Chapter Nine: The Battle for Captaincy—Colt’s Fuming Outburst

“This time, your performance wasn’t bad. Your team leader will be a member of Colt,” Sergeant Tina announced.

“Yeah! I am the strongest!” Colt leaped up in excitement, but Tina quickly doused his enthusiasm with cold water: “I haven’t finished yet. There’s another one—a member of Raimei Chuan. Let’s congratulate them.”

“W-what? Raimei? Why is there another one?” Colt was stunned, unable to believe what he was hearing.

“Naturally, there’s a vice-captain! By the way, that’s you,” Tina explained calmly.

“Why? How many did he kill?” Colt slammed the table, questioning Sergeant Tina.

“Let me see. Colt, you took down 67 Satans…” Tina began, but Colt interrupted her, “I know, but that’s still a lot, isn’t it?” he protested. But Sergeant Tina’s next words hit him hard: “But Raimei Chuan took down twice as many as you!”

Hearing this, Colt snatched the tablet from Sergeant Tina’s hands, muttering under his breath, “Raimei’s kill count is 138? Impossible! I don’t believe it—I can’t believe it!” At this point, Raimei could no longer stay silent. “It’s quite normal. I use dual blades, so it’s only natural I brought down more Satans than you. Please, calm yourself.”

“Fine, I’ll calm down. Where’s the restroom?” Colt panted, asking Tina. Tina pointed to the restroom sign nearby, and Colt, seeing it, rushed off immediately.

George was about to go and comfort him, but Raimei signaled for him to sit down. “Don’t, George. Sit. If he can’t handle this kind of setback, maybe he shouldn’t be captain in the first place.” George considered this and found it reasonable, so he sat back down.

“Well, the atmosphere is much better now. It’s time you all considered a team name,” Tina said. “The other teams have already chosen theirs: ‘Storm,’ ‘Blaze,’ and ‘Shadow.’”

“Wait—‘Wind,’ ‘Fire,’ ‘Shadow’… Does that mean there are two more teams?” Winchester, usually so quiet, finally spoke up.

“What makes you think that?” Tina asked curiously.

“Oh, I once heard of an ancient Chinese strategist named Sun Bin. In his ‘Art of War,’ there’s a tactic called ‘Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain.’ I just don’t know why there’s a ‘Shadow.’”

“Ah, that! Actually, the full line is: ‘Swift as the wind, quiet as the forest, aggressive as fire, immovable as the mountain, mysterious as the shade, and sudden as thunder.’ Perhaps the team leaders prefer ‘speed,’ ‘attack,’ and ‘surprise assaults,’ so their captains are probably the pilots of ‘Knight,’ ‘Heavybreaker,’ and ‘Eagle Eye.’ Am I right, Deputy Tina?”

“Your deduction is absolutely correct.” Tina applauded in agreement, then asked quietly, “But, which one would you choose?”

“I think I’d go with ‘Thunder.’ ‘Raiden.’”

“Why?” Tina probed again.

“Thunder’s power is great—it’s a symbol of attack. And you’ve all heard of ‘blitzkrieg,’ right? One word embodies both ‘attack’ and ‘speed.’ Also, as the saying goes: ‘When the army moves to engage, it is as mighty as thunder—those who stand in its way are broken.’”

“A solid suggestion. Though your choice of ‘Thunder’ may have personal reasons, the overall meaning fits. I agree.” Winchester checked the meaning of “Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain” on his phone as he responded.

“I’m fine with it too,” Wenxin agreed, and the others nodded their approval in turn.

“I’ll go to the restroom now. Colt should have calmed down by now,” Raimei said. “I need to have a good talk with him…”

———Author’s Note———
Dear readers, I apologize that Thursday’s update was delayed until now due to my parents. If possible, I’ll make it up to you with an update tomorrow. But if I can’t, the next update will likely have to wait until the summer holidays. I’m very sorry for any inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding—after all, TK still has to prepare for the high school entrance exams.