Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Encountering Holman again.

Bai Sha felt an innate aversion to this man, whose appearance was casually rugged and body rippling with muscles.

Bai Sha: "..."

"Oh, teaming up with Jing Yi and Ya Ning, huh?" Holman glanced at them with an annoyingly smug expression, "Nice, you three make a good group, all troublemakers. Ya Ning is always hungry, and Jing Yi, a fabric waster— one can never eat enough, and the other is so fierce, always getting into fights. New clothes don't last two days on you before they’re torn to shreds."

Ya Ning and Jing Yi, being younger, quickly turned red-eared facing such blatant mockery. Still, they tried to control their expressions, warily watching Holman as if anticipating a sudden move.

Holman chuckled, no longer wasting words. He pressed his glowing wristwatch and said, "Today, we're going to do something exciting."

Suddenly, the sound of wings slicing through the air echoed overhead. Three silver robots plummeted from the sky like shooting stars, moving so fast their afterimages were nearly invisible. Only upon landing did the children see clearly—three humanoid robots, their torsos as massive and heavy as steel drums, arms connected by metal tubes, with mechanical hands that seemed incredibly agile.

Each robot was a head taller than Holman. To the children, they appeared as colossal giants.

"Wow, what is this!"

"Teacher Holman, this could be lethal, right, Teacher Holman!"

"Beep, beep-beep—" The sound signaled the robots powering up. Their eye sockets lit up green, and a deep, emotionless mechanical voice declared, "Training begins."

The robots charged forward.

There were eight children in this class, all around Bai Sha's age. Faced with the robot's assault, they didn't cry or beg for mercy but immediately started to scatter and flee for their lives.

"Target, locked."

A robot turned to watch a boy running for his life. Its arm, made of metal tubes, unexpectedly extended and precisely ensnared the boy's waist, dragging him back from dozens of meters away.

Baisha was leaping and bounding amidst the chaos. She noticed that the robots' heads didn't turn, limiting their field of vision. Hiding in their blind spots meant they wouldn't be targeted. Yanning had the same idea. Both agile, they circled the robots, staying behind them. Occasionally targeted, but due to the robots' heavy torsos, rapid changes in direction risked tipping them over, so they soon gave up on Baisha and Yanning – there were other targets scurrying around, after all.

"Not bad, you've quickly identified their weaknesses," Homman commented leisurely from the sidelines, surrounded by several children tied up by the robots and brought to him. "But that's not enough. This is a combat class, after all. Where's your fighting spirit?"

"Teacher, can you stop making snide remarks!" Yanning shouted. "Using robots for class clearly shows you want to slack off. I'm going to tell Mrs. Qiong!"

The naive Yanning had barely finished speaking when three robots stopped chasing other children and focused on him.

Yanning, suddenly with nowhere to hide: "..."

Initially, these three robots operated independently, but now they had unified their target.

The robots, swinging their long arms, launched six mechanical hands simultaneously at Yanning, enveloping him like a massive net with no escape.

Gritting his teeth, Yanning ran towards the edge of the arena. The robots stood still, throwing their mechanical hands at him. But just then, Yanning reached a corner, climbed a few steps up the wall, evading the mechanical hands tangled below.

Yanning flipped in mid-air, landed nimbly, and sprinted back towards the center of the arena, screaming, "Jingyi, save me!"

Jingyi, with her black hair and white dress, stood in the arena. Her slender, tranquil face betrayed a hint of murderous intent. She frowned seriously, pulling out a metal craft knife from her waist. Though just a utility knife, it noticeably changed Homman's expression.

He thought to himself, "Where did this kid get a knife from?"

Jingyi, holding the craft knife, stood her ground, readying a combat stance. Of all the children there, she seemed to be the only one genuinely using the precise combat techniques she had learned.

Yanning rushed towards Jingyi. As they brushed past each other, Jingyi suddenly leaped up, stabbing her craft knife into a gap in a mechanical arm. The robot, without hesitation, as it still had a target on its arm, retracted the arm to bring its target closer.

Jingyi gripped the knife tightly – her entire body weight now depended on it. As the retracting mechanical arm flung her into mid-air, she fiercely pulled out the knife and leapt towards the robot's eyes, using the metal tubes as footholds.

From the very beginning, her intention was to destroy the robot's eyes.

But at that moment, instead of following their previous plan to capture Yanning, the other two robots turned to confront Jingyi together.

Just before Jingyi's knife could reach the robot's eyes, two mechanical hands silently entwined around her ankles.

"Ah!"

Jingyi's knife clattered to the ground.

Baisha quickly scanned the surroundings. Apart from the three already bound, including Jingyi ensnared by the robot, there were five other children in the area.

She swiftly dove to grab Jingyi's legs, shouting, "Someone help, quick!"

Yanning was the first to react, scrambling over to Baisha's side, grasping Jingyi's waist, and pulling with all his might.

Jingyi, shocked by this sudden turn of events, widened her eyes slightly, her cheeks flushing red in an instant.

"What are you doing!" Although somewhat touched, she was more embarrassed – not wanting to be tugged back and forth in mid-air like a carrot by the robot and her friends, she exclaimed, "Run, now!"

"We won't let go!" Baisha yelled with closed eyes, her voice cracking slightly.

The other children, initially hiding around the area, snapped to action. After a brief hesitation, they gritted their teeth and ran out, embracing Baisha, then Yanning, joining in what seemed like a hopeless tug-of-war.

"One, two, pull hard!"

"One, two – pull!"

It was unclear who started the chant, but it unified everyone's efforts, making their strength more coordinated.

Jingyi: "..." I've never been so embarrassed in my life!

About ten seconds later, the lights in the robots' eye sockets flickered, and they staggered, colliding with each other, before finally toppling over!

A sudden inertia hit, and Jingyi found herself tumbling upside down into her friends' arms.

"We actually won!"

"Awesome!!"

Several children got up, cheering wildly, oblivious to the dust and scrapes on their bodies.

"Teacher, your robots aren't that great after all!"

It was unclear who shouted this.

Then, the children gradually quieted down. Despite their young age, they sensed something amiss: How could Homman's secret weapon, these formidable robots, be defeated in such a frivolous manner by them?

"Well done," Homman said lazily, clapping his hands and turning to Baisha with a smile, "How about you, the initiator of this tug-of-war, explain why you chose this approach? Don't give me the 'unity is strength' or 'just lucky' spiel. I don't buy that."

Baisha sighed, straightening her clothes, "Really want to know?"

Homman: "Mm-hmm."

Homman could have used this lesson for team spirit education, infusing universal educational concepts like "No matter how strong the enemy, as long as you are united, there's a chance of victory. You might even find that the enemy isn't as powerful as you imagined."

But Homman didn't seem inclined to do that.

"My reason is simple," Baisha began, "These robots probably weren't originally designed for combat training. Their torsos are too large, limbs too light. I think those can-like bodies are more likely for 'storage', essentially to hold things; and I've observed their base treads, which are better suited for rugged mountain terrain, not offering much speed advantage on flat ground; and then there are those exceptionally agile mechanical hands—"

"I read in our textbooks that the planet Blanslo is rich in minerals. So, they're likely outdated mining robots, used for collecting small volume minerals."

"The most important reason is, our orphanage is quite poor," Baisha sighed, "Where would we get the budget for combat robots?"

The children burst into suppressed giggles.

Homman: "Cough cough... That part didn't need special mentioning."

"Since they are mining robots, their flaw is obvious," Baisha pointed out, "Poor balance."

The designers of these robots must have considered the weight of a full load of minerals, ensuring the minerals wouldn't spill. However, when empty, these robots had rather average balancing capabilities.

"Additionally, their mechanical arms are extendable, and the metal tubes seem very flexible but aren't suited for carrying heavy objects. From another perspective, if these robots are meant to collect scattered minerals, their arms don't need to be very strong."

Why did these robots appear so daunting? Because the trainees were children. Some inherent weaknesses of the robots were not even considered weaknesses for the children, unless they pooled all their strength together.

"In conclusion, to defeat the robots, one must either make them fall or destroy their mechanical arms," Bai Sha summarized.

"And tug-of-war is the simplest strategy that encompasses both these theories," Holman squinted his eyes, smiling to reveal white teeth, but Bai Sha always felt his smile was somewhat sinister. "Not bad, very good."

Holman pulled out a metal flask from his waist, seemingly eager for a sip, but after shaking it, he realized there were only a few drops left and regretfully put the flask away: "I pride myself as an enlightened combat instructor. No matter what challenges I set for you, I always leave a chance for victory."

"So, these robots have been modified by me," Holman glanced at Bai Sha, "Mainly by removing some parts, making them weaker and their physical shortcomings more pronounced. Ya Ning, Bai Sha, you two kids quickly spotted the robots' weaknesses, but that's not enough. Analyzing weaknesses is one thing, but you need the courage to take a risk to validate whether your thoughts are correct or not."

Holman then asked Bai Sha, "When you called them for help, were you certain of victory?"

Bai Sha paused, giving Holman a hard look: "No."

Holman: "And yet, you called them to act together?"

Bai Sha: "The worst outcome would be all of us getting caught. Taking a chance isn't a loss."

"Excellent!" Holman praised loudly, turning his gaze back to the children. "This is also a crucial point in combat: many times, it's only after you actually make a move that you can assess whether that strike had a chance of winning."

"This is the combat awareness I want to teach you." Holman tapped his temple firmly. "And Jing Yi, your martial skills are indeed the best in the academy, but you're only aggressive when striking. Combat varies depending on the opponent. Don't look for the obvious weaknesses, seek the real ones. Understand?"

Most of the children seemed to half-understand.

"Don't you think that, for our age, these experiences are a bit too advanced?" Bai Sha said somewhat weakly, having exhausted all her strength in the recent exertion, and now feeling sore all over as she relaxed.

"I don't know about others, but for you, it's definitely not too advanced," Holman said with that annoying smile again. "Bai Sha, Ya Ning, well done. Like Jing Yi, find time to attend my advanced combat classes."

"Remember, it's you who needs to adjust to my schedule for classes."

Bai Sha: "..."

Could she refuse?