Chapter 121: The Supreme Reigner
Translator: Double_L Editor: Tehrn
A new day has begun. Wang Tong woke up early in the morning and went for a jog to warm up and awaken the cells in his body and brain. Then he kick-started his day by initializing his Tactics of the Blade, but it wasn’t just about practicing the initialization, he was actually aiming to master the detailed utilization of the GN Force in his attacks. He knew that he had to master these details in order to unleash more powerful attacks in the future.
It was obvious that Wang Tong loved challenges, he would become energetic and sometimes even turned impatient when he discovered a new task for him to overcome. He was the type of person that would enjoy the difficulties within a challenge.
As soon as Wang Tong stepped a foot into the F-Class, his fellow classmates began cheering and clapping. No one expected that Ayrlarng would be able to defeat Bernabeu, this was indeed the biggest event in Ayrlarng throughout the years, everyone in the academy had been longing for such a merry celebration.
All thanks to the big-mouthed Carl, now everyone in F-Class knew that Wang Tong was the real hero for winning two and a half rounds in the whole tournament.
"Fellas, from now onward, Wang Tong will be the leader of the F-Class, everyone agrees?" Carl yelled as he jumped on the table.
"Agree!" The whole class pounded their tables to show signs of agreeing.
Aside from Ma Xiaoru and Wang Tong, Wang Ben and Carl were the other two candidates from F-Class. Everyone expected Wang Tong would be selected because he was quite skilled in METAL Combats, yet no one expected him to be THAT strong. The strong ones were always the secretive ones; nevertheless, Wang Tong managed to make the F-Class proud with his outstanding performances.
"Why are you acting all humble?" Ma Xiaoru joked.
"I’ve always been humble." Wang Tong shrugged.
"Bullsh*t! You better tell me what’s going on between you and Sam, did she assign you on some secret missions?" Ma Xiaoru asked.
"Huh, what?"
"Stop acting like a fool you jerk! I know you and Sam went somewhere else yesterday for the whole day, so don’t tell me you were not with her yesterday!" Ma Xiaoru "interrogated" Wang Tong as she stared at him with her big, glittering eyes.
Wang Tong wished he could tell the truth; however, he had decided to put his feelings to a pause as the "thing" between him and Samantha has ended. Furthermore, there were still a lot of things in his life that required his effort and attention; hence he decided to waste no time on this topic anymore.
"Why don’t you ask the principal? I’m sure she knows better than I do." Wang Tong fudged.
"Hmph, no need to ask her, without a doubt Sam was talking to you about Capth and also her plans about forming an alliance with Bernabeu."
"Oh?"
"I believe soon she’ll ask for my assistance for the upcoming training venue, but I’m not gonna tell you anything further!" Ma Xiaoru said in an impish tone, she had absolutely no idea that Wang Tong was actually on a date with Samantha yesterday.
It might have been a pure and simple relationship if Wang Tong chose Ma Xiaoru; however, he had chosen Samantha instead, which destined him to take on the tough road ahead.
Ma Xiaoru was born in a pampered environment where she could have anything she desired, even her tactics were directly inherited from her family. She was living the life of a princess which she wasn’t required to fight for her ambition since the FFC was already a top-notch financial corporation. However, Samantha was different, DREAM might be a big company, but it focused only on gaming businesses; moreover, Wang Tong was obsessed with her persistent staunch, he liked the way Samantha never gave up even though she was only a normal person who failed her mind opening attempt. He was able to see himself in her; however, this was also the reason why they weren’t destined to be together.
The teacher announced the news of Ayrlarng vanquishing Bernabeu excitedly during the class, which boosted the confidence of Ayrlarng, and now, everyone began to trust Samantha and started to believe in her leadership to resurrect Ayrlarng from misery.
During lunch, Wang Tong, Ma Xiaoru, Hu Yangxuan, and Wang Ben were seen having lunch together as always. Wang Ben had no class early in the morning, so he was in charge of buying their meals.
"Did you all know? Apparently, Capth got owned!" Hu Yangxuan said, since Capth was the "common enemy" of every other military academy, most of them were excited to see them humiliated, one man’s poison would always be every other man’s meat.
"Yup, watched it!" Wang Ben nodded.
Ma Xiaoru looked puzzled, "What happened?"
"Cisco, the No.1 amongst Capth’s second graders went to challenge Einherjar Wannabe in the TPA out of the blue, but he totally got owned, it was a dramatic tragedy indeed," Hu Yangxuan kept shaking his head as he spoke
"Is that a joke?".
"A joke? You tell her, Wang Ben!" Hu Yangxuan might have over exaggerated so Wang Ben’s explanation would be more down to earth.
"It was indeed an exciting match, I remembered Cisco once written a thesis about countering rigid and forceful attacks. In his thesis, he did specifically mention about countering the Fist of the Racing Tiger," Wang Ben continued to explain slowly as he chewed and swallowed the slice of beef in his mouth.
"What an arrogant bad*ss..." Hu Yangxuan shrugged, no doubt the world was full of crazy people; however, Hu Yangxuan didn’t say that Cisco was bullsh*tting because the guy did make a great discovery, and he was about to prove his theories in a real fight. But too bad, he was knocked out badly before he could prove his theories about countering the mighty Fist of the Racing Tiger.
"I have to admit that he was quite good with his kunai; however, my Fist of the Racing Tiger shouldn’t be underestimated!"
On that moment, Wang Tong finally knew why Cisco was so interested in his version of the Fist of the Racing Tiger, too bad that dude was knocked out before he could go full force on him.
"That Einherjar Wannabe dude was awesome, I heard that Cisco was planning to take part in next year’s Royal Rumble; however, I doubt he will be able to take part in the tournament or even recover after such a terrible defeat," Hu Yangxuan said.
"Royal what?" Wang Tong asked.
The trio turned toward Wang Tong, looking stunned. "Good God, please don’t tell us you’re actually an alien in the form of an Earthling. It’s unusual for someone strong like you not to know about this event."
"... Is it something I should know?" Wang Tong looked confused.
"The Royal Rumble is a quadrennial mega event, every academy will nominate five students to participate in this tournament. The aces and elites from academies of Earth, Moon, Mars, and Andromeda will be facing off against each other, and the final winner will be crowned as the Supreme Reigner!"
Ma Xiaoru explained, "Normally it is seen as a tournament between S-Ranked academies because all they need to do is to send out the No.1’s of each grade, while the other academies are only underdogs."
"The Supreme Reigner of the previous Royal Rumble is Li Shimin, the Little Emperor, but he wasn’t representing any academy since the tournament is also opened for unique personnel; in the end, he defeated Lie Kent in the finals and got crowned as the Supreme Reigner."
"However, Patroclus, the strongest amongst the Four Princes didn’t participate last time. Apparently, the wonder boy is not a fan of battles and brawls, the young Cardinal of the Church of the Deity also didn’t show up."
"With Cisco defeated, I believe his No.1 title would soon be taken by someone else due to the intense rivalry amongst students of Capth."
"Perhaps, but I’m sure he will become stronger if he could make a breakthrough himself."
Nevertheless, the quartet was able to understand that it would be very difficult for someone like them to make a breakthrough and exceed himself.
"Aren’t you feeling excited, Wang Tong?" Hu Yangxuan asked in curiosity. "I’m sure you’ll be able to take part in next year’s Royal Rumble with that strength of yours!"
Wang Tong paused and swallowed his food, then he asked, "Any prize money?"
The question left Hu Yangxuan speechless, luckily he had gotten used to Wang Tong’s attitude, or else he’d definitely die of a stroke. He had no idea why the dude would mention about prize money when they were talking about such an honorable event.
"Yes, it comes with a scholarship worth a hundred grand, but it is more like an accessory to the title."
"Wow, a hundred grand? Then I’ll give it a shot if there’s a chance!" Somehow the hundred grand reminded Wang Tong of his tough decision of rejecting DREAM’s deal, but since there was another chance for him to earn some money, of course, he was eager to give it a try.
"Guys, why don’t we continue eating and ignore this fella here? I’m sure he will finish our food if we keep on talking!" Hu Yangxuan got frustrated and began to work on his food.
Wang Ben, on the other hand, stared thoughtfully at Wang Tong, no doubt he was impressed by Einherjar Wannabe’s performances yesterday, nevertheless, he began to suspect something as he looked at Wang Tong. For some reason, he shared a few similarities with Einherjar Wannabe; however, his actual strength was not as dominating as Einherjar Wannabe’s. For example, the level of Einherjar Wannabe’s steps and pacing were definitely much higher than Wang Tong’s.
However, Wang Ben didn’t know that Wang Tong was the kind of person that could make improvements every day.
Wang Ben also had another reason to believe that Wang Tong wasn’t Einherjar Wannabe because Wang Tong was broke and he was a well-known miser; if he really was Einherjar Wannabe, he would’ve accepted DREAM’s offer to set up an official arena.
Wang Ben shook his head and cleared his mind, he had to concentrate on his own training instead due to his previous defeat, he told himself not to think too much as to busybody was not what he supposed to do.
Gansus’ class was scheduled in the afternoon, with the recent enlightenments of Ayrlarng, somehow the students began to accept Gansus’ teaching method and his attitude; apparently, the Mr. Gansus that everyone hated previously now became the most popular teacher in Ayrlarng. Since then, his classes were filled with students as everyone began thinking of making some achievements. Previously, it would have been hard for someone to get serious because most of the students were sloppy, but now with everyone being all motivated, no one would dare to be sloppy since they might be left alone by the rest. This was what learning atmosphere should look like.
S-Ranked academies were able to achieve amazing performances because they all had marvelous learning atmospheres which enable students to exert their own potentials.
Gansus too was able to feel Samantha’s capabilities throughout the series of happenings. Without a doubt, Gansus was a good teacher, yet there were also things that he couldn’t do. However, the same students who used to dislike him and his classes really began to change after Samantha applied some of her methods, and it didn’t even require him to change his teaching methods. Nevertheless, everyone was born with their own capabilities, like they said: a ragged colt may make a good horse.
Gansus carried on with his gruff and straightforward lessons; however, he never wanted his students to become a bunch of docile little lambs! Gansus recommended Carl as one of Ayrlarng’s candidate against Bernabeu not because he was talented, but because of his curiosity. He believed only those who were willing to question everything would be able to know the details of everything. If a person was too shy and docile, he or she would not be able to achieve anything.
Carl remained active in Gansus’ class, which was somehow not a bad thing for the others because everyone would be able to learn the details thanks to his questions.
After so many years of teaching, Gansus finally felt like he had made an awesome achievement.
"Today we’ll be focusing on learning about Flamethrower Zergs, these creatures are the largest species amongst lower ranked Zergs, they might be slow, but they are able to emit flame and shoot firebombs., They belong to the heavily-armed species of Zergs. In short, human’s attacking methods are created to fight against Zergs, most of the time... Eliminating Flamethrower Zergs are the tasks of the Heavily-Armed Troops; however, the Heavily-Armed Machinery are designed to move on flat grounds, and their effectiveness will decrease during battles in higher terrains so there might be times that require METAL Fighters to deal with these creatures!" Gansus spoke as he pointed toward the hologram of a giant Flamethrower Zerg.
Currently, mankind’s military strategies were mainly combining the agility of the METAL Fighters and the firepower of the Heavily-Armed Troops during ground advancements. Unlike Zergs, mankind would not only focus on using destructive weapons during battles because a planet would become worthless if it was totally destroyed. The main task of the METAL Fighters was to watch the backs of the Heavily-Armed Troops when they were required to fight against the heavily-armed Zergs because the troops would need to give up their mobility and nimbleness when they were required to open fire.
The Power Armor became obsolete because its firepower was not as strong as the Heavily-Armed Troops, and it wasn’t as agile as METAL Suits; moreover, their effectiveness had decreased as the Zergs’ exoskeletons had evolved. Hence the current best option of mankind was to combine METAL Fighters with Heavily-Armed Troops since the firepower of the Heavy Armors were modified to penetrate the exoskeletons of the Zergs.
Wang Tong was paying full attention to Gansus’ lessons. Somehow, he felt that Norton was like the backyard of the Zergs with tons of their species of them roaming around, some species were not even mentioned in the guidebook. During his days on Norton, the Zergs didn’t seem to send out loads of heavily-armed Zergs to deal with him, which also proved that Zergs were quite intelligent for not wasting resources on weaker opponents. Nevertheless, Wang Tong was still pleased to see that mankind was able to eradicate the Zergs on Norton within a year. When he was surviving on Norton, he always felt that the efficiency of the Confederation was poor. However, after he came back to Earth and started taking lessons in Ayrlarng, as he recalled the species of Zergs he met in Norton, Wang Tong was then impressed by the troops from the Earth Confederation for spending only one year to get to him. He might only have to deal with one or two Zergs at a time, but soldiers would have to face against tens of thousands of them at the same time, not to mention that the evolution speed of the Zergs had become faster in recent years.
"First, let’s talk about the size of the Flamethrower Zergs, these ugly-a** creatures weigh around ten to fifteen tons, their whole body is covered in a tough exoskeleton, and their abdomens are weaker, but this part would be pressed on the ground most of the time in order for them to move. They are capable of emitting flames and shooting firebombs from their mouth-part. A Flamethrower Zerg’s body itself is like a torch gun, but unlike normal fire, the flame is hard to put out if yer body makes contact with it. Furthermore, if you’re unlucky to be covered in flame from top to toe, the best way for ya to end the pain is to kill yourself, even if you’re equipped with a METAL Suit, ya will still be burned to death." Gansus wasn’t trying to freak out his students, it wasn’t ordinary flame which one could easily put out by rolling on the ground, and since it was impossible for one to carry a fire extinguisher to go to war, the only countermeasure was to stay alert and be careful.
"Generally speaking, most Flamethrower Zergs will not shoot out firebombs, the maximum length of their flame is about fifteen meters, but please note that this number is only for reference as there are always exceptions. Regardless of the species, there is always an Alpha Zerg in a troop of Zergs, the Alpha Zerg from the Flamethrower Zergs is the one that can shoot out firebombs; during battles, this is the one that we have to eliminate first at all cost!"
The uniqueness of the Flamethrower Zergs was their ability to deal damages in a wide range, they were born to counter the heavy firepower from mankind. Even the high-temperature-resistant Heavy Armors were not able to withstand a Flamethrower Zergs’ flame for a long period of time. Of course, mankind had been trying their best to enhance the high-temperature-resistant limit of the steel, but the flames of the Flamethrower Zergs were also getting stronger at the same time. Mankind was still troubled by this sort of flame because its melting ability could not be explained by the conventional study of physics. Mankind’s scientists had been trying their best to forge new materials; however, Zergs were also evolving as mankind’s technology improved, it was indeed a race against time.
"Sir, how are we supposed to fight them since they’re so heavy? We can’t flip them over and kill them, can we?"
"I’m glad ya asked this stupid question! Yes, a Flamethrower Zerg can weigh over fifteen tons, so it’s impossible for us to flip it over. Now, pay attention to how it moves, every time it moves, wrinkles will form around its exoskeleton, although these wrinkles also have high defenses, yet it is only one fifth of the toughness of its exoskeleton, this is the chance for METAL Fighters to attack! Do not attack its head because you won’t be able to disable it. Look at this part around its neck instead, the thirteenth joint, this is where the Flamethrower Zergs emits its flame, a good stab with yer sword to this part will do the job."
"But Sir, Zergs will also be very alert since that’s its weakness, and we have no time to count during battle!"
"Yea, we will get killed first before we could identify the thirteenth joint."
Gansus looked across the room, "I didn’t ask y’all to count! You’ll need to learn how to cut somebody quickly if ya wanna survive, from now onwards, y’all need to make sure ya can identify the sweet spot of the Flamethrower Zergs, if ya can’t, then go to hell!"
"Sir, so its all depend on one’s experience?"
"Use your brain and stop asking nonsense questions will ya?" Gansus scolded and continued, "The simplest method which even idiots know is to learn by watching videos of the Flamethrower Zergs ten times a day, and after one month, I bet’cha will be able to identify their weaknesses right away even if a whole family of Flamethrower Zergs comes and get’cha!"
Gansus’ method was best for most ordinary people; however, talented ones like Wang Tong would be able to memorize after a few glance; nevertheless, most of the soldiers in the military were not gifted so they would need to look at it over and over again in order to remember.
"Pay attention to its data, including its traveling speed. Y’all need to memorize every bit of information I’ve said about Zergs like how ya remember yer name, even if ya forget yer name, never forget everything I’ve said, IS THAT CLEAR?"
"Yes, Sir!" everyone in the class yelled at once.
Gansus wanted everyone to stay focus, which was why he spoke aloud and even required his students to reply loudly. Obviously, there was a huge difference between staying focus throughout the lesson and skiving in the middle of a class, Gansus never expected his students to do revisions after class because nowadays students would rather spend more time to practice their tactics. Moreover, the few interested and outstanding ones would not need revisions after class. However, as a teacher, he knew it wasn’t right to only focus on a few students, and he would remain strict in order to raise his students’ chances of survival in the future.
Gansus never asked for honor or anything in return, he was only a humble teacher who would do whatever was right to do.
Wang Tong returned to his room after class. As he was lying down and about to rest, Zhou Sisi came knocking on his door with a weird expression on her face.
"Come in, it’s strange for you to act so politely."
"I don’t ACT polite, you jerk. This is for you!" She flung a letter onto Wang Tong’s bed.
"Didn’t I just send one earlier this morning? Why, is there another one?" Wang Tong laughed as he sat up, "Gosh, our dear Mr. Hu sure IS the favorite amongst ladies, I’m deeply impressed."
"Who says it’s for Hu Yangxuan? This is for YOU!" Zhou Sisi looked frustrated.