novelraw Chapter 171 : Extra Chapter - Transition
Chapter 171 : Extra Chapter - Transition
Chen Sui headed straight for the training room. Through the large floor-to-ceiling windows along the way, looking up she could see the sun hanging over the western mountains, magnificent burning clouds covering the sky, the light gradually turning yellowish. Places inside the room blocked from light by the wall were particularly dark. She paid no attention to this and walked to the training room door, opening it.
The corridors on both sides were already somewhat dark, but the room was unexpectedly completely without daylight.
Chen Sui had already sensed something unusual. She stood at the doorway without entering, her gaze scanning the room inch by inch, trying to discern the furnishings in the darkness.
Those who had adjusted the room to night mode, preparing to give Chen Sui a surprise, were hiding beneath and behind structures in the room, only their eyes revealed as they observed Chen Sui's movements.
The door remained open for a long time. After waiting for several minutes, Cheng Wei's heart skipped a beat as he raised his foot to prod Zhou Chen's backside, who was crouching in front.
Zhou Chen sensed his urging but was equally bewildered.
Xie Chunshi, sitting in a chair with his back to the door, could vaguely see Chen Sui's silhouette through a mirror on the other side of the training room that reflected shadows. He lowered his head and sighed. As Chen Sui reached out to open the room's intelligent system, Xie Chunshi glanced toward someone nearby.
He Lanxi understood the signal immediately and pressed the perception button in his hand.
Companions who had set up the scene felt the button vibrate and knew it was time.
Chen Sui was about to open the intelligent system to adjust the room's lights to see what was going on. She had just set the room brightness, but before the system could respond and light up, there was a "bang" as party poppers exploded first in the room.
The fiery light accompanied by smoke illuminated the interior, with the party poppers shooting out a brilliant linear firework.
One led the way, and suddenly lines of light lit up behind it. The fireworks shot up to the ceiling and then hung down like a cascading waterfall.
"Congratulations on victory!!"
"Well done!!"
The unified chorus carried irrepressible laughter as the room lights suddenly brightened.
White light illuminated the interior, the fireworks dispersed, gathering in the air as diffuse white mist. People by the windows quickly pulled open the light-blocking curtains and opened the windows. The room's ventilation system whirred into operation.
Cheng Wei stepped out from the crowd first. "Little Sui, how about it! Is this welcome ceremony impressive enough?"
Chen Sui was startled by the explosion, the beautiful trajectory of the fireworks still replaying before her eyes. Seeing Cheng Wei emerge, she showed some surprise: "I wondered why the school was so quiet. So everyone was waiting here."
Military students who had helped set up the scene swarmed over: "Last time we blocked you at the entrance, this time your vigilance must have increased. With the new school team selection, the school team building access is open, so we decided to set up here."
"That Zhou Chen guy almost rushed in to take us down. Still, Emperor Sui is calm. Learn from this—this is the mentality of a strong person."
Someone seized the opportunity to criticize.
Zhou Chen immediately retorted: "No, this is called having strong defensive awareness, okay!"
"I watched the competition, you all were amazing. Although I already knew we would be first, I'm still very happy!"
"First by a huge margin. This strength, I don't need to say more, you all understand!"
"Hey, you also went to make trouble at the Gu family, wasn't that extremely satisfying! I tried that biological bomb from the biology department before. That taste, tsk tsk, absolutely fantastic!"
The clamor from the crowd instantly surrounded Chen Sui. She was encircled by her teammates and friends, all with smiles on their faces. Chen Sui looked at the crowd with a satisfied gaze, meeting Xie Chunshi's calm eyes in front. The young man smiled, his expression incredibly gentle.
"The biology department also set up a bonfire banquet on the back mountain. These guys said they were going to drug a giant mountain goat. Don't know if they've managed to knock it out yet. Hope they don't get caught."
The giant mountain goat was an interstellar meat sheep used for mutton, with an enormous body, agile limbs, and huge curling horns. It had a temperamental nature and could only be taken out of the breeding area with special injections.
"We should definitely gather. If we don't hurry, soon we'll all be at Zone Eleven."
"Since we finally have a vacation, let's go! Little Sui, you'll come with us later. Our biology department has recently developed so many new ingredients!"
The speaker was a classmate from the biology department. Chen Sui had helped her grow small strawberries, saving her final project—a deep debt of gratitude.
"Hasn't the school team selection started yet?"
On the way from the school team building to the back mountain, Chen Sui asked those around her. Although she was a first-year student, because of her early participation in the league match, she only needed to complete the remaining required courses for the second year to advance to military district internships early like second-year students, with essentially no difference from them.
Cheng Wei and others should have also been in Zone Eleven for combat training, but due to the Star Alliance energy riot and the extreme shortage of manpower, military students from all academies jointly petitioned to be called up to join the Star Alliance rescue work, diverting significant work from the Border Army and greatly reducing Star Alliance casualties.
Chen Sui had seen the electronic version of that petition with tens of thousands of pages of military student signatures on the StarNet, compiled in just three days to present demands to the Military Committee.
Zhao Loulan had once frankly stated that this was an unprecedented challenge for military students, unlike any military district combat they had participated in. Entering energy fields in riot meant facing death at every moment, with no rescue.
But they still responded to the call without hesitation. Otherwise, the Star Alliance casualty rate would never have been what it is today.
"Ah, they've gone to Zone Eleven. The selection match hasn't ended yet. When you return to Zone Eleven, you might catch up."
Someone answered Chen Sui's question.
"But I'm more interested in next year's league match," someone said, looking at Chen Sui teasingly. "This time you almost cleared out the energy fields in the league match. I think the management department might need to re-plan the league areas."
Large energy fields covered vast areas, especially after the riot when most energy fields expanded. The league match generally only used the portion containing base stations, particularly for elimination selections. Director Mo was quite angry about the military students' sweeping tactics this time. No one knew how the next league match would be handled.
But Chen Sui didn't think it would be a major issue. After all, the league match itself was for military schools to accumulate resources. The management department wouldn't deliberately interfere.
While various military academies were launching their new school team selections, far away in Zone Eleven, the Military Committee and council were discussing the situation of the new league match while also handling some leftover issues, including the reward arrangements for the current league match.
Originally, the victor's reward was for the winning military academy to dispatch military students to join the Border Army in clearing the Ten Major Energy Fields. But now, due to the riot, most academies had already entered the Ten Major Energy Fields to assist the Border Army with rescue missions.
Song Baining had intended to allocate the Star Alliance's reserve resources to the various military schools proportionally. After all, this league match had been extremely tumultuous. Military students had experienced riots, with varying degrees of damage to their spirit bodies and core crystals. After the league match ended, they would have to enter high-level energy fields again, which wasn't conducive to the growth of the military students themselves.
Zhu Jing Fu had no particular view on this. Xie Chunshi's original purpose for participating in the league match was to enter the God-Abandoned Domain to find Song Baining's whereabouts. Chen Sui was there to find Wu Ye and avenge her transmigration injury. As for Gu Qinxue, it was even simpler—she wanted to thoroughly slap the Gu family's face. Now with the Gu family in trouble, she couldn't be more pleased. Puluo and Zhou Chen were completely focused on league glory. Other military schools receiving Star Alliance resource inclination, getting paid without having to work—they had no objections either.
However, the chain reaction from such arrangements was that military students had to enter Zone Eleven early to catch up with others' internship progress.
Chen Sui had originally wanted to watch the school team selection, but now they couldn't wait for the school team to return. They, along with temporarily vacationing second-year students, boarded the starship bound for Zone Eleven.
The main supervising district for this year's military student internships was the Sixth Military Zone. After Song Baining resumed her position, there was a power transition in Zone Eleven. Plus, with the Gu family and old aristocratic families caught by their pigtails and under strict control, there were significant changes in positions throughout Zone Eleven.
In such large-scale changes, Lu Cuining's reappearance on the Border Army list wasn't surprising.
There were countless military schools in the Star Alliance, with military districts assigned randomly according to academy. But as the seven schools were directly affiliated with the military, they were generally managed together.
This meant that as soon as Chen Sui arrived at the Sixth Military Zone, she encountered old friends who had just descended on the starport—friends they had only separated from a few days ago.
At the waiting area outside the Sixth Military Zone starport, two rows of people stood on the railings, all wearing the Border Army's special black combat suits. Their skin was tanned by the scorching star, and their brows had shed their initial naivety, showing a mature, rugged air.
"Tsk, why haven't they arrived yet? What caliber requires me to come and greet them personally?" On the other side, a red-haired youth wiped his short knife and sheathed it, looking up toward the front.
Hearing this, the tall young man standing opposite him smiled, his expression gentle: "Oh, I heard you ran here voluntarily to greet them when you heard Zhu Jing Fu was coming?"
Bai Ruohua noticed Xin Yan's expression from the corner of his eye, his smile obvious.
"Ahem," Golden Tower analyst Qi Songhuai covered Xin Yan's mouth as he tried to quibble, whispering eerily in his ear: "Say less, Commander. If those cunning bastards from Zhu Jing Fu hear this and hammer us in the team match, you'll be happy then?" After speaking, he immediately changed his expression, smilingly replying to Bai Ruohua: "Our Commander Xin misses them terribly. He got up before dawn to get ready. Commander White, you look disheveled—just off the training field?"
In truth, Bai Ruohua hadn't fallen to the state of being disheveled, but during early training, he had indeed endured quite a beating from the training officers, which was perfectly normal.
Although military school internships in Zone Eleven were all in the same military zone, they were distributed among different teams. Within teams, there was not only morning and evening training but also team matches, sometimes between teams, sometimes between team members and training officers—mostly the latter.
Although military students were exceptionally talented, they were still somewhat immature before battle-hardened training officers and were often trained until they were like dead fish.
Jacques Delot and Golden Tower weren't particularly mischievous, but the truly cunning ones were the arriving Zhu Jing Fu and Saint Laurent.
They were counting on the injection of fresh blood to reclaim their position in team matches, especially in combat with training officers.
It was time to bring out the military students' trump card.
Let these training officers witness the seven schools' strongest close combat fighter—AKA the super-strength girl who could smash through energy shields.
Bai Ruohua, looking at the docking starship, had a premonition. For some reason, he had a blind trust in Chen Sui. If it was her, she would definitely make the team match turn out unexpectedly.
But if Chen Sui knew his thoughts, she would clearly understand that Bai Ruohua had been beaten into trauma.