Evolution - Chapter 80
Chapter 80
“Changqing, Changqing, Ji Changqing!”
Du Zhong shouted at the person striding toward the cafeteria ahead of him. They were both in the combat department but rarely crossed paths. Since they’d had a rare encounter, he had to call out to her.
People nearby glanced over, their gazes landing, intentionally or not, on the person who had stopped.
“Huh, so that’s Ji Changqing?”
“The close-combat king of their year?”
“Yeah, she’s the woman who beat Tao Jun into submission with her bare fists!”
…
Ji Changqing was exasperated.
Her current fame at the Fourth Military was all thanks to Tao Jun serving as a foil.
She was actually a very low-key person, but Tao Jun was not. Ever since the competitive match where she had peeled back his defenders like an onion and taken him out with a single headshot, the name Ji Changqing had been frequently linked with Tao Jun.
The woman who took out Tao Jun in the competitive match!
The Alpha who headshot Tao Jun!
Normally, during a competitive match, everyone only saw their point totals. They wouldn’t know who killed them, nor would they know who they had killed.
Tao Jun was the sole exception.
After the match ended, Tao Jun, who had been eliminated early by a headshot, his grand ambitions cut short, missed his chance at becoming the chief student. The moment he was out, he heard numerous “truth-telling” posts, and everyone was guessing that Ji Changqing had been the one to take him out…
When Tao Jun heard this, he couldn’t stand it. The arrogant and proud young man relentlessly sought opportunities to challenge Ji Changqing to a one-on-one duel to reclaim the face he had lost from that headshot.
Thus, after he had challenged her several times, Ji Changqing, unable to bear the harassment any longer, accepted. And so, she earned yet another title:
The female Alpha who wiped the floor with Tao Jun in hand-to-hand combat!
…
From then on, she could never shake off this clingy pest.
She could only passively ride Tao Jun’s coattails to fame throughout the Fourth Military.
And Tao Jun himself was already a dazzling presence.
Therefore, over the past three years, although Ji Changqing remained low-key and unassuming, often disappearing from public view, her reputation at the Fourth Military was quite high, frequently popping up in everyone’s gossip and rumors.
Ji Changqing stopped. Du Zhong closed the distance in a few quick strides and ran to her side. “Have you heard? Registration for the league has started.”
“Mhm.”
“You guys are forming a team, right? How about you take me with you?” Du Zhong slung an arm around her shoulder like they were best buddies. “Don’t leave me all alone.”
Ji Changqing’s eye twitched almost imperceptibly as she sidestepped, shrugging the claw off her shoulder. She really couldn’t figure out what kind of persona Du Zhong was going for. He looked honest and exceptionally reliable, but in reality, he was incredibly unrestrained, capable of crying, making a scene, threatening to hang himself, and throwing tantrums with practiced ease.
He was the kind of person who could argue so well that his opponent would fall under the illusion that “what he’s saying makes perfect sense.” His heart wasn’t just a little black; he was exceptionally cunning.
“What are you after?”
“To ride your coattails, of course!” Du Zhong declared with righteous conviction. “A person has to know how to borrow momentum and strength. Flying on your own is too tiring. Isn’t it much better to be carried by your teammates?”
Put that way, it sounded quite reasonable.
But Ji Changqing cruelly shattered his beautiful dream. “They each have their own teams.”
They were at a military academy to improve themselves, not to play house and stick with the same group of friends for everything.
This improvement was multifaceted. Enhancing one’s cultivation, training, and combat skills was personal hardware development. Building a network of contacts and screening for people worth befriending or recruiting was software development for future prospects.
It was fine to team up by chance, but there was no need to stick together for every single activity.
Du Zhong’s eyes lit up. “Isn’t that perfect? Then you only have to carry one person!”
Hahaha, I’m a genius!
You must have some kind of misunderstanding about me, don’t you?! Ji Changqing was slightly bewildered. I’m just a slacker who intermittently wants to stir up trouble but perpetually wants to lie flat.
“It’s more fun to team up with you!” Du Zhong, his joy evident, seized the opportunity to finalize their team-up. “And it just so happens you don’t have any teammates yet, so it’s settled!”
“Fine, if you’re willing,” Ji Changqing reminded him kindly. “Just don’t get your hopes up. It might just be the two of us.”
“That’s fine, that’s fine,” Du Zhong agreed readily. The main thing was teaming up with Ji Changqing. Who else was on the team didn’t matter!
Cooperating with others always had the distinct flavor of “divvying up the spoils.” The team’s overall interests had to be considered, but assigning roles and tasks was always fraught with various selfish motives.
In contrast, Ji Changqing was much purer. When she assigned tasks and positions, it was more often because a person’s individual abilities were a good fit, not because their friendship was.
When they were out causing trouble, deciding who to fight and who to avoid, she was always more interested in the most difficult and challenging targets. She didn’t care who was leading a team and whether they should be avoided, nor did she specifically target weaker opponents to rack up points.
These were two different approaches. One was purely about self-strengthening, focusing more on oneself than on external factors. It was a belief that any hardship or obstacle could be overcome by force—as long as I am strong enough, nothing can stop me.
The other was about meticulously balancing various interests to optimize one’s own choices. It was a belief in riding the favorable winds to soar to the heavens.
Everyone has their preferences; one couldn’t say which approach was superior. It was simply that he preferred Ji Changqing’s way over the other.
“That’s not what I mean.” Ji Changqing felt a headache coming on, dealing with someone who had such inexplicable confidence in her. “I’m saying, if you team up with me, I don’t know if there will be any benefits, but there will definitely be a pile of disadvantages.”
As someone whose name was practically a package deal with Tao Jun’s, she was well aware of her situation. Tao Jun came from a prominent family and was an outstanding individual—the model child everyone’s parents talked about. It was unclear how many friends he had, but there were plenty of people who wanted to one-up him and have their moment of glory.
So, while other things were uncertain, she could guarantee that a great many people would be more than happy to challenge her, using her as a stepping stone to satisfy their veiled desire to get one over on Tao Jun.
Du Zhong puffed out his chest. “What’s there to be afraid of? We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Since he was so confident, so be it.
The two reached an agreement to form a team. Over the next few days, more people approached them individually, expressing a desire to join. After some consideration, they selected six other companions who had never missed a chance to stir up trouble, forming an eight-person team.
The military academy league allowed for both individual and team participation. Individuals would be automatically matched with teammates by the system. For teams, the size had to be between five and twelve members.
The first stage was the open qualifier, which all fourth-year and above students from every military academy could enter. Each participant had to fight three random opponents daily. A win earned 2 points, a draw 1, and a loss 0. This would last for 40 days, and the top one million participants by points would advance to the preliminaries.
Teams that registered together could add members later in the competition, up to a maximum of twelve. However, original members could not be kicked out arbitrarily. Only if a member failed to advance and revival slots were limited could that member’s spot be officially vacated, allowing a new member to be added.
For example, their current eight-person team could recruit four new members without teams in the later stages. But if two of the eight failed to pass the qualifiers and there was only one revival slot, the other would have to leave the competition early. In that case, they could recruit one more new member.
Not long after their fourth year began, the military academy league qualifiers kicked off.
The qualifiers were, to a large extent, a round-robin tournament. A dedicated area was set up on the StarNet, and participants logged into the system from their respective schools. The system automatically matched opponents for holographic combat, which was broadcast live across the entire Alliance.
The Alliance had always paid close attention to the military academy league, but most people chose to start watching from the preliminaries. During the qualifiers, the skill levels of the participants were uneven, making it difficult to find exciting duels. Only those who successfully qualified for the preliminaries were guaranteed to be skilled, making the matches much more watchable.
In previous years, the hype would only start to build about a month into the qualifiers. When watching live or recorded broadcasts, viewers would prioritize matches featuring high-ranking participants.
This time, however, in less than half a month, a hot post marked with the word “Explosive” appeared on the StarNet.
【Gossip】Is this a rigged operation to gift points, or is a new powerhouse on the rise?
OP: OP has been bored out of my mind lately, so I couldn’t wait and started watching the military academy league. Maybe it was fate, but today is the 17th day of the qualifiers, and among the hundreds of undefeated names, I chose her…
1L: You’re already invested? Did you get your eyes burned?
4L: The OP clearly said undefeated, so how could their eyes get burned? She’s definitely going to make a name for herself in this year’s league!
OP: No, listen to me. Being undefeated isn’t strange. What’s strange is that at the time, she had fought 50 matches, and in 39 of them, her opponents were seeded contestants from major military academies…
8L: Holy crap! She must have powerful backers! All those experts are lining up to feed her kills and boost her score!
11L: Everyone upstairs has such a dirty mind. Can’t it just be a new powerhouse on the rise?
17L: You tell me, besides a collective effort to gift points, how does an unknown nobody get all these experts to notice her and coincidentally choose to challenge her?
24L: Reported! The storm is brewing extra early this year. Why is everyone so careless with their rigging?
29L: Also reported! This has to be hype! This show-off defeats every opponent in nine moves! Is she trying to earn the nickname Ji Nine-Moves?
42L: She might actually be the real deal. StarNet released a statement saying it’s all genuine skill, no cheating. I! DON’T! BELIEVE! IT!
47L: I! DON’T! BELIEVE! IT!
52L: I! DON’T! BELIEVE! IT!
OP: I asked my friends at the Fourth Military. They said that nine-moves-to-win person is absolutely legit!
55L: I! DON’T! BELIEVE! IT!
63L: Is this a hype post, OP? What did the Fourth Military pay you to shill this hard?!
173L: Everyone stop! It’s a tragedy! Is anyone else in this thread like me, sacrificing themselves to expose the rigging?
181L: Sacrificed.
184L: Sacrificed.
…
223L: I heard that this person is a famous close-combat king at the Fourth Military. For some… unspeakable reason, a lot of people always want to challenge her. Ahem, and challenges cost money!
251L: The Fourth Military is really trying hard this year. They’ve already got their paid shills in the field.
289L: I really wish you guys could experience what it’s like to be thrashed by her!
2333L: Did all of you still crying “rigged” leave your brains at home? She’s already achieved a hundred-person kill streak! Why would the First and Second Military Academies need to gift points to someone from the Fourth?
…
3456L: Aaaah, I just finished watching all her recorded videos. This is definitely a new powerhouse on the rise! She is absolutely going to make a name for herself in this year’s military academy league!
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