After two days of intense competition over the weekend, by Monday, the Mech Wars had entered the top 32 semifinals.

The forums were filled with posts discussing Jiang Lin.

On one hand, he lost to Rong Shi in the opening exhibition match, but on the other hand, he swept through the competition, entering the semifinals with the highest overall score.

The forum was fiercely scolding him, while those praising him were still screaming with excitement.

“The Chairman defeated Jiang Lin, and Jiang Lin defeated others, which is roughly equivalent to the Chairman defeating everyone?”

“The genius of logic above, here’s a little red flower for you.”

“Will I ever see the full strength of the old salted fish in my lifetime?”

“+1, it’s a bit difficult, the name ‘salted fish’ isn’t just for show.”

“No wonder Beauty Song said the Chairman didn’t participate to avoid taking up prize spots, no problem there.”

“Rong Shi: Kneel down and call me Dad.”

On Monday morning, after Rong Shi dropped off his children at school, he clearly felt people looking at his back had increased. Many people looked at him with the comforting smiles of proud fathers.

Rong Shi: “…”

There was a half-hour break between the end of morning exercise and the first class, during which a weekly student council meeting was to be held, followed by Rong Shi’s report on last week’s work to the entire school.

When Rong Shi arrived at the student council office, it was five minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start. Most of the others had already arrived and were chatting in small groups.

As he walked to the door, he faintly heard his own name and Jiang Lin’s.

Hearing footsteps, Chen Mu looked towards the door, his eyes lighting up. He hooked his arm around Wu Han’s shoulder and went over to greet him.

“Good morning, Chairman!”

“Good morning, Chairman!”

Rong Shi nodded slightly and handed them the things he had brought.

It was a white paper bag with a rabbit print, containing a bamboo food box.

Chen Mu took it bewilderedly: “What is this?”

“For you all,” Rong Shi said nothing more and went to the chairman’s office to get the meeting minutes.

Chen Mu and Wu Han looked at each other, not daring to open it for a moment.

Chen Mu nervously said, “Did the Chairman just say this was for… for us?”

Wu Han was also nervous: “He seemed to say so. Now that you’ve asked, I’m not so sure.”

“What is this?”

Others looked over upon hearing the commotion.

Perhaps it’s something for today’s meeting? Chen Mu lifted the bag onto the desk and opened the box.

“Holy cow! Little bunny biscuits!”

“Old Chen, tell me honestly, which omega gave you this?”

“It smells so good! Give me a piece, I haven’t had breakfast and I’m starving.”

A group of people crowded around, drawn by the scent. Chen Mu slapped their hands away, swallowed his saliva, and said with a serious face, “This is the Chairman’s stuff.”

He put the lid back on.

The Chairman must have taken the wrong item. How could he give them such a large box of cookies?

“I think I heard him say it was for us just now?”

“No way? The Chairman is so cool, how could he share such cute little cookies?”

“You’ve been reading too many fanfics, haven’t you? The Chairman’s aura doesn’t match little cookies at all! These must be for his younger brother.”

Rong Shi took out a notebook, looked up, and saw a group of people speculating around a box of cookies, getting more and more outlandish.

“Why aren’t you eating?”

Chen Mu looked surprised: “Is this really for us to eat?”

Rong Shi strode with his long legs, slowly walking towards the chairman’s seat.

“You’re not eating the cookies, just looking at them?”

Chen Mu: “…”

“See? I told you!”

“Thank you, Chairman! These cookies look so delicious.”

“I want some too!”

These were the little cookies given by the Chairman! Everyone scrambled to get some.

“So delicious! Not too sweet, not greasy, full of milk flavor, and with dried strawberries, it’s amazing!”

“Mine is cranberry.”

Lu Ming and Zhao Wan walked in from outside.

“There are cookies to eat?” Zhao Wan picked up a piece and handed one to Lu Ming, “Brother Lu, this tastes really good!”

Lu Ming wasn’t very interested in cookies. He took it and casually asked, “Who bought it?”

“The Chairman bought it!” Wu Han’s eyes sparkled as he looked at Rong Shi, “Chairman, which store did you buy this from? I want to buy some for my senior.”

There were too many people, so before they were all snatched up, Chen Mu quickly grabbed two more.

“I want to buy some too.”

Wu Han: “Let’s go together after class this afternoon.”

They were so happy with just one cookie, they’re truly a bunch of kids.

Rong Shi pulled out a chair and sat down: “I made them.”

“Pfft—cough cough cough cough cough—”

“Cough cough cough—”

“Cough cough—holy cow—cough cough cough—”

Lu Ming choked on a mouthful of cookie: “…”

The meeting room was filled with violent coughing.

Chen Mu looked at the bunny cookie in his hand, with its head bitten off, then looked up at Rong Shi, feeling like the world was surreal.

“You… you made these?”

Rong Shi opened his notebook, uncapped his pen with one hand, and the pen spun deftly between his fingers before being capped again.

“Mm, you all worked hard overtime this weekend.”

Everyone, half-choking and half-stuck: “!!!”

Is this their cold and aloof Chairman Rong?!

Not only did he personally make little cookies for them, but he also told them they worked hard?!

Did they wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?

After a long moment of silence, Rong Shi looked up from his notebook.

Several people were carefully wrapping their cookies in tissues.

Rong Shi: “…”

Rong Shi: “Not tasty?”

“I want to keep it as a good luck charm.”

“I’m taking it back to my dorm to worship, it’ll definitely bless me to soar in the monthly exam!”

“I knew I shouldn’t have eaten it, my ‘pass every exam’ charm had its butt bitten off!”

“Holy cow, suddenly this cookie feels so heavy.”

Rong Shi: “…………”

It was rare for Big Boss Rong to be so approachable. Chen Mu happily put away his little cookie and sat down at the meeting table.

“Chairman, do you have time after the meeting? I have a few questions about mech combo moves I’d like to ask you.”

Rong Shi nodded: “Yes.”

Chen Mu’s eyes lit up, and he thanked him profusely.

Seeing Rong Shi’s attitude, others also bravely went over to ask questions.

After watching two days of matches, they had accumulated a belly full of questions. It would be great if Big Boss Rong could help answer them!

Lu Ming watched as all the people who had been circling him just two days ago now flocked to Rong Shi. His face darkened, and the cookie in his mouth gradually turned bitter.

Why could Rong Shi always easily take away what he had gained?!

Three minutes before the first class began, the virtual screens in each classroom expanded synchronously.

“Big Boss Rong really showed off this time.”

In the classroom, Qin Luo leaned closer to Song Yu, shaking his head and clicking his tongue, “Look at these people in the class, each one is like a hungry wolf seeing meat.”

Rong Shi was already a top-tier figure in the military academy. Now that he had defeated Jiang Lin, he was considered to have risen in one battle, turning his fortunes around from a ‘salted fish’.

More people worshipped him.

Song Yu rested his chin on his hand, his beautiful peach blossom eyes fixed on the virtual screen.

“Then you can only look, not eat.”

Qin Luo: “…”

Song Yu hooked his lips, smiling ambiguously: “The one who gets to eat, is only me.”

Qin Luo: “…”

Can this broken classroom also be used for that?

After the routine report, Rong Shi returned to the classroom for class.

The bell rang, he opened the classroom door, and his gaze swept across the seats, almost instantly spotting a certain golden-haired kitten.

Rong Shi walked towards the last row, ignoring the worshipful gazes of the class.

Lu Ming, who was walking behind him, was completely ignored.

“Brother Lu, should we sit here?” Zhao Wan pointed to two empty seats by the wall.

Lu Ming sat down with a dark face, his mind filled with the image of Rong Shi sitting at the chairman’s desk, broadcasting the report live.

If he were the one sitting there, would so many people worship him too?

As soon as Rong Shi sat down, he felt that little Song Cat’s mood was off.

“What’s wrong?”

Song Yu said with a cold face, “You gave away my cookies, and you’re still asking me what’s wrong?”

Rong Shi: “I made them.”

Song Yu leaned closer and argued with him: “You’re mine, so the cookies you make are naturally mine too.”

Rong Shi: “…”

Song Yu: “Next time, give away the ones I messed up.”

Rong Shi said coldly: “No.”

Song Yu: “Why?”

Rong Shi: “Those are mine.”

Qin Luo, listening to them bicker: “…”

Single dogs have no way out, huh?

During the first physics class, Song Yu twirled his pen, looking at the formulas on his scratch paper, and casually asked, “Those people aren’t worth recruiting, there’s no need to curry favor with them.”

As long as he was there, let alone just student council members of the military academy, even members of the council or the military would look up to Rong Shi.

“That’s not the point,” Rong Shi replied calmly.

In this reborn life, he always felt that he didn’t belong here. Except for the unanswered questions from his previous life and little Song Cat, he always tended to view other matters from an outsider’s perspective.

But even if he tried not to get involved, his words and actions were changing many people and things around him.

Being in the game, how could he truly be an outsider?

Rong Shi said softly, “It’s a rare opportunity, and occasionally giving some encouragement is necessary.”

Rare? This sentence spun around in Song Yu’s mind twice, but he still couldn’t be convinced: “What about encouragement for me then?”

Rong Shi handed him a physics exercise book: “You need to finish this before the monthly exam on Thursday. Good luck.”

Song Yu: “…”

On Tuesday evening, Rong Shi was studying with Song Yu when there was a knock on the door.

Qin Luo, Chen Chen, and the other two came running in with a pile of snacks.

Chen Chen: “Old Liu is fighting Jiang Lin tonight!”

Old Bai: “He was so excited that he kept us up all night talking.”

Hu Feng: “I wonder if he can redeem himself tonight.”

Liu Hong also entered the top 32, but everyone’s attention was on Jiang Lin, so few people discussed the strength of this school bully.

The four sat on the living room floor. Qin Luo opened the terminal in the living room and pulled up the live broadcast of the military academy’s main page.

Qin Luo found a large cushion to slouch on, picked up a bag of snacks, and tore it open: “Last time, Old Liu couldn’t last five minutes against Jiang Lin. This time, lasting six minutes would be an improvement.”

Chen Chen curiously asked Rong Shi, “He said you trained him several times. How is it? Is it possible for him to last 10 minutes?”

Rong Shi continued with his homework, shaking his head and saying nothing.

Seeing his attitude, Old Bai wailed, “It’s over, it’s over, Old Liu is going to be embarrassed again. I should have convinced him to forfeit.”

Hu Feng sighed, “It’s hard enough to squeeze into the top 32, and to run into Jiang Lin so early, bad luck.”

On the live broadcast screen, the countdown to the match began.

Rong Shi finished a math exercise book, looked up, and glanced at the screen.

“The apprentice I personally taught, how could he lose?”

Qin Luo: “!”

Old Bai: “!”

Hu Feng: “!”

Chen Chen: “!”

Big Boss’s way of speaking with long pauses is as annoying as ever!

The match began, and the four watched the screen nervously, fearing that Liu Hong would make a mistake and be pounded into the ground the next second.

Five minutes into the battle, Old Bai cheered, “New record!”

Ten minutes into the battle, Chen Chen breathed a sigh of relief, “Alright, from now on, losing won’t be embarrassing.”

Liu Hong had only been in his second year for a few months and couldn’t compare to Jiang Lin, who had a solid theoretical foundation and practical experience.

Being able to last this long against the third-year chief was already very impressive!

Rong Shi’s words were like a prophecy. Everyone held their breath, watching the match time jump from ten minutes to half an hour.

Jiang Lin clearly had his own tactics, while Liu Hong was very passive in his fighting, basically always on forced defense.

“Old Liu’s brain is working fast tonight!” Chen Chen got excited watching, “Jiang Lin tried that leaping face-to-face move, but Old Liu started increasing pressure and retreating when he was halfway there, otherwise he probably wouldn’t have dodged that sword.”

“Old Liu has made it! Being able to fight Jiang Lin like this, he can finally walk with his head held high when he goes out in the future.” Old Bai laughed loudly.

“Crap!” Qin Luo, who was slumped, suddenly sat up straight, his eyes wide, and the fries in his hand fell to the ground, “Old Liu counterattacked! He actually still has the strength to counterattack!”

Liu Hong, who had been passively resisting, keenly found a loophole in Jiang Lin’s defense, turning passive into active, and a series of combo moves forced Jiang Lin back several steps.

Chen Chen: “Beautiful! That half-spin direct cut move was brilliantly used! Jiang Lin had no choice but to retreat, and with that retreat, he lost his advantage.”

In the comments section, from an initial one-sided cheering for Jiang Lin, it gradually shifted to some people cheering for Liu Hong, and now the entire screen was filled with nothing but “Aaaaaah.”

“What’s up with Liu Hong?! How can he be so strong?!”

“My God! My impression of him was still from his school bully days, when did he become so strong?!”

“He was very close to Chairman Rong when he went to the league. Did Chairman Rong help him privately?”

“Holy cow, holy cow! Liu Hong’s offensive is so fierce?! He looks a bit like the Chairman, their fighting styles are similar!”

“You guys don’t know?! After Liu Hong lost to the Chairman last time, they often met online, I’ve even encountered them twice!”

“Aaaaaaahh, Chairman, do you still need a leg pendant?! QuQ”

From the counterattack to the end of the match, it was only a short ten minutes.

Liu Hong pulled out the sword that had pierced the main circuit of the opponent’s mech, completely stunned himself.

What just happened?

He knocked out Jiang Lin?

This is just—a bit awesome!

Hearing the AI announce the match results, the four people in the dorm excitedly high-fived and cheered.

“I declare Old Liu a god in one battle!”

“Our school bully finally got to hold his head high!”

“I really want to interview Old Liu’s current feelings, hahaha.”

“Given his reaction time, he probably won’t truly realize who he defeated until tomorrow morning, hahaha.”

Chen Chen ran to Rong Shi, who was still doing his homework, and asked, “Was his performance tonight an exceptional one?”

The other three looked over when they heard this.

Rong Shi didn’t even look up, his voice cold: “Abnormal, not as good as usual.”

The four: “!!!” Damn!

Dad Rong, do you still accept disciples?!