Ling Lan halted, and with a flick of her right arm, the Central Scout Academy students moved with utmost cooperation, dashing to one side to stick closely to the passage walls. Gao Jinyun's party was off by a beat, but they did not mess up. Some of their members just did not dodge as adeptly as the students from the Central Scout Academy, seeming somewhat clumsy in comparison.
This direct comparison showed the difference in skill levels instantly; Gao Jinyun's face felt hot with shame. He silently decided that when he entered the academy, he would definitely train his party up well, to avoid shaming themselves again in front of Ling Lan in future.
Ling Lan signalled for the students to stay in place and not move. Then, with a nimble flash step, she had arrived at the doorway of the central control room. The doors were tightly sealed — entering or exiting required a passcode.
"Little Four, how many people can you confirm inside?" Ling Lan asked Little Four silently.
"There are 53 staff members, and 10 guards." Little Four projected the scene inside the central control room faithfully in Ling Lan's mindspace."The opponent has the advantage in numbers. Breaking in forcefully may not allow us to take control quickly. The other side are likely to find time to send out the news of our attack." Ling Lan's brow furrowed, finding the situation somewhat out of her expectations. She had initially thought that since it was a meal time, the staff members inside would be fewer — unexpectedly, there wasn't that much fewer than normal.
"Boss, I can instantly seal off their communication equipment!" Little Four became excited. This was his chance to shine! It was time to show Boss how awesome he could be.
"And the weapons?" Ling Lan threw an icy glance at the smug Little Four, instantly suppressing the other's flames of arrogance. Indeed, all the staff members inside were equipped with beam handguns. If they just charged in, the other side need only find a chance to pull their guns and shoot, and some of their party might unfortunately die here.
Ling Lan did not believe that under this sudden and unexpected attack, the people inside could still keep calm and judge the situation accurately. It would already be a blessing if they did not just shoot indiscriminately all at once — if by any chance a student were to fall here, she would not be able to live with herself.
Little Four was deeply struck by Ling Lan's words. He could only squat down and draw circles on the ground, busying himself with self-reflection ...
Should she use a large-scale spiritual attack? Ling Lan silently speculated. She actually had a solution — she could sense that the people inside were not people with awakened innate talents on the spiritual front; so, her spiritual attacks could totally incapacitate all of them.
However, Ling Lan had one reservation, because Ling Xiao and Mu Shui-qing did not want others to know of this ability of hers. As veteran warriors, they knew the importance of keeping a trump card. In critical moments, that could be the ultimate move that would save one's life.Ling Lan took this advice to heart. Although spiritual attacks were not her only ace in the hole, no one would ever complain about having too many trump cards. Thus, Ling Lan had nodded and agreed.
Ling Lan did not like to go against her word. Since she had already promised her father and her master not to use spiritual attacks unless absolutely necessary in a life-or-death situation, Ling Lan would hold true to that. Therefore, she decisively threw out this option and tried to think of another way.
Ling Lan began to go through anything that could help their operation, and suddenly, a thought came to her mind. She recalled those sentries who had been struck down by them — could they maybe try to use the uniforms and weapons of those men?
Ling Lan immediately returned to Han Jijyun's side, and quietly outlined her plan. Han Jijyun felt that the idea was excellent, and the other team leaders by his side also nodded in approval as they heard the plan. As long as the other party had just a beat of hesitation and uncertainty, that would be their chance.
Although the other side had more people, the combat ability of the staff members were not very strong. As long as the other side did not find a chance to pull their guns and begin shooting en masse, the cadets would definitely be able to keep the situation under control. Their chances of winning were undoubtedly still very high.
All young and courageous scout students were willing to take risks — everyone felt that this plan was worth a shot.
And so, Ling Lan led the group back to the room where they had put the sentries in. Before they entered, Ling Lan let Little Four check to see if any of the men had woken up. After confirming that they were all still unconscious, they opened the door. Everyone rushed in, and very soon, all the sentries' clothes and weapons had been lifted off their bodies.
During this time, Little Four had done a quick scan of the ship, and found that the teams moving around the ship were in groups of 10 men. As such, it looked like the first batch to enter the central control room should not exceed 10 people.
After listening to Little Four's report, Ling Lan was even more certain. This was definitely a spaceship run by military men, because the arrangement of 10 people per unit was precisely the smallest mobile unit of the official Federation army (with the exception of mecha squads).
Inside the room, everyone quickly changed into the sentry uniforms. Even though they were only 16 years old right now, their bodies were already not that much different from that of an adult's. At a glance, it was almost impossible to notice anything off.
Ling Lan was the only one who put on the uniform and then immediately took it off again, because Ling Lan was not the well-built manly type. Her muscles were all leanness and graceful lines — it was impossible to tell she was a combat master when she was not circulating her Qi or actually fighting. Her entire stature was a bit more slender than regular males, so the uniforms were obviously too big on her, not at all fitting.
Everyone agreed that Ling Lan might as well not wear the uniform, because it would be obvious at a glance that she was in disguise, making the disguise completely pointless.
Ling Lan smiled wryly; the difference between genders was still apparent. However, Ling Lan very quickly centred herself again, because there was an even more delicate man in her party, Luo Lang ... at that thought, she immediately had no more regrets.
(Ling Lan, don't you think there is something wrong with the way you are thinking? You are a girl, while Luo Lang is a boy ...) 1
In order to ensure safety, Ling Lan, Han Jijyun, along with several intelligent-type team leaders discussed several action plans inside this sealed room. Among these, Gao Jinyun's performance stood out. He provided multiple possible scenarios that could happen once they entered the central control room, as well as the opponent's possible responses; this made the other team leaders from the Central Scout Academy hold a higher opinion of him.
The students of the Central Scout Academy were a haughty bunch, never ever entertaining the idea that there could be better prodigies than themselves in the other scout academies. So, when Gao Jinyun had first joined them, they had not thought much of him and his party, their attitudes clearly cold and indifferent. If not for the fact that Gao Jinyun's party had performed acceptably all this way, they might have blatantly revealed expressions of disdain.
But this time, many of the scenarios that Gao Jinyun described were things they themselves had not thought of. This made them understand that Gao Jinyun was not a simple character, and their initial bit of contempt slowly disappeared as they began to treat Gao Jinyun as an equal.
Unnoticed by the others, Ling Lan and Han Jijyun shared a glance, the meaning of which only they knew.
At the end, each of the team leaders accepted their own tasks and returned to their respective teams. The moment Gao Jinyun returned, several team members surreptitiously gave him a thumbs up, showing their deep respect for their leader. No matter how composed Gao Jinyun was typically, at this moment, even he could not prevent the corner of his lips from curling up into a slight smile ...
Gao Jinyun wanted to say something humble, say that he had only thought of all these due to the inspiration from the others ... Just as he opened his mouth to speak, he suddenly stopped, and all of his initial glee and satisfaction disappeared. He looked towards Han Jijyun, who was currently discussing the final details with Ling Lan, with a complicated expression. Just then, he had realised that those ideas and scenarios he had suggested had all been completed under the other's careful indirect guidance. In other words, without knowing it, he had been manipulated by the other.
"F*ck, who are these people?!" Gao Jinyun, who had originally been confident in his own intelligence, felt his ego being struck once more. Could it be that only aberrants existed beside aberrants? Still, Gao Jinyun was not someone who could not tell good from bad. The other had clearly been trying to help integrate him into their party with his actions ...
Subsequently, the first batch of members to enter the central control room was selected. They were the ten strongest scout students excepting Ling Lan, while Lin Zhong-qing would take on the role of impersonating the leader of the sentry team.
Ling Lan led all of them swiftly back to the doors of the central control room. To save time, Ling Lan stepped up immediately, letting Little Four crack the passcode for this door.
Of course, in the eyes of the others, all of this was Ling Lan's doing. All they saw was their Boss Lan standing at the door staring at it for about one second, and then his fingers flew over the touchscreen, leaving behind trailing afterimages. Several seconds later, he suddenly stopped and calmly told them the passcode ...
They were once again in awe of Boss Lan's greatness. Who could have expected that the combat-powerful Boss Lan would also be so exceptional when it came to deciphering codes? In their hearts, a question emerged — was there anything Ling Lan could not do?
Lin Zhong-qing, who was disguised as the leader, took a deep breath, trying to calm his pounding heart. Now was his time to perform. He must complete the task Boss Lan had assigned to him perfectly. He must let Boss Lan see that he, Lin Zhong-qing, was definitely a team member worthy of trust.
When Ling Lan had reached out a helping hand back when he had been most troubled, when Ling Lan had clearly known he was joining his team with an ulterior motive but still chose to treat him with dignity, giving him a chance to become strong, Lin Zhong-qing had known that Ling Lan would be the leader he would chase for life ...
Lin Zhong-qing's gaze became resolute in an instant. Ever since joining Ling Lan's team, he had been making preparations for this day. In that case, what was there to be nervous about? Perhaps the personal pep-talk worked, for his initially high-strung emotions eased and faded, leaving himself calm and centred.
He reached out his right hand, and keyed in the passcode with steady fingers. The door gave a sudden click and then slid to the left, revealing a roughly 1.5 metre wide entry.
The people inside heard the sound and looked up reflexively. Seeing that it was just the ship's sentries, they relaxed and turned back to their own work. Only one guard near the door asked in surprise, "Eh? Why are you all here? Has something happened outside?"
Lin Zhong-qing answered calmly, "Yes! We have come to give a report."
Without even thinking about it, the guard connected a call on his wrist communicator, and shouted, "Chief, a leader of one of the sentry teams says that there is a situation outside, and is here to report to you."
"Let him come over here on his own!" A rough voice came from the other end of the communicator.
"Yes, Chief!" The guard ended the call and pointed in a direction, saying, "The chief is over there. You can head right over."
"Thank you!" said Lin Zhong-qing politely, though he was mentally cheering 'YES' loudly to himself. It was unexpected that the ship's central control room was so slack in terms of security, letting him pass so easily without even confirming his identity.
He threw a swift glance at his teammates behind him and then walked off in the direction the guard had pointed out. Lin Zhong-qing knew very well that time was of the essence right now — every second wasted meant an increase in the risk of being discovered.
