Outside the base, in the plaza.
The trainees wore their uniforms neatly and had all their gear ready.
Early in the morning, they lined up according to their respective squads, forming nine square formations at the “Shopping Mall” station.
At the front of each formation stood the squad instructors, and at the very front, stood Behemoth himself.
He loudly announced the detailed rules for this annual assessment—the Squad Battle.
First, the Squad Battle would take the form of a space war and team battle.
Each squad would have a space station as their base, and be supplied with a hundred ships of various types.
Their task was to defend their own space station, while piloting ships to seize or destroy the bases of other squads.
The last squad standing would be the victor.
“Isn’t this just Starcraft?”
“Feels more like a space-version of Battle Royale.”
“I’ve been watching this show just to see the space battles—finally, after weeks of waiting, it’s here!”
“Check the progress bar up front, you still have to wait another week (lol)!”
“Wocu*, why does episode six just end like that?”
“Don’t tell me the production team thinks we’ll lose interest. Hurry up and give us episodes seven and eight!”
As more and more ‘wails’ filled the air, the scene froze on Lin Zhen and the others turning and heading toward their spaceship.
Episode six ended.
****
Three, two, one…
Yun Ruoxi walked among the crowd, counting silently in her heart.
Though she didn’t time it exactly, soon enough, the anime frame appeared again in the upper right corner of her vision.
“Another week! I can’t take it anymore!”
“Space battle GKD!”
“My Xi, my Xi!”
As expected, episode seven follows right after episode six. For these interdimensional viewers, a week passes in an instant for me… No matter how I think about it, the flow of time here is just astonishing…
Yun Ruoxi quickly boarded the transport ship and casually took a seat with Aili.
After all the members of Squad Nine had boarded, the transport ship’s heavy rear hatch rumbled and slowly closed.
The seat belts locked automatically, and icy blue tail flames appeared outside the observation windows on both sides.
The exhaust nozzles rotated ninety degrees, aiming downward.
And then—
The transport ship, long and slender like a fried dough stick, shot upward rapidly, then streaked into a stream of light, bursting out of Pandora-35’s atmosphere.
This was the first time since coming to the battle camp that the trainees had left the planet and seen the scenery of interstellar space.
Even with their seat belts strapped, each of them couldn’t help but rise and peer out the observation windows.
Against the endless blackness of deep space, there floated a Heavenly Wall of Alloy constructed from massive planet-killer cannons.
The Heavenly Wall of Alloy almost encircled the entire star system.
At the center of the system was a giant star, and floating above its surface was a huge umbrella-like megastructure.
Countless ships orbited it.
“That’s the Dyson Sphere!”
“No matter how many times I see it, this Heavenly Wall in the sky is always so awe-inspiring.”
“Where’s the Holy Hand Guild’s homeworld? I don’t see it.”
“It’s so beautiful!” Aili was so stunned by the view of space that she couldn’t close her mouth.
A trainee nearby suddenly punched the air.
“This is the strength of the Holy Hand Guild? Incredible! I’ll become one of them for sure!”
“Haha, with your skills?” someone beside him mocked.
“What, you want to try me?”
“Come on, then!”
The two of them, talking like this, immediately turned hostile, looking ready to start a fight at any moment.
“Ahem!”
Suddenly, someone coughed lightly in the cabin.
“I say, are you guys really going to start a civil war before the assessment even begins? This time, it’s not solo duels, but a team battle where we have to work together against other squads!”
The one who spoke was the former 0029, now Gangmu.
After the annual assessment, since his abilities were rather average, his ranking had dropped more than ten places, now only at 0045. Even so, in Squad Nine, he was still among the top.
In the battle camp, numbers represented strength and also authority.
So when he spoke, almost no one dared not listen.
The two trainees, though unhappy, silently abandoned their plans to fight.
“Gangmu, what do you mean?”
Sitting next to him was the current 0051, a boy named Hain, who was wiping a broad sword as he looked up to ask.
“If Squad Nine wants to do well in the Squad Battle, we need to become a true unit.”
Gangmu spoke earnestly.
“Even if this battle doesn’t state any punishment directly, nobody’s stupid. Squads and individuals who perform badly—or well—will surely be noticed by the battle camp.”
“That’s our common interest.”
“To become a real unit, we need to choose a leader. That’ll definitely earn points with the instructors!”
***
Suddenly, a cold female voice rang out from the direction of the rear hatch. A trainee stepped out from the shadows.
0038—Duxie, a girl whose powerful ability had recently propelled her ahead of Gangmu.
“If you ask me, why not let me be the leader?” Duxie licked her lips, a trace of mockery in her eyes.
Faced with Duxie’s challenge, Gangmu’s expression didn’t change; he replied just as coldly, “With Xinglan here, are you sure you want to compete with her?”
Duxie hesitated, instinctively glancing at the blue-haired girl, but seeing that she was just gazing out the window, showing no reaction.
Only then did Duxie breathe a sigh of relief, stubbornly insisting, “Being the leader doesn’t necessarily mean being the strongest. On the contrary, the strongest should be out there taking down enemy bases, not leading from the front.”
“You can’t just decide that,” Gangmu shook his head. “Instead of some unknown strategy level, isn’t it most reasonable to choose the leader based on rankings?”
“I’m sure the other squads will do the same. It’s the only way everyone can accept it!”
“Hmph! Looks like you’ve thought it all through, so why even ask!” Duxie snorted coldly and blinked into a seat, buckling herself in.
That was her ability.
Blink—she could teleport anywhere within her line of sight. An immensely promising spatial power.
That’s how she’d managed to leap from an unknown to second place in the class, right after Yun Ruoxi.
But even so, the gap between her and Yun Ruoxi was immense.
In last month’s live exercise, she’d run into Yun Ruoxi once, and as expected, was instantly subdued.
Her vaunted mobility was a joke in the face of omnipresent psychic force.
The moment she blinked behind Yun Ruoxi, she was knocked out cold by psychic power, setting the record for the fastest defeat in history.
So after awakening her powers, Duxie had always been arrogant, but in Squad Nine, the only ones she didn’t dare to provoke were Yun Ruoxi and Aili by her side.
“Do you want me to be the leader?”
Seeing the discussion end, Yun Ruoxi turned her head back as well.
She’d just been watching Lin Zhen’s situation.
As in the original plot, with the support of Zi Jiu and the others, Lin Zhen took the position of leader with a ranking of 99.
This was the first time among all nine squads.
And without a doubt, he became the weakest leader in terms of raw power.
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