Star Rank Hunter - Chapter 238

Chapter 238

Chapter 238: AF1’s Preparatory Campus

AF1 wasn’t difficult to find, but it was very difficult to enter .

The part Cillin went into was the preparatory campus . Right now, they weren’t qualified to enter to official campus at all .

The preparatory campus wasn’t located in the same place as the official campus . In fact, the two campuses weren’t on the same planet . That being said, they weren’t far from each other . Cillin could see the official campus’ planet from where he was .

The planet where AF1’s official campus was located was very big . There were three schools on the planet: AF1, AF2 and AF3 . Several moons orbited the planet, and the preparatory campus of AF1 was one of them, so of course the planet was visible to the naked eye .

AF3’s entry test were few and less complicated, but the same couldn’t be said for AF1 and AF2 . The tests were normally directed by AF1 . AF1’s preparatory campus was the test location, and both AF1 and AF2’s teachers would conduct the tryouts together . When the tryouts were over, the results decided which participants would be segregated into AF1, AF2, AF3 or be eliminated .

The tryouts at AF1’s preparatory campus were formulated by stage; it all depended on the total number of sent recommendation cards and timing . Cillin was lucky because the next stage of the tryouts was starting pretty soon .

The imperial capital had specialized navigation robots . All Cillin did was to find a random navigation robot on the streets and entered his destination and ID information, and he was taken to a place with special cars immediately . After Cillin had shown his recommendation card, he was brought to this moon .

The watermelon-sized navigation robot who was flying everywhere explained many things to Cillin while leading him to the preparatory campus’ entrance . It was also here Cillin ran into Libero .

Libero hadn’t come alone . He was accompanied by a brawny guy he called “Ironhead” .

Ironhead was a humanoid too . Strictly speaking, both Libero and Ironhead were half-humanoids or mixed-bloods . Of course, this was just the polite way to describe them . Some nobles called them bastards outright; especially the self entitled ones . To them, a mixed-blood was the shame of humanity and the kind of people they disdained the most .

Libero was surprised to see Cillin too; he didn’t think that they shared the same destination . However, his surprise was quickly dyed by cheer . Libero was very happy to make the acquaintance of any people who didn’t discriminate against mixed-blood . Before this meeting, he thought that he and Cillin were just passing strangers . But now, they were comrades in the same trench .

Libero introduced Ironhead to Cillin . When Ironhead saw that Cillin didn’t show him any disdain, he too returned a friendly smile .

“Have you reported yourself in yet, Cillin?” Libeo asked .

“No . ” Cillin shook his head . He had stayed a little longer than expected at the station and spent a lot of time eating with the gray cat . There were always problems when the gray cat didn’t get its fill .

“We already did . Let me guide you there!” Libero was very passionate . They hadn’t arrived for long themselves, and they were soon to be arranged into temporary hostels after reporting in . It would be nice if they could apply for the same hostel and avoid sharing the same living space with strangers or people who discriminated against them .

The report process was very simple; all he needed to do was show his recommendation card . Every recommendation card contained the recommender’s information, so the one Cillin was holding contained Griffin’s information .

Every AF1 and AF2 teacher faced a certain amount of pressure after they sent out a recommendation card because the person they recommended might not necessarily be accepted by the school in the end . The ratio of the number of recommendation cards sent out and the people who were accepted by the school were strongly tied to these teachers . Naturally, those teachers whose recommendation applied more often than not enjoyed greater fame .

When Cillin passed his recommendation card to the person in charge, the latter didn’t pay him much attention at first . After all, there were plenty of teachers in the affiliated schools and plenty of recommendation cards being sent out . His attitude changed a little and a bit of curiosity entered his eyes when he read the information on the card though . He didn’t imagine that Griffin would be the one to recommend such an average looking person .

After he obtained his hostel card, Cillin, Libero and Ironhead headed towards their temporary hostel .

The gray cat accompanied the trio as Cillin’s pet . It wouldn’t be participating in the beast-type tests because it didn’t receive a recommendation . But even if it did, the gray cat wouldn’t have bothered with such nuisance .

The arrangement of the hostel was almost the same as Chang Four’s at Baelenbaatar . The difference was that it was a five-man hostel instead of four . Everyone had an individual bedroom, but they would be sharing a training room, living room and so on .

When the trio arrived at their hostel, they discovered that someone was already living in it . Judging from his appearance, he had been staying in this place for quite a while . The man was just waking up and looking a bit drowsy when the trio entered the hostel . When he saw them, he stretched and asked, “Yo, are you guys my housemates? All three of you?”

Libero introduced himself first before making a round of introduction for Cillin and Ironhead as well . The guy scratched his messy head before chuckling . “My name is Walley . I come from a small, out-of-the-way planet in the seventh star region . ” Walley’s nose twitched as he said this, “Did you guys buy breakfast?”

“It’s lunchtime already, isn’t it?” Libero said exasperatedly .

Walley rubbed his hands together . “Never mind that . Can I join you?”

“Sure . We bought a lot of food anyway . ”

Cillin put the items of the large table at the living room while the gray cat crouched in front of its plate and chowed down in no time . When Walley stretched a fork towards its plate, it instantly cut the utensil into three pieces . As it happened, the young man liked toying with the gray cat a lot, so he switched to a new fork and tried again and again . Finally, he managed to grab a small fish from the gray cat’s plate, and the gray cat was so mad that it scratched Walley’s face a couple of times .

Walley was a pretty easygoing person though . When he spoke of the reason he came to AF1’s preparatory campus, he summed it all in two words: debt collection .

Technically speaking, the place Walley lived in had absolutely nothing to do with the affiliated schools . It was a planet that was even more remote than Old Chang’s . However, one day Walley ran into a person who forcefully landed his faulty spaceplane near his house . Because he was feeling good, he offered the person a meal, and then they fought a brawl that ended with Walley being crushed so badly that no one in the entire district could recognize him . In the end, the man kicked Walley twice, ate everything that could be eaten in Walley’s house and took a French leave . Before he left, he tossed down a card and a small sum of money before telling Walley to find him in AF1, promising to free him from all basic necessities of life if he did . That was how Walley came to AF1 to collect the debt he was due .

After listening to Walley’s story, Cillin thought that the teachers of the affiliated schools were pretty eccentric . Everyone had an elusive personality . Walley wasn’t a mixed blood like Libero or Ironhead; he was an average human just like Cillin was . However, he must have some outstanding talents considering that his teacher had him a recommendation card, even if the way he was recruited was a little unusual .

Ironhead’s parents were the servants of a noble family . Because Ironhead proved himself to be a man of some abilities, the noble family had used their connection to acquire a recommendation card for Ironhead . However, if Ironhead was eliminated during the tryouts, it was clear that his whole family would be forced to go through a very difficult time . That was why Ironhead felt considerable pressure on his shoulders .

Libero was apparently the same . He claimed that his teacher had spent much effort to collect a recommendation card for him, but didn’t go deep into the details . It was obvious to everyone that things weren’t as simple as Libero claimed, but since he wasn’t willing to tell they didn’t prod further into the subject .

The final person to show up was also the most special . He was an eight years old child of a noble family . However, he was a livelier boy than your average noble boy, and he didn’t pretend to be proud, standoffish or eccentric like some nobles . Although he kept calling himself “the young master”, they could see from his eyes that he didn’t mean to demean anyone . It was just a pet phrase he was used to .

The person who sent in the boy was an old manservant . The old manservant reminded Cillin of the small old man, Berzett beside Lung . Although the polite smile on his face never wore off, he was absolutely not to be underestimated .

AF1’s rules forbad any people in the preparatory campus to bring their servants, so all the old man did was to escort the boy to the hostel . After that, he carried so many things into the hostel that the storage cabinets in the living room and the kitchen were completely filled with stuff . The old manservant claimed that it was his gift to everyone in hopes that they would more or less help out his young master in times of need . This was the first time he left home after all .

Cillin and the others promised that they would . They were now housemates after all .

Cillin believed that the old manservant must’ve investigated into their backgrounds before he came . There was no way he would leave his young master here so easily otherwise .

The boy’s name was Teita, but his surname wasn’t revealed .

The old manservant finally left after the boy chased him out impatiently . Teita then out a loud cheer while jumping around in the bedroom the old manservant tidied for him as if he was released from prison .

The quartet exchanged a look with each other . He was just a kid after all .

Teita really wasn’t a kid who put on airs much even though he couldn’t avoid a noble’s way of speech due to his age . His actions were truly shocking, however .

For example, Teita would say: “Hey, the young master requests you to speak with him!”

But in reality, Teita was obediently making his way towards Cillin’s group and joining in their conversation . He knew a surprising amount of things for his age .

“Hey, young master Teita, do you happen to know how this tryouts will be conducted?” Walley asked while leaning on his chair and biting on a walnut .

Cillin didn’t like to eat this type of walnut much, but the gray cat did, so he peeled the shells for the gray cat and gave Teita some too .

While eating the walnuts Cillin peeled for him, Teita stretched out five fingers and said, “There are normally five rounds in AF1’s tryouts . It is called the Five Tests of AF1 . ”

“The Five Tests of AF1?  Is it difficult?” Libero asked .

Teita frowned as he chewed on the walnut . “I heard it’s pretty hard . You even have to write on a paper during the written test of the first round . ”

Did he say writing?

“You mean, we actually have to write down words on a piece of paper?” Ironhead looked a little troubled . Even thought he was a manservant, he had almost never written anything with a pen and paper his whole life . He had always used electronic tablets instead . He doubted that he could stomach his own words he had to physically write them out on a paper .

Libero had the same problem as Ironhead, but Cillin and Walley was a lot calmer than the two humanoids . The task wasn’t unfamiliar to them .

Cillin passed another peeled walnut to the boy . “Continue . ”

Teita accepted the walnut and tossed it into his mouth . It was crunchy and pretty good . Then, he stretched his fingers again and began explaining, “There is also a stress test, three mini tests, a cooperative test and a final interview . But you guys don’t need to worry about anything . The tests don’t have a so-called passing standard, so no one actually knows what they actually based their tryouts on . Some people obviously did horribly during the written test, but they were recruited into the school in the end . But some people who did well was rejected instead . ”

Teita told them everything he knew, but the more they learned the stranger they felt: why are AF1’s tests so unique?