[A bye to advance? That's incredibly lucky! This is the first time in all the years the Ability User Competition has seen someone advance to the top eight with a bye.]
[Who would have thought that members of the Reform Society would infiltrate the tournament? The Mask Squad really got lucky.]
At this moment, Xu Jintang and his four classmates received a last-minute notice from the military academy that their final exams for the semester would be held in just half a month.
"Time flies? It feels like I haven't done anything yet, and the semester is already over." Yan Yuting sighed, as if it were only her first day of school.
Song Tianqi frowned deeply. "Oh no, I suddenly remembered something very important."
Xu Jintang turned his head and looked over, "What?"
"Have you forgotten? The assessment task Teacher Zhuang gave us before? We had to defeat Senior Yan Yuhang and his team before the end of this semester!"
Xu Jintang was stunned for a moment before remembering this.
"That's right." Xue Zhongqi slapped his forehead. "I almost forgot."
Jiang Shiyi spoke calmly, "With our current strength, including the magic weapons, defeating our seniors should be much easier than before."
Yan Yuting nodded in agreement, "Yes. We happen to have a bye in this round of competition. If we have time, how about we challenge the senior students?"
Xu Jintang stroked his chin thoughtfully, "That works too. Otherwise, we're just idling around anyway."
Leikedasi has officially entered final week, and all students' schedules have become exceptionally busy.
In the afternoon, when Xu Jintang came out of the cultivation room, his communicator started beeping incessantly.
She clicked on the communication screen and saw that it was full of unread notifications popping up in the large group chat Yu Wanyao and the others were.
Yu Wanyao: [This is insane! How can Leikedasi's final exam be so insane?]
Xue Zhongqi posted a smug "Ouch" emoji, deliberately teasing. "[Even our A-Yao thinks this assessment is insane, how strange.]"
Wei Zixuan: [... Xue Zhongqi, has anyone ever told you that you're really asking for a beating?]
Yu Wanyao: [Stop wasting your breath on him, just beat him up next time we meet.]
Yan Yuting quickly chimed in: [What kind of assessment is it? How insane is it?]
That concludes our discussion of the latest news.
Xu Jintang immediately chimed in. "[Our final exam is to defeat a team of two Fifth Tier and three Fourth Tier senior students. What kind of exam are you having?]"
Yu Wanyao quickly replied: [??]
Qin Shuxue: [Compared to this, our assessment task doesn't seem so abnormal anymore.]
Yan Zitao: [Our mission is to hunt five Fourth Tier monsters in the Extreme Cold Forest. A teacher will accompany the team, but their sole responsibility is to protect our lives; they will not help us hunt the monsters.]
Xu Jintang clicked his tongue.
Leikedasi is indeed quite monstrous.
Exiting the chat interface, Xu Jintang got up, stretched, and walked out of the room.
Yan Yuting and Jiang Shiyi were downstairs drinking tea and eating snacks.
Xu Jintang quickly went downstairs and squeezed in next to them, saying, "I want to eat too."
Just then, Jiang Shiyi peeled the chestnut shells and casually fed the chestnut meat to Xu Jintang's mouth.
Xu Jintang didn't stand on ceremony and swallowed it in one gulp.
"Delicious, delicious!"
"Class monitor, Sister Shiyi and I have been discussing this for ages. Senior Yan Yuhang and Gu Nianwei are really tough to deal with. We need to come up with some tactics to be on the safe side." Yan Yuting turned to look at them.
"Okay, then call Song Tianqi and the other guy to the conference room for a meeting later." Xu Jintang sat up straight and picked up a chestnut to peel.
At this point, Yan Yuting's expression suddenly turned serious. "I'm going to report them. They must have been playing games all night again last night. I live next door to Song Tianqi, and I've been hearing him yelling and screaming the whole time."
She had barely finished speaking when footsteps echoed down the stairs.
This was followed by Song Tianqi's wild shouts, "Aaaaaah! I've made it into the top ten of the Federation District's game leaderboard!"
Xu Jintang put a freshly peeled chestnut into her mouth, glanced at him, and said, "Still playing around? It's almost finals, can't you be a little more ambitious? Go call Xue Zhongqi, we're in the conference room in ten minutes for a meeting to discuss tactics for challenging senior Yan Yuhang."
After descending the stairs, Song Tianqi quickly stood at attention, striking a perfect military salute. "Roger!"
Ten minutes later, the five people gathered in the conference room.
Xu Jintang stood at the front, one hand resting on the edge of the conference table. He turned to the side and activated the floating light screen, beginning to play the battle video of Yan Yuhang and Gu Nianwei.
"These videos were found by Yuting from the military academy forum; they are videos of their matches over the past year."
Yan Yuting raised her hand to add, "Furthermore, I noticed that senior Yan Yuhang and senior Gu Nianwei are from different classes, so they probably rarely work together, which means their teamwork isn't very good."
Xu Jintang nodded, "Yes. Not only are the two of them not very coordinated, but the other three senior students are also from different classes, so their teamwork is definitely not as good as ours."
The greatest advantage of the five students in the experimental class is their tacit understanding and teamwork.
This is especially important for winning team battles.
Xue Zhongqi leaned back in his chair, flicked his folding fan, and asked, "Then, on whom would it be most suitable to use my Soul Sharing skill?"
"The main purpose of today's meeting is to finalize this matter," Xu Jintang said, looking at Xue Zhongqi. "Your Soul Sharing is the key to our victory in this team battle. But whether or not to use it on yourself in the final minute before the battle begins needs to be discussed by everyone."
Yan Yuting rested her chin on her hands and muttered, "Senior Yan Yuhang has melee-type abilities, and Senior Gu Nianwei has fire element manipulation. Soul Sharing will definitely be used on them."
Song Tianqi sighed and slumped onto the conference table. "If you ask me, we should just do it."
Xue Zhongqi glanced at him. "You're just spouting nonsense. The other side has two Fifth Tier and three Fourth Tier. How can we possibly win if we just charge in without discussing tactics?"
Jiang Shiyi pondered for a long time before suddenly speaking, "Why don't we use it on Senior Gu Nianwei? In the last battle, Senior Gu Nianwei's ability had many area-of-effect attacks, which was somewhat disadvantageous for us. But Senior Yan Yuhang has a melee-type ability, so we only need to use one of our own to restrain him."
At this point, everyone's eyes instinctively turned to Xu Jintang.
Xu Jintang pursed her lips. "Then that person is me."
Jiang Shiyi hummed in agreement.
Yan Yuting and Xue Zhongqi nodded quickly, "Yes, yes."
When it comes to fighting melee-type ability users, having Xu Jintang is a choice that everyone feels comfortable with.
Xu Jintang nodded, "Okay. Next question."
She raised her hand to switch the screen, and quickly continued discussing the subsequent tactics.
The meeting lasted an hour and a half, during which Song Tianqi was drowsy the entire time.
It wasn't until Xu Jintang announced the disbandment.
Song Tianqi suddenly looked up, instantly snapping out of his daze, and stood up. "Class is over?"
Yan Yuting, standing to the side, glanced over speechlessly, "Still dreaming, bro."
Xu Jintang glanced at him. "It's over. Go back to sleep."
She didn't expect Song Tianqi to come up with any ingenious solutions, so she could only be more lenient with him.
By this time, the sun had already set.
Ruan Tao arrived at the villa on time to cook, but she seemed a little off today.
While helping serve the rice, Xu Jintang noticed her mood and asked, "What's wrong with Sister Taozi today?"
Ruan Tao then snapped out of her daze, exclaimed "Ah!", and then sighed, "It's nothing, it's just that my favorite team got eliminated."
Xu Jintang was taken aback.
" The Mechanical Technology Military Academy Team was eliminated?"
They had a bye today and were busy figuring out tactics to deal with their seniors, so they didn't pay much attention to the Ability User Competition.
Ruan Tao nodded, "Yes, they were eliminated. They were defeated by the Dark Horse Team."
Xu Jintang became curious, "What Dark Horse Team?"
Ruan Tao: "That team is called the Dark Horse Team. It's also a rookie team. According to the host, the average age of the team members is sixteen."
Xu Jintang pondered for a moment.
As far as she could remember, neither Teacher Zhuang nor Teacher Wu seemed to have mentioned this team.
"Anyway, the strength of these team members is quite terrifying. You might have to face them later, so you should prepare in advance," Ruan Tao reminded her.
Xu Jintang carried the served rice to the table and sat down. "Okay."
During the meal, Xu Jintang pulled up the communicator's light screen and began searching for replay videos of today's Ability User Competition.
Before long, they found combat videos of the Mechanical Technology Military Academy.
She enlarged the light screen, installed it opposite the dining table, and began playing the video.
Yan Yuting brought over the food and sat down. "Is this the other teams' elimination match today?"
Xu Jintang replied while eating, "Yeah, the Mechanical Technology Military Academy got eliminated. The team that beat them is this one, called the Dark Horse Team."
Yan Yuting was also surprised, "What team is this? I've never heard of it before."
"I don't know, let me take a look first." Xu Jintang's gaze fell on the light screen, and he began to observe it carefully.
The five members of the Dark Horse Team also had an arrogant attitude, but their arrogance was not off-putting, which was completely different from Huai Yangxia's overbearing behavior.
Their team leader was a girl with short blonde hair and a round face; she looked sweet and cute.
But when they start fighting, their eyes are so fierce that they inspire fear.
As she leaped into the air, a smile appeared on her lips and a shallow dimple appeared on her face. She then raised her hand and slammed it down on the enemy opposite her.
"This is a violent loli," Yan Yuting remarked.
Xu Jintang picked up a piece of green vegetable, put it in his mouth, chewed it a few times, and swallowed. "That's pretty impressive."
"Squad leader! Shall we go watch the Soul Awakening Team's match this afternoon?" Song Tianqi shouted from upstairs.
Xu Jintang looked up and gave an OK sign. "Okay."
The Dark Horse Team is from the lower half of the bracket, so we won't meet them until after the semifinals. There's no rush to analyze them.