Chapter 401: Honest Confrontation!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
In a blur, three more days passed. In another three days, it would come time for the battle between the Lingtian Mecha Clan and the Leiting Mecha Clan.
Everyone thought that Lingtian would definitely seize the time left to practise their mecha clan's teamwork, but found instead that all the regiment commanders and team leaders of the Lingtian Mecha Clan, including Ling Lan, acted just as before, attending classes like normal. It was as if they were not at all worried about the coming grand battle that would determine whether their mecha clan lived or died.
This behaviour of the Lingtian Mecha Clan puzzled all the other major factions greatly. Even Qiao Ting was unable to figure out what the Lingtian Mecha Clan was plotting with this.
Frankly, Ling Lan had not assembled all the members participating in the battle for team training because she really did not want their participant name list to be exposed prematurely to the Leiting Mecha Clan. However, she did not waste these three days. Whenever Ling Lan was free, she would work with Little Four in her mindspace to simulate the battle between the Lingtian Mecha Clan and the Leiting Mecha Clan.
After three days of repeated simulation, basically all of the formations Qiao Ting could use as well as all the possible flukes and coincidences that could occur on the various members involved had been recorded down. If any of these situations appeared in battle, Ling Lan would have a countermeasure at hand.
Of course, Ling Lan did not believe that her battle team would be any weaker than the team Qiao Ting was sending. However, in order to guarantee victory, she still made sure she was fully prepared. Ling Lan knew very well that, in a fight, there were just too many factors that could change the course of the battle. Ling Lan did not want to lose this match because she had overlooked any of these factors. Since the members of the Lingtian Mecha Clan had chosen to put their faith in her, then she must lead the Lingtian Mecha Clan to the summit — only then would she live up to this heavy burden of trust.
On this day, Ling Lan still went to school on time. She had long made the decision that she would only gather the participating members on the last day before the battle and hold their one and only teamwork practice then. Ling Lan was so bold because she believed that these people she had chosen were all talented prodigies in mecha control — just one practice would be enough.
The morning's theory classes were soon over. Following the end of class, lunch time arrived. When the bell signalling the end of class rang, the students respectfully bid farewell to their instructor and then some of the starving students rushed out ahead of the pack ...
"Boss Lan, class is over." Seated beside Ling Lan, Luo Lang shifted closer to whisper softly to Ling Lan, even as his hands deftly helped her pack up her things.
Hearing Luo Lang's words, Ling Lan opened her half-closed eyes. During the lesson, she and Little Four had been conducting another round of simulation.
Right at that moment, a youthful and tall youth suddenly appeared at the doorway. He merely peeked through the doorway, and when he saw Ling Lan, his eyes lit up. He quickly knocked on the door, announcing his presence, drawing the attention of the students who had yet to leave the classroom.
"Ah, isn't that that unlucky Chang Xinyuan?" The students could not help but whisper to one another at the sight. The news of Leiting's oppression of Chang Xinyuan had long since spread throughout the whole military academy — many of the new students greatly admired Chang Xinyuan's courage, but of course there were also many who felt that Chang Xinyuan was foolish for not knowing his own strength, actually daring to defy Qiao Ting. He had almost been expelled from the academy for it.
Still, it could not be denied that Chang Xinyuan was extremely lucky. At that critical final juncture, he had actually chanced upon a mecha expert who was willing to help him escape from the miscellaneous obstacles set up by the Leiting Mecha Clan. In the end, he had fortunately managed to extend his military academy life.
However, a majority of the cadets were still not optimistic about Chang Xinyuan's future. Even if Qiao Ting left the academy today, as long as Leiting was still the number one faction in the academy and as long as Qiao Ting did not retract his decision to hinder Chang Xinyuan, Chang Xinyuan's subsequent academy life would still be rocky. His final outcome might still very well be expulsion from the school. No one believed that Chang Xinyuan would still be so lucky to meet some powerful mecha clan again next time which would help him complete those harder team missions in Mecha World ...
For such a controversial person to suddenly appear before them, the second-year Mecha Piloting Special Class students naturally could not help but talk.
"Boss Lan, are you free right now?" Chang Xinyuan did not seem to hear the susurration of voices in the classroom. His complexion remained steady as he shouted out towards Ling Lan.
Ling Lan glanced at Luo Lang beside her and found that he had finished packing up for the both of them. So, she turned to nod at Chang Xinyuan and then stood up and walked out of the classroom.
Luo Lang quickly followed, and seeing this, Qi Long and Xie Yi also tagged along without hesitation. When Ling Lan arrived at the doorway, she said to Chang Xinyuan, "Let's go!"
Chang Xinyuan turned aside to let Ling Lan's entourage walk first, and only then did he trail after Xie Yi to depart the 2nd-year Mecha Piloting Special Class classroom.
As soon as Ling Lan's group left, the entire classroom became a raucous mess. Everyone else remaining could not suppress the busybody within them, turning to ask the other members of the Lingtian Mecha Clan still in the classroom why Chang Xinyuan would seek out Ling Lan.
"Wu Jiong, why do you think Chang Xinyuan came to look for Boss Lan?" Ye Xu could not help but be puzzled by what he had seen. In his eyes, Boss Lan and that unfortunate soul 1 Chang Xinyuan could not be connected in any way, but somehow, these two people from completely different worlds obviously seemed to have some connection.
It turned out that Ling Lan had not revealed the member name list of the Lingtian Battle Clan to the other regiment commanders of the Lingtian Mecha Clan. For one, the Lingtian Mecha Clan had been converted from the New Cadet Regiment, so the members inherently held some antipathy towards the senior cadets. Ling Lan felt that before things became stable, this was better kept as a secret. Secondly, all of the battle clans within the Lingtian Mecha Clan never had to submit their detailed name lists to the mecha clan to begin with. Every clan leader only needed to report the number of members they had — they did not even have to report the members' names or mecha levels for the record. The reason for this was both to ensure the autonomy of the battle clans, as well as to prevent the other factions from getting a clear read on the true capabilities of the Lingtian Mecha Clan.
Wu Jiong said somewhat contemplatively, "Perhaps, Chang Xinyuan is trying to seek asylum." An individual had no way of standing up against a group — if Chang Xinyuan was smart, even if he was unwilling to submit to Qiao Ting, he would still need to find some solid backing to help him withstand Qiao Ting's oppression.
"It looks like Chang Xinyuan would also like to take a gamble and fight. Right now, in the entire academy, other than our Lingtian Mecha Clan who has the courage to fight against the Leiting Mecha Clan, which other faction would dare to shelter him?" From behind Wu Jiong, a mocking and haughty voice rang out.
Wu Jiong turned his head with a half-smile on his face to say to the person behind him, "Who'd have guessed that even you would understand this?"
Li Yingjie glared angrily at Wu Jiong in response. "What? You think I'm an idiot?"
Wu Jiong smiled and said nothing, but the ridicule in his eyes was obvious. This made the rage in Li Yingjie's heart build up, and he smacked a fierce palm down onto the table before him, bellowing, "Before this, I just did not want to stoop to your level!"
"I know. Before this, you believed that your strength was enough to settle everything, so you never had to worry about plotting or scheming." Seeing Li Yingjie puff up like an angry cat 2 , Wu Jiong quickly raised his arms in the universal sign of surrender and tried to console the other.
"You better know it!" Li Yingjie lifted his head haughtily — he felt from the very bottom of his heart that Wu Jiong spoke truly. If not for the fact that the First Men's Military Academy had gathered all of the aberrant prodigies under one roof, piling up the pressure on Li Yingjie, he would not have had to compromise and consider things a little more thoroughly when doing things. This kind of mentally-taxing thing was something he really disliked. He loved speaking with his fists the most, using pure brute strength to beat down those people who had anything bad to say about their Lingtian Mecha Clan.
Ye Xu looked at the prideful and prickly Li Yingjie and suddenly dipped his head, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably. Catching sight of this, Wu Jiong surreptitiously kicked Ye Xu, asking him to get a hold of himself.
With great effort, Ye Xu finally managed to suppress his laughter and raised his head to say to Wu Jiong, "Leader, I have some matter to attend to so I'll head out first. Please continue your conversation without me." In order to avoid being found out, Ye Xu decided that he should just retreat.
Wu Jiong quickly said, "Ye Xu, I have something about the battle clan to discuss with you. Li Yingjie, excuse us for now, let's talk next time."
Taken aback, Li Yingjie nodded woodenly and said, "Okay, got it."
After Wu Jiong and Ye Xu left the classroom, Li Yingjie suddenly realised something and burst out howling, "Wu Jiong, you bastard, actually mocking me. Stand where you are ...!" That said, he charged out of the classroom after them ...
In the Mecha Piloting Special Class, several other Lingtian Mecha Clan members could only shrug in response to the questioning gazes of the other students. These kinds of scenarios often occurred between Regiment Commander Wu and Regiment Commander Li. However, their relationship was not negatively affected by this, instead becoming much more harmonious than with others who kept up a polite facade. This once again proved that verbal sparring was sometimes an effective method to improve friendships.
"Qin Yi, in your Lingtian Mecha Clan, for two of the regiment commanders to interact like this ... isn't that a problem?" One of the students beside Qin Yi could not help but ask. He was used to seeing the other factions having a strict hierarchy and being wary of outsiders. Even if there were any dissent among the leaders and they could not get along, they would not show it so obviously in front of others. They would always present a harmonious and united front to outsiders, putting on fake smiles. This type of outright taunting among the leaders of the Lingtian Mecha Clan was so fascinating in comparison ...
As Qin Yi packed up his things, he smiled and said, "What problem is there? With Boss Lan on top watching over things, nothing's going to go wrong under him. Besides, who among us doesn't know what Regiment Commander Li is like? His lack of tact and straightforwardness is an open secret in our clan. Even he himself is aware of this."
"Also, the other regiment commanders of our Lingtian Mecha Clan may perhaps have some friction with one another, but as soon as Boss Lan gives an order, we will not forget that we are all one clan. This is trust and friendship which has been built up over ten years. It will not break apart so easily because of all this ..."
How could the Central Scout Academy students forget the grand feats they had managed to achieve time and time again under Boss Lan's lead? And now, they were about to face a new challenge head on — a fight against the strongest faction in the First Men's Military Academy. The Leiting Mecha Clan was finally going to be their next target — it was exhilarating just thinking about it. Which freshman organisation would dare to oppose the strongest senior faction right at the start of school? And yet their New Cadet Regiment had managed to do so. Which newly established mecha clan would dare to fight against the strongest senior mecha clan? Their Lingtian Mecha Clan had dared to do so ... Every decision of Boss Lan's ushered in a new record, and Qin Yi believed that this trend definitely would not stop here.