Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

Seeing her companions looking at her with expressions that said, “Go ahead, tell us how we’re going to get food,” Ruo Manni thought for a moment and came up with an idea.

“Let’s go up the mountain first and split up. I’ll see if I can find some edible wild vegetables in the woods, and you guys can go hunting. Then we can make a beast soup to drink,” Ruo Manni said.

Teenagers have very strong digestive systems, especially those like them who are martial artists. The nutritional supplement they had last night had already been fully digested, and now everyone’s stomachs were growling with hunger. Hearing Ruo Manni’s suggestion, they all thought it was a good plan and quickly got to work.

After packing up, they left the capsule apartment. It takes at least a minute for the capsule apartment to deflate and shrink, so even though they were anxious, they had to wait.

Ruo Manni “scanned” the surroundings. To avoid alerting others, they had been maintaining silence. So when she noticed something unusual, she didn’t immediately mention it to Hebrew Adam, planning to wait until they had moved farther away from the camp to speak.

While the Adam squad was waiting, everyone turned to look in one direction. Although it was still dark, they were all very perceptive. They immediately sensed when someone from the neighboring capsule apartment came out to observe them.

The person who came out was the Ninja King Ren Wuyue, from the Hua squad. Although they had been classmates before this training exercise, they were now competitors. The Adam squad was aiming for first place, so they naturally wouldn’t join forces. They simply made a silent gesture of greeting to Ren Wuyue.

Of course, Ren Wuyue wouldn’t interfere with the Adam squad’s plan to quietly leave the camp, as they had the same idea themselves—Adam’s squad just happened to act first.

After all, it had rained heavily yesterday. Although the rain had stopped, the muddy mountain path was still difficult to walk on. Fortunately, their military boots were designed to pair with their combat suits and had several modes. They switched to mountain mode, which allowed them to walk without slipping.

Their squad formation remained the same: Hebrew Adam leading, Ruo Manni second, and Su Forty-Three bringing up the rear.

Just as they stepped out of the camp and onto the trail leading up the mountain, Hebrew Adam suddenly stopped, his eyes fixed on the path ahead. Ruo Manni stepped forward and quietly asked, “What’s wrong, Captain?”

“Come take a look—are these footprints?” Hebrew Adam asked. Given how heavy the rain had been last night, it was unlikely anyone would have been climbing the mountain in the middle of the night, and certainly not more than one person.

When Ruo Manni heard this, she understood what he meant and responded quietly, “While we were breaking camp earlier, I saw a squad of cadets heading this way.”

“So that means another group of cadets moved out even earlier than we did and are ahead of us,” Sheila said, displeased.

Ruo Manni “scanned” the forested mountain and whispered to Hebrew Adam, “They’re only about 700 or 800 meters ahead of us. From what I observed, the cadet leading them seemed to be from the squad that landed third yesterday.”

“That’s Asimu’s squad, the strongest from the elite class,” Su Forty-Three said.

Everyone turned to look at him, so Su Forty-Three continued, “Their captain, Abulaiti Asimu, and I come from the same place. His skill level is actually only slightly lower than mine. If he hadn’t been held back by the academic exams or been unlucky enough to face our captain in the rankings, his total score wouldn’t have just placed him in eleventh.”

The Adam Squad members all looked at Hebrew Adam in unison, since he was the one who had defeated Asimu.

Ruo Manni expected Hebrew Adam to arrogantly say something like, “It’s his own fault for being weak,” but instead, he remarked, “That Abulaiti Asimu is indeed impressive. He’s very determined, managing to last over a hundred moves against me before losing. But it was just bad luck that he had to face me.”

In the practice matches between squads after forming teams at the beginning of the term, neither Tamaki Kazia nor Sheila had managed to last a hundred moves against Hebrew Adam. Tamaki Kazia had held out for over ninety moves, but Sheila had lost in fewer than seventy.

When Su Forty-Three and Hebrew Adam spoke this way, it was effectively acknowledging that Abulaiti Asimu’s squad didn’t make it into the elite class due to bad luck rather than a lack of ability. This was somewhat embarrassing for both Sheila and Tamaki Kazia, especially for Sheila, who had placed tenth.

As for Hebrew Adam, who ranked beyond the thousandth place but still made it into the elite class, everyone knew this was a case of preferential treatment. He hadn’t taken the written exam, and his total score only placed him in the three-thousandth range.

However, no one in the entire Gus Empire would dispute the fact that he got in through special privileges. After all, even among the fifth-year students, there was no one yet at the level of a fifth-level martial artist. Hebrew Adam’s “preferential treatment” was earned through sheer ability.

Moreover, as a prince of the empire, Hebrew Adam’s knowledge was a notch above the others. If he had started from the beginning and taken all the exams, he would undoubtedly have been the top-ranked student, not Hua Deli.

Because of this, Hua Deli’s position as the top student always felt somewhat undeserved. However, according to Ruo Manni’s observations, Hua Deli remained steadfast. He didn’t let these setbacks affect him negatively; instead, he just trained all the harder.

“Captain, luck is also a part of strength,” Ruo Manni naturally wanted to speak up for her fellow female peer.

After all, Sheila wasn’t weak either. Despite being a noble lady, she trained diligently and was certainly deserving of her place in the elite class.

“You have a point,” Hebrew Adam nodded thoughtfully.

As they continued up the mountain, the path became increasingly rugged, and everyone fell silent, focusing on their steps.

By this time, the sky was gradually lightening, and the scenery among the mountains and forests became clearer.

From the terrain, it was evident that this island was purely formed by this mountain. Although the peak at the center of the island was only a little over 5,000 meters high, the part submerged in the sea extended down about 2,000 meters.

Therefore, it could be said that starting from the island’s coastline, they were already close to reaching the midsection of the mountain.

Generally, below the midpoint, the slope would be relatively gentle, but once they passed the halfway mark, the mountain would start to become steeper.

After leaving the campsite and climbing another two or three hundred meters, they encountered a slope with an incline of about fifty degrees.

Such a steep slope, combined with the slippery conditions after the rain, would require an ordinary person to hunch over while climbing to avoid falling backward. However, for the members of Adam’s team, this only meant they had to slow down a bit and be more cautious while walking.

As the sky brightened enough for Ruo Manni to clearly see the plants around her, she began picking tender leaves from the forest. She was well-prepared, having brought a mesh bag from her backpack, and soon filled it with a large amount of leaves.

Watching Ruo Manni casually pick a full bag of tender leaves as she walked along, the rest of the group couldn’t help but feel a bit envious.

Although they had all learned about the edible plants of the Imperial Capital Star in class, it was only after Ruo Manni picked them that they remembered, “Oh! Right! The instructor mentioned that this plant is edible.”

It was clear that if they were the ones searching for edible plants, they would have to take their time to carefully identify each one. They wouldn’t be able to just pick them on the go without slowing down the team’s pace like Ruo Manni did.