Qin Feng sat silently in a corner of the deployment bay for three full days.
When he opened his eyes again, the once-empty hall of the deployment bay was now sparsely occupied by nearly a hundred figures.
Without exception, their auras were all condensed to the extreme, and they carried an unshakeable, iron-blooded Evil Qi.
Their gazes were as sharp as eagles, their postures as straight as pines. Even while resting, their bodies subconsciously maintained a stance ready to erupt into action at any moment.
This was the disposition of a soldier, one that could only be forged through a true baptism of blood and fire.
Just as Xiong Yanfu had said, a considerable portion of the examinees for Canaan Star Martial Arts University were top graduates from the Empire’s various military Martial Arts High Schools.
They might not match students from regular Martial Arts High Schools in theoretical knowledge, but they held an incomparable advantage when it came to practical combat experience, especially against the Insect Race.
Qin Feng didn’t attract much attention.
Everyone was talking quietly amongst themselves.
"What’s the fastest time for the first mission?"
"The fastest I heard of was a guy named ’Tie Mu’ from Qianggang Military Martial High School. Took him one month and twenty-five days."
"That’s so fast. I got lucky and only had to lie in wait for half a month to find one. After that, I spent another month chasing and wearing it down before I could kill it."
...
A bald student nearby, who was wiping his battle saber, looked over at Qin Feng and struck up a conversation. "Hey, I’m Lei Meng. How long did it take you?"
"One month and twenty-seven days."
Qin Feng answered calmly.
"You graduated from a military academy too? That’s some heavy killing intent."
Lei Meng said with a smile.
"No, I graduated from a regular high school."
Qin Feng shook his head.
"A graduate from a regular Martial Arts High School?"
"To graduate from a regular Martial Arts High School and still finish the hunt in one month and twenty-seven days... that level of strength is a little terrifying."
Qin Feng ignored the chatter, instead focusing on the main point of Lei Meng’s words. He asked, "You all... found a Level 4 Transport Insect in less than half a month? And then spent over a month hunting it down?"
"That’s right!"
Lei Meng slapped his chest as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "For those of us in the first group, to put it bluntly, besides being reasonably strong, we’re mainly just lucky. See, this assessment is really just a battle of attrition. As long as your luck isn’t terrible, you find a lone, weaker Level 4 Transport Insect right away. Then you just stick to its tail—not going for a one-hit kill, just slowly wearing it down. Use poison, use traps, whatever. You just chip away at its life force. After grinding at it for a month or so, you’ll kill it eventually. I wore mine down for a solid month and three days before that thing finally kicked the bucket. Man, it wore me out."
"Yeah, same here."
Another female cadet nodded in agreement. "My luck was even better. I found one after only seven days of waiting. Then I spent another twenty-some days playing hide-and-seek with it before I finally got a chance to finish it off. At the end of the day, we’re probably all here in the first batch because we had good luck."
Listening to everyone’s discussion, Qin Feng’s expression turned a little strange.
’So... this is how everyone else did it?’
’They found their target right away, and then, in the spirit of "water dripping through stone," they spent a month "grinding" a Level 4 Transport Insect to death?’
’And here I was, with the worst luck imaginable. The first time, I ran into a trap and had to flee in disgrace.’
’The second time, I found a group of Level 3s and had to give up.’
’It wasn’t until the third try that I finally got my chance.’
’And I didn’t "grind" it down. I dealt a heavy blow in the shortest time possible, then pursued it relentlessly despite the risk of being swarmed by an insect pack, ultimately killing it within a hair’s breadth of the time limit.’
’Looks like my hunting method was the outlier after all.’
Qin Feng couldn’t help but shake his head and chuckle to himself.
’In that case, this first assessment really doesn’t say everything about one’s strength.’
’Luck plays way too big a part.’
’Those truly terrifying monsters might still be out there on the vast Gobi desert, searching for their first kill, all because of bad luck.’
’Or maybe some real psychos decided to skip the "soft persimmons" like the Transport Insects and are bull-headedly challenging the combat-type Insect Race?’
He pushed these thoughts aside.
The assessment rankings didn’t award any Imperial Contribution Points, so he couldn’t care less about them.
His goal was clear: pass the assessment and become an official student of Canaan Star Martial Arts University. That was all.
Just as he was lost in thought, a cold, mechanical voice echoed simultaneously in everyone’s minds via the Subspace Network.
[Participant queue has reached one hundred.]
[The second assessment will now begin.]
[Mission 2: Teamwork.]
[Mission Objective: Successfully capture a ’target area’ occupied by the Insect Race.]
[Target Area Coordinates: Planet G19182-B11, 134.8° E, 76.2° N.]
[Warning: The target area is a high-density Insect Race firebase.]
[Subspace deployment imminent. All examinees, proceed to your designated deployment pods immediately.]
[Countdown: 30, 29, 28...]
Before the voice had even finished, the floor in the center of the hall split open, and ten massive metal deployment pods slowly rose up.
The relaxed expressions on the faces of the examinees, who had just been chatting idly, vanished in an instant. In their place was absolute solemnity and focus.
Without a moment’s hesitation, they blurred into motion, each rushing toward the nearest deployment pod.
Qin Feng followed the crowd and entered one of them.
RUMBLE—
The pod door closed, and a violent tremor ran through it.
Like a cannonball fired from a giant electromagnetic cannon, the deployment pod was violently ejected from the Space Fortress. It became a burning meteor, trailing a long tail of fire as it plunged unswervingly toward the orange-yellow planet below.