It's Not Easy to Be a Man After Travelling to the Future (WN)

"So it's about this matter ..." Ling Lan thought of her original decision, and so she said, "That's fine. Inform the rest. Tonight at six, we'll have a meeting." It was about time for them to know what she was thinking.

"Alright, Boss Lan," replied Wu Jiong happily, pleased at obtaining a concrete time. They only had one week to confirm their name list of a hundred people. Even though that was not a lot, to choose among all the exceptional talents of all the various specializations in the academy who would also be willing to join Lingtian ... Wu Jiong still felt the time was a little tight.

Very soon, night came, and Ling Lan arrived at the headquarters of Lingtian. She had just stepped through the doorway when one of the reception staff in the main hall of headquarters saw their regiment commander arriving. He reacted swiftly, charging over to the elevator as quick as he could and attentively helped Ling Lan press the button to call the elevator.

Ling Lan nodded gently at that member in thanks, and when she saw the doors of the elevator open, she stepped into the elevator and turned around to press the button for the floor she wanted to go to.

The elevator doors had barely closed when Ling Lan, with her exceptional hearing, heard excited voices piping up outside, "Heavens, I've finally seen the legendary first regiment commander! Boss Lan is just too cool!" This was obviously a member who had just joined Lingtian; the older members would certainly have seen Ling Lan before.

"Lil' An, you are just too goddamn fast. Actually getting the chance to interact with the boss close up!" said another member, tone jealous as he looked at the youth still standing by the elevator doors.

"Big Brother Lou, did the regiment commander nod at me just now ...?" That person standing by the elevator did not seem to be able to trust what he had seen; his tone was filled with dreamy wonder.

"Yes! Boss Lan is very cold, you know? And he actually responded to you this time. You're really such a lucky devil ..." said the one called Big Brother Lou enviously.

"Yeah, yeah, we all saw it! Boss is so cool and so cold ... just a glimpse of him is enough to give me chills. But he actually nodded to you ... you're so lucky!" All of the members in the hall were filled with envy-jealousy-hate — they could barely restrain themselves from beating up that obviously over-excited fellow. D*mmit, why had they been just that beat slower than him?

The ruckus in the hall made Ling Lan sweatdrop — she had never expected her simple polite nod to create such a stir among these members. Could it be that she was usually too aloof?

Ling Lan was unaware that, because she had always thrown all the matters of the faction to the other three regiment commanders to handle, she did not appear in front of others very often. The chances were infinitesimal for a regular faction member to see her — this had made her the most mysterious regiment commander in the minds of the faction members. Furthermore, she had led Lingtian to create one miracle after another which had also made her become the idol of her faction members; thus, the regular faction members could not help but be thrilled to catch sight of her.

As soon as Ling Lan neared the doors of the conference room, she could hear how noisy it was inside. The atmosphere seemed to be very lively. Ling Lan shoved the door open and saw that all of the upper ranks of Lingtian were already here. They were all seated around the conference table, engaged in lively discussion, and some were even bantering playfully with those they were familiar with. Catching movement at the door, the members in the room collectively turned their heads, and when they saw that it was their regiment commander Ling Lan, the room instantly fell silent. Subsequently, they all quickly stood up from their seats, bowed their heads, and shouted, "Boss!"

Ling Lan found herself sweatdropping — even though Qi Long and the others had always called her Boss, they were the little companions who had grown up beside her. They had only started calling her that as a joke, and now they merely continued calling her that because it had become a habit over time which was why she had just let it be. But in the present, these team leaders were all people who had joined their group later on — some of them were even members who had only joined the group after they had entered the military academy. Being called 'Boss' by so many people gave Ling Lan the strange impression that she was the head of a heinous and deplorable mafia group!

"Just call me 'regiment commander'. You don't have to call me 'boss'." Ling Lan decided that she needed to fix the group's skewed perspective and salvage her glorious regiment commander image. As she said this, she swept a cold gaze tinged with threat around the room in hopes that everyone would not make the same mistake in address again.

Perhaps the threat in Ling Lan's gaze was too intense — under Ling Lan's forceful stare, the members once again lowered their heads and replied, "Yes, Boss!"

Ling Lan was speechless — did this really count as agreement?! Why were they still calling her 'boss'?! Ling Lan looked at the three people who were standing by the door to welcome her. Wu Jiong and Li Yingjie were working partners, so she could not pressure them; thus, she turned a fierce glare on Qi Long, hoping that this fellow would be sharp enough to figure out what she wanted and get everyone to change their form of address and call her 'regiment commander' instead. She had established a mecha clan, not a mafia society ...

Qi Long bore the brunt of his boss's mean glare and asked tentatively, "Boss, can we start the meeting?"

Fine, Qi Long, you're strong. Actually not folding to my threat ... I'll deal with you when we return! Ling Lan gnashed her teeth silently, though she only nodded coolly on the outside.

Seeing Ling Lan nod, the group let out silent sighs of relief. It could not be helped. The pressure of Boss Lan's gaze was just too formidable ... Qi Long was still the man! Everyone secretly cast respectful gazes at Qi Long. Meanwhile, Qi Long surreptitiously wiped the sweat from his forehead. Thinking about it, over this recent period of time, Boss's force of presence had become even stronger — even he who spent so much time by Boss's side was feeling the pressure.

Ling Lan walked into the conference room under the accompaniment of the three boys. Qi Long rushed one step ahead to pull out the chair at the head of the conference table and invited Ling Lan to sit. After Ling Lan took her seat, she swept another cold gaze over the high-ranking members in the room before saying, "Sit!"

"Yes, Boss!" Receiving Ling Lan's order, the group sat. However, the atmosphere at this moment was no longer as raucous as it had been before Ling Lan entered the room. Instead, there was a still silence.

Ling Lan's gaze swept across the room and she found that other than the team leaders of the various battle clans and the four regiment commanders, Li Lanfeng and Han Jijyun were also in attendance as the strategists of Lingtian. Li Shiyu, as the dux of the Military Medicine specialization, and Chang Xinyuan, as a prodigious mecha engineer, were also here. Meanwhile, as the primary offensive force of Lingtian on the surface, Zhao Jun had also been specially invited to join the meeting.

Lin Zhong-qing was the note-taker for the meeting, responsible for taking the minutes and keeping track of the agenda; he was sitting slightly behind Ling Lan. As for Luo Lang and Xie Yi, they were pitifully delegated as tea-boys, making sure to keep the cups of the people attending the meeting filled ...

All in all, everyone in her battle clan was here in the conference room, with no exceptions ... Ling Lan cast a pensive look at Wu Jiong.

Seeing Ling Lan's eyes turn to him, Wu Jiong coughed and said, "Since Boss is here, let's officially proceed with the agenda of the meeting. Yesterday, the administrators of the academy have officially announced that the representation rights of the Mecha Grand Tournament this time will be given into the full responsibility of the Lingtian Mecha Clan. All of us know that though the Mecha Grand Tournament is known as the Mecha Grand Tournament, it is actually a competition with multiple events which span almost all of the specializations in the military academies. However, our mecha clan has just been established, and a majority of our members are second-years. Not only are our members spread thin across the various specializations, even if we manage to scrounge up enough talent from all the specializations, those members also would not have four years of learning experience. For them to handle these competitions is likely impossible ..."

Wu Jiong's words made the hearts of all the battle clan leaders sink. Li Yingjie then added to what Wu Jiong had said, "The representatives for the last tournament was the Leiting Mecha Clan. Even a mecha clan with such a long history and substantial reserves had chosen to give up on several of the less popular specializations when they composed their representation name list, because they did not have any members in those specializations within their faction ... that said, because Leiting had an overwhelming advantage in a few of their strong suits, despite giving up on several events, Leiting still managed to obtain second place in the end. If our results are terrible this time, I'm afraid our Lingtian will become the common target of hatred for all the cadets in the academy."

Everyone understood what Li Yingjie was implying. Although the First Men's Military Academy was always rife with internal conflict, all the cadets attached great importance to the reputation of the military academy. If Lingtian suffered a great defeat in the tournament this time, not only would the popularity and prestige Lingtian had earned this past three months through the challenge fights be wiped away, in future, Lingtian would not be able to develop well after as well. Lingtian may even fall apart due to this and become a mecha clan which only lasted for one year in the military academy.

Seated right after Qi Long were the Lingtian strategists Li Lanfeng and Han Jijyun. Li Lanfeng saw that everyone was mute, so he concluded the topic by saying, "I have here a listing of all the events in the mecha tournament. I'll pass it out to everyone and you all can take a look." After saying that, Li Lanfeng passed out the document. He then waited for everyone to at least skim through it once before continuing to say, "Frankly, some of the smaller events are not very important. The really essential event is the last one. This event contributes half of the point value for the tournament. It can be said that, if we manage to win this event, even if we don't obtain first place, second place will be certain."

Li Lanfeng's words drew everyone's attention to the final event. That event was listed as — Integrated Team Battle Royal!

In the Integrated Team Battle Royal, each team would have 120 members participating. The representing teams from all military academies in the Federation would be placed on the same map to fight it out in a time-limited battle royal. The time limit would be set as 3 days, or 72 hours.

Li Lanfeng continued his analysis. "This battle royal does not only challenge a team's combat power. There will be all kinds of sustained damage, double-crossing, schemes and manipulations aplenty. It can be said that the tactics will be endless — the 120 members of each team will not be from just one specialization. The team will be an amalgamation of all the specializations, thus representing the strength of the military academies in its truest sense. It is precisely due to this reason that the First Men's Military Academy has come in second for seven consecutive tournaments. Everyone knows that the specialization distribution of the First Men's Military Academy's representative team is too narrow and focused. Our academy basically only sends mecha operators."

"From the looks of it, to get good results, just relying on us alone is impossible," said one of the team leaders of a battle clan under the Lingtian Mecha Clan.

"Yes. For a 120-man team, it would be best for there to be 5 strategists to coordinate operations." Han Jijyun confirmed what that team leader said and elaborated, "And right now, the only people in Lingtian who can hold the position of strategist are Li Lanfeng and myself. We're lacking three more people. To win the tournament, we must gather a whole set of 5 people."

"Unfortunately, for the role of strategist, as soon as any sign of a person who can take on such a role reveals itself, some mecha clan will whisk them away. To start looking now will probably be very difficult," said Gao Jinyun with a deep frown. "Could it be that we'll have to steal one from the other mecha clans?"

"Even if we want to steal someone, the other mecha clans won't let them go." A team leader by Gao Jinyun's side immediately shot down that idea.

"Not stealing, but collaborating!" said Ling Lan abruptly.

Wu Jiong said dubiously, "Boss Lan, you mean for us to collaborate with the other mecha clans?"

Ling Lan nodded and said, "Yes, send out invitations to all the major mecha clans. We'll draw the talent we need from them and carry out a school-wide collaboration! And our first target will be Thunder King Qiao Ting!"

Everyone in the conference room was stupefied by Ling Lan's words. Collaborate with Thunder King Qiao Ting? Had they misheard?