"But the mission is not over; tomorrow, we will conduct a second incursion." The captain explained. "Bring glory to the New Earth Army!"
The salute was the signal many cadets needed to understand that they were finally dismissed. Oliver threw himself into his tiny tent. It barely fit one person, but at least it was thermally insulated and had a small mattress. His body begged him to sleep, and he didn’t want to resist that call.
However, to his misfortune, he wouldn’t have silence. The area where the tents were set up had beco a massive event.
It wasn’t every day that recruits from both battalions visited a new planet and participated in battles together, especially while sharing the sa type of food. So, the entire space had beco a large festivity.
Boys and girls split into small groups to chat while they ate the rations provided by the NEA. Although each group had different interests, the main topic everyone was discussing was the rankings.
| Ranking
| 1 - William Forester [First Battalion - 13th Group] - 59 Kills
| 2 - Gregory Torres [First Battalion - 1st Group] - 55 Kills
| 3 - Amanda Romanov [First Battalion - 12th Group] - 52 Kills
|
"Wow! Did you see William in battle? The one in the first place." one of the girls said.
"No, damn. I was in a different group," one of the boys replied.
"It's impressive. He moves like a ghost. It was incredible. He almost took out all the Crabits by himself," the girl continued while describing the boy as a superhero.
"Imagine when he becos a Ranger. He'll quickly beco a star," another girl comnted.
The top positions hadn’t changed, but they were pulling away quickly. With only one more day to close the gap, many felt the results were already set in stone. But there was another subject that was drawing attention.
"Hey... did you guys notice who's in 25th place?" a boy in another group asked.
"25th? Not yet. I was just looking at the top ranks... no way I’ll ever reach sothing like that," a boy replied sadly. "What's so special about 25th?"
While Oliver was sleeping, the cadets, especially those from the first battalion, began noticing a student high in the rankings. Even more surprising, this student wasn’t well-known and belonged to the second battalion. Being a Naless was the cherry on top.
|
| 25 - Oliver (Naless) [Second Battalion - 14th Group] - 13 Kills
|
This was a surprise and a reason to celebrate for the second battalion students.
"Who is Oliver? Does anyone know him?" one of the students from the Second Battalion asked.
"I think it's that short kid with dark hair who looks Asian. Why?" one of the girls replied.
"Haven’t you seen the ranking? He’s the highest-ranking student from the second battalion." the boy explained.
Oliver's fa began to spread, especially as more students checked and followed the rankings.
"Ah! But it’s only 25th. It’s not that high." In another group, one of the First Batallion kids spoke.
"What did you expect? It’s far off, but several descendants from noble Houses are ranked below him." Before they could continue belittling Oliver’s results, a boy pointed out an essential piece of information. If they kept downplaying the significance of 25th place, they would insult several cadets from prestigious Houses who hadn’t even reached 25th.
Several groups began looking for Oliver. So wanted to know how he trained, what his Ranger Weapon was, and if he had a girlfriend. Other groups wanted to figure out how he was cheating and what trick he was using.
And finally, so wanted to celebrate. It wasn’t every day that such a surprise happened. But while they searched the settlent, no one imagined he might already be asleep in his tent.
None of the boys who knew Oliver were particularly close to him. It was difficult to get to know him, especially since they had different class schedules.
In one of the groups from the Second Battalion, a few boys were talking, trying to analyze how Oliver had achieved his result.
"...Does anyone rember what his weapon was?" one of the boys asked.
"As far as I recall, it was an Energy Pistol." Another boy replied.
"An Energy Pistol… it’s terrible against the Crabits. So he must be using so Boon for combat." The first boy spoke. "Does anyone rember what his Boon was?"
"He said he didn’t know," Damian replied.
Damian was on the first night at the Academy when they were all still getting to know each other. He suggested sharing their information about Boons and Glitches. The only flaw in his plan was not anticipating that soone from the Second Battalion would try to hide their information.
Though Damian tried to keep the conversation lively, he was furious inside, so much so that he felt as if his skin was burning. He ca from the Great House Nemo, and it was already a sha that he had ended up in the second battalion. Now, there was a naless student ranked higher than him.
He wouldn't have been humiliated like this if his weapon wasn’t so terrible against the Crabits. Having a whip matched well with his Boon, which allowed him to communicate with monsters and even dominate them, but in a chaotic battle, it beca useless. To make matters worse, one of the disgusting creatures had managed to injure him.
"How can soone not know their own Boon?!"
"Maybe he never used an Artificial Armor."
"But how did he get good enough to keep up with the First Battalion?"
"Ah! I don’t know." The conversation stalled. Unintentionally, the boys began to look at the stars—the sky was completely different from Earth.
The settlent was large, but it was one of the few human constructions on this planet, allowing them to perfectly see the stars and planets above.
"Tomorrow, we’ll find out what it is," Damian proclaid.
The other cadets looked at him, confused.
"What do you an?"
"There are many injured students who can’t continue. They’ll likely combine the groups, so we’ll see him and all the Top Rankers." Damian explained.
Slowly, the boys returned to looking at the stars. Perhaps that was the feeling of looking at those at the top of the rankings—they seed so far away.
But their shine could reach them.
Many stayed up late talking and celebrating without anyone to set a curfew for the cadets. When Oliver finally woke up, there wasn’t a single student standing. Even though the night had been lively, the boy had slept almost peacefully. After his experience with the Academy’s dormitory and the battles from the previous day, he could’ve slept anywhere.
Now fully awake, he felt two things. First, how uncomfortable the mattress was—it was so thin that he could feel the ground beneath him. The second thing was how filthy he felt. Although his hygiene wasn’t always the best, as Alan often pointed out, he had reached his limit.
His uniform was full of holes, and his boots were covered in mud. Not to ntion his hair and face, still covered in Crabit’s blood.
Luckily, he found so supplies inside the tent—a second uniform and so rations to last until the next incursion. Now, all he needed to do was find where the bathrooms were to clean himself up.
As he left the tent, he finally had ti to explore the camp. Now, with so daylight, he could finally grasp the scale of the expedition. Thousands of tents were set up for the recruits, to the point that it was difficult to look in any direction without seeing them.
However, after walking for a while, he eventually found so marked paths that led back to the tents and several important buildings.
Oliver had to walk along the trails for so ti before finding an area with bathrooms and showers. Since he had woken up so early, he didn’t encounter any other cadets and could shower peacefully. His biggest shock was the amount of dirt that fell from his hair and the red water that ran down as he washed the dried blood from his skin.
During this ti, he reflected on his weaknesses and how he could adapt. He didn’t have any secret power up his sleeve. But maybe he could use the power he already had.
After finishing his shower, he began preparing himself. He dressed in the new uniform, put on his boots, and ate the rations. At the sa ti, he pondered whether his [Insight] ability would work on a Ranger Armor-generated item.
'Maybe I don’t need to use it on a human item,' Oliver thought. 'I could try using it on the Energy Pistol and focus on absorbing only the knowledge of how to use the weapon. Would that work?'
He could see three possible outcos: he might use the ability to analyze the entire Armor, which might be too much for his powers and could kill him. He might analyze the pistol and learn sothing to help him fight the Crabits. Or, his last option—it might be completely useless.
This wasn’t his only idea, but undoubtedly the most risky.
"Huff," he exhaled deeply, preparing himself for another day.
"Priiii!"
"Wake up, cadets! The second incursion will start in 30 minutes!"
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