Translator: Abyssruler Editor: Lucas
Zhang Shan took a quick glance at Wang Zheng. He could tell that Wang Zheng was moved. The runic mecha here were exclusive to mankind and were genuinely superb. In all the other militaries of the Milky Way Alliance, there was presently no other mech that could even come close. Everyone desired to own a mech like this.
“Are you two actually thinking of giving it a shot? I think it would be best to forget about it. Wang Zheng’s mecha piloting may be decent, but it’s useless anyway. The lowest level of Ability X among the Xuan Grade is C rank, with the B rank being considered the norm. This isn’t just a hypothetical situation, it would actually be impossible for y’all to demonstrate your skills.”
“Coward, as long as the school allows it, we can give it a shot. The important thing is to participate in order to let big bro here check out how great these Xuan Grade students really are. For all you may know, they may not even be able to beat me.” Zhang Shan remarked.
Eisen did not know whether to laugh or cry. After all, he was already accustomed to this guy’s blind overconfidence.
“Where do we register?” Wang Zheng asked. Perhaps this was the chance he was looking for, since Olivios probably could not wait any longer. In actual fact Wang Zheng felt the same and this opportunity was unquestionably a good one either way.
“Ah, you all really intend to sign up?” Eisen replied.
“Why not?” Zhang Shan swung his arms, “How could we bear to miss such a good practice opportunity?”
“All you have to do is to directly enter your student number into the link. As to whether or not you’re qualified enough to take part, the decision will lie entirely with the school.” Eisen explained.
Students in the Xuan Grade and above were all allowed to participate, whereas the students in the Huang Grade had to pass an evaluation. After all, standards had to be maintained and spots were not to be filled with just about anyone. This was to ensure that the competition between those in the Xuan Grade would not be negatively affected. A Xuan Grader could face off with another Xuan Grader, whereas it was also possible for another Xuan Grader to face a Huang Grader instead. This could result in an unlevel playing field.
As a result, while Huang Graders were technically allowed to sign up, not all of them would be allowed to participate.
The others in the classroom were also actively discussing whether to sign up or not. They were mostly on the fence about it. Participating would only just be for show but not signing up felt like giving up a chance for a shot at glory.
Upon further thought, the gap between the Xuan Grade and Huang Grade did not seem that large after all. The Xuan Graders had higher rank Ability X, but it was not to the extent that they were unsurpassable. If the quality of one’s Ability X was good enough, perhaps it could even compensate for this disparity. The Xuan Graders were also more experienced, but this was relative as well. Ultimately, combat was an unpredictable thing after all.
Furthermore, Olivios supposedly beat up someone from the Xuan Grade before, so perhaps the Xuan Grade individuals were not as formidable as everyone imagined. They were only human after all, so there would always be a possibility of taking them on. Moreover, there was also a chance that some instructor would be on the lookout for talents demonstrated during the competition and choose to take a participant under their wing as a result.
As a result, everyone held conflicting views regarding the situation. Of course, there were also those who were decisive. The majority of students from Huang Grade Class 1 immediately applied. They did not really have anything to hesitate about. Some of them were about to be promoted soon, so this was an undeniably great opportunity for them. If they were able to obtain the mech, it would be just be killing two birds with one stone.
Wang Zheng entered his own student number, but a message immediately popped up on the screen, “Your application has already been received. Please avoid submitting a repeat application.”
Wang Zheng stared blankly. It seemed like someone had already applied on his behalf. He did not know which kind soul it was but at least this saved him the trouble of applying.
Once news of the event was out, everyone immediately became more proactive in their training. This was indeed well thought out by the school.
The combat strategy class was rather calm. The first half of the class was for all intents and purposes a history class. Classic examples of small to large scale battles from the Milky Way Alliance’s history were covered with the goal of providing the students with a broader world view. However, no further words needed to be said, for each generation gave rise to new legends, and the stories behind these individuals took the listeners’ breaths away.
This included incomparably heroic stories of tides being turned. One example included the miracle created by the godlike general of Arbiter. Due to advancement in weaponry, a single individual was able to act at the right time to achieve the grand accomplishment of reversing the entire battle situation to his side’s favor. Just listening to such cases made one’s blood race with excitement.
There were even more ordinary tales of the art of war – or simply put the cruelties of warfare. The course of human development had always been a song of ice and fire filled with battles and disputes. In the midst of such chaos, there was always the undeniable presence of formidable ones who proved themselves across many instances of battle. Even in recent years such a situation persisted, but the difference was that at present the Milky Way Alliance was in its most stable period since its formation. While frictions persisted between various regions, on a whole the Alliance was in a period of growth and expansion. Furthermore, such a situation had already been maintained for decades. In this period of time, the various nations of mankind experienced remarkable economic recovery and progress, for they were slowly reaping the benefits from the achievements of the Great Interstellar Voyage.
The day’s lessons came to an end, and everyone’s attention was drawn away from their combat tactics class to the mecha combat selection match – in particular the probability of being able to participate. The quota of five was not that small but in this situation there were definitely not enough slots to go around and competition was definitely going to be tough. Still, having something was better than nothing.
Zhang Shan registered as well, for he would never be able to give up such an opportunity. Even if he was to be crushed he would still take part. After all, being crushed was a prerequisite to eventually crushing your future opponents.
Wang Zheng had to prepare as well. In particular, he had to focus his efforts on preparing his Ability X. He had to prepare his Windflame Wheels at least, or else it would be difficult to deal with the opposing individuals from the Xuan Grade. He found it difficult to believe that there were no experts among the Xuan Grade at all.
The World of Saints was unquestionably the most convenient place to test out the Windflame Wheels since he could refine the Atomic Burst there. In terms of body training techniques, he was undoubtedly in the top tier but when it came to Ability X, he fell behind the others in Elite Academy. This was going to be an obvious flaw for Wang Zheng.
Facing an ordinary opponent would naturally not be an issue. However, if it was Olivios or an even stronger or more well-rounded opponent instead, things would go bad the moment the opponent took advantage of an opening. Control of a battle’s rhythm and momentum were key objectives to fight over in expert battles. At the very least, one would have to hold fast to one’s own rhythm.
The drawback of being unable to finely control an Ability X would have to be made up for by the sheer explosive power of the Ability X itself. This was all Wang Zheng could come up with at the moment.
After some practice, the Windflame Wheels seemed slightly easier to control in the World of Saints. However, Wang Zheng frequently felt that he was missing out on the experience of actual combat, so he felt that it would better to head to the training grounds to test it out. Wang Zheng was the type to adore actual combat after all.
Wang Zheng certainly did not dare to have anymore ‘moments of inspiration’ in his dormitory. Another explosion would certainly lead to him being expelled by the school.
There was an Ability X training ground opened by Elite Academy, where one could practise their Ability X in various ways. Wang Zheng usually rarely used the facility but now he had no choice but to practise there.
After finding his own cauldron, Wang Zheng took to the skies. The starry skies of Inner Roland were brighter and more beautiful than that of Earth, perhaps in part due to the fact that it was all artificial. Despite that, at least there was no need to feel your way around in pitch darkness.
Elite Academy was especially beautiful at night. Just the one Bowl flying past was enough to startle the many pairs of wild mandarin ducks.
The Ability X training ground had a considerably pretty design. An eye-catching emblem of a burning blade crossed with an icy sword adorned the roof of the building. The entire training ground was brightly lit; clearly there were many others who had the same idea as him.
The mecha competition between the Xuan and Huang Grade this time round invigorated the fighting spirit of everyone. In the entirety of X Elite Academy’s history there had only been a handful of similar competitions organized. Even then they were mostly held in the form of tests, whereas the competition format this time was rarely used.
However, this was a little unfair to the students that possessed support type Ability Xs. Their combat ability clearly could not match that of their counterparts with battle type Ability Xs. While support type students did stand a chance to obtain the runic mecha, a normal squad of twenty members required at most only two members to fill support roles, leading to the competition for these roles to be far more stressful. On the other hand, at least there were less support type students than the numerous battle type students.
Ability X training mostly consisted of increasing one’s power and obtaining better control but practising one’s control was usually the main focus.
With a single sweep of his Skylink, Wang Zheng entered the training grounds and picked a practice field with less people.
The drill required him to use his Ability X to control a small practice ball’s rolling trajectory. This practice ball was specially made and was able to acutely detect mental energy. However, it was extremely sensitive, so exceeding keen senses were required to adjust it well.
It seemed rather simple. Wang Zheng always thought that his control of mental energy was rather decent, but when he tried to put it into practice…
It was a total mess.
Wang Zheng could not even bear to check the results. His rolling of the ball had totally not met the standards at all.
Since Ability X was supposed to be a manifestation of some underlying transformation of mental energy, not being able to perfectly control the ball was to be expected. However, Wang Zheng felt that his mental energy had to be of a certain standard, or else he would not have been able to use Phantom King so well. Failing so badly was completely absurd to him.
Alas, merely theorizing about something was entirely different from putting it into practice. Wang Zheng was earnest in his efforts with manipulating the ball, but the ball had ignored him entirely!
At the Xuan Grade Faculty, Ling Luoyu was going through the Huang Grade student applications with Mo Lin.
The challenge this time was undeniably hard to come by for the Xuan Grade students but surprisingly the Huang Grade students longed for such an opportunity as well.
“An unexpectedly large number of people signed up.” Ling Luoyu did not know whether to laugh or cry.
“What are you saying, are you suggesting that we shouldn’t be able to give it a try?” Mo Ling laughed. The two of them belonged to the student union, and the school had entrusted the handling of the matter to the student union.
“Has he signed up?” Lin Luo Yu suddenly asked.
“Who do you mean?” Mo Ling teased. Only upon seeing Lin Luo Yu’s glare did Mo Lin laugh in reply, “Wang Zheng will definitely sign up. Based on what I know, everyone from the Solar System signed up.”
“Eh, the Solar System lacks both foundation and numbers at Elite Academy, but they don’t seem to be lacking in ambition.” Ling Luoyu replied.
“It’s the Solar System after all. Being the origin of mankind, I’m sure their aspirations aren’t small. Nevertheless, don’t you feel that the few from the Solar System this time seem pretty decent?” Mo Ling commented, “Still, I understand why they aren’t united at all. While Wang Zheng and Zhang Shan stayed behind to take care of things at Azure Dragon Region, the others all went on their own way. There’s also an even more specific reason. It goes without saying that the Solar System has less people, so they hoped to try different styles individually in order to enable the Solar System to quickly catch up with the rest of the Milky Way Alliance.
“Pretty self-important of them. Even an onlooker could tell that this group of people is bursting with overconfidence. Each of them actually believe that they are good enough to take charge of matters on their own.”
Honestly speaking Ling Luoyu looked down on the Solar System. From the beginning of their decline, the Solar System continually proclaimed that they were going to rise up and recover their position of authority within the Milky Way Alliance but even after so long these words still seemed like nonsense. Such a small matter would usually be not worth any attention at all, but at their last gathering her old grandpa brought it up with her again, as though missing the opportunity this time would be her own loss.
To put it in simple terms, Wang Zheng’s personality was extremely average and did not fit her type at all. No matter how strong he was, he was simply not her ideal type.
