The team competition is organized in units of five. Based on the rankings from the individual competition leaderboard, the top 200 teams by total squad points qualify, for a total of 1,000 participants.
Registration remains open for half a month. Candidates who fail to form a team by the deadline will be randomly matched by San Yao before entering the ranking process.
Team rosters can be modified up until the day before registration closes.
Because of the nature of the format, students from every university have been scrambling to form teams and practice coordination during this period.
Most candidates had already formed the rough outlines of their teams back when they qualified for the preliminaries. However, if a teammate performs poorly and drags down the team’s total score, they may be replaced at the last minute to improve the team’s chances of qualifying.
Even for those already out of the running for the Gold Cup, the team competition and large-scale battlefield event remain valuable opportunities to prove themselves. Just making it into the team competition means they probably don’t have to worry about the looming final exams, and their future expedition army résumés will also look a lot more impressive.
And if they somehow manage to take down an infantry MVP?
That would be the highlight of a lifetime.
So recently, the list of teams hovering around the cutoff at rank 200 has been changing constantly. Poaching players – a practice embodying the very essence of military strategy – has become increasingly common. High-scoring candidates have all seen their status rise dramatically.
Someone holds an umbrella for them when they go out.
Someone feeds them when they eat.
There’s even concierge service for writing papers!
A true winner in life could ask for nothing more.
…But none of this had anything to do with Cheng Feng. Teams that couldn’t poach her considered her less desirable than a smelly rock.
The manual mecha department had also been fighting hard over this issue lately.
The team competition wasn’t strictly a mecha assessment – it focused more on individual combat ability – so the sensor department generally didn’t want to team up with them.
Several top-ranked candidates simply formed their own squad, and Lu Yuan, who had participated in the individual skills test with Cheng Feng before, was unanimously elected team captain.
The reason?
He had fought alongside Cheng Feng before, so he must have absorbed some of Cheng Feng’s lingering spiritual aura.
It was the kind of reasoning that, like “well, since we’re already here,” was impossible to argue against.
Lu Yuan basked in the brightest moment of his life, tears of joy filling his eyes.
Among all the teams, however, Cheng Feng’s squad wasn’t the strongest – far from it. They weren’t even considered top-tier.
With Jiang Linxia and Yan Shen acting like dead weights dragging them down, their team’s projected ranking was only around fiftieth place.
A few days before the competition, the candidates – who had been riding high on excitement for quite some time – gradually calmed down.
The teachers, however, began growing increasingly anxious.
After class, Mr. Kong nervously pulled Cheng Feng aside and kept her behind. In the quiet stairwell, he lowered his voice and asked, “Are you sure things are okay between you and Xiang Yunjian and the others?”
Cheng Feng hesitated before replying, “Xiang Yunjian and the others… should be okay, right?”
“What I’m worried about is whether they’re okay!” Mr. Kong’s expression turned grave, then quickly shifted into nervous unease. “Whatever you do, don’t say something like that in front of them! Should we maybe get them some gifts? What does your team captain like?”
Out of the five people on their team, three had previously been eliminated by Cheng Feng.
One of them had even had the Gold Cup snatched away by her directly.
And Yan Shen, who had narrowly avoided that fate, had also had some less-than-pleasant encounters with Cheng Feng before.
Wasn’t joining this team basically the same as walking straight into a den of thieves?!
Cheng Feng had looked indifferent at first, but upon hearing this, she immediately became agitated and pointed at him accusingly.
“So even you think that too?!”
Mr. Kong blinked. “What did I do?”
Cheng Feng pulled out her optical computer and showed him the name of her group chat.
The group name had already been changed to:
Cheng Feng – Pay More.
Xiang Yunjian still hadn’t submitted their team registration because they hadn’t settled on a team name yet.
Cheng Feng had suggested “All MVPs.”
But Jiang Linxia and the others had long transcended any attachment to the title of “MVP.” By a unanimous three-vote decision, they insisted on naming the team:
Pay More and We’ll Betray.
Such blatant revenge was utterly shameless.
Mr. Kong instantly shared her outrage.
“These opportunistic bastards! Kicking someone while they’re down and cashing in on the chaos!”
“Exactly!” Cheng Feng said.
Mr. Kong lowered his head to check his bank balance and said indignantly, “How much are they asking for? Are they seriously bullying me because they think I’m poor?”
Cheng Feng gave him a shove, and Old Kong finally lost his composure, laughing.
“Just focus and fight seriously – for the honor of UFU too. The other military universities are all eyeing that Gold Cup. Don’t give them an opening.”
“I know,” Cheng Feng said.
A student passed through the stairwell, their footsteps interrupting the conversation. Mr. Kong smiled and nodded at them before turning back to continue his serious instructions.
“Everyone on your team has a strong personality, and their styles are… pretty unrestrained. You must remember to listen to Xiang Yunjian. His grasp of the overall situation is trustworthy.”
“I know you have your own ideas, but no matter what, don’t clash with him at a critical moment. Most importantly, adapt to the situation.”
A team that wasn’t harmonious to begin with would practically be doomed if multiple conflicting opinions surfaced.
Mr. Kong had always believed that any captain capable of holding together a group of such difficult personalities without internal conflict had to be extraordinary. That level of leadership was arguably even more impressive than his individual combat ability.
Every teacher wanted a student like that.
Cheng Feng patted her chest, gave him a thumbs-up, and smiled calmly.
She had already thoroughly reviewed all of her team’s match records, and Shen Dan had filled in the finer details for her.
To survive on this team, more than half the battle depended on luck.
Basically, all of her teammates fought however they pleased.
Xiang Yunjian only stepped in to organize things when his brothers were on the verge of getting “team-wiped,” patching things up at the last minute.
The team members ran around setting fires everywhere.
Xiang Yunjian ran around putting them out.
Cheng Feng felt she fit this team’s spirit perfectly and had already grasped its essence on a profound level.
Seeing her face glowing with what looked like absolute confidence, Mr. Kong felt deeply reassured. He patted her shoulder with relief and said emotionally, “Good! I’ll be waiting for your Gold Cup!”
…
On the day before registration closed, Cheng Feng’s team finally settled on a name.
Out of all the chaotic and ridiculous suggestions, one especially tacky proposal somehow won everyone’s hearts. Everyone’s names were worked into it –
“Sheng Xia Feng Yun Xing!”
(A mash-up of the characters from all their names.)
On the day of the official competition, under relentless urging from Mr. Kong, Mr. Luo, and her three roommates, Cheng Feng left her dorm and arrived at the testing grounds fifteen minutes early.
When she swiped her card to enter, Jiang Linxia was standing nearby yawning, while Yan Shen was eating breakfast with a bun in hand.
Xin Kuang and Xiang Yunjian were checking over the competition rules.
Cheng Feng thought: See? What was the point of coming this early?
Xiang Yunjian waved her over and handed her the rule sheet.
The team competition was still fundamentally an infantry assessment.
At the start of the match, team members would be randomly teleported to different points on the map, meaning every squad would begin scattered.
All candidates would wear standardized equipment with identical appearances, making it impossible to tell which school they belonged to.
Weapons stored in military backpacks could be looted from other contestants, or replenished at designated armories across the map.
Communication devices could not connect with anyone outside one’s own team.
The scoring system was straightforward as well.
The competition lasted a total of three days.
Points were calculated based on the number of enemy eliminations achieved by each team.
Scores would be manually reviewed, and any malicious score farming would not count.
When the competition ended, teams would receive a small bonus score based on how many teammates were still alive.
Cheng Feng skimmed through the rules in just a couple of glances, then returned the optical computer to Xiang Yunjian. He casually handed it over to the examiner who had come to collect the devices.
After registering everything, the examiner added, “Each team will be assigned a dedicated supervisor. If there’s any rule you don’t understand, you can ask them directly. As long as it’s unrelated to the actual exam, they’ll tell you.”
After saying that, he even winked at Cheng Feng.
Cheng Feng didn’t know how to wink. She awkwardly twitched her facial muscles, trying to respond, when Jiang Linxia immediately squeezed in, delighted to join the commotion.
“What about me?”
The examiner replied reluctantly, “Good luck.”
The 200 teams entered the arena one by one according to ranking.
When the process reached around the thirtieth team, the examiner urged them to log in quickly.
The moment Cheng Feng and the others entered, their vision shifted, and they found themselves standing on a wide red carpet.
Ahead of them was a massive circular seating arena. Some candidates were already seated in the front rows, waving at them from afar.
Above their seats was their team name.
Five huge characters stood out among a sea of equally unserious titles like “The Rise of Manual Mecha Is Near,” “500 Kills Today for Sure!”, and “We All Survive on Our Looks.”
It was just as eye-catching as Cheng Feng’s MVP icon.
The audience’s thunderous cheers froze for a second.
Then merciless laughter erupted.
“How old are these chunibyos?”
“Cheng Feng’s still young – cut her some slack.”
“Cheng Feng’s not young anymore – her ambitions are just that huge!”
“Last year Xiang Yunjian’s team name was ‘Just Playing Around’. This year they clearly put in more effort.”
“Cheng Feng actually dared to join this team? Isn’t she worried Xiang Yunjian will take the chance to get revenge?”
“Compared to him, Jiang Linxia holds grudges even more. Trust me!”
The host smiled as he enthusiastically introduced them. “Let us welcome this season’s infantry MVP, Cheng Feng! Cheng Feng is also the only contestant in the entire history of the league – from preliminaries to finals – who has never suffered a single defeat! And all of her teammates are also star players who have each won MVP titles in team competitions! I’m not exaggerating when I say this squad can only be called a ‘miracle’! Let’s look forward to their performance today!”
Cheng Feng muttered quietly, “Isn’t that a bit much?”
Jiang Linxia smiled perfectly and squeezed a sentence out through clenched teeth. “Could you at least smile a bit more sweetly when you’re in the spotlight?”
The entrance ceremony for all 200 teams took about an hour. Once all contestants were seated, a golden sphere appeared at the center of the arena.
At the host’s command, fireworks thundered overhead, and inside the sphere a countdown flashed:
“Three… Two… One…”
Amid waves of meaningless cheers, everyone’s vision went black as they were teleported into the match environment.
The very first second Cheng Feng regained control of her body, she immediately bent down and ran behind a rock, quickly assessing her surroundings.
The area was desolate. She was standing on a sloped mountainside. Vegetation here was sparse, so visibility was fairly open. In the distance, she could make out several abandoned residential buildings.
After confirming it was safe, Cheng Feng pulled up the map and checked her teammates’ locations.
It was a wide map connecting suburban outskirts, flatlands, and mountainous forest terrain. The four of them had been completely scattered, positioned along the edges of the map.
Only Xiang Yunjian had spawned near the center.
Truly a chosen one.
The moment to prove their team bond had arrived.
On the team channel, Yan Shen was the first to shout. “Xiang Yunjian, save me!”
Xiang Yunjian replied indifferently, “Scram.”
Xin Kuang also cried out, “Xiang Yunjian, save me!”
Xiang Yunjian remained just as merciless. “Scram.”
Jiang Linxia added with heartfelt emotion, “Xiang Yunjian, save me!”
Cheng Feng suddenly shouted loudly, “Scram!”
Jiang Linxia: “??”
Cheng Feng cleared her throat. “I was speaking for him.”
Jiang Linxia laughed angrily. “Get lost!”
Yan Shen kept calling, “Xiang Yunjian!”
Xin Kuang shouted, “Bro!”
Jiang Linxia called out, “Captain Xiang!”
Amid all the repeated cries of “Xiang Yunjian,” Cheng Feng was starting to lose herself in the chaos and was about to join in when Xiang Yunjian finally spoke coldly, “All of you, come to the center. If you die on the way, bury yourselves.”
Jiang Linxia gritted his teeth. “Damn it!”
He shouted angrily, “Then you just stand there and don’t move! Don’t think I can’t see you sneaking toward Cheng Feng’s direction!”
