Chapter 164: The Strongest Student in the Academy!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
"F*ck, we can't go in! The entire dormitory district has actually been fully covered by an energy shield." Apparently, these five or six 10th graders had wanted to watch the fun, planning to run away into the dormitory district if the situation turned bad. Unexpectedly, the mainframe did not leave any room for these students to exploit, directly sealing away the dormitory area behind a light shield. Now, the people inside could not come out, but the people outside similarly could not go in.
"Then what should we do?" asked one of the students, terrified.
"What can we do? Just find a place to hide and wait till everything blows over to come out ... Hehe, the 7th grade has 100 people or so less than us; we 10th graders are sure to win this grand armed melee. It's absolutely the right choice for us to join in this grand armed melee." This speaker was rather smug; he seemed to be the head of this group.
"Leader, why do you say so?"
"I've done some digging. Every time, the winning side of the grand armed melee will receive countless resources from the academy. But those who do not participate will not enjoy these benefits ... otherwise, why would I bring you all out here and take the risk?"
"What if we happen to encounter any 7th grade Special Class-A students?" This group was entirely made up of regular class people. Even though they were three years older than the 7th graders, they still could not go up against those prodigies in Class-A.
"Are you an idiot? That's why we need to hide well! If we're really that unlucky, we just need to surrender. Once we surrender, the opponent can't do anything to us anymore. If they try anything, we just need to press the help button to get assistance and a teacher will come rescue us. At that time, the one who took action against us would also lose the right to continue on in the grand armed melee ..." It looked like this team leader had indeed taken some effort to understand the rules of the grand armed melee just so he could take advantage of the confusion.
"Looks like someone is coming. Hide quickly!" The team leader heard the sound of people approaching, and hurriedly led his team members to hide inside a patch of trees by the side.
Right then, in several locations, the 7th graders and the 10th graders were already clashing ...
After Ling Lan heard the mainframe's announcement, she nodded to Qi Long and the others. Then, Qi Long with Han Jijyun, and Luo Lang with Lin Zhong-qing, two in a group, swiftly departed from Sunmoon Square. The initially noisy Sunmoon Square was instantly deathly silent — only Ling Lan was left standing alone on the stage, looking off into the distance.
"Little Four, where is the top rank of the 10th grade Class-A?" Ling Lan decided to first test the waters, wanting to see how strong the best of the 10th grade was.
Little Four immediately displayed the location of the 10th grade top rank with a red dot on a 2D map of the Central Scout Academy. With a flying leap, Ling Lan left Sunmoon Square without a sound.
********
"Leader, are we not going to hide?" Somewhere in the academy, six people were standing in a blatantly noticeable location. Their bright red clothes clearly displayed their class. One of the members was glancing around nervously as he questioned a grim-faced youth.
"It's just that bunch of 7th graders. Are they worth hiding for?" The grim-faced youth did not reply, instead, another member standing beside him spoke up with a dismissive quirk of his brow, seemingly not at all worried about this so-called grand armed melee.
"Rumour has it that their top rank Qi Long is very formidable ..." cautioned that nervous-looking team member.
For some reason, he just could not shake the feeling that danger was coming. Although he had no idea what this feeling was, many times, this kind of feeling had let him overcome one threat after another. And this time, this sense of danger was even stronger than anything he had ever felt before — he just had no way of explaining it, because no one on his team would believe him even if he spoke up.
"Last year, he challenged the 8th grade, which is to say the current 9th grade top rank, Lu Jing, and failed. And Lu Jing can't last more than 30 moves against our team leader. These 7th graders are definitely no match for our team leader," argued yet another team member.
"Yeah, the team leader is the only combat genius that has entered the Qi-Jin stage in the scout academy right now, you know! He's the strongest student in the academy!" said another team member, face filled with idolisation, "If the team leader had publicized this information, those 7th grade brats would never have dared to suggest something like this grand armed melee."
At this moment, the grim-faced youth spoke, "Alright, if you all have the strength to bicker you might as well go and clean up some of those 7th graders. I never again want to see something like that incident three years ago ..."
A wave of rage emerged on the youth's face. He was the pride of his grade, but three years ago, his team had lost to a barrier-breaking team from some third-rate planet's scout academy. And then, this year, the 10th graders led by him had actually been challenged to a grand armed melee by the juniors of the 7th grade ... this was clearly a smack to his face! Did they really think this grade of his was so easy to bully?
"Someone's coming!" One of the team members suddenly voiced a warning.
Following that, a team of 7th grade students dressed in blue uniforms could be seen peeking out from behind the trees ...
"Crap, why are we so unlucky? Meeting the 10th grade top rank Zhang Jing-an's team right off the bat." When the leader of this team saw the face of the rumoured strongest scout at present, his mind became a jumbled mess. He immediately signalled for his team members to quickly retreat and escape.
"Eh, where did they go?" One of the running team members looked back to check on the 10th grade team, but found that the 6 people standing there previously had all disappeared.
"Not good, run faster!" The team leader had barely finished speaking when the ground beneath his feet shook violently. His entire body was thrown backwards into the air, before he fell to crash forcefully onto the ground. There was a tightness in his chest, making him feel nauseous.
The team leader hurriedly leapt up to check on his teammates and found the situation unpromising. The weakest team member was already coughing up blood, obviously having sustained heavy internal damage.
At this moment, 6 figures appeared in front of them. As expected, it was Zhang Jing-an's group of six.
One of them abruptly charged over, the stick in his hand swinging down towards the 7th grade regular class team leader.
The team leader reacted quickly — evading with a twist of his body, his own rubber bat swinging out with the movement. But just as his rubber bat was about to strike the opponent, the other suddenly vanished, and then he felt his abdomen being struck harshly. Once again, he was sent flying backwards through the air, and this time, in the air, a mouthful of blood spewed out!
With just one hit, he had been injured seriously!
They were definitely no match for these people! This notion rose swiftly in the team leader's mind. The pain in his body should have dulled his reflexes, but for some reason, his fingers moved even quicker than his mind, pressing down on the button to surrender immediately. At the same time, the button seeking rescue lighted up.
He had just crashed onto the ground again when that 10th grade team member rushed in once more to attack with his stick. Suddenly, the 7th grade team leader's communicator emitted a white light, which instantly repelled the stick! At the same time, the two combatants received a notification from the mainframe: "Attacking a target which has already surrendered — 100 melee points deduction!"
"F*ck, what is this?! Actually losing points!" yelled the 10th grade team member angrily when he read the notification.
Zhang Jing-an stared coldly at the regular class team leader on the ground and said, "His reaction time was pretty quick, actually managing to press the surrender button in that split second in the air. Liulian, you were too careless."
"Looks like this fellow's reflexes are really good!" Another member stared curiously at the 7th grade regular class team leader, seemingly very interested in studying him.
"We've surrendered!" The 7th grade team leader's heart was filled with fright. He quickly yelled out to remind the opponents that they could not attack an opponent who had surrendered. The other team members also reacted quickly. During the span of their conversation, they had also pressed the surrender button.
"Tch, so boring!" They had initially hoped the opponent would resist a little so they could toy with them, but unexpectedly, this team actually did not have a single shred of courage, actually choosing to surrender just after being injured with one hit.
These 10th graders could not have imagined that the 7th graders were so decisive and quick to choose to surrender because Ling Lan had embedded a subliminal trigger within them with her spiritual power during her speech. When they encountered an opponent who was distinctly stronger than they were, they would not struggle needlessly but choose to surrender immediately to save their lives.
In fact, the grand armed melee had not been as bloody and cruel as it was made out to be at its inception. Everyone who participated in a grand armed melee in the beginning had known who their opponents were — the regular classes would seek out the regular classes, the merit classes would seek out the merit classes, the special classes would seek out the special classes — so everyone would be fighting against someone of almost equivalent strength. In that way, both sides would be able to gain battle experience while raising their individual capabilities at the same time.
However, as time went on, the grand armed melee began to change in nature. In order to obtain victory, the stronger students would first go after the students from the regular classes. Some who were particularly twisted would not even give those regular class students a chance to surrender, killing them straightaway. The side who was harmed then decided to repay blood with blood and also began sending out their strongest students to go kill the other side's regular students. In the end, the situation spiralled out of control, amassing large number of casualties and injuries on each side. Thus, the academy had no choice but to make it much harder for the students to initiate a grand armed melee.
Ling Lan naturally knew the tragic history of the grand armed melee. To cut off this potential development, Ling Lan purposefully exerted spiritual pressure to embed a subliminal command, almost causing her spiritual power to collapse on itself. When meeting an opponent of overwhelming strength or obtaining a serious injury, surrender. Even if they were unconscious, their bodies would move because of this subliminal command and press the surrender button.
"Let's leave. After they surrender, a teacher will soon be here to take them away," said another team member. Continuing to linger here would just be a waste of time.
"Fine. I think I sense another team of mice approaching. Who knows what level they are this time ... I hope we can have some fun." One of the team members could sense the approach of another team, and his gaze shone with a faint red light.
"Go!" Zhang Jing-an said only that before disappearing. The others soon followed him.
Seeing no one else around them, the 7th grade regular class team instantly relaxed.
"So this is the top ranking team of the 10th grade Class-A. Our strength is really too far apart from theirs; we couldn't even take one attack ..." The team leader was extremely depressed, "Who knows if Qi Long can stand up against them ..."
"Qi Long already lost to Lu Jing of the 9th grade, and Lu Jing can't defeat Zhang Jing-an. I don't anticipate the outcome of this grand armed melee!" One of the team members was pessimistic.
"What are you all saying? Have you all forgotten that Qi Long still has a boss on top of him? The real king of our 7th grade is Ling Lan!" Another team member was indignant, "One move? Leader, don't tell me you can withstand one move from Boss Ling Lan?"
Despite being needled by his team members, the team leader was not at all angry. Instead, his spirits rallied. "Oh yeah! how could I forget that we still have Boss Ling Lan? Anyone against him has been finished off in one blow — he's definitely no weaker than Zhang Jing-an."
"However, we've really lost face this time, being kicked out of the fight so soon after it started. We need to train well once we get back ..." sighed the team leader.
His words caused all the team members to fall into a contemplative silence. That's right, they were probably the first batch to leave the field! That was truly disgraceful! A strong desire to become stronger rose within their hearts. If there were to be another grand armed melee in the future, they definitely did not want to be the first batch of students to leave again!
Translator's Thoughts
ryuxenji ryuxenji
Uh ... ok, so I just received this news not too long ago from up-top. Whether it's good news or bad news is up to you all personally, I guess.
This novel will be going premium on April 18, 2018. There should be a mass release on that day. If not, sometime around then at least. So ... save up them spirit stones if you want to read ahead then. (As far as I know, the release rate will stay the same after going premium, so the premium chaps shouldn't stack up too much.) Before then, I won't be able to give you all any extra chaps, 'cause everything's gonna go into feeding that mass release that Webnovel wants. (Like, seriously, I will die if I give you all extra chaps now while trying to build that stockpile. *hyperventilates*)
That said, if you have any complaints about premium, please bring it over to the forums rather than the reviews and comments sections of this novel. Premium is not within my control, so complaining to me and dissing the novel just because of premium will only make me feel helpless and sad. :'(
To end, thank you all very, very much for the support thus far, and I hope you all continue to enjoy and support this novel even after it goes premium, whether as free readers or paying ones. :3
And now ... let me get back to the grindstone so y'all can have your mass release then. orz