"What the hell are you arguing about... you..." Ji You lowered her eyes; those watery almond eyes reflected in Cheng Haoyue’s gaze, and the words he was about to blurt out were abruptly cut off: 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Don’t you cry!"

"You’re not... I’m not..."

"Fuck!"

Cheng Haoyue violently raked a hand through his hair, looking a little annoyed at Ji You, whose head was hanging lower and lower, body trembling in waves. He snapped, "What are you crying for?"

"I didn’t even curse you out!"

"I was saying you—"

He took a step forward, reaching out to pat Ji You on the shoulder, and Ji You suddenly backed away.

She backed up several steps in a row, turned her face away, and hurried off: "S-sorry, I want to calm down by myself for a bit."

Her voice was low and heavy, with a hoarse roughness to it.

That was obviously a choked-up voice!

Cheng Haoyue raised a hand to rub his forehead. "Heavens above! I didn’t do anything to her, did I?"

How did that end in tears?

Was that really worth crying over?

Logically speaking, she egged him on to go hit that drone, which led to him damaging public property and losing 2 points. He hadn’t even settled that score with her yet.

Thinking of this, Cheng Haoyue’s face darkened.

Fortunately, he’d gotten a little slip of paper, which kind of made up for his loss.

Cheng Haoyue glanced over at Ji You, who was curled up not far away, still wallowing in sadness, and called out, "Hey! Done crying yet? Come over and look at the note."

"Cough, cough..."

A bout of rough coughing came from Ji You’s direction, and not long after, Ji You came back to the temporary camp, expression stiff.

Cheng Haoyue glanced at her. Seeing her pale face, slightly red-rimmed eyes, and lips pressed together in stubborn restraint, he rubbed his brow and said, "If I’d known my subordinate was a girl, and a crybaby on top of that, I’d never have taken you."

Ji You: "..."

Ji "holding back laughter until I’m about to rupture something" You kept a straight face and retorted, "If I’d known my leader was this stu— cough, cough..."

The rest of the sentence she cut off.

Let’s preserve a little bit of the squad leader’s dignity.

Still, with a squad leader whose IQ was this touching, Ji You had already decided that once she found a suitable chance, she needed to run for it ASAP.

Otherwise, she might not even know how she died.

Cough, cough...

"Squad leader, what does it say on there?" Ji You was anxious to know and pressed him.

Cheng Haoyue extracted two key points and said, "First, your camp is the Fifth Camp, and your Hostile Camp is the Sixth Camp. Second, the match uses a points system: killing one enemy gives you 1 point, or destroying an important enemy military base gives you 100 points. Completely defeating the enemy side rewards all members with 100 points. (Note: If you first break into the enemy camp, destroy the enemy base, and seize the enemy flag, that’s considered a win.)"

Hearing this, Ji You couldn’t help but lean over to look. Cheng Haoyue spread the slip open; his expression wasn’t great. "What the hell is this? Does this mean we’re doing a group battle?"

"There are 1000 people, how do you even run a group battle?" Cheng Haoyue frowned. "Headless group of dragons here. I don’t even know who our commander is, what his Level is. Are we supposed to just blindly follow him?"

"...Cough, cough..." Ji You said, "Doesn’t really matter, squad leader. Look, I didn’t know you before either. We’re getting to know each other little by little, right?"

"You think you can ’get to know each other little by little’ in a war?" Cheng Haoyue glared at Ji You and muttered, "Trash is trash. No wonder you’re ranked at the bottom; totally unreliable."

Ji You cleared her throat. "Squad leader, I’d like to ask how you know I’m ranked at the bottom?"

When she stepped into the arena, the first person Ji You had seen was Cheng Haoyue. She only knew he was the squad leader of this temporary camp, and what his number was. As for which school he came from, his Talent Level, what he was good at... she knew nothing at all.

There were no prompts in the arena, and the wristband showed no information either.

Ji You suspected Cheng Haoyue knew more than she did, probably because of his position as squad leader.

Cheng Haoyue was a straightforward guy and didn’t hide it from her. He said bluntly, "I got my squad leader appointment as soon as I came in. Our squad belongs to the infantry battalion’s Seventh Team. Each squad has 10 classes, and each class, including the squad leader, has 10 people."

Ji You blinked. "So that means we have 9 other teammates in our class?"

Cheng Haoyue said with some pride, "Of course! I’m not some lone commander. Besides you, I’ve got 8 more soldiers under me."

Ji You beamed and flattered him, "Squad leader, you’re impressive! What’s your rank then?"

"...Cough!" Cheng Haoyue shot her a look. "Don’t ask so much. What you should know, you’ll find out naturally. What you shouldn’t know, don’t ask."

Ji You said, "Then how can you say I’m at the bottom? What if I’m the strongest of this year?"

"Quit dreaming." Cheng Haoyue smacked her lightly. "Hurry up and think of a way to get me something to eat."

Ji You refused to give up. "Squad leader! I am the Universe’s Number One. I’m telling you now, so don’t blame me later for not warning you."

"Can you want a little shame?" Cheng Haoyue said with open disdain. "A Level 2 idiot like you wants to be the Universe’s Number One?"

"Universe’s Number One Coward is more like it." Cheng Haoyue curled his lip as he spoke.

This squad leader was both deaf and blind.

No future following him.

Gotta run.

Ji You opened her mouth, looking at Cheng Haoyue, clearly wanting to say something but holding back. In the end, she changed the subject and asked, "So you really have seen our class members’ info?"

Cheng Haoyue said, "Yeah, I’ve seen it."

Ji You’s eyes lit up. "What’s on it?"

Cheng Haoyue said, "Number, talent."

"That’s it?" Ji You didn’t buy it. "No school, specialties... nothing?"

"Oh—" Cheng Haoyue seemed a bit stifled. "I forgot, there’s also gender."

Ji You: "..."

Cheng Haoyue said, clearly displeased, "Besides you, there are two other girls in our class."

"Fuck!"

"I don’t even want to play with girls." Cheng Haoyue grumbled under his breath.

Ji You did her best to filter out some of his nonsense and continued, "My talent isn’t high, sure, but how do you know my actual strength is crap?"

"It’s not that I look down on you, but you’ve got Level 2 talent, and you’re the weakling ranked number 10000 this time around. How strong can you be?" Cheng Haoyue said, then tried to persuade her, "Just about enough already. Stop daydreaming. When the enemy shows up later, you drag two over here. After I kill them, I won’t let you die for nothing—I’ll count one kill for you so you don’t end up with a big fat zero."

Ji You: "..."

Ji You took a deep breath and griped, "You’re really thoughtful, huh." Sending me out as bait and only giving me 1 point?

Cheng Haoyue chuckled. "We’ll play it by ear when the time comes. If you’re quick on your feet, maybe you won’t die that fast."

"Ptui!" Ji You snorted. "I’ll live forever!"

Anyway, who knows who’ll die or not. But! At the very least, she was definitely going to live longer than him.

While Ji You was muttering this to herself, suddenly, footsteps came from the distance beyond the temporary camp.

Ji You and Cheng Haoyue both tensed instantly.

The sound was getting closer and closer.