SWNOVELXO Chapter 97 - Listed
“Made it… just in time?” Jiang Hui finally reached the gathering point, but the group was already geared up and ready to depart. The moment she arrived, she became the center of attention.
Everyone silently stared at her. Their gazes weren’t exactly strange, but they were far from normal.
Jiang Hui felt a chill down her spine for a second, but her thick skin allowed her to act like nothing was wrong, pushing through the discomfort.
The lead instructor walked over from the front, glanced at her, and finally said, “Hurry up and join the team.”
Did he just allow her back into the group? Jiang Hui could hardly believe it. She had seen everyone packing up, looking like they were about to leave at any moment, and had thought she wouldn’t make it. But the instructor gave her a break.
Seizing the opportunity, Jiang Hui quickly slipped into the team like a rabbit, fearing the instructor might change his mind.
Actually, the instructor remembered Jiang Hui quite well. Seeing that she hadn’t fully recovered but rushed back anyway was a bit surprising. He had previously checked on her and noted that both her physical strength and mental energy were completely drained. He assumed she wouldn’t wake up anytime soon, so he had told the others to carry her to the medical tent.
Unexpectedly, not only did she wake up, but she also hurried over to rejoin the group, determined to continue. The instructor found this intriguing—just a bit, though.
The person glanced at the dull, dusty-colored flag attached to the back of Jiang Hui’s pack and said in a flat tone, “Make sure the flag is secured properly.” He understood the purpose of the flag and was well aware of the school’s “tough intentions.” It was a reasonable part of the training exercise, and as the lead instructor, there was no need to expose it, but a kind reminder wouldn’t hurt.
Jiang Hui quickly realized and immediately adjusted the crooked flagpole. It had indeed tilted, and if not for the instructor’s reminder, it might have snapped if it fell halfway.
After his comment, the instructor didn’t wait to see if Jiang Hui had secured the flag properly. He simply ordered the group to set off. Jiang Hui had no choice but to jog along at the back of the group, fixing the flag’s position as she went.
The sixteen of them marched toward the target destination. The squad originally had fifty students plus one instructor, making fifty-one people in total, but after the shooting drill, only fifteen students remained. The survival rate was truly “impressively high.”
Jiang Hui, who had gradually gotten used to the training pace, couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. Even the workhorses on a farm weren’t pushed this hard. So, this was how the Empire trained its talents—brutal but effective.
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“Is the student from your class going to be alright?” asked a young man with a naturally friendly and cheerful demeanor, addressing the person next to him.
“You didn’t see how quickly she got up? I’ve never seen anyone so fearless. These young people today really have no sense of their limits… pushing themselves like that. If they’re not careful and end up with long-term injuries, they’ll have no one to blame.”
The person next to him remained silent, but a laid-back man in a military uniform on the other side chimed in with a mocking tone. Although his words seemed aimed at the person on the screen, his gaze was fixed on the person beside him, clearly directing his comments at someone specific.
Stark, the class instructor, paid no attention to the usual sarcasm from the other side. For some reason, that guy had always disliked him. This captain was constantly picking at trivial matters and making snide remarks, and Stark never understood why. He never acknowledged people like that.
“You—” The young man across from him grew irritated at Stark’s indifference.
“Captain Zou, please calm down. Now is not the time for arguing. Neither of you has given your evaluation yet, and if you keep delaying, we’ll move on to the next stage,” another instructor quickly intervened, trying to defuse the situation.
Ever since these two started teaching together, they’d always end up bickering whenever they crossed paths, with tensions running high. Well, to be fair, it was mostly Captain Zou provoking things, while Captain Stark maintained a cool, indifferent attitude. But it was precisely this attitude that deepened their conflict, leaving the instructor, who oversaw all the first-year students, in a difficult position.
This instructor, though not from a military background, was once a scholar at the Imperial Academy of Science and Education. After retiring, he returned to help develop his home star system and had become a highly respected scholar. Both the teachers and students at the school held him in great esteem.
Even someone as proud as Zou Yi would instinctively restrain his temper in front of him. Since the instructor had spoken, Zou Yi had no choice but to comply. With a cold huff, he casually picked up the scheduling board and started swiping through it.
Seeing that Zou Yi had accepted the suggestion, the instructor then turned to Stark. “Captain Stark…”
“I know,” Stark responded in a deep voice, finally shifting his gaze from the multiple screens, though he still didn’t seem inclined to give a score.
The instructor was familiar with Stark’s style and, trusting that he would act appropriately, decided not to press further. He returned to compiling the evaluation data.
In the vast observation center, a group of people stood around a large circular platform. Suspended above them were hundreds of images, seemingly overlapping but without interfering with each other, allowing everyone to observe what was happening at each checkpoint for every team.
The people seated around the observation area were diverse, including all the class instructors from the first year as well as many teachers from other grades, all watching this training exercise.
In the very center of the observation platform was a flat leaderboard, densely populated with names cascading from the top, each followed by the points they had earned in various segments of the training.
It turned out that the class instructors could see each student’s performance during the training exercise and employed a weighted scoring system to ensure that each outstanding student received a relatively fair score. Only those who performed exceptionally well overall would be selected from the total leaderboard to compete against others.
Coincidentally, it was just Stark’s turn to oversee the point collection for Jiang Hui’s group, so he naturally had a clear view of what had transpired.
Jiang Hui was one of the more prominent students in this round, and it was only natural for her to be lifted out of the overall rankings. Although her ranking was relatively low among the strong competitors from the military programs, it wasn’t too bad.
Zou Yi was the instructor for Class One and had always been at odds with Stark. The fact that Class Two had one more student on the leaderboard only added to his annoyance. Seeing Jiang Hui struggle to continue the training, he couldn’t help but mock her, considering that she had a temperament similar to their class instructor’s.
Stark ultimately assigned Jiang Hui a score that was neither too high nor too low, and it wasn’t particularly good either. Given Jiang Hui’s impressive evasion at the last moment, it even seemed a bit low; however, it was reasonable since scoring had to reflect overall performance.
After he graded her, Jiang Hui’s ranking only rose a few spots before stabilizing, indicating that Stark, as the instructor, hadn’t given her any special treatment.
This guy is really putting on a show for the sake of his reputation. He never plays favorites—whatever it is, it is. If he wanted to give a higher score, he could, but he’s just like this… Zou Yi sneered, shifting his less-than-serious posture, with sarcasm evident in his demeanor.