TL: Hua

Chapter 71

[Holy crap!!!]

[Watching Alphas fight is so satisfying; just ‘crack, smash, bam’—A-types, B-types, AB-types, and O-types are all there.]

[Bro, you are truly brutal, as expected of the former top ranker of Mars Military Academy.]

[If I remember correctly, the only Omega from Mars who can fight is Ji Xuan, right? So, walking him like a dog and kicking him out is describing Ji Xuan’s fighting style? What a powerful Omega.]

[Lost willingly… Pei Yingye, you… (stunned.jpg)]

[So, these routines were summarized after being bullied constantly during training, right? That’s hilarious.]

[Leon: You’re so noble! You’re using me as a comparison to highlight how awesome your Omega is!]

[Hahahaha, the comment above is spot on! Pei Yingye is explaining while fighting: ‘Our Omega would fight like this, and since I can’t beat him, I’ll have to settle for beating you.’ Truly killing the spirit.]

[Congratulations to Eagle Military Academy for failing their grand opening. All that talk and you only last two minutes in the main arena?]

The camera panned to Leon lying on the ground. He raised a fist and struck the floor resentfully, then stood up stumbling, his face full of humiliation. He clearly could not accept his swift and pathetic defeat.

The referee robot determined Pei Yingye as the winner. The main and sub-arenas swapped, and the barrier slowly lowered, cutting off Leon’s indignant gaze.

Inside the arena, an announcement began to broadcast the change of the main arena holder, and a new round of countdown began. The eliminated main arena holder from the previous round was prohibited from launching a challenge in this round. Furthermore, given Leon’s current state, it was estimated he would need quite a while to recover.

Although the other contestants in the sub-arenas didn’t know the specific details of the fight just now, they could infer from the system’s two notification sounds that the strength of this new main arena holder was not to be underestimated. Consequently, their hesitation turned into deeper wariness. No one wanted to follow in the previous holder’s footsteps and be settled quickly under the watchful eyes of the public. It was both embarrassing and physically draining.

Time passed second by second until the final three seconds before the system entered the random matching phase. Only then did a hesitant notification sound ring out.

Someone chose to challenge.

He wanted to take a gamble. After the quick resolution of the first match, this new main arena holder had already consumed a lot of physical strength, and he believed he had enough skill and luck to fight him.

However, as he stepped out of the sub-arena and collided with Pei Yingye’s cynical and composed gaze, his whole body felt as if he were being stared down by a wild beast. A goosebump, like an electric current, surged from his feet upward.

Pei Yingye, on the other hand, greeted him with quite some interest: “Let’s start. After all, I still have two more after you.”

Extremely arrogant.

But at this moment, there were no more voices of doubt in the bullet comments.

“Please guide me,” the Alpha said.

Pei Yingye raised an eyebrow without wasting words. He stepped forward immediately as the robot announced the start. His offense remained sharp, but the opponent surprisingly defended perfectly, stubbornly enduring the first round of fast attacks. Although his footsteps were constantly retreating, he indeed showed no obvious openings.

“He’s gambling that Pei Yingye’s explosiveness won’t last,” Ji Xuan explained to the confused Lai Zhou beside him. “Or perhaps he’s gambling that he can wear Pei Yingye down until he’s exhausted or exposes a flaw.”

Pei Yingye naturally noticed his intention and quickly gathered strength to sweep directly at the opponent’s lower half.

That Alpha had focused all his attention on defending his upper body and didn’t expect this move at all. His leg was hit solidly, and he instantly lost his balance, falling to the ground with a “thud.”

His reaction was also fast, as he immediately tried to roll and stand up, but Pei Yingye’s knee was already pressed heavily against his back. One hand pinned the opponent’s arm back, and the elbow of the other hand hovered over the back of his neck.

“Do you admit defeat?”

The Alpha struggled a few times, but the overwhelming power made it impossible for him to move. He dejectedly tapped the ground with his other hand, signaling his surrender.

[Main Arena Cumulative Wins: 1/3]

This resulted in a full minute passing during the countdown for the third challenge without a single person pressing the button.

Consequently, the system entered random matching. A few minutes later, the prompt on the light screen changed to: [Main Arena Cumulative Wins: 2/3]

An uproar erupted in the sub-arenas. This meant that as long as he won the final match, the first qualification slot of the combat match would appear!

A new countdown began. The live camera cut to the faces of every contestant in the sub-arenas. Some were itching to move, others were hesitating. Leon slammed the button several times in frustration, but under the system’s restrictions, he simply could not initiate a challenge this round.

Finally, the moment the passage opened, the sharp notification sound rang out once more.

And it wasn’t just one.

“Such enthusiasm,” Pei Yingye quipped. “I’m quite flattered.”

Within that brief time difference, the system selected the contestant who had pressed the button first.

However, before long and without any suspense, Pei Yingye secured the first qualification slot.

Just as the referee robot’s voice faded, the light screen displayed [Main Arena Cumulative Wins: 3/3], and the celebratory sound effects for qualifying immediately echoed throughout the arena.

A staff member stepped forward quickly and handed the physical encrypted key to Pei Yingye.

Pei Yingye took the key, holding it between his fingertips. He raised it to his eyes to examine it casually as sweat slid down his sharp jawline. There was no exaggerated joy on his face, but his raised brows and the glint in his eyes radiated a sense of unbridled satisfaction and undisguised arrogance.

He didn’t head toward the qualification passage immediately. Instead, he turned and raised his hand toward one of the cameras—

With a flick of his wrist, the key traced a curve in the air before he caught it steadily.

It looked like a provocation, like showing off, comparable to a peacock spreading its tail feathers.

Ji Xuan let out a short laugh and stood up from the rest area.

The other Mars Military Academy contestants had prepared themselves in advance along the mandatory path Pei Yingye would take to the limited-time assembly arena. In truth, they felt that at this stage, there was no longer a need for the various academies to intercept anyone midway. Still, they had to prevent certain “irrational” people from intentionally causing trouble in an attempt to go down together.

Because his other teammates had already “cleared the way,” Ji Xuan walked at a leisurely pace, even catching a ride on an electric cart brought over by Lai Zhou.

By the time he reached the final event’s arena, Shen Que had already taken the key from Pei Yingye and entered the arena to prepare. Pei Yingye stood with one hand in his pocket, smoothing out his hair, which had been blown into a mess by the wind. Just as he turned around, he was met by a group of teammates crowding around, ready to pop the champagne early.

“The first spot, Brother Pei! That was incredible to watch!”

“Look at the faces of those Eagle people, hahaha! They’re turning purple like eggplants from holding it in!”

“If the Chief doesn’t encounter any problem, we’re going to be number one in the preliminary round!”

Pei Yingye’s gaze passed through the rowdy crowd and landed on Ji Xuan, who had just stepped off the electric cart.

The next second, he brushed aside the teammates who were trying to clap his shoulder or ask for a hug and strode toward him with lightning speed.

“?”

“Brother Pei?”

With his arms spread wide, he looked exactly like a male peacock displaying its magnificent tail feathers while quietly observing his person of interest’s reaction. Ji Xuan stopped in his tracks, maintaining a small distance as he met his gaze.

He sized Pei Yingye up. His gaze swept over the other’s sweat-dampened bangs, his slightly flushed cheekbones, and finally settled on those eyes that were written all over with “I’m amazing, right? Hurry up and praise me.”

A few seconds of silence passed. Behind Pei Yingye, the group of teammates, winking and desperately stifling laughter, made the time feel exceptionally long.

Seeing that Ji Xuan had no intention of reaching out to reciprocate the hug, Pei Yingye didn’t feel hurt. Instead, he took a direct step forward. An aggressive, scorching aura enveloped Ji Xuan as the training uniform jacket, puffed up with air, crashed into him.

“I taught those bastards who talk big with their stereotypes a lesson. Did a good job, didn’t I?” Pei Yingye said triumphantly.

Ji Xuan let him hold him, his hands hanging by his sides, neither reciprocating nor pushing him away. He simply said, “The part where you addressed the rumors about me was well-spoken.”

Pei Yingye rubbed the bridge of his nose, completely disagreeing with the definition of his words. But as the filming drones excitedly swarmed over, he released his hold on Ji Xuan and asked, “Where to now? Watch Shen Que’s match?”

Ji Xuan was noncommittal.

The limited-time assembly was the only match in the relay race that allowed for on-site spectating. The two of them, along with the Mars crew, entered through the contestant passage on the other side.

The vicious competition format of the third event combat match was indeed starting to show its side effects. The intervals between qualifications were being stretched infinitely, and the atmosphere in the spectator area gradually shifted from initial tension to boredom.

Even the filming drones in the arena seemed to sense this boredom. They stopped flying around to capture contestants entering the field and instead drifted slowly toward the Mars Military Academy group. After adjusting the focus, the robot landed steadily on its base, its red light flashing as it blatantly started its slacking-off live stream—aimed directly at Pei Yingye and Ji Xuan.

The comments in the secondary live stream immediately turned festive:

[Yes, yes, yes! The director knows exactly what I want!]

[Just film these two, hehe, I could watch this all day!]

On camera, Pei Yingye leaned back in his seat, his posture relaxed. One long leg rested casually on the bar in front of the seat, while the other was nearly pressed against Ji Xuan’s leg. Ignoring whatever the other was looking at on his terminal, he reached out and grabbed Ji Xuan’s hand, which was resting on his lap, to toy with it.

Ji Xuan’s fingers were long and well-defined, but they didn’t have the softness of someone living in luxury; there were thin calluses on his fingertips and the webbing of his thumb from years of training. Pei Yingye first squeezed his fingertips, then straightened his fingers one by one, watching them slowly curl back.

Ji Xuan offered no response to the sensation of his left hand being manipulated like a toy. Thus, Pei Yingye grew bolder. However, when he pinched a certain old injury at the base of a finger, Ji Xuan’s fingertip gave an uncontrollable twitch. Sensing this, Pei Yingye stopped his playing and instead applied light pressure to massage the spot before continuing his idle exploration.

[Hello, I’m a passerby. May I ask what kind of elementary school behavior this is?]

[Recalling what Pei Yingye said when he was beating Leon, is Ji Xuan only different when dealing with him? He actually just lets him play with his hand like that.]

[This atmosphere… if you told me they weren’t dating, I wouldn’t believe it.]

[Speaking of which, I just went to check their resumes… someone from Mars said Ji Xuan and Shen Que have an engagement?!]

[??? What? I thought he and Pei Yingye were a couple?]

[It’s real… I borrowed a friend’s account to enter Mars’ internal forum. Everyone knows about this. It’s just that Shen Que doesn’t seem to like Ji Xuan much. Later, there was the incident where Ji Xuan killed his fiancé in the full-domain simulation to prove he was number one, so everyone at school suspects the engagement has been called off.]

[Doesn’t like Ji Xuan? Goodbye, you tasteless thing.]

[I actually had a good impression of Shen Que, but man, what is this terrible aesthetic taste?]

[Thanks for the invite. Now tell me more about killing his fiancé to prove he’s number one.]

After quite a while, the contestants on the field finally gathered, and the match officially began.

After the three previous rounds of competition, only six contestants remained for the final match. Each contestant would draw a different task sheet from a box. Based on the prompt provided, they had to perform repairs or assembly within a time limit. The final score would include a base score and an expansion score, graded comprehensively by a panel of professors and experts from various military academies and the military department.

With an expressionless face, Shen Que pulled his task sheet from the box and displayed it to the filming robot—

[Scenario: Your special operations team is about to enter an extreme environment planet codenamed “Furnace.” This region has abnormal gravity and intense electromagnetic interference.

Your Task: Using the only remaining toolbox at the base, redesign and modify the basic exoskeleton in front of you within 60 minutes to adapt to the environment and mission requirements.

Specific data is as follows: …..]

While not quite as “poisonous” as Pei Yingye’s round, it certainly wasn’t much better.

Ji Xuan turned his head to look at Lai Zhou, who was already in the back seat studying the problems of all six people. Just as he was about to get up to get some fresh air and return for the results, someone suddenly sat down in the empty seat next to him.

Wearing a white hoodie and jeans, Ji Yan’s outfit today was quite youthful, and undoubtedly a bright spot of color amidst the sea of black training uniforms. The gazes of many around them were drawn over. The Mars teammates who knew of his relationship with Ji Xuan immediately fell silent, no longer discussing the situation on the field.

“Second Brother.”

Ji Xuan glanced at him. He didn’t ask why he appeared here, simply saying, “What is it?”

A perfectly timed smile appeared on Ji Yan’s face, his voice sounding very well-behaved: “Father was afraid you wouldn’t receive messages during the competition, so he specifically asked me to deliver a word—

“Once the preliminaries are over, let’s have a meal together. The restaurant is already booked; it’s nearby.”

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