My Time as a Cat in College

The next day, the golden cat Xiao Mengmeng’s alarm clock rang at 5:30. The four cats woke up feeling hazy and raised their paws to rub their eyes.

 “Oh, how quickly the dawn has come!”

 “Aaah, I don’t know why there’s still military training!”

 “Insane, it’s insane!”

Xiao Mengmeng tidied up her hair and explained: “It was said that there was no such thing at the beginning, but a large-scale battle broke out in the last century and the barriers were gradually damaged. At that time, many untrained students were lost. Since then, the school has paid more attention to this field. My senior sister said that during the second half of the military training, she would be taken outside for team practice. It was extremely difficult. This was also related to the mark behind the school badge.”

 Qi Xiaohan lay on the mat for a while, feeling like she couldn’t open her eyes. She meowed, got up slowly, and put on her military training scarf.

 The military training scarves’ simple structure prevented students from being obstructed by their clothes during training.

However, if it was a human student, there would be no such concern. The human, witch, and demon races all had to wear military training uniforms for the training.

 The dormitory’s corridor was gradually crowded by people as many students rushed outside. When they were done, Qi Xiaohan and her dorm mates followed suit and trodded downstairs.

 Today was the first day of military training. Students who did not participate in military training could not even be officially considered as Xunhai University students.

 After going downstairs, Qi Xiaohan and her roommates separated. After all, they weren’t in the same major and so they were also divided during the military training.

Both furry and humanoid students gathered in a messy pile downstairs, and under the command of their respective leading brothers and sisters, they formed two lines and marched towards the military training grounds.

Xunhai University’s space was large enough to allow these new students to complete a month of military training.

 The little white cat stood at the front of the line and looked at senior sister Mi Yueyue, who was leading the team.

 She was a sophomore this year and was a beautiful cheetah. Currently, she was emphasizing discipline seriously and was followed by a neat line of big and small cats.

“After I send you to the military training site, I am going to leave. Everyone has to listen to the instructors. If you fail to pass the military training you won’t be able to graduate.”

 The new students behind them responded quickly and loudly.

 Mi Yueyue listened, nodded in satisfaction, and with her head held high, took her junior students to the bus. They arrived at a training hall that resembled a bird. She raised her furry paw and pressed it against the fingerprint sensor on the hall’s side entrance. Then, the elevator opened.

Mi Yueyue called the felines riding the elevator as she presented, “Flying Eagle Training Hall has all kinds of attributes. It is the school’s third-level training hall. In order to train our freshmen, the 15th floor underground was specially vacated for you.”

 As she spoke, she pressed the elevator button, and the elevator instantly descended.

 “From now on, you will need to use your own permission cards to unlock the elevator. I will take you this time. If you encounter any problems during military training, you can either come to me or contact the counselor.” Mi Yueyue sent the students to the training ground and turned her head to say this to them.

At this time, the new students were completely immersed in the entire training field’s surroundings and were looking around, full of curiosity.

 The training field was huge, with a variety of equipment the students hadn’t seen before. Behind them, the students of other majors came one after the other, choosing a door to enter after looking at the team Mi Yueyue was leading.

 Mi Yueyue stayed for a while and let these students look at it for a while longer before opening the door that their major had applied for – training hall 34.

In the training hall, an instructor wearing an iron-gray uniform stood with a fire-red lizard beast in front of him. Hearing the sound of the door opening, the lizard beast looked over towards their side.

 Mi Yueyue: ……

 The cheetah’s ears instantly flattened down, fearful.

 Mi Yueyue’s paws hesitated then walked over to the instructor’s side.

 “Brother Lang Chen, these are the new students of this year’s spiritual control major. If there are no issues, I’ll go up first.”

Lang Chen nodded and took the list in Mi Yueyue’s hand.

 Mi Yueyue gave a reassuring gesture toward the new students then left the area with her paws taking big steps.

 Senior brother Lang Chen had been the most talented student as of recent years. On the day of his entrance spirit test, a fiery red pillar of light had burnt half the sky. He possessed a pure fire spirit physique accompanied by powerful spirit power and had successfully transformed during his military training. He had become the new leader of the younger generation in Xunhai Union University.

 He had chosen to enter the military division during his freshman year. Entering the military division would exempt him from the minor rules within his major at Xunhai Union University, allowing him to study and train at the same time.

After that, Lang Chen was even excellent in his academic work. Even when he didn’t want to do it, once he did do it, he would do his best. He was practically the benchmark for the younger generation. Every year, when he would compete with his other peers in the league, his record would be very impressive.

(T/N: Benchmark is “a standard of excellence, achievement, etc., against which similar things must be measured or judged”. [Source: Dictionary.com] In this context, it means that Lang Chen, because of his impressive academic performance, became the ‘standard’ of the other students in the university.)

 Perhaps it was a tiger’s character.

 Originally, the instructors were going to ask the top students in the Xunhai Union University’s external defense force to take charge. Most were selected in their senior year in the military department to take their junior brothers and sisters out for a period of time before their internship period, and Lang Chen was the first student to be selected in his junior year.

Qi Xiaohan tilted her face to look at the senior brother in front of her and meowed, feeling a little surprised.

 Yesterday, when she was chatting with her roommate, she was still guessing which brothers would lead their military training. She didn’t expect to see senior brother Lang Chen here.

 Last night she had a chat with Lang Chen, but he hadn’t mentioned anything about the military training today.

 The freshmen standing below also saw Lang Chen, some recognizing him. They thought about the strict and domineering style of the student union’s vice president from the group before and couldn’t help but tremble in their hearts.

The nervousness then slowly spread among the freshmen through whispers.

 Qi Xiaohan felt fine. After all, it was her direct senior brother and when he had chatted with her last night, his attitude had been alright too, so she felt slightly relieved.

 Lang Chen also saw the familiar little white cat and glanced at her.

He then saw the little white cat’s furry tail tip wagging at him and the little cat herself overall looking very happy.

Lang Chen withdrew his gaze, picked up the attendance book in his hand, and flipped it over. The entire training hall gradually became silent and the students quietly looked up at the cold instructor standing on the stage.

 “First, roll call.”

 A low, pleasant voice sounded within the hall. His finger was on the roster as he read the names of the new students. The students were tense, standing straight and waiting for their instructor to call their names.

For a moment, the entire hall could only hear the names of the students and the sound of their responses.

As soon as the last name was called out, Lang Chen closed the attendance book, set it aside, and looked at the students from the stage.

 “Military training is merely regular training before you enter university life, so you don’t need to worry too much. However, if you can’t bear even the regular training, you don’t need to keep attending this school. After passing the military training, the school’s foreign defense military department will give all of you Xunhai Union University’s school badge. The school badge is divided into levels by color and students who receive the school badge have been recognized by the school. So I hope that you will all be diligent and hardworking, and will strive to win the highest honor.”

 “Yes!!!”

The fiery red lizard beast heard the sound and looked below it.

 Being stared at by those icy vertical pupils*, the students’ hearts couldn’t help but tighten up.

(T/N: The ‘pupil’ here does not refer to the pupils of a class or students in the training hall. It refers to the pupils of the eye, in case you got tangled up.)

 The man on the high platform stood next to the beast with an upright posture and a handsome face that looked even colder and more intimidating compared to the hideous beast. His indifferent gaze traveled around and he continued.

 “The first half of training is basic training, which will be conducted in the training hall within the campus. The second part is practical exercise, which will be conducted in a designated place outside the school.”

The other members of the Alliance – the five major alliances, possessed their own respective institutions or schools dedicated to cultivating outstanding offspring, and they would only learn from their own clan, becoming part of the conservative faction. Xunhai Union University, on the other hand, was a joint investment by the five alliances and was the only comprehensive university that had a mix of the various clans. Its significance along with its extensive range of talents was incomparable compared to the other schools.

The academy’s purpose for sending students to compete with other clan organizations was to motivate the younger generation. No matter where they would study, they should know that there were people outside of them and that they should work hard. As for the hidden political battles, the old and new factions’ surge of movements in the background, there was no need to mention them.

“This level five lizard beast will test you near the end of your on-campus training.”

 Lang Chen indifferently said the words that made all the students’ hearts within the training hall sink heavily.

 As if it understood Lang Chen’s words, the lizard beast took a step forward.

 The students: !

Lang Chen: “Those who have not fused their own fire since they have entered the school, come over to the lizard beast’s side to receive one. It will temporarily be refined during the middle of the military training and assessed at a later period.”

 Lang Chen glanced down and saw a human student walking up to the front.

 It was true that human students struggled a bit more than other races in the fusing of spirit fire, but they had very good comprehension. And after refining their own source of spirit fire, they would be no different from other students.

Compared to the students from the demon family who couldn’t transform themselves, there was actually not much difference between the two and neither was better than the other.

 The lizard beast’s heavy tail swung and thumped on the ground. It looked at the small number of human students and opened its mouth to spit out a flame.

 The first human student in line collected it, then the second stepped forward. The lizard beast spat fire again, and the student collected the fire...

 After all the students were possessing the spirit fire, Lang Chen patted the lizard beast’s thick, scaly armor and allowed it to leave.