Chapter 486: The Fifth House?

In the monitoring room, all the referees and the staff members were staring at the large screen before them as the territory marked by the First Men’s Military Academy expanded slowly…

“Area number 20 has been lit up… G14 as well. Looks like the First Men’s Military Academy split their forces, went on the offensive in multiple directions and snatched up all the surrounding unoccupied areas. The zones they control have already expanded to 11 areas.” A referee was jotting down the First Men’s Military Academy’s achievements. Of course, this wasn’t the final result—after occupying those areas, they still had to defend them during the 72 hours starting from the official commencement of the battle royale.

Right then, Ling Xiao and others walked towards the middle of the monitoring room to the life-like map on the table. The tall mountains, flowing rivers, fields, and forests were all scaled down and compacted in a model and placed onto this table.

“The First Men’s Military Academy has pretty much taken over the rear half of the mountain ranges. Actually, it is because they drew a good location. There are pretty much no opponents near their headquarters. The ones closest to them are at Area G6 and G12 on their left and right sides. They can be more at ease since the Yin Yang Sea is behind them. This is a natural defensive line. Other than the First Men’s Military Academy, none of the other military academies can successfully pass through there. This makes it so they have very little pressure coming from their rear,” one division representative said while looking at the model and analyzing the advantages held by the First Men’s Military Academy. After saying that, he raised his head and looked towards Ling Xiao, who was focused and looking at the terrain. With a hint of provocation in his tone, he said, “General Ling, your juniors seem to have pretty good luck this time.” He implied that the great results achieved by the First Men’s Military Academy were all due to luck.

Ling Xiao’s expression froze slightly. Soon after, his lips curved into a faint, shallow smile and he said, “Yeah, who knew they would be this lucky. To be able to cross the Yin Yang Sea and be the first to reach their headquarters.”

Hmph! Was the Yin Yang Sea that easy to cross? He dared to say that his daughter was lucky? Motherf****er! This was a show of strength!

Ling Xiao’s words were clearly sarcastic, causing the division representative to suddenly freeze up. In the end, he awkwardly smiled, thinking to himself, “Didn’t they say Ling Xiao had a good temper? How come he’s being like this now?”

On hearing Ling Xiao’s words, He Xuyang revealed a hint of a shallow smile. It was as expected—Young Master Lan was the General’s own flesh and blood! He would not let anyone slander her that easily!

Sensing that Ling Xiao was a bit unhappy, the mecha tournament host’s representative grudgingly shot a glance at the division representative who did not know his place. Man, did they really think that General Ling Xiao was the same lieutenant from before who would take orders from them? He quickly smiled, and to smooth things over he said, “Luck is also a type of strength. Three hours have almost passed and the only one to reach their headquarters is the First Men’s Military Academy. You can tell that this year’s participating cadets are very strong. I heard that there was someone considered to be second to General Ling, called… Qiao something?” He turned around towards his assistant beside him.

The assistant reacted quickly and instantly answered, “Qiao Ting, the cadet who advanced to an ace operator in his fourth year.”

The host representative nodded and said, “Yes, yes, yes, that’s him. Speaking of him, it reminds me that you, General Ling Xiao, created a record when you advanced to an ace operator at the beginning of your fourth year in the academy.”

Ling Xiao smiled humbly and said, “You’re mocking me right? I know that there were secretly many cadets who advanced to an ace operator during the fourth year. Now that I think about it, I was still young back then and only knew how to show off.”

“Hmph, if you guys knew that my daughter advanced to ace in her first year, you would be so surprised your jaws would drop, right? But I’m not going to tell you!” Ling Xiao thought to himself proudly.

The host’s representative naturally didn’t believe Ling Xiao’s words and continued to compliment him. “General Ling is being too modest. There were definitely some who advanced close to the end of their fourth year, but you were the only one who advanced at the beginning of the fourth year, General Ling.” After saying this, the representative tapped his head exaggeratedly and said, “Oh right, now there’s this Qiao Ting. Why else would he be considered a second General Ling?”

The host’s representative thought that the reason Ling Xiao was paying close attention to the First Men’s Military Academy was because of the second Ling Xiao, Qiao Ting. His words were, at the same time, intended to praise Qiao Ting and make Ling Xiao happy.

One of the people who came with Ling Xiao was the representative from the third division. Upon hearing all this, his eyes lit up and a feeling of joy flashed in them. His assignment during this mecha tournament was to observe Qiao Ting’s performance. As it was already decided internally that Qiao Ting was going to join the third division and become a subordinate of the Third Marshal, he was of utmost importance to the Third Marshal. If Qiao Ting really could become a second Ling Xiao and ultimately become a god-class operator, their strength would become greater than the Second Marshal’s faction and maybe even on par with the First Marshal’s faction.

Wasn’t the only reason why the First Marshal could control the military of the Federation for more than a decade was because he had Ling Xiao, a young and promising god-class operator whose future was boundless? If it wasn’t for the coincidence of Ling Xiao’s ‘sacrifice’ that gave the First Marshal’s faction a chance to use public opinions to make both the military and public angry, making their two factions have no choice but to give up on the competition, it would not have been so easy for the First Marshal’s faction to take control of the military to this day.

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In the end, they had waited until the impact of Ling Xiao’s ‘sacrifice’ had reached its lowest stage and the position of the First Marshal had become unstable. It was right that time, however, that Ling Xiao coincidentally ‘revived’. Upon the return of Ling Xiao, whose battle level was already known by the public, thousands came to see him. This made the weakened influence of the First Marshal’s faction return to their peak, and the seat of the First Marshal became stable once again…

If Qiao Ting could be like Ling Xiao in terms of quick growth, in six years he would be able to successfully advance to god-class. That would be the day when the third faction would retaliate. The third division representative’s smirk became more pronounced. It was as though he could see the proud day when they achieved this goal in the future.

The host’s representative’s words only made Lin Xiao smile a bit just for show. He knew of Qiao Ting because his own daughter wanted to lead her team to compete in the mecha tournament. Children who walked thousands of miles would make their fathers worry for them! It was thus only natural that Ling Xiao needed to know about those members from Ling Lan’s team. Ling Xiao paid a bit more attention to Qiao Ting because he was a genius above all others in every aspect, and was listed by intelligence officers as the number one cadet; however, that was it.

Right then, the staff in the monitoring room suddenly said, “A second military academy has appeared.”

As soon as he finished, another person said, “A third one has appeared as well…”

“A fourth is there as well…”

“Ah, another area has been lit up. A fifth one…”

On the large screen, numerous areas were lit up at the same time. Originally, only the G district had color and the other parts of the map were grayed out, but now the map finally had many colorful parts that were full of life.

“Finished receiving signal from Area P47. It’s the First Co-ed Military Academy!” Area P47 was near the middle of the large map in grasslands. This location was both good and bad. It was good because no matter which side they headed towards, the Co-ed Military Academy would be able to take over a large area. It was bad for the same reason—there were enemies all around them. Plus, in grassland areas, there weren’t any places to hide in the environment. The headquarters in this area was the hardest to defend.

If they wanted to defend this area, they would need manpower to do so. This way, the number of people that the First Co-ed Military Academy could send out to go on the offensive would be less. The rules of the tournament were for them to first defend their own headquarters and then think about other things. This was why the First Co-ed Military Academy urgently needed to form an alliance with the First Men’s Military Academy. Even if the First Academy didn’t help them, it would still be good if there was one less strong opponent like them.

“Area Q9’s signal has been fully received. It is the Second Men’s Military Academy…” The area where the Second Men’s Military Academy was in was a hilly area. If they planned well, it would be a place that would be easy to defend and hard to attack. They were in a better situation compared to the Co-ed Military Academy, but it was just that hilly areas were at the southwest corner of the large map; if they wanted to attack other areas, they would first need to fight through the hilly areas in the southwest corner. Just like what was said before, the hilly areas were all easy to defend and hard to attack. That was why in order for the Second Men’s Military Academy to walk out of the hill areas, they had to attack one area at a time like screwing a corkscrew. If they wanted to conquer a large area, it would be much harder compared to the First Co-ed Military Academy’s Area P.

“Area S33’s signal has been fully received. It is the Third Men’s Military Academy.” Almost at the same time, the Third Men’s Military Academy closely followed the Second Men’s Military Academy in occupying their own headquarters as well. The forest was a place that they could easily hide in. Finding opponents hidden in a forest would be very difficult to do. If the Third Men’s Military Academy wanted to overcome the opponents around them, they would have it easier than the Second Men’s Military Academy in Area Q.

“Area S9 has also been lit up. We don’t know which military academy acquired the fifth placement,” excitedly said the referee who was receiving the signal of Area S9. Currently, the top four academies had all successfully lit up their areas. Other than the First Men’s Military Academy being the first by a mile, the other three military academies had lit up their locations within seconds of each other. Was this Area S9 taken by one of the top ten military academies? Or was it a black horse hidden among the military academies? Since they could keep up so closely with the three military academies and pretty much occupying their area at the same time, their strength was probably no less those three academies… The referee stared at the percentage of the signal being received, wanting to know the answer as soon as possible, looking forward to seeing who the fifth military academy was.

The others had raised their heads with interest upon hearing about the fifth military academy that had joined in at the same time as the other three.

“It’s showing up. It’s… how is it the First Men’s Military Academy!” The referee had seen that 100% of the signal was received and had suddenly become focused, but when he raised his head to take a look, his expression changed instantly.

The emblem that showed up on the big screen, after Area S9 was lit up, was of the First Men’s Military Academy.

His surprised voice made the entire monitoring room immediately fall silent. Everyone looked at Area S9 which represented the territory of the First Men’s Military Academy with dumbfounded looks.

Ling Xiao’s eyes suddenly lit up and he quickly walked towards Area S9 which was shown on the model on the table. He frowned and looked at Area S9, and then looked again at the G district that had all been connected together. He then said, “The First Men’s Military Academy didn’t just split their forces towards the left and right. At the same time, they sent out another team and came to the S district.”

“They split their forces this much? How many people are left in their headquarters? Are they abandoning their base?” a division’s representative said surprisedly with a face full of disbelief.