Chapter 2138 Preparation before the game

Ye Ye couldn't help but feel a little amused by the system's words. He had never thought that he would become a rich man so easily. This sudden wealth made him feel a little at a loss.

However, Ye Ye quickly adjusted his mindset. Since the Ning family was willing to give, he naturally wouldn't be polite. After all, in this transaction, he firmly believed that he would not suffer any loss.

With this thought in mind, Ye Ye gradually relaxed. He walked out of the room and saw Lu Yue sitting on the sofa, concentrating on holding his laptop, seemingly browsing some important information.

When Lu Yue noticed Ye Ye coming out of the bedroom, he was very sensible and did not mention anything about the Ning family, as if he had completely forgotten everything that had just happened.

"Brother Ye, tomorrow is the basic personnel selection. Do you have any special ideas or plans?"

Lu Yue put down his laptop and asked with concern.

Originally, Lu Yue had a plan in mind, which was to have Ye Ye take the freshman assessment with his team. This was because he knew that Ye Ye did not have a very competitive starship at the moment, so Ye Ye might face some difficulties in the assessment.

However, the situation has now changed unexpectedly, which makes Lu Yue very interested in how Ye Ye will respond next. He can't help but look at Ye Ye with a hint of inquiry in his eyes.

To be honest, Lu Yue had been thinking about having Ye Ye take the freshman exam with him from the very beginning. After all, this freshman exam was not an ordinary one. The assessment methods for the gifted class students and the ordinary class students were completely different.

For the students in the gifted class, the freshman assessment is a test of command. From the moment they enter the academy, admission to the gifted class is like having one foot on the threshold of becoming an outstanding commander. In this unique freshman assessment, the students in the gifted class are regarded by the academy as carefully selected geniuses with the potential to become commanders.

These students must not only find the right partners among the many freshmen, but also cleverly organize them to form a complete starship formation. Then, they need to engage in fierce competition with each other to determine the winner and compete for the final ranking.

The mission of the regular class freshmen is to assist the commander with all their might, their relationship akin to one of shared success and shared failure. However, not every regular class student has the opportunity to participate in such a high-level assessment. After all, a starship typically only has a crew of around twenty to thirty. Even for those gifted students from wealthy families, who use their own advanced starships, this number can only be expanded to around fifty at most.

In contrast, those students in the general class who weren't selected for the gifted program due to limited spots were forced to participate in standard assessments. These included starship piloting, emergency avoidance maneuvers, and simple target attack tasks. While relatively basic, these assessments provided a valuable opportunity for these students to hone their skills and draw the attention of the invigilators to these promising young people.

Throughout their future studies, students in the general class will need to continuously accumulate experience and strive to improve their abilities. Through unremitting efforts, they will gradually demonstrate their prowess and strive to become a member of the official fleet. Some general class students may even achieve a comeback from humble beginnings through their hard work and talent, climbing all the way to the pinnacle of command.

Lu Yue had once secretly thought that if Ye Ye was willing, they could definitely team up and participate in the school's freshman assessment together. After all, the school's rules didn't explicitly prohibit such teaming among gifted students. In this way, regardless of whether they ultimately won first place, the strength of the frigate alone would ensure that the two of them would perform well.

Not only that, Lu Yue was also very clear in his mind that he didn't really care about the ranking rewards provided by the academy. On the contrary, he could clearly feel how much Ye Ye valued these rewards.

However, in just a few days, as Lu Yue's understanding of Ye Ye gradually deepened, his original idea began to waver. Especially after seeing Ye Ye's extensive network of contacts and outstanding abilities, Lu Yue couldn't help but wonder, with Ye Ye's abilities, how could he not get a decent starship in the freshman assessment?

Putting aside other aspects, just considering the relationship between Ye Ye and Cui Yingying, Lu Yue believed that Ye Ye was fully capable of borrowing Cui Yingying's official vehicle to participate in this assessment. After all, that was a battleship equipped with China's most advanced attack and defense systems! Such a powerful warship was practically tailor-made for the assessment. With such a warship in hand, wouldn't Ye Ye be able to handle the assessment with ease?

However, Lu Yue observed that Ye Ye didn't seem to have such an intention, which made him somewhat anxious. After all, while Ye Ye's piloting skills were indeed superb, and he might even have come from the mysterious Tianlong clan, as the saying goes, even a skilled cook cannot cook without rice. With only the ordinary training ship provided by the academy, even if Ye Ye's skills were superb, it would be difficult to achieve a satisfactory result.

The more Lu Yue thought about it, the more he felt the situation was getting tricky. At one point, he wanted to speak up and suggest that Ye Ye pilot his own frigate to participate in the assessment, which would at least give him a better performance. However, as the words reached his lips, he felt that it was inappropriate to say so. After all, this was Ye Ye's personal matter, and he couldn't interfere too much. So, Lu Yue decided to observe the situation first and make this suggestion later.

However, at this moment, things took an unexpected turn. It was as if the Ning family had sent a timely gift to Ye Ye when he needed help the most—a super-large cruiser! This was like a perfect match. For Ye Ye, this was undoubtedly a huge boost, almost guaranteeing his victory.

Even more surprising was that, in addition to the cruiser, the Ning family also provided financial support from a resource star. This meant that Ye Ye didn't have to worry about resource supply issues when using this cruiser. After all, for a starship of this level, every startup, defense, main gun attack, and the logistics and energy supply required for sailing were extremely expensive, even astronomical!

"Basic personnel selection?"

Just as Ye Ye was immersed in this unexpected joy, Lu Yue suddenly mentioned the term "basic personnel selection." This made Ye Ye startled, because to be honest, this was the first time he had heard of this term. Seeing Ye Ye so confused, Lu Yue helplessly covered his forehead and sighed inwardly.

Brother Ye is really generous! Didn't he check the rules of the freshman assessment on his computer in advance?

"As students in the gifted class, we are about to face a rigorous commander assessment. This assessment is not only a test of our individual abilities, but also a fierce competition with other students in the gifted class. Only by striving for first place can we prove our strength."

"Being able to enter the gifted class means that our commanders' abilities have been highly recognized by the school. These students often come from families that have focused on cultivating starship piloting and captaining skills from a young age, and their backgrounds are usually either wealthy or noble."

"Therefore, when taking the assessment, they will definitely not choose to pilot a small patrol ship or the training ship provided by the school. Instead, they will pilot their own starship. However, while these medium-to-large starships have advantages in performance and equipment, they are extremely difficult for one person to pilot, and their large size also makes them very cumbersome."

"To solve this problem, these gifted class students usually recruit some regular class students before the official assessment to serve as first officers or other important departments, such as communications, attack, defense, navigation, logistics, energy, maintenance, etc. This way, they can fully utilize their command abilities and ensure that all tasks of the starship are properly handled during the assessment."

"Tomorrow is the day for basic personnel selection. We need to go to Starship Plaza to participate in the 'meet-and-greet' organized by the school."

Lu Yue's voice sounded in Ye Ye's ears, giving him some understanding of this so-called basic personnel selection.

However, Ye Ye's brows were tightly furrowed, and he sighed inwardly.

"Isn't it just running a starship? Is it that troublesome? Does it require so many people?"

Ye Ye was indeed puzzled. After all, he had always believed that as captain and pilot, once in that position, the entire starship should be under his complete control. All operations and actions should be completed by one person. Just like Lu Yue, hadn't he also successfully returned to the Huaguo star field alone in the Dreadnought?

Looking at the expression on Ye Ye's face, Lu Yue rolled his eyes helplessly, as if he had instantly understood his thoughts.

"Brother, what are you thinking about?"

"First, I want to emphasize that not every student in the genius class is fully familiar with all the subsystems of operating a starship. We are still students, after all! Students are different from those veterans who have been working in the international fleet for decades, even hundreds of years!"

His tone was a little excited, and he obviously had his own opinion on this issue.

"Take me for example. My father once subjected me to a long period of brutal training, which gave me some superficial understanding of other systems. It's also because of this that I can barely operate the extremely intelligent mothership, the HMS Dreadnought. But please note, I can only operate it. If I really get into battle, I won't be able to handle those complex defense systems, counterattack systems, and offensive systems at all!"

He became more and more excited as he spoke, and his voice unconsciously rose an octave.

"Besides, you're completely talking nonsense! Not everyone can drive a starship as easily as you do. The Draconian piloting style is inherently lone wolf, operating the largest and most complex starships with minimal crews. But that's only possible thanks to the Draconian's technological prowess, which practically surpasses the entire universe!"

His words came like a string of cannonballs, leaving Ye Ye no chance to get a word in.

Lu Yue's complaints left Ye Ye stunned. Was he really that good? Riding a bicycle?

Ye Ye felt that Lu Yue's words were a bit exaggerated... If he didn't ride a bicycle, he should at least ride an electric bike! After all, starships are also powered by energy rather than physical power...

If Lu Yue knew what Ye Ye was thinking, he would probably not bother to talk to Ye Ye anymore and would just go back to his room and shut himself up... Is this what human beings say!?

"Okay, okay, I understand. Let's go check out the situation tomorrow. But how many people do we need to recruit?"

When Lu Yue heard that Ye Ye finally stopped showing off, he felt relieved and quickly responded.

"It all depends on your needs. The field of starship piloting is very specialized and covers a wide range of areas. For example, logistics and personnel support, communications, offense, defense, star mapping and navigation, and even space catering has its own specialized knowledge. Many people spend their entire lives mastering only one of these areas."

He paused for a moment and then continued.

"Typically, a starship carrying out a normal interstellar navigation mission should have a crew of at least six. The pilot is not only responsible for flying the starship, but also needs to handle communications, ensuring smooth information transmission between other starships or bases. The captain and first officer are responsible for overall logistics support, coordinating various resources to ensure the normal operation of the starship. Therefore, the captain and first officer positions alone already occupy two people."

"In addition, the starship's offensive and defensive systems often need to operate simultaneously to respond to various possible situations. Therefore, two personnel are required to be responsible for the operation and monitoring of these two systems respectively to ensure that the starship can respond quickly when facing an enemy."

"In addition, to ensure the starship can safely traverse the star field, a professional star cartographer is also required. He needs to accurately map the nearby star field and report relevant information to the captain in a timely manner so that the starship can avoid dangerous areas and choose the best navigation route."

"Finally, the starship needs at least one maintenance crew member on board. After all, during a long voyage, the starship is bound to have various external or internal failures. Without a maintenance crew to repair it in a timely manner, the starship is likely to become paralyzed, posing a huge danger to the crew."