Chapter 254 - Unspoken Rules and Crusade (1/2)

In the lively celebratory atmosphere, Lin Ling stood quietly aside while she watched the other recruits cheered happily.

In any past tournament, second place was already celebratory worthy. But when the first place winner was from the East Asian military, the majority had seemed to forget that the second place was also from the same East Asian military. And just not long ago, everyone once had high hopes on this second place participant to emerge as the champion.

Lin Ling didn’t leave but neither did she join the celebration team as she watched quietly at a corner. It was as if all of this had nothing to do with her.

Qin Fen squeezed through the crowd toward Lin Ling who stood still in her position.

Both of them looked at each other.

“You are the champion.”

Lin Ling spoke with her usual voice. From her voice, there wasn’t any happiness or disappointment.

As a person involved with the event, the words spoken by her seemed to describe a fact that was completely unrelated to herself, like a robot presenting its report.

From her calm words, Qin Fen was unable to sense any emotion. He was at a loss of words on how to reply to her.

After a slight moment of daze, Qin Fen said, “Congratulate me then.”

“Congratulations.” Lin Ling smiled without any feelings as usual. She just made a fake smile like a movie star facing cameras. It looked sincere but there were no real emotions behind it.

Qin Fen wanted to know what kind of training this woman had received so that he was unable to find any true feeling of a human being within her.

“Are you going to participate in the other shooting competition?” Asked Qin Fen with anticipation. If this woman didn’t create a result that was near impossible to break during the opening match, he wouldn’t have had to take weird methods to clear the mission.

“Yes I will. I need to be the champion at the other events.”

Lin Ling replied without showing any frustration after defeat. It was as if she wasn’t the one who had just been knocked down from the first place in a flash.

Looking at Lin Ling’s calmness, Qin Fen began to understand what the trainer was thinking when training Lin Ling.

When a person didn’t care about anything, the brain would be able to maintain calmness, allowing the person to enter a state with almost no weakness.

Emotions could be a catalyst for the surge in combat power but also a poison that destroys battle intent.

An emotionless person might not be able to experience burning battle intent and maximize their peak potential but at the same time, they wouldn’t be shaken by any circumstances, allowing them to maintain a stable state in their ability.

This state, whether in a real war or in the Recruit Tournament, was a very good state.

“We are the champions, we are the champions…”

With all the recruits still screaming wildly, Qin Fen looked towards Xue Tian, who was in the crowd. Since when did this guy start hugging a female soldier while celebrating? Once she recovers from the celebration high, will she realize that she had been taken advantage of and chase him with a knife for at least five blocks down the road?

He looked back and Lin Ling had already left.

Qin Fen also walked towards the passage that leads to the exit of the stadium. Since Lin Liqiang and Song Jia came to participate as an audience and cheer for him, naturally, he should be with them for his celebration.

Super Eight.

An economical fast chain hotel with many years of history.

As humans began to leave earth and enter the interstellar era, Super Eight followed the development of society and expanded their chain throughout the entire Federation.

In a small cafe within the Super Eight Hotel, three cups of Tieguanyin green tea was exuding hot steam.

Eight.

Eight.

The Arabic numerals written by Lin Liqiang described Super Eight. He believed that with Qin Fen’s intelligence, Qin Fen would be able to solve this simple riddle.

“Why didn’t the both of you tell me in advance that you guys were coming?” Qin Fen asked while he single-handedly turned his teacup. “We were on the phone last night and you did not notify me earlier.”

“Old Qin, you’ve misunderstood Jia Jia.” Lin Liqiang took a sip of tea. “She only received my invitation via telephone after she put down your phone. She was being grounded by Grandpa Song but she snuck out from there.”

“Snuck out?” A surprised Qin Fen looked at a Song Jia who felt her cheeks blush. Under the dim light, the fair lady appeared to be more feminine.

“Old Qin, you shouldn’t worry about Jia Jia first,” replied Lin Liqiang while he refilled his tea. “You should worry about yourself if you have the time. Jia Jia, who snuck out, will only be grounded upon her return. You, however, are in big trouble. Being the reason of her sneaking out will probably make Grandpa Song furious once again. Since the Recruit Tournament is currently ongoing, he will probably spare you out of respect for the Federation. But once the Recruit Tournament is over, regardless of your results in this tournament, you better expect trouble coming towards you .”

“Trouble?” Qin Fen stared at his cup of tea as a slight water ripple appeared in the clear tea. “This seems to be a destiny that I can’t escape. Besides, I never had plans to escape. So what if I’m born poor? Does that mean I can’t bring happiness to Jia Jia?”

“It is good to be mentally prepared. It is just…” Lin Liqiang still had a bit of worry shown in his frown. “Old Qin, I’ll be honest. You are the most hard-working person I have ever seen. You have extraordinary endurance. Your determination and hard work even had obtained Old Yin secret praises.”

Qin Fen nodded as he knew Lin Liqiang still had something to say.

“But your talent is still lacking compared to the real top talent just by a little bit.” Lin Liqiang sighed. “I don’t know how you attained such improvement in your martial art skills in such a short period of time, you’ve exceeded my expectations. Perhaps you have encountered an incident or perhaps you have an unwavering perseverance that far exceeds my predictions. There are tens of billions of people in the Federation. Therefore to have more than one genius to appear wouldn’t be anything surprising.”

Qin Fen nodded while he refilled his cup of tea.

“Even if there are equally talented young martial artist compared to you, they are equipped with an advantage that you don’t have.” Lin Liqiang said very seriously. “It is medicine! For people who have your equal talents combined with having a strong influence to back them up, means that they’ve surely taken some enhancement medicines to boost their foundation since young. The price of these medication, even for one pill, would be scarily extravagant to you. Since young, they have been taking these medications to establish a better foundation. As they grow up, since they have a better foundation, they are able to achieve breakthrough more easily compared to their peers. ”

“When they encounter bottleneck situation during a breakthrough, the expensive medicine will appear in front of them. If one pill can’t make it, then they will take the second pill, if second pill can’t make it, then they will take the third pill!” Lin Liqiang said while he sighed. “In short, right now, at our age, is the prime time for our martial strength to take off and we should never underestimate anyone. It’s not an exaggeration to say that those who lost to you yesterday might not lose to you today.”

Qin Fen gently lifted the teacup. Some gratitude didn’t need expression through words.

Everything was in the tea.