Jingheng Lin wasn't angry. In fact, he was awfully amused.

He still remembered that a few months ago, these kids were still like little naive puppies, full of ideas that he didn't know whether to laugh or cry at. They grew wildly on barren land; in the foreseeable future, maybe they would hurriedly bloom into a pale flower, or wither and disintegrate in a ghostly pale.

He didn't expect them to learn to use their eyes and their brains and even bunch up to stand up to him one day.

Just from this result, Headmaster Lu's unprofessional rogue school was way better than Black Orchid Academy.

"So?" Jingheng Lin intended to tease her, deliberately asking, "Didn't your teacher tell you that the reason they could live for another three months was that they had value as a bait?"

"But..." Mint tried to keep talking, but White tugged at her softly and made faces at her while shaking his head. The girl bit her lip. She hesitated, but ultimately shook off his hand, standing out from the students. She said, "No one has the power to define anybody else's value...stop pulling me back, let me finis.h.!.+"

"Don't pull her back," Jingheng had his arms folded across his chest, "Some courage is necessary."

"After the OSC Gene Revolution, the Union prohibited unnecessary medical gene modification and human alteration projects. From there on, human genes haven't changed in centuries. In front of the Creator, all humans are equal." These sentences were probably a quote from a book, so it was less formal and more academic. Mint faltered constantly throughout her recitation, "No one can decide someone else's life."

Jingheng Lin nodded. "Yes, all citizens' lives and freedom are sacred and inviolable. That's very politically correct. You're as aware as Zhanlu."

Zhanlu's voice sounded from everywhere in Heavy

Jingheng Lin lowered his lashes. He spread his hands, a smirk plastered on his face, "But little girl, even though sacred can't be violated, missiles can, and the same as particle cannons, a b.u.t.ton-sized biochemical chip, and a few milligrams of deadly alkaloids can all be violated, isn't that the truth?"

Mint: "....."

"'Should', and 'will or can' are two different concepts. If everything worked from the 'should' perspective, Ares Von should've been punished due to what he did ages ago. It would never be my turn to kill him off." Jingheng Lin waved at Zhanlu, and a refrigerator on the wall popped out. A few bottles of colorful low-alcohol sodas lined up in it. "Grab whatever you would like to drink. Have fun."

The students had no other solutions. They couldn't persuade Jingheng Lin, which made them impossible to send a message out - if they wanted to contact Sat.u.r.day from here, they could only use remote communication. But the remote communication core processor was Zhanlu. They couldn't get access; even if they could, Sat.u.r.day's team was playing hide-and-seek with the pirates, and they could slip up and reveal their coordinates with a brief distraction. Who would dare to send a risky message to the Self-Defense Force?

Sat.u.r.day's temples throbbed like they were being p.r.i.c.ked by needles.

They just failed an attempt at striking. The original plan was to hide outside the transfer point, and once the pirates jumped, they would launch a round of remote missiles and catch them unguarded.

But knowing tactics was just knowing. Using them in battle was an entirely different thing.

The area around transfer points had strong energy surges, so no matter what was fired, quantum cannons, or missiles, they'd all deviate from their original path, more or less. But how much they deviated, and in what direction they deviated depended on the transfer point itself and the pa.s.sing mech's ma.s.s. That could only be determined by experience and senses — the Self-Defense Force might've had those with poker games, but way behind when it came to firing missiles.

Just when Sat.u.r.day yelled "Prepare," the overly nervous Self-Defense Force members hallucinated and accidentally slipped, releasing four or five missiles. They flew past beside the transfer point like welcoming fireworks, not even touching the edges.

This time they screwed the entire thing up. They rattled the huge python out of the bushes and revealed their coordinates.

Although this pirate team was just a scouting team, it reacted surprisingly fast. The team quickly spread out and started organizing ferocious attacks.

The pirates had experience from roughing in the extraterrestrial areas. Don't even talk about being caught up by them or taking a hit - even if the two sides' mental networks brushed against each other, the pirates had the ability to make the entire Self-Defense Force drop out of their networks instantly.

Sat.u.r.day yelled into the communication channels. "Run!"

How Jingheng Lin normally annihilated them with Heavy Mech No. 3 was like the autumn wind breezing through fallen leaves -- the Self-Defense Force was those leaves.

The Self-Defense Force crew had learned the habit of running like h.e.l.l the instant Sat.u.r.day yelled for them to run.

Jingheng Lin wouldn't pull them out and kill them for fun, but the same couldn't be said for the pirates!

At the same time, the pirate scouting team was shocked too -- because normally, when both sides looked about the same strength and both had mechs, even if one side was low on fuel and was forced to retreat, they would usually run while bringing up the rear team by team to attack. Sometimes, if they ran into some tough official army, the enemy would even come up and steal their mental network control by force, relying on their stronger mental strength.

The experienced interstellar pirates had never seen people retreating this scared s.h.i.+tless in their hundreds of battles. They really did learn something from this.

This place's layered unknown energy fields were like a maze, and the enemy was so...unusual.

The pirates' scouting team thought too much for a second. They weren't brave enough to chase after them firsthand, which let the Self-Defense Force successfully jump, escaping out of their scouting range. The anti-tracking system was extremely precise, and soon Sat.u.r.day's team's tracks were hidden without a trace, making the two sides enter another stalemate.

The anti-tracking system had multiple layers. At first, the two sides were exchanging fire in the dark. Then the pirate scouting team quickly showed their superb technique in their excellent decoding skills -- within an hour, they had almost cracked the outer perimeter's pa.s.sage encryption in nonstop tries.

Sat.u.r.day led his team and performed the highest level of pretense -- by acting their true colors.

At first, the pirate scouting team was very careful. But the real capability was there, and after a few scurrying away from chases, the pirate team found out the actual level of this armed force. The time between the chases got shorter and shorter and quickly turned from reserved defense to full-on attacks. They transformed into giant jaws drooling to chomp down on the stranded cub.

The Self-Defense Force could only retreat further and further. Sat.u.r.day, in order to cover a teammate that almost dropped out of his mental network, was. .h.i.t right by a pirate's particle cannon. His mech s.h.i.+eld was damaged over 90%. For now, he was basically naked, defense-wise. He pulled out a bottle of low-temp preserved drinking water from the supply box, took a gulp, and then poured the rest over his head. His blood vessels violently contracted at the cold. He shook his head around with force, "We can't keep running away like this. We need to fight back."