The farce of the dance did not last long before the winter training began.
Second-year students were paired up to compete on a more barren planet. The team with the higher score could choose which class to attend.
The competition content was quite varied.
One could opt for a tourist style, earning points by identifying plants from books.
Another option was a hunting style, where encountering and hunting various rare beasts would earn points hundreds of times greater than the normal rate.
Furthermore, there were no class restrictions for team formation.
As soon as everyone heard the competition rules, their gazes instinctively fell upon Lin Hao.
Even girls from other classes directly approached Lin Hao, inviting him to team up.
Lin Hao, seeing one beautiful girl after another asking him to team up, had to admit, it would be a lie to say he wasn't tempted.
However, for the sake of Fei'er having a better living environment, he had to stay with Qin Mohan.
Even though Fei'er had said those words back then.
Lin Hao felt no sadness, only reflecting on whether the flowers he picked last time were too plain, which was why Fei'er disliked them.
If he could find particularly beautiful flowers on that planet, she would surely be happy.
With this thought in mind, Lin Hao patiently explained to the beauties, "You all saw my affection for my deskmate back then, so for this activity, I will definitely be teaming up with this person. I'm sorry."
Because of Lin Hao's explanation, no one bothered him anymore.
Hu Tu's attitude towards him became even more absurd, his eyes always conveying, 'You really are gay.'
Seeing this, Lin Hao chose not to explain.
"Qin Jia Gege, team up with me this time. No one is asking me, and I only know you," Lin Hao said, lying on the sofa in the dormitory, looking at the person busy in the kitchen.
Qin Mohan put down his spatula and quickly walked up to Lin Hao, lowering his head and slowly approaching Lin Hao's eyes.
Seeing the handsome face suddenly appear before him, Lin Hao tilted his head back, inexplicably forgetting to dodge.
Their eyes met.
"You don't want to?"
After what felt like a long stare, Lin Hao's lips parted slightly as he asked somewhat listlessly.
"You will, again."
Qin Mohan said something unintelligible before returning to his work.
Lin Hao was left on the sofa, completely bewildered.
He didn't receive a clear answer, but rather a vague few words.
In a blink of an eye, they arrived at that planet.
The school leaders did not say much this time, simply sending them all down to the planet.
Upon arriving, Lin Hao and Qin Mohan adopted a simple tourist approach.
They looked at plants everywhere. As long as the plant was photographed with the star net and its name was spoken, it counted as one point.
Lin Hao spotted a river in the distance and thought he saw something in the water.
He immediately abandoned Qin Mohan, who was still taking pictures, and ran straight to the riverbank, jumping in.
In less than a minute, Lin Hao held two large fish in his hands.
Holding the two strange fish, Lin Hao smiled at Qin Mohan, who stood on the bank with a darkened expression, and said, "Qin Jia Gege, look, these big fish will be enough for us to eat for several meals."
They say girls' moods are capricious, but he couldn't help but feel that the Crown Prince's mood was just as unpredictable.
He had clearly seen Qin Mohan looking happy while taking photos just moments ago, so why did his face turn so dark while he was catching fish?
Ah.
It was so hard to understand.
Their dinner consisted of the two fish Lin Hao had caught.
He wondered how Qin Mohan had managed to live this long.
He was clearly allergic to that fish, yet he ate it all.
Now he had a face full of red rashes.
Just as Lin Hao was about to scold him, Qin Mohan said that he would find some medicine in his space and eat it.
Fine.
Lin Hao had worried for nothing.
Lin Hao sat alone at the cave entrance, brooding over something.
The next few days were spent gradually shifting towards the hunting style.
As the strategist of their team, Qin Mohan would formulate the least damaging plan every night.
Because they had someone who could analyze formations, their points far surpassed those of other groups.
However, not everything went smoothly.
One day at noon, they were ambushed by an unknown creature.
The creature had a vine-like appearance and attacked them without warning.
But this creature was not only highly defensive but could also use mental attacks.
Lin Hao, flung to an unknown location, saw Qin Mohan being bound by two vines and held mid-air, with a thick vine heading straight for his heart.
'Protect him at all costs, otherwise I don't know if Fei'er will be in danger.'
Seeing this, Lin Hao's mind flashed with Zhao Jianye's words and Fei'er's image.
He then used all his strength to charge towards Qin Mohan's back.
Even though he knew the creature was invincible, he could still find other ways to protect him.
"Be careful."
He finished speaking and moved behind Qin Mohan, using his own body to block the creature's attack.
At that moment, Lin Hao's mind went blank, and the pain of his wounds vanished.
The creature had also damaged his spiritual sea.
As his consciousness drifted into darkness, he seemed to hear Qin Mohan's call.
But due to the pain, he couldn't hear it clearly.
----------- Time Transition -------
Lin Hao didn't know how long he had been unconscious, but he miraculously woke up.
He had suffered such severe injuries back then.
Because of the creature, his spiritual sea was completely destroyed, dropping from SSS+ to less than S.
Consequently, Zhao Jianye abandoned him.
He was given a piece of paper, torn from who knows where, with a few words written on it.
'You can no longer stay at school. Someone has taken your place. I've placed you in Project N. I believe you'll be willing. Also, Fei'er would surely like a powerful person like you if she knew.'
Lin Hao felt no surprise upon reading this.
When a chess piece loses its usefulness, remaining on the board would only make it a vulnerability.
Although he didn't know Zhao Jianye's true intentions, he wouldn't keep such a flaw around.
Lin Hao took a large bouquet of colorful flowers from his space and returned a letter to Zhao Jianye.
'Alright, this is a bouquet for Fei'er.'
Without the chance to say goodbye to anyone, he was cast out by a group of people onto a desolate planet.
There were many people like him here.
Time passed, and their mission was to clean up the battlefield and face the insectoids.
It was here that he finally understood what Project N truly was.
It was a plan to eliminate the insectoids across the entire galaxy.
No wonder the school had suddenly expanded its enrollment; they were preparing for war.
Lin Hao was naturally assigned to the battlefield. But during the mobilization meeting, he saw Qin Mohan on the large screen, whom he hadn't seen in a long time.
He seemed to have grown up, losing his youthful look and exuding an air of authority.
"I hope that this time, everyone's sacrifice will be rewarded, and victory will belong to us."
His magnetic voice resonated through the speakers to everyone's ears.
"Victory!"
"Let's go."
"For our families."
Countless shouts tore through the sky.
Each of them was equipped with a new type of poison bomb.
This poison was rumored to be able to completely kill the Insect Queen.
After simple words of encouragement, thousands of them boarded specialized spacecraft and headed to the planet occupied by insectoids.
Everywhere, there were scenes of humans battling insectoids, the smoke filling the sky like an unbreakable iron wall.
There were also small pools formed by flowing blood and mountains of corpses.
All testaments to the cruelty of war.
On the battlefield, Lin Hao, for some unknown reason, could always predict the insectoids' next moves.
Thus, he arrived in front of an exceptionally clean cave. Peering inside, he saw only a cute little girl and no other insects.
This must be the Insect Queen.
Realizing this, Lin Hao threw the poison bomb he was carrying into the cave. He didn't try to escape; instead, he found a spot and sat down.
The blast radius of the poison was thousands of meters, so running was futile. Why exert himself?
He just hoped that Zhao Jianye would indeed be good to Fei'er as promised.
Lin Hao glanced towards the cave entrance for some reason.
The girl in the cave seemed to smile at him.
By the time he looked again, the cave entrance was engulfed in a fiery blaze, and he along with it.