5.8

The cadets continued their daily intensive training at the base. Suddenly, their school received an invitation from Kendosia Empire from out of the blue. The empire's senior officials considered this invitation to be of great significance, so they immediately convened for an emergency meeting with all the military divisions.

The Kendosia and Willisanto Empires were both matched in terms of strength throughout the galaxies. Unfortunately, they didn't have good of relations. They often butted heads for various reasons. They could be in a disagreement one day for an energy source and a mineral mines dispute on another. They had been on the verge of battle for several years now. The Lion Corps were able to suppress their military threats in these recent years, so while the Kendosia nation caused several disputes, they still weren't able to gain any advantages over the Willisanto Empire.

The emergency meeting discussed and analyzed the situation. Finally they came to the conclusion that the Kendosia Empire was upset that they had been suppressed by the Lion Corps so severely that they became a laughing stock throughout the galaxies. There was enough domestic complaint and internal dissatisfaction that the Kendosia Empire decided to have their military academy go against the Willisanto's military academy in a competition to save face. They believed that the competition would be able to finally prove that even though Kendosia Empire's military strength was currently slightly inferior to Willisanto Empire for now. They wanted to show that their future cadets and reserve soldiers were definitely far superior.

It would have seemed as though the Willisantao Empire were really scared of the Kendosia Empire's strength if they didn't accept the invitation. They had no choice but to accept the invitation to have their future military soldiers compete against the Kendosians and win.

The Empire handed over the matter of arranging the cadets for the competition to the Lion Corps' senior commanders. The Lion Corp decided to take part in the competition process where they would oversee the scoring. They would set up a group competition first. The first team to win would be their first pick to represent the empire and the runner up would be their reserve group.

The 30 candidates would form their own teams before the competition. Each group could only have three people and one of them would be the team leader. The cadets' performance scores would be calculated by adding all the members' individual scores and taking the average. Therefore, they needed to work together so that one single person wouldn't bring down the average.

The team members couldn't be changed during the competition, so each cadet had to form their team carefully. There was not going back once they submitted their applications to the Lion Corps.

Qiao Chen and Dick were naturally in the same group. Apart from Justin, there wasn't anyone else who was willing to form a group with two cadets from Class F, so Justin was their third partner.

Danny and his group were standing around and discussing something when Qiao Chen and his group went to submit their team application. Danny saw Qiao Chen walking over, so he walked up to him and said, "Have you turned in your application yet, Qiao An?"

Qiao Chen didn't reply, but gave him a look that said something like 'Was this any of your business?'

"Harold hasn't found a team to join yet. Let him join your group." Danny said.

"So sorry, we're full." Qiao Chen replied. He waved the application form in his hand as proof. Danny knew that Qiao Chen and Harold were like water and oil, but he still walked over to have Harold join the group. His intentions were too obvious.

Danny glanced at Dick and Justin and said, "You'd have a better chance of winning if you have two Class B cadets instead of two Class F cadets and one Class B. Your group could probably average a higher score too, so…"

Danny trailed off, but what he meant didn't need to be said. He wanted Qiao Chen to kick Dick out of the team and swap in Harold so that Qiao Chen's odds of winning would be 'greater'.

"If you want to be such a knight in shining armor and pass out favors like candy, then why won't you just quit your own team and give him your spot? What's the point of being so generous to us?" Qiao Chen smirked sarcastically. As if! Why would I let someone who wanted to hurt me join my group? What a joke.

"Qiao An, Harold is a Class B student. If you can form a group with him, then you'll have a higher chance of improving your average score. Why don't you let bygones be bygones just for the sake of the competition?" Chad piped in. He wanted to help Danny persuade Qiao Chen, so that Qiao An could score better.

"You're going too far, Chad. The competition hasn't even started yet, but you know that he'll score higher than us?" Qiao Chen glanced at Chad and retorted.

"Don't argue you guys." Danny interrupted Qiao Chen and Chad in a calm manner. Then he turned to Harold and sighed, "I'm sorry Harold. I couldn't help you."

"You don't have to apologize, Danny. Besides, I don't even want to team up with them anyways. Even if you get rid of one of the Class F's trash, there's still another one in the team. They'd probably hold the whole team back. Don't even talk about getting high sores, because a team with these kinds of teammates probably wouldn't even last for more than three hours in the competition"

Harold wasn't very popular, but he didn't realize it. He thought there would be many, many people who'd look for him to form a team. However, the other cadets from Class A and B all already formed teams amongst themselves. Even cadets from Class C and most of Class D all formed groups already. The only ones left were the last two leftovers from Class D who hadn't found a third member. Danny wanted to act like a little angel and pass a favor out to Harold by having him join Qiao Chen's team, but failed.

"Don't worry. I'll keep an extra eye on my back, so I won't be thrown in a random cave this time. We'll see who won't be able to stick around to the end of the competition when that time comes." Qiao Chen looked at Harold and said. A hint of fierceness and provocation flitted through his eyes before they quickly calmed down. He walked pass the group and submitted his application.

Harold's face changed. He thought that Qiao An didn't know who had thrown him in that cave during the exams, but it was obvious now that he did know. The school's ranking exam wasn't a player versus player competition. Don't even talk about ambushing others, cadets weren't even allowed to openly attack each other. The school would punish whoever violated the rules.

However, Harold soon recovered his bearings. He figured that even if Qiao An knew, there wasn't any evidence that suggested otherwise. He would have filed a complaint with the school earlier if he did have the evidence. He had ambushed Qiao An from behind and knocked him out before he threw Qiao An in that hole.

He was actually the most surprised when he found out that Qiao An had reached first place. His plan had failed. It didn't matter though, because Harold made up his mind this time. He had to make sure that Qiao Chen suffered severely in this competition. The first thing he had to do, however, was find a team to join. If not, then he wouldn't even be able to participate in the competition.

The competition rules were very simple. The groups had to find three different colored gems. They were hidden in three locations in the jungle: the earth, water, and air. Once they obtained the gems, then the first two groups who completed the tasks would be able to represent the empire. However, all team members had to return to the designated area together. They were also not given or restricted to any certain methods to obtain the gems.

So while the game seemed simple due to such straightforward rules, the process of obtaining the gems was not. The jungle itself was a very dangerous place, and it was very easy to get lost in it. The groups would receive a map and some hints, but there were no real clues that told them outright where the gems were hidden. They had to guess and figure it out themselves. Furthermore, there were only a few number of gems. There was a big chance that while you were pursuing one gem, that a different would have been found by another group.

All cadets had to sign a life and death agreement. They were responsible for their own injuries. The school and the Lion Corps could not be at fault even if they died. The students were given the chance to withdraw from the competition if they were in the middle of seriously dangerous situations that they couldn't handle. There would be soldiers on standby to rescue them in the event of an emergency. However, it was up to the cadet to survive until the soldiers reached them.

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The cadets were all aboard the airship hovering above the jungle. The signal popped and the competition began. Group by group, the cadets jumped off the airship and used their abilities to cushion the fall.

Qiao Chen, Dick, and Justin were dressed in jungle combat uniforms. They immediately ducked under cover and hid among the foliage the second their feet touched the ground. The maps would be sent via communicators momentarily. They needed to wait for the map. If they decided to charge ahead without one, then it'd be too easy for them to lose their bearings or get in an accident.

Qiao Chen's communicator notified him that they received a message. He projected the map out, and the three cadets studied it to find out where to go first.

"It's easy to understand how they could hide the gem in the earth and water, but how does that work with air?" Justin looked up and scanned the sky, but only saw the airship they had jumped from. He wondered out loud, "Could it be hidden in the airship? How would we even get up there?"

"When they say hidden in the air, it probably means that the gem is hidden in a flying beast's nest. I doubt they meant it literally." Qiao Chen analyzed.

"Yeah, that's more probable." Justin realized.

Qiao Chen looked up all the nest locations for the aerial beasts in the area and marked them on the map. There were roughly 30 locations they had to check for aerial beasts alone.

"There's that many? Are we going to go to each of them and search one by one?" Dick asked in surprise.

"If you went and searched everything one by one, then you probably wouldn't be able to find one even after the competition ended." Justin replied.

Qiao Chen opened the hints and displayed it alongside the map.

|Two kilometers in the air|

|Thirty meters in the water|

|Fifty meters in the earth.|

Qiao Chen pointed at the hints and said, "This probably means that the gem is hidden in an aerial beast's nest. It shouldn't be higher than 2000 meters above ground. The gem in the water is probably at an aquatic beast's nest no further than 30 meters below sea level. Finally, the earth gem should be located at a land beast's nest in a cave no deeper than 50 meters below ground level."

Qiao Chen immediately searched the map and looked for animals within the requirements. The range of locations immediately became much smaller than they had first expected.

Justin looked at Qiao Chen with admiration and said, "Your head is too useful. I can't believe you got all that from the hints so quickly."

"These hints aren't difficult to figure out. Other cadets will figure it out soon too. We need to collect all three of those gems as soon as possible, so we don't need to waste energy fighting with the others." Qiao Chen looked at the map and tried to figure out which location they should head to first.

"I probably wouldn't be able to figure it out for two or three days it if were me trying to think about it on my own. I originally thought that if I scored a bit higher on the other tests that I could just join the Lion Corp. I didn't really put that much of an importance on the competition. I don't know why, but I think that our probability of winning this just went way up. Haha." Justin said with a smirk.

Dick thought that Justin's silliness was embarrassing. He wanted give Qiao Chen and explanation and said, "Even though he's a bit of a fool, I promise you that he's usually at the top of his class. He is pretty reliable too, despite his silliness."

"This kind of silliness looked like it comes from the family's genes." Qiao Chen joked. He turned off the map, stood up, and said, "Let's go."

"Where are we heading to first?" Dick asked.

"Let's head to the nearest swamp to us. It should have a depth of about 30 meters." Qiao Chen said as he walked.

The trio walked for a while before they saw Danny's group heading towards them. Danny, Chad, and Benji had formed a group, and they were all in Class A. Harold and the remained Class D cadets formed a group. They judged the two groups as they walked cooperatively and realized that the two teams joined together. It was very clear that they wanted to attack others in a two to one situation.

"Come with us, Qiao An. We'll have safety in numbers. We're more likely to succeed too." Danny offered with a look of concern.

"Join you guys? So I can help you get the gems and have you win the competition?" Qiao Chen replied. He was too lazy to talk to them anymore and grabbed Dick and Justin to walk in the opposite direction.

"He'll regret it more later since he doesn't appreciate your kindness now. Let's go." Benji frowned as Qiao Chen walked away.

Danny stopped suddenly after they had walked for a while. He suddenly had the hunch that Qiao Chen seemed to have cracked the clues to the competition and knew where the gems were. He remembered how the three of them had been walking just now. They weren't wandering around blindly and walked with purpose.

"What's up?" Chad asked.

"I'm still worried about Qiao An. Why don't we go after them?" Danny said.

"You're always so nice to him, be never appreciates it. Why are you wasting your kindness?" Benji said unhappily.

"I promised dad that I'd watch out for him. Even if he doesn't want my kindness, I can't just ignore him." Danny replied with his head low.

"Then let's go and check on them, so you can stop worrying. You need to remember though, this is a competition. We can't ignore the task at hand just to take care of him. If he still doesn't appreciate your kindness, then we can only leave them alone." Chad consoled and patted Danny on the shoulder.

"Mmhm." Danny smiled and nodded to Chad.