VAP - Chapter 120
Chapter 120: The Marshal's Journey is the Sea of Stars (16)
The competitions for the chief positions of the Sentinel and Guide specializations were not held simultaneously; the Guide competition came first.
Many Sentinels hurried over to spectate.
Guides were very important. With the current imbalanced ratio of Sentinels to Guides, the young and talented Guides at the First Military Academy were especially precious.
Therefore, the spectators were not just freshmen but also some senior Sentinels, both current students and graduates. They gazed eagerly at the more than one thousand Guides on the field, all standing in formation, as if their future partners or mates were among them.
Yue Du observed the entire event. The white deer stood beside her, peering into the arena with equal interest.
Its snow-white, pointed ears swiveled flexibly before finally settling into a flattened-back position.
At that moment, the Guide's chief competition had reached the stage of releasing Quantum Beasts. The contestants summoned their spiritual bodies one after another. The vast majority took the form of seemingly gentle and harmless creatures, most of them small in size.
The white deer was also a herbivore, but compared to the others, it seemed far too large and dangerous. It was a good thing, too—otherwise, even if she wasn't suspected of being a Sentinel, people would inevitably start whispering behind her back.
“Hey, Yue Yao!”
A tall, short-haired girl strode up to Yue Du, a majestic tigress at her side.
“Good morning, Zhou Wen,” Yue Du said.
Zhou Wen’s gaze swept the area. “I didn’t think you’d come to watch the Guide competition. After all, your mental state is so stable, you probably don’t need to think about finding a partner for the time being.”
Yue Du said nonchalantly, “I was curious about the Guide events, so I came to have a look.”
Zhou Wen nodded in understanding.
The events the Guides competed in were different from those for Sentinels.
Their physical fitness was comparable to that of an ordinary person, perhaps even weaker, but their mental strength was immense.
That power determined victory in a world invisible to the naked eye. It could gently soothe a Sentinel’s chaotic mind, transform into a sharp blade to shred a Zerg’s brain core, or link with a mecha’s systems to produce effects unimaginable to the average person.
Yue Du watched the competition intently.
The one who ultimately won the chief position was a petite girl. Her Quantum Beast was a small flying squirrel that looked particularly adorable perched on her shoulder.
The second and third-place winners became the second seats. For a considerable time to come, these three would form the most influential group among the Guides of their year, until someone challenged and successfully replaced them.
Learning about Guide abilities from data was different from watching them in person. Yue Du felt she had gained a deeper understanding of how to use Guide abilities and breathed a sigh of relief.
The next day, it was time for the Sentinels’ duel.
Unlike the Guides, who had a healthy mindset of “it’s the taking part that counts,” only a tenth of the Sentinels actually entered the competition—a little over a hundred people.
This couldn’t be helped. Sentinels were combative, and the hierarchy among them was an insurmountable chasm. Higher ranks naturally exerted pressure on lower ones.
It was just as Sheng Xuejiu had done during her speech at the opening ceremony; once she released her aura, Sentinels of a lower tier were completely unable to resist.
Thus, many students who knew their own limits simply gave up on competing. Barring some fortuitous encounter, their future roles in the military would be as executors and subordinates.
Yue Du stood in the middle of the field, her eyes unfocused, her fingers stroking the warm nape of the white deer’s neck, her fingertips sinking slightly into its fur.
She exerted no pressure, because she was not a Sentinel.
But she also wasn’t afraid of pressure, because she was not a Sentinel.
And just like that, she quietly managed to cheese her way through what all the Sentinels tacitly considered the first round of the competition—the contest of pressure.
Ying Wei was positioned to Yue Du’s left, with three people between them. All three of these gentlemen were unable to withstand the powerful pressure of the grade’s top student and were defeated.
In Ying Wei’s eyes, Yue Du’s cheesy tactic meant only one thing: This woman is truly something else!
To not release the slightest bit of pressure herself, yet still withstand her assault without revealing any openings—Yue Du’s rank had to be very high.
The contest of pressure winnowed the contestants down by another tenth, leaving only about a dozen people.
Yue Du glanced left and right. The field was wide open.
It was a good thing Sheng Xuejiu wasn’t here. If she were, Yue Du would probably be the only one left standing.
The few instructors in charge of organizing the competition seemed unfazed by this scene. With a few simple commands, they partitioned the field, setting up one-on-one matches for the remaining students.
Yue Du: “…”
She went back to petting her deer.
Participating in such a childish—yes, childish—competition, Yue Du truly couldn’t take it seriously.
Her opponents had only recently come of age; they hadn’t mastered enough techniques, and their physical fitness was nothing to write home about.
Perhaps they would have had more of an advantage piloting mechas, but unfortunately, the first-year, first-semester curriculum didn’t include mechas, so they naturally weren’t part of the competition.
To use mechas, they would have to wait for the chief challenge in the first semester of their second year.
Yue Du had to hide her strength without letting anyone see she was holding back. The acting was more exhausting than the fighting itself.
The white deer, however, didn’t need to pretend at all. When an opponent’s Quantum Beast opened its massive, carnivorous jaws to bite, the deer needed only to make good use of its sharp antlers.
Antlers could be incredibly lethal. If Quantum Beasts didn’t lack real flesh and blood, the arena might have turned into a slaughterhouse…
Finally, Yue Du faced off against Ying Wei.
Ying Wei’s Quantum Beast was an agile silver wolf. Though a wolf, it was even larger than Zhou Wen’s tiger, and its eyes were a startlingly bright yellow.
“I saw your previous match,” Ying Wei said. “You fought very well.”
Yue Du replied, “Thank you, you too.”
Ying Wei said, “I’m not just being polite. You seem very strong, but victory and defeat are things you only know after a fight.”
As if to second its master’s words, the silver wolf threw back its head and let out a long howl before crouching low, ready to attack at any moment.
Yue Du said, “Then, please begin.”
Ying Wei had mastered more techniques than the other students, and her improvement was obvious compared to her previous performance in the holographic arena.
She had likely been working to shore up this weakness ever since Sheng Xuejiu had spoken to her.
The final battle lasted ten minutes.
Ying Wei was covered in injuries but still refused to concede, even though she no longer had the strength to stand.
Yue Du retracted her hand. The white deer ambled slowly to stand behind her. Just moments before, its antlers had sliced a long gash across the silver wolf’s belly, mercilessly forcing the poor Quantum Beast to dissolve into a gray mist, unable to reform for some time.
“Please concede. There’s no point in continuing this fight,” Yue Du said gently.
Ying Wei: “…”
She didn’t answer. The scene seemed to fall into a stalemate. After about a minute of silence, Ying Wei finally lowered her head and said in a low but clear voice, “You win.”
—This is someone worthy of standing by the Marshal’s side.
Yue Du smiled and offered a hand to help her up, which Ying Wei accepted.
With that, the chief was decided.
Having been narrowly defeated in the final, Ying Wei was the runner-up. She and the male student who took third place were both designated as second seats.
“I’ll challenge you again next year,” Ying Wei declared as she stood on the stage, accepting the second seat Sentinel’s insignia from the instructor.
Yue Du pinned the chief’s badge squarely on her chest. Upon hearing this, she gave a nonchalant nod. “I’ll be waiting.”
“…And that’s what happened.”
Yue Du said, her voice devoid of all hope.
On the light screen before her, Sheng Xuejiu wore an expression of someone trying desperately to hold back laughter. “It’s nothing. Sentinels are supposed to have a bit of a fighting spirit.”
Yue Du said, “If you’ll recall, I’m actually a Guide—”
“I remember, I remember. But haven’t you been pretending to be a Sentinel this whole time? So it makes no difference.”
This utterly insincere attempt at consolation clearly did nothing to make Yue Du feel better.
She heaved a heavy sigh and lowered her head, pressing her cheek against the cold surface of the desk. The sight of the chief’s insignia sitting off to the side only intensified her sense of shame. She ended up silently covering the exposed half of her face to avoid looking at it.
It was so cringey.
Fighting her way up through a crowd of kids, winning a chief’s badge, and even agreeing to a challenge for the following year—it was the very definition of teenage chuunibyou!
It would have been fine on the Ayers Continent or in the Qianhong Divine Province. That was just the culture there. From thousand-year-old elders to young children, everyone settled things with duels at the drop of a hat. Fighting someone there carried no psychological burden, and no one would stop to consider if it was childish.
After all, when the entire environment is that cringey, you tend not to overthink it. You just go along with the cringe.
But now? This was the interstellar age!
The so-called academy chief was really just a game for kids. Even if the position came with great power, influenced one’s future career in the military, and attracted classmates to one’s side, it was, in the end, just youthful squabbling.
The academy instructors watching them peck at each other on the training grounds like serious little chicks were probably all smiling benevolently. They might even be watching this group of energetic kids with the knowing eyes of experience.
The thought alone was despair-inducing.
Yue Du pressed her hands more firmly against her face.
Sheng Xuejiu said, “Relax. You’re only eighteen. No one is going to laugh at you for this.”
Yue Du said sullenly, “I know how many years I’ve lived. Even if no one else says anything, how am I supposed to get over this?”
Sheng Xuejiu couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.
Yue Du said, “…Hey.”
Once they had both more or less calmed down, Yue Du wiped her face, lifted her head, and was once again a serious and composed System.
With the chief competition over, the semester was basically finished. The final exams that followed were, by comparison, not as important and could be disregarded.
Yue Du asked, “Once the break starts, should I come find you on the border star?”
“It’s better if you don’t. Things are hectic here right now; it’s a bit of a mess.”
“Then what about your mental landscape? The break is the perfect time to sort it out for you, since we’ll have plenty of time.”
Sheng Xuejiu replied, “I’ll think about it.”
However, the Marshal’s opinion still leaned toward not letting her come. To that end, she didn’t hesitate to bring up military regulations, pointing out sternly that a first-year academy student shouldn’t be on the front lines, as it would be a violation of the rules.
Yue Du: “…”
So now you know about rules and regulations?
The host’s standards were always her own. If something suited her, she would use it. If it didn’t, she would pretend it didn’t exist.
They argued about the matter for half an hour. Yue Du was ultimately victorious and finalized her vacation plans.
She would travel to the border star, not as an academy student, but as a family member of the border garrison, joining a group of spouses on a visit.
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