Why Do All the Villains Look at Me Like This? - Chapter 7

There’s definitely something wrong with this!

Meng Xuexiao’s sixth sense had always been sharp. He had already felt that something was off when Xu Gao suddenly approached him that morning and now, that unsettling feeling had only intensified.

Xu Gao was targeting him but clearly wasn’t planning to make a direct move. That made sense.

The Federation Military Academy strictly prohibited students from harming one another. Causing an “accident” was undoubtedly the more appropriate tactic. Having figured all this out, Meng Xuexiao was no longer as tense as before. Arrows from the shadows were hard to guard against, but traps set in plain sight could be avoided.

He pinched his own arm hard, not holding back on the force. The pain drained the color from his pale pink lips, and a few drops of cold sweat slid down his forehead. He quickly drafted a script in his mind to claim physical discomfort, while scanning the crowd for the teacher.

At the moment, the instructor was busy grouping students and sending them into the training room one by one. Mecha operation class didn’t involve much theory, its core was all about direct, brute-force practicality. What it emphasized was real combat. Inside the training room, realistic war scenarios were simulated. The bullets were real, the bombs were real. Even through the thick blast-proof glass, Meng Xuexiao could feel the heavy atmosphere of gunpowder and smoke.

Two students were dropped into poor positions, they landed directly on top of a bomb. Their mechas’ legs were blasted open, and shattered metal shards embedded themselves into flesh and bone. Agonized screams echoed through the training room. The students grouped with them froze on the spot, stunned and unsure what to do.

The instructor didn’t do so much as lift an eyebrow. “Take them to the treatment room next door.”

He had once been a frontline officer and had witnessed humanity’s living space being encroached upon by other species. To him, these freshmen were no longer students, they were future soldiers. He couldn’t tolerate the Federation’s future being handed over to a bunch of weaklings. Better for them to die in the training room than to bring shame to the frontlines.

“Pathetic. Just a minor injury and you’re wailing like a banshee? The leg’s injured, not gone! Once you’re patched up, crawl back out here and go through another round of special training. If you get eliminated this quickly again, just pack your things and get out of this school!”

“And the rest of you,” the instructor snapped, turning his sharp gaze to the other students in the training room, “What are you all standing around for? Having fun watching the drama?”

He casually tapped a few buttons on the training room control panel. In an instant, the virtual sky overhead went dark. Massive flying machines swooped down, and the gusts of wind they kicked up knocked several students and their mechas to the ground.

The next moment, two massive cannons extended from the underside of the aircraft, firing a relentless barrage directly at the students. The onslaught of shells tore through the weakest parts of the mechas with ease, and the sparks from the metal grinding made Meng Xuexiao’s eyes sting.

Looking back into the room, all the students were now scrambling for survival, completely unable to spare a glance at anything outside the training chamber.

It really was… crude and brutal, forced suppression at its simplest.

The instructor stood there with his arms crossed, muscles pulled taut to the extreme, like a fully drawn bow.

Everyone present was nothing more than prey. How could someone like that possibly allow him to leave early just because he showed signs of discomfort?

Meng Xuexiao inwardly sneered at his own earlier naivety.

At the same time, he felt a sliver of relief, good thing he hadn’t gone through with delivering the excuse he’d prepared. If he had, not only would he have failed to dodge Xu Gao’s trap, but he also would’ve been punished by the merciless instructor.

Looks like he’d have to come up with another solution. Meng Xuexiao shifted his gaze away from the instructor. He had tried his best to act natural, but the change still didn’t go unnoticed.

“Hey, you—why were you staring at me just now?” The instructor suddenly turned his head and looked over.

The man’s eyes were unnervingly sharp, in them, Meng Xuexiao could almost see the muzzle flash of a Gatling gun mid-fire. He swallowed, instinctively preparing to take a step back, but immediately stopped himself. Meng Xuexiao forced all of his weight onto his feet, not giving himself even the slightest chance to move.

There were several classmates standing nearby. The instructor wouldn’t be able to tell exactly who had been looking at him. But if he backed away now, it would be as good as admitting guilt.

Meng Xuexiao lowered his gaze and waited. Time ticked by slowly. Sure enough, the instructor said nothing more.

He couldn’t help letting out a breath of relief. As expected—no matter how strong someone is, they can’t focus on everything at once. The instructor had been preoccupied with punishing those other students. How could he spare the attention to pinpoint who exactly had been watching him?

Just then, a pair of shoes suddenly entered his line of sight, dark red, like the blood splattered from those two injured students.

“You. Yes, I’m talking to you.” The instructor’s voice was alarmingly close.

Meng Xuexiao slowly raised his head and met eyes that held the intensity of a dictator.

“Why were you staring at me just now?”

This time, Meng Xuexiao could no longer suppress the urge to retreat. He took step after step back, stubbornly trying to keep a safe distance between them, like a hedgehog raising its spines in defense. To the instructor, this reaction reeked of cowardice and weakness. His brows furrowed deeply.

Has the Federation Military Academy run out of decent candidates? Even students like this are being admitted now?

His voice grew sharper, filled with irritation.

He repeated the question once more, “Why were you staring at me?”

Remaining silent would only lead to certain doom.

Meng Xuexiao decided to gamble—a dozen excuses circled in his throat before he finally began, “I…”

Unexpectedly, he was immediately cut off.

The instructor’s frown deepened even further, and he launched straight into a tirade. “‘I’ what? Speak up! Haven’t eaten or something?”

The man’s voice boomed like thunder. Meng Xuexiao flinched slightly, his back instinctively straightening.

“Because I couldn’t wait any longer—I want to be in the second group going into the training room!”

…That was perhaps a little too enthusiastic.

The instructor’s gaze was stern yet tinged with amusement. Ever since two students had been sent to the treatment room at the very start, the rest had instinctively shrunk back, yet, here was someone actually volunteering. And the most surprising part was that the one volunteering was an F-grade with a reputation for being timid.

Meng Xuexiao met the instructor’s gaze, biting his lip, doing his best not to show any further signs of fear. He was like a small animal facing a much stronger predator, trying to puff himself up to appear larger.

There was no escaping the training room, but if he could get into the second group, he could at least avoid Xu Gao. This instructor clearly despised cowardice—so maybe boldness, even reckless initiative, would be more likely to win him over.

The instructor gave a strange laugh. “Ambitious. That’s good.”

Meng Xuexiao’s heart leapt, the fruits of victory were practically being handed to him.

But in the very next moment—

The man’s tone suddenly shifted, sharp and predatory, like a great white shark baring its jagged teeth in the depths, “But who gave you permission to make demands? A soldier’s only duty is to obey orders, without question!”

Overbearing. Brutal. Utterly unreasonable.

It was like being doused from head to toe with a bucket of ice water in the dead of winter. And the instructor meant what he said, when the second group was deployed into the training room, Meng Xuexiao’s name was not among them. He had no choice but to enter the third group, along with Xu Gao.

“Second group completed. Third group, prepare.”

In Meng Xuexiao’s ears, the instructor’s words sounded like a scythe swung down by the Grim Reaper. His already taut nerves felt like soldering wire pushed to its melting point, just a bit more pressure, and they would completely snap.

Then came a poorly concealed sneer.

Meng Xuexiao followed the sound and met Xu Gao’s gaze. The gentle smile that had once masked his face had now fully faded, leaving behind nothing but malice.

Xu Gao had known all along that the instructor would never allow Meng Xuexiao to back out at the last moment. What he was waiting to see was that exact moment, when Meng Xuexiao realized the truth and could do nothing about it.

Xu Gao’s eyes were sunken, like twin black holes, and now those black holes were smiling at him.

Who knew how long he’d been watching?

So that’s why Xu Gao had so openly set a trap for him, because this was the real destination.

But Meng Xuexiao wasn’t going to let him have his way. His retreat was already cut off, now all he could do was face forward, one step at a time. Before the instructor could urge him again, he was already moving toward his mecha, his steps crisp and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.

The mecha was a bit too large for him, making his figure appear even thinner, like a child secretly dressed in adult clothes. But his back was straight, like a bamboo shoot trembling as it broke through the soil,
its newly sprouted leaves still wet with morning dew.

Fragile, easily broken—but resolute.

It was like a flash of white lightning—for a brief moment, the malice in Xu Gao’s eyes froze.

But soon after, he reassured himself.

That moment just now must’ve been an illusion. After all, Meng Xuexiao was just an F-grade.

He had once gone through considerable effort to dig up information on Meng Xuexiao.

If Meng Xuexiao hadn’t been F-grade, Xu Gao wouldn’t have dared to target him like this, let alone try to use the instructor’s hand to suppress him. Instructors at the military academy revered strength, they would never side with an F-grade.

With that thought, Xu Gao let out a quiet, smug laugh and shot a glance toward the instructor, waiting expectantly for the scolding or reprimand that was sure to come.

After all, Meng Xuexiao had acted on his own again, the instructor hadn’t yet given the order for the third group to enter.

But the expected reprimand never came. The instructor looked in Meng Xuexiao’s direction. His brows were still furrowed, but not with the same sharpness as before, not like they could slice through someone’s throat.

After a while, he noticed Xu Gao staring at him.

The instructor’s voice suddenly rose, and his gaze turned cold once more, “What are you standing around for? Get into the training room, do I need to teach you how?”

Xu Gao flinched, nearly falling off his mecha.

But I wasn’t the worst one here, he thought, and I didn’t even provoke the instructor, so why was I suddenly being singled out?

He couldn’t help but shoot a resentful glare in Meng Xuexiao’s direction.

It’s all because of him!
Everything bad that’s happened to me is connected to this person somehow!

But it didn’t matter, Meng Xuexiao was about to die anyway.