76 Chapter 76: Squad Selection

"Okay, so who is in?" I asked. In front of me, only Dong Fang Yue Chu and Stan were enthusiastically raising their hands. Harvey and Wang Fei, on the other hand, were looking dismayed and reluctant.

"Vice-President, you do know how large and powerful the Holy Saints are, right?" Wang Fei asked nervously. "Ever since they were first established until now, the only other society who can compete with them is Black Roses. We don't stand a chance!"

"I'm sure Vice-President Richard will figure something out!" Harvey assured him, his faith in me as unshakable as ever. As usual, I found myself wilting under the pressure. I opened my mouth to correct his rose-tinted view of me, to tell him that I wasn't invincible or some kind of god who could pull off a miraculous win by myself, but Dong Fang Yue Chu cut in before I could.

"Then are you in?"

"Um…" Harvey turned pale and he shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I have no confidence in myself. I don't want to drag you guys down and cause the society to lose."

"That won't happen," I told him. "You're not that bad. As long as you believe in yourself, you can do it!"

"Oi, don't be so irresponsible. I know you mean well, but giving false hope will have a detrimental effect." Dong Fang Yue Chu glared at me, and I shrank back. The president of Ultimate Outcast paused to consider our options, pursing his lips. "Hmm, even if we allow Stan to participate, it means we're still short of three members."

"The Black Roses will be happy to join our team," Harvey spoke up excitedly. That explained why he was holding back. Normally, his indomitable belief in me would lead him to think I could conjure up a sure-win victory no matter who the members in our team were, but right now he was calmly considering other options to increase our odds of victory. "As Wang Fei pointed out, the Black Roses are the only other society who can challenge the Holy Saints. We should accept their help."

"We will, but it'll seem pretty lazy of us if we just have one member participating and four members from Black Roses. Not only do I not want to owe them a favor, it'll also look like we're taking advantage of them. I would like the backbone of the team to be from Ultimate Outcast, if possible."

I spoke up with a frown, and both Dong Fang Yue Chu and Stan nodded. The president stepped forward and slapped me in the back.

"Well said! Exactly! We're not going to run away from this fight! At least half of us should be from Ultimate Outcast, or they'll look down on us! It's not as if the society is built around Richard alone!"

"Uh, it isn't?" Harvey asked, confused. Everyone stared at him.

"Of course not!" Stan snapped. "Each of us has a role to play! We can't rely on the vice-president to prop the society up on his own forever!"

"That's true," Harvey conceded. "I don't want to drag the vice-prez down. But…" he suddenly remembered something. "Speaking of owing favors, don't the Black Roses owe you a favor, Vice-Prez? You saved them a couple of times."

"The second time was mutual. But…yeah, I think Troy will want to join the fight. The last place can be…given to either Elliot, Nicholas or Jin Hao. I've worked with them before, so I think it's easier to group up with them."

"You've worked with Troy before too?" Dong Fang Yue Chu asked in disbelief. I nodded.

"Yeah, ever since middle school. We had…similar interests. That's why he knows my Dad. We've sparred and know each other's ability." I lowered my voice. "He's a real beast. I've not won against him, not even once."

"Wow…" Harvey looked impressed, as if he couldn't imagine anyone defeating me. Dude, you did see me lose a few matches over the last couple of months, didn't you?

"All right. I'll leave the liaison with Black Roses to you, Richard. I'll leave the selection to you, since you know them better than we do."

"Sure."

We had less than a week left. It was already the day after – two nights ago was when Feng Hai announced the match between Holy Saints and Ultimate Outcast. We didn't waste any time doing anything else, and our first agenda when we met on Monday was to discuss this serious matter. Sunday was a weekend and people had plans, so I only gathered them together on Monday when everyone was present in school.

What? Did you think I was going to waste almost fifteen chapters talking about things that had absolutely nothing to do with our current predicament? That I was going to randomly enter the OP system and have a fight with some guy who could conceal his presence? And cover a duel between a fire-using girl with a gatling gun and a heavy tank, despite neither of those characters having anything to do with me or my current situation? Did you want me to talk about the Federation and some king dude who I had never met and would never meet in the next five hundred chapters of this story, and the politics between him and the Stuart Clan? And then waste more time on a class regarding Dimension Beasts and live dissection despite that having absolutely nothing to do with the current story? Or did you guys want info dumps and "world-building" or something?

As if I had nothing better to do. It wasn't as if I was trying to drag out the story to earn money. And I was aware of people complaining about how all those were "fillers" and wanting to jump straight to the fight. While I didn't totally agree with jumping straight to the match in the next chapter, I certainly wasn't going to waste almost fifteen chapters on irrelevant events and scenes that had nothing to do with the current arc.

Nope. For the next few chapters I was going to focus entirely on the upcoming team-match against Holy Saints.

"But Stan, if you really want to participate in this, you'll have to undergo extra training this week. I'll talk to Dad." I turned to Dong Fang Yue Chu with a grin. "That applies to both you and me too. We can't afford to shame Ultimate Outcast."

"You got that right! Fine! Bring it on! Tell your dad to prepare his worst training! This grandfather will definitely endure whatever is thrown at him!"

For non-Chinese speakers, basically Dong Fang Yue Chu was literally referring to himself as "this grandfather." Don't ask me why. It was probably some slang to make yourself seem like someone important and deserving of respect from the other party…or something like that.

"All right. You guys train for a bit first. I'll settle the stuff with Black Roses, and when I come back, we'll head to the dojo."

"Yes, Vice-Prez!"

Everyone snapped to attention. I nodded, threw a mock salute, and then hastily strode out of the room. Retrieving my smartphone, I began to type a text message to the ever elusive Troy, who was probably working out in one of Black Roses' exclusive gyms at the moment.

Knowing him and his aversion to people, he would have booked the entire gym for himself. And he was so key to Black Roses' strength that Alicia allowed it. No one had any complaints against the ace of the Black Roses.

That was how terrifying he was.

As I expected, Troy sent a message back informing me that he was indeed working out in his exclusive gym, so I hurried over. Once there, I found myself barred by a hi-tech door. I had to stop at the security pad beside it, tap it to activate the intercom and wait for Troy to respond.

The doors automatically slid open after a few seconds. Troy had evidently been waiting for me. Stepping through, I waved at him as he sat up on one of the benches, wiping his perspiration away from his dark skin with a towel.

"Yo, Richie." He held up a hand in a friendly wave and grinned. "I suspect this visit is with regards to this Saturday's team match."

"Yeah. Do you mind…?"

"Of course!" he brightened up…only for his smartphone to buzz. Frowning, he checked its glowing screen and grew pale. "Aw…shit, man!"

"W…what? What is it?" I blinked, worried at his vehemence.

Troy grimaced as he turned toward me. "I'm sorry, bro. I really hate to do this to you, but I just got an emergency call." He lowered his voice. "It involves my brother."

I immediately went still at that. Troy had been tracking down his missing brother for years, and I couldn't just tell him to give up that one clue he had and stay to help me out. It was also the reason why Troy took so many missions. Many of them were in one form or another related to his missing brother, and he was searching for clues.

Tyrant King was the only family Troy had, and he would do anything to find him. I wasn't very sure because Troy kept details of his brother close to his chest, but I heard that Tyrant was responsible for genocide and a host of other crimes. I wasn't sure if Troy was tracking him down to atone for his brother's crimes, and vowed to kill him with his very own hands, or if he just wanted to find out the truth. Either way, I had no right to ask him to dismiss the clue and stay in Jing Tian Academy just for my sake alone.

"I'm really sorry, bro."

"No." I shook my head and patted his shoulder. "Go take care of your family matters. I can handle this."

"Thanks." Troy scanned through his phone with a sigh, then turned to me seriously. "But if I'm not going to be around, who can you rely on? I heard from President Alicia that she would be loaning you some of our members."

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"Yeah." I nodded. Unlike a certain Wang Zhong, I wasn't going to be pretentious and declare that we wouldn't lose or that we didn't need any help from Black Roses. It wasn't as if we had a pair of talented first year students or something. Of course it would be mighty convenient if the two most talented first year students joined our society for some stupid reason (probably protagonist power), but reality never went the way you wanted it to. "I'll probably ask Elliot, Nicholas or Jin Hao for help. I've worked with the three of them before, so I'm familiar with their techniques and magic."

Troy gawked at me. "Seriously? I mean, Elliot, Nick and Jin Hao are pretty great guys, and I mean no disrespect, but…they're not the top Black Roses members, you know? They're among…well, the bottom. Since you have the chance, couldn't you just ask for higher-ranked Black Roses?"

"The fact that they're in Black Roses means that they're pretty skilled, doesn't it?" I pointed out. "Black Roses just don't accept anybody. If they're in, then they definitely have a certain caliber. Besides, the most important thing is that we've worked together before. Since this is a team match and we don't have a lot of time to practice together, I think having synergy and a rapport is more important than looking for members with high individual strength, but aren't able to work well in a team."

"That is certainly true." Troy nodded, and then he smiled broadly. "Good luck, Richie. I'm sure you'll do fine, but I wish you luck all the same."

I returned the grin. My friend was right, well…partly. I definitely needed the luck. I doubted I would do fine, but I wasn't going to just roll over and hand the victory to those Holy Saint bastards. "I can't guarantee anything, but we'll definitely do our best. Holy Saints might think they have this one in the bag, but we'll give them a good fight."