Chapter 334: chapter 334 : Marathon on the icy plains
Translator: Radiant Translations Editor: Radiant Translations
As the Tianjing and the Giant God Peak Academies stood together, a small interlude happened while they were waiting to board the armored train.
Despite feeling unhappy after knowing from yesterday's balloting that Stowe Luge Academy, which Reeves had joined had also been allocated to the Grozny City Competition Zone, Wang Zhong and the others had already gave up caring about it. Other than the few joking words that Hymin said about wanting to settle their debts, everyone was just joking around with their words, with their only thoughts being that this was just a slight coincidence. However, none of them had thought that Reeves would actually take the initiative to approach them at the railway station today.
At this moment, a faint smile was present on Reeve's face. Over the past half year, especially due to his reliance on his family connections to enter a first rate academy like Stowe Luge Academy, his strength had increased by quite a bit. He had long not given a care about what happened in Tianjing. With the arrogance radiating coming right out from his soul, he spoke out "It's been half a year, and you've become even more beautiful, Scarlet."
This fellow had actually said such words upon opening his mouth! What's more, he had clearly used a frivolous tone, causing everyone to instantly feel rather unhappy.
"We're not close." replied Scarlet with a rather chilly voice. She never had any good impressions about Reeves, with the matter of him setting up Wang Zhong making hatred and anger brew in her heart. She wouldn't care about him if he had become a stranger after leaving the squadron. However, he had actually dared to walk over and say such words to her! Hearing those words from him caused feelings of disgust to surface within her heart.
"Tsk tsk. Quite a big temper, huh." not feeling any embarrassment towards Scarlet's icy cold reply, Reeves actually started to laugh out before saying, "Don't be too presumptuous and treat yourself as someone important. This isn't Tianjing. Don't go and assume that it is, or you'll end up crying for what's about to come."
His rude words were filled with the taste of gunpowder, causing everyone from Tianjing Academy to stare coldly at him. Barran had even started to roll up his sleeves. Having frequently eaten Scarlet's handmade meals, the vice captain was one the closest people in his eye. If not for Wang Zhong teaching him daily for the past period of time to stay calm and remain steady, he would have already went forward and give Reeves a beating.
"You still have not grown up even after changing places. You really are a pile of nonsense." said Wang Zhong in an indifferent tone. " We'll meet in the battlefield, if you're able to bump into us."
"Ha ha…"
Reeves's eyes brimmed with malicious intent as he started at Wang Zhong. Regardless of whether him leaving Tianjing was the right decision or not, he had been forced to leave from there. He was the one was tossed away!
The would completely different if he was the one who had tossed Tianjing aside. What's more, the underlying reason for all of these was due to this fellow, Wang Zhong!
"Meet in the battlefield? All of you really think highly of yourselves. I know that you all have defeated Adolf. However, I have to say, that whether it is Adolf or Tianjing, all of you are trash!" replied Reeves if a chilling voice. "When I left Tianjing then, I've said that all of you will pay the price for what you've did then. Tianjing will be the first to get eliminated. If any of you guys survive to tell the tale, please remember to help me tell Greene exactly how stupid of a decision he had made then!"
"In your dreams!" replied Hymin with a spit at the ground.
Seeing this, Reeves sneered before walking away.
"Who's that?" asked Dicaprio, appearing to be quite interested in this matter. This information maniac was in fact a gossipy person.
"A person that had betrayed our academy." replied Wang Zhong with a smile, "He's now an enemy."
"A person from Stowe Luge Academy? They appear to be quite strong. I've looked through the statistics of their squadron. They are a squadron composed of all rounded soldiers, with their strength as a whole being evaluated to be of A rank." said Dicaprio with a shake of his head. "You guys better be careful against such an enemy. Please do say if there's anything I can help with! I'll definitely provide help to you all!"
.
Everyone was already used to this silly and amusing fellow, thus they did place any thoughts towards his words.
There were some people within the Tianjing squadron who felt a little indignant about the matter about Reeves, including Colby and the members of the former Holy Judgement Society. After spotting Reeves during the yesterday's opening ceremony, not only did they not have any thoughts about taking revenge on him, they had even had slight feelings of nostalgia, as that matter had happened quite a while ago. What's more Reeves had gotten the punishment he deserved. However, none of them had ever imagined that Reeves would actually dare to make counterattack towards their whole squadron.
"I really hope to bump into them early into this elimination round!" growled Hymin "So that I can teach a firm, firm lesson to that arrogant and conceited fellow!"
"From what I understand about Reeves, he's truly a vicious and merciless fellow. Therefore, he won't stop at a teaching a lesson to us." said Colby in a deep voice. "If we really bump into guys like this in the CHF, its best for us to meet them with the intent of betting our lives at the line. If not, we'll end up in a situation that's worse than death."
Hearing that, everyone nodded their head in succession. To them, losing to Reeves would truly be worse than death. Nevertheless, Wang Zhong and Grai clearly did not give much care about this matter. To them, there was no need to waste too much effort on such a guy like Reeves.
After waiting at the railway station for about half an hour, the special train that's going to bring them to Grozny City finally entered the station. However, upon its arrival, one would be able to observe something slightly odd about it. That was due to competition committee unexpectedly scrambling up the seats of those squadrons staying together in the same hotel ,and arranging them into different carriages.
It has to be said that move appeared slightly superfluous, as it attracted waves of disatisfacted voices ringing out from the crowd. Although Grozny City wasn't especially far from Stuart City, it would still take 5 to 6 days to reach via train. Although it was just a matter about seats, everyone naturally hoped to be able to spend the next few days travelling with the people they recognized.
"Mr Lennon, may I know what's with this regulation?" within the crowd of participants, the loud and doubtful voice of the Lightning Academy's Casio rang out "Isn't it just seats for this journey?"
"You don't have the qualifications to ask about this. All of you just need to follow orders."not a single bit of face of given to Casio by the cold and indifferent looking middle aged official as he replied. What's more, he did not even give any explanation about the pending issue. "Anyone that is dissatisfied with this can choose to not to board the train, and will be treated as having voluntarily withdrawn from this competition!"
His words were rather rude and blunt, though it not allow for any doubt. Although he was only an official in charge of order, he was also a Heroic Soul expert. What's more, the two bars present on the epaulettes above his shoulders caused the majority of dissatisfied fellows to shut their mouths, simply not daring to show any dissatisfaction back towards this official.
Confronting the committee just for this small matter? Withdrawing from the competition?
That's definitely something that no one would do.
The Giant God Peak Academy was clearly also separated from the Tianjing Academy, with Dicaprio and his squadron allocated to the stretch of carriages located before Tianjing's. Before heading over, he whispered to Wang Zhong. "I reckon that it will be alright for us. This test might even be over faster than you think. We need to split up at in this train. Wang Zhong, I might not be able to take care of you guys, so all the best to your Tianjing squadron!"
"Thank you, and all the best to you too."
As the shook hands, smiles appeared on the faces of Dicaprio and Wang Zhong. Being able to recognize such a friend in this sea of people was also a kind of fate.
Of the 20 carriages present on that train, Tianjing Academy was allocated to the 10th one from the front. Also allocated within this carriage were a few squadrons from the northern reaches. After getting to know each other, everyone quickly discovered their similarities in personalities. With them also being evaluated to be of C rank, the atmosphere within the carriage became more calm and restrained.
Purposefully breaking apart the squadrons that were of the same region or stayed in the same hotel, while even allocating them in accordance their rankings. At this moment, everyone could already get the gist of some matters.
There were clearly many squadrons who had the same thoughts as Wang Zhong and Dicaprio. Even if they were only evaluated to be of D rank, there were absolutely no weaklings present in this batch of CHF participants. Even if there were idiots present in these squadrons, they would definitely not make up the entirety of them.
The various participating squadrons had their own specialized brain trust groups, and even have specialized analyst groups that accompanied their combatants. There were even quite a few aristocratic families that have managed to obtain some truly reliable information and news from within the competition committee. There have never been absolutes in the topic of secrecy for such matters.
There weren't much conversations or exchanges happening within the carriage as everyone waited quietly. It was only when the train had started to move did many of those who had made preemptive preparations, and understood the gist of the entire situation realise. That the direction they were heading to was unexpectedly not Grozny City!
"The first elimination round is about to start." said Wang Zhong, as feelings of anticipation surge within him. Although he wasn't privy to the details of this test, the direction their train was headed to just so happened to point towards the location up north. That was towards the region he had made everyone memorize in yesterday's meeting.
Regardless of what kind of test it was, they were able to understand the geography and terrain at the very least. The Tianjing Squadron had already had prior preparations for this.
Indeed, the train headed north at a high speed for close to a day before proceeding to stop at successive gaps. Peering out of the windows, one would be able to see that quite a few squadrons seated at frontal carriages have departed from the train at every stop, with approximately 2 to 3 squadrons departing per stop. The squadrons left remaining on the train were all able to see those squadrons leave the vicinity of the armored railways, as they travelled rapidly towards the vast icy plains present in their surroundings.
Even though there wasn't anyone standing up to give an explanation to all of these movements, the answer to that question was already clear for all to see. The first elimination round of the CHF had already started. It was a destination type mission, with the most probable goal being to head towards Grozny City from their location of departure.
Frankly speaking, the difficulty of such a mission wasn't high, with every single participating squadron possessing the strength to complete it. What's more, this entire area was still considered to be part of the safe regions present between the five core cities of the federation. As long as one didn't head into the restricted areas present within, one could ignore almost all cases of danger or threat to them.
Perhaps there would be some special restrictions or tasks they would need to complete in order to pass through this elimination road. As for that, one would need to wait till one's departure from the train to find out.