Chapter 247: Wager!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
Right at that moment, a human figure slowly walked onto the stage. That person was about 30 years old and was dressed in the alternating blue-white military uniform of the Federation. He had a handsome face and a stately build — by simply standing on the stage, he drew everyone's eye.
"Ah, the referee is here." The person's age and military uniform which differed from the cadets clearly marked him as the referee sent by the academy.
"Heavens, the referee the school sent is actually Colonel Tang Yu 1 !" When an eagle-eyed student noticed who the referee on the stage was, he could not help but yell out in shock.
"What?! Colonel Tang Yu, that ace instructor who cultivated the Thunder King, the number one in the school?" As the news spread among the students, even those who had not known Colonel Tang Yu before this also began exclaiming in awe.
Mind you, Colonel Tang Yu was the strongest among the instructors of mecha piloting — it was rumoured that he was already an ace operator. Besides that, in one of the teams he led, which had 6 students in total, the Thunder King was just a half-step away from advancing to ace status, while the other five in the team had all successfully advanced to special-class operator. Undoubtedly, he was the superstar ace instructor of the military academy — rumour had it that after he was done mentoring this batch of students till their 4th year, he would be able to mentor a new batch of 2nd years starting next year.
Perhaps Colonel Tang Yu had willingly taken on the role of referee just so he could take a look at the abilities of this year's intake? After all, these people could be his students of tomorrow ... of course, it was even more likely that he had already begun taking in students, so perhaps this wagered fight was also an assessment of Colonel Tang Yu's for the new cadets?
All of the senior students stared enviously at the five freshmen standing on the stage. Even if these students were defeated in this fight, as long as they performed decently and caught Colonel Tang Yu's eye, their futures would be immeasurable. It had to be said that this year's freshmen were just too lucky.
The mecha instructors of the military academy did not mentor their personal students up till the 6th year, typically only mentoring them till their 3rd year. As the freshmen were focused on their physical conditioning for the first year, busy building up the proper foundations, the mecha instructors would only take in students beginning from the second year. After mentoring them to the 4th year, their focused mentorship would end. Since the 5th and 6th year students were basically in the process of prepping for graduation, they typically had two options. One, was to go join some adventuring groups on some intergalactic adventuring mission to increase their own real-world battle experience; the other, was to enter the armed forces directly and begin an internship. Of course, those who chose the second option were all the best the school had to offer, typically already being noticed in their 4th year for their exceptional performance. By their 5th year, the military division which had its eye on them would issue them an internship offer letter and take them away ...
Of course, those 4th year students who performed well this year were pretty much all aiming for the newly established 23rd Division — not because they would have more opportunity to shine in a new division, but because the commander of the 23rd Division was one of the twelve god-class operators of the Federation, General Ling Xiao. He was the idol of all the cadets — the Thunder King was rushing so much to advance to ace operator this year precisely because he wanted General Ling Xiao to know of his existence. With that, he would have a chance to be noticed by the other and obtain that precious internship offer letter.
An internship offer letter did not mean that one would be able to remain at that division at the end of the 2-year internship, but as long as one performed within acceptable standards, one would normally not be dismissed by the division.
At this time, seeing the appearance of Colonel Tang Yu, those within the boxes frowned. Anyone with a brain could tell that the academy's arrangements this time seemed to hint at some deeper intent.
Only Yun Xiu in Li Shiyu's box continued to fret obliviously, "With Colonel Tang Yu as referee, won't he be biased towards Leiting? After all, the Thunder King Qiao Ting is his favoured disciple."
Li Shiyu instantly rolled his eyes at his friend at these words, having no desire at all to even respond.
However, this somewhat moronic question of Yun Xiu's had pulled him out of his memories. Even though his mood remained solemn and heavy, he was no longer caught up in the past. As a result of these few years of research, Li Shiyu was increasingly confident that he would be able to take over his eldest cousin brother's medical expenses before his rite of passage to adulthood.
These past few years, the research studies Li Shiyu had participated in had all yielded tremendous results — besides one forbidden medicine that was restricted for military use, the yields of the other studies could be generalised for public use. As such, to reward him, the academy had given Li Shiyu many awards, which included a large sum of credits.
Back then, Li Shiyu had already told his instructors of his personal situation back home, so these credits were currently stored within the accounts of those instructors.
Of course, the greatest profit was not the school's reward, but the sale of his patent rights. After learning of Li Shiyu's situation, during the forging of the contract with the manufacturer, his instructor had specially requested for the main researcher Li Shiyu to not be directly reimbursed with credits, instead asking for company shares of equivalent value. The interest gained from those shares every year was clearly stipulated to be transferred into Li Shiyu's account once he became an adult. Li Shiyu was overjoyed by this outcome; he was filled with gratitude towards that instructor. This would undoubtedly give him a long-term steady source of income, helping him eliminate future worries.
Seeing Li Shiyu's face recover from its pained expression, Yun Xiu let out an internal sigh of relief. He had not expected that his thoughtless question on why Li Shiyu had changed his mind to study military medicine would cause his good friend so much pain.
His twisted expression had let Yun Xiu know without words that Li Shiyu must have encountered some painful event back then. Yun Xiu could not help but regret his rashness and try to do something to fix things. When he saw Colonel Tang Yu step onto the stage, an idea sparked and he had immediately blurted an extremely stupid question to draw Li Shiyu's attention. Now, it looked like his ploy had been quite effective — Li Shiyu had really returned from his memories, and his expression was now much more natural.
As a cadet, Yun Xiu naturally knew that all the instructors of the military academy were righteous military men. They would never do such an obviously biased thing, and Colonel Tang Yu, who was especially widely lauded for being upstanding, was even more unlikely to do such a thing.
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Within the Wuji box 2 , seeing Colonel Tang Yu step onto the stage, Li Lanfeng and the others also made sounds of shock and surprise. Who would have expected this great god to appear on such a small arena stage ...?
Li Lanfeng's hand which was holding his drink jerked. He could not help but look towards the five representatives of the New Cadet Regiment, a trace of pensiveness in his gaze. Among these people of the New Cadet Regiment, which one was it that had such formidable backing, able to affect the typical style of the military academy? Even the top elite family, the Li family, did not have the capability. Even if the Li family could influence the decision of the president of the Federation, they would not be able to budge the Federation military. And since the military academy was part of the military system, even the president would not be able to order the military academy around ...
A small smile appeared on Li Lanfeng's lips as he thought: How interesting, looks like this fight of Leiting's won't be as easy as they thought!
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The moment Colonel Tang Yu was on the stage, he coughed loudly, and the initial furore caused by the colonel's appearance instantly died down. Colonel Tang Yu smiled faintly and then said, "Today, I will be the referee for this fight between the New Cadet Regiment and Leiting. I will judge fairly according to the rules. If there is any dissatisfaction with the results, or any complaints on my decisions as referee, you may request an arbitration with the arbitration committee of the academy ..."
That said, Tang Yu glanced at the five representatives of both sides. Seeing the steady expressions on both sides, he nodded slightly, approving at the quality of the representatives chosen.
He continued to say, "This fight is best three of five, to be fought by five representatives from each side. To ensure fairness, the five participating representatives are not announced beforehand. One minute before the fight begins, the leader of each team is to submit the name list 3 of the representatives participating in the fight to me. Remember — once the name list is in my hands, no more changes are allowed, or else the side which makes any changes will be immediately considered to forfeit."
Seeing both sides nod in understanding, Tang Yu continued, "One more thing. There is a wager on this fight as agreed by both sides. Before the fighting begins, the wager needs to be stated clearly. The school rules dictate that the contents of the wager shall not go against anything expressly forbidden by the military academy ..."
At this point of his speech, Tang Yu paused, his cold gaze slashing like a knife across the faction members of both sides seated on the spectating platform, causing those people to feel a shiver in their hearts. Those students who were slightly weaker actually felt cold sweat break out all over their bodies.
"As Leiting is the challenger, please enter your wager into the military academy mainframe." Tang Yu indicated for the Leiting Mecha Clan to submit their wager into the mainframe.
Very quickly, on the large screen behind the arena stage, the contents of the wager was displayed. It was very simple, only one sentence. The contents of the wager read: If Leiting wins, all members of the New Cadet Regiment shall collectively join Leiting!
The appearance of this wager made all the spectators break out into a commotion once more. Even the audience within the boxes could no longer keep their composure, overwhelmed with surprise.
"Why this wager? Isn't Leiting very particular about the quality of their members? Why do they want to take the entire group? Could it be that there's some secret about the New Cadet Regiment that we do not know?"
All the leading people of the various factions began to cry out — they could not believe what they were seeing. They had initially believed that Leiting would request for the New Cadet Regiment to disband, and then aim to absorb a portion of the more talented new cadets into Leiting. They would then be able to take advantage of the chaos while the members of the New Cadet Regiment were still filled with anger and hate at Leiting to snatch away a portion of the talented new cadets.
However, this wager of Leiting's threw all their ideal calculations out of the window. Leiting's method of taking the whole pot for themselves without sharing a single errant drop made them extremely dissatisfied.
In the Wuji box, Han Yu and the others were similarly shocked beyond belief. He and Wei Ji shared baffled glances, the confusion evident on their faces.
They reflexively looked towards Li Lanfeng, hoping he would be able to give them an answer. Although they were extremely apprehensive of Li Lanfeng, they still believed fully in Li Lanfeng's analytical abilities. Many times when they were unable to figure things out, Li Lanfeng could strike right at the heart of the matter 4 .
Li Lanfeng met their gazes and opened his mouth to say, "I too do not know why Leiting would do this. But I'm certain that the New Cadet Regiment must have something that Leiting values." Han Yu and Wei Ji nodded; they knew enough to figure this out for themselves.
"In the previous period of time, the major factions were all working on deciphering the data of the entrance evaluations of the new cadets. I wonder if Leiting has obtained that info." Li Lanfeng did not draw things out, plainly stating his thoughts to the two.
It was not that Li Lanfeng did not want to keep things to himself, but he knew that, even if he said nothing, Han Yu and Wei Ji would still have been able to think of this after a few days at the latest. In that case, he might as well be frank, to better give the other two the impression that he really had nothing to hide from the two of them. Moreover, the most important secret was still in his hands. This little bit of trivial news — Li Lanfeng truly did not consider it anything of real worth.