Chapter 489 - Deeper Meaning!

With regards to such a bold and reckless operation by the First Men’s Military Academy, the expressions of those in the monitoring room were not approving. Only a few frowned and thought more deeply about the point of this operation.

Ling Xiao was one of them. He put his hand on his chin and looked at the scaled down model of the map of the terrain and entered deep thought.

“Area S9 is the intersection between the forest area and grassland area, as well as the center of the forest area. A special-class mecha’s radar is probably capable of covering two-thirds of this area. For an ace mecha, it could cover 100%...”

Ling Xiao thought deeply as to the intentions of the First Men’s Military Academy. “Sending out a team to Area S9 which is far away and lighting it up just for conquering the area? That doesn’t make sense. If Area S, Q, and M wanted to attack Area P, they must pass Area S... but Area P is where there are the most number of headquarters. When the battle royale starts, this place will definitely become a location everyone will fight for and will be the most brutal battlefield. The First Men’s Military Academy which was originally in Area G could have just sat back and watched the show, yet they want to tread in these muddy waters instead.

“Logically, the main forces would defend the base camp, since the headquarters is the crux of the battle royale. If a fight broke out in Area S, their headquarters would definitely not be able to send reinforcements. And relying on the mecha operators split off from the main group to defend the area is pretty much impossible. Since that’s the case, then why would they come to light up S9 and do something meaningless?

“Lan’er won’t have missed this point, so then why would she arrange this? Could it be that there’s someone who refused to comply with Lan’er’s decision and the result was that they moved out without permission?” Ling Xiao’s brows immediately formed a frown upon thinking of this possibility. He thought about Qiao Ting, the person who was nicknamed the second Ling Xiao. Was it him?

However, in the private meetings between father and daughter in the past few days, Ling Lan’s expression was as light as the wind. It was possible that she already had these issues under control. The frown on Ling Xiao’s brows slowly eased. He was very confident in his daughter. Ling Lan’s capability was not to be looked down on since she was able to take care and look after the Ling family during the 16 years that he had ‘sacrificed’ himself for the country.

“Since there’s definitely no one going off on their own, then this operation was arranged by Lan’er, or was approved by her...” Ling Xiao speculated and came to this conclusion as his eyes lit up. His own daughter would not make a move blindly—there was definitely more to this matter than meets the eye.

Ling Xiao scanned the map on the table once again, imprinting all the terrains of each area into his eyes and going through them in his mind once again.

“No!” Ling Xiao’s eyes suddenly narrowed and he said, “This is a defensive checkpoint! Lan’er wants to block off all teams from Area S. Since they have to protect their headquarters, the number of forces they can send out for an attack can’t be that much... If they send a strong team to stay in this location and mount a sneak attack, the probability of success is very high. If the team leader is Qiao Ting, then not only does the success rate increase exponentially but at the same time, Area S would become the best shield for them.”

Ling Xiao lips showed a hint of a smile. He was already certain that the battle team which lit up Area S9 was the team led by Qiao Ting. And only he could make the best possible result out of this maneuver. This move that Lan’er had arranged was indeed amazing, as even he could not contain his surprise.

Right when Ling Xiao predicted what would happen, the other audience members and referees, who had doubts about the move the First Men’s Military Academy had made, had already switched to Area S9 on the big screen.

They could see that there were many mechas flying about in Area S9. Some were patrolling, some were resting and some were waiting for orders. In the resting area, there was a certain mecha that took away everyone’s attention, and it was none other than one of the three ace mecha which had appeared in this tournament. It was one of the strongest ace mecha—Qiao Ting’s long-range mecha.

“It’s Qiao Ting. Qiao Ting isn’t defending their headquarters? They’ve gone mad.” Everyone saw this situation, looks of incomprehension on their faces.

The First Men’s Military Academy was already at the right place and right time, but as luck would have it, problems arose in the arrangements of their forces. They lost the opportunity they had and squandered the great situation they were in. This made them feel sorry for them, but also expected them to do better.

It should be known that, in order to defend the headquarters well, the best battle team of the military academy and their mecha operators would stay and defend the camp and would not leave rashly; after all, the headquarters was the crux of the battle royale. If the headquarters were taken by others, the territories that were snatched up would instantly become nothing. Their score would become zero and they would be instantly eliminated. No military academy dared to bet on that outcome, and this was why the forces that attacked were always the secondary battle team, leaving the defense to the strongest first battle team.

“No, this is a good plan,” someone said, stating an opinion opposite to the general consensus. Everyone looked at that person with shocked expressions, and they found out that the speaker was He Xuyang, who was standing beside Ling Xiao with a face full of smiles.

Everyone reflexively looked towards Ling Xiao and saw that he was holding his laughter; he was not against what his staff officer had said. Everyone instantly calmed down. Those who could become high ranking officers in the army were not idiots. They began to fall into deep thought and contemplate why He Xuyang had said what he did.

The vice president of the Federation wasn’t really knowledgeable about the mecha battle team’s strategies. Not knowing anything, he simply asked, “Staff Officer He, can you explain to me? I don’t have an understanding of these things.”

He Xuyang looked at Ling Xiao, who nodded lightly in response, then He Xuyang answered, “Where is the location of the First Men’s Military Academy? Other than us, the spectators who know for certain, the other military academies don’t have a clue. If Qiao Ting is holding his ground in Area S9 and the other academies saw him there, what would be their first thought?”

Many people came to a realization at He Xuyang’s reminder, and someone yelled, “Area S9 is their headquarters.”

He Xuyang’s smile grew wider at those words. “Yes. The other military academies will definitely think that Area S9, with Qiao Ting holding it, will be the First Men’s Military Academy’s headquarters. If my guess isn’t wrong, Qiao Ting’s mission there is to block off the battle teams who try to move into Area S from Area P and proceed with something similar to a slaughter.”

Hearing that, the vice president instantly breathed in a mouthful of cold air and said, “Isn’t this going to make everyone angry? Does the First Men’s Military Academy not fear the other military academies forming alliances?”

He Xuyang smiled and said, “This the First Men’s Military Academy’s goal. Since Area S9 is the First Men’s Military Academy’s headquarters, they will definitely want to form alliances and eliminate the strongest opponent. However, after using so much effort to take Area S9, they’ll find that they only took down an uninhabited area...”

He Xuyang’s words made the others want to know the final result. After attacking Area S9, all of the allied military academies would have fits on the spot. The fruits of their labor, after investing so much effort and perhaps even taking painful losses, would only be something that was worthless and could be easily tossed aside—they would definitely feel bad about it.

“Sacrificing their strongest team and individual in order to draw everyone’s attention, is this worth it? And once those who had realized the truth find out where the real headquarters of the First Men’s Military Academy lay, the First Men’s Military Academy may not have the ability to defend.” Many people acknowledged this move made by the First Men’s Military Academy; however, there were still those being stubborn because they hadn’t seen through the plan themselves and felt embarrassed. Thus, they would not admit to the excellence of the cadets.

“Since it’s an uninhabited area that can just be tossed aside, Qiao Ting’s group will not defend it to their death.” He Xuyang mentioned casually, a hint of disdain flashing across his eyes. “As long as Qiao Ting isn’t dumb and leaves after delaying as much as he can, just some special-class operators will not be enough to keep an ace operator from going, unless there is another ace operator...

“As for finding the First Men’s Military Academy’s real headquarters... within 72 hours... Haha!” He Xuyang laughed lightly twice and did not continue to speak. The meaning of his words was very clear. Finding their real headquarters would be impossible, as time moved forward and would not pause for anything.

He Xuyang’s expression made the officer who had differing opinions feel embarrassed. He glanced at the silent Ling Xiao and suppressed the anger rising up from his chest...

One of the officers who were also deeply in thought like Ling Xiao was at the beginning saw this situation and sighed silently. That officer who had differing opinions was brought along by him. This person was actually an idiot, and it just happened so that he was narrow-minded and tended to be envious of those who were capable. If it wasn’t for the fact that this guy was the brother-in-law of the deputy division officer, there would have been no way for him to get to the position he had now. This time around as well, he had used his connection with the deputy division officer in order to come to the mecha tournament. However, he was always someone that started up sh*t. It was so embarrassing and it would be hard to explain this incident to the higher-ups when they returned. Thus, the officer explained, “What staff officer He means is that even if the headquarters in Area G was found, the other military academies would not have enough time to find out which one is the real headquarters. And on top of that, 72 hours would not be enough for them to search one by one.”

“Why?” The officer with differing opinions asked confusedly.

Man, idiots were really idiots. Could they at least try to pretend to be smart? He still had to ask about such a simple situation. Now everyone definitely knew that he had brought a big idiot.

The leading officer felt the ridicule in the gazes of those around him, making him feel very embarrassed. He still had to respond despite this, however, as there was no way he could offend this narrow-minded person. Thus, holding back his embarrassment, he replied, “There are already 11 districts lit up in Area G and they are already connected with each other. The First Men’s Military Academy will definitely defend on the area’s periphery and create a city within a city. Even if they can’t defend these locations, they can fight and retreat and that would be enough for them until the battle royal is over.”

After saying this, he could not suppress an inward sigh. Everyone being people all the same, these young cadets could come up with such an outstanding defensive plan, while this idiot who was almost 40 years old didn’t understand anything. He could barely compare to even a finger of these cadets.

The idiot officer could only pout about it and stop talking after hearing the answer. At that moment, he was already feeling the glances of ridicule from those around him, inwardly hating them for it. He hated He Xuyang, who didn’t give him any respect and only threw an expression of ridicule at him. At the same time, he also hated the officer who tried to get him out of the situation. He decided that when he went back, he would tell his brother-in-law about this officer who made him look bad. He would ask his brother-in-law to send this officer to the poorest borders to defend the territories there.

After hearing He Xuyang and the officer’s explanations, the Federation’s vice president immediately understood. His eyes showed a bit of excitement and he said, “So that’s how it is. Looks like the First Men’s Military Academy will have no problem taking first place in the tournament. General Ling, I want to congratulate you in advance. Your juniors’ performance seems to be very exceptional.”

Ling Xiao laughed and said, “Mister Vice President, you shouldn’t say that. The battle royale hasn’t ended yet. Anything’s possible!”