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 69: It’s Time To End This

Due to the integrated warfare contest, Ci Jincheng returned to Planet Seven Lights earlier than was originally planned. Inside the accommodation, Cillin, Knight and Ci Jincheng sat together inside the living room and observed last year’s integrated warfare contest.

There were two locations where the integrated warfare was held. First, they would have to gather at the asteroid C-N976 supervised by the GAL Army at a junction between Sector B and Sector C. The representative team of each higher institute of learning would have to undergo an identity check there, receive their tools and so on. Then they would all depart towards their destination, another asteroid C-N300 which was supervised by the military at the same time.

While the trio was watching the footage, the door opened, and Lung walked in with his iconic singlet, flowery pants and slippers.

“Hmph hmph, now I can participate in the integrated warfare contest just like you guys!”

Lung kicked his slippers to the shoe rack and walked barefooted into the living room. He grabbed an iced beer from the fridge and sat on a sofa just like Cillin and the rest.

Seeing no reaction from the trio, Lung complained in dissatisfaction, “Hey, aren’t you guys curious?”

Cillin and the rest turned towards Lung at the same time while wearing a ‘curious about what’ look on their faces.

Lung’s mouth widened, “I went to block our headmaster early in the morning so that he would open a backdoor for me!”

Cillin and the rest were speechless. He was the only one who could walk a backdoor with such righteous indignation.

Although the list hadn’t been finalized yet, there was no doubt that this group of four was absolutely set for the contest.

On the next day, the preliminary list of the ten candidates to participate in the integrated warfare contest was announced on Seven Lights forum. After seeing the name and information listed on the announcement, there were strangers roaming around Cillin and co’s accommodation at every moment, hoping to catch a glimpse of Shadow X’s actual figure.

The name listed under Shadow X’s information display everyone was looking forward to was none other than the impressive Cillin Douance. Every student’s first reaction in Seven Lights after seeing this was - holy mother of balls, how could it possibly him?!

When Allen realized it, he wanted to cry but failed to shed a tear. He finally understood that he was fooled by Cillin. Other than the fact that he was outwitted by a wordplay, Allen also bore a faint guess about a certain something from this revelation. His father was right after all; he should always believe his first instinct, or he would run around in circles without ever realizing that he was duped.

Although the commotion caused by the name list announcement was huge, in truth there weren’t many people who objected to it at all. There were many people who suspected the validity of the information that Cillin was Shadow X, but when they thought about it, they found themselves warming up to the idea. After all, Cillin did participate in a military operation, went on a battlefield, killed black mice and was very close with Knight and several other people. Even if they wanted to object to his selection, they had to weigh their own capabilities first.

Since there wasn’t too much problem, the higher ups of Seven Lights quickly finalized the name list. The ten official candidates were: Fu Luo, Cillin, Knight, Sird, Hard, Lung, Pride, Ci Jincheng, Kang Man and Copley.

What was worth mentioning was that six out of ten people were new students. Regardless whether or not they were specially recruited students, if they managed to obtain a good result in this integrated warfare contest, then Seven Lights would utilise this image to advertise themselves.

The day before the integrated warfare contest, the quartet was tidying their stuff when Cillin’s communicator suddenly rang inside his room. Before long, Cillin came out.

“I’m going out for a little.”

Lung’s eyes narrowed, “A date?”

“Nope.” Before he left, Cillin even stole a bag of Knight’s jerkies.

“Dammit, you better give me back twice the amount when you come back!” Knight raised his voice and roared.

Cillin waved his hands to indicate his acknowledgement.

Watching Cillin departing on his hoverboard, Lung let out a cheap and perverted smile and said, “Not a date? Like hell anyone will believe that. Let’s have a guess: who do you think Cillin went out on a date with?”

“Is that even a question? Of course it’s beauty Sa. They must be up to goodbye kiss.” Knight opened the cabinet and counted how many bags of jerkies were left inside. He planned to take all of them with him during tomorrow’s departure.

“That’s not necessarily true. I heard that the research division’s Linglung was a little interested in Cillin.” While speaking, Lung even put Linglung’s picture on display intentionally for Knight and Ci Jincheng, “Not bad, right? They are both the elites of the research division…”

Lung hadn’t finished saying when the accommodation doorbell rang.

“Who would come over at this time?” Lung complained and reluctantly ended the conversation. He turned on the HUD and looked at the image of the person standing outside the door. When they saw the image on the HUD, Knight and Ci Jincheng turned their heads towards Lung.

Lung raised both his hands and said, “Alright, I never said anything.”

The visitor was none other than Linglung.

This was the first time Linglung had visited their accommodation. After entering the house, Linglung looked obviously disappointed when she did not see Cillin anywhere at first glance.

Ci Jincheng checked the time and said, “Cillin had left two minutes and twenty five seconds ago. Judging from the speed in which he rides his hoverboard, you are too late to catch up to him.”

Linglung frowned and looked at the decoration inside the accommodation. She accepted a water from Lung’s robot servant.

“When will Cillin come back?”

“That we have no idea. Who knows what’s he doing with Beauty Sa.”

Lung didn’t know if Knight had said it on purpose or not, but he could obviously feel the surrounding air pressure taking a nose dive after Linglung had heard his words.

The trio pretended not to notice the crack sound and the hairline cracks forming on the poor cup in Linglung’s hands and busied themselves with whatever they were tidying in hand. Knight flipped a single singlet back and forth for countless times and actually managed to put on a rather busy look.

An hour, two hours… three hours passed by, but Cillin still hadn’t come back.

Cillin had left his communicator inside the accommodation and hence could not be contacted. While feeling the air pressure growing lower and lower around Linglung, Knight shot a glance at Lung to come up with something asap. But Lung expressed wordlessly that he couldn’t do anything about it either.

However, after Linglung received a message, the trio suddenly felt as if spring had bloomed indoors.

A brilliant smile appeared on Linglung’s face as she got up and said, “Cillin had gone to Professor Mo, and it’ll probably take a while before he comes back. I’ll be taking my leave then. Goodbye.”

After Linglung left, Ci Jincheng said with a pondering look, “She looks somewhat familiar.”

Old Mo did summon Cillin to his side with a message. Since Cillin went directly to Mo Heng’s staff dorm and not the research division, Linglung had received the news later than expected.

Mo Heng was a little unhappy with Cillin participating in the Sector Championship, so he ordered Cillin to assemble one more machine before he departed for the contest. If he passed, then he could compete in the integrated warfare contest. Otherwise, he would have to say obediently at the research division and assemble more machines.

Mo Heng did not specifically request Cillin to assemble a particular machine. He allowed Cillin to design and choose his own parts. As the vice headmaster, Mo Heng had his own exclusive workshop in his own accommodation. Parts and equipment were the one thing he did not lack, and they were all high grade production as well.

Cillin had exerted a lot of effort into building this particular machine, so he used more time than usual to assemble it.

Cillin was very satisfied with the assembly of this machine. After it was completed, the examination results also satisfied Mo Heng a lot. There was no regression; it was still 99.97% overall accuracy. And so two clear fingerprint marks were left on Cillin’s face again. Cillin suspected that his face might regress back to ‘baby fat’ stage if this continues.

After leaving Mo Heng’s accommodation, Cillin took a trip to the research division and tidied up the things in his workshop for a little. After he walked out of the research division, he ran into Theresa, and Theresa smiled at him and said, “Congratulations on your father’s succession.”

It was only one sentence and not many words, but there was only too much information contained within this simple line. All was understood, and no words were necessary.

The mission, had reached its end.