Commanding the Rescue

Liu Zheng didn't sleep well that night.

As an S-level psychic, she was always attuned to shifts in her environment. She'd noticed the red-haired boy called Jin and Shen Shouli slipping away from the tent camp, heading deeper into the woods.

Liu Zheng hesitated, but didn't follow. She stayed in her tent, but sleep eluded her for a long time. That's why she was the first to catch the dull rumble like distant thunder and the rush of swift water. She unzipped her tent and stepped out, a life jacket and lifebuoy already pressed into her hands.

All 280 students had pitched their tents together under the instructors' orders, but with only a few of them distributing supplies, they'd never match the speed of the surging river. So Xu Lingqu divided the area into four sections, assigning Jin—with his booming voice—to guard the two boats by the shore.

The boats had to wait until the water fully flooded in, until buoyancy lifted them, and until the surface stabilized before they could attempt water rescues—otherwise the first or second wave would capsize both boats and passengers alike. As he kept watch, he shouted, "Anyone awake, put on your life jackets and lifebuoys! Climb! Up! The! Trees!"

Even in the interstellar age, humanity had plenty of high-tech means to defend against and mitigate natural disasters. But stripped of those tools, humans were still dwarfed by nature—people of every era alike.

Fortunately, these instructors knew a thing or two about restraint; they didn't intend to toy with the students to the point of death. The water was fast, but it was clearly being controlled, and the rate of rise wasn't quick.

Xu Lingqu waded through water that reached her calves and handed a life jacket and lifebuoy to Lin Xiao.

Some people in the tents had slept through it all, and their stakes hadn't been driven properly, so their tents drifted off downstream with the current.

That could only be dealt with later by taking the boat along the shore to rescue them. Xu Lingqu quickly distributed the rescue gear, urging everyone to run toward the woods and get up into the trees as fast as possible.

Just as she'd handed out most of the supplies and was running toward the woods, a towering wave swept in. In an instant, the empty tents on the clearing were swallowed by the massive surge—devoured like prey in a beast's jaws. The students who'd scrambled up the trees, still groggy and bewildered, jolted fully awake.

If they hadn't been handed those rescue supplies, their fate... would have been to be swallowed up along with the tents.

Xu Lingqu clung to the tree trunk with all her might, refusing to let go. Before she could climb any higher, the giant wave slammed straight into her. Wet hair plastered over her eyes, her vision blurred, but she still held fast to the tree, struggling upward against the force of the water.

At the same time, a window popped up on everyone's smart bracelet—a map showing real-time coordinates of every person, constantly updating.

Around fifteen people had been swept downstream.

"Are these instructors trying to kill us?"

"Why haven't they shown up yet? Why was my life jacket handed to me by Shen Shouli?"

"Did they not know the river rises at night, and just made us sleep here—or was it on purpose?"

"Just because they're broke, they run the trial period like this? Why didn't I try harder to get into Shaji? Why did I have to come to this lousy school?"

The students' complaints rose one after another. The water had already risen swiftly to Xu Lingqu's neck. Using the buoyancy, she struggled to climb a bit higher, her fingertips bleeding without her even noticing.

The current began to slow now, its force easing, but warmth was steadily draining from Xu Lingqu's body. She had to get out of the icy river, or things would turn dangerous.

That was when Jin finally made his grand entrance with his two boats. Xu Xiqin, the closest to her position, piloted the other boat straight toward Xu Lingqu.

She was desperate to save her sister.

She pulled her aboard. Xu Lingqu wiped the water from her face and glanced at her smart bracelet. Apart from the ones swept away by the river, everyone else was basically safe in the trees.

Even if someone lost strength and fell into the water, she'd at least made sure everyone had gotten rescue gear.

Jin and Xu Xiqin scooped up a few people who were wearing life jackets but hadn't managed to climb the trees.

Right on cue, rain began to fall from the sky, fat droplets pelting everyone's faces. Xu Lingqu looked at the shared location tracking on her bracelet—the swept-away victims had eerily stopped moving, their coordinates fixed in place.

"The instructors will probably be here soon," Xu Lingqu said, pushing her wet hair back. The river no longer surged to swallow them; the water level had stabilized.

The two boats and the surrounding trees were full of shaken students. Xu Lingqu looked down at her bracelet. To rescue those downstream, she first needed to confirm their positions. Just then, the coordinates of the swept-away group suddenly began to move—upstream, heading straight for them.

The instructors had made their move. Dawn was barely breaking, and the rain hadn't stopped.

Jin's red hair was plastered to his face. The students on his boat were sprawled in every direction, not moving, but he was still standing up eagerly, eyes bright, looking at Xu Lingqu. "If doomsday ever comes, this must be what it looks like."

Xu Lingqu didn't answer. She wiped the rain from her face and looked toward the horizon downstream, where more than a dozen small helicopter-like aircraft soon appeared.

Under each aircraft hung a net shaped like a spiderweb, carrying the people who'd been washed downstream.

Following behind the small aircraft was the Stalker-R3 that had brought everyone through the jump this morning.

It had changed form. Yesterday morning it had been a massive interstellar vessel; now, in the wee hours, it appeared as a titan of the water.

As the Stalker's hatch opened, more than a dozen instructors worked together to handle the rescue far faster than Xu Lingqu and her group could. Before long, all the students had boarded the Stalker from the trees or the boats.

The interior had clearly been cleaned, faintly fragrant, and the warm air did wonders for the soaked students—but they all stood like frightened birds, not daring to move an inch.

Xu Lingqu was the last to board the Stalker. Instructor Kai Ang personally reached out a hand to pull her up.

"Good rescue work, little commander."

She grabbed his sleeve, hopped aboard, and clapped her hands. "Remember to give me extra points, Instructor."