After returning to Dawn Academy, the team immediately dispersed. They either went to rest or to find a diversion. All of the participants had special rights during the tournament; they could temporarily refrain from attending any classes, and could arrange their own schedule. There was only a week away from the next round.
Xiao Lin had a bit more to do as the team leader. He used a few hours to write up a report on the match against Judge Academy for the president and Yu Mei. Of course, the two of them had already heard of the result, but they were happy to hear about it again from Xiao Lin.
“You really gave us quite a surprise.” The baby-faced president praised Xiao Lin before pulling out a document from his desk.
“What’s this?” Xiao Lin asked.
“A reward from the dean.” The president smiled.
“The dean has recovered?” Xiao Lin’s face was full of happiness.
The president had a helpless look.
Xiao Lin understood and did not even take the document, pouting as he said, “Oh, the new dean. Then it’s fine, I’ll just leave it here.”
Yu Mei came over and slapped Xiao Lin’s head, saying, “You really know how to hold a grudge, brat. All he did was restrict you from going to the New World. No matter what, he’s still the dean.” After that, she helped Xiao Lin receive the document, but she did not even look at it. She threw it straight into the trash bin.
Yu Mei was also someone who was with the old dean, and the new dean had basically cleared up Dawn City after being appointed. Many important personnel had been changed, but Yu Mei managed to avoid it thanks to being responsible for the tournament, yet it did not mean that she liked the new dean at all.
The president looked at them helplessly, shaking his head and not saying anything. Of course, he was also someone aligned to the old dean, but the president knew how to read the situation. On top of that, the new dean was not able to interfere with the inner workings of the academy too much, so he was not worried about his position.
“The result of the other match was also very shocking. The Turkish academy actually beat the Japanese academy. From our reports, other than losing the two secondary profession matches, they won everything else.” The president quickly changed the topic.
Yu Mei’s expression was heavy as she said, “I might not like the Japanese academy, but I have to admit that those people have followed closely in Judge Academy’s footsteps for the past few decades, and have developed rapidly. Their power at the moment is nothing to underestimate. The Turkish academy has very shallow foundations, and has always been a tiny fish in the past tournament. The fact that Turkey could beat Japan is unbelievable.”
Xiao Lin suddenly thought of the reminder Raymond gave him after the match against Judge Academy ended. He nodded as he said, “Raymond told me that the Turkish academy was very strong after the match. It seems like we’ll need to be careful.”
“Are you going to continue using the same strategy like what you used against Judge Academy?” Yu Mei asked. They had obviously found out how Xiao Lin defeated Judge Academy from the report.
Xiao Lin hesitated, shaking his head as he said, “It’s definitely possible if the first match was against the Turkish academy, but they’ve definitely found out how we beat Judge Academy. They will be prepared for it. The individual matches and the secondary profession matches… If someone were to have targeted arrangements for that against us, it would be hard to guarantee victory.”
The president nodded in agreement and said, “It’s true. I’ve looked at Judge Academy’s line-up and, putting aside you and Gu Xiaoyue in the secondary profession matches, it was actually very lucky that we won. Smith and Thomas are the least skilled members of Judge Academy, and I don’t think Raymond would have expected that they would lose all four points. If Raymond had taken part in the individual matches, neither Cheng Ming nor Chen Dao would have had any chances of winning.”
When Xiao Lin heard that as he was thinking about the strategy against the Turkish academy, he could not help but raise his head and look at the president strangely. Thomas and Smith were both S-rank talent holders. If they were the weakest, then it was unbelievable how strong the others would be.
No matter what, the next task for Xiao Lin and the others was to prepare for the Turkish academy. Due to the fact that the academy had always been overlooked, there was very little information on them. Even though there were recordings of their past tournaments, just as the president said, they had always been minnow-like existences, and were completely trashed.
It was obvious that the Turkish academy were only seeing a surge in their strength for this tournament, which also proved the explosion of talent holders. Since the Japanese academy definitely had at least one S-rank talent holder, the Turkish academy would not have less than that.
Since they were the hosts, Xiao Lin had wanted to discuss the plans with the president and Yu Mei, but curiously, they both rejected him, even indicating that they would not be participating in any capacity outside of providing information.
Xiao Lin understood their intentions. They wanted to train Xiao Lin’s leadership and commanding abilities. Xiao Lin was still a rookie in that department, and the results could very well end up in failure, so Xiao Lin was touched at their trust. So, he put even more effort into his preparations. In order to not disrupt his daily training, Xiao Lin would only start planning during the night, and would only sleep very late.
A week passed by quickly, and the Turkish academy arrived on friday. As the team leader, Xiao Lin and the president received them in the station. Even though there were translators present, the two parties did not interact much. They quickly asked for a training hall, and did not even rest before they ran straight there.
With such a serious attitude, it was obvious that the Turkish academy did not plan on being bottomfeeders in this competition.
The day before the rounds were supposed to start, both sides handed in their line-ups at the same time.
This time, Xiao Lin’s name list had very large changes. Other than Chen Dao continuing to be in the individual matches, the other matches were all changed. The team line-up was: Cheng Ming, Xiao Lin, Gu Xiaoyue, An Luo, and Sheng Guo.
Everyone could clearly see Xiao Lin’s intentions with that list of names. It was similar to giving up on the team battle during the last round. In this round, Xiao Lin planned on giving up three of the first four matches!
