MHOMASB Chapter 16

TL: Hua

Ji Xuan went back to the dormitory to take a shower.

The water flowed down the back of his neck, pouring directly onto that sensitive patch of flesh. His glands were heated by the hot water until they were scorching, causing the surrounding skin to flush with a thin layer of red. Ji Xuan raised his hand and wiped it; a fine, tingling itch surged down his spine.

Cold pheromones dissipated in all directions, only to be steamed and melted by the heat within the sealed space.

He didn’t seem to have fully mastered the way to use his mental power yet; he would often unconsciously release his pheromones along with it.

This world is truly troublesome, Ji Xuan thought with distaste.

After showering and walking out of the bathroom, he discovered an extra person in the room.

Lance Vaughn was leaning against the back of a chair, his legs propped up high, shaking an unopened can of energy drink in his hand. Seeing Ji Xuan come out, he didn’t speak; he merely cast a contemptuous glance, filled with unconcealed disdain.

So he dares to come back now.

Ji Xuan nonchalantly dried his wet hair and walked to his chair to sit down.

The pheromones that had previously soaked into the bathroom rushed out—bland, shallow, and without a hint of a ripple.

Lance Vaughn wrinkled his nose and mocked, “The pheromones of a low-grade Omega really are just like the rumors; you can’t smell a thing.”

Ji Xuan didn’t bother to respond to these childish provocations. He gathered his wet hair to his chest, wrapped the ends in a towel, and reached for the incubator by his bedside.

Lance Vaughn’s footsteps rang in his ears. He slammed a hand against the central wardrobe and said with an unfriendly tone, “Who gave you permission to push the wardrobe over to my side?”

The wardrobe that originally sat in the middle had long since been moved back by Ji Xuan, fairly dividing their private territories. Lance Vaughn had been back in the dorm for a while, yet he chose to wait until Ji Xuan came out to start trouble, clearly looking for a fight.

After he finished speaking, he raised his hand and made a move to push the wardrobe toward Ji Xuan’s side.

Ji Xuan finally looked up and gave him a calm glance: “I advise you not to step any further forward.”

Lance Vaughn let out a disdainful laugh, looking down at him from a height: “You don’t think that getting an S on the mental power test means you can challenge me, do you? I don’t know what kind of drugs you took, but I suggest you wait until tomorrow is over before you get smug.”

“I should be the one saying that,” Ji Xuan said slowly. “What made you forget that basin of water and specifically come back this time?”

“This is my dorm, why wouldn’t I come back?” Lance Vaughn said, pushing the wardrobe forward with resentment.

The cabinet hit Ji Xuan’s shelf with a thud, and the items hanging on it came crashing down on his head.

The next second, Lance Vaughn felt a chill on his forehead. He looked closer and instantly screamed in terror.

“Ah—!”

Mephisto’s tail was still coiled around the top of the shelf, its body hanging upside down. Its crimson eyes stared straight into Lance Vaughn’s panic-stricken face, and its tongue flicked out in coordination, making a ghostly “hissing” sound.

“A snake! Where did this snake come from! Ji Xuan!!”

“I warned you not to step forward.”

Ji Xuan stood up and walked toward him, raising a hand to touch Mephisto’s head, letting it crawl onto the back of his hand.

Lance Vaughn did not stay overnight in the dorm again.

–

The basic combat assessment rules at Mars Military Academy were different from all other military academies in the Alliance. Other academies had always used a lottery-based grouping and batch-progression model, but the basic combat at Mars was like a massive colosseum.

Examinees are randomly split into two groups. Within each group, students can choose any opponent to challenge during the assessment timeframe. Although each challenge is still a 1v1 model, there is no limit on the number of challenges, and the challenged party cannot refuse. When the competition ends, if the number of wins is greater than the number of losses, it is recorded as a successful assessment.

Under such rules, soft persimmons were always the first to be targeted.

A huge spectator screen hung in mid-air, the stands were packed with people early in the morning, and the hottest posts on the forum soared to the top.

Ji Xuan arrived exactly on time.

Wearing a white training uniform, he walked calmly into the arena and registered at the side. Among the Alphas dressed uniformly in black, he was undoubtedly a beautiful sight. The gazes from all around stuck to him almost immediately, probing, suspicious, and even some that were impatient and eager to move.

Ji Xuan knew what they were thinking.

As the only Omega, he was the best target for scoring points.

[In the original plot, “Ji Xuan” luckily passed this year’s combat assessment through months of training, although his score wasn’t very high,] the System said. [So, Host, we just need to get some points. The mental power test earlier was a bit too exaggerated…]

Exaggerated?

Ji Xuan gave a faint laugh.

Don’t worry, it’s going to get much more exaggerated.

The clamor of the venue stopped abruptly as the countdown hit zero.

An examiner dressed in a black-and-gold uniform stepped forward and took his place on the high platform outside the combat ring.

“Annual Basic Combat Assessment.” His voice traveled clearly through the amplification system across the entire arena. “The rules were read before entry, but I will reiterate them here—”

“…Every match is one-on-one; the use of weapons or mental power attacks is prohibited. Wins and losses are determined instantly by the referees. The final score will be based on a combination of win rate and performance.”

His gaze swept coldly over the students lined up in the arena after a brief pause.

“The assessment officially begins.”

Ji Xuan nonchalantly scanned all the opponents in the arena. He had seen most of them in combat training classes and knew their worth.

Actually, under these rules, the best move was to find one powerful opponent to establish dominance and then wait by the side for the match to end; it would save energy and ensure passing. Unfortunately, there was one more item following the rules that made things a bit difficult.

Perhaps because of the S-grade on the mental power test a few days ago, the Alphas who had originally planned to use him as a guaranteed point did not step forward with much fanfare.

Ji Xuan waited for half a minute before receiving the first batch of challengers.

“It’s you.” He recognized Zhou Lin, who was leading the group.

Zhou Lin scratched his hair with some irritation.

Because of Pei Yingye’s sudden intervention last time causing him to fail, he was unable to hold his head up in front of Lance Vaughn. Last night, Lance had even sent a communication, crying and throwing a fit for a long time. One moment it was a hysterical “What are you even worth if you can’t even handle one Omega!”, and the next it was a tearful “He bullied me so much, wuwuwu, and no one stood up for me; you aren’t my friends anymore.” It made it so he hadn’t slept well all night.

But Alpha pride was on the line. If they couldn’t even beat an Omega, they really couldn’t show their faces anymore.

Of course, it was mostly for the assessment score; Ji Xuan had always been their priority target for a challenge.

Ji Xuan looked at them with a half-smile: “Who’s first?”

“Me.”

Zhou Lin stepped forward, and his and Ji Xuan’s names instantly appeared on the massive observation screen.

Alphas in the Combat Department are professionally trained, and their combat awareness isn’t bad. Zhou Lin made a decisive move, his footsteps stomping out like thunder as his fist whistled toward Ji Xuan’s face!

—A very standard military combat style.

Ji Xuan didn’t even lift his eyelids; he simply flashed to the side, his entire body sliding out of the attack range in an instant.

“He dodged it?!” someone nearby exclaimed in surprise.

Before Zhou Lin could react, Ji Xuan cut in with an elbow strike to his ribs, crisp and neat, without the slightest hesitation.

“I was wondering why Lance made a special trip to the dorm last night.” Ji Xuan even had the leisure to speak to him. “Turns out he knew you guys were coming to help him get his revenge, so he came early to give me a warning.”

Zhou Lin groaned and counterattacked fiercely, but every strike hit thin air.

Ji Xuan’s speed was always half a beat faster than his, as if he were intentionally guiding the rhythm of his attacks.

“But as the saying goes, ‘Success is achieved through secrecy, failure through leaks.’ Why did he think you guys would definitely be a match for me?”

After several failed attacks, Zhou Lin’s breathing began to grow ragged. A thought flashed through his mind. Ji Xuan seemed to be intentionally playing with him. He clearly had several chances to strike, yet he only continued to dodge. However, his brain didn’t have time to think too much; the anxiety of not being able to catch his opponent overwhelmed his reason, and his attack rhythm became more and more chaotic.

Ji Xuan, however, remained calm as ever, not even breaking a sweat.

It wasn’t until Zhou Lin lost his center of gravity that he suddenly spun around, sending a sweeping kick toward his abdomen.

Bang—!

Zhou Lin slammed heavily onto the ground.

An untainted training boot stepped onto his thigh. Ji Xuan’s pointed chin was fair and sharp-lined; when his dark eyes looked down from above, they carried a breathtaking coldness.

Half a second later, the match result appeared on the observation screen. He tilted his chin slightly and looked at the other several Alphas nearby.

“The ones from last time should all be here, right?” he said with an arched brow. “Pei Yingye killed them too fast back then, so I didn’t recognize everyone. Next, who’s coming?”

…

Thanks to the gifts from Zhou Lin and his gang of Alphas, Ji Xuan secured the highest score in the arena within the first half-hour of the combat assessment.

His methods were extremely unorthodox, and on ancient Earth, they would almost be called “wild fox Zen[1],” but Mars Military Academy never restricted fighting styles, so one could hear incredulous gasps from the audience and the cries of the defeated Alphas.

Compared to Pei Yingye’s style, which focused on overwhelming power, Ji Xuan’s methods were much more unpredictable. In several matches, he would finish things quickly, dislocating a person’s arm and tossing them aside. But in others, he seemed to deliberately play with them, kicking them away only after they were gasping for breath.

Even so, after several fights, his breathing remained steady, his eyes indifferent, and his hair wasn’t even out of place.

Far away in the spectator stands, Lance Vaughn, who had arrived early to take the frontmost seat, eagerly waiting to see him embarrassed, was gnashing his teeth.

Before he could even log onto the forum to vent his anger, he heard an excited sigh from behind him.

“What a pity I couldn’t be in the same group as him.”

It was a very soft murmur, but because the speaker was so close to Lance, he heard it in passing.

Lance Vaughn turned his head; Shaikh was propping up his head with great interest, his gaze fixed intently on Ji Xuan in the combat arena.

“Could you beat him?” Lance asked suspiciously.

“I hope I can beat him.” Shaikh excitedly gripped his own hand, giving him a half-smile. “If that face could show an expression of pain, I wonder how beautiful it would be.”

Lunatic.

You Alphas are all lunatics, Lance cursed.

Just then, a burst of intense shouting erupted from the spectator stands.

Lance whipped his head around only to find that Pei Yingye, who had been waiting for challengers in the center of the arena since the start of the combat, was walking toward Ji Xuan step by step.

“I lost to you once during the last training.” Pei Yingye raised a hand to flex his wrist. “But I’m not satisfied. I want to win it back.”

He glanced at the score on the observation screen and gave a roguish smile: “Since you already have so many points, fighting one match with me shouldn’t be a big deal, right?”

[1] “Wild fox Zen” refers generally to deviant and unorthodox practices.

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