Division Deployment

In the military academy league's team events, the Sky Network hosts a vast array of special maps. Last year, Moye Military Academy's squad was utterly dismantled by Cimei Academy on a desert map, their sense of direction thrown into chaos as they crumbled in defeat.

Watching the students panic one by one, Kai Ang felt even more resolute in the decision he'd made today.

Instructor Chen stood nearby, patting his shoulder in a gesture of comfort. At that moment, he could fully understand his colleague—usually a bit high-handed and fanciful.

Moye could not afford to be last again. The students from Moye could not endure more ridicule. It was with this conviction that Kai Ang, betting everything, was "forcing growth" upon this batch of students.

"Wait, it's still nighttime—we're going down now?" Natata blinked in surprise. The mine tunnels were treacherous; even during the day, under the guidance of workers and instructors, they feared getting lost. At night, it was unthinkable.

Xu Xiqin was already used to it. "You have no idea what we went through in the middle of the night before. I suspect our chief instructor has a grudge against sleep, determined to become everyone's sleep assassin."

The military whistle blew, and everyone returned to their designated spots to hear Kai Ang lay out the detailed rules.

"All you mech engineer track students will face a small assessment tomorrow: building a mech component. You're now free to form teams. One mech engineer corresponds to fourteen students from other tracks. Your fourteen-person team will go down into the mine. We've already placed pre-collected materials at various points. You'll gather the materials your engineer needs, then find the exit. We'll only open two tunnel openings as exits—specific rules to be announced shortly."

Kai Ang clasped his hands behind his back, eyeing the students with a warning tone. "No conflicts are allowed at material gathering points. If there's any conflict or theft, every member of that team gets five points deducted and is disqualified from this assessment. Maliciously taking all materials from a point—same punishment. The mech engineer can only verbally describe what the materials look like. You get one chance to search; once you leave, you can't re-enter. Even if you grab the wrong thing, you must use it. Hear me: if you take everything, that engineer student must use it all in the daytime assessment. Finally, the top three mech engineers from the assessment will grant their teams 5, 3, and 2 extra points per person respectively. If the engineer successfully produces a component, the team gets one point; failure deducts. You have twenty minutes to form teams and jot down the material info."

With only twenty minutes, Kai Ang's words barely ended before chaos erupted. Team formation was the first hurdle.

Natata would obviously stick with Xu Lingqu, and Xu Lingqu alone automatically dragged in Xu Xiqin, Jin, Shen Shouli, and Tang Muwen, making five. Liu Zheng and Lin Xiao, being roommates, would join too, bringing the count to seven. That left seven spots. First, Wang Qihu 'helpfully' latched on, bringing two buddies; Xu Xiqin's roommates also joined, adding three more. For the last slot, Lan Ruo, who had been hesitating nearby, was pulled over by Lin Xiao.

While other groups were still squabbling, this one formed quickly and smoothly.

Natata began describing the materials she needed.

"Rare gold is the key material for the mech component, so that's priority one. It's a golden metal with blue-white trim and a white fluorescent glow. Second, go find jade-emerald grass: white roots, brown leaves, small and thin, about 3-5 leaves per plant. Then, gen molybdenum powder—it's pink, sand-like but grainier than normal powder, and should be in a bottle; just grab it. Next, take a piece of cerium silver; just a small piece will do. The instructors should have it secured—it's highly corrosive, so be careful. It's green and turns softer when shaken in its bottle. Finally, coral rice liquid—black and sticky, with a sour smell when you get close. I need only one of each of these materials."

Pressed for time and limited by conditions, Natata was forced to be quick yet clear, managing to repeat the instructions twice for the others just as Instructor Kai Ang cut the time.

Their group was already ahead; some groups hadn't even finished explaining once and were still lost. The students were herded out with haste, moving in their assigned teams towards the mine entrance, eight hundred meters away.

After walking a few steps, Xu Xiqin suddenly groaned, "I feel like I can't remember a thing!"

"Don't worry, I've got it." Three voices from the group spoke in unison—Tang Muwen, Lan Ruo, and Lin Xiao.

The three exchanged glances, then Lin Xiao explained, "We're all from the analysis track, with foundational database knowledge. What Natata listed are fairly standard materials. We three should be able to remember what they look like and identify them down below."

Tang Muwen and Lan Ruo nodded in agreement.

Xu Lingqu looked at them. "So analysts have a natural edge in terrain recognition, right?"

Lin Xiao nodded. "We're like walking databases. Analyzing direction and distance based on terrain is one of our basic tasks."

On the battlefield, analysts act like human smart brains. Smart brain technology is advanced, but interference and jamming are equally rampant, making analysts vital as strategic reserves. Sometimes AI fails on the ever-changing battlefield, spitting out cold numbers. That's when human analysts step in, offering data grounded in human perspective.

For instance, there was a case where a smart brain calculated that the rescue probability at a collapsed site was too low and suggested abandoning. A human analyst insisted people were still alive and had to be saved—they rescued eight lives. Though they were as close to death as the smart brain predicted, sheer will pulled them through.

"Good, I recall we need five materials. With three analysts, I suggest splitting into 5, 5, and 4. The five-person groups handle two materials each; the four-person group takes one. That way we won't have a huge crowd milling around. We'll exit in sub-teams once found and regroup outside." Xu Lingqu had astutely picked up that this assessment was designed to test the analysts among the trial students; the tasks were built around analytical skills.

Given the pattern—previous rounds focused on hand-to-hand combat for solo fighters, then the river raid for commanders—this round logically fell to analysts.

Hearing Xu Lingqu's deployment, the three analysts tensed in unison. Even a fool could see this formation was built around them.