Star Rank Hunter

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

Chapter 78: All’s Fair In War

The exclamation attracted quite a lot of people’s attention. The person who saw the image couldn’t help but sigh: Seven Lights truly was a persistent troublemaker!

Pride’s piloting skills were pretty impressive. He might have lost two out of three rounds to Knight in a dogfight, and in terms of offense, Pride might be just a little weaker than Knight, but if he chose not to attack and went full on evasion instead then even Knight would find himself hardpressed to catch a flaw in his flight pattern.

The Fourth Military Academy was very surprised by Seven Lights’ attack. Had Seven Lights gone crazy choosing this particular time to send all their members to assault their stronghold?

However, Pride in his plane was the only one who showed up at the outskirts of the Sentinel’s alarm zone, and no one else from Seven Lights could be seen. That being said, since Pride was here, then the others could not be far behind as well. Hence, The Fourth Military Academy began to keep vigilant. Although Seven Lights wasn’t from Sector C, they had a couple of people who were very tricky to deal with. Therefore, to avoid screwing up when they least expect it, the participants of the Fourth Military Academy still decided that it was better to be safe than sorry.

The strange thing was that Pride was only flying around the outskirts. The Fourth Military Academy’s Sentinel’s offensive power couldn’t be considered powerful at the perimeter, and they were lacking in ground-to-air firepower as well, thus allowing Pride to leisurely circle around the outskirts here and there.

“Ignore him. Just let him do whatever.” The Fourth Military Academy’s captain said. In his mind, Pride wasn’t someone who would pull a stunt like this just because he was too bored. There must be mastermind behind this, and Seven Lights was definitely cooking up some evil scheme. Therefore, his choice was to stay firm and see what would happen before reacting accordingly. After all, right now their opponent was just hovering around the outskirts.

However, Pride’s leisurely flight about quickly took on a sinister change. The thick brown yellow smoke sprayed out from the plane began shifting along the breeze towards the Fourth Military Academy’s stronghold slowly. As Pride flew his plane at the downwind and sprayed back and forth, the brown yellow smoke grew thicker and thicker. No optic equipment could see through the smoke at all.

Inside the observation station, what the students saw was a scene filled with brown yellow smoke.

“Are… are they using smoke against us?!”

“That’s not the point; the point is how on earth did they get this kind of smoke? The base didn’t distribute anything like a smoke grenade at all!”

Inside the Fourth Military Academy’s aircraft, the student responsible for technical support did not tense up just because of the spread of the brown yellow smoke. Just their optic equipment wasn’t working didn’t mean they had no other alternatives.

“Smoke is an outdated tactic…” Before he could finish, he immediately realized that there was a missile alert.

It was the same missile as the one Seven Lights used to slaughter San Border, but the Fourth Military Academy were pretty capable and managed to intercept two out of three missiles before they landed. Only one missile had successfully penetrated into the underground.

The Fourth Military Academy had made the own relevant preparations to counter this tactic after learning how Seven Lights had taken out San Border. Therefore, the moment the missiles appeared they were able to adjust on time to intercept them, and although they did let one slip, they were able to swiftly activate the anti-intrusion program.

However…

“A Sentinel at the perimeter has been destroyed manually!”

“There are people sneaking through the smoke area!”

Although Seven Lights’ intrusion hadn’t worked until now, it did cause some problems in the Sentinel system that its reactions weren’t as swift as usual, hence giving the infiltrators an opportunity to sneak in. The moment they did, destroying the Sentinel that was disrupted by the hack became as easy as ABC.

Seven Lights’ breakthrough point was exactly where the missile had successfully penetrated into the ground, since radar scans would not work in that area. Moreover, that area was also covered in brown yellow smoke. Seven Lights must have prepared for this part of the plan as well, and if the Fourth Military Academy would not gain the upper hand even if they sent someone over. At the same time, the smoke was slowly spreading towards their direction, giving Seven Lights the choice to raid them from behind the smoke’s cover if they wanted to. If they did not implement countermeasures in time, the moment Seven Lights broke through they would be in trouble.

“Captain, let me out there and ‘Red’ those people!”

“I’m going too!”

“Me too…”

“Wait a minute!” The Fourth Military Academy’s student responsible for medical care frowned and said, “I’ve analysed the smoke’s components for a bit, but because the instrument we’re provided is missing certain functions, I cannot tell if they’re harmful to the human body even with the results of their compositions.”

From the analysis of the smoke’s components, it could be stated that most of its composition were made up of plants from this planet. They had all come into contact with these plants in the forest, and they were even briefed on the flora and fauna on this planet quite some time ago. There was no mention in the briefing about any plants that were particularly deadly, and the plants that were poisonous were mild enough that they would not cause too much damage. Still, the medic couldn’t put away the feeling that something wasn’t quite right. Although the results showed that every type of plant were harmless on its own, there was no telling if they would be deadly when mixed with each other.

Due to the smokescreen, they did not know if the Seven Lights attackers were wearing gas masks. They did not have a machine with more well-rounded functionality to analyse the smoke in greater detail and determine its harmfulness either.

Back in the camp, they were routinely issued each a set of protective suit that covered their entire body from head to toe, but for the longest time, there were very few integrated warfare contest participants who would actually wear them. This was because the protective suit would inhibit their movements slightly, and in a battle between masters this tiny bit of effect was fatal. This was why more often than not, the participants would choose not to wear a protective suit than the other way around.

Just in case, two out of the four people who went out wore protective suits. The other two did not, but they did put on gas masks. It didn’t take long for them to discover that something was amiss after the quartet had entered the smoke-filled area.

Number one. No one from Seven Lights were wearing protective suits, which was why the two Fourth Military Academy students who were wearing them were taken out by Cillin and Knight respectively.

Number two. The two Fourth Military Academy students who weren’t wearing protective suits found many red rashes appearing on their exposed skin. It was numb and itchy, and even though they were trained in this regard they still found it incredibly difficult to tolerate, not to mention that they had to watch out for attacks from their surroundings at the same time. They did not last too long before they were marked red as well.

The duo who were marked red without a protective suit and laid as stiff as a corpse on the ground felt like weeping as they stared at the large sections of red rashes covering their bodies.

“Yo. You guys seem to be having a good time.” Lung walked over with an infuriating smile.

“You’re all fucking contemptible, I can’t believe you actually made such a thing.” One of the person lying on the ground said.

“All’s fair in war. This is called skill, you understand?”

The duo obviously knew this; it’s just that they were experiencing some hard feelings and spoke up just for the heck of it.

Lung stared at the duo and took out a bottle while wearing a ‘oh poor thing this gentleman shall bestow upon you mercy’ look. He poured the liquid inside the bottle onto the rash covered spots, and when he saw the red rashes gradually fading into nothingness, he turned his back on the duo suavely while wearing a shit eating grin, “I knew I have the potential to become a savior!”

The duo lying on the ground was seriously considering going against the rules and shoot this fucker red. Anyone can see that this thing isn’t made by you young master Lung, so why the hell are you taking credit for it and showing off!

The students at the observation station could not see what’s inside the smoke. They only know that the four people who went in were marked red.

“What’s going on?”

“The Fourth Military Academy got fucked this time.”

“Seven Lights’ performance is truly astounding. I didn’t think they would actually be able to take out a military academy team.”

Since Sird was marked red by a Fourth Military Academy student before, he was really happy with the current outcome. Now that the Fourth Military Academy was forced into such a state, at this rate they obviously could not hold out for long. Sird felt a surge of happiness to have his revenge for being marked red repaid in full, although it was regretful that he wasn’t able to participate in this extremely meaningful mark red battle.

At first, the Second Military Academy thought that they would sit at the bottom of the board for sure due to Ryan and Boen’s unexpected drop out. Their current massive decrease in strength was also why the First Military Academy had set their eyes on them. But contrary to expectations, they received yet another news that the Fourth Military Academy had been utterly annihilated even earlier than they were. This caused their originally heavy hearts to soar instantly like a balloon.