Chapter 31

Chapter 31

The spacecraft slowly descended and hovered mid-air above the planet. One after another, the children participating in the field exercise jumped out, parachutes strapped to their backs.

Eve's team landed in a densely forested area. Once Dick, the last to jump from the spacecraft, landed steadily on both feet, Eve activated her wrist device. A holographic screen popped up, displaying from top to bottom: time, electronic map, score rankings, and a distress button.

It was exactly noon, and the competition had just begun. Everyone's scores were still at zero, but soon, the Cavendish family's total score jumped from 0 to 50, and Isabella's personal score also increased to 50.

"As expected of the young lady of the Cavendish family," Eve remarked without any anxiety. After a quick glance at the scores, she closed her wrist device.

The electronic map on the wrist device showed they were at the edge of the rainforest area, very close to the Gobi region. Additionally, after the field exercise began, everyone received a unified message from the lead instructor about the two Advanced Zerg Bosses arranged for this training: the Rove Beetle clan in the rainforest area and the Death Worm in the Gobi area. Eve wasn't very familiar with the former, but she knew about the latter.

The Death Worm is a massive Gobi Zerg, usually living dozens of meters below ground in sandy soil. Enormous in size, it blots out the sky and devours everything. They remain dormant most of the time, but once awakened, they feed voraciously and are extremely destructive. A family of Death Worms is enough to destroy a small to medium-sized planet.

The Cavendish family didn’t intend to destroy an entire planet for a single training project, so the Death Worm in the Gobi area was just a larva about to hatch from its egg, approximately over ten meters long. Although it's a larva, it’s still not easy for these children, who are facing Zerg in actual combat for the first time, to deal with.

Eve stretched her flexible, slender limbs and amiably asked for her teammates' opinions: "Dears, would you like to go after the Rove Beetle or the Death Worm?"

"...Do we really have to start like this right away?"

Luo Lin rubbed her temples, unable to understand why Eve was so fixated on tackling the biggest threat from the start.

In her view, as long as the opponents couldn’t kill the boss, it didn’t matter whether their side could or not.

But when Luo Lin expressed this opinion, Eve just said with a slight smile and raised an eyebrow at her: "Are you sure the opponent can’t kill the boss? I remember Cecil told me that Isabella has an extremely powerful personal attendant by her side. Besides, we can also request support from the Third Steward and the Fourth Steward. If we let the opponent gain a lot of points without even trying ourselves, wouldn’t that be a pity?"

Luo Lin jerked her head up.

Her eyes filled with surprise, she suddenly understood what Eve implied.

In the early stages of combat, the stewards were not allowed to participate; they could only appear when the boss emerged. And Eve had promised her earlier that before leaving, she would help eliminate the treacherous Fourth Steward.

This was essentially Eve indicating that there was a high chance she would seize the opportunity to leave during this training.

Opening and closing her mouth, Luo Lin was momentarily stunned, forcing herself to suppress her emotions.

Cecil had been looking disdainfully at his shoes since landing. The rainforest was humid, and the muddy ground, perpetually soaked by rain, was soft and sticky. His combat boots quickly became covered in mud after just a few steps—a level of annoyance that holographic simulations couldn't capture.

He said irritably, "If you insist on fighting a boss, let’s go for the Death Worm. I’m so uncomfortable in this rainforest area; I don’t want to face some ugly, troublesome big bug here."

Grace snorted, "Such a pampered young master."

"Don’t rush. We don’t have any equipment yet. Let’s earn some points first to exchange for weapons," Eve said, throwing an arm around Dick’s shoulder with a smile. "After socializing for so long outside, you didn’t forget what I asked you to do, did you?"

Dick gave a knowing grin.

Both the Medici and Cavendish families were divided into four groups each. Except for one Medici group with only four members, all other groups had five. Among them, four groups were dropped in the rainforest area, and four in the Gobi area. After scouting around, Dick learned that three of the Medici groups had landed in the rainforest area.

Since they were from the same family, and the rules prohibited attacks between members of the same faction—even point stealing—this was to prevent Cecil and Isabella from using their heir status to exploit their family members' points.

However, while giving points wasn’t allowed, providing other conveniences—like sharing landing area information—was permissible.

It was just unclear which unfortunate Cavendish team had also landed in the rainforest area, now crowded with Medicis.

Correspondingly, the Cavendish side likely had most of their teams in the Gobi area, which would be their base camp. Based on Eve’s previous interactions with Isabella, she didn’t believe Isabella, a combat fanatic, would pass up the chance to fight an Advanced Zerg. She would definitely attempt to take on the Death Worm in the Gobi area.

Asking the others to choose between the Rove Beetle and the Death Worm was just for show—Eve actually wanted to take down both bosses.

Since she was leaving anyway, why not make a big splash?

On the other hand, the Cavendish family must have also discussed team deployments. The lone team trapped in enemy territory would inevitably have to travel from the rainforest to the Gobi area to reunite with the main force. Eve had Dick communicate with the lone Medici team stuck in the Gobi area, advising them not to accumulate too many points before reuniting with the main force to avoid being challenged by the Cavendish family and giving them an easy advantage. The opposing side likely had similar arrangements, but Eve had no intention of settling for such small gains from the start.

She planned to follow this team and head straight for Isabella’s group.

A single decisive battle could determine the outcome; winning might allow them to cruise through the rest of the competition. If the Cavendish family wanted to regain their point advantage, they would have to attempt to take down the boss, giving Eve an opportunity to either cooperate with them or claim the spoils.

Yes, she had seen it from the beginning: a single team would find it difficult to defeat an Advanced Zerg. Rallying the entire faction’s strength might be possible, but exhausting their resources would leave them vulnerable to challenges from opponents who could steal their points.

The competition rules were designed to encourage strategic thinking, weighing the advantages and disadvantages, and learning to maximize the use of enemies to gain advantages.

While fighting prowess was important, in such large families, a sharp mind was equally crucial.

Isabella likely shared the same mindset—before determining the outcome with Eve’s team, they wouldn’t waste their strength on the boss prematurely.

The fastest direct route from the rainforest to the Gobi area was a single path, with all other routes blocked by natural cliffs and rugged terrain. After discussing, Eve’s team decided to proceed with this plan. As they hurried toward their destination, they killed some Low-Level Zerg along the way to accumulate points: they needed to earn points to exchange for survival supplies for the night.

Compared to Gobi Zerg, rainforest Zerg had better camouflage and agility but relatively weaker defense and combat capabilities. Once familiar with the Low-Level Zerg’s camouflage methods, with Eve and Grace leading the charge and Dick’s mayfly acting as bait, their journey was smooth and unobstructed.

Along the way, they encountered an Intermediate Zerg that resembled a mantis. Before Cecil could even step in to help, Grace’s Burst Wind Chime exploded, sending fine water droplets flying. Eve quickly summoned her Mythological Mecha, its silver-white frame adorned with dark, living Alchemical Cipher patterns flowing across it. Hecate merged seamlessly into the dim green surroundings.

As the Luna Butterfly’s platinum-gold wings fluttered gently, the Intermediate Zerg, whose vision was already disrupted by the Burst Wind Chime and the mayfly, seemed momentarily confused. In that instant, Eve’s blade, faster than the wind, sliced it in two.

From start to finish, it took only moments. The three of them, working in perfect sync, quickly dispatched an Intermediate Zerg that could be considered a sub-boss in the rainforest area. 1000 points were promptly added to their score, and the team’s ranking jumped significantly, placing them second only to Isabella’s group.

Cecil, who had only just reached for his Spatial Ring: "..."

He was momentarily bewildered, wondering, *Who am I? Where am I? What am I here for?*

Luo Lin had been lingering on the sidelines quite contentedly. Seeing Cecil’s hand awkwardly hovering over his Spatial Ring, she kindly reminded him, "The fight’s already over. You were too slow, brother."

"None of your business."

Cecil was embarrassed and annoyed, but he soon realized with alarm that this couldn’t continue. Because he hadn’t participated in combat, although the team’s overall points kept increasing, Cecil’s personal points were only a few scattered points from providing silver moon clematis support, while Luo Lin’s remained steadily at zero.

In contrast, the three main fighters’ personal scores were shooting up.

No, he absolutely couldn’t allow the dignity of the main family to be trampled by these branch family members.

With a face as dark as iron, Cecil grabbed Luo Lin and prepared to take a different path to earn some points. But Grace, as if she had eyes on the back of her head, tossed a Burst Wind Chime his way the moment he turned around. The silver moon clematis’s moonbeam-like barrier flared up, protecting them from the splattering mud.

Startled, Cecil was then furious: "What are you doing? I just wanted to go another way to kill some Zerg and earn points."

"Haha, sorry, sorry. I thought you were trying to desert the team," Grace said with a smug grin, showing eight gleaming white teeth. "After all, what you said before we set out counts as prior offense. I already warned you—if you dare desert, I’ll definitely blast you into the sky."

For a moment, Cecil really wanted to sit on this annoying branch family woman and squash her.

But the young master restrained himself. He told himself to prioritize the bigger picture and channeled his endless frustration onto the innocent Zerg. Meanwhile, Luo Lin seemed finally moved by the intense battle scene and began to contribute, her pristine white mecha weaving through the green forest.

The team, originally planning to lie low and build up gradually, had now inexplicably strayed from their original plan and began rapidly accumulating points.

Meanwhile, over in the Gobi area, Isabella had just finished a battle against three Intermediate Zerg simultaneously and was taking a break. She opened her wrist device to check the score rankings.

"Huh?"

The Cavendish heir’s golden eyes seldom showed confusion.

Just a moment ago, did Cecil and Eve’s team have that many points?

So indeed, their points remained stagnant at the start simply because they hadn’t fully reacted yet—their actual strength shouldn’t be underestimated!

Isabella suddenly felt too restless to continue resting. She silently took a sip of the stamina-replenishing potion she’d exchanged with points, took a deep breath, turned around, and said gravely, "You all rest first. I’m going to check other areas for any straggler insectoids."

"Young mistress?"

The members of the Cavendish family exchanged puzzled glances. Hadn’t they just earned 3,000 points? Didn’t she need to rest a bit?

Their young lady truly was the most hardworking, disciplined, and resilient heir among the four great families!

-

"What the hell is going on?"

Aboard the spacecraft hovering high above the planet, the Second Steward, Elder Tang of the Medici family, and two elders from the Cavendish family were watching the suddenly competitive situation through the training planet’s omnipresent surveillance system.

At first, only Isabella’s group was going all out, but then Eve’s team joined in, and in a rather bizarre way—it seemed in-fighting had turned into a competition. Then Isabella, holding the top rank, glanced at the rankings and started fighting even more ferociously. Finally, others who had been following their own pace looked at the rankings and thought, What’s up with the top two groups? Even those who had planned to conserve their strength could no longer hold back, and even the two groups surrounded in enemy territory couldn’t resist racking up a few hundred points.

Suddenly, everyone was caught up in the grind?!

The Cavendish elder watched as the marked insectoids on the map disappeared one after another. It hadn’t even been that long! At this rate, they wouldn’t make it to the third day. Frantically, he urged his subordinates, "Drop more bugs! We’re running out!"

"...Drop low-level insectoids? The low-level ones won’t be enough for these little monsters! Mid-level, drop mid-level ones."

"Never mind... mid-to-high level will do. Drop some mid-to-high level ones to slow them down!"

Elder Tang’s eyes widened in disbelief. She was an old subordinate of the former family head’s wife and had been left as a safeguard for Luo Lin after her passing. This... this agile girl piloting the mech on the screen—was this really their always well-behaved young lady?

Even the performances of those branch family members were mostly commendable.

Just watching it got Elder Tang fired up. Heavens, by the family head’s wife above, she’d originally thought it would be enough if these youngsters could just accumulate some combat experience—she never expected them to be so damn impressive!

The surveillance room was in chaos—some were delighted, others worried. Only the Second Steward remained enigmatic, a sly grin on his face.

This was exactly why he had placed all the troublemakers in one group. From the very beginning, he hadn’t expected those little buds to coexist harmoniously.

Fight internally! Let the competition run wild!

And behind the scenes, the Second Steward had long since vanished into the background, his mission accomplished.