V2C075: On The Road

“Those good at running should run quickly. The first 100 people who arrive at the destination must all belong to our Mecha Department!” The chairman of the Mecha Department——Domra, gave an order, and the Mecha Department freshmen behind him immediately yelled in response.

In the Imperial Comprehensive Academy, the Mecha Department has the highest physical requirements for students. Most of the participants in the Imperial Comprehensive Academy’s annual inter-academic games are from the Mecha Department. Before the military training and under the organization of Chairman Domra, the Mecha Department freshmen spent every night in the physical training room. A brontosaurus-like physique and a tyrannosaurus-like spirit are the aspirations of every teenager who aspires to pilot a mecha.

“For the first place, go!” Shouting and leading by example, Chairman Domra rushed out like a tyrannosaurus.

Well, he’s indeed a little tyrannosaurus from a famous tyrannosaurus family.

Encouraged by Chairman Domra, the other Mecha Department freshmen squeezed out the freshmen from other departments around them. When the start sounded, the students from other departments were blocked and they’re the first ones to rush out.

“What a bunch of savages…” Behind Domra, Chairman Brad of the Battleship Command Department felt the sense of confrontation towards the Mecha Department for the first time.

As the signature majors of the Imperial Comprehensive Academy, the Mecha Department and the Battleship Command Department have always been competitors. They all want to bring the best students to their department and both Department Chiefs and Professors have a vague sense of hostility towards each other. And from the top to the bottom, that sense of competition is also very strong among the students. Even before the military training, the professor who announced the military training specifically instructed them to defeat the Mecha Department and strive to be the first in this military training.

Before this, Brad had checked the historical achievements of his department during the military training: ‘The second child for ten thousand years’ was all he could say.

The first place each year is basically the Mecha Department and most of the guys who graduated and entered the army might be simple-minded (relatively), but their limbs are well developed (absolutely). How could they not take first place?

So if the professors said that they want to compete for first place, it’s just to give them a higher goal. What they really wanted was to not lose too ugly and to win beautifully in advantageous events. Before the military training, Brad investigated the conventional military training events within the known range, excluding some physical fitness-related subjects, he focused on some military training events that examine the overall planning ability. “Must be first in these events” is his mission on this trip.

“It’s okay to play to your normal level. What we’ll do in the future is not to charge. Students who are confident in their physical fitness should run as far as possible.” He dusted the dirty shoes that Domra had stepped on and calmly issued the order. Immediately and in random orders, the future commanders also set off.

However, although the future commanders set off early, they were exhausted very early on.

Three hours after departure, the Mechanical Engineering Department followed suit and began to catch up with these future commanders one by one.

“Hmph! Don’t underestimate a mechanic’s physical strength since we work with all kinds of machines every day. When the mecha is intact, the mecha carries us, but when the mecha is broken, we carry the mecha. Even the girl with the worst physical strength in our department can carry a mecha’s arm!” After passing by more than a quarter of the freshmen commanders, Qiu Lin, the chairman of the Mechanical Engineering Department, rushed forward triumphantly and shouted at the classmates being left behind:

“Go harder, we can do it faster!”

“Roar!” The future mechanics roared in unison.

In the military dedicated hover car lane, the freshmen of the Imperial Comprehensive Academy have high fighting spirits!

For teenagers at this age, the military is very mysterious. Ordinary people may never have the opportunity to come here once in their lives.

Entering the Imperial Comprehensive Academy meant that everyone can get better teaching resources and these resources are not only better professors, but also better classmates, and better coverage of future resources.

For example, the Imperial Comprehensive Academy has many examples of students who performed exceptionally well in certain extracurricular events and were successfully recruited after graduation, and then made steady progress.

The military training is no exception: The troops that can establish a military training plan with the Imperial Comprehensive Academy must belong to very powerful troops! Although those inconspicuous instructors are wearing ordinary uniforms, no one knew how many stars are on their real regular uniforms.

They have never seen powerful men and ordinary soldiers in their lives, so maybe it’s their current instructor. This feeling is very cool.

Regardless of the instructors, they even have the opportunity to directly contact the forefront weapons of the Empire during military training!

Like the Mecha and Battleship Command Departments, how could students from the Mechanical Engineering Department and other majors not be tempted by this?

They’re now sweating in the hover car track which might even be the place where a General’s car would drive through!

Turns out they thought too much.

“What is this lane for? It’s actually set aside for us to run.” A freshman in the Music Department looked around as he ran with obvious excitement on his face.

“Could it be a lane for secret weapons!” He obviously asked a good question as a freshman from the Fine Arts Department next to him immediately took over.

So while freshmen from other departments were thinking about their future, the wallflower troops adorned at the back is running while gossiping. Because they’re neatly arranged, there are people around so gossiping is more convenient.

After discussing for a long time, there was no result. Doug, who was about to be overwhelmed by this group talking nonsense, couldn’t help it anymore:

“It’s not a lane for high-ranking officials, nor is it a weapon escort lane. This hovercar track is for food.” Doug couldn’t help but glance at Mu Gen, who was smiling and listening to everyone’s gossip, thinking, did this guy put himself in the back of the team on purpose?

But Doug didn’t look back for too long. Although the wallflower departments moved slowly, they’re still advancing, so his words just lifted the appetite of other people. Immediately, the surrounding freshmen all looked at him.

“To transport food ⊙▽⊙. How did you know? That…this classmate, what department are you from?” Only this time did the people around Doug realize one thing: who is this person? Why is there no impression at all?

Like Mu Gen, he chose to live off-campus by himself and sits in the last row every time in class. Even the students of his department can’t remember Doug’s name and appearance, let alone students from the other two departments.

“I-I’m Doug, from the Cooking Department.” After hesitating, Doug briefly introduced himself.

“Doug? I’ll remember, I’m Donat from the Music Department!”

“I’m Jones from the Music Department!”

“From the Fine Arts department, I’m Yar.”

The surrounding freshmen introduced themselves and Doug was a little dizzy.

“Doug’s weakness is that he can’t remember human faces! Next time, if he can’t remember your name, don’t misunderstand and just introduce yourself to him again y(^o^)y.” But it was Mu Gen who interrupted them from the back row.

“So that’s it! No wonder classmate Doug ignores me every time, I thought he was very aloof! I see, then I’ll repeat my name every time from now on!” This time, the one talking is a freshman from the Cooking Department who remembered Doug’s name. People who had never spoken to Doug heard Mu Gen’s explanation and suddenly realized.

With his ears a little red, Doug turned his head and glanced at Mu Gen. The moment he met Mu Gen’s eyes, he hurriedly turned his head back but at the same time, his ears became even redder.

After clarifying their names, Donat and the others persevere in asking the previous question, so Doug carefully explained it to them.

“There are many types of lanes nowadays, roughly divided into public, private, and military. Public hover cars control is not very strict, but private lanes and military lanes have strict controls on entering vehicles. All hover cars have license plates, right? Another function of these license plates is their read-in function. Private and military lanes are equipped with license plate readers all the way. Any vehicle that didn’t have the authority can’t get in at all. If it’s a military lane, the consequences will be more serious and would likely be judged as an illegal intrusion.”

With that said, Doug pointed to a certain position above the lane: “That is a reader.”

He pointed a little bit on the side of the reader where there was a row of very small holes. If it hadn’t been specifically pointed out by Doug, no one would have even noticed them: “Those are laser bullet holes. If illegal vehicles enter this lane illegally, laser bombs will be launched from the inside until the intruder is completely eliminated.”

Hearing that, all the freshmen were shocked——

“T-then we…” Donna stiffened on the spot.

“There should be readable information in the watch we have, so you must not lose this watch during military training. If you lost it, you should immediately report it to the instructor.” Doug told him solemnly.

“So that’s the case. This thing was specifically mentioned on the first page~” Mu Gen didn’t understand all of what Doug said, but after listening carefully, he felt very educated.

“The reason why this lane is for food transportation is because of the model of the reader. The reader here has an additional food identification function.” At this point, Doug finally said the reason for his judgment.

“I see, I can’t tell at all! But how did Doug know?” Looking at the reader ten meters above his head with a sigh, Jones said that he still couldn’t tell the difference between this reader and the other readers: Nonsense! He had never seen a reader before!

This kind of equipment is an advanced product that can only be configured for military and private channels!

Doug scratched his nose and said after a while: “My family sells readers, so I understand a little bit…”

Everyone suddenly realized.

“However, the laser bullet hole density here is very high and the reader is also the latest model. If even the logistics channel are equipped at such a high level, it seems that this military base is at least four stars or more.”

“Wow!” Looking at the dense bullet holes above their heads, the freshmen of the wallflower departments expressed their admiration.

“So, in movies, the scene of jumping from a public lane to a military lane while fleeing…”

“They’re all lies. They’ll be shot as soon as they enter.” Dough pushed up his glasses expressionlessly.

There was booing in the group, everyone thought: The watch is very important and must not be lost.

After discussing the function of this lane, the topic of the wallflowers quickly turned to the food here.

“I heard that in previous years, freshmen from the Cooking Department will be sent to cook in the cafeteria. I don’t know what the cafeteria of a four-star base is like?”

“Huh? Are we being sent to cook? Since we’re training together this year, are we also required to cook?”

“It’s great to cook together, maybe I can steal some food~”

A neat formation was running at a constant speed on the out-of-sight military lane. At four hours and thirty-five minutes, the teenagers of the wallflower departments finally met the first student who got left behind.