Chapter 73 – Training Begins!

“Hardtack, dried beef… cola…” Ma Dong muttered this list as he stuffed items into Barran’s bag, which had already been filled until it looked almost like a small hill as it lay on the ground. “When you’re all outside, you will be representing the Prodigy Society. As such, you must all get that quota! If humans are steel, then food is iron! Eat more!”

The Freedom Federation’s increase in commodity trading in the past thirty years had been rising. A large part of this was due to them gaining an advantage from their trade with the three empires. Some of the things traded had once been considered restricted resources of those empires, and even the luxury of some goods has been rising.

One such example would be cola. It’s said that a single bottle of cola could be traded in for a female slave in the empires. This was simply unbelievable.

“It’s enough, president. Enough…” Barran said embarrassingly. Ever since he’d entered the Prodigy Society, the president acted the part of his mother and father. The old Barran couldn’t have imagined such a thing happening. He felt very blessed for coming to the city and entering the Prodigy Society.

“What you mean ‘enough’? Since it’s a group training session, the nutritional aspect has to be higher!” Ma Dong’s face was filled with heroic spirit. After getting such a great result, it had become easier for him to get money from the clan. Being a black sheep of the clan was also a job, and one that Ma Dong chose to walk as far as possible along. “More, carry more! Wang Zhong, where’s your bag!?”

“We’re just going for group training, not sightseeing,” he replied, slightly helpless. He felt it wouldn’t be good to do such a thing. Since Teacher Grace has returned this time just because of the CHF, this wouldn’t turn out to be a picnic.

Ma Dong shot him a look. “You really don’t understand? They said it had been a survival challenge that had been conducted in the previous group training session. Our seniors had become so hungry that they even ate tree bark! This is called being prepared! Since I’ve already bought them, don’t let it all go to waste. Little Barran, since your vice-president doesn’t want to carry them, you’ll help him.”

“Yes!”

Being allowed to participate in the group training camp prepared for the CHF was something that exceeded Barran’s wildest dreams. Since there were four quotas, shouldn’t it have gone to the president, vice-president, and the two geniuses? The president actually left such a valuable quota for me… Up until now, Barran still felt as though he’d been living in a dream.

Regardless of what others said, in Barran’s eyes, other than his parents, Ma Dong was the person who treated him the best in the whole world.

He’d heard that the location for the group training was quite far away. Although he didn’t know the exact location, it was definitely somewhere outside Tianjing City.

☀

When the four carried their backpacks and arrived at the gathering point, there were already twenty-plus other students waiting there. Two large all-terrain vehicles and a single armoured vehicle was parked beside them, waiting to carry them all off to that unknown location. The tires were as tall as Barran and both the exterior and interior exuded an intrepid aura.

Each academy was given ten participation quotas for the CHF Great Competition. Five main competitor slots and five substitutes. The list of names for the training camp, however, had thirty people on it, meaning the elimination rate was two thirds.

The surroundings were filled with seniors, all of them familiar faces. Other than the freshman Emily, who still wasn’t a family figure to them, everyone present basically knew one another.

Everyone had grouped up into twos and threes. It could be seen that most of those present were very excited for this training camp.

Reeves stood next to Scarlet and they had been chatting about something when they saw Wang Zhong’s party arrive. With a faint smile, Reeves said, “Wang Zhong, your Prodigy Society really made everyone feel surprised. Congratulations, and welcome to this training camp.”

“Thank you, President Reeves,” Wang Zhong said politely. He nodded to Scarlet at the side, and when she saw him look at her, she gave him a faint smile of her own.

After their dinner date, the two’s rapport grew closer and the distance between them had shortened by quite a bit.

“Ah, President Reeves has such great magnanimity. They managed to qualify for this training camp by stepping over your Saint Judgement. If it had been me, I wouldn’t have been able to say such fake words.” The one who had spoken was an approaching lady. Her swaying hips as she walked was too alluring, causing everyone else to raise their brows at it.

Hymin, President of Tianjing Heroic Soul Academy’s Super Ability Society. She was a heavyweight figure of the academy.

If one were to try and find a person who had qualifications high enough to give Reeves a headache, then Hymin would no doubt be in first place.

Although Scarlet was very strong in her own right, she had an amiable character and wasn’t naturally aggressive like Hymin. After all, Scarlet was still a junior to her. On the other hand, Hymin and Reeves had been a thing in the past until she dumped Reeves. He was the one who made the mistake first, however.

“President Hymin…” Reeves gave her a slight smile. “The goal of the group training camp is to select true experts from the academy. Since the Prodigy Society was able to defeat Vice-president Lu Zhan Tian and pump stronger blood to the training camp, then this is worth celebrating.

“Besides, Vice-president Lu Zhan Tian has had it too easy for the past two years and became slightly arrogant. Suffering a setback isn’t a bad thing for him. As his president, I truly feel happiness for him and I am grateful to the Prodigy Society for their guidance.”

When they heard his words, not only did everyone nod their heads, but even the Prodigy Society secretly approved. As a leading figure within Tianjing Academy, his breadth of mind was definitely different from the rest.

Barran felt deeply touched. Presidents really are different from others. Just like our Sir President Ma Dong, President Reeves and he both have such a high level of tolerance and self-restraint.

“Hypocrite. Whoever believes your words is a big blockhead,” Hymin replied. She was probably the only one in the academy who would dare to speak such words to Reeves and also the only one he couldn’t do anything to.

Those watching who knew of their past relationship were trying to stifle their laughter. The chance to watch Reeves being suppressed was rare.

When Hymin arrived in the area, she directly assumed control and became the leading figure. Even Reeves couldn’t do much about this.

She turned her head and fixed her gaze on a nearby Grai. Like a blossoming flower, she gave him a smile and said, “Hey, isn’t this Junior Grai? You look very cute; do you have a girlfriend?”

Grai smiled and shook his head slightly. He could tell from Hymin’s gaze that she was different from others and was very casual. Obviously, she wasn’t looking for anything from him.

Hymin didn’t take the slightest bit of offense and walked toward him. When she neared him, she coiled an arm around his neck and said, “Aww, look at your embarrassed appearance. You’re very adorable! Since you don’t have a girlfriend, that’s great! Your sister here doesn’t have a boyfriend, so our meeting must be heaven’s will! Let this group trainig be the start of us!”

As goddesses in the eyes of the male students, Scarlet and Lily didn’t have sex scandals attached to their names. Not even the slightest bit of ambiguity had appeared before.

Hymin, however, was a famously overbearing queen of the academy. She constantly switched out her boyfriends one after the other. Furthermore, all of them had been high-quality, teen idol grade partners. She was a junior killer. As such, a person like Grai wouldn’t be let go.

In this era, so long as one wasn’t completely immoral, there were no differences in male or female romances. People with strength obviously had the higher right to choose, and other than Reeves, all of the previous boys she dumped hadn’t said a bad word about her. She faced no loss with her relationships.

The people in their surroundings began to mock this. “After taken out that last one with great difficulty, now Grai has appeared. If this goes on, when will Boss Hymin start to like me?”