44 4.6

After the headmaster of the academy virtually delivered his traditional speech encouraging students to perform their best, the quarterly assessment trials officially commenced.

Students, separated by their grade, were sent to various arenas around the campus, where they were then randomly paired for duels. Those in the senior section were issued academy-standardized mecha, whereas those in the junior section fought bare-handed.

Across the board, this was a single-elimination style competition: the winners would advance, while the losers would be dropped and ranked according to the number of rounds they'd passed and how long they lasted.

Due to the academy's strict requirement that the instructors complete the assessment within one day, all the students had to fight simultaneously, thus preventing them from watching their peers' competitions. Only those who managed to finish their match early could observe others spar. As compensation, the faculty carefully recorded every bout, collated the clips, and distributed them to help their pupils study each other's techniques.

In this way, despite the lack of eyewitnesses, gossip about peer performances usually spread promptly after the trials.

Chen Yu gazed at the crowd of excited children milling around, anticipating what news would be circulating later today. He only returned from his daydreams when Hou Yi slipped over to naturally fix the collar at the back of his neck, his fingers lingering on the smooth skin. "Ah Guang, remember to take care of yourself, don't get so caught up that you forget that we have to last for a long time."

"En, thanks, Ah Yi!" Smiling brightly at the other boy, Chen Yu idly wondered whether he would comply with the military's orders. His eyes glittered, his lips curled wickedly. If he did, this boy would learn how blue his balls could get.

Following Ah Guang as he strode into the line for receiving a mecha, Hou Yi's eyebrows imperceptibly knitted together.

In the past month, he'd casually drawn closer to Ah Guang in and out of the training space, but just then, he had clearly escaped his hold. Was it that he still didn't trust him to touch any vulnerable spots? Or...he didn't like it?

Brooding on this possibility, he was further irritated by the sight of Murong Wen's petite figure approaching Ah Guang. Face cold, he scrutinized the pest wishing Ah Guang good luck, a sinister light flitting across his face.

At least this event would serve some purpose.

Within a quarter of an hour, the instructors had finished handing out the mecha and allocating pairs to transparently partitioned spaces. Signaling for the first round to start, they leisurely chatted about unimportant matters, prepared to endure a few hours of tedious monitoring until the last few contests between their top pupils.

But merely an hour later, their second and third best students were unexpectedly thrown together—naturally this was because Chen Yu, who had gotten bored playing with these kids, had manipulated the academy's randomization system through his communicator to hurry things along.

Nevertheless, the two friends hadn't confronted each other so early on in previous trials thanks to the protagonist halo, so he maintained a look of shock. Losing here would mean a huge fall in rank for either of them...please allow him to make a sad expression.

Murong Wen recovered first. Extending his mecha's hand, he laughed, "Yongguang, I've improved a bit now, don't go easy on me."

At this, Jin Yongguang nodded and grasped the outstretched hand with his mecha's. "All right, Ah Wen, let's both do our best!"

Inside the cockpit, Murong Wen's mouth twisted.

Our best? How could they be compared? Jin Yongguang's best was supported by money, influence, physical gifts, whereas he could only depend on his own hard work. Besides, recently everyone had been talking about how Hou Yi and Jin Yongguang were always training together, there was clearly no room for him.

No, Murong Wen recalled, it seemed that Jin Yongguang's parents weren't as great as everyone thought, even scheming to destroy their son's future. Although he hadn't been pleased by this discovery and definitely wouldn't throw a match for money, whenever he considered exposing the truth to Yongguang, he instinctively resisted doing so. He himself couldn't say whether this was because he was afraid of being doubted or because he hoped that eventually, Jin Yongguang would be ruined.

In any case, Murong Wen decided, this wasn't his business, he shook his head to erase the envy from his heart.

Once the starting tone rang out, Murong Wen leaned forward, fully intending to defend himself from Jin Yongguang's habitual fierce assault. But looking at that confident boy moving forward without hesitation, sitting high in the cockpit as if he was on top of the world, his mind froze. Always so bright, always so bold, what gave him the right? By the time he refocused, he was too late. The other mecha was already almost on top of his.

Chen Yu had, of course, noticed the protagonist's lapse. Despite only wavering for a second, in this span of time, the original Jin Yongguang would have inevitably landed a flurry of hits on a 'defenseless' peer and fallen into his parents' trap. Then the son of heaven would mope about feeling guilty but soon convince himself that he was blameless since, in the end, he hadn't meant to do so.

Chen Yu chuckled. Well, having confirmed yet again how susceptible humans were to emotion, there was no longer a need to spare the protagonist. This body could now execute the finest level of mecha control, how could he lose to such a cheap plot trick?

The teachers, many of whom had been focused on this arena, were hurriedly running to stop Jin Yongguang from crushing Murong Wen when suddenly, the advancing mecha ignited its right thruster and twisted, looping around the other mecha. In an instant, its momentum had been perfectly redirected to flying.

As a good little student, Chen Yu promptly used his mecha's intercom to report that his friend was unresponsive and requested aid, but before the instructors could react, Murong Wen's mecha abruptly jerked around, launching a fierce barrage against Jin Yongguang.

Chen Yu startled, glancing down at the finger he'd been holding on his communicator. Ah? He hadn't clicked to initiate the self-destruct sequence in the protagonist's mecha yet, what was this boy up to?

Distractedly dodging Murong Wen, Chen Yu hummed, glancing around to check if his suspicions were correct. Indeed, he discerned a mecha some distance away similarly fighting halfheartedly, most of his attention on staring at him. Zooming in, he recognized that damn Hou Yi's face in the pilot's seat. Cao, if he didn't want to abandon him for his mission, that was good and fine, but why did he have to interfere like this?

In his arena, Hou Yi had been watching Ah Guang from the start of the trials, and when he saw Murong Wen step in, he'd immediately triggered the slow-acting drug that he had directed a faculty member with military connections to plant inside the pest's cockpit.

Upon inhalation, this undetectable gas, which had been developed as a last resort for soldiers, would gradually invoke a kind of berserker mode that would only stop affecting the user after completely draining his body. In addition to forcing Murong Wen to destroy his own reputation, the aftereffects of the drug itself were severe. The user would never fully recover his health, strength, or mental stability. Most importantly, however, experiencing his rabid assault, Ah Guang would absolutely distance himself from that pest...

As Hou Yi had expected, once the drug kicked in, Murong Wen's mecha began to aggressively strike at Ah Guang's. Despite knowing for sure that Ah Guang could more than handle such a low-level opponent, Hou Yi was uneasy and somewhat regretful when he witnessed how violent Murong Wen was. Ah Guang was too soft-hearted, would he be able to resolutely fend off someone he considered a friend?

The student who had been paired to fight Hou Yi was coincidentally the unlucky Ding Bo. Stuck in this small space with this god, he cried silent tears...the god would neither attack nor let a blow slip through his defense, he merely flicked his attempts at hitting him away as if they were bothersome. The large boy crouched in the corner, drawing circles. If the god wanted to stalk that Jin Yongguang, couldn't he do it on his own? Why did he have to use this lowly one as a shield, what should he do if that freak Jin Yongguang blamed him instead?

At last, having spotted Ah Guang gently knocking out Murong Wen long enough for the teachers to restrain him, Hou Yi also turned to his opponent and struck him unconscious.

After all, he had no time to waste, Ah Guang would be most sensitive right now.

Thus, through Ding Bo's noble sacrifice, Hou Yi appeared in front of Jin Yongguang, who was slumped in the victor section, as soon as the frenzied Murong Wen was dragged away to the infirmary.

Caressing the downcast head, Hou Yi murmured, "Ah Guang, I saw what happened. Are you alright?"

Chen Yu chomped on that annoying hand in his mind, but on the surface, he simply rubbed his forehead confusedly. "I'm not sure what went wrong. It was almost like Ah Wen was controlled by something else."

Hou Yi crouched down, lowering his eyes to hide the vicious thoughts in them. So, he'd been mistaken when he thought that Ah Guang wasn't too close to that pest. In the end, he was important enough to make him so sad, so worried, so staunch in his faith ah? Gloomy at the realization, he silently brushed through Ah Guang's hair and down to the nape of his neck.

A while later, somewhat soothed by Ah Guang letting him stroke for so long, he smiled. Well, no matter how Ah Guang wished otherwise, when the test results showed that no external forces had influenced Murong Wen, the academy wouldn't let a lunatic stay. Satisfied, he agreed, "Perhaps, but don't worry, the teachers will definitely find out what happened."

After some coaxing, Chen Yu resigned himself. Anyway, the result was fairly similar to what he'd been aiming for, and at least this lover of his hadn't planned to throw him to the dogs. Jin Yongguang revived slightly, thanking Hou Yi for his support.

Despite the disturbance, the remaining instructors swiftly resumed the trials, continuing on until the final match in the afternoon.

It was predictably Hou Yi versus Jin Yongguang, but the match wasn't the one-sided, quick annihilation it had been when the two faced each other before. Several rapid confrontations took place, then both of them returned to their original positions, waiting for the other to move.

Finally, Jin Yongguang's mecha charged first, the huge frame nimbly running in a zigzag pattern toward his opponent. Just a meter away, a roar suddenly sounded as Chen Yu turned on his thrusters to bounce his mecha off the transparent wall behind Hou Yi, then gathered even more momentum by pushing off the other walls. Having maximized the standardized mecha's speed, he flew parallel to the floor like a streak of light, throwing the fist of his mecha toward Hou Yi's cockpit.

In response, Hou Yi simply controlled his mecha to swivel sideways, reaching out his hand to seize the outstretched arm that couldn't possibly be retracted in time. But just at that moment, Chen Yu cut his engine, rotating in midair as he dropped toward the floor. When he'd fallen enough, he hooked his legs on either side of the other's waist in a pincer movement and, supporting the weight by planting his mecha's arms on the floor, moved to flip Hou Yi onto his head.

When Hou Yi shot several shock beams at him and turned on his thrusters to escape, Chen Yu grinned. For the students' safety, the academy's mecha could only issue five shock beams a day, each of which would inflict ten percent damage on the target. Chen Yu pushed his arms off the ground to lift his torso, then, wrapping his mecha around Hou Yi's like a koala, he hung on as Hou Yi spun around the arena. When they began to swerve around due to their imbalanced weight, he flipped to be on top and shot all five of his shock beams at Hou Yi's cockpit, causing the half-destroyed mecha to plummet.

Gazing at the triumphant pilot who had comfortably landed on top of him, Hou Yi smiled and surrendered, promising himself that he would persuade Ah Guang to try reenacting this fight without the mecha.

---

Hearing the report of what had happened at the academy's assessment trials, General Hou's face darkened. Hou Yi had never failed an assignment before, why did he fail this one? Was it truly a mistake?

According to the instructor who'd been assigned to assist Hou Yi, the boy had told him to place a gaseous medicine that would briefly cause delayed reactions in Murong Wen's cockpit, so he'd clearly taken some steps to carry out the task. Only...Hou Yi wasn't the type to be careless, why had the effect been that of a different drug entirely?

Looking at the subordinates waiting for his command, General Hou resolved to figure out the facts after the meeting.

Since their scheme to use Murong Wen as a link to the traitors had failed, they could only find a substitute. Currently, their most viable option was Jin Yongguang. The boy had proven his skills at mecha operation this afternoon, and he was almost certainly not aware of his parents' treasonous activities. With their familial connection, using Jin Yongguang to probe Jin Zhong might even be more effective than it would have been to use Murong Wen.

Decided, General Hou directly sent one of his soldiers to relay the message to Jin Yongguang and also to investigate whether his son remained fully committed to the mission.