The leadership trial quickly got underway. The first day was an online points-based melee free-for-all. Points of any losing competitors would be divided proportional to performance. The amounts of points required to avoid elimination would rise as time went on. It was one of the fastest methods to filter out a few hundred strong candidates while also avoiding good seedlings being eliminated by chance alone.
The trial was meant to determine student leaders, after all.
Under normal circumstances, first years who had yet to go through their psychic power development period were too underpowered to compete with the seniors.
However, everyone was able to compete this time, even the first years unlikely to place.
The teachers and proctors kept a close eye on the virtual competition in the monitoring room.
“I wonder how long the first years will last.”
“30 minutes tops.”
Only those with 0 points after the first 30 minutes would be eliminated, and everyone started with 5 points.
The most first years could probably accomplish was funnel points to their seniors.
One of the proctors slapped his thigh in excitement. “Found His Little Highness!”
The other teachers crowded around.
“Prince Xavier landed in the middle of the island. He shouldn’t be able to avoid the others.”
“Judging by his points, he’s already run into a handful.”
20 minutes later, almost all of the first years had been eliminated.
“Raise the cutoff in 10 minutes.”
Half an hour later, the proctor said, “Raise it again. There are still too many people remaining. Prince Xavier seems to have a good amount of points. He’s stopped moving.”
Most people had been eliminated by the halfway point of the match. They chatted on the forums while tuning into the live feed.
The forums were more lively than ever with all four military academies crammed together. Of course, they focused on the top candidates from their own schools.
[Prince Xavier is still near the top. Looks like there’s no need to worry. If he wasn’t just staying in one spot and took a more active role, he would probably have even more points.]
[Ye Yun has also done better than most of his yearmates. Impressive. His psychic development period should be over soon. He can almost dish out as much damage as the senior elites. The pressure’s on.]
[Duh. There’s no first year worth their salt aside from him and that girl in his year.]
[What about His Little Highness?]
[Don’t even get me started. He was the one who took most of my points! He even apologized for it…]
[Really? How polite of him.]
The leaderboard totals soon reached terrifying heights. The points of basically the entire student body were now held by the dozen or so remaining competitors.
Ye Muo continued to only look for opponents when the minimum point requirement was raised. He stayed put once he gathered enough.
[I’m curious, guys. Is it true that Prince Xavier has failed combat classes before? It’s hard to believe that from the way he efficiently dispatches his opponents… Why did he fail again?]
[Because the botanical gardens on our old campus were very large and beautiful, and there isn’t one in this swiftly constructed new campus. Capiche?]
[No way. Our Third Military Academy definitely has the best gardens!]
[How naive. You really think His Little Highness is so superficial as to base his school of choice on gardens? It’s obviously because his brothers go to the First Military Academy!]
[Settle down, settle down. The reason he didn’t pass is probably malnutrition, right? I’ve always thought the Grantz needed a different diet, you know? Why else would he have a cocooning period? Children who undergo cocooning tend to be weaker beforehand. It’s already good that he passed, okay?]
……
The match continued. The rate of eliminations continued to slow as time went on and the top students began to fight each other.
[I can name everyone still in the race. They’re all seniors aside from His Little Highness.]
[This is getting ridiculous…His Little Highness hasn’t even finished growing up yet!]
[So? That doesn’t mean he isn’t a Grantz. He’s already had his coming-of-age ceremony and slayed a king insect even. Speaking of, His Little Highness already had a run in with those things in his first year, right? No students died because the king insect ran into him first.]
[That somehow puts things into perspective. His Majesty Norton was already in the military at this age. They’re not even on the same playing field even though they’re all Level S psychics. Sure enough, only a Grantz can face off against a Grantz.]
[If you guys weren’t so caught up on His Little Highness apologizing to those he eliminates, you would have noticed that the time he engages with each opponent hardly changes. In other words, he takes the same amount of time to deal with a first year as he does a senior. He’s still holding back.]
The points requirement kept increasing as the number of remaining competitors decreased.
Before Ye Muo realized it, there were only a handful of people left.
Just three more, he thought.
He watched the number change again as he took shelter in a tree. Two people left.
One was him, so there was a single opponent remaining.
The points requirement shifted one last time. Ye Muo subconsciously rose from his hiding spot and let out his psychic power. He located his prey almost instantly.
He sprang into motion, traversing the forest like countless times before like a big cat on the hunt.
His opponent was also heading his way. They soon met.
Ye Muo noticed the other party was another senior. His white uniform and special chest emblem denoted him as a president of the First Military Academy.
Ye Muo pursed his lips.
Both sides tacitly revealed their weapons at once.
Like he always did, Ye Muo took the initiative and stepped forward.
He instinctively twisted in the air to avoid the incoming blade.
He weaved gracefully between strikes like a dancer, sparks flying in every direction each time.
Watching him was almost hypnotizing.
It wasn’t until the participant indicator dropped to one that Ye Muo realized he was alone on the battlefield.
A few seconds passed before he sheathed his sword.
Ye Muo did notice himself becoming faster after his cocooning period. He could jump higher than before and had more room to breathe when facing off against king insects.
However, his opponents had always been other Grantz until now. His new abilities never sank in since he’s never won.
Especially with Bert emphasizing how many of the points he gave Ye Muo were for cuteness and how many were for skill.
……
It was late at night when Faceless returned. 03 turned to the door. He had stayed in the living room the whole time. It was clear by now that nighttime was when they were the most productive.
“Still no leads?”
“En.” Faceless responded as he took off his jacket.
Yet the longer this went on, the more Faceless wanted to find a breakthrough. His intuition told him this might be key.
03 watched as he methodically cleared the table. “Just leave it there. I can take over from there.”
Faceless remained silent.
03 swiped at the screen before him. “Relax. Want to check in with Xavier? He’s gone back to school lately.”
“And about the Federation I told you about before…I’m almost certain they’re working with Grantz.”
03 seemed quite smug. He had no love lost for those people who galavanted around the base all day with their noses in the air, even if they weren’t as irritating as of late. “Looks like those outsiders made a grave miscalculation.”
He said, swiping the screen again.
“At least they seem to be confident about handling the plague. I can’t believe that Federation is requesting to hold a joint student exercise with Grantz at a time like this. Apparently the entire thing will be broadcasted per their custom.”
03 raised an eyebrow. “Should the Federation really be making this public? Doesn’t seem fair. They already know us better than we know them.”
