No Escape

Saint Hill Military Academy placed great importance on exchange students. The Holy Hill Legion’s current standing had much to do with the academy’s open management.

The school rules even explicitly prohibited racial discrimination, and violators would be punished.

No matter what, the Beiyang Army could be considered the strongest legion among China’s own official factions.

China’s international status might not be high at present, but the great powers would not simply dismiss it.

The fact that all the great powers had joined forces to enter and carve it up was itself proof that they recognized its strength.

The fact that their society could directly reserve five simulators from the school also showed that, at least on the surface, their status was fairly decent…

But…

It was obvious that the simulators they had reserved had been taken over by someone else.

"We really have to thank you, Chen Hang. Knowing we didn’t want to queue up, you specially reserved five simulators for us."

"Haha, don’t worry, we’ll repay you too. Once we’re done, we’ll let you use them for a while. Hmm, we’ll leave you ten minutes. Hahaha!"

Leaning against the simulators currently in use, a bald white man with tattoos on his shoulders, wearing only a sleeveless vest that exposed his knotted muscles, and a scrawny, lecherous-looking young man who seemed somewhat malnourished offered Xu Yue’s group their "friendly greetings" in turn.

"You again? Aren’t you afraid of the school’s punishment?"

The scholarly-looking man who had first met Sun Lin stepped forward first and spoke righteously.

"Wow, the school’s punishment. So scary."

"I’m gonna tell the teacher, hahaha~"

"Li Hui, don’t go slandering us. When did we humiliate you? When did we insult you? Watch what you say, or we’ll sue you for defamation."

The few people waiting outside instead of entering the simulators all let out strange laughter.

It was difficult for others to tell when ordinary Reincarnators gathered their strength in the real world, but since perception was Xu Yue’s specialty, making a rough judgment within a certain area was not much of a problem.

Those muscular white men who kept mocking them were, at most, Veteran Reincarnators.

Yet Chen Hang’s side, which had an Elite Reincarnator, had somehow fallen into a disadvantageous position.

It looked as though they were merely trading verbal blows, but it seemed they were limited to words alone.

After all that arguing, the others continued using the simulators, effectively taking advantage of them for free.

Even if Chen Hang’s primary ability was mecha and his strength would be severely affected outside one, suppressing those people should not have been a problem. This was the school district, where they had "practice authorization."

Yet somehow, they had let things turn into this.

Xu Yue might not care much about saving face sometimes, but he did care about benefits…

On the surface, this Beiyang Society seemed to be doing nothing more than exchanging barbs with the other side, but the simulator time that was continuously being occupied was clearly a real loss.

This Elite Reincarnator Chen Hang did not seem all that impressive. He had been so arrogant in front of the two of them before.

"…You two are newcomers too, right? Coincidentally, we’re also bringing along some juniors. Arguing endlessly isn’t going to solve anything, and making a fuss before the professors wouldn’t be good for either side. Why not let them have a friendly spar and decide who gets them afterward?"

After arguing for quite a while, once Li Hui, who was handling the negotiations, had stated that he would report the matter to the school, the people leaning against the simulators seemed to make a reluctant concession.

But their words were clearly rather interesting.

The right to use these five simulators had originally belonged to the Beiyang Society, yet after occupying them, these people could still act as though they were generously making a concession.

Most importantly, the three led by Chen Hang did not seem to have much objection. No, it was not that they had no objections; their objections lay elsewhere.

"Our two newcomers have only been at the school for how long? If there’s going to be a match, why not have us compete instead?"

"They’re both newcomers. What’s wrong with having them compete?"

Just as the two sides seemed about to argue for another long while, Sun Lin apparently could no longer restrain her temper and snapped.

"Fine, let’s compete. We’re both official Reincarnators. I’m not afraid of them."

"Haha, good. See? This beautiful lady is the reasonable one."

The tattooed muscleman burst into laughter and immediately took up her words.

The scrawny, sleazy-looking fellow openly swept his heated gaze over Sun Lin and smiled.

"She’s got far more flavor than your other Chinese women, hahaha. More flavor than your men too."

Since Sun Lin had agreed, Li Hui and the others could not say much more. Their expressions were simply somewhat ugly.

Chen Hang, who usually maintained a cold and reserved demeanor to preserve his status, finally sighed at Sun Lin.

"Little Lin, you fell for their provocation. I know how their society recruits people. Even official Reincarnators need to obtain an Assault Short Sword unit before they can join."

Although both were considered beginner units, the Assault Short Sword was clearly among the high-end beginner models. Fully equipped with energy weapons, it was essentially a simplified version of the Strike Gundam.

It was much stronger than either the Sunderland or the Burai Modified.

There was also a difference in size. Aside from agility, its parameters overwhelmingly surpassed them in every respect!

"Ahem, well, I think that since she has agreed, we naturally can’t go back on our word."

Xu Yue, who had been silent all this time, gave a light cough and spoke up, earning a displeased look from Chen Hang.

Xu Yue ignored it completely and continued speaking on his own.

"However, it would be better to change the stakes. The right to use these simulators belonged to us in the first place. Why don’t we apply for a space adjudication in the school district and play for something real?"

"Oh? Something real?"

The tattooed muscleman looked at Xu Yue with a trace of interest. He had not expected someone to actually try to reason with them. Was this guy brain-damaged?

Didn’t he see that his seniors were not even planning to argue about that?

Even if they had forcibly taken them, so what? At most, if the matter reached the school, they would just compensate them with some extra time.

Did he really think the school would punish them severely?

Rules were rules, but people were the ones enforcing them!

Did these yellow-skinned monkeys from abroad really think clinging to the school rules would protect them?

How laughable. How naive!

Seeing the muscleman looking askance at him with mockery, Xu Yue gave a friendly smile.

"To avoid hurting the peace between us, friendship comes first and competition second. The stakes shouldn’t be too high."

As Xu Yue spoke, he glanced at Sun Lin beside him before saying softly.

"Let’s wager fifty percent of our available liquid funds. If you win, you’ll receive fifty percent of the remaining points belonging to the two of us. If you lose, you’ll pay the same amount…"

When Sun Lin heard Xu Yue’s words, a hint of nervousness suddenly appeared on her face.

After every mission, her brother would transfer money to her up to the maximum amount she could accept as a gift. On top of that, to prepare for emergency expenses during the upcoming Promotion Mission, she had quite a substantial reserve of points and Plot Points!

If she really lost, the loss would be enormous.

But she had agreed to it herself. Though worried about the loss, she was too embarrassed to refuse now. She had spoken so confidently—perhaps Xu Yue had simply been inspired by her confidence…

"Haha! Fine! We accept! To prevent anyone from suddenly spending their points in advance, let’s sign the contract right now."

"Kid, you really seem confident in yourself."

Those people agreed without the slightest hesitation, their faces full of ridicule.

"You really think we don’t know this beautiful lady’s background? You want to use her wealth to fleece us? How naive."

Cold smiles appeared on their faces.

"Since you’ve agreed, I’ll draft the contract."

Xu Yue ignored their mockery and began drafting the contract.

To show that he was "not taking advantage," if his side won, his and Sun Lin’s gains would be calculated separately. Each would receive an amount equal to fifty percent of their own remaining reserves. If they lost, the fifty percent paid by each of them would be pooled together and split evenly between their opponents.

He also added a supplementary "sale" clause involving the space.

If the losing side could not afford the price, the space would directly conduct a mandatory assessment and seize skills, items, lifespan, or personal freedom as compensation at a discounted value, advancing the wager as much as possible. If even that could not cover the amount, then it would end there, with no further payment required.

This supplementary clause was the reason Xu Yue had chosen fifty percent as the stake!

The wealth of two official Reincarnators, along with fifty percent of his own remaining points, would be enough to sell them even more thoroughly than the two people from the previous Punishment mission.

It was obviously impossible to make the space take a loss and advance extra funds. Passing the cost onto their legion could easily expose something and was not worthwhile.

So it was enough to squeeze out every last bit of benefit. Xu Yue was not greedy…

Once it was over, the other side would disappear from the world entirely, preventing the defeated newcomers from noticing their losses and revealing anything.

And when others saw the participants disappear, they would only assume that Sun Lin had a lot of money. Either way, there would be no loss. Everything would simply be carried out strictly according to the contract…

Xu Yue had just played a word game in the contract when the two people on the other side quickly sent it to their newcomers for them to sign, then burst into wild laughter.

"Haha! The newcomers we mentioned before—we never said they were official Reincarnators!"

"That’s right. Your beautiful lady said that herself. You can’t blame us for deceiving you."

The tattooed muscleman and the scrawny sleazy man exchanged glances, cruel smiles appearing on their faces.

"The contract has already been signed. There’s nowhere left for you to run…"

Two updates… trembling with fear