The Era of Gods

Chatting with her felt incredibly comfortable and pleasing to the eye.

That’s why he always couldn’t help but sneak glances at her, and he did it quite openly.

Of course, he limited himself to looking at her charming face and didn’t dare to look elsewhere, not because he didn’t want to but because it wasn’t allowed during the review process.

Yet, no matter how openly he looked, any girl, no matter how generous, would feel shy. When he once again looked at her so unabashedly, Shen Yuexin said somewhat indignantly,

“Do you chat with girls like this all the time?”

“No, because no one else is as pretty as you!”

“Do you always speak to girls with such slick flattery?”

“No, I’m telling the truth, feel free to check.”

He puffed out his chest and put his hands on his hips while Shen Yuexin tilted her head and looked at him with distaste:

“You’re behaving like a hooligan; I’m going to tell your grandma.”

Lin Xiao shrugged his shoulders:

“Go ahead and tell her. Afterwards, my grandma will praise me for doing a good job.”

“You…”

Shen Yuexin was at a loss for words for a moment. This guy was so slick; she really had no way to deal with him.

But Lin Xiao didn’t wait for her to say anything else and immediately said,

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop looking. Don’t tell my grandma.”

Whether she tattled or not wasn’t important; what mattered was giving her an out. A bit of flirty banter was enough; he couldn’t let her feel too cornered. It would be bad if she ended up actually getting angry in a moment of impulse.

Lin Xiao might not have been a love expert in either of his two lives, but he still knew some theoretical skills.

Shen Yuexin was the most charming girl he had ever met, and she was also extremely accomplished. Any normal man would harbor some improper thoughts and try his luck flirting with her, which was quite normal.

Whether he succeeded in wooing her was another matter; at least he wouldn’t have any regrets in life.

Luckily, he had the chance to flirt with her because of his relationship with his grandma. Although they weren’t blood-related aunts, strictly speaking, they almost had no blood relation—his grandma and Shen Yuexin’s mother belonged to the same clan, distant relatives, just women of the same age who used to play well together, referring to each other as sisters.

Whether this distant relationship was considered close or not depended on how much one valued it, otherwise, they were the kind who might not even meet once in decades.

It was thanks to his relationship with his grandma, and his natural talent for living off women, which was why he was liked by girls and able to stand beside her and chat. If it were any other guy, it was hard to see anyone being able to talk with her.

The two chatted for a while, mostly about things related to the summer camp. Lin Xiao wisely never brought up romantic topics. With a beauty like her, there was no shortage of master flirts showing off themselves in her presence; with his level in this area, he didn’t need to embarrass himself—talking about things she was interested in was enough.

Chatting with a beauty made time fly by quickly. More and more trainees arrived, and soon he heard a cold snort in his ear, and Shen Yuexin whispered,

“The instructor’s here, let’s not talk anymore.”

“Okay.”

He lifted his head and saw the instructor, Xie Yufei, shooting a stern glance their way. Her eyes swept quickly from them along the row behind, and the whispers that remained instantly disappeared.

She jumped down from a metallic platform dozens of meters high and landed heavily on the floor, her fitted military uniform perfectly outlining her figure. She strode towards them and said in a deep voice,

“I am very disappointed. Out of more than four hundred people, over eighty percent chose the lower difficulty level, and over thirty percent were eliminated, while more than half suffered heavy losses. Your performance is very disappointing!”

“Thirty percent eliminated, more than half suffered heavy losses…”

That meant in total, about sixty-five percent were effectively eliminated— thirty percent directly and from the remaining seventy, half had suffered heavy losses. Suffering heavy losses during the summer camp essentially meant no chance of advancing to the next stage.

Out of more than four hundred people, sixty-five percent would be… two hundred sixty?

Lin Xiao gasped, they had eliminated so many?

No wonder so many had been looking so down when he had arrived; so this was why.

As expected, the military was ruthless, eliminating so many in one fell swoop without blinking an eye.

And then they had to endure scolding; it was utterly heartless.

But such matters were completely normal in the military. The army wanted absolute elites, those with strong combat abilities. These summer camp members could be considered talented elites, but this ‘elite’ status was in comparison to ordinary people. Within the army, if their combat abilities weren’t up to par, they were deemed unsuitable.

“The army has no need for waste, only for elites! Waste has but one path­elimination.”

Xie Yufei spoke in a cold and merciless tone, showing no pity:

“I know many of you are dissatisfied, but don’t say I didn’t give you a chance. Those who haven’t been eliminated yet can stay. During the upcoming team challenges, as long as you defeat any member of an opposing team, you may remain. Those who fail will be eliminated without exception!”

These words allowed most of the disheartened students to breathe a sigh of relief. Although the chance seemed slim, it was still a chance.

At that moment, Xie Yufei turned to face the group of ten before her, scanning them with a brief glance, then looked past them to the crowd behind and declared loudly:

“As mentioned earlier, every soldier who passes will receive two Mythical Quality Five Star Cards of a specified type. In addition, some soldiers have performed exceptionally well, completing additional challenges beyond the standard tasks. The military is never stingy in rewarding excellent soldiers. Now, all soldiers who have passed, step forward.”

The crowd hesitated for a moment, many looking at each other. Lin Xiao saw the few people ahead of him in the row of ten all step forward together; he, too, stepped forward, and then, a beam of white light descended from the sky, and the familiar screen popped up in front of him, displaying a sixty-second countdown.

He immediately picked two cards he had thought about beforehand—a card named ‘Basic Exotic Mechanical Construction’ and another named ‘Basic Exotic Alchemy,’ both pertaining to knowledge in the fields of Engineering and Alchemy, perfect for the Clan support groups he planned to create for their learning.

No need for advanced knowledge at the moment; just the basic disciplines were enough for the newly awakened Goblins to study for a long time.

Of course, at this stage, he wasn’t able to produce any better knowledge.

In any world, knowledge is the most valuable commodity. Simple Skills may come cheap, but systematic knowledge is hard to come by, even basic alchemy is of Mythical Quality. Advanced, high-level knowledge is something only available to Rank 2 Heroes and beyond, such as Demigod cards, which he couldn’t obtain right now.

Only halfway through the second phase of the Summer Camp, Lin Xiao had already acquired seven Mythical Quality Five Star Cards, basically completing all required conditions envisioned for the third type of support Clan he had in mind. He only needed to attain another card slot, and he could immediately start the synthesis.

A minute quickly passed, and after everyone had finished selecting their rewards, Xie Yufei continued:

“The team’s internal elimination has concluded. One hundred and twenty soldiers have been eliminated. The rest of you will soon head to the main venue to start the team PK. The PK rules will be sent to you shortly; read them on your way there. I hope that after the team PK is over, there will be over one hundred and fifty soldiers left in my team.”

emmm

That was a pretty direct way of showing her disdain for them, suggesting nearly half of these two hundred and eighty people would be eliminated.

But after thinking about it, it really was quite grim, considering half of the remaining personnel had suffered huge losses during the internal team elimination challenge. They would be at a severe disadvantage during the PK with other teams and were likely no match for their peers of the same rank anymore.

As Xie Yufei waved her hand, whether by the power of a True God or the Super War Fortress, Lin Xiao only felt a distortion of time and space before his eyes, and when he opened them again, he found himself returned to the initial venue, sitting in the same Stone Throne, with a blazing flame above his head representing the Fury Flame Team.

He instinctively looked around and was surprised to discover many empty seats, indicating that the owners of those seats had been eliminated during the internal team elimination.

Most of the empty seats were at his level, approximately twenty to thirty in total. There were only five vacancies in the Iron Throne section, none in Bronze or above, and naturally, the most eliminations occurred among those without seats.

From the densely-packed initial number of over one thousand six hundred people, they were down to less than one thousand, having lost the tail end.

“Huh?”

He was surprised to find that the elimination rate of the Fury Flame Team was not the highest, nor was it the military’s Wolf Fang Team, but instead, it came from two academy teams, both with an elimination rate exceeding fifty percent.

Upon closer thought, he roughly guessed the reason.

The academy faction probably eliminated all those who didn’t qualify straight away, while the military faction tended to give a second chance unless someone was immediately eliminated, which is why their elimination rate didn’t surpass the academy’s.

This wasn’t to say that the military faction was more compassionate, but rather, for a soldier, as long as they weren’t directly eliminated, as long as they didn’t die, as long as they didn’t give up, they’d always have second, even third chances. This was a belief from the military: in battle, as long as one isn’t dead and the will to fight remains, miracles can be made.

The most memorable thing Lin Xiao recalled from his past life before his rebirth was an instance where he stumbled upon the achievements of a Super Grade Combat Hero. Those were truly magical feats, miracles that even novels wouldn’t dare to fabricate.

After reading about the heroic deeds of many heroes, he felt that the screenwriters of some divine dramas could actually afford to let their imaginations run even wilder.

“Hello, dear students!”

An unexpected voice interrupted his wandering thoughts, and he looked up to see the host who had appeared on the platform:

“I’m delighted to see so many of you still here. Let’s not waste time on small talk. The second phase of this year’s Summer Camp, the team PK, now begins. I believe you’re all aware of the rules by now, so I won’t go into detail. Next, you will choose your opponents, and we will…”

“Shoot!”

Lin Xiao realized he had forgotten to read the rules and, like everyone else, quickly looked down.

Good, everyone had forgotten.

In less than ten seconds, he had a good grasp of the challenge rules.

They were simple. Previously, all players had been categorized by their team mentors into lower, middle, upper, and top tiers. Now, each team member had to challenge at least three different opponents, best of three rounds, with the loser—if seatless—directly eliminated.

If one had a seat, the seat would be downgraded by one level. For example, a loss from an Iron Throne results in a downgrade to a Stone Throne. If the seat ranks of both parties are unequal, they swap places. If defeated again, one becomes seatless, and seatless losers who face another defeat are directly eliminated from the Summer Camp; they don’t linger around without a seat.

Victory in the first challenge will result in receiving one Mythical Quality Card.

Victory in the second challenge will result in two Mythical Quality Cards, along with the opportunity to challenge an opponent of a higher rank.