Chapter 61

Chapter 61

"That's what he said?"

In the sofa chair, Eugene was holding a cigarette in his familiar pose.

Lei Li nodded along respectfully, all the while wishing Eugene would just smoke himself into oblivion.

Eugene exhaled a plume of smoke and lowered his cigarette-holding hand.

"Alright," he smirked, "Let's give it a try then."

Lei Li: ...We're done for.

*

"Come on, come on, come on! Caesar the God! Come on, come on, come on! Caesar the God!"

When Yi Ye and Bai Chuan arrived, the crowd in the stands shouted the slogan in unison. Feeling the energy, Yi Ye snatched two cheer sticks from a nearby student and seamlessly joined the crowd, swinging them vigorously.

Yi Ye: "Come on, come on, come on! Caesar the God! Make sure to treat me to a meal after this!"

Bai Chuan silently lowered his head.

Yi Ye knew that Bai Chuan, being introverted, wouldn't join in such activities. After waving them around for a bit, he leaned over and said, "Don't worry, when it's your turn in the mech competition, I'll be there cheering you on. By the way, what do you think if I make a banner for you? What should it say? How about 'The Ultimate, Unbeatable Mega Dude of the Entire Empire'?"

Bai Chuan looked at him with his clear, gleaming eyes, pausing briefly, and said, "If I take first place in the mech competition, is there a reward?"

"Of course! If my younger brother takes first place, the reward has to be huge."

"Can it be anything?"

Yi Ye patted his chest forcefully, "I guarantee you'll be happy! I've still got the money Principal Howard gave me. But is there anything you need?"

He had noticed that Bai Chuan wasn't particularly fussy about his daily needs and didn't seem to be lacking anything.

"There is one thing."

"What?"

"I'm not saying now."

Keeping it a secret? There's something up.

With his arms crossed, Yi Ye confidently observed Bai Chuan's expression. Bai Chuan remained impassive. After a moment, Yi Ye suddenly said, "Ah, I got it."

Bai Chuan waited for him to go on.

"Don't you want the latest terminal? I saw it on the forums earlier. The chip updates for terminals are so fast! I still have three that I haven't used much, and now there's a second generation that can simulate the aroma of food in pictures. I was tempted, and I bet you want it too!"

"..."

Yi Ye thought: See, I must have guessed it right! Young people's thoughts are so easy to read. It's just the latest terminal, why keep it a secret? Just say it.

"Don't worry, I'll get you what you want."

Yi Ye patted him on the shoulder, but Bai Chuan took his hand off.

"I think you might not fully understand, but since you've agreed, don't regret it."

"Don't worry, I won't regret it."

Although the terminal is a bit pricey, it's nothing to spend a little extra on the protagonist.

Bai Chuan stared at the petal of Yi Ye's lips and inexplicably smiled, "Alright."

*

The Imperial Honor Military Academy occupies a large area and has two large stadiums, East and West, so some events occur simultaneously. Unfortunately, the shooting and mech competitions started one after the other. By the time Yi Ye finished his match and rushed over, he’d probably only catch the last ten minutes of the mech PK competition.

He assured Bai Chuan that he would definitely make it in time, which Bai Chuan didn’t mind at all. He only left after seeing Yi Ye off at the entrance of the competition stadium, and as he left, he pinned a flower onto the chest pocket of Yi Ye's jacket.

"What's this?"

Yi Ye looked at the yellow bouquet on his chest.

"A yellow daffodil."

Bai Chuan's eyes and brows were indifferent as he secured the flower, "You said you wanted to see it before, so I had someone send it from the main star."

"A flower delivered via starship jump, and you just pluck it to give to me like this, isn't it a waste?"

"That's the meaning of its jump."

Bai Chuan gently adjusted the position of the bouquet. His eyelids were thin, his features cold and clear, carrying an emotion that was hard to decipher. It was at this moment that Yi Ye realized, at some point in time, Bai Chuan had grown taller than him.

He's really grown fast.

Yi Ye wasn't envious. Instead, he felt a sense of pride, like watching a little sapling he had personally watered grow taller bit by bit. And now, this sapling even gave him yellow daffodils.

He's definitely getting the better end of the deal.

"Alright, I'm off. You just wait to receive your reward."

Yi Ye gently patted the flower on his chest, bid Bai Chuan farewell, and turned to enter the stadium.

The announcements for the competition were being read aloud, the mechanical female voice hovering over the vast stadium. This venue was smaller in capacity than the East stadium, but it could more than adequately hold thirty thousand people. Although Yi Ye gave a quick scan, the stadium was full. He could see not only the various academy uniforms but also many audience members and staff in casual clothes.

The news of the military academy league had been released a month ago. This was a major event, famous throughout the entire star system. The school certainly wouldn't miss out on such a great opportunity to make money.

The competition lasted 15 days in total, with 13 days of actual events apart from the opening and closing ceremonies. Every day, seventy thousand inner field tickets were up for grabs on the official websites of the various military schools. Yi Ye had heard that on the days the tickets were released, the system crashed, and the website couldn’t be refreshed, causing a public outcry on the entertainment sections of the public network. A group of engineers had to rush to maintain the site, barely bringing it back to life temporarily.

As for the tickets, they sold out in a second, and even the worst seats could be scalped for high prices on forums, making it an incredibly profitable business.

Seeing how lucrative this was, Yi Ye naturally wanted a piece of the action. But the tickets were tightly controlled by the school, and he could only spare one ticket for Kewen’s father as a personal favor. However, after receiving the ticket, Kewen’s father said something about how it was more fun to watch the live stream at home with a drink, too lazy to make the trip to Imperial Star, leaving Yi Ye wondering what he ended up doing with the ticket.

Probably sold it.

Damn, I should’ve asked for a cut.

Yi Ye regretfully thought to himself as his feet carried him toward the competitors' exclusive rest area.

As soon as he entered, he attracted numerous glances, but the gazes quickly moved away, continuing their circle conversations. Most people in the empire had Western features, their hair colors vibrant. Yi Ye scanned the kaleidoscope of heads and noticed the golden uniform at the very back of the room, making eye contact with Eugene.

The latter pinched the bridge of his nose, dark bruises under his brow bones, clearly showing the force. Even in that brief second of eye contact, Yi Ye could sense the cold hostility.

Yi Ye quickly turned away, pretending to be busy whistling.

Harsh words were like farts; you had to know when to hold back.

Since each military school had two participants for this event, the rest area was particularly lively at the moment. Twenty energetic young men crowded the room, their pheromones filling the air like the aftermath of hundreds of exploded perfume bottles, thick enough to suffocate. Yi Ye was sincerely grateful that he couldn't smell pheromones; otherwise, he'd be trembling and weeping like the Imperial Honor student next to him.

"Bro, you alright?"

"I'm gonna hurl—"

"Wanna go outside for some air?"

"Barf, barf, barf—"

"What I was saying—"

"Here it comes!!!"

Yi Ye: ...Dude, I hope I can still see you alive after this competition, alright? Cool.

He shook his head, turned, and swapped his uniform for a shooting jacket. The uniform was neatly folded and placed into his bag along with the flower bouquet.

The shooting jacket was thin, with only a short sleeve inside, in blue and white colors, further accentuating his pale skin. The narrow-cut pants further highlighted his slim, long legs. From behind, the youth’s figure looked toned and athletic. The shooting jacket was short enough that when he raised his arms, the inner lining pulled up. A faint line of abdominal muscles became visible, leading down into the black belt.

He had a low body fat percentage, but the right muscles were there where it counted. His butt was perky and round, the fabric doing little to hide its firmness.

The Imperial Honor Military Academy uniforms had loose, long hems, making this sight a rare one. Especially now, standing by the window, the light outlined his silhouette in glowing circles.

Without him noticing, the entire rest area fell silent, all eyes on him.

Through the layers of people, Eugene shifted slightly in his seat, his eyes on Yi Ye's profile.

As Yi Ye finished zipping up his jacket and turned around, he caught a bunch of people staring at him.

Wait, my clothes aren’t inside out, are they?

"The competition starts in ten minutes. Everyone, get ready."

The instructor's voice cut through the awkward atmosphere, and everyone immediately looked away.

Yi Ye grabbed the guy next to him, who was still dry-heaving. "Stop puking. If you have to puke, do it on the target."

The student: "Here it comes!—"

With the stands full and cheering, Yi Ye smiled and waved with one hand while dragging the half-dead student along with the other. The constant camera clicks were making his smile feel strained.

"You done puking? Get up and smile, don’t make us look bad."

The student forced himself upright, flashing a zombie-like grin.

Yi Ye pushed him back down. "Just keep playing dead," he said calmly.

Before the actual blindfold shooting started, there was a warm-up session. Yi Ye twirled the gun between his fingers, aimed at the target 50 meters away, and after a few shots, found his groove. Only then did he try putting on the blindfold.

To ensure the safety of the audience, a transparent bulletproof mechanism separated the competition area from the outer field. With vision obscured, his hearing became more sensitive, and all the sounds in the arena became clearer. Relying on memory, Yi Ye fired eight consecutive shots. After removing the blindfold, he found that only two out of the eight targets were hit, and he clicked his tongue slightly.

This thing is quite difficult.

Blindfold shooting tested the ability of memory-based directional shooting, which required tens of thousands of training sessions to achieve a high hit rate. It demanded a high level of skill from the shooter. But to outsiders, they didn't understand the difficulty and simply assumed this was the standard level for students of the Imperial Honor Military Academy. So, to be precise, winning this competition was a surefire way to show off, with everyone cheering. Losing, however, meant being "expelled" from the qualification of being a military academy student in name, and the insults would be merciless. Therefore, most people wouldn't choose to participate.

The likelihood of missing every shot was too high, and the live recording would become an eternal black mark.

When the audience saw that Yi Ye had only hit two targets, a wave of teasing spread through the stands.

He put down the gun and left the arena nonchalantly.

The person behind him was Eugene. The man had one hand in his pocket and played with the gun in his palm for a moment, then immediately put on the blindfold and fired the shots in quick, clean motions!

Eight shots, all on target.

And all within the seven-ring mark or better.

Hysterical cheers erupted from the audience, sweeping across the stadium and almost blowing the roof off. Eugene stepped down from the noisy background, brushed past Yi Ye's shoulder, and paused, giving him a side-eye.

"Just two hits?" he taunted. "Is this all you've got?"

"Thanks for the compliment."

"Hitting the seventh ring, not bad."

Eugene's face suddenly darkened. "I hope you don't cry if you lose."

Yi Ye wrinkled his nose. "Oh, I'll cry, what about it?"

Eugene: "..."

"I'll cry even if I end up winning."

"Cry, cry, cry, cry, cry."

Eugene furrowed his brow and walked away in a hurry.

The official competition began.

Yi Ye drew a number that put him later in the order. He stood outside the field with his arms crossed, checking out the other competitors' condition. The guys selected from the various military academies were all top-notch, calm despite the crazy atmosphere, with nerves of steel. The most nervous guy... was still that one who couldn't stop throwing up.

Now, instead of vomiting, his legs were shaking like two old, wobbly sticks.

"Dude, stay cool. At worst, you'll get roasted on the internet."

The guy's face was pale. "What if I puke halfway through my shooting?"

"It's okay."

"Just don't swallow it back."

"...You're making me want to puke again."

"Wait, don't vomit yet." Yi Ye suddenly patted his shoulder, and after a few seconds, "Alright, you can vomit now."

Just as the trainee opened his mouth to vomit, someone passed by. A quick glance caught Eugene's gloomy face, his body leaning forward in disgust.

Eugene clamped his hand over his mouth and nose and strode forward.

Yi Ye laughed and patted him on the shoulder. "Congrats, you just grossed out the enemy of our Imperial Honor Military Academy."

Trainee: AAAAAAAAAAA!!

Eugene's shooting was as steady as in the trial round, even scoring higher. Eight shots—five in the eighth ring, two in the seventh, and one in the tenth. With such results, as long as there were no accidents, he was a strong candidate for the finals. Most of the participants had already realized that they were mostly there to make up the numbers, but they weren't discouraged. It was better to get some recognition in the event than to remain unknown.

The competition continued, and it was soon Yi Ye's turn.

The audience's reaction was lukewarm as he stepped onto the field. No one had much expectation of him, thinking his two hits were just luck. They preferred to focus their attention on the next participant.

Yi Ye stood for a while, looking towards the audience as if waiting for something, but there was no movement. After a few warnings from the referee, he sighed helplessly and picked up the eye patch to put on.

In the darkness, his finger pulled the trigger.