Star Rank Hunter Chapter 77

Original and most up to date translations are posted at volaretranslations.

Translator’s Note: I forgot that Pride’s surname was Zweig and didn’t use the right surname when writing his brother Feihang. ‘Ji Feihang’ has been corrected to ‘Feihang Zweig’.

Translator: Craxuan
Editor: darklord5555

Chapter 77: They’re Playing With Fire

“No way, I’m not doing it!”

Pride said looking like he would rather be beaten to death than complying. He could even give up on flying and challenge those military academy students on foot, but that was the one thing he simply refused to do!

He’s a jet fighter pilot, not an agricultural aircraft pilot!

Knight had told Pride about the plan when he came over. After considering Cillin’s suggestion, Knight remade the operation plan so as to spray the drugs directly from air. Not only would it be highly efficient, the plan’s success rate would be higher as well. Since Sird was marked red, they only have six people left in the operation team now. The best way to marshal their forces was to have one person piloting the plane and the remaining five on the move. It would be too difficult if two people were to pilot the plane and four on the move otherwise. But Pride rejected it right away before he even finished listening to the plan.

As if predicting this from the start, Knight did not react much to Pride’s outburst and simply said indifferently, “Go join the mark red team then. I’ll pilot the plane, it’s not like the results will be any different with or without you anyway.” When Knight turned around and left he even muttered to himself, “Ceh, fool can’t even do something as simple as dusting*, it’s no wonder he can’t beat me in a dogfight!”

*The full term would be crop dusting, meaning to spray pesticide/fertilizer from an agriculture plane, but this is different so I just use the word ‘dusting’.

“You… you… I’m telling you, goading is not a tactic that’ll work on me!” Although he said that, Pride obviously looked like he was now ready to obey the plan in full.

Knight’s mouth twitched. He seriously had no idea how the Zweig Family managed to raise such a weirdo.

Ignoring the fiasco, after Knight had explained the plan to Pride he then sent an encrypted message to Ci Jincheng and Cillin. Hard was on his way to meet up with Cillin and Lung, and when that happened Cillin would tell him what to do then.

If the game followed the same old routine, it would have been incredibly boring. So when Knight heard of Cillin’s suggestion he was very much in agreement. Perhaps this operation might even leave a mark in the history of the Sector Championship’s integrated warfare contest. After all, no one else had thought up such a despicable plan before, had they?

After a few days of peace, the atmosphere between the four military academies began to tense up. Normally, this would be the time where they began to attack each other.

The Prometheus Institute marked red by the First Military Academy, the Billy University marked red by the Second Military Academy, the Wanna Institute marked red by the Third Military Academy, the Kililak Institute marked red by the Fourth Military Academy, and the San Border College marked red by Seven Lights University were all present at the observation station of asteroid C-N300. Some of the military academy students who were marked red such as Ryan and Boen were there as well.

When Sird was first brought to this place, he could not help but be overcome with emotion. Moreover, the people of other institutes were all looking at him with strange eyes. It wasn’t the look of someone staring at a loser, but one that held both curiosity and fear of the unknown. Of course, absolutely no one from San Border showered him a friendly look.

Seven Lights really was pretty extraordinary this year. No one could have imagined that Seven Lights would employ the same offensive tactic as the military academies, and the time they used to slaughter San Border was no longer than the rest of the four military academies as well. Many people were looking forward to Seven Lights playing the dark horse this year and stepping on a certain someone or someones’ heads among the four military academies. If they succeeded, then the myth of the undefeated military academies would become broken.

When Ryan and Boen were brought to the observation station, many had stared at them – especially Boen – as if they had seen a ghost. Boen belonged under the ‘special’ category among the students, and although the public had never seen him participating in the Sector Championship combat tournaments, it was publicly accepted that Boen was stronger than Ryan.

There were plenty of displays in the observation station, and through the multi-angle view of satellite array, one would be able to observe the movements the participants who were not yet marked red. Every academy and every student’s focus of attention was different. Most of the attention was put on Shadow X and Lung because the instructor had declared them both ‘VIPs’, but now that they no longer had the chance to exact them the treatment they deserved, they could only wait to see who could mark red these two.

It was exactly because of this sentiment that some people saw the scene between Boen and Lung.

No one saw what happened beneath the lake; they only knew that Lung was carrying a fainted Boen when he floated out of the water, climbed upshore, dumped Boen at the bank and marked him red in one shot. At that moment, many people had shivered unconsciously, and that included several military officers as well.

In fact Boen himself did not know what happened. After he dove into the lake and swam downward, he could clearly sense Lung’s position. But before he could act, Lung suddenly changed directions and swam straight towards him. Boen had thought that that speed wasn’t something a human could possess. At the time, he felt more like he was facing a sea monster. But before he could react, his eyes turned black and he fainted. When he woke up he was already at the observation station.

It was exactly because Seven Lights was being paid much attention right now that the moment Sird was brought to the station, many people had chatted him up to acquire some inside info. But Sird did not have the heart to deal with them right now. Since he was marked red, Seven Lights operation team should have undergone some changes as well.

Sird switched viewpoints and observed everyone’s actions. After cooperating with them for so many days, Sird had some understanding as to how everyone worked.

Suddenly, Sird’s hand paused and stopped hitting the switch key. He enlarged the image, and his eyes immediately narrowed when he saw what he was looking for. A device was planted on the plane Pride was piloting when he switched to Pride’s viewpoint, and Sird dared wager a gamble that it was definitely Cillin’s handiwork!

What kind of insidious plan was Cillin up to again?

Sird got ready to lock onto Pride’s viewpoint. He knew that if there was an operation, this thing Cillin had installed on the plane was definitely the trigger! It would definitely be the highlight of the operation!

When some people saw Sird locking onto Pride, they adjusted their own viewpoints to do the same as well. Although they did not know what was going to happen on Pride’s side of things, but since Sird chose to lock onto him, there was no harm in doing the same. Sird was a Seven Lights after all, so there must be some kind of understanding between teammates. Yes, something was definitely going to happen.

At the same time, the people who did not notice Sird’s strange actions and were observing the rest of the students of Seven Lights began to cry out, “Seven Lights is playing with fire this time!”

“It looks like they’re going to execute an operation, and they’re gunning for the Fourth Military Academy no less!”

The direction of the Seven Lights students were headed was exactly the Fourth Military Academy’s stronghold.

“They’re planning to go up against the Fourth Military Academy?! Isn’t that too bold?”

Hearing these words, the rest of the students began to pay attention as well. It’s just that more people still chose to pay attention to the First Military Academy, since the First Military Academy and the Second Military Academy were currently knee deep in combat. The battle between the two military academies was very entertaining, very intense, and very enjoyable, which was why they chose the First Military Academy over Seven Lights. It was also why they would be filled with regrets later on.

The Third Military Academy attacked the Fourth Military Academy’s stronghold half a day ago. But since the Fourth Military Academy’s outbound personnel had returned quickly, and their defense work were pretty solid as well, when both sides were one member down the Third Military Academy retreated after seeing that their assault was a failure. Therefore, logically speaking, it was unwise to attack the Fourth Military Academy’s stronghold at this time because the Fourth Military Academy’s outbound personnel had almost all returned to the stronghold. The person who took out Sird had returned to the stronghold as well.

An hour later.

“Holy shit, what the hell is this!”

The people who had pointed their viewpoints onto Pride roared.

Chapter end