Chapter 41

At his words, delight clearly appeared on everyone's faces. Without a moment's hesitation, they immediately started toward Qin Su.

But the next second, Qin Su's icy voice rang out again. "Four people, and they must obey my orders unconditionally."

A small airship warship could hold about ten people, but according to his plan, he didn't need that many.

The clamshell-shaped spacecraft carried a total of a hundred airship warships of varying sizes, suitable for combat on water and in the sky. Five people taking a small airship for themselves would be no problem at all.

Qin Su only needed four teammates?!

An opportunity like this wouldn't come twice. Everyone froze for just a moment before rushing toward Qin Su even faster, calling out anxiously as they went.

"Me!"

"Me, me, me!"

[Making noises in hopes of getting picked up]

[Boss, pick me up]

As they fought for a spot, some Betas and other, weaker Alphas even began shoving one another.

Alphas were naturally superior to Omegas and Betas in every aspect of physical ability. Almost the instant Qin Su finished speaking, they used their stronger physiques to race to him.

The Omegas who had been eager to try saw Betas and Alphas getting shoved aside and felt lucky they hadn't rushed in to compete on impulse.

Everyone wanted to be on the same team as the idol they admired. The moment He Muzhi heard Qin Su's words, he was tempted, but he quickly suppressed the thought.

Qin Su clearly had no intention of taking command of the entire practical exercise. After spending so much time together, He Muzhi had a general idea of his classmates' abilities, except for Qin Su, who was so strong that He Muzhi still couldn't gauge him.

Without a commander, everyone would descend into chaos.

Since he was relatively capable compared with his classmates, he naturally had to shoulder that responsibility.

Raymond had already started forward, but when he noticed that He Muzhi hadn't moved, he stopped. He looked at Qin Su, then at He Muzhi, and ultimately stayed where he was.

In a low voice, he asked, "What's with you?"

He didn't believe He Muzhi didn't admire strength.

"It's nothing. If you want to go over..." He Muzhi trailed off. Seeing the situation around Qin Su, he spread his hands at Raymond and said regretfully, "You've missed your chance anyway."

Raymond said, "...Now I want to punch someone."

"Let's go." He Muzhi headed toward the largest warship.

Looking at the four people who had "stood out" before him, Qin Su said, "..."

Their eagerness clearly meant they had misunderstood him.

As the commander, he would have to allocate the mechas with the highest firepower and defense ratings for this practical exercise. Any unfairness in the distribution would draw countless complaints.

More importantly, he didn't like the feeling of carrying other people's fates on his shoulders.

The premise for soldiers obeying orders and following commands was that they could protect themselves and knew what to do even without a commander. It wasn't for his classmates to instinctively turn their gazes to him in unison the moment Raymond finished speaking, hoping he would "take responsibility for them on this trip" and instinctively placing their lives in someone else's hands.

When it came to life and death, only one could take responsibility for oneself.

He did intend to become class monitor, because his persona wouldn't allow him to obey anyone else's orders.

But given Class 6's current state, if he rashly took the position of "commander," and anything he did in the subsequent operation fell even slightly short of someone's wishes, it would provoke resentment and dislike among his classmates.

Providing fuel in the snow left a far deeper impression and inspired far more gratitude than adding flowers to brocade.

For him, offering the right help at the right time was the better strategy.

He Muzhi was stronger than the others, so when they lost their bearings upon first encountering a battlefield, he became their pillar of support. That was entirely within Qin Su's expectations.

Because He Muzhi had always been kind.

He Muzhi, who had a growth storyline, would ultimately grow through his kindness as well.

As for Qin Su, he had always used strong to deceive the feelings of everyone in different worlds and would stop at nothing to achieve his goals. Someone like him had little in the way of moral scruples to begin with.

More importantly, people might not learn from being taught by others, but a lesson taught by experience would be remembered for life. If some of Class 6 grew accustomed to "relying on others" during their first practical exercise and lost the ability to think and act independently, sooner or later they would learn a painful lesson in one of the many practical exercises to come.

The other students who couldn't join Qin Su's team reluctantly looked away from him and hurried toward He Muzhi.

To make maneuvering easier, even the largest airships here weren't all that big. If they arrived late, they would also be left behind by He Muzhi, the second strongest in the class.

Some students looked around before finally gritting their teeth, forming teams of their own and recruiting members.

Most of these students were Betas and Omegas whom nobody wanted.

Even so, they didn't want to give up. They had made it through nearly a month of grueling training, so there was no reason to falter during the practical exercise.

They had to kill as many bugs as possible. They didn't expect to be the best in the class, but they would strive for results good enough that the school wouldn't ask them to withdraw in the final tally.

[Boohoo, our Mu Bao, seriously, I'm crying. He looked after so many classmates at once]

[That's brutally realistic. Without strength, nobody wants you anywhere]

[Qin Su is obviously so powerful. Why did he only take four people? Isn't that a bit too selfish?]

[...Friendly reminder: this is a "battlefield." Helping you is a favor; not helping you is perfectly reasonable. You've come to a battlefield, so why are you still expecting a boss to protect you? Shouldn't you only be qualified to come to the battlefield and kill bugs if you can protect yourself well enough? And... before you can follow orders, you have to do what you should be doing before those orders are given (smile). Anyone who came to the battlefield to be babied, please drop out and go to an ordinary university]

[Don't be so harsh. They only had simulations before, and they knew they wouldn't die. It's everyone's first real battle, so give them a chance to grow]

[...People really do die. In the comic pages updated three days ago, after the main characters' scenes ended, the little bonus showed that during the senior students' first practical exercise after enrollment, lots of freshmen died (sigh). All 147 classes in the class of '25 suffered deaths. That proves it]

[Only death can leave an indelible impression on everyone who has experienced real combat and make them quickly break out of their cocoons]

[Good thing they're only two-dimensional characters without lives, or it would be so cruel]

In that short time, all five hundred students of Class 6 had chosen their airships, but they had fallen into a dispute over the distribution of the mechas, with neither side willing to yield. Even from a distance, the sound of their argument carried clearly from the spacecraft.

"Ahem... Qin Su, what should we do now?" Sophia, one of the four standing before Qin Su, asked.

The other three said nothing, but their gazes conveyed the same question.

Qin Su swept his gaze over the four of them and called each by name. "Sophia, Jeffrey, Sheng Shuang, Zhong Lin."

The four had assumed Qin Su wouldn't bother remembering the names of anyone in Class 6 besides He Muzhi. To their surprise, as his cool gaze swept over them through the transparent eye shield, he called their names without a mistake. Amid their nervousness at being singled out by the boss, they felt a surge of delight.

Qin Su remembered them!

"Here!" the four answered in unison.

Their excitement made their voices quite loud. Qin Su jumped, but his expression didn't change, and his tone remained calm. "From now on, the five of us officially make up Team 1. I'll be its captain. All members, join Team 1's private communications channel."

As he spoke, Qin Su switched the display mode of his Optical Brain, revealing its deep-blue interface to the four of them.

Naturally, he had called it "Team 1" because, just like the system, he couldn't be bothered to think of a name and took the easy way out.

No wonder he and the system had been matched together.

At the same time, the four, who were in the same class group chat, received invitations.

Suppressing their excitement, they accepted instantly. Their Optical Brains linked together, and the team was formed.

From now on, no matter where the four were separated, they could hear one another at any time, making communication easy.

[Hahaha, as expected of Boss 1, even his team name is so 1!]

[Congratulations on the brand-new Team 1!]

[Throwing flowers!]

[Kisses for Captain 1!]

Just as everyone thought Qin Su would lay out a combat strategy against the Kisslip Tree Armadillos, his icy voice reached their ears. "From this moment on, keep the team channel open at all times. Do not close it without authorization, or you'll be kicked out of Team 1."

The four answered in unison again. "Understood!"

What a cold, dictatorial order. They liked it.

Having experienced it once already, Qin Su was no longer startled by their voices.

After the brief announcement, Qin Su turned his back to the four and raised a hand, curling his slightly spread fingers inward. "Let's go," he said coldly.

He hoped that once the airship had flown out and the four had boarded his "pirate ship" and learned what he had planned, they could still be as cheerful as they were now.

"Wait, Captain..." Jeffrey froze for a moment. His body instinctively moved toward Qin Su in response to the order, but he asked in confusion, "Isn't Team 1 taking a mecha?"

Although there were only six mechas, their captain was Qin Su, the undisputed strongest of this year's freshmen. If he wanted a mecha, nobody would dare object.

Qin Su said, "..."

Of course he wanted one, but he couldn't take one now.

Suppressing his longing for a mecha, Qin Su put on an act for the "audience," saying the opposite of what he meant. "There's no need."

The four said, "..."

As expected of Qin Su. He was so strong that he didn't even care about mechas.

But they needed one!

That was what they thought, but none of them dared say it aloud. Qin Su had made it clear from the start that in Team 1, his orders were the only thing that mattered. They didn't want to be kicked out and hand this excellent opportunity to fight alongside Qin Su to someone else.

[What big talk... Oh, it's Qin Su. Never mind, then]

[Anthony's really something. He took advantage of Mu Bao and Raymond being easygoing to hog the biggest, strongest mecha, the Z-X307, and used it to form a team second only to Mu Bao's]

[So many Alphas switched from He Muzhi to Anthony because Anthony has the Z-X307. So annoying]

[Understandable. After all, whichever team has more firepower can help its members rack up bug kills. Once the mecha's pulse cannon fires, anyone can finish off the surviving bugs according to their own ability, and whoever lands the killing shot gets the credit. Twice the result for half the effort. Any normal person would choose Anthony's team, right?]

While the rest of Class 6 were disputing the distribution of the mechas, all of Team 1 had assembled.

To appear "different" in the eyes of the natives, Qin Su piloted the small warship at top speed with his Optical Brain.

He made his warship the first to fly away from the spacecraft's docking platform high in the sky.

The warship swept across everyone's field of vision like a black arc and quickly vanished, leaving the group arguing over the mechas stunned for a moment.

"Was that... Qin Su just now?"

"Piloting a warship that fast with an Optical Brain? Definitely him."

Seeing his team's attention drawn away by Qin Su, Anthony frowned. "So what if it was him? I don't see him caring whether you live or die."

He Muzhi was piloting the smallest mecha out of the spacecraft. Hearing that, he turned his head, and the mecha turned with him to look at Anthony. He asked the pointed question, "Can you keep everyone alive?"

Anthony fell silent. "..."

Anthony said nothing, and He Muzhi led his team away.

Qin Su had not only practiced linking an Optical Brain to a warship and piloting it with his mind in class, but had also privately run through simulations countless times using footage recorded by the system. He handled it with ease now, and it wouldn't interfere with what he needed to do with his hands later.

It was just that...

Qin Su lowered his eyes to his four teammates, who had clearly been dazed for a moment by the warship's excessive speed, and silently apologized. Since he had left He Muzhi's sight and could no longer appear in the comic's panels, he chose to activate comic capture himself.

It could be activated once his total Life Points exceeded three months, but one hour cost sixty minutes of Life Points, and so on.

The Life Points an effective "shot" could earn him would more than make up for the cost.

When the warship stopped in midair, the four looked closely and discovered that they were only six or seven meters above the foul-smelling, murky water.

During the few seconds that seemed to be spent waiting for his teammates to recover, Qin Su quickly surveyed the surroundings.

He used the number of Broadleaf Lotuses to determine how many Kisslip Tree Armadillos might be present.

"Aren't we going into the water?" Sheng Shuang's voice sounded over the channel.

"No need." Having finished his estimate and plan, Qin Su answered his teammate succinctly.

For the time being, "water countered him." He couldn't let any of it touch him.

"Jeffrey, take the northwest corner. Sheng Shuang, you stand..."

With a few brief, cold commands from Qin Su, the four locked their bodies in their assigned positions. No matter how the warship moved next, even if it flipped over, their bodies would turn freely in place without falling. Then they saw their captain standing at the highest point in the middle of the warship, where he had a clear view of their situation.

Looking up through their transparent eye shields, they could see Qin Su's cold gaze as he looked down at the unfathomably deep, murky expanse of water below.

The four immediately braced themselves.

Their first time working with Qin Su was finally about to begin!

Their chests tightened as Qin Su's cold voice once again came clearly through the team channel. "For the next hour, don't worry about anything, and don't overthink it. Fight however you like."

He had calculated the number of Kisslip Tree Armadillos here. Even if the four made mistakes while fighting freely, he was absolutely confident he could keep every last Kisslip Tree Armadillo from actually touching them.

Of course, he wouldn't tell them that, lest they think someone would cover for them and grow careless during the fight.

When facing war, they had to be prepared to stake everything.

Besides, the protective suits and equipment provided by the military academy allowed everyone to see everything around them clearly through 360 degrees, even while facing only one direction. Once linked to their Optical Brains, the transparent protective layers before their eyes also came with adjustable scopes.

With assistance equipment that practically "spoon-fed" them, they wouldn't die unless they went looking for death.

Of course, for Qin Su, who had plenty of experience shooting moving targets, this fight would be even more efficient. As long as he ignored the bugs' ugly appearance, it would be like an immersive moving-target shooting experience.

The four said, "...?"

Fight however they liked? Had they heard him right? Why was this completely different from what they had imagined?

The unexpected order made the four instinctively look at one another, even though they were spread across the warship.

They were utterly bewildered.

He had been so cold and commanding when he first gave them orders, yet now he was suddenly giving them freedom?

Could they... really do this well?

Qin Su gave the four no time to think. He used his Optical Brain to operate the warship's built-in weapons.

Because the "audience" in the stands was also in place. With the timing, location, and people all in his favor, it was time for him to strong.

Click, click...

As the mechanical sound of the warship's weapons activating rang out, gun barrels emerged all around its underside.

Seeing this, the barrage was dumbfounded.

[Wait, what? A whole ring of gun barrels? This 1]

[Lighting a candle and observing a second of silence for the four of them]

[Boss 1 doesn't actually think his teammates are as strong as him, does he? I can't imagine their faces when they learn the truth]

[Boss 1: Coming again next time?]

The warship was controlled by Qin Su's Optical Brain alone. The four had no idea that Qin Su had cranked the difficulty all the way up for them from the start.

Qin Su said coldly to his four teammates, "Get ready."

To show the four what it meant that "the battlefield is perilous, ever-changing, and utterly unreasonable," and to get them used to "one moment being calm and the next turned upside down," Qin Su gave them no extra time to react. Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, he used his Optical Brain to fire the warship's shells.

The moment the shells struck the calm water, they exploded all at once.

Boom! Boom!

Deafening explosions surrounded the four in an instant.

The four said, "?!"

You call this preparation? He didn't give them a moment to prepare at all!!! And judging by that racket... just how many shells had Qin Su fired in an instant?!

The four didn't even have a chance to scream in their heads. As countless shells exploded around the battleship, the Kisslip Tree Armadillos clinging to the Broadleaf Lotuses underwater were roused.

The shells sent the water "boiling" and whipped up enormous waves. Countless Kisslip Tree Armadillos of all sizes sprang from the water and attacked the battleship from every direction.

The four aboard the battleship heard the Kisslip Tree Armadillos' piercing hisses and saw the densely packed creatures waving their tentacles of varying lengths. Their centers opened, revealing row upon row of densely packed, sharp, ferocious teeth, alternating black and white...

Only two seconds passed between Qin Su firing the battleship's full salvo and the Kisslip Tree Armadillos "attacking en masse."

It happened so fast that even the onlookers couldn't react, let alone the people caught in the "net."

Having witnessed Qin Su's merciless, ruthless maneuver from start to finish, the onlookers stared in shock. Countless battleships froze in midair as their occupants watched the scene.

In practical combat, the number each student killed counted toward their assessment, and those who failed to meet the standard would be advised to withdraw when choosing a specialization the following year.

But this was only their first practical combat exercise! Everything had only just begun, and Qin Su... was far too terrifying. Was this really necessary?

What decent person would make someone face such an "inescapable net" in their first practical combat exercise—a siege that left anyone watching feeling powerless to fight back?!

"Thank goodness... Jeffrey pushed me away." Someone swallowed as they watched the scalp-tingling scene, grateful to have escaped disaster.

"As Qin Su's teammate, you could really get torn apart by bugs because you can't keep up with him."

"Looks like you'd have to think your life was too long to be Qin Su's teammate."

Comments like these rang out from different battleships.

They were surrounded by Kisslip Tree Armadillos, in a terrifying siege unlike anything in the simulated combat exercise.

The horrifying reality made the four's blood run cold, but their training made them instinctively raise their weapons and fire.

"Aaaah!!!"

Bang, bang, bang—

The four's instinctive cries of terror rang through the sky, accompanied by the ceaseless roar of countless shells.

But Qin Su had left them to act as they pleased, and they had no real strategy. Less than three seconds after the Kisslip Tree Armadillos attacked, they were already in danger of having countless creatures pounce on their faces, latch on, and chew them up.

"Fuck!"

Kisslip Tree Armadillos, each as big as two people, attacked Jeffrey from the side and rear at the same time, opening their gaping maws at him. Still occupied with the creatures to his right and in front of him, his pupils widened in terror, and he cursed.

He didn't know how many Kisslip Tree Armadillo attacks his combat suit could withstand.

Just as he braced himself for the Kisslip Tree Armadillos to pounce on his face and gnaw at him, pop, pop, pop—

At the critical moment, the Kisslip Tree Armadillos only centimeters away from him burst apart, splattering him with globs of flesh and blood. His combat suit's self-cleaning function wiped them away in an instant, keeping his vision clear.

"!"

With the Kisslip Tree Armadillos around him dealt with, Jeffrey had a brief moment to catch his breath. He was about to see who had dealt with them for him, but there were simply too many roused Kisslip Tree Armadillos. Before he could look, they swarmed him again, leaving him no time to think about it.

Sheng Shuang, caught at the center of the "storm," had no time to notice, but the other members of Class 6 watching from the sidelines saw everything clearly.

It was Qin Su!

Amid the chaos of the relentless bug attack, Qin Su stood in the middle of the battleship. Whenever things reached a critical point, he would deal with the threats around his four teammates by the narrowest of margins.

They soon noticed that Qin Su didn't help his four teammates every time. He stepped in only at the critical moment when they were about to be bitten by the Kisslip Tree Armadillos.

Thanks to Qin Su's help, the four remained uninjured. They gradually found their footing amid the chaotic bug attack and became more coordinated, no longer as panicked and helpless as they had been at first.

Clearly, the four were improving rapidly in this siege that pushed them to their limits.

And all of it depended on Qin Su's terrifying control.

Bang, bang, bang...

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Pop, pop, pop...

The sounds of different weapons being switched and fired rang out one after another, dazzling the onlookers. Yet Qin Su switched weapons methodically throughout. His own kill count wasn't affected in the slightest, and he could still spare attention for his teammates. Several times, he didn't even look in their direction, yet whenever they faced mortal danger, he casually switched weapons with one hand and opened fire...

Terrifying as this!

The sight left the onlookers dumbfounded, staring in a daze from their battleships.

We spoke too soon. Everyone wants to be Qin Su's teammate!

Under that overwhelming firepower, every Kisslip Tree Armadillo driven out of the water by that wave of bombs was dealt with after three and a half minutes.

The intense mental effort had left Qin Su exhausted in body and mind, but with the "audience" watching, he could only straighten his back and show no sign of fatigue. As planned, he lowered the battleship so his teammates could see the Kisslip Tree Armadillos' horrifying corpses, letting the powerful visual impact of the "mountain of corpses" make them more cautious in the battles ahead.

The four swallowed with difficulty. The results pages scrolled across the Optical Brains before their eyes, while below them, Kisslip Tree Armadillo corpses lay piled on the water's surface, making their skin crawl.

Wait... so many times, we should have been bitten by the Kisslip Tree Armadillos. How come... the bugs all burst apart? Kisslip Tree Armadillos can't self-destruct. Someone shot them! That direction... The four turned in unison toward Qin Su's position high in the middle of the battleship.

In less than ten seconds, the four easily discovered from the results recording that Qin Su had saved them several times.

To make his teammates realize how serious the situation was and draw out as much of their potential as possible, Qin Su gave them no time to feel pleasantly surprised when, panting and terrified, they looked at the densely packed Kisslip Tree Armadillo corpses scattered across the water and discovered they had been saved. He deliberately lowered his voice and said coldly, "There won't be a next time."