Chapter 132

Chapter 132

The next two weeks passed quite uneventfully. Instructor Lin remained as ruthless as ever, but once accustomed to it, it hardly felt like anything.

—Just some military drills, crawling through mud, occasional brawls between classmates, and the daily fifty-kilometer run. Really, it was nothing much, right?

She didn't know what the other students thought, but Eve felt she had been living a rather detached life during this period.

Qin Mengde was too preoccupied with her reassignment to oversee her, the princess's residence ran smoothly under Qi Ying's supervision, and even Jessica seemed to have received the goodwill Eve had subtly conveyed in that bouquet of flowers. Though still arrogant and overbearing, she was a vast improvement from the aggressive, fight-picking "beagle" she was when they first met.

Without these bothersome individuals, Eve felt utterly refreshed, even experiencing a sense of returning to her youth, as if from another lifetime… though it was indeed "another lifetime."

"Hey, have you heard?" As soon as the instructor blew the whistle to dismiss the team, Jessica slung an arm over Eve's shoulder, whispering conspiratorially, "I heard this year's 'Assessment Day' format is different from previous years. It seems all six departments will be participating together."

"So what?"

Eve shook off Jessica's overly familiar hand and slung her backpack over her shoulder. The little princess didn’t have to carry her own things; she merely stood with crossed arms while her chestnut-haired roommate and attendant reluctantly carried both their bags.

After some time together, Eve had learned the other girl's name: Liz Spurling, the young lady of an impoverished viscount family whose assets were on the brink of being expelled from the capital planet. Prince Philip had helped pay their annual residency fee. Thus, no matter how poorly Jessica treated her, Liz remained steadfast in her loyalty.

"The specifics aren't entirely finalized, so I'm not completely sure, but it's confirmed that this year's Assessment Day will adopt a live combat format. All six departments will participate in an elimination tournament, and final scores will be determined by rankings," Jessica widened her eyes in disbelief. "What do you mean, 'so what'? Hey, have you forgotten who the Department Chief is? Instead of bothering to gather intelligence, you're acting all nonchalant and asking me what to do? Is this how a Department Chief should behave?"

Eve: "...I mean, it's just a student officer position. No need to take yourself so seriously, right?"

It's just a military training Assessment Day. What more could she want? It's not like they were paying her—did they even know her worth?

Jessica's face flushed red, but Eve remained utterly indifferent, as if it had nothing to do with her, leaving Jessica at a loss for how to deal with her. She simply couldn’t comprehend how someone could be so unconcerned about rankings. Didn’t this person possess even a shred of ambition?

In the end, Liz came up with an idea. The two huddled together, whispering conspiratorially for a long time. Then Jessica patted Liz’s shoulder appreciatively and quickly caught up with Eve.

A familiar star-diamond black card suddenly appeared in Eve's line of sight. Eve paused, lifted her eyelids, and followed the fingers holding the card to Jessica’s face: "?"

"Heh heh," Jessica coughed twice, putting on a show, but her expression clearly conveyed a triumphant "This'll definitely win you over." "Actually, I look down on such methods, but Liz’s suggestion isn’t without merit. Sometimes, certain incentive measures are quite necessary."

Behind her, Liz covered her face the moment Jessica spoke, unable to bear the sight.

"Alright then, if our department gets a collective bonus, I'll give you 100,000. If we make it into the top three, 200,000. Second place, 300,000. First place, 500,000. Now you finally have some motivation to strive, right?"

Jessica probably thought she looked quite impressive saying this, even letting out a couple of smug laughs afterward.

The aura of the wealthy family's naive daughter was even more pronounced now.

"......" Hesitating for even a second would be disrespectful to money. Eve immediately did a 180-degree turn in attitude, declaring with firm determination: "Revitalizing the honor of the Mecha Department is our undeniable duty! Why even mention money? As the Mecha Department Chief, leading everyone to victory is simply what I should do!"

That said, she didn’t hesitate at all as she swiftly took the black card.

Jessica was amazed at how quickly she changed her expression: "Excellent. With your ability to flip so fast, I think the other five departments have already lost at the starting line."

So adaptable—it seems her tactical aptitude couldn’t be too bad.

-

The specific rules for the military training assessment finally emerged. It wasn’t until the day before Assessment Day that the instructors of each department arrived late with the regulations.

The final assessment would be conducted in an elimination tournament format, completely disregarding individual scores and ranking based solely on departmental performance. All students who participated in the preliminary military training would be deployed to a training planet, where they would hunt each other. When all students of a department were eliminated, that entire department would be out. However, as long as one person remained, they could potentially carry the entire department.

To prevent anyone from attempting a "hide-and-survive" strategy, the game would display everyone’s location every half hour.

It was pretty much as Jessica had said, but upon closer inspection, one could discern the cunning of the teacher who devised these rules.

The rules superficially supported collective combat strategies by canceling individual scoring, but they also specifically mentioned that as long as one person in a department remained, the fight could continue. This not only increased the flexibility of the competition but also introduced a hidden risk—

Weaker departments might become overly reliant on their stronger students, but those strong students might not be willing to share hardships with their weaker classmates. Coincidentally, the recent Department Chief selection had already thrust the strong students in each department into the spotlight as targets.

When expectations and reality don’t align, conflicts are most likely to erupt. Especially since the proportion of freshmen serving as Department Chiefs this year was particularly high. From what Eve knew, aside from the Melee Department and the Reconnaissance Department, the chiefs and vice chiefs of the other four departments were all first-year students.

If they performed too poorly in the competition, these young chiefs could likely face a crisis of trust.

On the last training day, the instructor finally didn’t assign any more exhausting tasks. After explaining the competition rules in detail, she allowed the students to train freely and discuss strategies, while she herself stepped aside with a smile.

Lin Ke leaned against the wall, conversing with a colleague, seemingly casually glancing at Eve several times.

"The school is being pretty harsh on this year’s freshmen. In previous years, this kind of elimination tournament was only held during finals. This year, they’re using it for the military training conclusion," the Melee Department instructor tsk-ed. "But the students' caliber is generally quite good too. A good blade needs more grinding to become sharp."

The Weapons Department instructor added, "There must be clues, right? The training grounds are split into two, with three departments per group—exactly the most suitable cross-department collaboration plan. As long as these kids aren’t completely dense, they’ll know to seek partners. But what does Lieutenant Lin think?"

Suddenly addressed, Lin Ke turned her head distractedly: "If these guys can truly cooperate honestly, then the sun must be rising from the west. Freshmen are the most proud. Unless they encounter some trouble, how could they possibly humble themselves and seek cooperation?"

"—I’ve already discussed collaboration with the Reconnaissance Department in advance."

Eve’s slender fingers tapped lightly on her elbow as she thoughtfully said, "Their chief and vice chief aren't here. Cooperating with them will be easier to manage."

"Why do we have to collaborate?" Jessica was somewhat displeased. "There are only six departments total. If we collaborate with them, we’ll have to give up one spot."

Liz, however, considered it from a different angle: "The Reconnaissance Department’s strength is average. Under the same circumstances of their chiefs being absent, the Melee Department is stronger and has a closer relationship with us."

After all, they were fellow sufferers who trained on the same field every day—there was some superficial camaraderie.

"The Melee Department is too proud and stubborn. Even though they’re strong, they might not be willing to cooperate with us," Eve directly bypassed Jessica’s foolish question and answered Liz. "The risk is too high. If it were just me, I wouldn’t mind collaborating with them, but with all of you, I have to be more cautious."

It wasn’t just Liz and Jessica surrounding her. A group of Mecha Department students instantly had tears in their eyes: "Chief..."

Eve pushed away these clingy individuals and stood up decisively: "Alright, enough sentimentality. This time, because it’s a military training assessment, we’re only allowed to use what we trained during military training. Mecha are on the list of prohibited items. They’ll probably restrict Spiritual States with limiter bracelets too. If you have time, practice your aim more."

Compared to the Mecha Department, the Medical Department actually had more serious problems. Because she was stretched too thin, she still didn’t know how to handle the "Lu Qing" identity in the Medical Department.

As the chief, not participating would definitely undermine her authority. But the game reported locations every half hour. If it was revealed that she was with the Mecha Department, it would surely raise suspicions. However, she wasn’t quite ready to expose her dual identity yet.

She needed to find a way.

Unlike the Mecha Department’s completely Eve-centric concentric circle structure, the Reconnaissance Department students were much more scattered, sitting cross-legged on the grass in small groups, completely immersed in their own isolated worlds.

"You plan to collaborate with the Mecha Department?"

Just after listening to Dick’s suggestion, Luo Wenzhou hesitated and furrowed his brows. He didn’t know much about Eve Medici, but there were always plenty of rumors about her on the capital planet. His impression was that she didn’t seem like a very kind person: "Are you sure? What if she uses us? Compared to that, I still think collaborating with the Command Department is better. Command Department’s chief, Miss Alice, is very easy to talk to."

Dick’s perspective was completely different from Luo Wenzhou’s. He had heard of Alice—after all, few things that happened in this school could escape his notice: "Easy to talk to doesn’t necessarily mean they’re good collaboration partners. Command Department people have always been the most cunning. You better not be fooled by their honeyed words concealing daggers."

"......" Luo Wenzhou looked at him speechlessly. "I feel like the one with honeyed words and hidden daggers is someone else."

Dick just gave a sly smile, pretending not to understand the hint.

Both chiefs of the Reconnaissance Department were second-years. With no clear leader, they temporarily had to defer to Luo Wenzhou and Dick, who came from the most notable backgrounds. When it came to switching allegiances, these two were quicker than anyone else, showing no hesitation at all as they carefully selected their collaboration partners.

Luo Wenzhou preferred collaborating with the Command Department, who shared the same training field. They were the Military Academy’s flagship program; latching onto them would ensure stability. The neighboring Medical Department was also an option. Although they had been a weak department with little combat strength in previous years, this year a martial arts prodigy chief had emerged out of nowhere, making people feel somewhat hopeful about them.

But Dick favored Eve, who came from the same background as him. Regardless of other factors, in terms of pure strength, he felt no one in this year’s cohort was more powerful than Eve. Command Department’s Alice and Medical Department’s Lu Qing combined counted as one; Command Department’s young master, Ludwig, and Medical Department’s young mistress combined counted as another. But no matter how you calculated it, collaborating with Eve felt the most reliable.

More importantly—

"Eve would definitely not treat us harshly," Dick said with a knowing smirk, as if he had seen through the secrets of heaven. "She has a very, very good relationship with our chief. Just based on that alone, she wouldn’t give us a hard time."

He deliberately emphasized the pronunciation of the words "very, very good," which made Luo Wenzhou give him a suspicious look: "Are you sure?"

How come he didn’t know that his cousin had any personal connection with Eve?

"I’m absolutely certain, and she needs us."

Otherwise, why would she take the initiative to seek cooperation with the Reconnaissance Department, and with such an unassuming attitude? It’s clear she’s asking for a favor.

Seeing Dick’s unwavering confidence, Luo Wenzhou didn’t really have much else to say. As the underdog department, the Reconnaissance Department didn’t have many options to begin with.

He shrugged: "Alright, I have no further objections. But you’ll need to win over the other students. As long as everyone agrees, we’ll proceed as you suggested."

"No problem," Dick flashed a handsome grin. "When it comes to winning over the masses, I’m an expert."

Seeing this, Luo Wenzhou had even less to say. He could only manage a tight smile to hide his lingering doubts.

Amidst such a treacherous and cutthroat atmosphere, the real day of the military training assessment finally arrived.