When training ended, everyone dragged their limp yet leaden bodies toward the cafeteria, shuffling along with a phantom lightness as if walking on clouds, staggering and stumbling with every step.

“I’ve discovered once again just how heavy this body of mine is. It’s completely mismatched with my light and agile soul!”

Others threw themselves at their close companions, actively trying to drag them down.

“Brother, carry me away! Anywhere is fine!”

The companion, choked until their eyes rolled back, didn’t have the strength to push the guy off. They could only trudge forward with great difficulty, dragging the giant human-shaped appendage along one step at a time.

As they neared the cafeteria and smelled the enticing aroma of food, the cadets, who had looked like a defeated army with spirits of dead ash, were instantly resurrected. Coming to life like reanimated corpses, they howled and charged inside. They lined up, got their food, and found the nearest seats with their trays, where they began to wolf everything down.

Ji Changqing, tray in hand, saw Gu Changge and the other six waving to her from a distance.

There was no sign of a day’s hard training on the faces of Gu Changge and his friends. They were all tense, radiating a kind of “I’m so happy” euphoria.

Ji Changqing noticed their excitement, but she was too exhausted today to pay it much mind. She walked over and sat in the empty seat next to Gu Changge. First, she downed a large bottle of the military academy’s specially supplied berry drink, which was designed to quickly replenish lost fluids and electrolytes.

After finishing it, she let out a long sigh, feeling like she had finally come back to life.

Gu Changge, He Qingping, and the others had nearly finished eating. They sat in silence, watching her eat quickly and numbly.

They were very familiar with this routine; after all, it had been going on for nearly three months.

It was the same every day.

The only difference was that they had now become adept enough to judge from Ji Changqing’s arrival time, her gait, her expression, and her eating speed whether her physical exertion for the day was at 90%, 100%, or even 120%.

They were seasoned observers now, able to mentally fill in the blanks about the brutal punishment Ji Changqing had endured that day.

In less than ten minutes, Ji Changqing had cleaned her plate.

Gu Changge, who had been struggling to hold back for the past ten minutes, couldn’t contain himself the moment she put down her chopsticks. He nudged her shoulder secretively. “The military merit points came in. See how many you got.”

Ji Changqing looked at him, her reaction a beat slow. Her eyes widened slightly. “They’re in? And it’s good?”

Gu Changge and the others tried to maintain their composure as they nodded at her, but joy was written all over their faces.

“More than we expected.”

Ji Changqing instantly felt refreshed. She wiped her palms on her pants again and again before holding her optical computer with the reverence one would show a treasure. She entered her student ID and logged into the system.

She saw the number immediately and stared in disbelief. She instinctively looked again, scratched her cheek, unable to suppress her delight. “One hundred.”

The seven of them let out a low “wow.”

“I knew Changqing would get the most points!” Gu Changge said smugly. “After all, even I got eighty.”

He grinned from ear to ear. Besides Ji Changqing, he had the highest score.

Worth it, so worth it. We really got carried by a pro this time!

Even though she was utterly exhausted, Ji Changqing, who was usually expressionless by habit, couldn’t help but show her happiness.

She knew the score now. Typically, military academy graduates started their service as non-commissioned officers. But since cadets began taking on simple missions to accumulate merit points after their third year, those who performed exceptionally well and racked up enough points could hope to start as commissioned officers right after graduation!

She looked at her companions expectantly. She and Gu Changge probably got higher scores because they were the first to discover the interstellar pirates and had single-handedly organized everyone’s response. But the others had been instrumental too, so their scores shouldn’t be too low, right?

“Sixty,” said Lu Youxia.

“Sixty.” He Qingping was also quite satisfied. He remarked with feeling, “I didn’t expect the military to be so generous this time. It’s at least double what we estimated.”

They had previously only calculated the points for the pirate gang; it seemed the military had also given them points for the rescue operation.

Lu Youwen, Eve, Cheng Jian, and Weisman showed no signs of jealousy and seemed quite pleased as well. “We all got forty.”

This haul had already exceeded their expectations.

With the merit points credited, all seven of them felt invigorated. They had entered limply but left with their backs straight and a spring in their step.

After returning to their dorms to shower and change out of their sweaty clothes, they soon gathered again in the training room.

The first-years were being trained to death every day, so the training rooms were usually filled with upperclassmen. When they saw the “seven-plus-one” group walk in, they couldn’t help but smile knowingly.

The first time they came, they had even attracted a crowd of upperclassmen. First-years who voluntarily came for extra practice after surviving a day of insane training? What kind of gods were these?!

But it turned out they weren’t there for extra practice, but to borrow a space for tutoring.

The academy’s training rooms weren’t just for physique and mental power training; they also had various simulation rooms, including ones for shooting practice and the disassembly and assembly of all sorts of weapons, warships, and mechs.

Back on Blue Star, Ji Changqing had completed most of her courses on these subjects through the StarNet. Her learning had been rather superficial, as she had masterfully applied the time-honored Blue Star method of test-oriented education: identify key points and cram for likely questions.

Virtual practice and simulated practice were two completely different experiences.

She had only barely scraped by in her academic subjects, mainly because she had fallen short in this area.

Now, these seven were slowly helping her shore up her weak points. Otherwise, once the training period ended and formal classes began, she might not be able to keep up at all.

The upperclassmen who frequented this training room had gotten used to it. When it came to academics, it was seven aces tutoring one slacker; when it came to combat, it was one god-tier student training seven aces.

Today, however, was a little different. Ji Changqing, having expended 120% of her stamina, had no intention of sparring. The others had all grown up together, which also meant they had been fighting each other since childhood. If she wasn’t going to fight, none of them were particularly interested either.

Besides, they were still buzzing from the news about their merit points and wanted to savor the secret joy for a while.

They waited impatiently for Eve to finish tutoring Ji Changqing, and then the others gathered around.

He Qingping grinned like a fox that had just eaten a chicken. “A few of us were just discussing it. The first-year training is said to be half a year, but it’s really just one semester. It’ll be over in a little more than a month, and the main event is the mock battle.”

After the training period, there are two mock battles: one between the students, and one between the students and the instructors.

The battle between students isn’t a team-based fight between two large factions. For first-years, it’s basically a massive free-for-all.

Only a few who aim to become the Chief Student of their year take the free-for-all seriously. After all, every one of those moving targets is worth points!

Those who currently have a high total score want to widen the gap and secure their lead. Those who are temporarily behind but still have a chance hope to earn more points in the free-for-all to overtake their rivals.

Because after the free-for-all, the person with the highest cumulative score among the first-years naturally becomes the Chief Student.

The scoring method is very straightforward. The academic scores from the entrance exam are counted at a 1:1 ratio. The points from the entrance assessment and the completion scores for each training exercise are counted at a 100:1 ratio. The fourth scoring component is the points from the free-for-all, which are also counted at a 1:1 ratio.

For this reason, historically, 99% of the first-years don’t really look forward to the student-versus-student battle. To them, it’s just a competition to test the results of their training. They don’t have any strong ambitions; the main thing is to have fun.

The battle that receives the most attention is the one between the students and the instructors.

It had to be said, it was as if everyone in the military received standardized training on how to make enemies.

Without fail, every training regimen managed to create a sea of hatred between the instructors and the cadets. All the frustration, suffering, and deeply buried resentment from their training was to be vented in this final showdown!

It was a life-or-death, fight-to-the-finish battle!

Of course, He Qingping and the others were also eagerly looking forward to venting their frustrations in the battle against the instructors!

And, of course, they were even more eager to test their own skills, desperate to achieve victory in this mock battle!

They had already tasted the sweet success of teamwork during the entrance assessment, when they had easily set traps that made the individually stronger interstellar pirates cry for their mothers.

They really hoped Ji Changqing would join their “Revenge on the Instructors Club” and stir things up again.

Ji Changqing smiled faintly. The instructors had to be dealt with, but before that, wasn’t there the student-versus-student battle, the first-year free-for-all?

“How about we have some fun in the student battle first?”

He Qingping thought she didn’t understand the rules and kindly reminded her, “Changqing, we can’t compete for Chief Student.”

The 5,000 students admitted through special recruitment were excluded from the Chief Student competition. After all, based on their final scores from the entrance assessment, they wouldn’t have even gotten into the Fourth Military.

But they were happy with that. With military merit points, who cared about being Chief Student?

Although, before all this, they had all secretly hoped to become Chief Student themselves.

“Yeah, we can’t compete for Chief Student. We should just lie low and get through the student battle, save our energy to take on the instructors!”

“Not at all. We can’t compete, but can’t we cause some trouble and muddy the waters?” She snapped her fingers, her face full of amusement. “I refuse to believe you guys haven’t been rubbed the wrong way by those popular candidates for Chief Student?”