Rebirth: The Universe's Hidden Heiress-Chapter 106: The Cargo Ship

At this moment, the people in the first-floor warehouse still didn’t know that their ship was about to overturn.

The storm was calming down, and the ship’s rocking lessened. People stopped holding onto the containers and now gripped their long swords, standing alert, facing each other.

Someone couldn’t help but suggest, "Why don’t we get the water out of the cabin first? The water’s almost up to our knees here."

No one answered him. Most people stood there with the mindset, "As long as I leave the game early, whether the ship sinks or not doesn’t concern me." They stayed vigilant against others attacking them suddenly.

Alex quietly extended his long sword, aiming at the cockpit of the mecha in front of him.

Lory, sensing a noise behind him, immediately turned and blocked, stopping Alex’s slash.

Ayoi’s cannon had cooled down. As soon as she saw Alex at a disadvantage in the fight, she immediately lifted her mechanical arm, firing at the opponent.

Lory, sensing her intention, dodged to the side. The cannon shot grazed his cockpit and flew toward another team.

Before the guy beside him could react, Alex turned his long sword and plunged it deep into the opponent’s cockpit, killing him.

Ayoi’s cannon fire exploded in the distance, taking out several students.

Ayoi and Alex advanced, leaving the Cargo Ship.

Lory, seeing the two who attacked him leave, turned and nodded to Shiro.

Shiro understood, raised his long sword, and charged with Lory toward a nearby crowd, preparing to attack.

But just as they were about to reach the central battlefield, the ship suddenly made a loud noise and started to tilt greatly.

Everyone in the cabin was caught off guard by this sudden event.

As the ship tilted, they slid violently to the lower side, crashing hard into the containers in the warehouse, and several more people disappeared.

As if troubles never come singly, the match time reached one hour, and the storm phase, previously programmed, restarted.

However, due to the ship’s system malfunction, this storm phase didn’t alert all the players.

In the ship’s cockpit, Yuka frantically pressed the stop button, trying to prevent the ship from moving forward, but it still collided with a hidden reef ahead, driven by momentum.

The ship emitted a tremendous cracking sound, swaying and toppling over amidst the fierce storm winds and towering waves.

Before the ship slowly sank, Yuka, overwhelmed by conscience, sincerely apologized to the remaining players on board.

In the commentary room, Yonda couldn’t bear to watch and covered her eyes, sighing deeply.

[LMAFLMAF]

[Has the Tournament always been this entertaining and thrilling?]

[The ship really sank. This is the first time I’ve seen this ending in the Academy Tournament. Could this go down in the history of the Academy Tournament?]

[I just want to say, thank goodness the Chosen One didn’t start by crashing the ship onto a reef. If it had been a wipeout from the start, that would have been too interesting.]

[Which academy is this person from? This is too funny.] ƒreewebɳovel.com

Under the dual assault of the reef and the storm, the ship quickly sank. Even the students from the Atlantis Academy, skilled in swimming, couldn’t survive in the fierce winds and huge waves, and were soon all removed from the Cargo Ship by the system.

Those people sat up from the holographic pods, still dazed. ’Why did the ship suddenly sink? There wasn’t that much water in the cabin, right?’

Others, who had exited the map earlier and watched the live broadcast, couldn’t help but laugh as they explained the reason to them. Those people were speechless.

Due to the ship’s overturning, the match ended prematurely, but there were still fewer than thirty people qualified for the second round. How these thirty people would compete in the second match became a big issue.

The presidents of the five major academies had anticipated this outcome before the ship sank. They called an emergency meeting, and decided on a temporary change to the advancement rules.

After receiving a message from the UUA president, Kenji immediately announced this news to all the students before they left the room.

"Attention, students," Kenji said on the big screen to everyone in the room. "due to the small number of players advancing to the second round, we are announcing new advancement rules."

"Those who previously advanced will enter the second round as usual. In the Cargo Ship, those who were still alive one minute before the ship sank and had killed five or more people will also advance successfully."

Since the match ended more than half an hour early, this resolution was quite satisfactory.

Everyone accepted the new rule without complaint and began checking their scores on their opticomputers.

Many UUA students who were eliminated early groaned with worried faces, knowing their final exam scores wouldn’t be high.

Yuka knew she had only killed one person and definitely couldn’t advance to the second round, but she was also sure she had enough scores to pass the UUA final examination.

She happily opened her opticomputer to check her score.

[Total score 100 points (Actual score 1480 points)].

Yuka: ???

She doubted her eyes, rubbed them, and looked again. The score was still the same.

Yuka stared blankly at her score for a while, thinking the system might have counted those shipwreck victims as her kills.

Yuka: ... ’I indeed caused the sinking, but I never wanted it this way! Why does this absurd thing happen? Is acting weak and playing low-key really that hard?’

Seeing Yuka’s expression shift from shock to bewilderment, and then to displeasure, Ayoi and Alex couldn’t resist their curiosity and peeked at Yuka’s score.

They patted Yuka’s shoulder with a mix of laughter and sympathy.

Ayoi asked Yuka, "What’s your plan for the second round now?"

After some thought, Yuka replied, "I need to get eliminated right at the beginning."

She was determined to seek defeat deliberately.

Resolved, Yuka ate an extra hotdog that night.

In the cafeteria, she encountered Philip, who blushingly offered her soup, and also ran into Shawn. Both Shawn and Philip, having advanced to the next round, extended an offer to ally with Yuka’s group.

Shawn earnestly said to Yuka and her friends, "Despite the chaos of the first round, forming alliances will be more beneficial now with fewer competitors in the second round. The map will be larger, making teamwork more effective. Won’t you reconsider?"

Ayoi firmly shook her head in response to her childhood friend and declined, "No, the three of us will stick together as a whole."

Shawn didn’t press further.

Philip, eating his meal, was captivated by Yuka’s elegance, even in her simple act of eating a hotdog.

"Mr. Kuba," Ayoi and Alex called out in unison.

Yuka, having just finished her hotdog, waved at Kenji in greeting.

To their surprise, Kenji, instead of approaching, sat down next to Yuka with his tray.

Ayoi and Alex exchanged looks and discreetly shifted to make space for him.

Kenji ate quietly, his strong presence causing everyone around to halt their conversations and focus on their meals, eager to finish and leave.

Kenji then glanced at Philip, who was still gazing at Yuka.

Feeling Kenji’s icy stare, Philip shuddered and quickly focused on his food.

Shawn, sensing something amiss but unsure, quickly whisked Philip away, bidding farewell to Yuka and the others, and hurried out of the cafeteria.

After Philip left, Kenji relaxed, put down his fork, and turned to face Yuka’s curious look.

A bit flustered, Kenji broke the silence, asking Yuka first, "How did your match go?"

Yuka replied, "It was okay, but quite different from what I expected. Didn’t you watch my match?"

"I did watch it," Kenji quickly said.

After saying this, he felt he was perhaps too obvious, so he added, "Yonda and I were both in the commentary room watching the match."

"Oh, I see," Yuka said, resting her chin on her hand, "I thought you came specifically to see me."

Kenji’s heart rate suddenly increased.

Before he could think of an appropriate response, Yuka continued, "Do you dislike Philip? The guy you were glaring at just now."

Kenji paused, carefully answering, "I don’t particularly like or dislike him."

’That’s not true.’ Kenji admitted to himself. He actually disliked anyone looking at Yuka with that kind of interest, especially since they were students about the same age as Yuka, with probably similar interests and many things to talk about, unlike himself, who often felt awkward around Yuka, not knowing what to say to make her happy.

"If you don’t dislike him," Yuka put down her hand from her face, picked up the milk on the table, and looked at Kenji. "then why did you glare at him?"

Kenji was at a loss for words.

Because Yuka had leaned close to him, her beautiful eyes almost seeing through the secrets hidden in his heart.

In the next second, Kenji’s pupils dilated dramatically, as he heard Yuka softly ask near his ear, "Is it because you think he likes me and you’re jealous?"

Kenji’s mind buzzed. He couldn’t help but grip his fork tighter, his heartbeat racing, ears turning red.

He hadn’t expected Yuka to ask so directly and was utterly unprepared.

Kenji had never been this nervous, even when facing dozens of space pirates alone. But now, with a dry voice, he turned to meet Yuka’s eyes, mustering all his courage to seriously ask her, "If I say yes, what would you do?"

He appeared calm on the surface, but under the table, he almost broke his fork with tension.

"If you say yes..." Yuka drew out her words softly, enjoying Kenji’s pretend calmness, and suddenly feeling a bit mischievous.

Also considering their current teacher-student relationship, she thought for a moment and said, "I’ll tell you after the Tournament is over."

By then, she would have changed her specialization, and they could seriously start dating.

Clang.

Kenji’s fork broke. The students eating nearby were startled. They turned in shock, glanced at Yuka’s smiling face, and then at Admiral Kenji’s icy expression.

The students immediately turned back, hurriedly shoveling food into their mouths.

They were certain that Yuka had said something to upset Admiral Kuba, and Kuba even broke that fork in anger.

Kenji looked at Yuka with a deep, unreadable expression. No one could guess the complexity of his thoughts at that moment, ranging from hope to despair, sorrow, and then back to a hopeful eagerness.

"You’ve said it," Kenji stated firmly, looking into her eyes. "Promise me."

In his heart, he silently added, ’You’ve fooled me so many times before, and I’ve actually never really minded. But this time, please, don’t lie to me.’

"Yes, I promise," Yuka nodded, giving Kenji a warm, reassuring smile. "Don’t worry, I won’t change my mind. I’ll tell you after the Tournament ends."

"Alright," Kenji agreed.

That night, Kenji experienced one of the most restless nights he’d ever had, struggling to find sleep.

In contrast, Yuka slept peacefully.

The second round of the competition was set for the next morning. The students who had been eliminated in the first round gathered in a nearby classroom, joining students from the logistics department to watch the ongoing competition.