14 The Ranking (2)

– "I don't know why but... seeing him like that, I don't wanna tell him anymore!" (Edelina)

***

At nine o'clock, the room door opened. The one that everyone was waiting for finally appeared.

Seeing so many faces in the room, Angus froze for a second, then he walked out: "What's up?" Why all gathered here? Wasn't it the resting time?

Immediately a happy voice said, "Oh, Leader has finished the spiritual sabbatical!"

Leader-Angus-had-just-finished-the-spiritual-sabbatical: "..."

What the hell was spiritual sabbatical? What kind of image had these people built for him when he was not here?

Iris frowned, looking at the clock. He remembered normally Angus did not leave the room at this time. He asked, "Did we disturb you?"

Immediately the crowd went into silent. Just now they talked a bit loud.

It was a bit noisy indeed, but Angus shook his head. "No problem. Are you guys waiting for me?"

Seemingly just waiting for this question, the entire Class K group nodded in unison.

This image made Angus feel a little funny. He walked to the crowd, leisurely asked: "So, what's up?"

Class K looked at each other.

Well... it was so weird!

Obviously they all wanted to inform Leader about his rank, but did not know why they could not open their mouth naturally when seeing him?

Iris saw that no one had any intention to speak up, so again he became the representative, replied, "The base notified that the rankings had been updated. You didn't go, so everyone wanted to tell you the result."

"Oh, got it." Angus quickly understood, he nodded: "So start from you, how is your result?"

"I..." Being asked unexpectedly made Iris look a little dumbfounded, but then he quickly replied: "I rank Third in the base, Twenty-sixth nationwide." He paused for a second, then added: "Up twenty-six ranks compared to the previous month."

Finishing his sentence, Iris unconsciously looked at Angus, as if he was waiting for something.

"Very good." Angus smiled and nodded.

Iris suppressed his smile, trying to show a serious face as possible. But the deep of his heart couldn't help dancing.

He did not know the reason, but he could feel a small happiness after showing off his rank to Leader.

After Angus finished praising Iris, he looked to Hudson: "You?"

Hudson replied, "I rank Second in the base, Twenty-second nationwide. Twenty-two ranks up compared to the previous month."

Angus nodded, then looked at Edelina.

She immediately said: "I rank Fourth in the base, Twenty-seventh nationwide. Nineteen ranks up."

The it was Neil's turn: "I rank Fifth in the base, Thirty-first nationwide. Twenty-three ranks up."

Starting from Neil, the next people followed speaking up their ranks in the order of top-down ranking.

Gilmar: "I ranked Seventh in the base, Thirty-Third nationwide. Twenty-three ranks up."

Dustan: "I ranked Eighth in the base, Thirty-Seventh nationwide. Forty-ninth ranks up."

Trixi: "I ranked Ninth in the base, Forty-First nationwide. Fifty ranks up."

Gennista: "I ranked Tenth in the base, Forty-fifth nationwide. Sixty ranks up."

Just like that, one by one, the latter one had the more impressive distance of ranking increase than the former one. The curvature on the corners of Angus mouth was getting more and more, he smiled even more, sometimes he couldn't help complimenting "Good!"

It could be said that, these good accomplishments of Class K were out of Angus' predictions, but also within his predictions.

Being the Leader of four continuous rounds, he was the one who understood the efforts of the entire team more than anyone else.

More efforts, better results. Angus always believed that.

Cody, in his turn, scratched his head and smiled wryly: "I, I rank Thirty-Ninth in the base, rank One Hundred-Ninety-Seventh nationwide, five ranks up." He lowered his head before Angus: "Sorry Leader, my achievement was not as good as everyone. But next month I will try harder!"

Angus nodded: "That's good enough! Just keep this pace, you will quickly catch up to everyone."

He looked at the excited faces in turn. Looks like they all got promoted, right? If so, then... "How do you guys want to celebrate?"

Huh? Celebrate?

All of Class K looked like fool faces. They did not think the reaction of Angus would be like this.

Only Maddox answered Angus: "Celebrate? How to celebrate here? No! I mean... Are we allowed to celebrate?"

When teacher Fred talked about the base rules, he did not mention this matter.

Angus thought and said, "I can try to suggest to Teacher Eugene. I don't know if it's okay or not, but just try it first."

Maddox hurriedly asked, "So if it is possible, how Leader wants to celebrate?"

Angus fell into thought again, "Let see..."

"Can we ask the canteen to cook us a big hot pot?" Dallton gleefully.

"Go and cook it yourself!" Edelina glanced at Dallton, "You think they are your home cooks?"

"How about... we prepare a barbecue by ourselves? Nissyen grilled the meat very well!" Parker suggested.

At this moment, Hudson suddenly said, "Sorry for interrupting, but... Leader, don't you care about your result?"

The whole crowd looked like fools again.

Right! The original goal was to come here and announce Leader about his rank, wasn't it? Why it turned into announcement of individual ranks? And then turned into talking about eating and drinking?

This was the fault of the stupid Maddox who asked to celebrate, then the stupid Dallton asked to eat hot pot!

For a moment, the sharp eyes of all freshmen turned to Maddox and Dallton, and they all forgot that who was the first one to mention about celebration.

The first one to mention about celebration was now furrowed his eyebrows slightly, "I can see it tomorrow... Well, by the way, anyone saw my rank?"

Class K: "..."

We all saw it!

That was why we all came here!

Also, Leader, can you show just a little more interest?

"What's wrong?" Angus asked.

"Leader, we all gathered here to tell you your result, not ours." Iris said.

This time it was Angus' turn to be dumb.

Seeing that all the members of Class K were present, and Iris mentioned about the rankings, Angus had assumed that they all achieved good results and wanted to gather for "showing off", sharing the happiness together.

Now recalling Iris' words at the beginning... So that's how it was!

Angus laughed, then he said, "Thank you guys." His eyes were filled with sincerity and solemnity.

In response to Angus' attitude, the remaining nineteen students of Class K stood up, their eyes sparkling with joy.

All gathered here, Angus could already guess his rank. But even so, he still smiled and asked: "So, how is my result?"

"Hah!" Edelina slapped her forehead softly, "I don't know why but seeing him like that, I don't wanna tell him anymore!"

Everyone laughed in unison.

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