TL: Hua

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Chapter 20

Ji Xuan looked up at him, the corners of his eyes slightly upturned. After a long moment, he gave a soft laugh.

“What,” he said lazily, “can this kind of possessiveness arise between brothers?”

Pei Yingye felt like the other was deliberately misinterpreting his meaning, giving him the powerless feeling of punching a bale of cotton. It caused a stifling, restless heat to rise in his chest, surging through his veins.

He pressed his tongue against the corner of his mouth, wanting to say something, only to see Ji Xuan rise indifferently. The scorpion braid slid from his shoulder, the tip of the hair brushing against Pei Yingye’s sleeve.

Ji Xuan’s palm rested lightly on his shoulder, his voice as light as the wind: “I’m going to go eat.”

Then, without waiting for Pei Yingye’s response, he turned and left the simulation pod.

The pod door opened and closed, letting in a bit of the outdoor breeze. The interior suddenly fell silent. Pei Yingye stared at the door for a long time before lowering his head, his finger irritably flicking his wristband to a lower setting.

The Alpha pheromones, no longer restrained, instantly poured out, and a rich fougère scent immediately swept through the entire pod. Pei Yingye leaned back in the seat with his head back, his chest heaving heavily, his ears filled with his own excessively rapid breathing.

…Another one. Pei Yingye thought irritably. The last one was still an eyesore, and now here comes another.

But looking at it from another angle, fresh and delicious meat truly always attracts the eyes of predators.

The drifting pheromones were soon sucked away by the intelligent air system. After a moment of recovery, Pei Yingye logged into his ID on the simulator and entered random matchmaking.

After five, six, seven, or eight rounds of self-indulgent, explosive carnage, Pei Yingye finally left the training center, satisfied with a record of total victory.

—

Three days passed in a flash. On the day of the mecha assessment, the venue was teeming with people.

The standard mecha assessment field at Mars Military Academy was a circular layout, hundreds of meters in diameter. The exterior utilized a double barrier capable of withstanding the maximum impact of any mecha equipped by the academy.

As a special assessment project for the third year and graduation of the Combat Department, the mecha assessment site every year attracted a large crowd of spectators from various departments.

Shen Que was among them.

The Mecha Department had a project that involved writing a report based on that year’s mecha assessment, so every year they needed to obtain firsthand information on-site.

To accompany him, Ji Yan had also woken up very early today, covering his mouth as he let out a drowsy yawn. Under the sunlight, the Omega’s eyes, moist with tears from yawning, sparkled. He looked like a bewildered little deer; any Alpha who saw him would feel a soft protective urge in their heart.

“Brother Que,” Ji Yan called out to him, “Can you check for me when Second Brother is coming out?”

Hearing him mention Ji Xuan, Shen Que’s movements stiffened for a moment before he searched the match table on the central light screen: “It should be the eighth group.”

“Ah…” Ji Yan sighed in surprise. “Then isn’t there a long time left? I’ll sleep for a bit. Call me when Second Brother is up; I want to take a video to show Big Brother.”

“Why?” Shen Que asked.

“Everyone on the forum says Second Brother’s assessment results have improved a lot this time. I want our big brother to know. He’ll definitely be very happy,” Ji Yan explained.

As he said this, Shen Que suddenly remembered the discussions he had heard from classmates over the past few days. S-grade mental power, first place in basic combat points—neither of these things could be reconciled with the Ji Xuan he used to know. Especially with the accident that had happened in the warehouse before; he had originally thought it was Ji Xuan’s recklessness and operation errors that caused the test mecha’s alarm, but he later heard that wasn’t the case.

—Mental power threshold too high.

According to his experience, even with an enhancer, S-grade mental power shouldn’t reach that level.

As he was thinking, Shen Que suddenly felt a weight on his shoulder. He looked down to see that Ji Yan had already closed his eyes and fallen asleep against his shoulder. Shen Que hesitated for a moment, but his raised hand eventually dropped back down, not disturbing the Omega’s light sleep.

The mecha assessment used a system combining qualifying rounds with 1v1 combat. That is, students participating in the assessment had to complete basic skills tests within a time limit and reach a preset passing line before being eligible to continue to the 1v1 combat.

Therefore, situations inevitably occurred where someone who had just finished their basic assessment was taken out by a volley of fire from an opponent who was already prepared.

After all, on the battlefield, no one waits for you to be fully ready.

When Ji Xuan took the field, Shen Que had already filled several pages on his terminal with dense notes.

Hearing the broadcast, he stopped his pen and was about to wake Ji Yan on his shoulder, only to find that he had already opened his eyes at some point.

Ji Yan rubbed the mist from his eyes and looked excitedly at the two training mechas that had just appeared in the assessment field.

“Which one is Second Brother?” he asked in a small voice.

Shen Que’s gaze went to the field and quickly locked onto the silver-white mecha on the right. His brow furrowed instinctively.

“The one on the right,” he said. “But his equipment selection…”

“What’s wrong? Is the configuration bad?” Ji Yan immediately became worried.

“Not exactly.” Shen Que opened his terminal and calmly explained to Ji Yan, “It’s just that in pursuit of startup and movement speed, he has abandoned almost all medium- and long-range weapons, keeping only a twin cannon on the left shoulder. This kind of configuration is suicidal in a 1v1 assessment. Once the opponent finishes the basic assessment and opens up distance, he’ll be a sitting duck.”

These words completely extinguished Ji Yan’s hope, and his face fell: “Ah… then isn’t Second Brother destined to lose?”

“If there’s no miracle, yes,” Shen Que said flatly. He was already preparing to categorize Ji Xuan under “likely unable to pass 1v1” in his notebook, even starting to think of how he would comfort Ji Yan later.

Time ticked away, second by second.

Just as Shen Que expected, the silver-white mecha used its lightweight configuration to complete all basic projects first with astonishing speed. Its opponent—a balanced deep-blue mecha—was slightly slower but also steadily completed the validation.

The real battle began.

The deep-blue mecha immediately retreated, its mechanical arm rising as long-range weapons locked onto the “suicidal” silver mecha. Every spectator, including Shen Que, imagined the next scene: the silver mecha being suppressed by firepower, dodging miserably, and eventually being defeated by stray bullets.

However, in the next instant, the situation on the field changed abruptly.

The twin cannon on the silver-white mecha’s shoulder suddenly opened fire. What it shot weren’t straight energy beams, but several missiles that flew in eerie arcs. They split in mid-air, turning into a dense rain of pear blossoms that hammered down on the blue mecha!

“A feint?” Shen Que was stunned.

The pilot of the blue mecha was clearly startled by the sudden rain of shells and instinctively deployed the protective shield at full power to block toward the rear. At the very moment his vision was obscured by explosions and fire—

The silver-white mecha moved!

The next few dozen seconds were a performance that could be called a display of sheer skill.

The mecha’s thrusters erupted with blinding flames. Using the explosion as cover and through incredible micro-manipulation, the mecha completed an eerie Z-shaped leap, instantly cutting into the blue mecha’s visual blind spot.

“So fast…” Shen Que couldn’t help but gasp, his body involuntarily leaning forward.

The blue mecha pilot felt a terrifying, scalp-numbing mental power, like a physical mountain, crashing down upon his perception! The mecha’s movements instantly froze, and alarms flashed wildly on the dashboard.

In that brief moment of paralysis, a blazing light-sword thrust out from the shadows of his visual blind spot—

Screeech!

Accompanied by a teeth-gritting sound of tearing, the light-sword cut through the blue mecha’s right arm drive joint at an extremely tricky angle.

The entire process was fast, accurate, and ruthless—a scene of elegant, violent aesthetics.

Sparks flew from the severed joint, and the blue mecha completely lost its balance, crashing to its knees. The system judged it as severely damaged; the victory was decided.

The stands fell silent for a moment before erupting into massive cheers and discussions.

“Ji Xuan is awesome!”

“Holy crap, that was too fast. I didn’t even see what happened?”

“You call this a ‘low-grade O’? If all the Alliance’s low-grade O’s were like this, we could probably wipe out the Zerg, right?”

…

“W-Won?!” Ji Yan jumped up, his cheeks flushed with excitement as he clapped wildly. “Second Brother is too amazing! Brother Que, did you see that?! You just said…”

Ji Yan’s words came to an abrupt halt because he saw that the expression on Shen Que’s face was no longer cold indifference but a shock filled with disbelief. Even the pen in his hand had fallen to the ground without him noticing.

Shen Que’s mind was repeatedly replaying those stunning dozens of seconds. He had never seen someone combine Shaikh’s long-range pinning with Pei Yingye’s close-quarters combat so fluidly… the person on the stage was not the Ji Xuan he knew at all.

His previous analysis and judgment seemed laughable and shallow at this moment; it felt as if an invisible hand had slapped his face, leaving it burning.

The broadcast began to announce the results of the match. The door of the silver-white mecha opened, and Ji Xuan jumped down lightly. He didn’t even give a second look at his scrapped opponent, turning to leave with a faint, indifferent expression.

“Should we go congratulate Second Brother?” Ji Yan tugged at his sleeve and asked.

Shen Que suddenly snapped out of it, keenly spotting a tall figure leaning against the wall in the shadows of the exit tunnel.

It was Pei Yingye.

Pei Yingye again.

He was leaning casually against the wall, straightening up as Ji Xuan approached, naturally falling into step beside him. Shen Que could only see the lower half of his face; a playful smile seemed to hang on his lips as he said something to Ji Xuan.

Then Ji Xuan looked up and actually replied with a “fine.”

…Since when did they get so close?

Shen Que furrowed his brow imperceptibly.

Having not received a reply, Ji Yan asked again, “Brother Que, are we going?”

“No need to go.” Shen Que pulled back the eager Ji Yan.

Ji Yan: “Eh?”

“He likely already has someone to congratulate him,” Shen Que said, his voice carrying a hoarseness he hadn’t noticed himself.

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