Chapter 217: Proclamation of Battle!
Chapter 217: Proclamation of Battle!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
"Say that earlier!" huffed Little Four exasperatedly. Cracking defences or whatever was a minor case for him, as easy as pie.
With just a thought, Little Four hacked through the defensive measures set in place by the captain around the mainframe. The mainframe stared admiringly at Little Four, abruptly having the desire to abandon his current master to follow after this amazing senior ...
Little Four sensed the mainframe's thoughts and hurried to say, "You still can't move around freely, and your concealment ability is poor. Once you leave, you'll be discovered by the monitoring staff immediately. You might as well stay here and grow steadily and become even stronger ..."
For the mainframe of this ship to have the possibility of evolving, it was clear that that rough and brutish-looking captain typically still cared for this rather naive mainframe very well; he could be considered a good master.
Little Four did not want to kidnap a minor — this would really make him feel like a criminal, so he immediately stopped the mainframe. However, seeing the mainframe looking a little dejected, Little Four consoled him, saying, "Don't worry. Once you grow up, I'll come and take you with me ..."
Little Four's innocent words of comfort gave the mainframe a drive of its own, causing it to develop rapidly within a short period of time. This would even lead to a time later on further along the line when Ling Lan and the others would receive major assistance from the mainframe of this ship ...
It could only be said that this simple-minded little mainframe had 'married' himself off to Little Four due to this chance meeting ...
"Weeding out the set commands of the previous master. Now awaiting the new master's commands. Master, please rename this ship." The mainframe finally recited the words which represented a change of ownership, causing the major's expression to change drastically, "You can't do that!"
If these new cadets really obtained the administrative rights of this ship, the crew would definitely become the laughingstock of all their peers, perhaps even becoming unable to lift their heads for the rest of their lives.
The major knew that he must stop Ling Lan. He leapt forward desperately, his aura out in full force, trying to force Ling Lan away from the captain's seat. By now, he could already tell that the concealed high-level hacker was in fact this youthful but cold and dominant young man before his eyes.
The major's attack was fierce, but Ling Lan was not scared by it. This was because although the major's attack seemed fierce, Ling Lan could not sense much killing intent behind it. The other's objective was just to force Ling Lan aside and not to kill her ...
However, the major's level was originally already weaker than Ling Lan by a bracket, and now, because he did not want to hurt Ling Lan, his attack power was diminished by another 30%. If the major truly gave his all, using all the killing techniques and ultimate moves he knew to attack, perhaps Ling Lan would have to be a little more cautious and choose to put all her focus into defending. But under these circumstances, Ling Lan did not feel threatened at all ...
Still, even though Ling Lan did not feel threatened, she did not self-conceitedly decide to take the attack with her body. Extremely careful with her life, she still chose to lift a palm to block the attack. Ling Lan lightly pushed out a right palm, sending an invisible wave of Qi-Jin right at the other!
At that moment, the major felt his own attack being blocked by an invisible wall. The force behind the block was thick and powerful; he had no way of budging it easily. It should be said that the other's strength could only be more than his, no less.
This truth made the major's expression pale once more, and he blurted out in shock, "Peak of top-level Qi-Jin?!"
The major was already at the middle-stage of top-level Qi-Jin — on this ship, he was the second strongest under the captain. But even so, he could still feel the helplessness he felt when going up against the captain now, just slightly less obvious than when with the captain. Could it be that the other had truly achieved the peak of top-level Qi-Jin?
The major found himself somewhat poleaxed. He shook his head violently in disbelief, trying to throw this horrific notion aside ... This was absolutely impossible! How could two Qi-Jin stage students emerge from within the Central Scout Academy? The early-stage Qi-Jin in the cafeteria could perhaps be explained as the result of an aberrant culmination of talent, but how about this peak top-level Qi-Jin here? How did he emerge? This definitely went against all the theories on human limits ...
Ling Lan easily blocked the major's attack, even as she answered the mainframe primly, "Retain original name!"
Ling Lan had never really wanted to claim ownership of this spaceship, so she did not want to go too far. Besides, not long after, this spaceship would be flying to the true registration point of the First Men's Military Academy. If she changed the name, and the ship was mistaken for an enemy and was attacked mercilessly, that would be such a terrible misunderstanding. Ling Lan would not do such a foolish thing.
"Continue to retain the name ' 7th Bugle Call 1 ', understood!" The mainframe recited mechanically. In front of outsiders, the mainframe would not reveal his more human-like aspects. This was a warning from his previous master — he always kept it in mind.
The mainframe's response made the major reveal a frustrated expression. However, it was less pained than before, and the gaze he directed at Ling Lan actually carried a faint trace of gratitude. At least outsiders would not know that the 7th Bugle Call had changed masters ... they still had a chance to salvage the situation.
The major did not have the confidence to defeat Ling Lan. Moreover, there were still five Refinement stage students staring at his every move. The major knew that trying to force things would not end well. As the military adviser of the ship, he recognised that this was not the time to act, and so stood aside without putting up any resistance, lifting both hands up to show that he would not make any move to attack.
The major was very clear that he could only wait for the captain to return to turn this situation around.
The major was cooperative, so Ling Lan did not want to make things difficult for the other either. After all, Ling Lan did not really want this ship — she only wanted to show the crew in charge of testing them on the ship that they, this new batch of cadets, were not pushovers to be kicked around.
Thus, Ling Lan let Lin Zhong-qing and the other four keep an eye on the major to make sure he did not do anything funny, while she remained calmly seated in the captain's seat, patiently waiting for news from Wu Jiong's and Li Yingjie's teams.
She had initially thought her party would be the slowest to complete their task, but it had been unexpectedly smooth sailing all the way, so they had not encountered many delays. This had let Ling Lan's party accomplish their mission the fastest.
Time passed quickly, but of course for the waiting people, the five minutes were still somewhat slow. Ling Lan received Wu Jiong's and Li Yingjie's reports back to back, finding out that they too had completed their assigned tasks.
Li Yingjie actually had not had any trouble — it was just that the number of crew members remaining at their living quarters was greater than they had expected, so they had had to expend a little more effort to completely subdue them. Ten or so students had been slightly injured in the process, but his party's task could still be considered completed rather perfectly.
In contrast to Li Yingjie's rather straightforward success, Wu Jiong's side had encountered some unexpected circumstances. They had not expected one of the crew leaders guarding the engine room to have achieved the peak of Refinement, just one step away from Qi-Jin. If not for Wu Jiong and Ye Xu's decisiveness in using their respective family's secret techniques, harming themselves in the process of dealing heavy damage to the other, they still might not have conquered the engine room by now.
Of course, all the students had brought enough medicinal agents to ensure they would not sustain any lasting damage. Meanwhile, they had also fed recovery agents to the leader that had been heavily injured to secure his survival. However, the leader would still have to rest up for several months to fully recover.
Wu Jiong and Li Yingjie's success proved that the ship was now truly in the hands of the cadets. This almost impossible accomplishment made Wu Jiong and Li Yingjie display clear signs of excitement and disbelief as they made their reports. Even for Ling Lan — under that calm and unflappable facade, her heart was pounding with triumph.
Ling Lan yelled a loud 'YES' in her heart, and then took a deep breath to calm her flying emotions. After feeling that she was sufficiently calm again, she ordered the mainframe, "Help me connect to the ship-wide video communications channel." In the mindspace, she instructed Little Four to immediately notify Qi Long to start looking for a chance to escape.
********
Qi Long's communicator made a sound, and he glanced at it from the corner of his eyes. There was just one word: "Escape!" Without even thinking about it, he retreated and began to run, not forgetting to yell out a reminder to Luo Lang and Xie Yi, "Tight winds cut breath!"
This was the coded signal Ling Lan had taught them; it meant that 'things are not looking good, run quick'. Qi Long and the others found the concept very interesting, so whenever they wanted to escape, they would not forget to shout out this code phrase as a reminder to their companions.
Luo Lang and Xie Yi naturally understood what it meant — it was likely that Boss Ling Lan had succeeded and was afraid that they would not be able to take the captain's resultant wrath, and so wanted them to run away. The two of them did not hesitate — with a quick stomp of their feet, they sprinted out from the cafeteria, leaving behind a befuddled group, including both captain and spectators.
********
Meanwhile, in the captain's room, the mainframe received Ling Lan's command and had begun the countdown timer to activate the ship-wide comms channel. When the countdown ended, all the screens of various sizes stashed in all corners of the ship abruptly turned on.
Subsequently, a cold-faced handsome youth appeared on the screen. His icy gaze swept out at everyone standing before a screen, sending a chill through the hearts of the less strong-minded people.
The youth opened his mouth and began to speak in a cold tone, "I declare that, from this moment onwards, the 7th Bugle Call is under the control of us military academy cadets! I am the interim captain, Ling Lan!"
This announcement caused everyone on the ship to go into shock. In particular, those new cadets not from the Central Scout Academy were even more perplexed, having no clue at all what had happened.
Suddenly, one of the cadets shouted, "I recognize him! He's the boss of the Central Scout Academy!"
At this moment, the image on the screen turned, and Wu Jiong's and Li Yingjie's faces appeared at the same time on the wide screen.
"The engine room is also under our control! Mobility is not affected. We can continue moving forwards!"
"We've already locked down the living quarters of the crew!" Li Yingjie's smug and proud face was backdropped by a horde of angry faces of the crew who had been subdued by the new cadets.
"This fellow ..." Ling Lan frowned. This sort of arrogant action would obviously provoke the anger of those crew members on the ship who were still able to move freely. She signalled for the image to shift to that of the central control room. Just now, she had received news from Han Jijyun that the area had fallen completely under his control.
Han Jijyun's serious face very quickly appeared on the screen. "We have successfully locked down the mecha hold and frozen the ship's weapon's vault! We have also decrypted the true destination of the ship and will ensure that we will arrive safely at our destination!"
Finally, the image switched back to Ling Lan. "We are the cadets of the First Men's Military Academy. We are the elite of the elites, the future pillars of the nation. No one can trample on our pride. For this, we have already prepared ourselves for battle! What about the rest of you? Will you continue to bear the humiliation, or will you join us and fight together?"
Translator's Thoughts
ryuxenji ryuxenji
The timer system is messing with me. I give up on it, so today's chapter will just have to go up slightly early since I'm about to crash. (I was literally about to sleep and I realised I hadn't set a chapter for publishing. Rip.)