Chapter 374: A Loyal Dog
Translator: Abyssruler Editor: Lucas
Regarding the ancient training methods, the constitutions of those who had trained in them were indeed much better than that of the average human, and Lear and Achilles’ overall strength were also not too bad. They were confident in arriving on time, while Wang Zheng was also confident that he would be able to bring the rest to the destination. However, it was unsure if they would be punctual.
However, the current distribution was indeed the best case scenario. Wang Zheng was not willing to dump anyone behind, even if the two people were Luo Fei and Taros.
At night, Wang Zheng and others took the chance to rest, and Luo Fei and Taros kept watch. After all, the others were much more tired than they were.
“I didn’t expect Lear to be so vicious, immediately willing to abandon us and leave!” Taros was dissatisfied in his heart. Without his help, Lear would never have had such an easy path, yet he ended up leaving them for dead for a mere competition.
If it was just a simple abandonment, it may have been fine. However, there was danger lurking behind every corner over here, and yet Lear had made the decision so easily…..
Luo Fei remained silent, and Taros glanced at him. “If we are able to arrive on time, I think you should stop following Lear. If you ever show that you are worthless, he will just throw you away like a piece of rubbish.”
Luo Fei looked at the starry sky above him, and his chubby face smiled. “I’m just like a dog. The master may abandon me, but a dog will not betray him.”
Taros was stunned, and could not help but curse a few words. This fatty was definitely guilty of some mental disease.
After two hours of rest, they were back on the road. However, the current situation was that they were absolutely not ready for combat. So Wang Zheng was extremely alert and was attempting to avoid any and all Zerg. Even if it was a long detour, his aim was still to safely reach the destination.
Wang Zheng had the correct deductions regarding Lear and Achilles’ abilities. However, some things were not possible to avoid.
On the fifth day, Lear and the rest had already made it to the upper ranks of the teams, and this caused Meng Ao to be excited. Wang Zheng’s method was actually not too bad, allowing Lear to arrive first, and with him tending to the wounded. At their current speed, arriving before the end of the round was not a problem. As it still was not a desperate situation, Meng Ao also did not want Luo Fei and Taros to meet with any danger.
Ruthlessness was not something that humans were born with.
However, the situation would never be that simple. As the bugs were too ferocious, even if one fought them head on, it would simply be a waste of time, and could even cause injuries and death. Other than a few outstanding teams, the rest all had chosen to avoid them, or to send out their fastest scouts to act as a distraction. The aim of this round was not extermination, but to simply arrive at the destination, and all the teams were clear on this point. However, problems had still occurred. When they were entering the central area, they had met with mecha!
The sudden emergence of mecha caused a lot of trouble to the teams. Although their fighting abilities were not high, and the ones that had arrived here were all elites, once the exchange of fire occurred, the insects were immediately attracted to the teams and caused issues.
And Lear’s team had met with a problem. Him and Achilles were responsible for reconnaissance, and had safely avoided the bugs, exhibiting their excellent perception abilities. It was something that even Meng Ao had not expected. However, once the mecha had arrived, there was a serious problem, which was the lack of manpower.
Even with Lie Xin and Lie Guang showing off their might, Zhang Shan had been injured, and moving on, he did not have sufficient strength to act as the shield for the team. Meng Tian’s abilities were also not suited for this situation. If it wasn’t for the strength of Lear and Achilles, they could have been wiped out. With difficulty, they managed to shake off the bugs, but Zhang Shan had already been injured. His thigh had been pierced by the bugs, and although they had carried out emergency treatment, he was unable to hold on for long. The long distance march had evidently resulted in the weakening of their resilience.
“Zhang Shan, hang in there, we’re about to reach the destination!” Meng Tian carefully bandaged the wound.
“It’s only a small matter, just a flesh wound. It’s superficial, let’s carry on!” Zhang Shan replied.
Lear nodded, and simply waved his hand. “Let’s set off!”
Now was not the time to falter. With the addition of these damned mecha creating chaos, they had to seize the opportunity.
But not a few minutes later, behind him, Zhang Shan fell to the ground, holding his wound in a grunt of pain. He was drenched in sweat, and Meng Tian quickly helped him up. “He can’t move any more. He needs someone to carry him.”
Lear furrowed his brows. “Stop joking, we don’t even have enough combatants!”
Zhang Shan was gritting his teeth. His whole thigh had been dyed red by the blood. Lear’s brows knitted even further. The smell of the blood was simply acting as a live bait, exposing their position to the bugs.
“Zhang Shan, you can’t walk anymore. Go look for a place to hide. The rest of us will continue forward!” Lear decided.
Achilles and the rest did not speak up, as it was indeed the best choice. Zhang Shan’s mecha abilities were good, but his individual strength was too weak. Without him, the average speed could be increased. Although Lear was a little heartless, it was no question that it was the best solution.
“No, you guys go ahead. I’ll look after him!” Meng Tian shook his head. At this point in time, leaving Zhang Shan here was simply sending him to his death.
“Meng Tian, we would be disqualified because we are missing a person!” Lie Xin could not help but state. While she still disliked Lear, his decision was the right choice. “Zhang Shan only has to hide himself well. Once the round is over, there will be someone to save him.”
Meng Tian shook her head. This was just deluding oneself. “Either we bring him along, or else I’m staying.” Whilst saying so, she started helping Zhang Shan clean his wound.
“Meng Tian, if General Meng Ao was here, what do you think he would do?” Lear said.
Meng Tian stuttered for a moment, then lowered her head. “I’m not him.”
“Meng Tian, you guys go ahead. This competition is not just a minor thing. This concerns the glory of our Solar System. I won’t die so easily!”
“We are military men. When we chose this path, we accepted death.” Achilles finally opened his mouth.
At this moment, Lie Guang suddenly picked up Zhang Shan. “If we have time to talk nonsense, we might as well hurry up. Lear, Achilles, everyone has already been aware of it. Everyone else has paved the road for you thus far. It’s time for you to do something. Men must have loyalty. Leave Zhang Shan to me. You guys are responsible for sweeping the path clean!”
After saying that, he immediately dashed forward, closely followed by Meng Tian. Lie Xin hesitated for a moment. Her own brother really was… Achilles smiled. He indeed had been hiding a portion of his abilities, and he was simply choosing the best course of action. Lear was the last to act. He had also been hiding his strength, but that also depended on the situation. In order to succeed, one must never fully block his own path forward.
These reckless idiots, the hot bloodedness of the Lie family. It was all that bastard Wang Zheng’s fault that the team had no discipline, nowhere similar to a soldier. But at this moment, the thoughts of the others had all unified, leaving Lear with no choice.
Their imagination was full of ideals, but reality was not something that could simply be disregarded. It could be seen that sometimes, the lack of a little good fortune would lead to even more tragic circumstances
Lear and Achilles finally displayed their true abilities. It was clear that both of their combat strengths were nowhere near what they usually performed. This was not an issue of Ability X, as using Ability X without the assistance of the mecha in order to deal with the bugs was simply causing trouble for oneself. It was too easy to get fatigued. However, without them activating their Ability Xs, Lear and Achilles had shown off their jaw-dropping combat abilities, one that was even more aggressive than the flames of the Lie family.
Lie Xin had also understood what had happened. Although Lie Guang was rather reckless, he was absolutely clear about the situation. Since training with their Lie family, his Lie flames were significantly improved, so Lear’s family’s Heavenly King Arts would also similarly have been improved. And what about Achilles?
He must have had some kind of hidden technique, it was just that no one had ever heard of it; he simply had hidden it too deeply.
Even with fewer people, the combat strength of this side had not decreased. It was only those damned mecha that dashed their hopes of the possibility of avoiding all combat.
Time passed by day by day.
The first to arrive was the Atlantis team. This group of human-looking non-humans were far too relaxed, which made the rest of the humans extremely helpless, but they had already been numb to the sight. If they were not behaving in this manner, they would not be considered Atlanteans, but they did indeed have their advantages in certain areas.
Closely following them was the Aslan team, under the leadership of Sword Saint Aurora. It could be seen that they had been through numerous battles, but their members still remained unperturbed. After reaching the destination, they even started to joke around, not feeling the stress of the competition at all.
This was Aslan’s home ground, and it was not a surprise that they had practiced this before. More importantly, against the stronger teams, if they applied the proper tactics, they would not pose a problem at all.
Aslan, Manalasuo, and other traditionally strong teams gradually filtered in, their time of arrival all within one to two hours of each other.
They had basically only taken nine days, while on the final day, large groups started arriving. The time that the IG had calculated was spot on.
Few federations or countries would have had so many problems like the Solar System. The Solar System was competing with others from the Milky Way, but also had internal conflict within the team. There had been no major disagreements for the other teams, at least during this round, but the Solar System team was the only one that had a dispute occur.
The pace of Lear and the rest was initially extremely quick, but had dropped significantly towards the end, specially during the fights as manpower was lacking and they were unable to create a proper formation. As a last resort, Lear and Achilles took turns to attract the attacks of the insects. At the very least, both of them were strong enough and did not suffer severe injuries, but their marching speed had significantly slowed down.
Even after all the hurrying, they were unable to reach the destination on time, and they had exceeded the time limit by two hours.
Meng Ao was infuriated, and Meng Tian was too… She was aware of how important the result of the IG competition was for the military. This matter did not solely involve their honor, but also involved the revival of their combined federation military. A good result would have allowed them to bring forward their plans.
A soldier had to learn to die!
He should not have allowed Wang Zheng to be the team captain. His soft-heartedness was indeed contagious. These actions by the team captain would definitely affect the performance of the team negatively.
From the very first step, the choice had been wrong, which led to trouble down the line. That was such a waste of an opportunity. If they had dumped Zhang Shan, they could at least have arrived a couple hours earlier. Lear and the rest had shown off their tremendous abilities, and could have improved themselves even further. A pity that they had failed in this fashion.
So many years of hard work had been lost!
“The Solar System team has entered the losers group.” When the IG soldiers coldly said this sentence, Zhang Shan fell to the ground in shame.
