5.1 Interstellar Military Cadets

Before Qiao Chen even opened his eyes, he smelled the earthy scent of damp mud and felt it compressed under on his back. The gravel under his body made him feel uncomfortable too. When he opened his eyes, he could only see a bright light shining through a hole over his head. Other than what rays of light shone through the opening, he was surrounded by pitch black.

Qiao Chen sat up and rubbed the back of his neck. It throbbed with pain every time he moved his head. It was obvious to him that someone attacked him from behind and then threw him into the cave after he was knocked out.

Before Qiao Chen could recall the events in this life, he felt something wrong with the atmosphere around him. As he looked around, he saw many green eyes glinting from the darkness as they stared at him.

They were wolves! Qiao Chen cautiously looked at those green eyes and quickly used the system to obtain the world's information. He needed to immediately figure out how to deal with the situation at hand.

Qiao Chen was currently surrounded by wolves. However, these weren't just any wolves. They were wolves with a thorny bramble ability. The bramble wolves were extremely ferocious and notoriously difficult to deal with. A single thorny bite from these beasts would seriously injure or maim the victim- if they were even able to survive that single bite from this beast.

Previously, they couldn't tell whether Qiao Chen was dead or alive, so they patiently and motionlessly waited. However, now that Qiao Chen had woken up, the glint from their green eyes clearly portrayed their intent to attack.

If Qiao Chen was just an ordinary person in this life, then even if the system helped, it would have been child's play for these wolves to slaughter him. Luckily, this body had very powerful abilities. Unluckily, the abilities were extremely unstable and required the use of mechanical shields to maximize the user's capability to wield their abilities.

Qiao Chen slowly and cautiously picked up a mechanical shield that was dropped nearby. Qiao Chen turned on the device under the moon's light to check if it could function. The mechanical shield's ability activator function couldn't start up. The defense system couldn't initiate either. Only the recording function was barely able to turn on.

There was no time to repair the mechanical shield, and he didn't have any tools to repair it anyways. Qiao Chen had no choice but to have the system use the shortest amount of time to stabilize the abilities in his body and continuously strengthen it. He had to reach the point where he would be able to use his abilities without a mechanical shield.

Qiao Chen looked at the pair of green eyes as it methodically approached him. He was sweating profusely due to the system running its programs faster than his body could handle.

The bramble wolf snapped open its drooling mouth and lunged at Qiao Chen. He immediately concentrated his energy and a beam of light shot out. The bramble wolf was hit while midair and blood splattered from the wounds. The force of the beam caused its momentum to stop, and it crashed onto the ground. It attempted to get back up and struggled a few more times before it disappeared into a puff of black smoke. An energy crystal gem emitting a green light, about half the size of an egg, lay where there once was a bramble wolf.

The other bramble wolves felt the strength of Qiao Chen's ability and took a step back, but still didn't leave.

The wolves instead chose to approach him all at the same time. Qiao Chen cautiously watched them approach, pushed his stiff and nearly numb body up and off the ground, and slowly backed away.

It was really close. The system was so close to done. He couldn't allow himself to relive his past life's tragedy just as he arrived. He wouldn't let those bramble wolves hurt him again. Not again.

Qiao Chen couldn't retreat any further. He was forced to stop, so he leaned on the stone wall behind him and bide his time. Instantaneously after his abilities were fully strengthened, Qiao Chen shot out countless arrows of energy at the bramble wolves who were preparing their attack.

Soon, all the bramble wolves began to disappear- sometimes one by one, sometimes in small groups and clusters. In the end, the puffs of black smoke dissipated and only blood and energy crystal gems were left behind. Qiao Chen's used up all his strength on that last ditch effort and escaped from death's door. He slid down the stone wall behind him and plopped onto the ground, panting. His eyes reflected the gems' green light as it glowed in the dark cave.

The stench of blood spread in the air. The scent was likely to attract other fierce animals to the cave, so Qiao Chen needed to find another place to hide and wait for his strength to recover.

Qiao Chen was about to walk out of the cave, but hesitated. He stopped himself from leaving, took out the storage device at his waist, and turned back around to collect the energy gems that littered the cavern floor.

Once Qiao Chen exited the cave, he faced a vast forest. Qiao Chen found a big and sturdy tree to climb and scaled it. Then he found a suitable branch, sat on it, and recalled the memories related to this lifetime.

This lifetime took place during an interstellar age. There were three genders for humans in this world: men, women, and females. Furthermore, there were many dangerous species that evolved abilities in this world. For example, the bramble wolves that Qiao Chen encountered were only considered a medium level beast due to its danger index and attack power. However, this only pertained to a single bramble wolf. If someone had to face a pack of bramble wolves, then even those with A ranked abilities wouldn't be able to escape without a working mechanical shield.

People in this world all had some sort of ability. However, most of the population's abilities were either too low or too unstable to use. According to the standard ability index, there were five recordable levels: A, B, C, D, and E. There were also AA and F; however, these levels couldn't be accurately measured. AA rank was too strong for the current technology to test while F rank was too unstable for the machines to gather enough information for a proper reading.

In this lifetime, Qiao Chen was ranked F. He was currently attending the Yu Capital's School of Military Combat. Due to his power instability, he was placed in Class F, a class designated for nobles' children who had an unstable ability.

Only AA rank ability holders were able to facilitate 100% of their abilities and capabilities without using a mechanical shield. In order to deal with the pack of bramble wolves, Qiao Chen had the system upgrade his abilities to AA rank.

Why did Qiao Chen almost suffer attack and injury from the bramble wolves in a cave? The answer lay with the identity he held in this lifetime.

To be honest, Qiao Chen's identity in this life wasn't very remarkable. He was called Qiao An in this life. Qiao An was born to a middle class noble family. His mother died a few years ago, and then his father married a new wife immediately after.

When this stepmother married in, she brought her son along with her. This boy was called Danny and he was about the same age as Qiao An

Qiao An hated Danny and his mother very much. Ever since this mother and son pair came into his home, Qiao An lost the happy life he once had. He even lost every single one of his friends as they chose to break ties with Qiao An and listen to Danny.

Originally, when Danny and his mother first entered the house, Qiao An's friends were still on his side and disliked Danny with him. However, after Danny entered the Yu Capital's School of Military Combat, he was tested and found to hold an A rank ability level ad placed in class A. Overtime, the A ranked Danny received high performance scores and excellent grades, so affection for him and his popularity grew. While the ability unstable and F ranked Qiao An was designated to class F.

Qiao An had been framed by Danny many times. Therefore, not only did the people at school dislike him, but his former friends also grew to dislike him as well. Even life at home was miserable. His own father chose to believe Danny over his own biological son.

Going back to the situation in the forest, the entire school was undergoing the current semester's rank test. They were given two day and one night to obtain a thousand points. The quicker they completed the objective, the higher their rank would be. The crystal gems from all those bramble wolves Qiao Chen just killed netted him over 400 points, and it usually took a team of three to six cadets with abilities to complete the thousand point objective.

In this kind of exam, cadets would usually team up, for safety in numbers and to gather the points quicker. It was also a way for the school to test their ability to coordinate and cooperate with others. The rules stipulated that there could not be a team with more than five members.

Ever since his mother died, Danny had framed and accused Qiao An of several acts countless times now, so he was hated by others. Qiao An became more and more withdrawn. Without even mentioning the fact that other people weren't willing to join his team, because they feared retribution from the cadets in Class A, Qiao An still refused to join other cadets' teams if they even if they asked him. In the end, Qiao An chose to take the exam alone.

Qiao An was hunting a fierce beast by himself in the afternoon. Someone ambushed him from behind with a shot of energy and knocked him out. Then they threw him into the cave and broke his mechanical shield, so he wasn't able to call for help or assistance.

The system told Qiao Chen that the attacker was one of Danny's admirers. Harold was a student in Class B. His family came from a business background and he knew Danny from a long time ago. Since Danny purposefully created the sob story that Qiao An treated him very poorly at him and bullied him constantly, Harold hated Qiao An to the core.

However, unfortunately for Harold, Qiao An was not only born from nobility, but also had a very powerful grandfather. Therefore, Harold, the son of a businessman, didn't dare to do too much to Qiao An while in school because the school would investigate and prosecute him.

Harold decided that this exam was the perfect setting for him to secretly teach Qiao An a lesson, so he couldn't bully Danny anymore. Therein lie the reason he threw Qiao An into a cave that he knew was very likely to be inhabited by a fierce beast.

Qiao An didn't wake up as quickly as Qiao Chen did in the previous life. It wasn't until nearly dawn when Qiao An woke up, but he was still attacked by the bramble wolves. His screams were heard by a passing student, and then the cadet sent out an urgent appeal for help to the school. Qiao An survived, but only narrowly, and could only lie on a bed paralyzed and wait for the day he died.

Harold never expected that things would turn out so serious. He only wanted to teach Qiao An a lesson and thought that Qiao An could only be seriously injured at the most. He figured that Qiao An could take a small vacation and then heal at that time. He never would have expected that there would be a full pack of bramble wolves living in that cave.

Harold was anxious and worried. If the school found out about what he had done, then he'd be charged and then sentenced to jail after being expelled. Furthermore, Qiao An's grandfather wouldn't let him live easy either, so he would have doomed his whole family because of this act.

Harold confessed to Danny in hopes that Danny could help him find a way out. After careful consideration, Danny agreed to testify for Harold and help him cover up his criminal actions. From then on, Harold became even more loyal to Danny.

Qiao Chen sighed towards the sky. Why did he have to end up so miserably in every single lifetime?

Maybe because he ended every single one of his lives in such a miserable and heartbreaking manner that even God couldn't stand it. Maybe God created the opportunity for him to return to each and every one of his past lives, so he could change his destiny- so he could change the ending to his fate.

Qiao Chen was in the middle of lamenting his past lives' poor luck and sad fates when a huge flaming lion flew over him. Qiao Chen was initially stunned, but then immediately gave chase and caught up. If he could obtain the energy crystal gem of this flaming lion, then he would get at least 3000 points. This would not only allow him to finish the exam ahead of time so he could finally take a shower, but would also give him first place.