Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

After Baisha agreed, Homann watched her for a while, his smile fading slowly, and finally said with a touch of emotion, "You are serious, aren’t you?"

Baisha smiled: "I trust in your character, Teacher Homann. You wouldn’t lure me somewhere to be killed, would you? Otherwise, Mrs. Qiong and Gwyneth wouldn't let you off the hook."

Homann: "…"

He scratched his head and clicked his tongue lightly, "Let's get this straight—if I do take you there, you can't tell anyone else, not even a single word."

Baisha nodded.

Baisha once looked up methods to measure psychic power levels on the Star Web. All students applying to military academies in the Intergalactic Federation must pass a standardized psychic power test. However, the machines used for this testing are expensive and not available on every planet; one must go to the main planet of the corresponding star region for testing. For example, in Baisha's remote star region, where the planet Lonslo is located, the main planet is the relatively bustling Roden Star. Roden Star, home to a permanent military presence and a thriving arms industry, is the trade center and transport hub of the entire frontier star region, known as the "Desert Pearl." In three years, Baisha and others will need to go to Roden Star for the military academy selection exams and to test their psychic power.

Of course, it's different for the privileged classes of the Federation. The offspring of prominent families don't have to wait until the exam day. At the age of five, their families spend a considerable sum to arrange professionals to test their psychic power levels.

In short, apart from the specialized machines developed by the Federation, Baisha had never heard of any other method to test psychic power. Homman was secretive and unwilling to clarify, only mentioning that he needed some time to prepare and would contact Baisha in a few days.

After the rest day, Baisha and others returned to school.

Although it had only been a week since the start of the term, it was enough time for the new students to get to know their roommates and find like-minded friends, gradually forming small groups. Baisha and Jingyi were fine; they stuck together in everything they did. Yaning, on the other hand, had a tougher time, barely speaking to anyone.

"I feel like my roommates are isolating me," Yaning said with a touch of grievance at lunchtime, joining Baisha and others with his tray. "They even go to the school's mini-mart for snacks without me."

Baisha reassured him, "Don't worry, we'll go together later."

"You're just isolated," Jingyi said fiercely, stabbing her fork into the pork chop on her plate. "That idiot Luqi who lives across from us keeps harassing us with his snide remarks, it's incredibly annoying."

Given Yaning's personality, he should have made a few friends, but they were all wary of the power and influence of the Luqi family, afraid that associating with Yaning might bring them misfortune. Jingyi could single-handedly thrash those rich kids into dropping out, but they didn’t have such abilities. Besides, the trio were orphans with no other family members, having nothing to lose unlike those with more to protect. They were all studying at the school, and for the time being, Luqi couldn't do much but persistently cause trouble for Baisha and the others.

Palphen Luqi's father held significant influence in Kongheng Life Science Company, and there were students in the school who were willing to curry favor with Palphen for this reason. If Palphen’s father said the word, even if these students were expelled from the military prep course, they could still gain some benefits from Kongheng Technology.

As long as Kongheng Life Science Company continued to dominate on Lonslo Star, Palphen's detestable character was unlikely to change.

Baisha and the others lacked experience in dealing with this privileged class and found themselves rather passive these days.

"Oh, look at you all huddled up again," Palphen, her brilliant golden hair swaying, passed by Baisha's table, followed by her roommate Nicole, who was pushing a small cart laden with delicacies clearly not from the cafeteria. "Typical of those from the orphanage, reeking of poverty from a mile away. It's no wonder no one wants to associate with you."

Luqi was once again causing trouble for the orphanage trio. The bustling cafeteria quieted down for a moment, but no one spoke up or blindly took sides.

Not everyone, in fact, was comfortable with Luqi's arrogant demeanor.

But who was she ostracizing? It was Baisha, Jingyi, and Yaning, top students in every subject, boldly declaring the Central Military Academy as their first choice during the oath-taking ceremony. Most students, even if they didn’t support Luqi, couldn't empathize with the orphanage trio.

—Why, with their lowly origins, did they possess such exceptional talent? Why, with nothing to their names, did they dare to challenge the Central Military Academy, without a hint of nervousness, as if they were born with such pride?

"Tsk tsk, Yaning Kelly, look at you, starving like you haven't eaten in eight hundred years. Is the cafeteria food so good that someone used to eating chaff and vegetables can't help but overeat at every meal?"

Palphen gazed disdainfully at Yaning's full plate.

"What business is it of yours how much I eat?" Yaning retorted with a dark expression. "I'm training for the military academy; what's wrong with a big appetite? I'm not even overweight."

Palphen let out a scoff, intending to have Nicole push the cart forward to show everyone what the real upper class eats daily, but Jingyi’s cold glance made her pause.

Jingyi, gripping her knife, was ready to strike: "Another word, and my knife might just accidentally slip from my hand."

Palphen's face paled, perhaps recalling the night she was thoroughly beaten by Jingyi, biting back her desire to provoke further, she angrily declared, "Yan Jingyi, I'm going to ask the instructor to change my dorm tomorrow. I don't want to be roommates with you barbarians anymore."

"That's perfect, you can apply for a single room," Baisha scooped up a spoonful of vegetable salad, unfazed, and looked up to say, "Didn't several students following you drop out last week? Their dorms are now vacant. You can pick one to move into, the feng shui is great there, a perfect match for you."

What kind of feng shui? The kind that gets you beaten up and sent back home within a week of starting school?

Palphen Luqi decisively chose to turn and walk away.

Yaning gave Baisha a thumbs up: "Well said! I always thought you were the most cultured among us. When you were declaring your ambitions, you mentioned something about a 'gentleman' and all that. I didn't quite get it, but I roughly understand the gist. I never expected you to be so good at comebacks, worthy of the person who aced the literature exam!"

Baisha: "..."

In truth, Palphen's tactics were rather childish.

After the afternoon training, there was a mechanical general knowledge class in the evening.

For Baisha, the mechanical class was merely a way to pass time. Her teacher, Old Liao, had already taught her nearly everything he knew, so she spent most of the class reading "extracurricular books". Thanks to Lonslo High School’s library in the western district, even though most books were available for download on the Star Web, Baisha still found several old, possibly unique books on mecha - books she hadn’t seen listed in the mecha forums’ library.

These books, steeped in age, contained many theories that had been updated, but they were not entirely useless. Approaching this knowledge with a dialectical mindset offered a deeper understanding of the evolution of mecha technology.

The mechanical class teacher was aware of Baisha's activities, but having tested her several times, he had grown numb to it. Usually, he let her be, but today seemed a bit different.

"After finishing a chapter on the types and basic principles of cannons, we inevitably have to mention some knowledge related to mechas," the teacher, raising his voice intentionally and casting an ostensibly casual glance at Baisha, saw her shift her attention from her book to the lectern. "As we just covered, we have hundreds of types of existing cannon weapons, but the most commonly used are missile, energy, and particle cannons. The mechanical construction of ammunition varies for different scenarios. For example, the complexity of constructing 'ship-borne plasma cannons' and 'mecha plasma cannons' is vastly different."

"Mecha design is challenging because it's a high-precision weapon. Seemingly minor alterations can significantly impact the mecha's performance, akin to pulling a single hair and affecting the whole body..."

Mid-speech, the teacher noticed Baisha had lowered her head again.

Annoyed that she found his lecture pointless, the teacher dropped the preamble and got straight to the point: "Today, I've borrowed a component from the military museum – an outdated mecha cannon, decommissioned by the military. Just talking about it might not give you an idea of the design complexity of a mecha cannon, so I brought a real one for you to get a sense of it."

"Wow—"

"Is that for real!"

The classroom instantly buzzed with excitement.

The teacher smirked, lifting a deep grey metallic box from beneath the lectern. Opening it, a deep red mecha part lay inside. The component, despite numerous scratches, still formed part of a mecha, its structure sharp and fluid, radiating an untouchable, sacred metallic gleam.

"If any of you can clearly understand the internal structure of this mecha cannon, you won’t need to attend my class anymore!"