Chapter 52: Scolding Another to Tears
“May all candidates please take note. The first round of the Crisis grade assessnt has co to an end. May everyone please return to the base camp and report. From this point onward, no candidate is allowed to use any ans of attack any longer; Anyone in breach would lose their qualifications to continue. Injured candidates, please press the yellow button on your communication device and await dical treatnt.”
Just as the sun ca up, the white watch which Xia Fei had on him began broadcasting the news regarding the end of this assessnt over and over again. Xia Fei spat and proceeded to run in the direction of the assembly point.
Xia Fei had a bad feeling about Xiao Yu’s mysterious disappearance. He had been trying his best to control his emotions and avoid thinking about the worst-case scenarios.
Right now, all he could do was to put his hope in the power of the Adjudicator Union. After all, the chance of finding anything out just by his own strength was far too slim.
Maintaining a speed of 180m/s, Xia Fei could soon see the four massive black spaceships in the distance parked in a row on the clearing.
There were many candidates around, and most looked to be bearing injuries of different varieties, all looking tired, and their bodies were covered in dirt and sand. They no longer showed the enthusiasm they had when the assessnt first started. Whether they had managed to obtain a token or not, these last seven days had been hell, and each and every one of them was looking forward to a hot bath and a sumptuous al.
Over a thousand staff mbers from the Adjudicator Union had ford a row and were in charge of registering the returning candidates.
In the distance, two candidates suddenly started fighting each other over a token. The adjudicator who was closest to them instantly stepped in and stopped their altercation, even teaching them a little lesson at the sa ti.
As for how things stood, it was already too late for any of them to put in any additional effort. The mont the broadcast played earlier in the morning, the fate of each and every candidate had already been sealed.
Xia Fei swept his gaze through all the union’s staff present, and a pair of attractive legs caught his eye. They belonged to a female adjudicator who had first received Xia Fei and Xiao Yu, Ye Xiaohan.
“Do you still rember that little girl from Earth back then, just like ?” Xia Fei asked in a hurry after coming to an abrupt stop near Ye Xiaohan.
Ye Xiaohan had an emotionless expression on her face as she used the device in her hand to scan Xia Fei’s watch to verify his identity.
“Do you need any dical attention?” Ye Xiaohan asked in an icy tone.
“I’m fine. But the girl I was with might be injured, or to be precise, she has been kidnapped!” Xia Fei shouted loudly.
Yelling at a beauty was clearly not an honorable act by itself, as the colleagues and candidates around Ye Xiaohan all threw cold glares at Xia Fei.
“Did you obtain a token to get to the next round?” Ye Xiaohan continued to ask, her attitude completely business-like and neutral.
Xia Fei pulled out a token from his spatial ring and handed it to Ye Xiaohan. Actually, Xia Fei had another token inside his ring, but that belonged to Xiao Yu.
“Xia Fei, registration number 70563. You are permitted to participate in the second round of this assessnt,” Ye Xiaohan did what she was supposed to do before she looked toward other candidates, hinting to Xia Fei that he should leave.
“I still have an important matter to inform you.”
“What is it?”
Xia Fei gave an account of Xiao Yu’s disappearance to Ye Xiaohan in a relaxed tone as best as possible.
“It is common for candidates to disappear or die during the assessnt. You have all signed a life and death contract before participating. The contract clearly stipulates that the Adjudicator Union shall not be held responsible for any accidents during the assessnt,” Ye Xiaohan very calmly answered.
Xia Fei’s eyes stared right into Ye Xiaohan’s two eyes, and for so unknown reason, Ye Xiaohan felt slightly panicked by what Xia Fei did. However, her expression remained as stern as ever, not outwardly showing any change at all.
“Believe , this is not an accident,” Xia Fei solemnly remarked. “First, the person who kidnapped Xiao Yu had a speed of over 4,600m/s. Considering that they were carrying Xiao Yu, it clearly ant that their top speed was over 5,000m/s.”
“A speed of over 5,000m/s ant this is soone who had achieved the Star River rank. Since this assessnt’s rank requirent is between Star Light and Star Domain, it is evident that this person isn’t a candidate.”
“Secondly, this person was not concerned about the token needed to qualify for the second round. Just this alone showed that his goal was to kidnap Xiao Yu, so he or she isn’t a candidate who was hiding their strength.”
“Thirdly, I have been following their tracks, and I discovered that the footprints suddenly disappeared in the west. Tell , if this person were a candidate, why would they suddenly disappear from the designated venue? Why would they just give up on the assessnt?”
“Fourth, Xiao Yu’s special ability is the Athyst Guard. You should know just how powerful the Athyst guard is as a special ability. Could a candidate who isn’t higher than the Star Domain rank be able to kidnap a candidate with the Athyst Guard ability without causing any conflict?”
“Just from these four points alone, I can tell that the person who abducted Xiao Yu was most definitely not soone taking part in the assessnt and was an unaffiliated interloper! Soone from the outside who was at least the Star River rank!”
Xia Fei beca more and more agitated as he spoke, his voice involuntarily growing louder and louder. The hundreds of people around him who were unaware of the truth had all been quietly listening to their conversation.
Ye Xiaohan was quiet hearing Xia Fei’s analysis but she gave an emotionless reply after, “This is just your deduction. It cannot be admitted as evidence. Unless you can effectively prove that an interloper had kidnapped a candidate from this assessnt, we would not be accepting your complaint as fact.”
Xia Fei took a few deep breaths and kept his inflad emotions in check.
“I request to check the monitoring information collected during this assessnt.”
Ye Xiaohan shook her head, “I’m sorry, you do not have the authority to examine any of the information collected during this assessnt. However, we will be announcing the final results for this first round before 12 noon. If your friend isn’t on this planet, then we will most certainly have her location and have her sent back to camp, dead or alive.”
“How will I be able to check the results for the assessnt?”
“The results for the first round would be announced on the interplanetary internet across the entire Endaro Star Region before 12 noon.”
Xia Fei no longer cared to bother the woman and strode back to his bunk.
“I’ll admit that you’re a very beautiful lady, but do you know what you lack?” Xia Fei walked off as he pulled out a Hongtashan, softly saying, “You lack compassion.”
Xia Fei did not loudly declare this, but it was still particularly harsh when Ye Xiaohan heard it.
A nosy colleague was covering his mouth and secretly sniggering, but a fierce stare from Ye Xiaohan caused the man to look away in a hurry, not daring to et the eyes of this ice-cold beauty.
Glancing at Xia Fei’s shrinking back, Ye Xiaohan contemplated his parting words, ‘Am I really uncompassionate?’
...
After taking a cold shower, Xia Fei sat on his bedside and took out a Hongtashan. The bed beside him still had traces of Xiao Yu’s scent, a delicate fragrance that was unique to little girls, like the sll of fresh milk with flower petals added to it, unforgettable.
Even though he was not doing well emotionally, Xia Fei still maintained his calm. There was nothing he could do with the complaints and anger he had, so all he could do was patiently wait and attempt to recover his physical strength as quickly as he could, all the while preparing for the second round of assessnt in three days.
After a change of clean clothes, Xia Fei made his way to the ss hall and ate a hot al before retiring back to his bunk to rest. He set his alarm for 12 PM to check the final result of the assessnt as soon as possible.
Xia Fei’s head hit the pillow as he instantly fell asleep. Having not slept a wink for seven consecutive days, he was already feeling extrely exhausted.
Xia Fei had a dream in his sleep. On a sunny afternoon several years in the future, Xia Fei was walking amid a crowded street when a slim teenager suddenly appeared right in front of him, wearing a pretty white dress and a head of short black hair that blew freely in the wind.
She had a sweet smile on her face as she walked toward Xia Fei.
Xia Fei thought this teenage girl was very familiar. An urge to reach out and pinch her cheeks with his hand ca over him. Unfortunately, his surroundings turned pitch black. Xia Fei hurriedly searched for sothing on himself that could shine a light, but he turned up empty-handed.
In this darkness, Xia Fei could feel that white figure brush her shoulders as she passed by, slowly getting further away as he could do nothing but watch her leave helplessly.
It was at that mont when the piercing sound of an alarm woke him up from his dream.
While rubbing his eyes, Xia Fei got up from his bed with a hop and washed his face with so cold water in the bathroom. Xia Fei seed to be much gaunter than how he was several days ago, appearing to be a bit more miserable than before.
Returning to his bunk, Xia Fei wore his virtual reality glasses and accessed the interplanetary internet, intending to check on the Adjudicator Union’s finalized na list. If the Adjudicator Union had yet to find any trace of Xiao Yu after a whole morning of registration and search, then the word ‘missing’ would be added next to her na.
The Adjudicator Union was powerful and unrivaled. If even they had to acknowledge that Xiao Yu was missing, then that ant the chance of Xia Fei locating her would be slim at best.
Logging onto the Endaro Star System’s Adjudicator Union website successfully, Xia Fei clicked onto the candidate na list of the first round of assessnt and searched through the nas intently.
A na list with 100,000 candidates was very long. Every na would be marked with their current status. If they were marked to be ‘Eliminated – severe injuries,’ a further click would display the candidate’s picture and a detailed report on the injury. The Adjudicator Union was very ticulous in this regard, so the candidate’s family and relatives could very quickly check on them.
As Xia Fei uneasily searched for Xiao Yu’s na, a three-dinsional video signal unceremoniously interrupted Xia Fei’s hunt all of a sudden.
Avril appeared to be seated in her boudoir, a huge room filled with pink decorations in the video. Even her bedsheets and the rows of stuffed toys placed on the table were dressed in pink outfits.
“You’re willing to use an anonymous account that you’ve bought from the black market just to avoid . Am I really that detestable?” Avril very pitifully asked.
Xia Fei was nervously searching for news about Xiao Yu right now, yet Avril’s mischief had interrupted him. A fit of anger involuntarily welled up in his heart, and with a knitted brow, Xia Fei snapped out of anger, “Scram!”
Poor Avril was stunned. She had not even dread that she would receive a scolding after she had spent so much effort tracking Xia Fei.
Lowering her head, her delicate pale hands rubbed a corner of her blouse repeatedly as tears stread down from the corner of her eyes. She was aggrieved, saddened and helpless. She was feeling too many emotions entangled in her heart.
Phantom was also shocked and feebly comnted, “In three days, you’ve lost a girl, angered another, and scolded a third till she’s in tears. This couldn’t possibly be a good on.”
Reviews
All reviews (0)