Chapter 273.1 – The End of Group Training
“You… is that true?” Neither of the two could believe their ears. How was this possible!?
“Tianjing auction, Ma Dong.” After leaving his reply floating in the air, Wang Zhong simply walked off. It had been something he’d thought of in the last minute and might just give Ma Dong a chance at a great comeback.
Although his business sense was inferior to Ma Dong’s, his fundamentals had still been influenced by his friend. With Darwin and Musk’s strength, it was impossible for them to not be able to find Ma Dong.
Quickly, the legend of the mysterious Fate Master began to circulate the adventurer base. Naturally, the golden stone slab was privy to just the two higher ups.
Darwin and Musk seemed to leave the hyperdimension at the same time. They tacitly understood they shouldn’t reveal this information to others, and the contention for the stone slab would be between the two clans. Neither wanted to increase the number of competitors.
The Eastern Area’s group training was finally coming to an end. Wang Zhong, on the other hand, had been incomparably busy during the last few days. After being appoint an official position beside Old Potter, he spent most of his time studying. His understanding of the hyperdimension had been limited to the small portion he’d gathered with his Rank A clearance. Most of this information had been related to the various aspects of the Federation.
This information was incomparably attractive to those with lofty aspirations. Lacking such a foundation was quite dangerous. He’d been able to act as he did in Diamond Base mostly because he’d had some understanding of the adventurer bases and their effect on one’s exploration process. His mysterious actions had been built upon this basic foundation, and he was able to pull off his Fate Master persona effectively because of it. Since he’d experienced its effects, Wang Zhong desired more information and began to readily absorb everything he could get his hands on with that Rank A clearance.
An example was the various kinds of black technology. This technology was wide-spread, but the details surrounding them were hard to find. Another example of necessary information were those incredibly concealed families that were no weaker than the Ten Great Clans. There was even information on the Ten Great Divine Weapons of the dark era which had long been assumed to have disappeared.
Wang Zhong was most interested in the location of the Laforgue Infinite Slash Crosswheels. His Rank A clearance managed to access some information, but the only thing available was news surrounding the weapon thirty years ago at an auction before it disappeared once more.
This gargantuan amount of information made Wang Zhong feel intoxicated and drunk. He would regularly go through his skylink with joy, happily daydreaming while inside the research lab. This, of course, made Old Potter feel a bit lost in his anger. He’d originally given the brat his Rank A clearance in order for him to experience the superiority that came from being privileged. What he had hoped and anticipated was for Wang Zhong to gain a strong interest in the more secret black technologies. Who would’ve thought he’d spend his entire day reading about divine weapons, families, and the hyperdimension… He really was like a young man in this. To actually let such showy and ostentatious-looking things hoodwink him. In what way could those waste be comparable to proper science and technology?
How much better would it have been if he’d spend his free time looking up those legendary figures such as Gullan Grasso. Now that was a legendary and spectacular life! Just the mere thought of it was enough to get Old Potter emotional to the point that his entire body would shake. It had been because he’d read of Gullan Grasso’s life in the past that Old Potter dove into the sea of science, unable to extricate himself ever since.
While Old Potter was having such depressing thoughts, he casually agreed to the matter Wang Zhong proposed about heading to Tianjing for his friend’s auction.
On one hand, it was really difficult for him to reject the brat when he personally invited him. On the other hand, he’d already made contact with Moore on the Tianjing side, as he was the only one with high level personnel below him from the Federation’s Institute of Science inside the East Area’s A Region. Along with that, Professor’s Moore’s attainments in runes was also rather high, and he had agreed to be Old Potter’s assistant. This would definitely speed up the overall deduction process for the project. As for the lack of equipment in Tianjing, Old Potter was prepared to bring his entire research lab over.
Naturally, what Old Potter felt was most important was the feeling he got from Wang Zhong. This fellow had been unrestrained before they met, so if he were to be released back to Tianjing he would for sure immediately toss the research away to the nine clouds. Then, this natural intellect would throw himself into the ranks of combat soldiers, something Old Potter regarded as a crime against humanity! But he also couldn’t let the brat walk too skewed from the wrong path. What he needed to do was follow alongside the brat and give him both sincere advice and frequent guidance. With enough perseverance he would be able to turn this brat’s heart back onto the right track.
Nevertheless, since moving the equipment required time, he could only raise a few requests for Wang Zhong before letting him go back to Tianjing first. He booked two carriages as he accepted Wang Zhong’s request, and even brought Laura along. He wasn’t being ostentatious about it, which Laura didn’t mind, and even forbid Wang Zhong from telling anyone he was going to Tianjing. Not even that friend of his, Ma Dong, would know. This saved him from being disturbed every single day, and it was fine if he were to show up on the day of the auction.
Naturally, his request for Wang Zhong in return was for the fellow to follow up on the improvements to the research.
The last day for the group training arrived, and the rarely-used gathering area was filled with people and staff. Fiona, this rosy-eyed great aunt, gave her final summaries of the group training and commented on the performances of the squadrons, Tianjing naturally included.
There was both praise and criticism for them, with the former toward the squadron’s special coordination between members and the latter toward their overall strength. Tianjing’s strength, from its captain to its members, didn’t even have an average soul power of 150 grassos, and their peak hadn’t even reached the maximum 200. Other than Grai, the other members simply didn’t possess the qualifications necessary to participate in the CHF. Even if they went, they would simply be eliminated.
The exchanges between the squadrons and the information trades both proceeded without a hitch. Everyone had reached their goals in interacting with the other squadrons and there was every a few cliques formed between elites of different cities. A few of the students even tried to deliberately meet with some of the big-shot families of Copperfield, with everyone having their own plans.
Only Tianjing didn’t try as hard in this as everyone would expect. Scarlet did try to maneuver about, but she found people were only interested in herself and not in Tianjing. In the end, however, Saxon’s provocation did give Tianjing a chance to showcase themselves so they weren’t completely forgotten within the group training.
That transcendent level of coordination between Scarlet and Milami had been too eye-grabbing, but the important part had been their coordination and not their individual strength. An important reason why the two assassins had fallen to the two was because they didn’t understand how strong their coordination was. If they used different methods to contend against the two ladies, then they would be able to evade their covering fire more easily.
As for the others, heavy soldier Lily and Emily simply weren’t worthy with the level of combat they’d shown. This included Barran who had been easily dealt with by Saxon Vice-captain Sully in their duel. To be frank, this was a squadron in possession of a Super Freshman. This was considered quite the common kind of ‘overboard squadron’ in the CHF, and none would actually be able to go far. If Paul had participated, then he could have suppressed Grai and the results would have been completely different.
Wang Zhong? He hadn’t even entered the arena while there, and he was simply listed as a ranged soldier from the information gathered. Could Tianjing even fight with three ranged soldiers? And if either Milami or Scarlet were taken out of the formation, then it might not even be as good as a proper coordination between the two ladies. In the end, not going up would probably be a good thing for Tianjing.
While the Tianjing Squadron was no longer considered weak in the eyes of others, they definitely didn’t possess the requirements for being strong.