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Woong—

Yu Yan flipped the knife and caught the blade in between his fingers, the wind faintly sounding as it slid through the sharp blade. He boredly watched the other combat course students be lively, chatting up a storm with one another in the academy ship's large assembly hall.

Yu Yan sat on the end of a short bench,  his back slouching against the table. He tilted his head up to see his teammates - slash - doormates.

Gazef gave him a look, glancing at his small chin tilted in the air, his exposed forehead on the table and his black hair bangs messily scattered on the table. Yu Yan was the very image of a bored child waiting impatiently inside a car, but too prideful to ask, 'Are we there yet?'.

For a moment, Gazef couldn't help but stare at that adorably exposed forehead.

It was just for a moment that their gazes crossed, yet both shyly looked away with fake uninterested faces on display.

Gazef was especially shy at having been caught staring at his crush like young maiden.

This was their official first day of class for the combat course. The first event was a straightforward prelim exam with a survival task that would last four days and three nights in an uninhabited forest island.

This would also serve as the official test that would rank all student cadets based on their raw skill and potential. It wouldn't be an understatement to call this a hell exam for the rookies. At the same time, it was also the biggest springboard there was to the ambitious.

From where he sat, Yu Yan could see a variety of gazes—some excited, others ambitious, and few scared. Of course, there were also the cold and emotionless gazes of others whose state could never be read; much like his members of his team.

All student cadets stayed in a hangar-like lobby, as they were being transported. There were lots of people but everybody seemed to have formed cliches and groups already with their own dormmates.

Lucky them. My own saliva's gonna get fermented at this rate, Yu Yan thought.

He glanced at the two rigid people. What's the difference between talking to them and talking to a wall? The fourth person in the team wasn't even paying attention to their surroundings, thinking hard about something.

Yu Yan sighed.

Then he heard a cough from the front of the hangar, but the voice was drowned amidst the noisy crowd.

Yu Yan fixed his posture. Seeing him attentive, the people in his table eventually focused to the front as well.

In front, the man in uniform frowned slightly, eyes wandering around until it landed on their table.

It seems not all of this year's rookies were bad, he thought when he saw Yu Yan's team paying serious attention to him, with one of the members even looking extremely thoughtful, most probably with regards to their situation or the upcoming test. Perhaps they were even hatching some strategy already, and that thoughtful kid must be the brains of the team.

Chen WangZhi sneezed. Did he catch a cold right before the exam?

Indeed, the prelim exam should be taken seriously. This is where most rookies' dreams get crushed instantly. Did these students think this survival task was a therapeutic camping expedition?

A soldier saluted him the side and spoke a few words. The man nodded back. Very soon, the soldier tapped on his terminal and whining static sound echoed all over the the hanger speakers.

"Cadets, ten-hut", the soldier shouted, making the high pitched frequency sound worse.

A few students clutched their heads and other blocked their ears.

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