Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Planet Pudun 1103, a training planet owned by the Cavendish family, is a celestial body deliberately transformed into a combat zone teeming with exotic beasts and Zerg. While dangerous, the level of risk is controlled, making it a dedicated arena for combat training used by the military and major families.

Among the four great families, the Cavendish family, being the most closely tied to the military, owns the most training planets and is the most professional. Pudun 1103, specifically, is a Zerg-themed training planet. Its surface is divided into two equally sized regions—rainforest and Gobi desert—each covering roughly half the planet's area.

This training exercise is a joint initiative between the Medici and Cavendish families. The Medici family provides funding, while the Cavendish family offers the venue and equipment. Young juniors from both families will participate: 19 from the Medici family and 20 from the Cavendish family, forming two major teams. On the spacecraft, each participant received a wristband. Besides enabling positioning and allowing them to seek help from leading elders in emergencies, the wristband also records scores. Points are awarded for defeating Zerg of different levels and types during the exercise. After three days, the total scores of all participants from both teams will be tallied to determine the winner. Additionally, there will be team and individual rankings.

To assess the skill gaps and adaptability of each group, initial landing sites will be randomly assigned per group.

All of this was explicitly stated in the manual provided in the spacecraft's lounge. The manual also listed the power rankings of members from both sides. Naturally, Cecil topped the list for the Medici family, while the top-ranked participant on the opposing side was a familiar name: Isabella.

Eve's team was assigned a spacious and comfortably furnished lounge. The carpet on the floor was so plush and soft that one might be tempted to roll around on it. There was even a wine cabinet. As soon as Cecil entered, he expertly leaned back on the sofa. The Third Steward quietly decanted a glass of wine for him, an act of sheer indulgence.

"By the way, why are you allowed to bring an extra person?" Eve asked, pointing at the busy Third Steward, her expression clearly displeased.

Is this any way to behave before a battle?

"What's so strange about it?" Cecil replied casually, reclining and facing the ceiling. "The Cavendish family has one more person than us, so for fairness, both the Third Steward and the Fourth Steward were allowed to accompany us. It's just that Luo Lin always maintains that ascetic demeanor and didn’t bring the Fourth Steward in to serve. And do you think Isabella didn’t bring her own people? The personal maid by her side has actually seen combat—she could even serve as a steward in the Medici family. However, they aren’t allowed to intervene initially; they can only participate when facing a boss."

Pudun 1103 is home to countless low-level and intermediate Zerg. Additionally, each side of the map features an advanced Zerg as a boss. Defeating a boss grants a substantial point reward.

Cecil held a wine glass in one hand while resting the other flat on the back of the sofa. The pale, bony hand contrasted sharply with the dark red hue of the sofa, and combined with the aroma of red wine diffusing in the air, it inexplicably exuded a vivid sense of opulent luxury.

He lazily raised his glass toward Eve: "Don’t be so tense, our temporary captain. Because Luo Lin and I brought the Third Steward and the Fourth Steward along, our original main god-level Mythological Mecha were confiscated and replaced with ordinary ones. I suppose it’s the same for Isabella. Now the hardware gap has been evened out, and you’ll have plenty of opportunities to show your skills over the next three days. If I were you, I’d rest now while you can."

He might not have said it, but upon his mention, Eve noticed that the Spatial Ring on his middle finger had changed. Though still light gold, Apollo’s Spatial Ring was originally a golden sun but had now become a light golden curled pattern disk.

"What’s this?" Eve asked.

"Guess."

"......"

She couldn’t be bothered to argue and simply gave Cecil a thumbs-down gesture, meaning he’d done well and she’d remember this.

Cecil snorted softly, lowered his head to take a sip of the shimmering red wine, and suddenly said, "It’s Jason and the Golden Fleece, the mecha I used for practice before getting Apollo. Its performance is only mid-tier among Mythological Mecha, but it’s tough and reliable. Luo Lin’s is Cassandra, also her previous practice mecha, though I don’t know its characteristics. She didn’t use it much in practice, and we didn’t often train together before."

The young master’s change in attitude was so swift that Eve was momentarily unsure what to make of it. But after a month of interaction, she had become quite familiar with Cecil’s capricious nature. When he was in a mood to talk properly, it was best to just go along with it.

She blinked and said, "Well, thanks for telling me?"

"Hmph," Cecil suddenly seemed to lose interest again and dismissively tried to shoo her away: "Now that you know, get lost. This young master needs to rest; stop hovering around and bothering me."

Same old dog temper. Eve waved her hand and walked away light-heartedly.

She returned to her desk and carefully checked her backpack. For this training exercise, everyone was limited to carrying only one backpack containing basic survival items like lighters and small knives. No high-tech items were allowed. Alchemists like Luo Lin could bring additional potions inscribed with Alchemical Ciphers. Beyond that, each person had one mecha Spatial Ring. Other firearms, weapons, and resources needed to be exchanged for with points by the group. Survival was also part of the assessment for this training exercise.

Inspired by Luo Lin, Eve had learned to secretly stash things in the mecha’s cockpit. Whether the family hadn’t considered that someone could hide things there or thought the foot-standing space couldn’t conceal much, they didn’t check. Indeed, not much could be hidden there; Eve had only placed two star currency stored-value cards inside, containing the money she had saved up over the past month working as a freelance alchemist on the black market.

After a month of diligent work, Eve had accumulated nearly a seven-figure savings. It had to be said that alchemists were real money magnets.

As time passed, the spacecraft gradually approached Planet Pudun 1103. Curious, Eve pressed her face against the window and looked down from beyond the planet’s atmosphere. Pudun 1103 truly appeared half lush green-blue and half barren yellowish-brown, the colors split as if Moses had parted the sea. It was unclear whether this was natural or another artificially created environmental landscape.

Meanwhile, the Second Steward was gathering group leaders to draw lots for assigned regions. Dick slipped back from gathering information outside and relayed this to Eve.

Eve was the last group leader to draw lots. Sandro snorted through his nostrils upon seeing her and said discontentedly, "Slow little Forbidden Fruit, if you hadn’t come soon, I would have drawn for you."

"Draw for me? That works too," upon hearing his angry words, Eve nodded with some anticipation. "To be honest, my luck isn’t great. Can you really draw for me, Steward?"

"...You wish. That’s against the rules."

Sandro irritably handed her the electronic lottery device and urged, "Hurry up and draw."

Eve could only regretfully place her hand on the device. Text on the screen scrolled rapidly before settling on two words: Rainforest.

"Ha," Sandro couldn’t help but let out a gleeful laugh. "I heard someone trained extensively against Gobi Zerg in the simulation room. Who could that be? Surely not our little Forbidden Fruit who just drew rainforest?"

Eve knew he was retaliating for earlier and calmly withdrew her hand. "No, I actually trained for rainforest too, just not as much."

Since learning that Pudun 1103 was split evenly between two terrains, Eve had added training for rainforest Zerg combat over the past month as a precaution. She just hadn’t expected her luck to be this bad.

It would’ve been better to let Sandro draw for her—the outcome couldn’t have been worse.

She returned and told the others the result, and they didn’t have much reaction. For the hard-to-please Cecil, he had joined group training later and had roughly equal training for both Gobi and rainforest. As for Grace and Dick, they were even less likely to object.

At this age, teenagers are at their most martial and passionate. Rather than repeatedly weighing the map, they were more interested in what kind of opponents they would encounter.

Grace idly flipped through the manual and suddenly asked, "If we’re being deployed by group, does that mean we might run into someone from the Cavendish family as soon as we land?"

Cecil rolled his eyes. "Idiot, just realizing that now?"

"Did I ask you?" Grace flared up angrily.

Eve automatically filtered out their argument—it could ignite over any random remark, impossible to prevent or control. As if unaware of the quarreling pair, she pointed at the rules manual and said thoughtfully, "The rules state that participants cannot attack each other, but groups from different factions can initiate duels if they meet. The winning side can take half of the opponent’s points. So we could focus on finding the boss first and accumulate points by robbing passing teams."

The more she thought about it, the more feasible it seemed, and she couldn’t help but giving herself a mental thumbs-up for her cleverness.

Her words stunned everyone.

Cecil and Grace stopped arguing. Dick had just walked in, and even Luo Lin, who had been quietly reading in the corner, couldn’t help but look at the girl who had just made such a shocking statement. After weighing her words, she finally said honestly, "Advanced Zerg are equivalent to double S+ level experts among humans. I think... with just our few people taking on an Advanced Zerg... well, it’s really not enough."

Not enough was an understatement—it was downright suicidal. And relying entirely on robbing other teams for points was just too ruthless.

Everyone would still have to see each other back on the capital planet later. A duel or two was one thing, but treating others like expendable resources—how would they face each other afterward?

Eve gave Luo Lin an inscrutable look.

They wouldn’t understand—she wanted precisely this kind of utter recklessness. Without courting death, how could she find a chance to escape?