Chapter 52: Scolding Another to Tears
“May all candidates please take note. The first round of the Crisis grade a.s.sessment has come to an end. May everyone please return to the base camp and report. From this point onward, no candidate is allowed to use any means of attack any longer; Anyone in breach would lose their qualifications to continue. Injured candidates, please press the yellow b.u.t.ton on your communication device and await medical treatment.”
Just as the sun came up, the white watch which Xia Fei had on him began broadcasting the news regarding the end of this a.s.sessment over and over again. Xia Fei spat and proceeded to run in the direction of the a.s.sembly point.
Xia Fei had a bad feeling about Xiao Yu’s mysterious disappearance. He had been trying his best to control his emotions and avoid thinking about the worst-case scenarios.
Right now, all he could do was to put his hope in the power of the Adjudicator Union. After all, the chance of finding anything out just by his own strength was far too slim.
Maintaining a speed of 180m/s, Xia Fei could soon see the four ma.s.sive black s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps in the distance parked in a row on the clearing.
There were many candidates around, and most looked to be bearing injuries of different varieties, all looking tired, and their bodies were covered in dirt and sand. They no longer showed the enthusiasm they had when the a.s.sessment first started. Whether they had managed to obtain a token or not, these last seven days had been h.e.l.l, and each and every one of them was looking forward to a hot bath and a sumptuous meal.
Over a thousand staff members from the Adjudicator Union had formed a row and were in charge of registering the returning candidates.
In the distance, two candidates suddenly started fighting each other over a token. The adjudicator who was closest to them instantly stepped in and stopped their altercation, even teaching them a little lesson at the same time.
As for how things stood, it was already too late for any of them to put in any additional effort. The moment the broadcast played earlier in the morning, the fate of each and every candidate had already been sealed.
Xia Fei swept his gaze through all the union’s staff present, and a pair of attractive legs caught his eye. They belonged to a female adjudicator who had first received Xia Fei and Xiao Yu, Ye Xiaohan.
“Do you still remember that little girl from Earth back then, just like me?” Xia Fei asked in a hurry after coming to an abrupt stop near Ye Xiaohan.
Ye Xiaohan had an emotionless expression on her face as she used the device in her hand to scan Xia Fei’s watch to verify his ident.i.ty.
“Do you need any medical attention?” Ye Xiaohan asked in an icy tone.
“I’m fine. But the girl I was with might be injured, or to be precise, she has been kidnapped!” Xia Fei shouted loudly.
Yelling at a beauty was clearly not an honorable act by itself, as the colleagues and candidates around Ye Xiaohan all threw cold glares at Xia Fei.
“Did you obtain a token to get to the next round?” Ye Xiaohan continued to ask, her att.i.tude completely business-like and neutral.
Xia Fei pulled out a token from his spatial ring and handed it to Ye Xiaohan. Actually, Xia Fei had another token inside his ring, but that belonged to Xiao Yu.
“Xia Fei, registration number 70563. You are permitted to partic.i.p.ate in the second round of this a.s.sessment,” Ye Xiaohan did what she was supposed to do before she looked toward other candidates, hinting to Xia Fei that he should leave.
“I still have an important matter to inform you.”
“What is it?”
Xia Fei gave an account of Xiao Yu’s disappearance to Ye Xiaohan in a relaxed tone as best as possible.
“It is common for candidates to disappear or die during the a.s.sessment. You have all signed a life and death contract before partic.i.p.ating. The contract clearly stipulates that the Adjudicator Union shall not be held responsible for any accidents during the a.s.sessment,” Ye Xiaohan very calmly answered.
Xia Fei’s eyes stared right into Ye Xiaohan’s two eyes, and for some unknown reason, Ye Xiaohan felt slightly panicked by what Xia Fei did. However, her expression remained as stern as ever, not outwardly showing any change at all.
“Believe me, this is not an accident,” Xia Fei solemnly remarked. “First, the person who kidnapped Xiao Yu had a speed of over 4,600m/s. Considering that they were carrying Xiao Yu, it clearly meant that their top speed was over 5,000m/s.”
“A speed of over 5,000m/s meant this is someone who had achieved the Star River rank. Since this a.s.sessment’s rank requirement is between Star Light and Star Domain, it is evident that this person isn’t a candidate.”
“Secondly, this person was not concerned about the token needed to qualify for the second round. Just this alone showed that his goal was to kidnap Xiao Yu, so he or she isn’t a candidate who was hiding their strength.”
“Thirdly, I have been following their tracks, and I discovered that the footprints suddenly disappeared in the west. Tell me, if this person were a candidate, why would they suddenly disappear from the designated venue? Why would they just give up on the a.s.sessment?”
“Fourth, Xiao Yu’s special ability is the Amethyst Guard. You should know just how powerful the Amethyst guard is as a special ability. Could a candidate who isn’t higher than the Star Domain rank be able to kidnap a candidate with the Amethyst Guard ability without causing any conflict?”
“Just from these four points alone, I can tell that the person who abducted Xiao Yu was most definitely not someone taking part in the a.s.sessment and was an unaffiliated interloper! Someone from the outside who was at least the Star River rank!”
Xia Fei became more and more agitated as he spoke, his voice involuntarily growing louder and louder. The hundreds of people around him who were unaware of the truth had all been quietly listening to their conversation.
Ye Xiaohan was quiet hearing Xia Fei’s a.n.a.lysis but she gave an emotionless reply after, “This is just your deduction. It cannot be admitted as evidence. Unless you can effectively prove that an interloper had kidnapped a candidate from this a.s.sessment, we would not be accepting your complaint as fact.”
Xia Fei took a few deep breaths and kept his inflamed emotions in check.
“I request to check the monitoring information collected during this a.s.sessment.”
Ye Xiaohan shook her head, “I’m sorry, you do not have the authority to examine any of the information collected during this a.s.sessment. However, we will be announcing the final results for this first round before 12 noon. If your friend isn’t on this planet, then we will most certainly have her location and have her sent back to camp, dead or alive.”
“How will I be able to check the results for the a.s.sessment?”
“The results for the first round would be announced on the interplanetary internet across the entire Endaro Star Region before 12 noon.”
Xia Fei no longer cared to bother the woman and strode back to his bunk.
“I’ll admit that you’re a very beautiful lady, but do you know what you lack?” Xia Fei walked off as he pulled out a Hongtashan, softly saying, “You lack compa.s.sion.”
Xia Fei did not loudly declare this, but it was still particularly harsh when Ye Xiaohan heard it.
A nosy colleague was covering his mouth and secretly sn.i.g.g.e.ring, but a fierce stare from Ye Xiaohan caused the man to look away in a hurry, not daring to meet the eyes of this ice-cold beauty.
Glancing at Xia Fei’s shrinking back, Ye Xiaohan contemplated his parting words, ‘Am I really uncompa.s.sionate?’
…
After taking a cold shower, Xia Fei sat on his bedside and took out a Hongtashan. The bed beside him still had traces of Xiao Yu’s scent, a delicate fragrance that was unique to little girls, like the smell of fresh milk with flower petals added to it, unforgettable.
Even though he was not doing well emotionally, Xia Fei still maintained his calm. There was nothing he could do with the complaints and anger he had, so all he could do was patiently wait and attempt to recover his physical strength as quickly as he could, all the while preparing for the second round of a.s.sessment in three days.
After a change of clean clothes, Xia Fei made his way to the mess hall and ate a hot meal before retiring back to his bunk to rest. He set his alarm for 12 PM to check the final result of the a.s.sessment as soon as possible.
Xia Fei’s head hit the pillow as he instantly fell asleep. Having not slept a wink for seven consecutive days, he was already feeling extremely exhausted.
Xia Fei had a dream in his sleep. On a sunny afternoon several years in the future, Xia Fei was walking amid a crowded street when a slim teenager suddenly appeared right in front of him, wearing a pretty white dress and a head of short black hair that blew freely in the wind.
She had a sweet smile on her face as she walked toward Xia Fei.
Xia Fei thought this teenage girl was very familiar. An urge to reach out and pinch her cheeks with his hand came over him. Unfortunately, his surroundings turned pitch black. Xia Fei hurriedly searched for something on himself that could s.h.i.+ne a light, but he turned up empty-handed.
In this darkness, Xia Fei could feel that white figure brush her shoulders as she pa.s.sed by, slowly getting further away as he could do nothing but watch her leave helplessly.
It was at that moment when the piercing sound of an alarm woke him up from his dream.
While rubbing his eyes, Xia Fei got up from his bed with a hop and washed his face with some cold water in the bathroom. Xia Fei seemed to be much gaunter than how he was several days ago, appearing to be a bit more miserable than before.
Returning to his bunk, Xia Fei wore his virtual reality gla.s.ses and accessed the interplanetary internet, intending to check on the Adjudicator Union’s finalized name list. If the Adjudicator Union had yet to find any trace of Xiao Yu after a whole morning of registration and search, then the word ‘missing’ would be added next to her name.
The Adjudicator Union was powerful and unrivaled. If even they had to acknowledge that Xiao Yu was missing, then that meant the chance of Xia Fei locating her would be slim at best.
Logging onto the Endaro Star System’s Adjudicator Union website successfully, Xia Fei clicked onto the candidate name list of the first round of a.s.sessment and searched through the names intently.
A name list with 100,000 candidates was very long. Every name would be marked with their current status. If they were marked to be ‘Eliminated – severe injuries,’ a further click would display the candidate’s picture and a detailed report on the injury. The Adjudicator Union was very meticulous in this regard, so the candidate’s family and relatives could very quickly check on them.
As Xia Fei uneasily searched for Xiao Yu’s name, a three-dimensional video signal unceremoniously interrupted Xia Fei’s hunt all of a sudden.
Avril appeared to be seated in her boudoir, a huge room filled with pink decorations in the video. Even her bedsheets and the rows of stuffed toys placed on the table were dressed in pink outfits.
“You’re willing to use an anonymous account that you’ve bought from the black market just to avoid me. Am I really that detestable?” Avril very pitifully asked.
Xia Fei was nervously searching for news about Xiao Yu right now, yet Avril’s mischief had interrupted him. A fit of anger involuntarily welled up in his heart, and with a knitted brow, Xia Fei snapped out of anger, “Scram!”
Poor Avril was stunned. She had not even dreamed that she would receive a scolding after she had spent so much effort tracking Xia Fei.
Lowering her head, her delicate pale hands rubbed a corner of her blouse repeatedly as tears streamed down from the corner of her eyes. She was aggrieved, saddened and helpless. She was feeling too many emotions entangled in her heart.
Phantom was also shocked and feebly commented, “In three days, you’ve lost a girl, angered another, and scolded a third till she’s in tears. This couldn’t possibly be a good omen.”