Start with the Highest Difficulty

Seeing he had stunned his opponent into silence, Xiao Bai quickly clarified:
"Sorry, Teacher Zhou, I misspoke. It's just me for now; the reinforcements are still on their way. They're all experts in this field."
"I see. That gave me a scare—I thought you were planning to take on two hundred by yourself! In that case, don't act rashly. Focus on gathering intelligence first. Reconnaissance missions rely heavily on information and intelligence."
"Right, I know. But I might have to execute operations later, so I want to understand more about the practical aspects."
"Understood. I'll send you some lecture materials to cover the basics."
As he spoke, he quickly sent over some documents and videos, then emphasized:
"Theory is just theory. Real combat situations are complex and unpredictable. Don't get stuck on textbook procedures. Listen to your commanders—listen to your commanders—listen to your commanders, unless you're working with the Special Operations Bureau."
Xiao Bai wasn't unfamiliar with the Special Operations Bureau; he often heard about them in the news. They were portrayed as elite, highly efficient police.
Xiao Bai had once sent them an anonymous letter, but it had vanished without a trace, leaving him suddenly doubting their reliability.
He hesitated before asking, "Um... just to clarify, what's the deal with the Special Operations Bureau?"
"For them, I can only use one word: tax thieves. You're not actually working with them, are you?"
"No, no! It's an independent Investigation Team."
After defending himself, Xiao Bai added, "By the way, Teacher Zhou, do you know of any simulation programs that cover this kind of training? Understanding the theory alone might not be enough; I'd like to try my hand at it."
"Well... let me ask again, you're really not with the Special Operations Bureau?"
"Absolutely not! You're Captain Li's friend—I wouldn't dare lie to you!"
"Hmm... alright then. I trust Lao Li's judgment; he's always been spot-on with his assessments."
With that, Teacher Zhou sent Xiao Bai several program patches and explained, "This is our i nternal simulation library. Find a common commercial simulation program and patch it with these. You'll be able to customize scenarios yourself. There are detailed documentation files—make sure you read them carefully... And remember, don't distribute it!"
"Alright, don't worry... As for the simulation program, how about Virtual Battlefield ?"
"The new one that just came out? That won't work... To achieve extreme realism, that program requires numerous optimizations and upgrades to the database. Our old version can't keep up. You should choose something more basic."
"Okay, I understand, Teacher Zhou."
They cha tted casually for a while longer. The man revealed that he had once belonged to the Defense Force's special response unit, but after a mission failure, he was reassigned from frontline duty to administrative roles, focusing on training and combat strategy.
That mission failure was likely connected to the Special Operations Bureau he mentioned...
This made Xiao Bai realize that Lao Luo's network seemed to consist of capable middle-aged men who had fallen into obscurity for various reasons—a classic case of birds of a feather flocking together.
Will I end up like this someday?
"Don't worry about that yet. Just focus on living in the present."
With Xiao Bai's hard-drive-like memory, enhanced understanding, and deductive skills, he quickly mastered the foundational theories provided by Teacher Zhou, gaining an entry-level understanding of infiltration combat.
The real challenge lay ahead in the upcoming simulation training.
However, when Xiao Bai tried the standard simulation program recommended by Teacher Zhou, the results fell far short of his expectations.
Aside from the resolution still being stuck at 1K, the enemy and player characters were crude, paper-thin avatars. Scenarios consisted of mosaic images paired with text descriptions...
The simulations bore no resemblance to real combat conditions. Even someone who had only played Warrrior's Creed would find this level of fidelity unacceptable, let alone Xiao Bai, who had experienced Virtual Battlefield .
"It seems I'll have to find another solution..."
Xiao Bai muttered to himself, opened the 'smartphone's' wish function, and typed:
A high-fidelity simulation program compatible with old version data.
The smartphone immediately blacked out. After a few minutes, it lit up again, and the desktop now displayed Virtual Battlefield: Cracked Edition .
"Uh... as long as I don't distribute it, I won't get a lawyer's letter, right?"
Feeling a little guilty, Xiao Bai first installed the patch provided by Teacher Zhou, then launched the program for a test run.
The interface looked similar to the original Virtual Battlefield , but it had been stripped of unnecessary features like public chat and leaderboards. Gone were the matchmaking and PVP options, replaced by a scenario construction tool.
Xiao Bai quickly tested the new feature and found it remarkably simple and powerful. He could even directly import scenarios from the database?
"Besides the original ten scenarios from Virtual Battlefield , there are even the ones I experienced in reality: Mecha Graveyard , Gene Experiment Base , Silent Ruins , and more? Is this program using my memories as a database?"
Xiao Bai scrolled through the scenarios until he reached the final one, Sin Beneath the Snow . When he entered, he recognized the base he was about to raid.
The visual fidelity was perfec t, but even more impressive was how the program had faithfully reproduced everything he had observed in recon mode: the exact models of enemy mecha, the range of their radar and wide-area scans, the condition of hostages, every detail perfectly replicated.
Not only were the enemies lifelike, but they also possessed surprisingly human intelligence. For example, two researchers Xiao Bai was observing were secretly plotting their escape, only to be discovered and brutally beaten.
Fortunately, the two researchers in reality weren't so impulsive; they were currently asleep.
Meanwhile, the Mech D ata that Xiao Bai had previously been unable to access was finally functioning properly. Not only did it include data for the medium-sized mech he was currently using, but also the data for his physical body in the Cultivation Pod and his Biological Mecha.
He could freely set up his own teammates and enemy reinforcements, arbitrarily adjust the scenario difficulty, and even decide the mission objectives himself.
"This is insane! Isn't this even better than the official version? Truly befitting of Hypothetical-grade equipment!"
"Other than the fact that I can't get the AI Program to install no matter what I try, and the lack of creative innovation—it requires templates and blueprints—this is practically the world's most powerful supercomputer!"
"Alright, let's start by testing the highest difficulty level."
Xiao Bai eagerly maxed out all the difficulty settings and began his first simulation.
"C4-621, Raven, deploy!"
Three seconds later...
"What the hell? Anti-Air Missiles can create mushroom clouds now? Do you think this is an anime?"

Chapter end