the communicator, Fu Luo encountered Colonel Yang, who was walking this way, outside the conference room.

"At least in the future when fighting, countries won't shirk responsibilities and drag each other down," Yang Ning said as he walked, walking extremely fast, coldly snorting, "It's just that in the future everyone will do their own thing, the only option that would be worse would be directly cooperating with the people of the star system to defeat us one by one in a great strategy."