“And so the ceremony shall begin!” Alston roared as he took over the podium. Seeing that Ottogackt was wearing a painful expression, nothing could have made him happier then.
Jiang Fei was a special existence. As such, Alston would never do anything to wrong him, not directly anyway. During the roll call, Alston had purposefully glanced at Ottogackt, and since Jiang Fei was not present to acknowledge his name, Alston made haste to finish up the roll call and officially ended the opening ceremony. He had even made sure to go through with Commander Alexis about whether or not he should wait for Jiang Fei to arrive.
With the green light granted by Commander Alexis himself, Alston had every right and, in a less civilized manner, courage to deny Jiang Fei his entry to the trials. Alas, even with the Ottogackt to back him up, Jiang Fei was disqualified. This act of getting back at Ottogackt was so satisfying. For everything Ottogackt had done in the past, this moment was worth it all. An act of humiliation was all it took.
Commander Alexis was not happy with this event. A graduate absentee was unheard of. Unfortunately, he had long forgotten the name Jiang Fei despite him being the one who had personally sent Jiang Fei to the academy. It was only natural since he was a man of missions. Unless Jiang Fei held power similar to his, Alexis would find it extremely hard to remember a new trainee.
When Jiang Fei’s name was called out during the roll call, Commander Alexis had no idea it was the same young Terran that he had brought to Redstone. He did, however, remember him as the new trainee that had only just enrolled. It would be impossible for him to associate Jiang Fei with the graduates that were going to participate in the trials.
“Please wait!” Jiang Fei cried as he rushed forward to the bottom of the stage.
“Insolent! Be gone!” Alston roared back.
“I’m sorry, ceremonial master! Please allow me to join the trials! I had spent too much time in the training room and had miscalculated the time. If it pleases the court, pray, allow me to join the ceremony!” said Jiang Fei as humbly as he could while he kowtowed as low as he could. He was late and had no right to argue his disqualification.
“Rules are rules. A planet would never stop orbiting the sun just for a man! Guards, take him away!” Alston barked. The punishment was supposed to be far heavier than just exclusion from the ceremony but since he was a special guest, hosted by Ottogackt and Commander Alexis himself, Alston only gave him the lightest punishment.
“Wait,” Commander Alexis hummed ever so slightly, instantly sending a wave of silence through the entire grounds.
When Jiang Fei ran across the field toward the bottom of the stage, Commander Alexis immediately noticed and recognized who he was. He knew Jiang Fei was the same Terran, the one with the unlimited potential albeit he had completely forgotten his name. It was odd for someone like him to join the graduating class as he had only just enrolled in the academy.
“Stand down,” Alexis said and all the guards that were restraining Jiang Fei immediately released him.
Alston was taken aback. Why would someone like Commander Alexis be tending to the Terran when he was the one that granted Alston the permission to disqualify him?
“My, my… Look at you. I thought I recognized the voice! How have you been? Why are you late?” said Alexis, smiling from ear to ear, as if he were meeting an old friend.
“I’m truly sorry, sir. I was too focused on training and had missed the opening ceremony,” said Jiang Fei after a salute. Even though he had technically gained enough strength to surpass even Alexis, it was only natural for him to salute the man who gave him a chance to save Earth.
“Training? Ahh, all is forgiven. By the way, how did you get into the graduating class? I was sure you were just a new trainee,” Alexis said. His attitude and manner was that of a friendly comrade, like talking to an equal.
At this point, all eyes were locked on the two of them. No one could believe what they saw. Alston, unlike anyone else, was panicking like an ant on a hot plate. No one on Redstone had ever seen Commander Alexis smile like that before! Seeing as how Commander Alexis was treating Jiang Fei like his own son, Alston regretted how he had treated him. Had he known just how “strong” his background was, he would have just faked Jiang Fei’s presence in the ceremony and be in Commander Alexis’ ever loving grace. Now, not only had he failed to embarrass Ottogackt, he might have just plucked a nerve with Commander Alexis!
“Sir, it was trainer Ottogackt who accepted me as his student. He had so graciously arranged for me to be trained with the other graduating students,” said Jiang Fei.
“Oh?” Commander Alexis hummed as he stepped closer to Jiang Fei.
“Did you use your ability in front of him?”
“Ehhehe… A little bit,” Jiang Fei awkwardly replied. To be fair, he wasn’t lying. He did limit the power he could gain from Omnisurge.
“As expected of the infamous crazy trainer!” Commander Alexis turned to Ottogackt and praised him loudly.
“One is not worthy of your praises for one is only doing what one was told,” said Ottogackt. Even though he was arrogant, mean, and obnoxious in front of everybody else, he was exceptionally humble when it came to Commander Alexis. To be fair, Ottogackt had nothing but respect for him.
“F*ck! That should have been me!” said Moglain from the far end of the front row. He regretted treating Jiang Fei bad and regretted even more for letting Ottogackt take his student from him!
“Off you go. Join the rest for the ceremonial trials!” said Commander Alexis as he slapped Jiang Fei on the back and pushed him toward the other graduating trainees. He of all people knew about Jiang Fei’s strength. Allowing him to join the ceremony was only for show.
“Alston, arrange a spot for him,” said Commander Alexis before returning to his seat.
“Aye, commander!” Alston agreed without hesitation.
When Jiang Fei and all other graduating trainees were in formation, Alston took the stage and started explaining the task at hand.
“This is the first task for all graduating trainees. A mock mission will be assigned to all of you. Those that come in the last ten places will be eliminated from the actual trial!” Alston explained.
Elimination rounds were only expected in any kind of trial. If one could not survive the first elimination round, they would never survive in the next trials. Being eliminated from the first round would only place them in the lowest of soldier rankings. Gaining ranks from there on would be hard unless they could rake up achievements like Jiang Fei did with Domingo.
“Once you’re ready, proceed to the chamber of trials!” said Alston.
“Sir, yes, sir!” cried all the trainees including Jiang Fei.
The chamber of trials was just a fancy name given to a similar room that Jiang Fei had been training in.
“Commence the mission!” Alston roared and the operators started the chronal acceleration and gravity manipulator. The speed of time inside the room was sped up by 30 while the gravity was set to 10 times of Redstone’s. There, Jiang Fei and all the other trainees were not undergoing training but a real, life-or-death mission.
There were a total of nine classes, and around 20 per class. In total, there were over 190 trainees, including Jiang Fei.
The setting of the training ground was set to be a desert. Trying with all his might, Jiang Fei could not even sense the edge of the entire map. As such, it should be larger than thousands of kilometers square.
“Ladies and gentlemen, listen close. I am going to explain your first mission!”
Alston’s voice rang from the sky.
