Kanta Star, as the home base of Benne Military School, maintained a strict entry system. Aside from the school’s own faculty and students, only teams possessing an invitation to the Federal Inter-Collegiate Tournament were permitted to land.
At that moment, the old Vice-Principal of Benne Military School—who also served as the planet’s Chief of Defense—was nursing a massive headache over where to scrounge up enough students for a competition team. It was then that a peculiar message reached his desk.
"You're saying two former students who dropped out are using their old enrollment records to apply for landing?" The old Vice-Principal was puzzled. He was trying to recall when exactly their school had ever had students "drop out" when the subordinate continued his report.
"Yes, sir. According to the records they provided, they were students you personally recruited into the Starship Combat Command major."
"Wait... Starship Combat Command? Dropped out? Dropped out!"
The old Vice-Principal’s eyes widened as memories resurfaced. He was suddenly overjoyed and shouted, "Wait! They didn't drop out, they took a leave of absence! Grant them landing clearance immediately! They’re back to participate in the tournament!"
He screamed that last sentence with such fervor he nearly ran out of oxygen.
Consequently, while still waiting in outer space for a docking signal, Feng Zhixi and Ji Yeran suddenly received a reply from the Kanta Star Space Station: "Welcome back! Your accommodations have been arranged. Good luck with the competition, little ones~"
Feng Zhixi: "???"
Ji Yeran: "???"
With heads full of questions, the two landed. After completing a series of entry procedures, they were "escorted" with extreme politeness by local officials to their destination. There, they once again met the "kind and gentle" old Vice-Principal, a man who supposedly lived by the philosophy of love and peace.
The old Vice-Principal beamed, spreading his arms wide. "Children, it’s been a long time. Welcome home."
Feng Zhixi: "?!"
Ji Yeran: "?!"
Inside the Vice-Principal’s office at Benne Military School, the old man looked at the two young men before him with an expression of pure gratification.
Four years had passed. The awkward teenagers of the past had grown into elegant, striking young men, filling him with emotion.
*As expected, putting them in the same dormitory back then was a brilliant decision,* the old Vice-Principal thought to himself.
Handsome boys should be good friends, he reasoned. Especially since they had been so young back then—at least four or five years younger than the average age of admission at Benne.
In other words, although Feng Zhixi and Ji Yeran had been away for four years, they had only just reached the average age of this year’s incoming freshmen.
They were the perfect candidates for the Federal Inter-Collegiate Tournament! And they were from the Starship Combat Command major, no less!
Facing the two who had returned just before the tournament, the kindly old Vice-Principal announced that he had already processed their reinstatement paperwork. He welcomed them back, noting that their dormitory had been kept exactly as they left it, ready for them to move back in.
Feng Zhixi and Ji Yeran exchanged a look. *The dorm was still there?*
This required understanding the nature of Benne Military School. As the crown jewel of the institution, the Starship Combat Command major was classified as SSS-rank. Its admission threshold was astronomical; there were often years where not a single student qualified for enrollment.
As an SSS-rank college, the Starship Combat Command’s dormitory was actually a sprawling complex of luxury villas. Each student received a private, detached house with top-tier amenities. However, due to the abysmal enrollment rate, most of these villas remained vacant.
One could only imagine how furious Feng Zhixi had been years ago when he, a student of the elite Starship Combat Command, was told he had to share a residence with someone else.
***
Years ago, the old Vice-Principal, acting as a temporary admissions officer, had looked over the enrollment files. "A fifteen-year-old Beta? His physical stats are weaker than an Omega’s. How can he live alone? What if he gets bullied?"
*A teacher must protect the future flowers of the Federation,* he thought, flipping to the next file.
*Eh? Another Beta this year? Also fifteen?*
Amazed, the old Vice-Principal compared the two files. He found that this second boy’s physical stats were already on par with an adult Alpha’s.
*Two genius children, both good-looking, both from obscure remote planets... Their physical abilities complement each other, and they’re both Betas. Living together is perfect; they can progress together!*
With a cheerful flick of his pen, the old Vice-Principal checked the box and walked away humming a tune. *What a wonderful day!*
***
Back in the present, inside the Vice-Principal’s office, the adult Feng Zhixi and Ji Yeran were once again facing the old man who had set them up years ago.
And immediately upon meeting, the old Vice-Principal handed them a massive "welcoming gift."
They were to represent Benne Military School in the Federal Inter-Collegiate Tournament.
Feng Zhixi: "?!"
Ji Yeran: "?!"
They knew that familiar sense of foreboding wasn't for nothing!
Ignoring the fact that one of his former Beta students was now an Alpha and the other an Omega, the old Vice-Principal encouraged them with a grandfatherly smile: "Fight for our school. Friendship second, competition first!"
Faced with the old man’s earnest expectations, Feng Zhixi and Ji Yeran looked at each other and ultimately chose to accept.
They hadn't forgotten the coordinates indicated by the star maps from the Heart of the Rose. That stage-based decryption method was identical to the star maps they had received from the Vice-Principal during their school trials years ago.
The Trial Star Map—The Heart of the Rose Star Map—The coordinates pointing to Kanta Star.
There were no such things as coincidences in this world. The only explanation was that they were all connected.
Furthermore, if Feng Zhixi remembered correctly, the Federal Inter-Collegiate Tournament held on Kanta Star was the starting point of Hill’s rise to fame.
The Curvature Rotation Application of Mecha Energy!
In his past life, when Feng Zhixi had emerged from his laboratory ready to submit his research results, he had learned by chance that just one month prior, someone had revolutionized mecha energy modification during the quadrennial tournament.
That person was Hill, a substitute for the Lanli Academy team.
The mecha battles in the tournament were the highlight of the entire event. All teams were provided with identical "white-label" base mechas. The participants had to use materials provided by the league to perform personalized modifications, which were then piloted by mecha-major students in combat.
This was where the different styles of each school became apparent. A school like Lanli, which focused on cultivating research talent, was known for its insane mecha performance modifications.
Almost every time, Lanli students managed to defy fate through sheer mechanical superiority.
Meanwhile, another top-tier institution—the First Federal Military Academy—relied on the extraordinary talent of its combat pilots to crush the competition with raw martial prowess.
This year, the First Federal Military Academy had a formidable leader: the future Federation Marshal, Ji Wei.
To the students of Lanli Academy, who were mostly scholarly types, the "muscle-brained" First Federal Military Academy was beneath them. Instead, the mysterious Benne Military School was more to their taste.
After all, Benne’s strategy in almost every tournament was subversive.
This was because every time they participated, the team was chosen from whichever department lost the internal straw-drawing contest. The differing specialties of these departments meant their competitive style changed drastically every four years.
There was even one year where Benne’s team was sent by the Department of Logistics and Affairs Management.
The logistics students had declared that while they weren't good at fighting, as long as they "turtled" well enough, they could still take first place!
That year, the Benne Military School team contributed the most shocking display of schemes, plots, and political maneuvering seen to date.
The sentiment of the other schools that year was: "They are simply too sinister! Too terrifying!"
In the year Hill was supposed to shine, Benne Military School—unable to find enough people (or rather, unable to find anyone at all)—had used its status as the host to "avoid a conflict of interest."
The solemn Vice-Principal had declared that for the sake of fairness and impartiality, their school would voluntarily withdraw.
Internally, he had spun it as: "Withdrawing isn't 'not participating'; it's participating and then choosing to forfeit. Rounding up, that counts as the Starship Combat Command major having taken its turn."
*Next time we look for a scapegoat—I mean, a representative team—we can't pick our major again!*
The Deans of the other departments at Benne: "..." *The old fox is indeed the craftiest.*
Ultimately, because Benne had no participants that year, a disappointed Lanli Academy was forced into a head-on collision with the "barbarians" of the First Federal Military Academy.
That was also the year the First Academy was led by Ji Wei. As an S-rank Alpha, his combat capability was so overwhelming he could practically achieve instant kills across levels. Even the mecha modifications Lanli had pinned their hopes on couldn't defeat him.
In the end, the one who turned the tide for Lanli Academy was a lowly intern, an Omega who had spent the entire tournament on the bench—Hill.
At the time, after losing two consecutive rounds and with their mechas nearly scrapped, it was the intern Hill who repaired the final unit and used it to stage a miraculous comeback.
When the results came out, not only the First Academy but even Lanli’s own students couldn't believe it. Everyone suspected Hill of cheating.
The crushing gap in martial power was not something that could be bridged by a mere ten-minute repair and modification—unless he had illegally installed forbidden equipment.
However, while the various colleges were buzzing with suspicion, Hill officially published his research to prove his innocence: "An Analysis of the Curvature Rotation Application of Mecha Energy."
In that moment, a patent that would later be rated S-rank was born, making the little intern Hill famous throughout the Federation overnight.
And at that time, Feng Zhixi was still one month away from leaving his laboratory.
***
