Chapter 23: Future Warriors

Jiang Xiaoyu squinted and tried his hardest to read them, but they were just a blurry white blob—he couldn’t make out a thing. He gave up, rested his chin on the desk, and decided to rely on his ears.

“Today’s Foreign Language class will cover Mental Summoning.” Zhao Lu clapped the chalk dust off her hands and tapped the podium lightly with her teaching pointer. “This is the fundamental skill for any Foreign Language Department aberration. Step one: how to summon what you desire. Before we begin, I have a question for you all: what does the Foreign Language Department fear the most?”

A few students immediately raised their hands, mostly from the Foreign Language Squad. Zhao Lu swept her gaze across the room and picked Sisi.

Sisi stood up. Her voice was thin, but her words were clear: “The Foreign Language Department fears the proximity of Sports Squad students the most. Our physical capabilities are weaker, and Sports Squad students are fast and powerful; once they get into close quarters, we have no reaction time.”

“Very good, sit down.” Zhao Lu nodded. “Sisi is right. Sports Squad students have excellent physical fitness and explosive power; they can charge in and engage in close-quarters combat before we even finish a summoning. This is the fundamental reason why our department always falls short in major competitions.”

Jiang Xiaoyu’s eyes lit up upon hearing this.

Summoning?

The Foreign Language Department is about summoning?

He sat bolt upright in an instant, the drowsy, lethargic state from moments ago vanishing completely.

Summoning! He was extremely familiar with that word. Back when he was in school, his greatest hobby was hunkering down in his room to play games—otherwise, he wouldn’t have ended up so severely nearsighted.

How cool were summoners in games? With a wave of a hand, creatures from other dimensions would tear through the void to help you fight—fire-breathing dragons, frost wolves, shadow assassins. You stood in the back, controlling an entire army; that was true skill.

Until just a moment ago, he had assumed the Foreign Language Department was about studying English—memorizing vocabulary, practicing speaking, taking the CET-4 and CET-6 exams. It sounded dreadfully boring. He had only scored forty points on his college entrance English exam; just looking at English letters gave him a headache. That was why he had been so resistant when Teacher Zhao Lu appointed him leader of the Foreign Language Squad—making him an English class representative? That felt like a death sentence.

But now, it was different.

The Foreign Language Department wasn’t about English; it was about summoning. They were Future Warriors who summoned all sorts of strange things to battle!

Jiang Xiaoyu’s hands trembled with excitement.

Future Warriors! He had seen this job title countless times in the news—the state was pouring massive resources into future technology. He’d heard that in the Future Warrior classes in tier-one cities, the tuition alone cost hundreds of thousands a year, and graduates were guaranteed high-paying jobs. The salaries were staggering.

And him? He had managed to get into a Future Warrior class without spending a single cent! And he was even the squad leader!

His parents really did understand him! Huangshan Vocational Institute truly was a top-tier school. Thank goodness he had his cousin here; otherwise, he might have walked away just because the exterior looked a bit old.

Jiang Xiaoyu thanked his parents silently in his heart, then focused all his energy on listening, leaning forward, ears pricked high. From this moment on, he couldn’t afford to miss a single word Teacher Zhao Lu said.

“However,” Zhao Lu’s tone shifted, carrying a note of rising fervor, “that doesn’t mean the Foreign Language Department has no chance for a comeback. Once you successfully complete a summoning, the situation changes entirely. A top-tier graduate can control more than three high-level aberrations at once; even when facing three physical-type aberrations of the same rank from the Sports Squad, they can walk away unscathed.”

She paused, her gaze lingering on the back row.

“And perhaps… even land a killing blow.”

Jiang Xiaoyu’s blood was boiling; he clenched his fists tightly under the desk. Controlling three summoned objects at once! Even landing a killing blow against three students from the Sports Squad!

‘My god! A brand-new profession where the school is full of these things! This is way too cool!’

He also understood the Sports Squad now: they were essentially training future bodyguards—excellent physical fitness, immense strength, high speed, and masters of close-quarters combat. He was interested in that profession, too, but not very—after all, were bodyguards cooler than summoners? One relied on fists, the other on brains; the superiority was clear.

“Alright, let’s begin with the basic principles of Mental Summoning. Mental Summoning is the process of using your mental energy to anchor a target. This target can be what you wish to summon, a specific location, or even a set of coordinates. Once anchored, the object you wish to summon will be guided by that anchor point and fly from a distance to stand before you.”

Jiang Xiaoyu drank in every word, desperately committing it to memory: anchor target—location—coordinates—summon.

‘No problem, I get it. It’s basically the same as aiming skills in a game.’

“All the theory in the world can’t beat a live demonstration.” Zhao Lu put down her chalk and turned around. “Come now, who would like to volunteer to be the demonstration target?”

The whole class fell silent for a second, then every single pair of eyes snapped toward Jiang Xiaoyu.

Jiang Xiaoyu was busy thinking about what he wanted to anchor as a target when he suddenly felt the atmosphere shift.