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Part 2
December 1st.
5:00 AM.
It was a rest day, so there were no morning drills.
The three roommates were still sleeping.
Yun Yingzhi washed up in the bathroom, put on casual clothes, and spent a large sum of money to escape from Fanse Academy.
To prevent others from recognizing him, he took advantage of the darkness. Before heading to the competition venue, he specifically took a detour to rent a hotel room and began shopping online for clothes to change his appearance.
He couldn’t let anyone recognize him.
Opening a shopping platform, he saw the padded coats, pants, and shoes favored by middle-aged and elderly people.
Yun Yingzhi: “…”
Strictly speaking, since he was pregnant, he did need to stay warm.
The weather was indeed very cold now.
After some hesitation, he purchased a padded set—black with large red peonies.
With the clothes chosen, he also bought a hat and a mask.
The platform delivered very quickly; the items arrived at the hotel within half an hour.
He took them, entered the bathroom, and changed.
Once dressed, he looked in the mirror. He felt that under these circumstances, it was impossible for anyone to recognize him.
Walking out of the hotel with satisfaction, he headed toward the venue.
In early December, the morning air was freezing. The padded set was just right.
He looked at the people on the street.
There were many elderly people out for morning exercises, and their clothes mostly shared a similar style with his.
He paused, subtly feeling like something was wrong, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
Forget it. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that the clothes were comfortable.
At 8:15 AM, he arrived at the Star Brilliance Competition hall.
He finally knew what was wrong.
The participants of the Star Brilliance Competition were generally young people.
One of the rules was that every round was livestreamed, and fans could tip the participants.
To get high tips, all participants dressed in their best. In contrast…
He was the only one wearing a padded coat, padded pants, padded shoes, a hat, and a mask.
He glanced around and saw students in the uniforms of the Ten Great Military Academies, including students from the Source Weapon Manufacturing Department of Fanse Academy.
Military uniforms might not be as flashy as custom-made outfits, but being a student of a top military academy was its own glory and naturally drew attention.
Admiring the strong was human nature.
He peeked toward the Fanse Academy group and saw several familiar faces.
The manufacturing students had arrived surrounded by combat students. It wasn’t hard to guess that those combat students were the testers they had invited.
In comparison…
Yun Yingzhi had struggled to escape the academy and was participating in secret.
He was a bit nervous, worried his classmates would recognize him.
The manufacturing students were one thing, but he frequently interacted with combat students and had even done team competitions with them. It would be bad if he were recognized.
He moved quietly, trying to stay as far away from the Fanse Academy group as possible.
However, as soon as he got away from them, he stumbled into the group from Cangfeng Academy.
Several students in combat uniforms from Fanse Academy were looking at him curiously.
Feeling the gazes, he continued to move away from the Cangfeng group.
His cheeks under the mask were beet red. On one hand, he didn’t want anyone to know he was the Admiral’s child; on the other hand, he felt that if he were discovered, his parents’ anger would be one thing, but…
This “elderly-favorite” warm outfit was also quite embarrassing.
He endured the stares and kept moving, only to end up near the students of the all-girls Eiffel Academy.
He suddenly became the only “green leaf” in a sea of red.
He kept moving until he finally broke free from the military academy groups and joined the ranks of ordinary people.
The preliminaries were divided into 99 venues.
There was no barrier to entry for the preliminaries, so there were many participants, and they were divided into batches.
Yun Yingzhi’s luck was both good and bad.
He was assigned to Venue 1—the most prominent one.
He sincerely hoped he wouldn’t be in the same venue as the other students from his academy.
But of course, the thing he feared most happened.
As the participants moved, he found he was taking the same route as the top military students—all toward Venue 1.
At first, he thought it was a coincidence, but then he realized…
It probably wasn’t.
He had signed up anonymously, and the organizers kept his identity secret according to the rules, but he was still a student of Fanse Academy.
The system had matched him into Venue 1.
To his relief, Venue 1 was massive. Besides the top military students, there were many… students from other academies.
Without exception, they were mostly under twenty-five.
Among these young faces, Yun Yingzhi’s “black-with-red-peonies” padded set stood out like a crane among chickens.
Occasionally, students gave him curious looks.
His face was red, but he forced himself to stay calm and ignored their gazes as much as possible.
Around 8:30 AM, almost all participants were standing at their workstations according to their numbers.
The venue was spacious, and some instruments were shared.
Surveillance cameras hung overhead, along with little black “demon” livestream drones fluttering their wings.
Every certain distance, there were raw material vending machines stocked with plenty of materials ranging from Grade Four to Grade Eight. Notes on the machines said that rare materials and materials for Grade Nine or above could be requested from the organizers.
He looked around and felt a bit overwhelmed.
He was surrounded by top military students who kept looking at him.
With his sharp hearing, he heard some hushed conversations.
[Since he’s here, he must be a military student too, right?]
[Which academy is he from?]
[Probably not ours. I’ve never seen him before.]
[What a unique outfit.]
[Is he hiding something disgraceful?]
Yun Yingzhi kept his eyes lowered, pretending not to hear, while scouting with his peripheral vision.
To his left: Fanse Academy. To his right: Eiffel Academy. Behind him: Cangfeng Academy. In front: Suofei Academy.
He was surrounded.
The students only expressed curiosity for a moment before looking away.
To them, there were more important things to worry about than him.
He breathed a sigh of relief and continued observing the venue.
It was his first time at the competition, and the scale was larger than he imagined.
No wonder it was so competitive; in the last competition, only one student from his department won an “Entrance Award.”
Even that was hard to get. Top ten was a dream.
But it wasn’t just Fanse Academy; other academies also had tragic records, with only Eiffel Academy doing slightly better.
Because of the last competition, many suspected that as the older generation of manufacturers aged, the newcomers lacked talent. Was source weapon manufacturing reaching a dead end?
Suddenly, he heard a familiar name.
“Wu Hua!”
His eyelids jumped. That was the Grade Five weapon he made for Yu Feiwen.
He instinctively looked toward the speaker—a student from Fanse Academy.
[I heard the creator of Wu Hua is a student in our department!]
[No way?]
[If it’s true, maybe they can take first place in the Star Brilliance Competition?]
[Definitely! They’re amazing.]
[If they really are from our department, it would bring so much glory to our academy.]
[Eiffel Academy won first place three years ago and has been smug about it ever since.]
He was happy to hear their certain words.
He quietly clenched his fists. When his brother returned and became his tester, even if they didn’t get first, they would surely get a great result.
By then, he would definitely win an honorary award for Fanse Academy.
As a student there, he really wanted to bring them glory.
His ears twitched, and he heard other participants talking.
Some had already gone to the vending machines to check the materials.
According to them, he heard prices so low they made him feel like he was floating with joy.
The raw materials in the machines were marked at one-quarter of the market price.
Alvin’s studio worked directly with the military, yet their materials were only 50% off—the lowest price available to most academies.
But here, the Star Brilliance Competition had halved that again. It was practically free.
He stared at the materials, wanting to empty every single machine.
More people noticed the prices and started discussing them.
[Years ago, the source weapons made by ‘Star’ brought new ideas to the industry, but they were too hard to make and couldn’t be popularized. To encourage manufacturers, the Yaoming Group has really gone all out this time.]
[At these prices, more people will join the competition in the future.]
More people meant more competition, which meant higher quality weapons.
At 8:40 AM, a broadcast told everyone to return to their positions and stop moving.
There were twenty minutes left.
In the quiet hall, someone stood at the very front of Venue 1.
He was far from Yun Yingzhi, but with his excellent eyesight, he could clearly see the person.
The man wore the clothes of the Source Weapon Association and looked to be in his late forties or fifties. His face was familiar—likely a celebrity from the Star Network or news.
Just as he thought this, a student in the Fanse uniform nearby wondered, “Who is that?”
“I don’t know. Too far, can’t see clearly.”
Yun Yingzhi: “…”
He was used to it; his eyesight was far better than ordinary people’s.
Combat students had decent sight, but ordinary ones were terrible.
He thought: his physical test was weak, yet his sight and hearing were better than almost anyone’s, even combat students.
He felt a bit of pride.
Soon, even those with poor sight knew who it was.
The hall was too large, so giant projection screens appeared everywhere, showing the man at the front.
Someone whispered, “Wow! It’s Master Tang from the Source Weapon Association!”
Yun Yingzhi thought: As expected, a big shot.
Those with the title of “Master” could create Grade Ten weapons. Those with “Grandmaster” could create Grade Eleven and above—like Alvin before his mental power was damaged.
In the entire Empire, there were only eight Grandmasters, including Alvin.
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