Despite being frightened out of her wits, her expression remained extremely calm. She pretended not to hear the sinister words of Yue Qiguang, put on isolation equipment that blocked all sound and malevolent scrutiny, and in an instant, the world became quiet.
Ji You felt a bit more at ease.
This time, no student messed up. In less than 5 minutes, all freshmen successfully boarded the spaceship and then the spaceship took off, heading towards the southern hemisphere of Lanyue Star—the exercise location was not within the school, but in a mountain forest.
This mountain forest belonged to Lanyue Star Military School, always used for students’ exercises, including every blade of grass, each piece of soil, and even the oxygen content in the air was meticulously designed by the school.
This implies—there could be countless traps hidden inside.
Upon reaching the destination, Principal Hong, without any preamble, directly announced: "Everyone, attention, prepare to land. Here, I must emphasize again: out of 5000 people here, only 500 can survive, but—I am giving you only 3 days! Once the 3-day limit is up, the death toll must be at least 4500, even one more is not acceptable. If the target is not met, everyone will lose 100 points!"
Principal Hong said: "During this period, killing one person rewards 1 point, obtaining important tools rewards 10 points, and tools can be taken by force. Other rules have been sent to your temporary receivers, open them yourselves."
This left all the freshmen looking gloomy.
Principal Hong glanced around, very satisfied, then suddenly turned serious and said: "Up till now, humanity has developed technology from entering space, pioneering territories in 6 star systems, to freely moving about in the universe. We have spaceships, airships, mechas, Light Computers, starships... our technology and skills have progressively grown stronger, and we have become more accustomed to, adapted to, and dependent on this technological power. But—the first lesson that the school and teachers want to teach you today is: never underestimate the strength of our inherent abilities!"
Listening on, the young students’ faces changed from dejection to focused attention...
Principal Hong continued: "Humanity developed from nothing to what we are today, relying always on our own strength and intelligence. Imagine if one day, you find yourself in a dire situation, your spaceship damaged, mecha broken, energy depleted... all external aids you can rely on fail, and yet your enemies are still menacingly lurking nearby, what then?"
He posed the question but did not wait for an answer, instead, he said: "Fools, of course, have no recourse; they can only clean their necks and let others slaughter them. In my view, there are quite a few of such fools among you."
Principal Hong—Wasn’t that comment a bit too broad?
Principal Hong said: "Human science and technology have developed to this point, we believe we are already very strong, yet our lives are still unable to be perfectly calm and peaceful. We face numerous challenges, from the distress of pirates within to the outbreaks of Star Beasts externally, and some poor planets are even still experiencing famine... The reason you can stand here and study peacefully in school is merely because some people are shouldering the burdens for you."
A deathly silence at the scene, yet Principal Hong’s voice suddenly softened: "Our Lanyue Star Military Academy is one of the Top Ten Alliance Schools. For thousands of years, we have cultivated a great number of outstanding students, who have made countless contributions to the stability of the Alliance and the peace of the people... They make us all proud and proud. To everyone present, I hope that one day, you can also be one of them. Thus—take your first lesson to heart."
The spaceship landed.
The freshmen were thrown into the arranged mountain forest, some colliding with others, some alone.
Ji You, carrying a ’short-lived ghost’ badge with the number 4444, was rather lucky. After landing, she found herself isolated. She looked around cautiously, then climbed a tree to get a better view of the surroundings.
What she saw gave Ji You a heck of a scare: about 500 meters in front of her, several people were already fighting. In less than a minute, one unlucky fellow’s Life Value turned red, and before he could sound the alarm, he was eliminated.
This unlucky one lay on the soil, his face full of despair, waiting for the robot to drag his ’corpse’ away, mumbling: "Ah... I am not willing! I haven’t personally killed number 4444 Ji You! How can I die?"
Watching this scene, Ji You shuddered all over, curling up like a quail, daring not to move.
Meanwhile, in the instructor’s surveillance room.
A teacher said, "This year’s freshmen are of good quality. There are two who have reached S-level in spiritual power, Yue Qiyuan from the Mechanical Combat Department and Shen Changqing from the Mechanical Manufacturing Department. There are nine who have reached S-level in Physical Strength including Yue Qiguang, Chu Jiaojiao, Lance Yuri, Louise Carter... Additionally, there are 507 people who reached A-level spiritual power and 809 with A-level Physical Strength, and more..."
Principal Hong smiled and said, "These are good seedlings, I hope they will perform well."
A curious teacher asked, "What do you all think, how many people will be left in the end?"
Although only 500 people are allowed to remain, during the fierce competition between students, they won’t bother keeping count. If more than four hundred survive, that would already be considered good.
A teacher said, "I think, there should be more than 400 people left."
Another person said, "I think so too."
Principal Hong raised his hand and touched his chin for a while, saying: "Hmm... That’s too many, having too many survivors will make them arrogant, we should stir something up and have about 200 left."
The principal is so dark.
Indeed—deserving to be the man who perennially ranks first in the ’least popular and beloved teacher’ in our school.
The teachers stayed in the surveillance room, discussing the teaching content, when suddenly a male teacher chuckled and said, "Principal Hong, this time you really screwed over student number 4444. I heard she’s from planet number 101. Both her Physical Strength and Spiritual Power are only at E-level..."
"With so many people ganging up against her, poor Ji You has a really tragic fate."
"Her talent is so bad, even if no one targeted her, she wouldn’t last long."
"Oh my! Life’s already tough enough, and now she’s got the principal targeting her in the shadows."
Principal Hong: "Cough..."
The person in question was still there, it’s better to talk behind their back, so the teachers quickly shut up.
Principal Hong, regarding the tragic situation of Ji You that he caused, didn’t feel the slightest bit guilty, instead, he smiled and said, "Just a little cleverness without great wisdom won’t last long; she should learn a lesson."
Having nothing better to do, Principal Hong said, "How about this, let’s place bets on how long she will survive?"
The teachers, hearing this, immediately showed interest, saying:
"10 minutes. Given her short-lived ghost appearance, lasting 10 minutes is already good."
"Half an hour, no more."
"I bet 2 hours, in case her luck is good and she gets isolated? Maybe she could survive a few more minutes."
"4 hours, she is sure to die."
"Why are you all guessing such short times? Give the kid some confidence... I boldly declare she can last 4 hours, 4 minutes, and 4 seconds."
As the principal and teachers had predicted that Ji You would immediately die, she nested up in a tree for a while, just as the fight opposite was about to cease, she suddenly jumped down.