Chapter 109: They’re Here to Cause Trouble!

With the two of them leading the way, the others, however unwilling they might have been, could say nothing more.

One by one, they picked up their weighted gear and started running.

At first, Lin Xiao did not run particularly fast. Ten kilometers was not a hundred meters; there was no need to sprint this early.

Even though his stamina could easily handle a full-course sprint, that would have drawn too much attention. He preferred to keep a low profile.

Luo Yao quickly caught up with him.

Seeing Lin Xiao, Luo Yao blushed again, whether because she had thought of what happened yesterday or for some other reason.

Lin Xiao, by contrast, kept his gaze straight ahead. At a time like this, it was better not to provoke Luo Yao. He did not want her second personality to appear.

Luo Yao kept looking at him, several times seeming as though she wanted to speak, only to hesitate and lower her head.

After repeatedly psyching herself up, she finally gathered her courage and said, "Um... classmate Lin Xiao, do you want to compete again? We can see who finishes twenty-five laps first."

Lin Xiao looked at her in surprise. He had not expected Luo Yao to speak to him on her own initiative. He had assumed that after yesterday's incident, she would need some time to recover.

Now it seemed that was not the case.

"Compete again? Is this you talking, or her?"

"It's me. Don't worry, she doesn't want to come out these next two days. She's afraid that if she sees you, she'll lose control and explode."

Lin Xiao: o(^｀)o

"Well, that's a fine thing to say. I'm upright and honest, so I have nothing to fear from shadows. If I haven't done anything wrong, why should I fear a ghost knocking at the door?"

Luo Yao looked a little dazed. On the surface, the words sounded fine, but the more she thought about them, the more problems they seemed to have.

"Then are you going to compete or not?"

"If it's you, then sure, I'll race you. But don't say I didn't warn you—you can't win."

"Hmph, that's not certain. Maybe I can't beat you in close combat, but I have trained for long-distance running."

"Don't tell me you're the under-tens thousand-meter champion."

Luo Yao: (;′?????`)

Was this joke never going away?

"Let's begin!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Luo Yao suddenly accelerated, immediately putting a good distance between herself and Lin Xiao.

Lin Xiao shook his head. Since she wanted to compete, he would play along.

He did not rush to speed up, but kept to his previous pace. Time was plentiful; after all, the race had only just begun.

Compared with Lin Xiao and Luo Yao's ease, the others were not nearly so relaxed.

Some of the melee-type students were still all right, but several of the magic-type students had already begun to sweat.

Ten kilometers was far too difficult for them.

Especially while carrying weight.

As time passed, Lin Xiao gradually settled into his rhythm, and his speed slowly increased. Before long, he had caught up to Luo Yao.

Luo Yao tried to accelerate as well, but no matter how hard she worked, she could not put any distance between herself and Lin Xiao.

Lin Xiao did not bother with her. He increased his pace again and left her behind.

What a joke. So what if you had trained before? As if he had not.

This was only his regular daily training.

Murong Jing did not run. He was counting the students' laps, and Lin Xiao and Luo Yao's outstanding performance had long since caught his eye.

Especially Lin Xiao. He had already run fifteen laps, yet his face was not red and he was not out of breath at all. He looked perfectly at ease.

He had even lapped quite a few people several times.

And his running speed was not slow either. Without using his ability, he was not far off those fellows from the Special Ability Corps.

Twenty-five laps meant nothing to Lin Xiao. In less than half an hour, he finished them.

He felt the result was merely average. Unfortunately, this was a world of abilities; if he had still been in his original world, this speed would have broken the world record.

After finishing his twenty-five laps, Lin Xiao stopped and stood directly beside Murong Jing.

Not long after Lin Xiao finished, Luo Yao also completed her task.

However, compared with Lin Xiao's calm and effortless manner, Luo Yao was clearly a little strained.

She panted hard, and the rise and fall of her chest moved with every breath.

It left both Murong Jing and Lin Xiao staring.

In the end, Murong Jing was the first to recover. He quickly averted his eyes.

"Ahem. You both did very well. You're promising prospects."

Lin Xiao said nothing. He had come to stand beside Murong Jing not to hear a compliment or two. He had business to discuss.

"Instructor, may I discuss something with you?"

Murong Jing was slightly taken aback, not knowing what Lin Xiao wanted to say.

That piqued his interest.

"Oh? Go on. If I think it's reasonable, then there's room for discussion."

"It's nothing major. I just feel that the military training this time won't improve me at all. Could I apply to be exempted from it entirely?"

Murong Jing: o(▼皿▼メ;)o

Damn it. This kid was here to wreck the place!

On the very first day of training, he wanted to have the entire program waived. Wasn't that a little too arrogant?

"Lin Xiao, was it? Don't you think you're looking down on our training a little too much? You think your results are impressive? Let me tell you, they are only so-so. In our Special Ability Corps, they would be at the very bottom!"

Lin Xiao did not answer. Instead, he took one of the wrist weights from his arm and handed it to Murong Jing.

Murong Jing was a little stunned. He had no idea what Lin Xiao meant.

Still, he subconsciously took it.

The moment he did, his hand dipped.

The wrist weight looked ordinary enough, but it must have weighed forty or fifty kilograms. Had this guy been wearing such weight all along?

"Instructor, you saw it. I still have several more of these on me. And the result I just achieved was only from running casually."

Luo Yao heard every word of their conversation clearly.

She also saw exactly what happened when Murong Jing took the wrist weight.

Luo Yao: e=(′o｀*))) sigh

Running casually? What kind of absurdly humble brag was that?

Could he please spare a thought for her feelings?

It was too crushing.

Murong Jing fell silent. He no longer knew what to say.

He knew Lin Xiao was not lying.

Lin Xiao really had been carrying several hundred pounds of weight, and without even going all out, he had run a result comparable to the Special Ability Corps.

With that kind of burden, even Murong Jing might not have been able to do better than Lin Xiao.

Who exactly was the instructor here?

This was getting embarrassing.

If this brat were allowed to run wild, wouldn't he just take off into the sky?

Thinking back to the scene of Lin Xiao's morning training, Murong Jing knew Lin Xiao was right. For him, this sort of physical training really did not bring much improvement anymore.

But that still was not a reason to excuse him from military training altogether.

"Lin Xiao, I admit you're good. But our training is not just physical conditioning. There are other drills as well. This afternoon, for example, we have marksmanship training."

"I'm pretty good at shooting too. How about this, Instructor: what would it take for you to exempt me? Beat you in marksmanship training?"

Murong Jing: (?? ? ?)

He was being looked down on?

Beat him in marksmanship training? Who did this kid think he was?

He was the marksmanship champion of this year's military competition.

Even a clay man has three points of temper.

"Fine! If you can beat me in this afternoon's training, I'll exempt you!"

Lin Xiao: (?° ?? ?°)?

Nice. The fish had taken the bait.