There were two most important occasions for students in Pacific to "appear" in public:
The first one was the battle for the Grade Leader position, took place in the Winter, often called the First-Year Match.
The second one was the commemorative match among final year students, took place before graduation ceremony in the Summer, often called the Final-Year Match.
The idea of broadcasting the two matches on the National Television Channel for the whole country to watch came from the Army Commander in Chief – Raymond Maximus. The original words of Mr. Raymond was: "People need to know the about future generation who will inherit, develop and defend for this country."
Society was growing, there were more and more new and modern TV shows, but not so that the view rating of these two "traditional" matches decreased.
Especially the rating of the First Year Match was increasing year by year!
After all, this was the match showing the result after Military Training course of the young students who were always willing to compete and show off. At this age, as the most energetic teenagers, they would obviously try to show all their talents in order to score points and impress the Ministry of Education, as well as the guests invited to the match.
Then what about the Final-Year Match? At that time, all the students have grown up. Maybe because they got maturer and more careful, or maybe because the match was just a "commemorative match" in their eyes, they did not take it serious, making the match somewhat less attractive. In general, the annual rating of this match fluctuated around a stable level.
As for Base Five, the Military Training course this year ended specially "good" when all students of the base had a good ranking on the national rankings.
Leaving the training base, all the students got on the military train to the capital Aurora.
The students moved into the dorms for first-year students, which used to be the the dorms of final-year students who just graduated in the summer.
The student dormitory in the capital was divided into five separate zones, corresponding to five grades of students, from the first year to the final year. From the first day to capital till the graduation ceremony, students would stay in the same dormitory. Then after final-year students graduated, their dormitory area would be vacant for a few months. The Ministry of Education would send people to periodically clean up that dormitory area. Until the first year freshmen arrived in the capital, they would be handed over the rooms to move in.
Just arriving in the capital, Dallton pioneered to go around and collect information of the opponents for Angus.
At noon, Dallton and Dustan, together with Iris, Neil, and Hudson went to the canteen, discussing about the news that they just got.
The scoring structure was as below:
The score of the twenty-two-week Military Training course accounted for fifty percent of the total point.
The remaining fifty percent were assessed based on the competition taking place in the capital, with three rounds:
The First round (30 points): Physical strength – Including the three categories in the military course, which were: long distance running, mountain climbing, and swimming.
The Second round (30 points): Leadership
Ten Class Leaders commanded ten teams representing for ten classes to compete for a given challenge at a designated location. Ten venues were arranged with the same conditions in terms of: terrain, the number of traps, and the number of enemies, ensuring an absolute fairness. Each team of ten people, Class Leader included.
After two rounds above, the two Class Leaders with lowest scores would be eliminated. The remaining eight entered the third round of power fight.
The Third round (40 points): Power Control
This was a knockout round, one-on-one, conducted in the famous Aurora Bijlmer Arena of Pacific with a capacity of 20,000 spectators.
After adding up the points, the person with the highest score would be the Grade Leader.
In case the top two had the same scores, a vote would be held to collect votes from the Judge Board and remaining eight Class Leaders. This situation was very rare – actually it just happened once in Pacific history. The situation was, the one ranking First in the military course then ranked Second in the competition in the capital, and the other one who ranked Second in the Military course then became the First-ranked in the competition in the capital.
After all, the one who won the competition in the capital was voted to be the Grade Leader.
Currently, the Rankings of ten Class Leaders after Military course had been fully updated and shown at two huge LCD screens: one in the Central Square and one in the Aurora Bijlmer Arena.
"So what is the ranking of ten class leaders now?" Hudson asked while Iris attentively noted down the information.
Dallton replied: "Of course our Leader ranks First! Then the two names that we know before, Drake of Base Three ranks second and Cheryl of Base One ranks third... Well, Hawley ranked sixth! Surprise? I never thought he could rank sixth! He now ranks higher than both of the two class leaders of Base Four..."
Hawley coincidentally sitting at the table next to Dallton's, not missing any word: "..."
Well, should he change to another table?
On this side, Dallton was still talking: "Speaking of which, this year Base Four is not really good..."
"Wait, hold on..." What a mess! Iris furrowed his brows: "You talk in order. Starting from the Fourth."
Dallton was a bit hestitant, "Well, fourth rank is... Class C, then fifth rank is Class E..."
"No, not that." Dustan interrupted, "Fifth rank is Class B, not Class E."
Ignoring everyone's expression, Dallton regained his senses, continuing: "...Sixth rank is Hawley. Seventh rank is... Class G..."
"Seventh rank is Class H." This time it was Edelina to interrupt Dallton.
Clang!
Dallton thew the spoon in his hand: "You guys come! I don't remember!"
Iris, Neil, Hudson: "..."
They all knew that!!!
This Dallton had a special "talent" on starting a conversation with strangers and gossiping about everything on this world, but he was also a bit careless, not paying attention to details.
Well, they should have sent some more people going with Dallton!
Then everyone turned to look at Edelina, expecting a complete answer. However...
Edelina rolled her eyes: "Look at me for what? I just joined them in the middle! I don't know anything!"
"Then how you know Class H ranks seventh?" Dallton asked.
"I just heard from other classes." Edelina replied, the she added: "And that's all I know, so don't ask me about other ranks!"
Everybody: "..."
Neil looked at Dustan: "You went with Dallton. Do you remember?"
Dustan scratched his head for a moment then said: "The remaining three classes are D, E, G. I'm not sure but it seems that Class E ranks eighth, Class D ranks ninth, and Class G ranks tenth."
"That's wrong." A strange voice filled with a thick capital accent suddenly appeared.
A boy with dark blue hair and eyes had just walked past Iris' table, coincidentally hearing Dustan's words and then he stopped and turned around.
His hands were in his pockets, his expression showed a nonchalant attitude, looking at Dustan with an indifferent half smile: "The first order you said was correct."
The, he didn't need to know the reaction of the Iris group, just turned around and continued walking.
Iris glanced at the boy's back for one more time, and then he noted down something onto his notebook. Let's see... the first order that Dustan said was... D, then E, then G.
Dallton curiously looked at the notebook, then showed a puzzled face. "You noted that? Can you believe him?"
Iris replied, "Just put it in, then correct it later."
"So why did you listen to that guy? Perhaps the second order Dustan said is right?"
"He looks reliable." Iris calmly replied.
Dallton: "..." Damn it, how could that nonchalant attitude be reliable???
After Iris finished taking note the rankings, the group began having lunch while chatting.
After all, Dallton was just a little dumb at remembering the detailed data. If it was about collecting gossip, or rumors, or sidebar news, then no one was better than him.
According to Dallton, the situation in the other four training bases was quite "brutal".
Specifically, during the first month of the course when students were freely running for the Class Leader position, the practice of the strong bullying the weak happened very regularly. The new students with good family background all built for them a squad and then bullied the ones they didn't like.
Talking about this, everyone coincidentally recalled Hudson's dark past.
Hudson-had-a-dark-past: "..."
Why you guys looked at me like that? Hadn't I changed myself to be better? What more did you want!!!
After the two Class Leaders of a base had been selected, the Class Leader of more dominant class tried to mess up with the Class Leader of the weaker class – either by implicit ways or public moves – to lower the scores of the weaker Class Leader on the National Ranking, making him/ her lose the advantage in the battle for Grade Leader position.
Particularly, the two classes of G and H of Base No. Four this year, each once changed Class Leader, and the two current Class Leaders kept fighting together all the time. Moreover, the other students of two class didn't seem to care who was the Class Leaders at all! They just cared about themselves! Therefore, this year's average score for Base Four was the lowest of the five bases.
Under that situation, Hawley of Class I was fortunate to rank higher than the "failed" Class Leaders of other bases, higher than both of the two Class Leaders of Class H and Class G from Base Four.
After Dallton finished the story, Maddox scratched his chin, showed a regretting expression: "Hey, why didn't our class think about that before? You guys think... if we all gather and fight Hawley, will we win?"
Hawley still eating at the next table: "..." I was still sitting here!!! Could you pay attention around before talking behind someone's back???
Iris didn't join the conversation. He quickly finished his lunch and then grabbed the notebook and the meal for Angus, returning to the dorm.
Leader Master complained that canteen was noisy, wanting to eat separately!
***
Updated Ranking of Class Leaders after Military Course, with conversion points (Accounting for 50% of the total points):
#1. Angus Farley - Class K - Base 5 - Rank 1 National. The redeemed score was 100 points.
#2. Drake Atticus - Class F - Base 3 - Rank 2 National. The redeemed score was 95 points.
#3. Cheryl Maximus - Class A - Base 1 - Rank 3 National. The redeemed score was 90 points.
#4. Kristena Ellis - Class C - Base 2 - Rank 22 National. The redeemed score was 80 points.
#5. Patrick Kang - Class B - Base 1 - Rank 30 National. The redeemed score was 75 points.
#6. Hawley Quincey - Class I - Base 5 - Rank 32 National. The redeemed score was 70 points.
#7. James Petrov - Class H - Base 4 - Rank 58 National. The redeemed score was 60 points.
#8. Stella Wagner - Class D - Base 2 - Rank 67 National. The redeemed score was 55 points.
#9. Samuel Meyer - Class E - Base 3 - Rank 81 National. The redeemed score was 50 points.
#10. Martin Blanc - Class G - Base 4 - Rank 94 National. The redeemed score was 45 points.
Note: The redeemed score was based on the ranking of ten Class Leaders from the First to Tenth. From the Seventh, as the Class Leader of Class H was out of Top Fifty, that why there was a gap of 10 points instead of 5 points as higher ranks.
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