Chapter 23: The Class Divide (2/2)
“Ah, sorry for being brash,” Jaeger laughed, finally turning his gaze to Lu Yin. Contempt flashed across his eyes as he noticed that Lu Yin had only recently become a Sentinel; this was something not even worth noticing.
“My two esteemed comrades, isn’t it about time to let my juniors go?” Jaeger looked in Jeraldine’s direction as he asked, under the impression that she was the leader of the two. The two captured students wanted to say something, but their mouths were sealed. All they could do was try to signal with their eyes, informing their senior of Lu Yin’s might. However, he simply didn’t understand what they were trying to express.
“We’ll release them once we’re convinced of your sincerity,” Jeraldine said coldly.
Jaeger shrugged, “Alright then. Gather!”
Quite a few people walked out from all over the camp as he opened up a map, pointing to a mountain that was about a hundred kilometers away from Yuxiang, “The wind crystals are there, but they are surrounded by a flock of mutant birds. At least five are Sentinels, or what these natives call the Realm of Sky. The rest are Seekers, and we don’t have a good count for those.”
“What do you plan to do?” Jeraldine asked after glancing at Lu Yin.
Jaeger replied, “The five of us definitely can destroy the flock of birds, but that would take too much work. I have another plan; we can get the natives to lure the flock out. We can then blow up some of their explosives to take the beasts out; that would be the most efficient method.”
Lu Yin’s gaze immediately frosted over, while Jeraldine was taken aback as well, “That would kill the natives.”
“Who cares if the natives live or die?” Jaeger laughed, “The only thing that matters is to make things easier.”
“We can succeed even without risking their lives,” Lu Yin said softly.
An amused Jaeger looked over, “Brother Yatar, the lives of these natives aren’t worth our consideration. Once the trial has ended, their cultivators will be sent to battlefields all over the universe. Those with endowments might be fortunate enough to become slaves to some influential student, the prettier ones can become servants, and the rest will just be cannon fodder. Heh, they might just be grateful for the opportunity to die here!”
Lu Yin didn’t say anything to refute him. The Fate of Earth had been decided the moment evolution started; all the people of the planet were already under the surveillance of the Great Yu Empire and the Universe Youth Council; only a minority would be treated even remotely well.
“Alright, I’ve shown you my sincerity, can you release them now?” Jaeger turned back to Jeraldine.
She looked towards Lu Yin, who said plainly, “Wait, I have another question.”
A cold glint filled Jaeger’s eyes, “What is it?”
“You can be considered a top-level figure in Blue Mountain Academy, why are you sitting around instead of moving to finish the mission?”
Jaeger’s eyes filled with bewilderment and then bemusement as he looked between Lu Yin and Jeraldine, finally unable to suppress a laugh, “Right, I forget that people at your level don’t have all the information. Let me break it down for you over refreshments.”
Jaeger sat down and had his subordinates serve tea, with Lu Yin and Jeraldine both obliging as they took their own seats. He took a sip and said profoundly, “There are three classes of students in this trial. The first class consists of individuals like my juniors; they’re only entering to impress certain people; consider it gold plating. Survival alone is enough for them to have a bright future.
“The second class is people like us.”
“Like us?” Jeraldine was surprised. She had not imagined a top figure from Blue Mountain Academy like Jaeger would be in the same class as her.
Jaeger nodded, “You, me, Terence… all of us are the same. Our aim is to have some sort of result in this trial, be it occupying territory and turning it blue, discovering rare ores, or the like. Say, has anyone asked you to join their mission team since you landed?”
Jeraldine shook her head with a solemn expression.
Jaeger laughed and continued, “Exactly, that’s because we aren’t good enough. Only Veron from your academy and Borise from mine qualify for that.”
“The strongest individual in the academy?” Jeraldine asked.
Jager nodded his head, continuing in his serious tone, “There is no fairness in the universe. These people knew the details of what was going on when we first got news of the trial. The strongest individuals in each academy also have wide networks that they can leverage for the completion of the mission. For example, Veron isn’t even in this region anymore.”