Chapter 102 – Probably because I was a good person in my previous life.

Translator: Rin    Editor: Mars    Proofreader: Ume

On the day of the Freshman Mecha Competition, Lu Heng woke up early. Jiang Li was still sleeping beside him. He was sleeping sideways, facing him.

Ever since he and Jiang Li started sleeping in the same bed, Lu Heng discovered that he had a habit of sleeping sideways while facing his direction.

After falling asleep, the hostility and indifference left by years of battle disappeared from Jiang Li’s face, and it became gentler. He arched his waist slightly, resting his forehead on Lu Heng’s arm, and his chest rose and fell slowly and rhythmically with his breathing.

There were a few times Lu Heng woke up and looked at him, and still felt like he was dreaming. He couldn’t believe that such an outstanding and near-perfect person could really belong to him. What kind of luck did he have?

Probably because I was a good person in my previous life.

Lu Heng thought in his mind, raised the corners of his lips slightly, and kept his head tilted. He looked at Jiang Li just like this, with tenderness and love in his eyes that almost overflowed.

……

After a long while, Jiang Li woke up and moved his body. As soon as he opened his eyes, he looked up and saw Lu Heng looking at him motionless, his head frozen in an awkward posture.

“What are you doing?” Jiang Li asked.

Lu Heng: “…Nothing.” I just have a pain in my neck.

…

Area D training ground.

Jiang Li put on his white gloves. Seeing that everyone was in a good mental state, he nodded and said, “Contestants, come out.”

Six people headed by Lu Heng came out and stood in line in front of the team.

Jiang Li looked at them and said slowly, “Today is the first battle in your life. As a future soldier, you need to go all out in every battle. This is to live up to any drop of sweat you shed yesterday, but also to save yourself from losing a drop of blood tomorrow.”

Having said this, he paused, glanced sharply at everyone and suddenly raised his voice and shouted: “Do you understand?!”

“Yes!!”

“Let’s go!”

The venue for the Freshman Mecha Competition was located at Jiada Square. Students participating in each school area of the military academy would be led by the chief instructor to report to the Academic Affairs Building and then take the school’s hover car to the venue.

Among the four districts of Empire Military Academy, the team led by Jiang Li was the smallest, with only six people. Area D had always been known as the living area for hedonistic children from rich families. So when Jiang Li brought Lu Heng and others in, it was extremely conspicuous in contrast to the other three long lines, which attracted sneers from others.

The combination of an omega instructor who had been abandoned by the military, and a few aristocratic students who were ignorant and unskilled, looked like a joke to most of the students in Area A, who were hailed as the future hope of the empire.

Jiang Li and the others didn’t care about this at all. Even Kate, who was usually irritable and easily triggered, was very calm. He was not distracted and followed Jiang Li’s pace to the table that Area D would need to report to.

There was an older male teacher in the reporting corner. Jiang Li stood in front of him and said loudly: “Salute!”

Lu Heng and the others headed by him responded to the sound and saluted neatly and forcefully with standard postures. Each of them had a serious expression on their faces. Their saluting hand and their eyebrows were only millimetres away from each other, their back was as solid as a standing javelin, carrying an inviolable aura.

Such an aura stopped those sneers. The crowd suddenly realized that the people in front of them seemed to be different from the pleasure-seeking royal children in Area D that they had expected.

The teacher at the reporting corner stood up from his seat, and after returning the salute, he smiled and stretched out his hand: “Instructor Jiang, long time no see.”

“Teacher Galfa, long time no see.” Jiang Li shook hands with the other party politely and respectfully. This was the original host’s Culture class teacher when he was in the military academy.

After the report, all participating students boarded the hover car under the command of the school teacher. Because there were too few people in Area D, they were arranged to be in a car with the students in Area C.

Although the Freshmen Mecha Competition was hosted by the Empire Military Academy, it was not only restricted to students from military schools. Freshmen from other schools on the Planet Norman could also sign up to participate, with a total of nearly a thousand participants.

The first day of the competition was the audition. The intelligent system assigned teams from the applicants to compete on a one-on-one basis.

A total of fifty arenas were set up in Jiada Square for simultaneous competitions to quickly select players for promotion. A virtual electronic screen was set up above each arena to display the names of the contestants and the battle images.

The Freshman Mech Contest would also be broadcast live on Starnet. Viewers could choose to buy tickets to watch it in person or watch the webcast live on Starnet.

Jiang Li was sitting in the VIP viewing room. The huge screen in front of him showed six competition fields, including Lu Heng, Qiao Yu, Ling Ao, Luo Qi, Kate, and Teck.

On the table next to him, there were two small mechas about fifty centimeters long, one black and one silver.

The silver mecha sat on the chair, looked at the screen, and said in a cold tone: “The speed is too slow, it’s simply embarrassing.”

Hearing this, the black mecha next to him came over and said with a smile: “Little Silver Sparrow, don’t look at them, look at me.”

Silver Sparrow reached out and pushed its head away from it, still focusing on the screen.

These two small mechas were Black Eagle and Silver Sparrow. When Lu Heng brought Black Eagle out, he specifically asked Master Ling to help develop a new transformation system. Now Black Eagle and Silver Sparrow could automatically adjust and control their body sizes.

Black Eagle couldn’t get any attention from Silver Sparrow, so it turned the conversation to Jiang Li: “Princess, what do you think of their competition this time?”

“I don’t have any opinion.” Jiang Li took a sip of his drink and glanced at the mecha who was unwilling to be left alone. “Also, don’t call me Princess.”

“Then what should I call you?” Black Eagle asked humbly.

“You can call me Instructor, or you can call me Major,” Jiang Li leaned closer to it, facing it, and said with a smile, “Of course, if you want to be confined, you can continue to call me Princess.”

Black Eagle: “…” Whether it’s the master or his mecha, it’s so difficult to get along with them.

Soon the first round of auditions ended, and nearly 500 contestants were screened out.

After the first round of the competition, the organizer’s intelligent system reassigned the teams according to the list of qualified players, and after break time, they once again entered the second round of competition.

After the second round of the competition, there were only about two hundred contestants left. It was almost time for lunch, and all the contestants who had advanced could dine at the restaurant designated by the organizer.

The assembly area of Empire Military Academy.

Students from the four school areas A, B, C, and D who had been promoted formed teams in order of school areas.

Lu Heng and the others still had the smallest number of people among all the school areas, but they were also the only one among the four school areas where not even one person had been eliminated. This made everyone look at them differently.

“No way? None of them have been eliminated?”

“Didn’t the Ling family make mechas? Why did Ling Ao come to operate mechas?”

“That brat Kate also made the cut?”

“It is said that His Royal Highness the Fourth Prince is currently ranked highest based on the competition points.”

“Fuck, really?”

“Yes, and he is the player using the shortest time to win a single game.”

“As expected of the emperor’s son, awesome.”

Lu Heng remained unmoved by other people’s comments about him. After registering, he followed Jiang Li and left with the others.

Heda stood in the team in Area A, looking at Kate’s back with an unkind look.

As soon as they returned to the dedicated lounge in Area D, Lu Heng and the others, who had been sullen just now, immediately broke through the facade. Qiao Yu was the first to laugh out loud, patted Ling Ao on the shoulder and said, “Did you see what those grandsons look like just now? Holy shit, it makes me so satisfied!!”

“Yes, yes, yes.” Ling Ao touched his chin, feeling angry and satisfied, “Can’t I use the mecha when laozi’s family built it? Idiots.”

Kate also noticed Heda’s livid face earlier and was very satisfied with it.

Teck and Luo Qi put their arms on each other, discussing having another big game in the afternoon.

Lu Heng circled around Jiang Li and asked, “Did you watch my game just now? How was it? Am I good? I’ve spent the least amount of time in a single game now.”

Before Jiang Li could speak, Black Eagle reminded him: “Your Highness, you are already twenty years old. Be more steady.”

Lu Heng: “…It’s none of your business.”

Jiang Li smiled and found that besides Lu Heng, others were also looking at him expectantly as if they wanted to be praised.

In fact, after training them for so long, Jiang Li was very aware of their strength. Qualifying was expected, but since everyone was looking forward to it, he would not disappoint and just complimented a few words along.

“Hahaha.” Ling Ao laughed, “This competition is not very difficult, the top three must be ours!”

“Are you dreaming? Ling Ao.”

A cold and displeased voice said this, and as if cold water had been poured on his impulsive brain Ling Ao was taken aback: “Huh?”

Silver Sparrow analyzed: “In the first game, you stayed in the air for 2 seconds longer than usual, and you were almost hit by the opponent’s light bomb. Also, your accuracy in firing the particle cannon only reached 75.4%. In the first game, it was a fluke to win.”

Ling Ao: “…”

During this period, besides Jiang Li, Silver Sparrow was Lu Heng’s second teacher. In the later stages of training, Jiang Li even directly operated Silver Sparrow to fight them one-on-one.

At this time, Ling Ao was criticized by Yin Que. Not only did Ling Ao not dare to say a word, but others also kept silent to avoid being involved.

Black Eagle saw Ling Ao’s expression of shame and said to smooth things over: “Ahem, Little Silver Sparrow, why are you so hasty?”

“What do you mean?” Silver Sparrow knew the meaning of this sentence, but didn’t know what it meant when it applied it to itself.

Others didn’t know and looked at Black Eagle on the table. Black Eagle explained: “It’s like that, Little Silver Sparrow, you were made by Ling Ao’s father, Mr. Ling, which means that Mr. Ling is your biological parent. It stands to reason that you may need to call Ling Ao ge.”

The lounge fell into an eerie silence. Everyone’s realizations shifted back and forth between Silver Sparrow and Ling Ao, and they were speechless for a moment.

After a while, Silver Sparrow sounded in a doubtful voice: “…Ge?”

Ling Ao: “…”

No, no, no, don’t call me that, I’m scared!!