The match was supposedly over. Teacher Fielding was about to step down from the referee box hoisted to the side, where he could supervise us from above without having to interfere with the match, and the spectators were about to leave.
However…
"Bravo! Bravo!"
Everyone froze when they heard the familiar voice. The architect of this match, the person who proposed this whole team battle to begin with, Feng Hai, was clapping his hands and making his way toward the arena. He raised his hands and gestured for my team to remain on stage. We glanced at each other, puzzled, but obeyed.
The unconscious ones were already being ferried away by the medics, but Feng Hai waved them to carry on with their duties. Other than Stan, the only casualty in our team, the whole of Holy Saints Society's team were whisked away on stretchers.
"Congratulations on your win!" Feng Hai told us as he clapped his hands, grinning deviously. There was something about his expression that I wasn't very comfortable with. It was almost as if he was scheming something.
Even so, I bowed my head, as did the rest of my team.
"Thank you, sir."
"Thank you."
"Thanks."
"Now, now." Feng Hai waved his hands again. "You deserve credit for pulling off such an awesome performance!"
Aw…he was making us blush. Not that I cared, because I was sure there was a reason behind his blatant flattery.
Feng Hai wasn't paying attention to us now. Instead, he was turning toward the audience and spreading his hands wide.
"Based on today's performance, I think it's fair to say this team deserves a shot at becoming the representatives more than those fielded by Holy Saints today, right?"
There was some murmurs from the crowd, but the Holy Saints who had turned up to watch were unhappy. Even so, they couldn't say anything because the result was clear. The team they had sent out, even though it was partially second-string, had lost. There was no denying this outcome.
Even so, I didn't want to ruin their chances, so I raised a hand.
"Um, I'm sure more than a few of them have displayed an impressive performance in the match earlier. It would be unfair and overly harsh to dismiss them because of a single loss."
"That is true. I've watched the match, so I can tell who performed well and who didn't." Feng Hai nodded in agreement. I didn't know whether to feel relief or not. Lin Zhan Long was one thing, but I didn't want to earn the enmity from the rest of Holy Saints. Harrison Reed was an opponent I could not afford to offend.
The relief somewhat abated with Feng Hai's next announcement, however.
"Holy Saints will still get a chance to represent the academy. However, in the training camp next month…I'll be giving Vice-President Lin Zhan Long's quota to Ultimate Outcast."
"…huh?"
Everyone looked stunned. I was also confused, but for a different reason.
"Training camp? What training camp?"
"Oh, I didn't tell you?" Feng Hai glanced at Alicia, who shook her head. He slapped his forehead mockingly. "Whoops, sorry about that."
The audience began whispering and murmuring amongst themselves, evidently just as bewildered as I was. Dong Fang Yue Chu glanced at me, and I shrugged. Nicholas and Elliot looked just as clueless.
"Ahem." Feng Hai cleared his throat and had everyone return their attention to him. He grinned sheepishly. "Um, I am organizing a special training camp for potential candidates who are capable of qualifying for the team to represent our academy at the national tournament this year. Make no mistake, it'll be tough. But there are limited quotas for each societies, and the quotas are actually dependent on the size of the societies." He shrugged. "That might sound unfair, but obviously the bigger your society, the more quotas you get."
He then turned toward us.
"Fortunately, thanks to Vice-President Lin Zhan Long's pathetic…uh, I mean less-than-impressive display today, I think it's fair if I give one of Holy Saints' quotas to Ultimate Outcast instead."
There was an uproar from the Holy Saints corner, the members who had come to watch the match rising to their feet and shouting incoherently in protest.
"What?" Feng Hai asked with a sly smile. "You have complaints about this? Or would you prefer if I take away all five quotas from Holy Saints, given how five of your members lost today?"
That shut them up. Obviously losing one slot was infinitely preferable to losing five. Lin Zhan Long was one thing – he was extremely arrogant and ambitious, but no real ability to back his attitude and lofty goals up. Last year, he made several promises to Holy Saints, but ended up getting humiliated in the tournament when our academy achieved one of our lowest rankings in decades. Despite his severe defeat and lack of results, Lin Zhan Long continued to be arrogant and bragged incessantly about his strength while treating other people he perceived to be "weaker" with a condescending attitude. While he did have some measure of strength that allowed him to be elevated to the position of vice-president (though that was more to do with his political clout than actual ability), his attitude ended up alienating a lot of people both inside and outside his society.
Nobody cared less if Lin Zhan Long lost his slot to represent the academy, not after he failed to live up to expectations and failed to deliver on his promises.
"Of course, if any of you feel that your vice-president is worthier of the slot than any of your other members selected for the training camp, you can give your slot to him. I'm sure Vice-President Lin Zhan Long will appreciate your kindness and high opinion of him."
The Holy Saints members present glanced at each other, but none of them said anything.
"Well, at least it didn't turn into a situation where Lin Zhan Long lost his quota from making a stupid bet with us," I muttered under my breath. That would be highly unrealistic. As if a student could make these kind of decisions on his own.
"Originally Ultimate Outcast only has one quota, now they have two, thanks to the generosity of Lin Zhan Long." Feng Hai laughed, his voice sharp and critical. "Perhaps Lin Zhan Long lost on purpose because he sympathized with you guys?"
Everyone knew that wasn't possible. Prior to this match, Lin Zhan Long was bragging about how he would crush me and Ultimate Outcast, how he would slowly and painfully teach us the differences between our strengths, and how he would ensure we weaklings knew our place. You know, standard "arrogant young masters" stuff so prevalent in Chinese web novels. Not that I paid any attention to his bragging and claims because I had better things to do.
Like training, or preparing for this match, for example. Instead of wasting my breath or time talking nonsense, I would rather devote those precious seconds into training and becoming stronger, to improving my summoning magic.
Well, all that matters is that I won. And then the poor bastard will cease to become relevant. At least, unless he pulls something as incredibly stupid as hiring gangs or mercenaries to try and assassinate me and my Ultimate Outcast society over something as petty as losing both the match and his quota, which was, frankly, utter bullshit and could only be possible in a Chinese web novel. No, seriously…what kind of psychotic student who hadn't even reached adulthood would resort to hiring assassins to fucking murder a bunch of insignificant schoolmates who "offended" him? Like, seriously? We didn't threaten him, we didn't really do anything to him other than humiliate him, and for that "crime" he wanted to kill us? To the extent of wasting tremendous resources and spending large sums of money on hiring assassins? For a bloody schoolyard feud?
What kind of logic was that?
"Hello?"
Feng Hai was waving his hand in front of my face. I blinked and immediately returned to reality.
"Sorry. I was just…taken aback."
"Hah! Yeah, my bad. I should have announced the training camp first. Whoops!" Feng Hai spun around to face the spectators – which was…impossible, because they were seated 360 degrees around us. "The training camp this time is not only to improve the students with the most potential and strengthen them greatly, but also to allow me to assess which of the students are best suited to represent the academy. As you know, it's not as simple as merely picking out the top ten ranked students in the academy. They also need to be gelled into a single, cohesive fighting force, especially for the emphasis on team battles this year."
He glanced at us with a smirk.
"As you can see, even though all of Holy Saints are individually ranked higher than Ultimate Outcast and their Black Roses allies, when it comes to a team battle, they fell short. This shows that teamwork and cooperation is more important than individual rankings and ability! Your individual ability might be immense, but if you can't work with a team, then it's pointless!"
Yeah, that was the single biggest flaw of the modern education system. It was too rigid and relied too much on individual rankings. It reminded me of the past, where the Asian education system I was trapped in revolved around rote learning and examination results, rather than practical ability. Sports, arts, hands-on, technical skills were all overlooked for a bunch of grades on a slip of paper. People only cared how well you scored for your theoretical exams, and what prestigious school you attended. The university requirements and employment system also relied heavily on examination results, not practical ability.
Similarly, now we were facing a similar thing where the education system focused overly on individual rankings without regard for the reality. The higher-ups in the ministry of education had an obvious disconnection with what was required in reality. Obviously in the field, against swarms of monsters from Emergence Events, teamwork was more important than strong individuals. Any strong individual could easily be isolated and taken out one by one. Only when a team stood tall together would they be able to ward off hordes of monsters. You probably already know the story about a single arrow being snapped easily whereas a bunch of arrows being more difficult to break. Similarly, a multi-layered, reinforced fortress wall was harder to demolish than a single wall, no matter what kind of alloy it was made of.
Apparently there were a bunch of people complaining about the education system and pointing this out, urging the ministers to change the education policy to favor teamwork and practical application rather than individual rankings and tournament results. Much like back in the distant past where people were disavowing rote learning in favor of creativity, technical skills and the recognition of other talents besides academic ability.
Hence the emphasis on team battles this year…
There were still some grumbles from the Holy Saints spectators as they tried to figure a way to break the news to their fallen vice-president. Given his notorious temper, Lin Zhan Long definitely would not receive the news well.
Well, that was their problem, not mine. Glancing at Dong Fang Yue Chu, I intuitively understood that the next step for Ultimate Outcast was to decide who to send to represent our society in the training camp.
We had two quotas, and frankly, the choice should be obvious. It was just that…
I glanced in the direction of where the medics took Stan, and shook my head. Given how prideful and ambitious Stan was, he would surely want a chance to take part in the training camp…