Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Then everyone expressed strong dissatisfaction with his behavior of acting like some mystic at the drop of a hat.

Jiang Se was still fiddling with the small Ion Cannon in her palm. This small Ion Cannon was a trophy she had accidentally obtained when passing by an active combat zone earlier.

Although that fierce battle involved two teams going at it enthusiastically, and their team had just passed through normally, they were inexplicably regarded as opponents by those two teams. Then, both teams began to pursue them relentlessly, and their team was forced to take out those two teams, though we almost felt bad about it, subsequently acquiring the remaining trophies from them.

Jiang Se closed her eyes and began disassembling the Ion Cannon in her hands blindly. The mechanical parts seemed to come to life in her palm, and her speed was actually just as fast as when her eyes were open.

After disassembling it, Jiang Se glanced up and drawled, "When will this Simulated Battle end? I feel like there are no other teams in this area besides us!"

Zhu Jin, while engrossed in using his Psychic Network to monitor the action over there, chimed in distractedly, "It seems like the duration of this Simulated Battle has always been unpredictable in previous years. Sometimes it lasts a long time, sometimes it’s very short. And I feel..."

After saying this, Zhu Jin paused and added, "The length of the Simulated Battle should depend on the school authorities, on whether they have selected the teams they're looking for."

As for what selecting suitable teams is for, of course, it’s to serve the Exercise Tournament.

"Isn’t this just like raising gu (like breeding venomous insects)?" Jiang Se complained.

"Exactly," Zhu Jin also nodded, clearly agreeing with this view. "But I feel like teams like ours that directly goof off are probably quite rare."

After all, it’s hard for other teams to gather four equally unmotivated weirdos.

You sleep, he spaces out, I chat—everyone's going places.

*

Outside the screen, the teacher who had been closely watching Jiang Se’s team went quiet upon hearing this.

After a long while, a teacher from the Individual Combat Department couldn’t help but say, "These four little shits actually know that what they’re doing is quite outrageous. They even have some self-awareness. I thought they were fearless before!"

"What good is self-awareness?" a teacher from the Command Department sneered. "Look at their attitude—they couldn't care less—they’re just confident that no team in the Simulated Battle can properly discipline them. It’s made them cocky!"

After saying this, the teacher looked at the faculty supervisor of the Simulated Battle and asked, "Has the school team entered yet?"

As his words fell, the gazes of all the teachers in the room turned to the faculty supervisor.

The faculty supervisor wiped the sweat from his forehead and thought to himself: In previous years, the Simulated Battle followed old routines and was basically a formality. As the faculty supervisor, he mostly served as a figurehead. Who would have thought that this year would attract so much attention?

Being watched by so many influential figures in the school, the pressure was crushing!

Even though he was complaining inwardly, he still said calmly, "I've just accessed the Simulated Battle database. The school team has now entered the Simulated Battle testing arena."

*

Above the grassland, four figures were floating down slowly from the sky under parachutes.

A student from the Command Department, wearing a ghillie suit and hiding in the grass, looked up and saw this scene. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief—the competition had been going on for almost two days, and the outcome was almost decided. How could there still be people entering!

His instinct, honed by years of surfing the internet for gossip, made him subconsciously reach for his comm device to post this shocking discovery on the forum and share it with other gossip-loving netizens.

His mind had already come up with several shocking forum titles:

"Shocking! The Unspeakable Secret I Discovered in the Simulated Battle Testing Arena!"

"Is It the Collapse of Morality or the Loss of Humanity? This Actually Happened in the Testing Arena!"

"An Accident Occurred in the Simulated Battle Testing Arena—Let Me Take You to the Front Lines of the Gossip!"

...

He reached for nothing and only then remembered that the Simulated Battle had internet restrictions.

Student: Well, that sucks.

His gaze remained fixed on the four figures. Weirdly enough, he felt that these four people looked somewhat familiar.

However, he was a student from the Command Department and didn’t have the insane visual acuity of students from the Individual Combat Department.

When the four people were about ten meters above the ground, the student saw the face of the person leading them.

It was none other than the current Commander of their Alliance University school team—Lin Xu!

"No fucking way!" he exclaimed softly, then muttered to himself, "The school team coming to the Simulated Battle—this is just a massacre!"

The school team had undergone multiple rounds of intra-school competitions and Exercise Tournaments. Their coordination and on-the-spot adaptability were simply incomparable to most of the randomly assembled teams here.

"What are the school authorities trying to pull? Are they sending the school team to clear the field and see which team can survive the longest?"

The student couldn’t help but think this while masking his energy signature, curling himself into a ball and praying frantically that he wouldn’t be discovered by these total monsters.

Lin Xu and the other three descended quickly, their movements appearing more professional.

They had received specialized training during their internships at the military district, and their tactical prowess was far superior to that of these freshmen.

Lin Xu was dressed in black combat gear, his expression still gentle and elegant, but with a deep, chill glint flashing in his eyes.

"I’ve already confirmed their location earlier. They should be near the jungle-grassland border. We’ll flank them shortly and wipe them out in one sweep," Lin Xu said calmly.

"I trust our tactical prowess. Let’s try to keep the battle within half an hour. The opponent’s transport is very fast, so we should destroy it before we engage."

"Alright, that’s all I have to say. Does anyone else have anything to add?"

Lin Xu’s gaze slowly swept across everyone’s faces.

"No," Jiang Chuo shook his head while twirling the Pulse Gun in his hand. "It’s been a long time since we last did a Simulated Battle. I kinda miss it!"

Feng Ping still spoke in his usual infuriatingly casual tone: "I don’t think we’ll need half an hour. Five minutes should be enough to deal with those freshmen!"

Hearing this, Lin Xu frowned slightly and said sternly, "Don’t underestimate the enemy, Feng Ping."

Then, he looked at the team’s Mecha Pilot, Nie Wenjing, and asked, "Wenjing, do you have anything to add?"

Nie Wenjing adjusted his silver-rimmed glasses and said, "Be careful of the Mecha Pilot on their team."

He weighed his words and added, "She’s a seriously tough opponent."

Hearing this, Feng Ping laughed carelessly: "She’s just a Mecha Pilot. No matter how skilled she is, without a mecha, she is basically powerless."

But Lin Xu fell into thought upon hearing this.

The last opponent Nie Wenjing described as "very troublesome" was now the chief Mecha Pilot of Central University’s school team, also widely recognized as the top young Mecha Pilot among all major schools—Xia Qiufeng.

For Jiang Se, a freshman, to receive such evaluation from Nie Wenjing...

Lin Xu slowly exhaled.

He thought he probably already knew who the Mecha Pilot with 3S-level psychic ability among this year’s freshmen was.