Star Rank Hunter

Original and most up to date translations are posted at volaretranslations.

Translator's Note: This is a special shoutout and gift to R.V., whom I cannot thank enough for their consistent support and contribution to Star Rank Hunter. This triple release is for you, my friend! Happy Chinese New Year, and may you enjoy a healthy and prosperous year!

Translator: Craxuan

Editor: darklord5555

Chapter 68: Integrated Warfare Candidates

Yet another week had passed after the small scale contest had ended. The large-scale team contests such as dogfights, multi-person shootout, mech battles and more also ended in succession, and according to the ranking and accumulated points of each contest, the top ten academies were allowed to participate in the integrated warfare contest. Seven Lights was again placed fifth this term, but the higher-ups of Seven Lights were already very satisfied with this result. After all, it was no easy task to conquer a title, and even less so to defend one. However, the final ranking wasn’t set yet. The points for integrated warfare dominated 30% of the total score. There were plenty of academies who put on a wonderful comeback during the final integrated warfare contest.

The electronic magazine ‘Gathering of Titans’ had reported some of the highlights of the contest in a special column. Unlike last year, the report that took up the most space this year wasn’t any large scale contest or the champion or runner-up of a certain final. It was a fellow with the appearance of a generic robot - Shadow X.

Shadow X’s appearance had set off a ten thousand follower typhoon on first day on the Sector Championship platform, and after that, all sorts of abnormal events began to happen one after another. It was exactly because of his appearance that particular seeded students of military academies who had never showed up in the Sector Championship participated because of his participation, and withdrew because of his withdrawal from a tournament. The spotlight was all on Shadow X.

An authoritative critic on ‘Gathering of Titans’ had appraised Shadow X to be in no way inferior to the military academies’ superstars among honor students.

Some people said that this critic had exaggerated things. No matter how exceptional he was, a Sector B university student could never exceed the honor students of Sector C, couldn’t he? There were also people agreed with him, but ultimately, there were even more people who adopted the ‘wait and see’ attitude. After all, the live combat in integrated warfare was the contest that most tested a student’s ability. They would know immediately after this contest if he was gold, or scrap.

The most important thing was that Shadow X’s true identity would be exposed during the integrated warfare contest. The students of countless higher institutes of learning counted down each day and looked forward to the exposé.

For each academy, the total number of people chosen to participate in the integrated warfare contest for each academy was ten, and the person in charge to make the picks would be the chief of the training division. However, Huo Neil had gone to Sector C to make his report due to the previous bio station operation, so this time the task was taken over by Gerrard.

Gerrard would choose the suitable candidates and report them to the higher ups of Seven Lights. At the same time, the list would also be announced on the Seven Lights forum so as to notify all Seven Lights students. If there were no major issues, then the higher ups would confirm the final name list.

The students who wished to participate in the integrated warfare contest would report their own Sector Championship platform ID and record to Gerrard for evaluation. Normally speaking, the better the record, the higher the chances to be selected. Everyone wants in on the integrated warfare contest, and anyone who believed themselves capable had all reported their information to the upper level.

If they could have the experience in integrated warfare put down in their graduation info, then they would be in a much higher demand after they graduate. They would be able to shout with a straight back at the top of their lungs: See, I’ve participated in the Sector Championship before!

Gerrard laid lazily inside the office and watched the many names and combat record descriptions on the screen. The number of registrees alone was close to a thousand, and some Gerrard had kicked right out of the pool at first glance. He only needed to sweep through the combat footage to know who was a paper tiger, and who was the real thing.

There were only ten openings, but three of them had already been set from the beginning. The selection had been decided by the higher ups a long time ago. That being said, these three default candidates were truly capable, so Gerrard had no objections to the selection.

These default candidates were Fu Luo, Kang Man and Ci Jincheng.

Fu Luo was the precious granddaughter of the vice headmaster, An Ding. She was a top student in the School of Medicine, and medical staffs were absolutely necessary in integrated warfare. That was why Gerrard really had no objections towards Fu Luo whatsoever.

Kang Man was a specially recruited student and a research division IT developer. He had published his findings on an electronic magazine with quite the contribution points since a young age, and he also had a lot of understanding in regards to site-specific teleportation and decoding. He was a technical staff and also absolutely necessary.

As for Ci Jincheng, even if he did not know what outstanding achievements Ci Jincheng had, Gerrard would have to think through the matter seriously before voicing an objection. The public might only know about some superficial information about the Ci Family, but Gerrard did hear to a certain extent about the Ci Family. However, those information were all highly classified, and no one dared utter a word about them.

While propping his chin, Gerrard swiped his finger across the button again and again and he flipped through the various student information displayed on the screen. Suddenly, his hands started, and he stood up and pushed his face right in front of the monitor.

“That little punk!” Gerrard couldn’t help but swear with a laugh.

There were two pictures on the screen. One was Cillin, and the other one was the generic robot Shadow X. The introduction of his combat record was below the pictures. Gerrard dragged Cillin into the list without even looking at the report. After the last bio station mission, every man and woman in the training and police division were full of praise for this less than twenty years old young fellow. Be it his individual prowess or technical application, Cillin’s performance far exceeded the average student.

The next person after Cillin was Knight. Just the same, the moment Gerrard saw Knight’s face, he had dragged him right into the name list as well. This guy was supposed to be a good seed that should’ve entered a military academy. He was the son of a general and his prowess was indisputable. There was nothing to be criticised about. Plus, even if Gerrard had skipped over him, as long as Knight expressed his wish to participate in the integrated warfare contest, Seven Lights’ higher ups would still add him into the mix.

He flipped through yet a few people and picked out Pride, Sird and Hard. Now he had eight candidates already.

Two more…

Gerrard rubbed his tired eyes, and just as he was getting ready to squeeze two droplets of eyedrops into his eyes, his communicator rang. Gerrard glanced at the name displayed on the panel and curled his lips. Here we go. Here’s most likely another person looking to pull some strings and open some backdoors.

Gerrard’s guess was spot on. The headmaster of Seven Lights himself had called him personally. Someone did knock on the headmaster’s door and requested him to negotiate directly with Gerrard, and this person was none other than young master Lung of the ‘So Poor All That is Left is Money' family. At first, young master Lung really didn’t plan to participate in this integrated warfare contest. It wasn’t like he could earn money by participating, and he didn’t care anything for glory or whatever. However, all three of his housemates had participated in the contest, and he felt uncomfortable being the only one left out. So while still on his slippers he went straight to your great headmaster’s home and blocked the front door.

Gerrard wasn’t familiar with the Andrea Family, and the public’s impression of them was that they’re the ‘So Poor All That is Left is Money’ family and nothing else. But this wasn’t the whole truth. Even if he wasn’t familiar with the Andrea Family, Gerrard knew a little something about them. The Andrea Family was very much familiar with many of the big bosses within the military, and many of the military’s weapons were supplied by them as well. The Andrea Family had never skimped on military funding. Based on this fact alone, Gerrard was not in a good position to object his selection. Besides, the headmaster’s here. If anything happens his headliness would be the one flying.

For the last candidate, Gerrard chose Copley, the fifth place finalist of this term’s single combat tournament. As for why he was only fifth need not be said. The people of the military academies were right there to prove the point.

The reason he chose this person wasn’t only because of this single combat tournament result, but also because of the man himself. Copley wasn’t your generic human - he was a Hosenfaith. An average human’s static field of view view was only slightly more than a hundred degrees, but a Hosenfaith’s field of view was about two hundred and seventy degrees. Their eyes were slanted closer to the two sides of their head, granting them their natural advantage. A wide field of view and keen vision made them better adept in scouting. This is it!

And that was the ten candidates. Three defaults, one backdoor, and six handpicked by Gerrard himself. This was the first batch of name list for the integrated warfare contest. After that, he picked a few more candidates for the reserve's name list, and reported it to the higher-ups.

Sigh. He wondered what the people’s reaction in Seven Lights would be when they saw Cillin’s ID.