We Are the Federation Youth United Army
Jia Tu stared intently at the live broadcast of the league match, rage bulging the veins on his face. Before long, he immediately contacted the map designer for this competition, venting his full fury: "Why are there still this many weapons in Xiji City? What the hell are you people doing? Do you dare to ignore my words?"
When designing this map, Jia Tu had indeed anticipated that Xu Lingqu might go all out and lead her people to fight the Zerg directly. To prevent that, he had specifically instructed the designer not to give Xiji City too much firepower. That way, the entire direction of the match would be within his grasp—hiding in the shelter would be the only path to survival.
The designer bore the CEO's wrath, and after Jia Tu furiously shouted about firing him and hung up the call, he sighed and contacted Director Yin at the League Center.
"President Jia Tu... wants to kill me. He told me not to come to work anymore." The designer's tone was helpless as he ruffled his own hair. "But I don't regret following your advice. The match as it is now is what everyone truly wants to see. I succeeded."
"You won't be fired." Director Yin was currently at the Empire's competition venue, and hearing the cheers of the crowd inside the arena, her tone was resolute. "Trust me."
If Jia Tu could cheat by altering the settings of the map to benefit his son, then Director Yin could also alter the settings to restore fairness to the league.
She had proactively suggested to the map designer that at the very least, Xiji City should be left with sufficient armed forces—otherwise, most of those ordinary people would have to face the Zerg with their bare hands. Unfortunately, because Jia Tu was watching closely, the armed forces the designer had secretly hidden inside Xiji City were limited.
Whether those weapons could truly be enough to kill the powerful Zerg that the designer himself had created was something neither Director Yin nor the designer was confident about.
She ended the call with the designer and stood inside the venue, looking at the cheering boards held up by the audience.
"Xu Lingqu." Director Yin murmured the name that appeared most frequently and sighed with emotion: "I really hope you can win."
Dense swarms of Zerg plummeted from the canopy of the sky toward the ordinary humans. At the same time, five fighter jets rose into the air, their targets being the mother nests in the sky that were endlessly spawning Zerg.
The battle against the Zerg had to be concluded quickly. The Zerg's reproductive power was too strong; if they dragged it out, the people of this city would definitely be worn down to death.
Cheng Xing climbed into the fighter jet and took a deep breath. He was the only one among the four fighter jets who didn't have a communication headset. He came from Qingjun, not Moye, but Cheng Xing didn't feel like an outsider. When it came to fighting for humanity, there was no such thing as an outsider.
He started the fighter and muttered to himself: "Commander Xu Lingqu, I will escort you."
Time rewound to the moment Cheng Xing had resolved to fight side by side with the people of Moye Military Academy.
Inside the shelter, Cheng Xing focused on conveying Jia Xianglan's words accurately to every Qingjun student. For a moment, everyone fell silent.
Jia Xianglan's face turned extremely ugly. He wanted to say something to refute it, but he truly didn't dare open his mouth—he was afraid that if he spoke, the carefully crafted image of reasonableness he'd been projecting would be destroyed.
After Cheng Xing finished speaking, two more Qingjun students spoke up. Their expressions were hesitant as they said to Jia Xianglan: "Should we go bring Cheng Xing back?"
They just wanted to go out and see for themselves—they were just looking for an excuse here.
Jia Xianglan shot them a cold glance. "Then go ahead."
Father had said that the weapons stored in here were absolutely insufficient for humanity to defeat the Zerg. Xu Lingqu was just seeking her own death, and she was tricking so many people into following her.
Go die then, all of you—right alongside that idiot Cheng Xing, out there serving as hired thugs for Moye Military Academy. Best if you betray the Federation too, so that it can highlight how clever Jia Xianglan truly is.
With Jia Xianglan's approval, those two Qingjun students left the shelter, while the others remained where they were. The shelter continued to be shrouded in silence. Even the usually talkative Qingjun deputy commander kept a grim face.
The intense sounds of gunfire from the battle outside filtered into the shelter. The war between humanity and the Zerg had begun.
About thirty minutes later, the two Qingjun students rushed back into the shelter, bedraggled. Their bodies were stained with human blood and the blue-green slime sprayed from dead Zerg.
Jia Xianglan's heart surged with joy. In the end, they still had to flee back to the shelter for refuge, didn't they? He put on a proper smile and was about to express concern for the two when they shouted at the other Qingjun students inside the shelter: "Is there anyone else?! Is there anyone else willing to go out and fight with us?!"
The ordinary people had weapons, but their lethality was limited. The two had originally truly gone to look for Cheng Xing, but halfway there, the Zerg had descended directly.
They'd run into Moye students and thought they were about to be killed, only to have several weapons shoved into their hands instead.
At a time like this, military cadets were several times more effective in combat than ordinary people. They needed the strength of the military cadets!
"Those disgusting bugs are slaughtering ordinary people and destroying the city. We shouldn't be staying here. The people of Moye Military Academy are fighting for the ordinary people, and we're here hiding like cowards. Is that right?" The two ragged fighters roared at their somewhat numb companions inside the shelter.
The Qingjun students who had been sitting scattered on the ground now stood up one after another.
Seeing this, Jia Xianglan hurriedly tried to stop them: "Going out now means falling right into Xu Lingqu's trap. Isn't it true that we just need to stay here to get the final victory? We came here to win the league championship!"
The uncharacteristically silent Qingjun deputy commander suddenly spoke up. He had always rather liked Jia Xianglan before, thinking that this person might simply be fond of petty tricks but was still essentially excellent.
But now, he was forced to face reality.
"Jia Xianglan, do you remember the oath that all of Qingjun had to recite loudly before Admiral Merlin's statue when we first enrolled this year?" He reached out a hand and gripped the Qingjun school emblem on his uniform.
What oath? Jia Xianglan's mind went blank for a moment. Things like that were memorized and forgotten; how could he possibly remember?!
The last shred of expectation in the deputy commander's eyes faded away.
"You've forgotten. Let me tell you—we are the Federation Youth United Army. We fear neither death nor danger, and we swear to defend the life and dignity of every Federation citizen!" The deputy commander pointed outside the shelter and said loudly: "Right now, the lives and dignity of the humans on the ground are in peril. Are we really going to stand here, turn a blind eye to their suffering, and just enjoy some damn victory we didn't earn?"
Jia Xianglan's eyes were full of shock: "Are you all crazy? This is just a competition. Those humans are just NPCs, just data and code..."
"If you want their votes, you have to treat them as humans, as Federation citizens." The deputy commander shook his head. He no longer wanted to say another word to Jia Xianglan. "I can accept losing the league, but I will never accept losing when it comes to defending citizens."
He stepped out of the shelter without hesitation, following the two Qingjun students who had run back. Then, one after another, the Qingjun students left the shelter as well.
In the end, only Jia Xianglan remained standing there, like a petrified statue.