241: Truth!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
“Stay calm!” Facing his companions’ inquisition, Lin Zhidong did not become angry, merely asking them levelly to settle down.
“Indeed, we are all from Leiting, all friends. Let’s discuss things civilly. Mu Ying, don’t be impatient, let’s hear Lin Zhidong’s explanation.” A young man seated beside Lin Zhidong advised the livid Mu Ying with soothing tones while throwing a look at Lin Zhidong at the same time, urging him to start explaining things quickly.
“Honestly, if Regiment Commander Qiao were not in Closed Door Meditation, I would have suggested directly to let Regiment Commander Qiao go forth personally to bring those people under control.” Opening his mouth, Lin Zhidong did not explain, instead stating his opinion.
“Why did you have to be so impatient? Couldn’t we do this gradually in a more subtle manner? Do you know that these actions of yours will smear the good name of Leiting?” Mu Ying once more leapt to his feet upon hearing Lin Zhidong’s words, practically spitting in rage as he almost shoved a finger right onto Lin Zhidong’s nose.
Lin Zhidong pushed the other’s finger aside with one hand, turned to look at the others present, and said, “Do you all also think the same way?”
The young man who had initially been playing mediator instantly smiled wryly and said, “Zhidong, your actions over these past few days have really gone a little overboard. Before he went into Closed Door Meditation, the regiment commander had said that any action representing Leiting as a whole needed to be discussed and agreed upon by all of us first before execution. You skipped talking to us, directly going ahead to provoke the other side so openly …” He cast a glance at the others then added, “We just feel extremely uninformed!”
The corner of Lin Zhidong’s lips carried a hint of a sneer. He looked towards the others — their gazes held unconcealed censure. He sniffed coldly and said, “It’s not that I didn’t want to tell you all, but I was afraid that if I told you all, this secret would get out. At that time, the loss for Leiting would be considerable.”
“You don’t trust us?” Mu Ying leapt up once again 1 .
“Yes, I do not trust you all,” replied Lin Zhidong unreservedly.
“You …” Lin Zhidong’s words made the faces of everyone there change. They felt that these words were a huge insult directed at them.
Seeing the situation turning sour, the mediating young man quickly said, “Zhidong, how can you say things like that? Being friends for so many years … don’t you have even this bit of trust in us?”
Hearing this, Lin Zhidong’s expression gentled slightly. “It’s not that I don’t trust you all. I just don’t trust the people by your sides. The more people who know, the easier it would be for this secret to get out. And this matter concerns whether we, Leiting, will finally be able to conquer and unite the factions in the military academy in the future.”
“What do you mean?” Lin Zhidong’s words caused everyone’s expressions to shift.
“You all must use your spiritual power to make a vow, that the secret ends here with you all, otherwise I will not tell you.” On this matter, Lin Zhidong was surprisingly insistent and forceful. This also made the group exceptionally angry, almost flicking their sleeves to storm away.
The mediating young man once again spoke up to ease the tension, “Zhidong, is this really necessary? Making a vow with spiritual power is no small thing …”
“The secret I’m about to say has great importance for Leiting. I believe that when the regiment commander finds out, he will also approve of the way I’ve handled things,” answered Lin Zhidong calmly.
Mu Ying was the first to jump out. “If I have to make a vow, then I’ll make a vow! But, Lin Zhidong, if the secret you tell is less than dogshit, I will definitely report this to the regiment commander and get you kicked out of Leiting.”
Lin Zhidong said haughtily, “If you all think this secret is not worth your spiritual power vows, you don’t have to report to the regiment commander. I will ask to leave on my own.”
“Fine, Lin Zhidong, you must follow through with your words!” That said, Mu Ying was the first one to make a spiritual power vow. The others, seeing that Mu Ying had already done so, could only follow suit helplessly.
Seeing that everyone present had made a vow, only then did Lin Zhidong bring out a document from beside him. He then passed it to the mediator youth who was sitting closest to him.
The youth opened it, and his expression changed as he read its contents. He forcefully suppressed the urge to ask questions, merely passing the document to the next in line. A similar expression appeared on the next person’s face as well, and very quickly, the document had been passed through everyone’s hands to finally return to Lin Zhidong. Lin Zhidong threw the document to one side, where an energy converter was already prepared. The converter deconstructed the file, turning it into immaterial energy, and saving it into an energy block.
“Now you’ve all seen it. This is why I did not notify you all, choosing to provoke the other side directly,” said Lin Zhidong coldly.
“How can this be?” Mu Ying’s face was a picture of disbelief. “One or two is still believable, but for an entire ship’s new cadets to be this way — this is too outlandish.”
In the face of Mu Ying’s scepticism, Lin Zhidong’s face darkened. “Do you all not trust my hacking skills?”
One of the group could not help but say awkwardly, “Zhidong, you’re the hacker with the best grades in this school. We all trust in your abilities. It’s just that the contents inside are just too outlandish, so we can’t help but be a little suspicious.”
“Could they have cheated?” Another in the group glanced at Lin Zhidong and then said slowly, “Or perhaps the information Zhidong obtained is false?” At the heart of it, they still did not believe in the appearance of these results.
His companions’ distrust made Lin Zhidong’s expression turn stormy. He held back the rage in his heart as he sneered, “This information, was obtained by me from the academy’s mainframe’s most secure S-tier. If even the S-tier needs to contain such a fake document, I really don’t know where else real documents should be stored. Should they be stored on the Federation’s mainframe’s S-tier instead?”
“As for cheating, do you all really believe in that reason yourselves?” asked Lin Zhidong with a mocking tone, “The ones who test cadets are all hardened veteran soldiers who have been baptised in the flames of fire. Getting them to help you cheat? I don’t know what price one could use to move them. Let me put this another way. Even if they cheated, would they make it so obvious? All the students on the entire ship being so outstanding? Not a single one who failed?”
Lin Zhidong’s words made the others all cool down instantly. Indeed, a fake document would never be placed in the S-tier of the military academy’s mainframe. Since Lin Zhidong had said S-tier, then it definitely could not be wrong. After all, every year, the information Lin Zhidong had mined from the S-tier on the new cadets had always been extremely accurate — it was impossible that he would have obtained false data from a wrong direction this time. Besides, if this was truly a case of cheating, the method was really too idiotic. These abnormal results would certainly attract the attention of the school administration, and prompt inquiries and investigations to prove its validity. No one would dare to be so blatant and daring in doing such an idiotic thing.
“I believe, not much longer after this, the hackers of the other factions should also be getting this data. At that time, there won’t be any hope for us to monopolise this group of people.” Lin Zhidong swept his gaze around their circle before continuing to say, “You all are clear on Regiment Commander Qiao’s standards of recruitment. He only accepts new cadets whose assessment results are pass and above. Especially for those who did well, he would not hesitate to employ measures to obtain them. We cannot allow Regiment Commander Qiao miss out on these excellent talents while he is in Closed Door Meditation.”
Lin Zhidong’s little speech made everyone’s expressions turn grim. They all knew Qiao Ting’s methods — if he knew the assessment results of these new cadets, he would definitely use all sorts of means to pull them into his fold.
“However, since they are so exceptional, they probably won’t be so easy to subdue?” Everyone loved excellent talents, but these people would often be extremely proud and self-assured, unwilling to easily submit to another.
“That’s why I set up this stage. Even if we’re a bit arrogant, we need to let the other side accept our challenge and then follow up with a bet. When they lose, they’ll have to collectively join us, Leiting.” Lin Zhidong had already thought things through.
“What if they are afraid and don’t dare to accept our challenge?” After all, Leiting was the number one faction in the school — these new cadets may find their legs trembling from fear at the mere mention of Leiting’s name.
“That would be even better. We can just push for them to join us if they don’t even dare to fight us. We can then promise to pardon all past transgressions against us. But if they dare to join any other factions, we’ll beat them up every single time we see them. In the mecha world, we will block off all avenues of their growth — if we can’t use them, then we will crush them completely,” said Lin Zhidong with a cold smile. He had already considered both possible reactions from the other side. He would not let them escape his grasp — he would make sure to wrap this up well before the regiment commander emerged from his training.
“If it’s a battle with the new cadets, the school rules only allow physical skills combat. And those students are from Doha, which prioritizes physical skills the most. I fear that we won’t be able to have much of an advantage.”
“No matter how strong they are in combat, they are still just first year cadets, young fledgelings freshly out from the scout academies, while we’re already 4th year or 5th year senior cadets. Mecha combat has not only improved our mecha skills, it has also spurred on the development of our physical skills. Those extra years of combat experience is enough for us to push them around,” said Lin Zhidong with a cold smirk, “Even those among us with the weakest physical skills would have been able to make up for the lack of talent in three years’ time. You think they have a chance?”
“Well that’s true.” The group nodded all around. They may have put their focus on mecha combat for the past few years, but in their spare time they had still gone to the physical skills combat hall to spar with others for the fun of it. They too had sensed the benefits mecha combat had brought to their physical skills — during their spars, they had been able to instantly discover their opponent’s openings. Undoubtedly, their physical skills and vision had improved greatly from when they had first entered the academy.
“Won’t the other factions interfere? If they too know about these people, they will not let us monopolize them.” Someone else brought up another issue.
“Hackers. Our school only has a few names on record, and they all only belong to the top 4 factions. However, I am the first to obtain this information. In order to delay the others, I’ve even added some precautions of my own, so they’ll need to spend some time to crack it. Though I don’t know when they’ll be able to break through, I have been watching their progress. Still, this matter should not be dragged out — if it’s dragged out too long, and the others obtain the real data as well, we may very likely end up with nothing to show for our efforts 2 …” explained Lin Zhidong, “So, we need to issue a challenge to the new cadet regiment and settle things. Once we succeed in absorbing them into our fold, even if the other factions discover the truth then, they will not dare to offend us with the regiment commander around.”
“That’s good. Looks like we need to issue our challenge as soon as possible …” All those seated here finally came to an agreement, and they began discussing when they should issue their letter of challenge to the new cadet regiment.