"Jane Sampson, even if you’re the National Grandmaster, you’re still only worth three points," Hibiscus Wood pleaded with the person in the tree, "If you were just a soldier, you would be worth one point. Is it worth risking your life for?"

"What’s wrong, you look down on one point? A single point could decide the winner you know. The loser goes without dinner!" Jane patted her belly, "At noon, I pretended to be a little fairy eating wild fruits and drinking spring water, but I don’t want to play the fasting ascetic this evening."

"What! No dinner if we lose?" Mair Williams looked astonished, obviously unaware of this until Jane mentioned it.

"Who said that? The instructor or the director?" Hibiscus Wood’s expression was hardly any calmer than Mair’s.

Probably, this was the first time the three girls had ever cared so much about any single meal.

Usually, skipping one meal wouldn’t kill them, and if they were really hungry, they could eat some biscuits or order takeaway.

At worst, they could still drink a glass of milk or juice.

But! Once the guard team missed a proper meal, they truly had nothing to eat! And worst of all, they were as tired as dogs in the daytime!

"For the sake of dinner, Mair and I will keep watch under your tree this afternoon! I refuse to believe you won’t come down at some point!" Mair promptly found a clean spot out of the sun and sat down, pulling Hibiscus Wood with her.

"Why not, of course I can! It’s almost 2:30 now. To secure a dinner, I can hang in there for three hours in the tree, no problem." Jane swung her kettle, "I have water! There are peaches in the tree I can eat! Besides peaches, I’ve got other wild fruits in my pockets. With food and drink, I’m in no hurry to come down."

After speaking, Jane found a comfortable position to lean back, and just then John River’s voice came through the transmitter.

"Goddess Sampton, I’ve dealt with the enemy! Where are you now? I’ll come to find you and regroup." John River asked.

"I’m up in the tree, very safe," Jane replied with a grin.

"In the tree?" John River thought he had misheard.

"Right, down below are just Hibiscus Wood and Mair Williams, they can’t get up here, which means I’m safe. Just now, Charlie Peterson told me they all went after Benjamin Worthington. You better go help them, just make sure none of your team heads my way," Jane instructed, "You’re capable; go fast to help them chase the second team’s king. If the king is out, we win outright."

"Alright." John thought for a moment then replied, "I just asked Charlie Peterson, and apparently, several from the second team are accompanying Benjamin Worthington to protect him."

So John figured, even in terms of numbers, their first team couldn’t lose to the second team. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

After ending the communication with John, Jane shouted down to the two below, "Your king is being chased by our people, you know. You two are here, and John just now took one out, leaving only four people in your team including the king."

Jane counted with her fingers for the two below, "Our team, minus Brother Edwards and me, still has five people, you see! By numbers, we’re also set to win. Aren’t you two going to provide support?"

"You think you can fool us as if we were three years old?" Mair Williams rolled her eyes at Jane, "With our combat power, the two of us gang up on you is more like it. To compete with those men, would we be reinforcing or dragging them down? Plus, your team has Charlotte Miller who barely counts. If we went, we’d probably be the ones getting taken out."

It’s like Mair had summoned bad luck, because just after she said that, someone from the director’s team spoke up, "First team’s Great General is out, the second team has a total of five points."