Chapter 74
Chapter 74: A Cruel Fate—His Birth Mother Doesn’t Know He Exists, and His Birth Father Wants to Drug Him
“Are the instructor group sick in the head?” someone screamed outside. “Or do they just have holes in their brains?”
“Only three slots per squad, so they want us to slaughter each other?”
“We formed teams at school. We held on together for a whole month in Round One. Now they want us to kill each other?”
“They’re treating us like the Insect Clan! This is bullshit!”
Another voice laughed, cold and sharp.
“The training ground is the battlefield. On the battlefield, you don’t have teammates—only enemies. Sorry, dear teammates. I’m advancing.”
“You want to advance? I want to advance too!”
“If you strike first, don’t blame me for striking back. Come on—let’s see who dies first and who advances!”
“For advancement, for the Empire, to see my idol—Male Idol Chong Ming, the Commander-in-Chief—sorry, classmates. I’m going to kill you and advance.”
Jiang Tea Tea’s eight-person squad heard the broadcast and rushed out of the lodging.
Outside, squads were already fighting.
Abilities flashed. Clubs swung. People screamed curses as they fought like they meant to kill.
Huang Da Zhuang swallowed hard, face pale.
“Sister Tea,” he said immediately, “I don’t have an ability. I can’t beat you. I surrender. I won’t fight you for a slot. Don’t hit me.”
Cheng Lin Yue, the timid little girl from the Healing Department, piped up softly, almost trembling.
“Me too, Sister Tea. I can’t beat you. I surrender. The slot is yours. You can’t hit me.”
Ju Que, Cheng Xiao Ting, Yan Yu, and Zhang Ting Zhou exchanged glances and declared in unison, “Sister Tea, Sui Xuan Chu, the four of us won’t compete with you either. We don’t need to trade punches.”
“Yeah, yeah,” another added. “We know ourselves. We can’t win, so we won’t fight. You two go advance. We’ll eliminate ourselves.”
Jiang Tea Tea raised a hand and smacked the back of their heads one by one.
“You’re really proud of your ‘self-elimination spirit,’ huh?” she said. “Want me to give you an award? Cheer for you?”
Sui Xuan Chu moved right behind her and knocked each of them on the forehead too.
“Sister Tea and I should beat you to death,” he said cheerfully. “Just looking at your skulls gives me a headache.”
They clutched their heads dramatically and stared at the two of them with hope.
“So… you have a way to keep us from being eliminated? All of us advance?”
Huang Da Zhuang immediately puffed up, switching sides with lightning speed.
“I’m telling you—if you can keep me from being eliminated, I’ll be your most loyal lackey. Whoever tries to hit you, I’ll pounce and bite.”
“Exactly!” another chimed in. “Sister Tea, Brother Chu—tell us what to do. We’ll do it immediately.”
Jiang Tea Tea squinted at Sui Xuan Chu. “You go first. What’s your method?”
Sui Xuan Chu lowered his voice. “My method is: we all withdraw. Lie down for a month and wait for Round Three.”
Jiang Tea Tea gave him a thumbs-up. “Excellent.”
“We’re ranked first as a squad. Individually, we’re top one through eight. Even if we withdraw, we’ll still rank high. Good idea.”
It was genuinely tempting. If she hadn’t been thinking about Chong Ming’s dragon blood, she would’ve nodded on the spot and embraced the art of lying flat.
The other six wavered. The plan sounded safe and easy, but it didn’t match their “fight for glory and meet the idol” dreams.
Sui Xuan Chu turned to Jiang Tea Tea. “What’s your method?”
He’d offered withdrawal mostly as a suggestion. He wasn’t planning to actually do it—he didn’t dare. If he dared, his uncle would beat him flat.
Jiang Tea Tea crooked a finger.
The seven of them huddled closer, ears pricked.
Jiang Tea Tea held up one finger.
“The instructor group said: no matter how many people your squad has, only three slots advance.”
She held up a second finger.
“But they never said you can’t steal someone else’s slots.”
The seven of them stared.
Then their mouths fell open.
“Sister Tea…” someone breathed. “You mean… we kill other squads?”
“Yes,” Jiang Tea Tea said calmly.
“We have eight people. We already have three slots. That leaves five slots unclaimed.”
“Take down two squads, that’s six slots. We’ll even have one extra.”
Their eyes lit up like torches.
“We already killed legion commanders. We killed instructors.”
“Taking down two cadet squads is easy.”
They turned to Jiang Tea Tea, reverent and delighted, and raised their thumbs.
She really was the best at being shameless. The best at profiting. The best at loopholes.
They split into two groups and ran toward the nearest battlefield.
They didn’t jump into the fight.
They made it worse.
They shouted advice and cheered, deliberately stoking the flames.
“Hey, you’re fire-type! Burn him! Make him beg!”
“Water beats fire! He’s using fire—drown him!”
“Slots are limited! Killing your teammate gets you a slot! That’s easier than killing instructors!”
“Come on, come on—victory is right there! Kill your teammate, advance, win the championship, and you get to meet our male idol—Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming!”
“Ahhh! Imagine him giving you your medal, shaking your hand—how can you not kill him!”
The cadets who’d been fighting each other were already panting, exhausted. They finally won—and immediately snapped at Jiang Tea Tea’s group.
“Why aren’t you fighting? Why are you just yelling? Shut up!”
That was exactly when Sui Xuan Chu, Ju Que, and the others sprang out like wolves.
Before the other squad could recover, they slammed them down, bound them, and stacked them like human dominoes to the side.
On Jiang Tea Tea’s side, they waited until another fight ended—until the winners were cheering—then they threw sacks over heads.
Their behavior drew attention.
And once people saw the trick, a new world opened.
Why fight your own squad?
Attack other squads and steal their slots—that was the real strategy.
In an instant, the entire withdrawal point changed.
There were tens of thousands of cadets here. At first, it had been chaos—everyone beating their own teammates.
Now it was war. Squads turned outward, hunting other squads.
Shouts. Curses. Ability explosions.
The sound shook the polar world and startled the thirty legion commanders watching through their shared channel.
“You have to admit,” someone said, “those eight really are like a catfish effect. Especially Jiang Tea Tea—tiny pure human girl, under a hundred pounds, but she finds loopholes like she was born for it. Bad ideas one after another. No wonder she caught my eye.”
“Put her on a battlefield,” another said, “and she’ll hit the enemy so unexpectedly they won’t even know what happened.”
“Caught your eye?” someone scoffed. “Old Ye, don’t forget—your subordinates lost to her. Those soldiers were her defeated opponents. What right do you have to ‘train’ her in your legion?”
“Exactly,” another chimed in. “I heard among the thirty of us, twelve legion commanders got taken down by her. So those twelve should stop dreaming. You can’t beat her, and you still want to train her? I’m embarrassed for you.”
Old Ye huffed. “You idiots understand nothing. I let her take me down to test her strength. It was early contact. When she joins my legion, we’ll get along beautifully. I’ll use everything I have to turn her into talent.”
Someone snorted. “Have some shame. Round Two’s assessment of them just started. Our own assessment hasn’t even been written yet.”
Chong Ming listened to the chatter and watched Jiang Tea Tea’s squad trigger the catfish effect.
It wasn’t bad.
The only pity was the scale—too few people.
If this were tens of thousands more, if this were hundreds of thousands, the chaos would be even more interesting.
Jiang Tea Tea’s squad didn’t get greedy. After taking down two squads, they regrouped, standing back-to-back, watching for ambush.
A number of squads tried to break them apart and kill them.
But their coordination was tight. Even if one member stumbled, the others moved without hesitation—rescuing, counterattacking, punishing the squad that dared touch them.
As a result, the squads that attacked them ended up badly injured.
Jiang Tea Tea’s squad collected minor injuries, but nothing serious.
About two hours later, the first clash ended.
Across thirty academies, more than 1.8 million cadets finished fighting. The slots were decided.
Then the instructor group’s broadcast came again—sharp as a knife, heavy with disappointment.
“Dear classmates. You fought with enthusiasm.”
“For advancement slots, you abandoned your comrades. How is that different from abandoning comrades on a battlefield just to live?”
“Did you forget your oath when you entered the military academy?”
“From the beginning, we told you: the training ground is the battlefield. Your teammates are your back.”
“We gave you rules. We gave you loopholes.”
“And you still couldn’t use your brains? Couldn’t exploit loopholes to protect your teammates?”
The voice turned cruel.
“Now I announce: any squad that abandoned their teammates—squad minus ten points, individual minus ten points.”
“Any squad that withdrew as a group rather than abandon teammates—squad plus ten points, individual plus ten points.”
“Any squad that exploited loopholes as a group, stole other squads’ slots, and protected their teammates—squad plus ten points, individual plus ten points.”
The cadets who’d killed their own teammates stood under the broadcast like they’d been slapped in public. Faces red. Heads down. Wanting to crawl into a crack in the ground.
The squads who withdrew instead of betraying their people cheered and hugged, nearly crying.
Jiang Tea Tea’s squad congratulated themselves—then immediately regretted it.
If they’d just listened to Sui Xuan Chu and withdrawn together, they could’ve passed without effort.
After the scolding, they boarded ships—just like the trip to the Primeval Forest. One academy per ship.
This time, the ship cabins weren’t blocked off. Through thick glass, they could see other ships full of cadets.
Thirty ships of the same series rose from different locations on the primitive tropical planet, climbing into the sky in a grand formation.
The cadets felt pride surge in their chests. These ships were all developed and tested by their Empire—safe enough to travel the stars, safe enough to enter interstellar battlefields.
Chong Ming’s overall commander ship followed behind, invisible.
On the bridge, Chong Ming handled administrative matters. He also reviewed Li Ao’s report on the mutated tea tree.
Li Ao had found only mutated trees. He couldn’t locate any unmutated ones.
The unknown energy they’d detected earlier fascinated him—but now it was gone. He was itching to contact the one person most likely connected to it: Jiang Tea Tea.
But without Chong Ming’s permission, he didn’t dare.
Chong Ming lifted his eyes to Li Ao and the head of the Medical Department.
“Has the appetite suppressant been developed?”
Minister Lu produced a tube of medication and held it out with both hands.
“Commander-in-Chief, it’s ready. But there are side effects.”
Chong Ming took it. “What side effects?”
“One course is seven days,” Minister Lu explained. “The first three days regulate the digestive tract. It may cause mild stomach cramps.”
“After three days, appetite gradually decreases. By day seven, intake should be close to a normal person’s.”
Chong Ming glanced at the tube. “We can’t eliminate the side effects?”
Minister Lu shook his head. “Without seeing her and conducting a thorough exam, I can’t determine the cause.”
“I can only guess from your description that it’s a digestive system problem. The medication targets digestive treatment, so cramps are difficult to avoid.”
Chong Ming nodded once. “Fine. Give me the full course. I’ll have her try it.”
Minister Lu handed over the remaining tubes. Then he left the bridge with Li Ao.
As they walked, Li Ao couldn’t resist asking, “Minister Lu, who is it? Someone Commander-in-Chief personally cares about, enough to have you develop medication?”
Minister Lu shot him a cold look.
“Director Li. Your department specializes in ability research. What, now you’re interested in pharmaceuticals too?”
Li Ao laughed awkwardly. “Curiosity. Commander-in-Chief had me looking into unknown energy, but now that energy…”
Minister Lu cut him off. “Director Li. Take my advice. Put your curiosity away.”
“If Commander-in-Chief tells you to do something, do it. If he doesn’t, then don’t ask.”
“I’m busy. I have no obligation to answer your questions. If you have questions, ask Commander-in-Chief yourself.”
He walked away without waiting. “Goodbye.”
Li Ao stood there, stunned and annoyed.
They were both under the Commander-in-Chief. Different departments, that was all. Was it really worth acting like that over a few questions?
Four hours later, just before landing, Ye Ying summoned Jiang Tea Tea into his command room.
The equipment was similar to Chong Ming’s, but the staffing and room size were clearly different.
Ye Ying sat with a relaxed smile, watching Jiang Tea Tea walk in without hesitation. She wasn’t nervous. She didn’t look scared. She even took the time to glance around the room like she was evaluating it.
“Jiang Tea Tea,” Ye Ying said warmly, “aren’t you curious why I called you here?”
Jiang Tea Tea’s gaze snapped back. “Oh? Why did you call me?”
Ye Ying produced a medication box and handed it to her.
“This is from Commander-in-Chief.”
Jiang Tea Tea frowned. “From Chong Ming?”
Ye Ying’s smile widened.
People called him Commander-in-Chief. They called him Your Highness.
She called him by name.
Ye Ying nodded. “Yes. Commander-in-Chief said: binge eating without gaining weight is a medical condition. This is a medication developed specifically to suppress appetite.”
“One course is seven days. After seven days, you won’t binge. You won’t feel hungry after eating tens of pounds of meat.”
“Commander-in-Chief also said the first three days may cause mild stomach cramps. It’s limited pain—small-scale pain. With your physical strength, your fighting power, you’ll endure it.”