Chapter 14: Anger
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: PlumSauce
The three roommates shot hostile looks at Huai Boshe. Huai Boshe had never liked those three, and he ignored them entirely.
Yun Yingzhi felt shocked. How could Huai Boshe say something like that? He pulled down his face into a petulant pout and kept eating, doing his best to ignore him. Was a scumbag more important than a meal?
Huai Boshe added, “Yingzhi, don’t stay angry. I’ll be gone at the end of the month. I might be away for several months. Do you really want to keep this up?” His tone suggested ”don’t make a fuss.”
In his head Yun Yingzhi swore three curses—Trash! Jerk! Get out! He thought about Huai Boshe leaving at month’s end and wondered how long he would be gone. Midterms were at the end of December; there might be assignments in early January. If he were lucky, he’d get group assignments. If not… Solo assignments.
Classes resumed in early March. By the next semester, Huai Boshe and the others should have finished their missions and returned. After leaving for several months, it was reasonable to expect Huai Boshe’s strength to improve dramatically.
Yun Yingzhi wanted to snatch the top position of their grade away from Huai Boshe by the end of next June. It would be difficult. He felt a lot of pressure. He had to work harder. He knew Huai Boshe was very strong. After seeing him several times today, Yun Yingzhi felt driven to surpass him. He was determined to get good results at this Starshine Competition, earn a big sum of money, invest it, and then build the equipment that would let him win above his level. His strength was insufficient now; beating Huai Boshe would have to rely on gear bought on loans that had yet to exist.
The three roommates kept looking at Huai Boshe with hostile, warning stares—basically saying, “we know you’re strong, but can you handle three of us?” They didn’t take Yun Yingzhi’s fighting ability into account at all.
Huai Boshe sighed softly and said, “Yingzhi, I don’t want you to be like this before I leave. I hope you’ll calm down in the next few days and contact me.” After he said that, he left.
Yun Yingzhi’s eyelid twitched. He still couldn’t believe Huai Boshe’s nerve. After everything that had happened, how could he not be angry?
His roommate Ji Xiaobo asked curiously, “Yingzhi, what happened between you and Huai Boshe?”
Another roommate chimed in, “If you got mad, it must be Huai Boshe’s fault.”
Yun Yingzhi shook his head. He did not want to keep discussing an unpleasant topic. After a beat he said seriously, “Huai Boshe is a jerk.”
The three roommates glanced at one another and launched into a round of trash-talking Huai Boshe. The four of them felt instantly refreshed after venting. Because of Yun Yingzhi, the three roommates disliked Huai Boshe. Huai Boshe also disliked them. Thus, their relationship grew increasingly awkward.
After lunch, Yun Yingzhi split from his three roommates and went to the library. In the interstellar age, people had grown used to e-books, but physical books still existed and were expensive. Fansa Academy had a large library that housed many precious volumes.
Many students sat studying in silence. A portion of students were there for the same reason as Yun Yingzhi—to hunt for rare books. A larger portion of students came for the tranquil atmosphere.
Yun Yingzhi searched the stacks for books on source-weapon crafting and began studying. As a direct disciple personally taught by Alvin, he had seen many rare notes no one else could access. However, he still found parts of these books difficult to understand. He documented and organized the passages he couldn’t grasp and planned to send them to Alvin who would answer each question when he saw it.
Two hours slipped by.
Yun Yingzhi returned the books, opened his personal terminal, and began designing source weapons. The preliminary round required contestants to produce a finished source weapon at Level 4 or higher. Finished Level 4 source weapons cost between 100,000 and 300,000 credits. Some items carried special pricing: those made by masters or famous makers could command unlimited premiums.
Considering costs, Yun Yingzhi had less than 10,000 credits in savings. Earning money was one thing; keeping manufacturing costs down was another. He would aim to make the cheapest qualifying weapon—a Level 4 source weapon. To make his weapon stand out among the Level 4 entries, he would have to craft a high-quality Level 4 piece.
The Starshine Competition kept themes across rounds—broad themes include defense, offense, support, and sometimes a combination of all three themes. Smaller subthemes broke down into single-target, area effects, and so on. To meet the varied requirements, Yun Yingzhi planned to design several weapons. One goal was to control costs; another was to improve the weapon’s performance across the board.
In fact, most contestants did similar prep before the contest.
Yun Yingzhi’s fingers traced lines on his terminal as he jotted notes on the side. Anyone experienced in source-weapon crafting would notice that all the materials he selected were inexpensive but harder to control. That choice indirectly raised the difficulty of manufacture.
Yun Yingzhi understood this better than anyone—that was the sorrow of being poor.
Before he knew it, a few more hours had passed. His three roommates pinged him, asking him to come eat dinner together. When the four of them met in the cafeteria, Yun Yingzhi noticed that two of his roommates were sporting injuries—one had a black eye, and the other had a swollen cheek where someone had punched him hard.
Just looking at them made him wince in sympathy.
Yun Yingzhi looked at them with concern. “What happened to you two?”
It turned out that it wasn’t anything too serious.
The annual Ranking Battle slots for Fansa Academy’s Ten Great Military Academies had just been announced. The selected students were ecstatic, while the ones who didn’t make the cut were furious. Some celebrated; others turned that anger into motivation and hit the training center.
Ji Xiaobo and Jing Haomiao had run into a few of the more “motivated” ones—students too emotional to control their strength—and ended up getting pummeled. Although they were from the lowest-ranked class, Yun Yingzhi, being practically useless in combat, rarely went to the training center outside class hours. His roommates, on the other hand, loved fighting and often went there for matches.
They were definitely not slackers.
Yu Feiwen comforted them. “It’s fine. There’s a social in a few days. The bruises on your face should be mostly gone by then.”
At that, the two injured roommates looked even gloomier—they were afraid the bruises wouldn’t be gone by then.
Pouting miserably, Jing Haomiao said, “Sigh, even though we’re from the last class, we still got into Fansa Academy on merit. That means our talent’s already pretty good.” He touched his swollen cheek and hissed.
Ji Xiaobo did the same, gently pressing his black eye and hissing too. “Even at Yaoming Battle Arena, our strength’s decent. The only ones who could beat us like this are military academy students.”
Yaoming Battle Arena was funded by the Yaoming Group in collaboration with the royal family. It had branches all across the Loos Empire, split between real-world and virtual-world sections. Now that virtual-world tech had reached 99% realism, it was incredibly advanced—but still, esper fighters preferred real combat. These two roommates were clearly trying to save face.
Yu Feiwen nodded in agreement. “Yeah.”
Just as Yun Yingzhi was about to agree with them, another student who had overheard their conversation walked by with his tray and said, “Well, Yaoming Battle Arena doesn’t have many restrictions. You get all kinds of people there—some really strong, some really weak. Since we military cadets don’t go often, most of the opponents we run into are pushovers.”
Their attempt at saving face failed completely. The atmosphere became awkward. The student smiled at Yun Yingzhi, then cheerfully walked away, leaving the four of them staring at each other. The silence was thick with embarrassment.
Jing Haomiao cleared his throat and stiffly changed the subject. Sensing the shift, Yun Yingzhi wisely followed along, steering the conversation elsewhere. Eventually, their talk circled back to Yaoming Battle Arena.
Jing Haomiao said, “Still, as military cadets, it’s true that even the average student among us can do pretty well there.”
That was the pride of being a cadet.
Yu Feiwen smiled. “You know, my younger brother goes to Yaoming Battle Arena whenever his allowance runs short. A few fights and he’s got pocket money again.”
Yun Yingzhi’s eyes lit up. He was short on money right now—so short he couldn’t even afford the materials for his Level 4 source weapon. According to his roommates, Yaoming Battle Arena had low entry requirements—and you could make money.
He turned to Yu Feiwen. “Feiwen, I remember your little brother’s only eleven this year, right?”
Yu Feiwen nodded. “Yeah. Why?”
He thought for a second, then added, “Why are you asking all of a sudden?”
Yun Yingzhi asked, “He goes to Yaoming Battle Arena… to make money?”
Yu Feiwen nodded. “Yeah. A few years ago, I went there just for fun, and that little guy insisted on tagging along. After he tried it once, he got hooked.”
“A few years ago?” Yun Yingzhi thought, The kid was only eleven now—so that meant he was even younger then.
Yu Feiwen replied, “Yeah, maybe four or five years ago? The kid’s pretty talented—he’s got a real knack for combat.”
Yun Yingzhi blinked, his big black eyes turning toward his three roommates. With a serious expression, he asked, “Do you guys think… I could do it?”
For a moment, the three roommates didn’t quite understand what he meant.
Yun Yingzhi continued, “I mean, if it were me—what kind of results do you think I could get at Yaoming Battle Arena?”
Most of the time, Yun Yingzhi, who studied at the Empire’s First Military Academy, was painfully aware of his own lack of combat ability. But… No matter how much self-awareness he had, after hearing his roommates say that even an average cadet could do pretty well at the Arena—and that an eleven-year-old kid could earn money there—he suddenly started to feel confident.
If a little kid could do it, surely he could too. Having entered Fansa Academy through connections, Yun Yingzhi subconsciously lumped himself in with “average” military cadets.
Following his words, the looks his three roommates gave him suddenly became… complicated. To be honest, even though they were in the lowest-ranked class, in their entire second year, there were fewer than three students who’d gotten into Fansa Academy without any natural talent—and Yun Yingzhi was one of them. He was also widely recognized as the weakest student in the entire combat division.
After all, even the weakest second forms among their classmates were tigers, leopards, bears, lions, and wolves. No one else had a form as harmless as a little white rabbit that was even weaker than a kitten. Plus, as Yun Yingzhi’s classmates, they knew better than anyone how he’d managed to get promoted to the second year last term. He’d relied on stronger teammates for the group exam and only passed his solo combat test because everyone else went easy on him.
So, the idea of Yun Yingzhi getting good results at Yaoming Battle Arena was, frankly, a pipe dream. To be fair, Yun Yingzhi was one of the rare, special cases at Fansa Academy.
Sensing the heavy meaning behind their looks, Yun Yingzhi’s eyelids twitched. “Why are you all looking at me like that?”
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