Zhou Yi stood beneath Building 6.

This was his first time at the Samurai Crab Apartment, and he couldn't help but look around.

The entrance to the apartment had ramps instead of steps, and the entrance was wide.

The samurai crabs, with their broad and flattened bodies, usually moved laterally, avoiding congestion and getting stuck even when entering side by side.

A thick layer of sand, akin to a beach, covered the ground in common areas like beneath the buildings and the corridors, giving a soft feel underfoot and preventing the samurai crabs from wearing down their feet.

These were all very thoughtful design details.

Zhou Yi exclaimed, "Building 6 really understands the samurai crabs."

"Yes."

Jade City said, "The samurai crab is the resident it recognizes."

Zhou Yi entered the building and bumped into two samurai crabs rushing out the door.

The two samurai crabs immediately stepped aside, raised their claws in a salute to show respect.

Zhou Yi waved back at them; only then did the samurai crabs carefully move to the side and quickly ran out.

Just like students encountering the principal during an inspection.

The layout inside the building was also different from Jade City First Building. The high-rise standard was six units per floor, but the apartment had only three units on the left side, and a wall sealed the right side with a door that could be used for entry and exit.

Zhou Yi was observing this closed door.

A Weapon Master came running up to him in a hurry.

Flustered, it knocked on its carapace with its claws, standing as straight as possible, and a somewhat stuttering voice came from its translator receiver, "Chairman, Xie Lian reporting to you!"

Zhou Yi smiled and said, "Is this where you completed your transformation?"

"Yes, Chairman!"

"Tell me about your situation."

"Yes, Chairman!"

It looked very nervous.

Zhou Yi patted the Weapon Master's carapace, "Relax, this isn't an interrogation. I'm here to understand the details, take your time, no rush."

"All right."

The other relaxed a little.

It walked to the door on the right, knocked on it, and the door automatically opened inward.

"Please, come in."

Zhou Yi discovered a corridor inside, also with three units, all with doors open.

Xie Lian said beside him, "Chairman, these three are the apartment's training rooms."

Each of the three training rooms was different.

The first one housed hollow metal spheres, discuses, stone mallets, and long-handled iron clubs. Several samurai crabs were inside vigorously lifting and doing standing bird exercises to temper their physiques.

"This is the Strength Room, where you can keep increasing the weight to enhance your endurance."

In the second training room, the walls and floor were in motion, like fast-moving conveyor belts. A samurai crab was running hard inside, its eight claws fluttering.

Xie Lian said, "Chairman, this is the Speed Room, long-term practice can increase movement and reaction speed."

In the third training room, various parts of different sizes hung on the walls, including wooden items, iron shells, iron axles, copper wires, stone flakes, stone cones, and clay pots.

There was no one inside.

Xie Lian tapped his head with a claw and explained, "Chairman, this is the Intelligence Room, testing and tempering everyone's intelligence."

"One needs to select the different parts from the wall and assemble them into useful tools to pass the most basic test."

"I first practiced in the Strength Room next door, but there were too many samurai crabs there, so I came here for the quiet and gave it a try."

"However, it is difficult here. Assembling a tool is a challenging task for a samurai crab... I was lucky to put together a shovel, and that's how I passed the first stage of the room."

Zhou Yi became intrigued, "The first stage? Are there more steps after?"

"Yes, this is just the simplest entry test. There are higher challenges to follow."

Xie Lian took a stick from the side wall and skillfully combined it with an iron plate, knocking and shaping it into a shovel-like tool.

A green light in the shape of a crab lit up on the wall.

Then a metal ladder, formed from twisted rebar, descended from the ceiling.

Xie Lian began climbing.

Zhou Yi followed.

The room on the second floor was filled with sand, gravel, and wood.

"Here, one must use the existing raw materials and the tools from before to create a simple cave."

"Digging caves isn't hard for a samurai crab, but it needs to pass the test here."

Xie Lian swung the homemade iron shovel to level a piece of ground, used stones for foundation, and then constructed a simple sand cave with wooden supports.

It then raised its claws.

The ceiling suddenly started dripping water, concentrating the rainfall over the cave, and the volume kept increasing, soon submerging it.

Then a red crab mark lit up on the wall.

"When this happens, it means failure."

Xie Lian explained, "Here we face various trials—rain, windstorms, earthquakes... If the cave can't withstand the test, it won't pass."

It began to dismantle and rebuild.

This time, Xie Lian altered the terrain first, piling up a higher mound of earth and compacting the foundation on top.

It laid a stone base again and used wooden planks to create a suspended platform, constructing a simple nest hut from branches and sticks using an almost weaving technique.

In the next rainfall, water no longer flooded in but flowed down the planks and slopes in every direction.

Then the room began to shake, and though the nest hut trembled, it didn't fall apart.

This time a green light shone on the wall, indicating success.

"And then we can enter the third floor," Xie Lian breathed out a sigh.

In the third level of the Intelligence Room, various magazines were placed on the wall-mounted racks.

Zhou Yi stepped closer to examine them.

On the shelves, there were comics, beauty guides, urban weeklies, idol portraits, and some books on gardening, repairing, hairstyling...

However, they were all damaged and incomplete.

"This is when it gets the hardest," Xie Lian's voice carried a weight as it looked around: "Challengers have to copy these books, record all kinds of symbols and letters, as well as the pictures. At least one book has to be transcribed, and not too many mistakes can be made."

It gestured with its pincers: "This is truly difficult, as the claw structure of the samurai crab makes it challenging to hold a charcoal pencil or twig for flexible writing."

"In these Dead Sea Documents, some have many pictures and few words, while others have the opposite. Choose based on what you're good at and enjoy."

This level used the sandy floor as a workbook, with the sand used to trace the contents of the books.

Xie Lian picked up a thin book.

It turned out to be a children's picture book, "Little Red Riding Hood," with (Ages 2-6) written on the side.

Yet Xie Lian approached the task as if facing a formidable enemy, with a focused and serious gaze.

Holding a twig in its hand, it concentrated on drawing in the sand, although the strokes were somewhat crooked and twisted.

Observing this Weapon Master draw, Zhou Yi felt firsthand how demanding it was for samurai crabs to learn to write.

It required a great deal of effort and rigorous practice to overcome their physiological inconveniences.

It made sense that the birth rate of Weapon Masters was low; this path was truly hard.

After Xie Lian completed a sand drawing, taking one hour, which was the result of extensive practice, Zhou Yi thought it was time to move on: "That should be enough, let's go check out the next floor."

"Yes, Chairman," Xie Lian replied, relieved to finally put down the twig serving as its paintbrush.

Upon receiving the orders, the elevator to the fourth level of Building 6 opened.

Zhou Yi arrived on the fourth floor and found a long table with commonly used tools on it: pry bars, wooden boxes, tin cans, translator transceivers, and the like, totaling eight.

"The last one is actually quite simple," Xie Lian's tone became much lighter: "As long as one can use these tools skillfully and complete the tasks within the designated time, they'll pass this level."

Zhou Yi pointed to the ceiling: "There's nothing above?"

"There's more."

"But those above are situations only a Weapon Master can handle, including building small sand mazes, creating tools from blueprints, weaving ropes and Insect Armor..."

"As I trained on this fourth floor, I evolved into a Weapon Master," Xie Lian said. "Following the company's traditions, I also gave myself a name starting with 'Xie,' as you have given. I believe I am still weak, so to remind myself to keep practicing because of weakness, I chose the name Xie Lian."

Zhou Yi nodded approvingly: "Good, Xie Lian. You are the first Weapon Master trained in the Samurai Crab Apartment. Any first breakthrough is never easy."

"Do you have any department you'd like to work in?"

The other hesitated for a moment: "Chairman, I want to work at Maria Hospital, is that okay?"

Zhou Yi was slightly surprised.

He had assumed Xie Lian would either join the Scavenger Team or enter the highly popular delivery center. He never expected it to want to be a medical professional.

"Why do you want to go there?"

It said, "Because... I've seen many of my brothers getting injured. I'm not strong and not the smartest, but I am patient. I completed these practices with extensive training."

"No specific treatments for samurai crabs have been developed yet. If I go to the hospital, I can learn while helping everyone with simple injuries and illnesses," Xie Lian said.

"No problem."

Zhou Yi nodded: "I will speak with Da Vinci, and you shall report there tomorrow, starting as a trainee caretaker, following their arrangements. However, the hospital is a tough place, be prepared."

"Yes, Chairman. I am not afraid of hard work!"

Xie Lian immediately became excited.

"Off you go then."

"Yes, Chairman!"

As Zhou Yi saw off Xie Lian, he then went into the Strength Room and Speed Room for an onsite observation.

Three routes were constructed here.

Lifting weights to build strength made it easier to become a Hammerhead Soldier.

Practicing speed and agility would gradually evolve towards being Double Swordsmen.

If one completed the challenges of the Intelligence Room and had enough energy, they could potentially grow into a Weapon Master.

However, these growth outcomes were not absolute.

Postnatal practice only served to accelerate the pace of evolution; innate talent disparities still objectively existed.

Xie Lian considered himself slow-witted, yet according to the post-hoc physical examination by Da Vinci, its brain volume reached 1700ml, second only to Xie Xun, making it a samurai crab with exceptional brain talent.

Jade City said: "The arrangement in Building 6 is a mimicry of existing samurai crab behavior."

"From the time it was built until now, it has been observing samurai crabs. Hammerhead Soldiers prefer to train in strength, Double Swordsmen value speed, agility, and explosive power, and Weapon Masters evolve by creating tools, transforming the environment, and learning letters."

"These are the wisdoms of the past samurai crab communities, proven useful and thus continuously practiced."

"The Samurai Crab Apartment is very relaxed, with many vacant houses, so Building 6 had this idea to make training more convenient for them. Unexpectedly, it accelerated the evolutionary process."

Zhou Yi was moved by this thought.

It resembled a mutual promotion between the samurai crabs and the apartment.

The samurai crabs initially took care of Building 6 and indeed received excellent returns.

Zhou Yi pondered for a moment and then instructed Red Kestrel: "Announce to all samurai crabs, encouraging more development from the apartments. Any samurai crab employee of the Wasteland Development Company, regardless of evolving into Hammerhead Soldier, Double Swordsmen, or Weapon Master, will be rewarded with 5 Light Seeds! Go to Gong Zheng directly to receive this reward."

"Yes."

The drones began broadcasting the message through translators.

In the Wasteland Development Company, the samurai crabs became the first group to have their own dedicated school.

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