Chapter 7: The Strongest Team

Chapter 7: The Strongest Team

After pulling Jing Liuli into his team, Tendou brought her straight to where Caroline was still buried in a mountain of data analysis.

At this moment, Caroline was completely absorbed in her tactical tablet.

Streams of data cascaded through her emerald eyes like a waterfall, while faint wisps of white smoke rose from her head—her brain literally overloading in a physical sense.

Seeing this, Tendou raised his hand and flicked her forehead with a snap of his finger.

“Tendou?”

Caroline belatedly lifted her head, completely unaware that a small red mark had already bloomed on her forehead.

“Stop calculating, Caroline. That thing’s star energy levels alone are more than thirty times ours. Even if you crunch numbers until tomorrow, our chances of victory are still zero.”

“But—”

“No buts.”

Tendou pulled a candy from his pocket and popped it into her mouth.

“You think those old geezers brought this thing out here for no reason? It’s just to give us a smackdown.”

“Anything you can think of, those old geezers have already thought of. Which means there’s no way in hell we’re beating that thing.”

“So relax. Our goal isn’t to win—it’s to make those old geezers’ jaws drop.”

Hearing this, Caroline slowly calmed down, savoring the sweetness in her mouth.

Meanwhile, Jing Liuli’s big doe eyes sparkled as she stared longingly at Tendou’s coat pocket.

“T-Tendou, I… I need to replenish my sugar too.”

“Hah?”

Seeing her greedy look, Tendou waved her off impatiently.

“Go, go. With your brain, which doesn’t even spin up once in ten days, you need sugar to replenish what? Get lost.”

Liuli instantly puffed up in protest.

“Who says that?! I’m good at thinking too, don’t underestimate me, Tendou!”

“Oh yeah?” Tendou arched a brow. “What’s ten times twenty-five?”

“Eh?”

Her pupils spiraled like mosquito coils as her fingers scribbled aimlessly in the air.

“Ten-twenty-five is… uh…”

“It’s two hundred fifty, you idiot!”

“I—I knew that! You just snatched the answer!”

To prove she wasn’t lying, Liuli angrily pulled out her phone and brought up an IQ test report.

“See, Tendou? I’m not an idiot! I paid a hundred bucks for this test, and it says my IQ is—”

Before she could finish, Tendou snatched her phone and stared at the ridiculously cheap, low-quality report.

“Seriously? Anyone who spends a hundred bucks on this kind of scam… that’s the definition of an idiot.”

“Only idiots believe this crap—and only bigger idiots pay for it.”

“You liar!”

Liuli’s eyes brimmed with tears as she glared at him, biting her lip.

She couldn’t bring herself to admit she was an idiot, nor that she’d been conned.

Caroline, feeling a little bad, spoke softly: “Um… Liuli, I actually… did a similar test once too.”

“Really?!”

Liuli’s face lit up as if a drowning person had just grabbed onto the last lifeline.

But before she could even ask Caroline about her score—

Tendou cut in mercilessly:

“Don’t be stupid. Caroline’s too sharp for that. If she says that, it’s either to comfort you, or she did take the test—but never paid.”

“You really think everyone’s as gullible as you?”

“Tendou, shut up!”

Tendou raised both hands in mock surrender.

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop. I’ll stop.”

Caroline shot Tendou a sharp glare, signaling him to stop talking. Couldn’t he see that after hearing those words, Liuli looked as if she had been struck by lightning—her whole “art style” turning gray and lifeless?

When Tendou turned his head, he saw Liuli muttering to herself in despair, spiraling from confidence into self-doubt, mumbling over and over about how she’d been scammed out of a hundred bucks.

For a moment, guilt pricked at him.

Maybe… he had gone a bit too far?

Should he… comfort her?

But just as he was considering it, Liuli suddenly put down her treasured pillow, whipped out a marker, and began scribbling furiously across the surface.

Curious, Tendou and Caroline leaned in to see what she was writing.

The moment Tendou read the words, his sunglasses nearly slid right off his nose.

In bold letters were the words: [Lying Tendou Only Bullies People].

That made Tendou very unhappy.

“Caroline, let me go! She’s slandering me—this is defamation! Do I look like the kind of person who lies and bullies others?!”

“Calm down, Tendou, calm down. Why are you getting worked up over a child?”

“Calm down? I can’t calm down today!”

Liuli hugged her precious pillow tight, huffing loudly as she turned her back on him—her very posture declaring that yes, Tendou was a liar, and a big mean one at that.

“Caroline, look! She’s still provoking me! Let me go—I have to set the record straight with her!”

“Bleh—!”

Instead of shrinking back, Liuli stuck out her tongue and made a face at him, utterly shameless.

Even with the final assessment looming right ahead, the three of them still had the mood to fool around.

Watching from a distance, Chen Kong tugged at his sister’s sleeve with envy.

“Sis, do you think Brother Tendou and the others will pass the final exam? I mean… they don’t really seem to be taking it that seriously.”

Chen Xing’s response was calm and logical.

“First-ranked Tendou, third-ranked Liuli, plus fourth-ranked Caroline. On paper, they’re already the strongest of the twelve teams.”

“Not to mention, their star cores complement each other. If even they can’t pass this final assessment, then I honestly can’t imagine who could.”

She narrowed her eyes at her younger brother.

“Anyway, you’d better worry about yourself. If you dare drag me down later, I won’t let you off.”

“U-Understood!”

At that same moment, similar conversations were happening behind a pane of one-way glass above the central arena.

“No matter how I look at it, Tendou’s team is the strongest, right?”

“Even so, I still don’t see them having the slightest chance of victory. That level two Terravaran is a notorious beast—top of its rank. Even Tendou’s team won’t last three minutes against it, never mind the other weaker teams.”

“Doctor, are you sure this final exam setup isn’t too much?”

The Doctor’s expression turned unreadable. Staring down at Tendou, he gave an answer that left everyone taken aback.

“No. In fact, I think that level two Terravaran is just right.”

“Just watch. That boy Tendou will definitely give you all quite the surprise.”

“Oh? Now this is getting interesting.”

The griffon-man rose to his feet, stepping to the massive window. From there, he gazed down at Tendou’s team as they walked onto the arena floor.

The final assessment… had begun.

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