Chapter 274 - 177: "In the state of Flow, people can unleash great potential.

"You mean..."

Li Shiji looked thoughtfully at Biaozi in front of him: "After failing eight consecutive times on the ’Dragon Castle’ in normal difficulty, you accidentally chose the extreme difficulty ’Dragon Castle’, and entered a state of extreme calmness, almost like a third-person perspective, and luckily cleared it?"

"Yeah, yeah." Biaozi said seriously: "It’s like what you taught me, deceiving my own brain to stimulate my potential."

"I never taught you that."

Li Shiji pondered for a while before speaking: "I know a bit about the state you’re in. Many people call it ’Flow’. When you’re fully focused and immersed in something, your brain will wholeheartedly serve that thing."

"In this process, self-awareness weakens."

"And you won’t feel the passage of time from the outside world."

"When Flow reaches its peak, it creates a perspective detachment, controlling yourself almost like a third-person view, common in writers and the competitive field."

"For example, in gaming."

"If you played games before Doomsday, under the right timing and circumstances, you might enter a state similar to unity with nature, your body subconsciously performing many standard actions, filled with confidence, feeling like you could take on ten people."

"However, this state is extremely difficult to enter and is hard to manually control. It can only be achieved under the right combination of factors."

"Although you failed eight times, based on your description, you were actually very close to succeeding each time, but it was always the sound before killing the monster that alerted them, leading to encirclement."

"Monsters in extreme difficulty are enhanced."

"But for you, they are still killable. The challenge lies in quickly delivering a fatal blow and ensuring the monster doesn’t make a sound before dying, and in extreme difficulty, a death in Dragon Castle is truly a death."

"When you enter the Flow state, you completely forget everything else, even forgetting that a death in extreme difficulty is real. If you fully invest yourself, there’s indeed a possibility to clear it."

"In a Flow state, a person can unleash tremendous potential."

"You’re quite ruthless."

Li Shiji, somewhat emotional, looked at Biaozi: "At that time, had you not entered the Flow state, or even if you entered the Flow state, but made a mistake, I should probably have attended your funeral by now."

"Speaking of which."

"The Fixed Star has hosted weddings but hasn’t hosted a funeral. If you keep playing like this, I feel like attending your funeral might not be far off."

"My hands are shaking right now."

Biaozi, full of lingering fear, sat beside him. He lit a cigarette with trembling hands and brought it to his mouth: "I almost died. Luckily, the result was good. But I think if I go to clear the normal difficulty Dragon Castle map again, there should be no problem at all."

"Indeed."

Perhaps Biaozi’s original intention wasn’t like this.

But the final result was.

The entire Guard One team cleared the extreme difficulty ’Resident Evil’ map, a unique feat on the Fixed Star.

In fact, extreme difficulty isn’t much harder than normal difficulty.

Once you clear the normal difficulty, with a bit more seriousness and caution, you can clear the extreme difficulty.

It’s just that extreme difficulty results in real death, bringing immense psychological pressure on people.

Once you overcome this psychological pressure, clearing the extreme difficulty map is just that easy.

The result is extremely gratifying.

Of course.

Biaozi and others are now relaxed, but Team Two and Team Three are starting to feel tremendous pressure.

"..."

The captain of Team Three, who was patrolling outside, looked at the information on the Iris Chip, his lips twitching slightly.

"Congratulations to Biaozi for being the first member to clear the extreme difficulty ’Dragon Castle’ map on the Fixed Star."

"Congratulations to all members of Guard One for all clearing the extreme difficulty ’Resident Evil’ map."

This was what President Ai posted on the Iris Chip for all guards and management personnel.

A sort of reward.

Just short of writing ’Master Mang is very pleased’ on it.

"Is the competition pressure this intense..."

The captain of Team Three looked somewhat helplessly at the team members patrolling nearby. His team members weren’t ready yet, they’ve just cleared the normal difficulty ’Resident Evil’ map.

Even if it takes a bit more time, it’s fine. He doesn’t want his team members to suffer losses on the map.

That would be too unjust.

...

"It’s alright."

"Phew..."

On the Wild Bull train, a man looked at the private message reply from the Fixed Star, finally breathing a sigh of relief. The other party finally saw the message he posted on the Train Radio, and this grudge seems to have been settled.

He’s not planning on selling cigarettes for now.

The other party can’t possibly stay in the yellow zone for long. He can sell after the Fixed Star leaves this area.

He’s not planning to go to the blue zone; he plans to stay in the yellow zone for life.

Though going to the blue zone offers more advanced mines, more resources, and rarer parts, but... what business is it of his?

He has no intention of becoming any stronger.

As long as he can survive in the Doomsday, staying and developing steadily in the yellow zone isn’t impossible. Don’t you see that level 9 train, ever since entering this zone, has shown no sign of leaving, looking like it wants to retire in the ’Zombie Basin’."

Although not selling cigarettes causes him some loss.

But that’s okay, he still has the Cigar Production Line.

The man smiled as he entered another line of text on the Train Radio.