4.9

In order to churn out the elite soldiers it prided itself on producing, the academy religiously encouraged competitiveness and rigorous testing, the epitome of this culture was the twelfth-graders' third quarterly assessment. As the last of the students' trials, this rite of passage was distinguished by the fact that it was streamed to the public and also that it was the only assessment that extended for more than a day. Every year, the faculty would devise new and improved ways to increase the difficulty, the number of casualties wasn't small.

The teachers were all very pleased with their idea this time.

To best sift out their incoming top prospects, the military had volunteered the recently discovered Planet Z83 as the destination. This planet was located on the far reaches of the Federation's territory and hadn't been colonized by anyone yet. With its barren environment and poisonous creatures, the teenagers would have to struggle to even survive, not to mention compete with their peers. The instructors' sole concession to the dangers of this setting was issuing each student two plasma guns along with a standardized mecha.

Since successful completion of the trial was a prerequisite for graduating, Chen Yu knew that he would have to leave his villa for the first time in weeks on the day of the shuttle launch.

Chen Yu hadn't been idling away his time in isolation, he had actually gathered quite a bit of information. With a plausible excuse to block off all communication with the outside world, he had cloaked his signals, preventing Hou Yi's monitoring devices from sending out any images, then he'd taken this opportunity to finally investigate what Murong Wen had been up to.

Once again, he confirmed that the son of heaven was truly a different species.

Despite his commoner setting, Murong Wen had managed to impress a certain first lieutenant with his skilled and consistent mecha control practice in the virtual world. As for how he could afford a login pod, on the one day he had left his house, the protagonist had happened to stumble upon a small public library with free network access...Chen Yu rolled his eyes.

In any case, once Murong Wen had explained his circumstances to the first lieutenant, the soldier recalled a discussion he'd overheard from some First Division colleagues about using a young boy to unravel the spy circle. Very unprofessionally, he was overcome with sympathy and spilled the information.

With this hint and General Hou's broadcast, Murong Wen figured out that probably, the military had been observing Jin Jia and noticed him because of Jin Zhong's attempt to frame his son. But who had framed him? Logically, of the people around him at that time, the only ones who would have even known about it were the general's son or the traitor's son. Since Jin Yongguang wasn't smart enough to come up with such a scheme, it must have been that Hou Yi, he must have done it for that idiot!

When Murong Wen arrived at this conclusion and glanced around at how far he'd fallen, his hatred rose, a vicious expression twisted his pretty face. He was stuck in such a place, with such unrefined people, thanks to that snob! Well, he brooded, he had nothing to lose now, he should at least get back at his enemies, en, Jin Yongguang's future was already ruined, so he would soon destroy Hou Yi's too.

Having resolved himself, he didn't hesitate and contacted the anonymous communicator Jin Zhong had told him would connect directly to his secretary. Because the soldiers had to control so many traitors with far more influence, such small-fry wouldn't be of much interest to the military, a mere secretary shouldn't be out of his reach. Indeed, the two were able to share a meaningful conversation.

Closing the surveillance records, Chen Yu could only express admiration at the protagonist halo that allowed Murong Wen to see blood as soon as the needle first pricked. Anyway, he looked forward to the boy's revenge, would the story turn into a phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes type? En, that would be interesting, but either way the task was already 46% complete—apparently, that Murong Wen was quite an emotional little child.

Some days later, while preparing for the quarterly trials, Chen Yu wondered whether he should have examined the details of Murong Wen's plans then shook his head. The assessment, the military, Jin Jia, everything was going predictably, there would be no suspense if he dug out every little thing. Besides, he basically understood what was going to happen.

When he stepped out of his villa, however, he realized he'd neglected the very suspenseful encounter that was waiting for him...

Hou Yi carefully raised his eyes at the sound of footsteps, his neat uniform and combed-back hair couldn't hide his exhaustion. "Ah Guang..." he murmured. Why wasn't he grinning at him like always? Did he hate him for what the military had done? How could he fix this?

Sensing that there were dangerous undercurrents in those two words, Chen Yu readily pushed the blame onto the academy's shoulders. "En. Ah Yi, sorry to make you worry, the administration told me I shouldn't talk to anyone until the rumors died down."

At the news, Hou Yi was filled with relief. So Ah Guang wasn't avoiding him, he didn't dislike him, it was all the academy's fault. Eyes reddening, he embraced the other boy, assuring, "It's all right, everything's okay if you're fine." I'll make everything all right, everything's okay if you're willing to stay with me.

So the two strode through the crowd of twelfth-graders waiting to board the spaceship, rightfully reaching the foremost places as the top two students. Despite their bitterness toward this disappointing peer, the people around them only sent harsh glares, because after being scanned by Hou Yi's cold stare, they didn't dare try to make a move against the traitor's son.

Although Chen Yu didn't care, Hou Yi was very worried that the kind-hearted boy was hurt by the hostile atmosphere, he anxiously wrapped his arms around Ah Guang from behind and whispered, "Don't feel sad, as soon as they see how strong you are, they won't say anything anymore." Of course, that didn't mean the military would offer Ah Guang a position, but Hou Yi would arrange that separately.

Finally, Ah Guang smiled brightly at him. "Ah Yi, I don't mind. None of them can put up a good enough fight anyway, so they don't matter to me. What they think about me isn't a big deal."

Helpless at this combat maniac, Hou Yi's gaze filled with fondness. That's right, he'd been stupid, why had he thought someone so pure like Ah Guang would concern himself with ambition and reputation?

"Then," he whispered, "I'm the only one who can spar with you, so I'm the only one who matters to you?"

Inside his heart, Chen Yu's face was covered with black lines. This boy, can he not switch the mood so suddenly, this young master will get whiplash! On the surface, however, he smiled. "En, I guess right now it's like that!"

Hou Yi lowered his eyes, for the past several months he'd been working out mostly to spend time with Ah Guang, but he immediately decided to train seriously again. He silently promised, right now it's like that, in the future it'll be like that as well.

---

The space shuttle was clearly built not for comfort but for speed, although the students' quarters were cramped, they only had to endure for two days before they landed on Planet Z83.

When they disembarked, a desert stretched out in front of them with tiny specks of vegetation, waves of heat assaulted their bare faces and was so arid that several of them choked. At the desolate view, the teenagers blanched. Despite having received information on the planet's environment beforehand, they hadn't expected such a wasteland, could they even last a day here?

Gleefully scanning their nervous expressions, the head instructor of the twelfth grade cleared his throat. "Cadets, the details of this trial are as follows: each of you will be issued a standard mecha and two plasma guns, and you may carry along whatever portion of your luggage fits inside the cockpit storage space. Your mission is to collect as many of your peers' mecha ignition keys as you can within 60 hours, at which time you must report to the coordinates provided. Should you encounter a life-threatening situation or if your key is taken, you may request rescue, and one of the instructors will follow your tracking signal. Nevertheless, keep in mind that if you don't have at least one mecha key upon arrival at the assembly point, if you reach the meet place late, or if you require aid, you will automatically fail this assessment. In this case, the academy will only consider offering you another chance at graduating if your performance was noteworthy."

What the teacher didn't mention was that there was a team of experienced soldiers spread throughout the terrain and operating surveyance drones for safety purposes, if they discovered that the students were in any critical emergency, they would save them anyway whether or not they sought assistance. Ultimately, these were the future talents of the Federation, they couldn't lose too many of them.

The teenagers were sufficiently frightened, so the man motioned for the other teachers to lead them to the auxiliary cargo hold. After the mecha and weapons were distributed, most of the students separated themselves into the teams they'd previously agreed to form, tensely glaring at outsiders who might attack them at any moment. The stragglers looked at each other awkwardly, then set aside their contempt and shame and banded together as well.

Since Chen Yu hadn't joined any group, he simply climbed up to his mecha's pilot seat and set out from the spaceship's landing platform, with Hou Yi a step behind him. While it was true that mecha were designed for resilience and adaptability, this kind of harsh environment was still not very comfortable, Chen Yu was already soaked through with sweat. Thus, unwilling to wear himself out pointlessly, he headed toward the final destination, intending to locate some shelter until night fell.

Seeing that someone was already making a move, the twelfth-graders anxiously examined who was so bold, only to find that it was Jin Yongguang. Annoyed that he was leading the charge, the different parties united in the face of a common enemy, they collectively dashed to get ahead of him.

Some people, however, felt that this was a chance to humiliate the traitor's son, so they turned back and loudly snickered, "Look at that rat bastard, thought he was all that but no one even wants to team up with him! Pei, where's he even going so slowly, does he believe he's cool walking alone?"

Another faction disagreed, "It's not that we're excluding him, he's by himself because he doesn't know his place. If he bowed his head and begged us to join, we would consider it!"

Their malice was overflowing, but Jin Yongguang's steadfast fans angrily muttered, "He's not alone, idiots, don't you see that Hou Yi is going with him?" These protests were instantly smothered by their friends, lest those critics vented their jealousy on them.

The faculty standing by the space shuttle pretended not to hear the abuse. After all, it was true that Jin Yongguang's parents were guilty, the only reason he hadn't already been kicked out was that he might prove useful.

Nor were the Federation's citizens who were watching the live streamed broadcast of the assessment unhappy with these brats' vicious remarks, who knew what kind of treasonous habits that boy had picked up from his family? Many of them also chipped in, criticizing how shameless he must be to appear in public and questioning whether he'd really ranked first place with his own talent.

Chen Yu laughed under his breath, these people were so free ah, he hoped they were prepared to show off some swollen faces once he was finished with his show.

Hou Yi furiously sped up to shut those mocking mouths, but when he saw that Ah Guang was continuing on steadily like he wasn't the person those pests were talking about, he hesitated, torn between defending him and accompanying him. Noticing the growing distance between them, however, he hastily memorized who the most outspoken people were and rushed his mecha back to Ah Guang's side.

Smiling, Chen Yu used his mecha communicator to contact Hou Yi. "Ah Yi, don't stay with me, going with another group will be safer for you."

The other boy smoothly replied, "Don't speak nonsense, naturally we're the best together. But Ah Guang, you can't forget the bet when I win, okay?"

Oh, Chen Yu really had forgotten, at least he had that to look forward to in this boring event. "En, of course not. Ah Yi, let's rest for a few hours, we can move faster once it cools down."

Hou Yi easily agreed, the two used their mecha to dig into the sand and lounged around in the cooler temperature while the rest of the students struggled onward.