"Hmph, Lin Ying is no ordinary Tier Five Late Stage expert!" Feng Qingqing turned her head to the side.

"By senior year, it should be possible! No, maybe even junior year!" Kong Kun considered this seriously before voicing his opinion.

"Wait until junior year? Won’t the Hunt God Team have graduated by then? Why don’t we just challenge the Hunt God Team tomorrow!" Fang Tangtang said, her face alight with excitement.

"Ahem!" Gui Zian cleared his throat heavily. "Confidence is a good thing, but you have to be realistic. The Eastern Capital Military Academy’s battle rankings only have spots for 80 teams. With four people per team, that’s a total of 320 people on the rankings. Meanwhile, the Eastern Capital Military Academy enrolls 1,200 students each year, and the War Academy’s senior class alone has 400 students. For a first-year to make it onto the battle rankings..."

Gui Zian didn’t finish his sentence, just offering a small smile instead. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"So, has a first-year never made it onto the battle rankings before?" Fang Tangtang asked, sounding unconvinced.

"Of course, there have been. If I recall correctly, Lin Ying himself made it onto the battle rankings as a first-year. However, he joined a team formed by third-year students," Gui Zian replied.

"First-years can join third-year teams?" Gao Neng was a little surprised.

"Of course. Although the Eastern Capital Military Academy is one of the top four military academies, not every student who gets in is a genius. It’s not unheard of for a second-year to be stronger than a fourth-year. In a way, getting on the battle rankings really just means your individual strength is in the top 300," Gui Zian explained.

"So what are the benefits of getting on the battle rankings?"

"There are definitely benefits, and they’re huge. Besides having priority access to specific training rooms, every team on the battle rankings also gets a discount when exchanging for items with Merit Points at the logistics department, based on their rank," Gui Zian said with a smile playing on his lips.

"A discount?"

"That’s right. D-List teams get a 20% discount, C-List teams get 40%, B-List teams get 60%, and A-List teams get 80%! On top of that, the academy also gives out Merit Point rewards every year based on the battle rankings," Gui Zian said with a grin.

"It’s that good?!" Gao Neng was finally interested. Getting on the battle rankings meant spending less to exchange for items, plus there were Merit Point rewards.

It was basically a care package!

"Geniuses always get special privileges. Feel like giving it a shot? Actually, the last-place team on the D-List is pretty average. Only one of their four members is Tier Three; the other three are all Tier Two Late Stage." As Gui Zian spoke, the smile on his face grew wider.

’One Tier Three and three at Tier Two Late Stage? That doesn’t sound so hard.’ Gao Neng glanced at the name of the last team on the D-List.

The Lone Soul Team!

Captain: Cui Jun.

He didn’t bother looking at the other members’ names.

’This name is so cringey, though. Lone Soul... maybe adding "Wandering Ghost" would be more fitting?’

"Alright, that’s enough looking at the battle rankings. I’ll take you to get your training uniforms," Gui Zian said, clearly not intending to continue the topic. For first-years to get on the battle rankings, their only option was to join a second or third-year team.

Otherwise, it was completely hopeless.

Even among Tier Twos, combat power could be completely different.

Kong Kun could be called a genius among this year’s new students, but he was still just a genius among *new students*. If he really went up against the people on the battle rankings, he wouldn’t be able to beat a single one.

After all, real combat wasn’t just about talent; it also came down to experience and tactical coordination.

Anyone who could make it onto the battle rankings...

How could their combat experience and coordination possibly be poor?

As for Gao Neng...

Gui Zian didn’t try to discourage him too much. After all, Gao Neng was monstrously talented, almost unnaturally so. If he got lucky and a third or fourth-year team extended an invitation, it wasn’t entirely hopeless for Gao Neng to get on the battle rankings.

...

The group of five, led by Gui Zian, entered the building.

This was the War Academy, an enormous twelve-story building. The battle rankings were hung on its exterior wall.

Gui Zian helped Gao Neng and the others each claim two sets of training uniforms. They were all a standard design, made of black material, but they weren’t military dress uniforms.

The Eastern Capital Military Academy was a cradle for the Military Department.

However, students were not issued military dress uniforms until they had officially joined the Military Department.

After collecting the training uniforms,

Gui Zian then took Gao Neng and the others to tour the War Academy’s training rooms.

Gao Neng’s eyes gradually lit up.

These training rooms seemed to be the same kind of "black technology" as the simulated battlefields from the college entrance exams. However, the equipment here was clearly much more sophisticated.

"The training rooms can simulate any battlefield environment, and even conjure simulated enemies. They’re perfect for individual and team training in the early stages," Gui Zian explained.

Gao Neng was keen to go inside a training room and have a look.

But he discovered...

...practically every training room was full.

"Want to use a training room? You’ll have to get in line. Otherwise, you get on the battle rankings and win priority access to one. Then no one will be competing with you for it." Gui Zian pointed to a list of names outside a training room. "You register up front to get in line. You’ll probably have to wait seven or eight days to get in once."

"A seven or eight-day wait?" Gao Neng was a bit speechless.

"The Eastern Capital Military Academy only has 80 training rooms in total, but there are 5,000 students. Why else do you think the battle rankings exist?"

"Isn’t that too few?"

"Too few? You wouldn’t think so if you knew the daily resource consumption of a single training room. This is the Eastern Capital Military Academy we’re talking about. For other military academies, having 30 rooms would be considered impressive. And those academies have even more students; they’d be lucky to get into a training room once a month."