TL: Hua

Chapter 70

The combat match possessed the most poisonous format of the entire second half and perhaps the entire preliminary round.

Because Ji Xuan’s time was far shorter than the other contestants in the shooting group, Pei Yingye waited in the preparation area for quite a while before the eight people participating in the combat match were all present.

The competition committee had already considered the possibility that each academy might have more than one group of contestants participating in the second half. Therefore, for the third event, they implemented a limit on the number of people advancing from each academy; specifically, each academy could only have one group enter the subsequent competition.

The combat arena was set up as a rotating platform. The largest one in the center was the main arena, surrounded by several sub-arenas. There were barriers between the main and sub-arenas; aside from the live-stream cameras, no one could know the identity of the contestants on the stages.

Leon, who was furthest from him, was interacting with a filming drone, and the comments in the live stream were flashing by so fast only afterimages could be seen.

“Combat has always been my forte. If it weren’t for the fact that I can’t find an opponent in my school, the team leader wouldn’t have bothered me to participate in an extra event.” He was even answering questions from the comments. “But it’s fine. My event for the first half was luckily scheduled for the afternoon of the first day, so I’ve mostly recovered now. It won’t affect the fight for a spot. Instead of worrying about me, you should worry about the other contestants.”

Pei Yingye snorted, thinking the person who most belonged in an idol survival show was this guy right here.

However, given the pickiness of talent show audiences, he would probably be eliminated in the first round of performances.

The speakers in the arena emitted a sharp alert, and then the light screen overhead began to demonstrate the rules via animation, accompanied by an AI’s mechanical voice.

The system would randomly select one of the eight contestants to take the main arena, while the other seven would be on the sub-arenas. Those in the sub-arenas could issue a challenge to the main arena; before the challenge began, neither side would know the other’s identity. If a sub-arena challenger was successful, they would swap positions with the main arena and become the new occupant of the main arena.

If the occupant of the main arena won three times in a row, they would advance, and the system would select a new occupant for the main arena from the remaining people.

The competition would stop once 6 people had advanced.

The rules were convoluted and confusing, leaving many contestants bewildered, with rows of question marks flooding the live stream chat.

“The person who came up with these rules must have been a cold-blooded capitalist in their past life,” Pei Yingye teased. “If some unlucky guy wins twice and then gets successfully challenged, he has to return to the sub-arena, challenging and failing, or return to the main arena, win once or twice, and get successfully challenged again… even a donkey on a production team wouldn’t be worked this hard.”

“And this situation only gets more severe the further it goes.” Outside the arena, Ji Xuan watched the broadcast screen, explaining to a few students and tourists nearby who didn’t understand the rules. “As the number of advancement slots decreases, the contestants swapped back to the sub-arena will try every means possible to return to the main arena and restart the next round. The longer the previous contestant takes to advance, the more anxious they become. The shift in mindset and the depletion of physical strength will cause their win rate to drop lower and lower until only three people are left on the field… If one of the contestants has been conserving their energy and has a sufficient physical advantage, their win rate will be slightly higher, making it easy to ‘pick up the scraps,’ as Pei Yingye said. To advance, the best method is to win three rounds in one go the first time you stand on the main arena.”

However, because they could not see each other’s identities, whether it was the main arena selecting an opponent or a sub-arena launching a challenge, to avoid wasting an opportunity for nothing and losing more than they gained, contestants would hesitate and think for a while.

“The main arena for the first round is Leon,” Shaikh said in a voice only the two of them could hear.

Thus, Ji Xuan lifted his eyes to look at the broadcast screen.

Actually, it was somewhat within expectations.

Firstly, having a star contestant appear first could stimulate the interest of the viewers in the livestream room. Secondly, the first contestant to step onto the main arena had a natural advantage; if their strength matched the position, they could promote themselves grandly, which perfectly aligned with Eagle Military Academy’s style of doing things.

The remaining contestants followed instructions into their corresponding sub-arenas.

A countdown began to appear on the light screen.

During the thirty-second challenge preparation time, a button rose in front of the seven sub-arena contestants, allowing them to choose whether to challenge the main arena.

The air stagnated at this moment; one could hear a pin drop in the fighting arena.

Everyone knew that the first challenger was crucial. Win, and you become the new main arena holder with a potential chance for rapid advancement; lose, and you not only consume physical strength but might also expose your own abilities, burying hidden dangers for subsequent matches.

More importantly, without knowing who the main arena holder was, this was undoubtedly a high-stakes gamble.

But if no one challenged within one minute, the system would enter random matching.

Leon stood in the center of the main arena with a gentlemanly smile on his face. He wasn’t worried at all about who his opponent would be; he had watched the assessment videos of all seven people in the sub-arenas. The only one he regarded seriously was Pei Yingye, who had been defeated by an Omega this year, so there truly wasn’t a contestant he felt like competing against.

[What a tense and exciting segment.]

[LOL, that Beta from Mars’s Mecha Department outside the arena is already drawing diagrams to explain it to his teammates. He’s explaining the matches and different outcomes unlucky contestants will experience, as Ji Xuan and Pei Yingye mentioned before. Whoever came up with this rule is a devil.]

[More than a devil. I saw some students who didn’t understand go and ask the official robot, and the robot lagged for five minutes before it figured it out.]

[I don’t think it’s that big a deal. Competitions are first about strength and second about luck. If you have the strength, you crush them and advance; if you have no strength and no luck, isn’t it normal to be eliminated?]

[Being eliminated for lack of strength is fine; what’s tragic is the more you work hard to challenge, the more unfortunate you get. Also, I don’t know if you noticed, but the final score is still related to the match time and results of each group, so the earlier you advance, the more advantageous it is.]

[I feel like everyone might have a hard time choosing in the first round. I have a hunch it will go straight to system matching.]

[Anyway, Leon isn’t afraid; his combat assessment rating was the highest.]

The countdown ticked away second by second.

As the last digit disappeared, the words “Combat Match Officially Begins” appeared on the screen, followed immediately by a notification sound.

—Within half a second of the passage opening, someone pressed the challenge button!

[…What an unexpectedly fast hand speed.]

[Who is it that’s so brave?]

[Blind guess: it’s the one from Mars Military Academy.]

[No need to guess, it’s him. His teammates outside the arena all have “as expected” expressions.]

The barrier of the sub-arena rose.

The first thing to appear in the viewer’s sight was a pair of black military boots. The training uniform perfectly outlined the well-trained leg muscles. Above that, a narrow waist and broad shoulders, and a height of 1.9 meters, exuded a powerful presence. A pair of misty blue eyes glanced lazily at the camera as he walked at an unhurried pace.

“I didn’t expect the first one to challenge me to be you.”

Pei Yingye stretched his neck and replied nonchalantly, “Is it that hard to imagine? After all, your school’s match rules are too flashy and complicated. I was already bored waiting outside and didn’t want to waste more time here.”

Leon let out a light scoff and continued to provoke: “What’s the rush? Rushing to lose?”

There were only a few meters between the two. Pei Yingye’s fingers made a “clack-clack” sound as he moved them.

“Rushing to finish,” Pei Yingye corrected him, letting out a grin. “I just don’t know how many years I’ll be praised on StarNet if I win this time.”

The undisguised sarcasm in those words made Leon’s face turn ashen. The live stream chat exploded with comments, some mocking Pei Yingye for being too arrogant, while others, eager for a good show, clamored for a “fight.”

Leon’s gaze turned completely cold, and he stopped talking. Just as the referee robot issued the command, he took the initiative to attack—

The physical fitness of a 2S-grade Alpha was not to be underestimated. His attacking speed was startlingly fast, a sharp sidekick sweeping directly toward Pei Yingye’s waist and abdomen.

[Beautiful opening move!]

[What amazing speed, as expected of a high-grade Alpha.]

His movements were standard, a textbook example of the military academy style. To some extent, this ace of Eagle Military Academy indeed lived up to his status.

But just when everyone thought Pei Yingye would either tank it or dodge, he advanced instead of retreating. At the moment Leon’s leg was about to sweep him, he tilted his body, forcefully absorbing part of the force with his shoulder and arm. Simultaneously, his left hand shot out with lightning speed, clamping onto the other’s ankle like a steel plier.

“What?!” Leon’s pupils shrank. He tried to pull back, only to find the opponent’s strength was terrifying.

Pei Yingye gave Leon no time to struggle or adjust. He grabbed Leon’s ankle and pulled him sharply towards himself while simultaneously sweeping his right leg towards Leon’s supporting leg!

This sudden change was too fast, completely lacking in proper form or routine. Leon instantly lost his balance and pitched forward. However, he was experienced after all; he quickly propped one hand on the ground and flipped, attempting to neutralize the momentum and pull away from Pei Yingye.

But Pei Yingye seemed to have anticipated his move. Like a maggot on a bone, he closed in again, throwing a merciless elbow strike toward Leon’s wide-open back!

“Bang!”

Leon let out a muffled groan. His movement to push off the ground stalled, and he rolled clumsily to the side to barely avoid the follow-up attack. He rose quickly, his breathing already somewhat ragged. A burning pain radiated from his back, and his gaze toward Pei Yingye was filled with disbelief.

After all, Pei Yingye’s fighting style wasn’t any of the types taught in the Alliance military academies; it was tricky, ruthless, and completely ignored conventional logic.

“Can you only use petty tricks?” Leon tried to provoke him with words while adjusting his breathing, looking for the next opportunity to attack. “Does a student taught by Mars Military Academy actually use this kind of rudimentary method?”

Pei Yingye shook out his hand. “Don’t trouble yourself over how we at Mars teach, but it seems your Eagle’s teaching approach is as stiff and rigid as it was ten years ago.”

As the words fell, he took the initiative to attack.

Fists, elbows, knees, and legs—every part of his body that could be used for offense was mobilized to the extreme. His assault bore down on Leon like a violent storm. Leon was forced into a defensive position, and his few counterattacks appeared stretched thin under Pei Yingye’s wide-open, aggressive offense.

“Do you know how the Omega on our team would neutralize this move if he encountered it?” Pei Yingye delivered a low sweep. “He would dodge it with extreme ease and seize the opening to grab my waist…”

With a “bang,” Leon blocked his sweep, but Pei Yingye immediately used the counterforce to spin his body, sweeping his other leg toward Leon’s head! Leon tilted his head to dodge by a hair’s breadth, the force of the wind stinging his cheek.

“Then, using an unimaginable posture, he would pin me down. My neck would be strangled by him until I couldn’t breathe.”

Straight punches, backhands, interceptions… After several rounds, Leon’s breathing became heavier, hot sweat seeped from his forehead, and his attacking rhythm was completely disrupted.

“If he had a weapon in his hand, I would have been pierced through a hundred times over. Fortunately, combat matches are bare-handed, and he can’t bear to dislocate my joints. Others wouldn’t be so lucky…”

“But he would keep strangling until I surrendered and took the initiative to admit defeat.”

Pei Yingye spotted a moment of hesitation from Leon and used a feint. At the instant Leon turned to block and exposed his center, Pei Yingye grabbed his shoulder with one hand and threw a punch straight into his ribs with the other!

“Cough!” Leon let out a pained grunt.

Pei Yingye followed the momentum by lifting his knee, slamming it hard toward Leon’s abdomen.

If this knee strike landed solidly, Leon would likely struggle to stand up again for a short while.

At the critical moment, Leon erupted with a strong will to survive. His arms slammed down to block while his feet pushed off to retreat urgently.

However, Pei Yingye seemed to have predicted all his moves. The knee strike changed midway, turning into an even more rapid and shifting front kick—

“Clang!”

Leon crashed heavily onto the arena floor, making a dull thud.

“That’s why I lost willingly back then.”

“It’s a pity you ran into me today. Otherwise, after he walked you like a dog and kicked you out of the arena—” Pei Yingye stood beside the fallen Leon, looking down at him. A few strands of hair on his forehead were wet with sweat, adding a touch of wildness. “It would definitely have been more spectacular than this.”

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