EDMLSFM Chapter 39: Delightedly

Translated by JayQue of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Kris

 

“Hey.” Chen Bai and Mundi had both gone in, and Faye went to greet a friend. Waldo and Carlyle were left standing in their spots; the latter checking his equipment and the former crouching to the side, even helping him tidy up some things. The live broadcast had already started, but the audio wasn’t being recorded yet. After some thanks, Waldo glanced at Carlyle and asked, “What do you think? About that Chen YiBai in our group.”

Because there were strict rules about what each member could bring in, as a technician, Carlyle had to make sure the things he brought were simple but effective.

Therefore, he only glanced down at Waldo for a second from his work, “Teacher Chen? He’s a good person.”

“Really.” Waldo flattened his lips, “I think he’s pretty unnecessary. Mundi and Faye are very good fighters, and I’ve heard of your accomplishments in computing. I’m doing the scouting work, so we don’t even need him in our group. What is his use? Logistics?”

And because of all the attention on Chen YiBai in the media and discussions from before, it was highly likely that all of their movements later would be focused on. Being paid too much attention wasn’t great!

Waldo thought, probably anything would be scrutinized and talked about. It really made him uneasy.

And it also seemed like every other group had five members whereas they only had four. It really sucked.

“…Teacher Chen also has S-rank mental energy.” Carlyle really wasn’t good at arguing with others, but he had already hung out with Chen YiBai for a while, so Chen YiBai was a friend in his eyes.

Therefore, after struggling for a bit, Carlyle still tried to speak up for Chen YiBai.

“What use is that? Ay, your time as a teacher was too short, Carlyle,” Waldo said as he shook his head. He wasn’t from the military but climbed up into Aldia using his own abilities, so he understood much more about the teacher’s examinations than Carlyle, “There aren’t any popular tertiary education institutes in Beta Region, so even if someone’s mental energy is strong, they might not know how to use it. Mental manipulation requires talent followed by effort. Some S-ranked mental energy users may not even be as good as a capable and vigorous B rank. You can’t just look at it perfunctorily.”

But many students in his class said that he was amazing. Isn’t having students look up to you the most important thing as a teacher?

Carlyle pushed up his glasses, wanting to refute. Faye then called from the front for them to hurry up, so Carlyle thought for a bit and didn’t bother.

“It must be hard carrying a team with three pieces of trash, Faye.” At the entrance, Fen Duo from Professor Vanda’s group smiled at Faye.

“It can’t compare to members with opinions like you.” Faye said as she batted her eyes, then turned her head, “Quick, little fellows! You’ll be disqualified if you don’t come now!”

Seeing Carlyle suddenly running in nervous panic from behind her, Faye curled her lips.

.

“Welcome to Aldia’s 34th Teacher’s Competition!”

On the light web, the show host’s excited voice was heard by every person watching the live broadcast. They all listened as she passionately introduced every group, and the comments on the video became heated.

[Ahhh, I can watch Professor Vanda again! Approaching seventy years old but no less charismatic than before. I can’t stop even if I wanted to! He’s super super handsome when he’s analyzing things!]

[Sob sob I’m Teacher Mundi’s fan, ahhh! Why is he in the same group as Chen YiBai… so unlucky ahhhhhh! Don’t drag our teacher down, Chen!]

[Teacher Fen Duo is in the same group as Professor Vanda! The strong allied with the strong; they probably have a shot at first place this year!]

[Even if there are many people speaking up for Chen YiBai, isn’t this guy too inflated? He dares participate in the most difficult Teacher’s Competition head on! What’s this called, newborn calves are not afraid of tigers?]

[Ahhhhh cheering on all teachers ahhhhh~ QAQ Hopefully no one gets hurt. Someone was hurt previously, and it was so frightening, sob sob.]

After the host’s introduction was finished, the image switched to show all the teachers, each of them getting a large close up on camera. Heinz sat at his office desk and screenshotted Chen Bai’s close up, looking at it delightedly before blowing a kiss at it.

This year’s Teacher’s Competition was held on a small military planet. A travel bag had been given to every teacher for some of their own belongings, though all must be checked.

Then, these fifty teachers were divided into groups to survive on the small planet for 10 days. In previous competitions, they had different missions daily. But this year was different.

This year, Aldia cooperated with the military. The military had sent out a few special troops to set up traps, raids, surprise attacks and such on the small planet. They had only one mission, which was to survive for 10 days without being eliminated then arrive at the location Aldia announced.

“These compressed biscuits can only last three days at most. Use it sparingly.” After throwing some mechanical related devices at Carlyle, as the leader, Mundi checked the other travel bags.

“So we need to hunt.” Faye said and whistled.

Mundi gave a noncommittal expression. Not waiting for him to continue, Professor Vanda moved past them from the side using a wheelchair, “The competition has started, Mundi. I’ll say it sincerely again, you’re welcome to come to my team anytime. Of course, the same goes to you, Faye.”

He said as his eyes glanced over both of their wrists. Fen Duo coldly hummed with disdain from behind.

Vanda’s glance towards their wrists had a deep meaning. After that, he pushed his wheelchair and swaggered off.

In the competition, everyone has three light screens on their wrists with an inserted chip. With this chip, they can choose to be eliminated if they cannot hold on any longer, and some people from the military department would come to help. At the same time, it also represents them being tied to their own group.

With the other group leader’s agreement, as well as in a situation where one gives up in the competition, there exists the possibility of switching groups. Hypothetically, if a group is left with only one or two members and couldn’t hold on until the end, they could definitely borrow people from another group.

But this doesn’t only happen when both parties are willing. If a person’s wristband was taken, especially by another group’s leader, then this person will be forced to switch groups.

Because of the audience’s gaze upon them, they rarely did this in the past. But now, the spectators have their own opinions about the groupings, such as Mundi’s group. If Vanda could take away Mundi and Faye, no one would think that Vanda was in the wrong. And even if some did, there would only be a few people who thought so.

“We’ll be assigned to ten different directions, then start moving?” Chen Bai pointed at the map on the light screen. Between all of them, only Carlyle had five light screens as he was the technician, and everyone else had three.

“Mn.” Mundi brought all of them into the mech.

“Ahhh! Are we jumping down from here later!?” After getting on, Carlyle paled as though he had just woken up from a nightmare. After Mundi gave him a look that said ‘of course,’ he immediately blushed, “This-this is my first time participating… So I didn’t know…”

“This is nothing. It’s much easier than the following challenges. You’re too weak.” Waldo was already feeling unhappy with Carlyle standing on Chen YiBai’s side during the talk in the morning, so he took the chance to reply icily in an instant.

“No problem,” Faye leaned against the windows, supporting her chin, “I can bring you with me when jumping down.”

Carlyle felt quite embarrassed after being admonished by Waldo and couldn’t help but lower his head even more, “I-I can do it myself…”

Mundi glanced at him, not continuing the topic, but put a light screen horizontally between the group, “We’ll be landing at this spot.”

A light dot appeared on the location his finger pointed to. After Mundi made a mark, he continued, “Here, all the satellites and such won’t work. Ours is like a static map. I’ve been here for drills before, right here.”

Mundi said as he made another mark roughly ten or so kilometers away from their landing spot, “Here’s a water reservoir. If we want to survive for 10 days, a water source is essential. So, after we’ve arrived, we must go over and check it out.”

“But…” Waldo furrowed his brow after hearing that, “This planet isn’t that big. If we go in to check hastily, won’t we meet the other groups?”

No matter what, Waldo was a very experienced teacher, so he was clear about a lot of things in Aldia. That was why he knew how valuable an explosive controller like Mundi was. Didn’t Professor Vanda’s personal invite prove his strength?

If they couldn’t defend themselves and even performed badly, would Mundi just give up on them and run towards Vanda? By then, Faye might leave too, and no one would care about their group anymore!

So, Waldo instinctively objected to meeting the other groups too early.

“On such a large planet, there won’t be just one water reservoir,” Not waiting for Mundi to speak, Chen Bai rubbed his chin, “And this is a location for the military to practice drills, so there should also be natural water sources. If we meet the other groups and fight hand-to-hand successfully, we might be able to gain more information, so it’s not a bad thing. The more worrying matter would be this water reservoir.”

Waldo felt very annoyed with Chen YiBai’s words. He believed that in this group, only Mundi and Faye were worthy enough to refute his words. What was this? He has never participated in a Teacher’s Competition once before, so why should they even consider his suggestion?

Thus, he replied with a very angry tone, “Water reservoirs are water reservoirs. Why? Are you afraid that it’ll be poisoned by the military? You think everyone is that evil hearted?”

This scene not only annoyed Waldo, but everyone who saw the live broadcast also immediately began bombarding the comments.

[The battles between groups in the past were so violent; newbies really don’t know anything. He even rebuked Teacher Waldo, where did he get that confidence!]

[Feels annoyed just looking at his face. I wanna beg the organizers to not show him on screen and pollute our eyes, but my Mundi is also in that group, ah! Sob sob, so conflicted!]

[Ay, just eliminate Chen YiBai. Even if his reputation became better, isn’t he asking a mile after gaining an inch now? Letting Teacher Mundi find a better group member from somewhere would be much better than having him.]

Yet, not waiting for the intense discussion to be finished, on screen, Chen YiBai gave a baffled look to Waldo. He didn’t conceal any of his emotions, then replied as though hearing a great joke, “You think the people from the military would be less familiar with this planet than us?”

“Nonsense, of course not.” Waldo met Chen YiBai’s gaze, then felt as if his self-esteem was being attacked intensely so spoke angrily almost without thinking.

“If you knew of a water reservoir being there, why wouldn’t the military set up an ambush?” Chen YiBai furrowed his brow, “It’s not labeled on the map, so not every group may know. But those from the military must have a detailed map of this planet. Not speaking generally, the military probably also has tracking devices on all of us, so narrowing an attack would be as simple as lifting a finger.”

Chen Bai had never thought of confronting Waldo this early on, since he knew all of his actions would be watched by people. But with Waldo’s attitude, Chen Bai would have dissed him sooner or later. Not to mention, he had heard the conversation between Carlyle and Waldo, and, since Carlyle had spoken up for him, he didn’t feel like keeping it in anymore.

This subconscious vigilance was something every new recruit in Berkeley knows, and he wasn’t a gentle instructor by any means.

Waldo’s face flushed. In the previous evaluations, they had different missions every day, like collecting items. Although it was difficult, it was still different from this time’s survival mission. This time, they’ve thrown in quite a lot of spies and ambushes related to actual battles. The organizers had mentioned this before, but he had not personally experienced it, so he had not thought about it or even had this sort of subconscious thought.

Just as Waldo wanted to refute, Mundi opened his mouth, “Teacher Chen is right; this year’s Teacher’s Competition is different from the previous ones. It’s better to see it as a covert military competition, so this is not just a simple competition anymore. When it officially starts, it’s a battle between people.”

“Anything could happen.”