Chapter 54

After such a long time, this wearable mech reappeared, and its first appearance was an S+! The audience was in an uproar, and the barrage in the live broadcast room was rolling like crazy.

【So, is this mech assembled in the form of parts?】

【Wearable… I’ve only seen this thing in textbooks before today.】

【It looks more exquisite than ordinary mechs, but I wonder how powerful it is.】

Regardless of its power!

This thing made its first appearance in the joint examination, and it faced off against the strongest of the three major military academies, the Imperial Military Academy.

Just with these highlights alone, countless people flooded into Ji Fu’s live broadcast room.

This brand-new wearable mech, Lunar, appeared for less than three minutes, and Ji Fu’s personal live broadcast room’s popularity directly surpassed the first-week popularity of Xingyu, becoming the most popular live broadcast room in the two rounds of joint examinations.

…And that’s not all, videos and articles about wearable mechs have been sent by netizens to various platforms.

The popularity of the joint examination live broadcast room is rapidly rising at an incredible speed.

Compared to the lively live broadcast rooms, the examination hall is unusually quiet.

According to past experience, after participating in this round of joint examinations, Zhou Xingyu would directly enter the Union.

With his current status, he didn’t actually need to participate in this round of examinations.

The Empire and the Zhou family specially had him rushed back from the Legion to participate in this round of examinations to boost his momentum.

Because of the special nature of this round of examinations, the most promising individuals for the future Union are concentrated in this round, so they want him to make a name for himself on this occasion.

Who knew that Ji Fu would unexpectedly emerge…

The person in charge of the Imperial Military Academy sitting there raised his hand and opened the Star Network. All he could see was overwhelming coverage about Ji Fu.

The joint examination live broadcast and the major platforms of the Star Network are all owned by several major families, but the one with the overall discourse power is still the Fang family.

From the looks of it, the Fang family doesn’t seem to intend to suppress the spread of information.

The person beside him chuckled softly, “Such high popularity, but it still needs to be handled properly.”

After all, wearable mechs were relics from many years ago. Bringing it out now, and especially as a finished product made within seven days, it’s hard to say what the effect will be like.

Moreover, they were facing the Imperial Military Academy.

A slight misstep, and the person overwhelmed by this high popularity might be Ji Fu herself.

People in the examination hall were all scheming, except for Zhang Huan who was genuinely happy.

There was another person, feeling particularly complicated.

That person was Cheng Hao.

Due to the incident with the Legion during the previous training camp, Fang Yanli was called back to the Fang family’s old mansion for some time, and Cheng Hao was in charge of the joint examination.

Cheng Hao watched as Ji Fu continuously brought out new things.

He increasingly felt that this person was extraordinary.

At this moment, he also understood why Fang Yanli had been focusing on Ji Fu before. The person in front of him indeed deserved the highest level of attention.

He timely organized and reported all the situations to Fang Yanli, but little did he know, at this moment Fang Yanli was sitting in the Fang family’s hall, also watching the second round of the joint examination live broadcast.

His eyes were deep, his hand resting by his side, lightly tapping the armrest of the chair.

Those familiar with Fang Yanli would know that this was a signal of his extreme agitation.

Wearable mechs sounded like ancient and forgotten relics, but Fang Yanli could tell with just one glance.

This was a top-tier mech.

Its current grade was only S+, because some parts had not been upgraded yet, and the materials used were only average. The person controlling the mech also had an S-level talent.

Not only that, Fang Yanli was familiar with various types of warfare, so he understood even more how special this mech was.

It was well known that to become a mech soldier, besides talent, one needed extremely strong physical abilities.

People whose bodies couldn’t meet a certain standard were unable to become mech soldiers.

Or they could do it but couldn’t fully unleash the mech’s maximum power.

Most mech pilots were in this situation, which meant they couldn’t pilot the mechs they built themselves, or they could only unleash less than 50% of the mech’s performance.

Being able to have both strong physical abilities and absolute control over materials, achieving the dual cultivation of mech pilot and mech soldier, was extremely rare.

…But this suddenly appearing wearable mech seemed to be able to perfectly solve this problem.

If handling a powerful large mech was difficult, then handle a mech about the same height as a person.

This mech to some extent bridged the gap in physical abilities and used a modular assembly mode with versatile parts.

It almost perfectly interpreted the phrase “play to one’s strengths and avoid weaknesses.”

It was the epitome of personalized mech customization.

Fang Yanli heard the person beside him, Wen Fang, sigh, “Ji Fu is indeed a genius mech pilot.”

His expression slightly darkened.

A genius mech pilot, personalized customized mech.

It was so similar to that old acquaintance.

Three years had passed, and many people had forgotten that the star-rated mech tailored for Yunchi had once killed many super-star-rated ones.

If it weren’t for the mech being completely destroyed afterward, it would probably still be ranked among the top on the leaderboard.

His temples throbbed faintly, and Fang Yanli closed his eyes.

According to usual practice, he would have already harbored suspicions by now, and at this moment, he should definitely be keeping an eye on Ji Fu.

But for some reason, he didn’t move.

Instead, he sat quietly in the hall, waiting for the patriarch of the Fang family, who might or might not appear.

And just as he closed his eyes tightly, Ji Fu moved in the live broadcast.

After the first joint examination, the Empire had become aware of the possibility of an attack by the Interstellar Association.

And they had made some defensive preparations.

For example, the base they were in now was entirely designed by the super-star-rated mech pilot Han Siyi.

It employed a high standard of defense and attack systems, which could basically ensure the safety of most Imperial Military Academy students.

However, while they had considered the possibility of an attack by the Interstellar Association, they hadn’t expected it to come so soon.

Han Siyi glanced at the time on the light brain, Imperial time 8:37.

It had only been 37 minutes since the Imperial Military Academy logged in.

The Interstellar Academy had already found their base and taken action against them.

She and her sister, Han Qianqian, were responsible for this base construction, so when they received an abnormal alert from the system, Han Qianqian was first stunned, then said incredulously:

“Is the Interstellar Association insane?”

As soon as she finished speaking, she looked up and saw three mechs flying overhead.

Buzz—

The mechs flew past, emitting a loud roar.

The three mechs activated their rage mode and glided through the sky at an extreme speed.

Then, at the same time, they raised their hands and dropped countless large potions from the sky.

Those potions violently collided in mid-air.

Boom!

As they collided, they ignited a towering blaze.

The towering flames rose high, lighting up the entire sky!

The Imperial Military Academy’s base had not yet been fully constructed, but Han Siyi, to be on the safe side, had added defense and interception systems from the beginning.

However, after the enemy smashed three massive potions three times, the gigantic plasma shield raised by the interception system was directly blasted into pieces!

[Warning! Warning! Defense system has been shattered!]

The piercing alarm sounded throughout the entire Imperial Military Academy base.

Han Siyi reacted quickly and pressed the school-wide voice key, shouting loudly, “Everyone, get into your mechs immediately and prepare for battle.”

“High-speed artillery platform, prepare! Bring down the mechs in the sky!”

At the moment, three star-level turrets rose simultaneously in the base, targeting and bombarding the mech units flying chaotically in the sky.

At the same time, the three star-level mechs stationed at the base were also deployed.

Han Siyi’s face darkened as she directly dialed Fang Yuan’s communicator, her voice cold. “Where are your people? It’s been so long, and you still haven’t dealt with the people from the Interstellar Academy?”

Fang Yuan had also heard the recent school-wide communication, and his expression turned grim.

The Interstellar Academy had been quite active in the past seven days.

They had established three bases, each equipped with interference systems.

He had led his team, only to come up empty-handed twice, wasting a lot of time.

Now, they were very far from the original landing spot of the Imperial Military Academy.

Moreover, the prolonged search without finding anyone made Fang Yuan feel like he was being toyed with.

His face hardened, and he shouted angrily, “Keep looking.”

With Zhou Xingyu in the base, nothing could go wrong.

He had already invested so much time; it was impossible to return empty-handed.

Bai Yemeng frowned slightly and said in a deep voice, “The main personnel of the Interstellar Academy should have gone to that base.”

Si Fan glanced at him. “So what? Do you think Zhou Xingyu can’t handle them alone?”

Super Star+ indeed could not lose.

Bai Yemeng looked back at the direction they had come from but wondered how they could be sure that Zhou Lu Hai from the Interstellar Academy would be weaker than Zhou Xingyu.

He felt the Imperial elite class was too dismissive of the Interstellar Academy.

However, under Si Fan’s cold gaze, Bai Yemeng said nothing.

Although it had never been explicitly stated, everyone knew that at their level, the outcome of collective battles was indeed not very important.

Fang Yuan insisted on doing this, and Bai Yemeng had no objections.

The message Han Siyi sent out seemed to have sunk into the sea, with Fang Yuan too lazy to even reply.

Her face instantly turned ugly.

The Imperial base was already in chaos. Although the Interstellar personnel were not highly ranked, each of them had a vial of special potion.

Before today, Han Siyi had never seen so many strange and bizarre potion bottles.

A massive battleship rose into the sky, like a giant cloud stretching across the heavens, continuously dropping explosive potions into the Imperial base.

Han Siyi ordered the deployment of high-pressure water cannons, blocking some of the explosive potions.

However, in just those short ten minutes, two of the star-level mechs that had gone out earlier had already been eliminated.

“…It’s that drone mech from Ji Fu.” Han Qianqian said with a gloomy face. “Where’s Zhou Xingyu? Didn’t you send him a message?”

“I did, but he didn’t reply.”

Unlike Fang Yuan, Zhou Xingyu’s lack of response made Han Siyi somewhat uneasy.

Her relationship with Zhou Xingyu was unusual. The elders of the Han family had always intended for her to marry Zhou Xingyu, so Han Siyi was somewhat familiar with the Zhou family’s situation.

Zhou Xingyu’s cousin, Zhou Lu Hai, was said to be very talented.

She wasn’t sure if he had Super Star+, but he was definitely at the super-star level.

No news from Zhou Xingyu likely meant he was entangled with his cousin.

“Get in the mechs first. Their mech levels aren’t high. After this round, we can launch a direct counterattack…” Han Siyi was still contemplating her strategy. She herself was at the super-star level and was not helpless without Zhou Xingyu.

But both she and her sister were mech pilots, and they usually only used star-level mechs, and their combat abilities weren’t very strong.

Han Siyi needed to figure out how to deal with Ji Fu’s drone mech.

Before she could finish speaking, Han Qianqian had already entered her mech, controlling it and charging out directly.

Han Siyi’s expression changed. “Qianqian!?”

Han Qianqian was already airborne in her star-level mech, activating berserk mode as soon as she took off.

She pressed the communication button, her voice tinged with impatience. “These Interstellar Academy flies really think they’re something.”

“I’m going to drive them out of the base.”

Given her and Han Siyi’s physical capabilities, piloting a star-level mech was challenging.

But what she lacked in physical ability, she made up for in talent. Han Qianqian, always relying on her super-star level talent, never regarded those with lower talent highly.

Being repeatedly harassed by the Interstellar Academy had certainly angered her.

Unlike Han Siyi, she had fewer concerns. She immediately activated the high-speed gravity cannon, bombarding the Interstellar Academy crowd.

The gravity cannon exploded, eliminating seven or eight low-level students from the Interstellar Academy simultaneously.

Han Qianqian sneered. “Is that all? I thought these flies were more capable.”

Watching her sister pilot the mech out of the base’s range, Han Siyi’s face changed instantly. She pressed the communication button. “Han Qianqian! Come back!”

Using her full name, Han Qianqian’s figure in the sky paused momentarily but continued to charge forward.

She intended to eliminate that S-level named Ji Fu and see what other tricks the Interstellar Academy could play.

Han Qianqian activated the panoramic mode, searching for Ji Fu’s location on the map.

She moved through the crowd, her attacks particularly ruthless, directly eliminating any Interstellar Academy student in her sight.

Seeing her sister so reckless, Han Siyi’s face changed.

She had a super-star level mech, though it was still unfinished. During the first unified exam, Han Siyi had hardly appeared, busy working on this super-star level mech.

　She hesitated slightly. If this mecha was completed, it would be the first time she had independently made a super-star mecha. Its importance is self-evident.

She was still considering whether to take out her mech and directly force all the Interstellar Academy students to retreat when a sudden message from Zhou Xingyu popped up in her smart brain interface.

**[Siyi, come to my side]**

Han Siyi paused for a moment. In the end, she decided not to deploy her incomplete super-star level mech and instead headed towards Zhou Xingyu.

As long as Zhou Xingyu made a move, eliminating all the attacking Interstellar Academy students wouldn’t be a problem.

Without further hesitation, she quickly logged into her mech and sped towards Zhou Xingyu’s location.

The timing was perfect.

Just as Han Siyi left, Ji Fu appeared in Han Qianqian’s field of vision.

**[Target locked]** Han Qianqian’s mech locked onto the silver-white mech swiftly moving on the ground.

Han Qianqian frowned slightly.

A mech the height of a person?

She was a mech engineer herself, and although she hadn’t yet independently created a super-star level mech, she could handle ordinary repairs and had built several star-level mechs. She immediately recognized the unusual nature of the mech in front of her.

Her star-level mech quickly assessed: **[Target is an S+ wearable mech]**

A type of mech she hadn’t heard of before.

But it was only S+, so she felt somewhat relieved.

To be cautious, Han Qianqian maximized her mech’s performance and once again activated the berserk mode.

**[Extreme Berserk Mode Activated]**

The moment the values were maxed out, Han Qianqian’s mech left a trail of afterimages in the air.

She activated her heavy weapon and piloted the star-level mech, weighing over a thousand tons, like a meteor crashing down towards Ji Fu’s head.

In the maxed-out state, the mech tore through the sky, emitting a deafening roar.

Mid-air, she deployed the giant light blade hidden in the mech’s wings, which sliced everything it touched into fragments.

Her downward slash was aimed right at Ji Fu’s head.

The star-level mech’s extreme speed made the entire sequence seem complex, but it all happened within a few seconds.

Ji Fu, on the ground, saw her entire control panel light up.

The panel displayed: **[Heavy Weapon Attack Detected]**

At that moment, the livestream chat was filled with shock.

Han Qianqian’s appearance was so sudden that many people hadn’t even reacted before seeing the warning on Ji Fu’s panel.

Strangely, a typical mech would issue frantic warnings in such a deadly situation.

Compared to that, the warning from Ji Fu’s mech, Jiaoyue, was almost indifferent.

“Probably a downside of the wearable type, maybe the control panel is somewhat simplified,” commented a mech engineer in the exam monitoring center.

Huang Peilan paused. “…It’s not simplified.”

It felt more like a calm indifference.

The kind of indifference that comes from being fully aware of the situation and having everything under control.

She heard a mech engineer from the Zhou family say, “This Jiaoyue mech is highly intelligent.”

Despite being a wearable mech, its level of intelligence was on par with the autonomous Yan Yan.

The subsequent livestream footage confirmed his words.

Han Qianqian’s attack was fierce, aiming to kill.

When she landed, the impact created a massive crack in the ground.

**Boom!!!**

The surrounding hills instantly shattered.

In the quake, even the S-level exotic beasts hit by her heavy weapon were instantly killed.

However, Ji Fu dodged her attack at the moment the heavy weapon slashed down.

Sidestepping quickly, she moved close to the heavy mech.

All of this happened within half a second.

Simultaneously, Jiaoyue provided a precise assessment:

**[Talent Level: Super-star, Mech Type: Star-level, Performance Utilization: 50%]**

Ji Fu sidestepped, and her mech’s right arm automatically assembled. She raised her hand and fired an S-level gravity shell at Han Qianqian’s engine.

**Boom!**

The shell was intercepted by the mech’s defense system and shattered in mid-air.

The control panel displayed another alert: **[Defense System Integrity: 58%]**

After missing her initial attack, Han Qianqian quickly assembled and connected the Thunder Cannon.

The Thunder Cannon, a star-level trajectory cannon, was named for its devastating impact, similar to a thunderstrike.

It was a custom-made star-level weapon of the Imperial Military Academy, extremely powerful.

When fired, it distorted the surrounding space momentarily.

The Thunder Cannon had a broad range, covering the entire area they were in.

Han Qianqian watched the white mech darting around in her sights and sneered. She operated her controls and launched three Thunder Cannons simultaneously.

Immediately, the livestream chat buzzed:

**[Launching three Thunder Cannons in an exam is a bit excessive… The Empire’s current Thunder Cannons are at Star+ level. Firing three at once would severely injure anyone hit, even with protective emblems.]**

**[Exams are combat scenarios. Would you worry about the enemy getting hurt on the battlefield?]**

Though the argument was valid, firing three Thunder Cannons at such close range was indeed ruthless by Han Qianqian’s standards.

The three Thunder Cannons were fired simultaneously, the last one from a hidden devil barrel in the mech.

The entire area was within the blast radius, and most people watching the livestream assumed Ji Fu would surely be eliminated.

Unexpectedly, as the Thunder Cannons’ blinding light filled the area, Ji Fu’s control panel still showed movement.

The mech panel quickly provided data: **[High-Spec Wide-Area Heavy Weapon Detected, Top-Level Defense Mode Activated]**

Due to the high lethality of the Thunder Cannon, it took a bit longer for the shots to land.

However, this longer time was still only about 3 seconds.

But Ji Fu’s top-level defense mode activated in just half a second.

A transparent shield seemed to light up over the silver-white mech, like a layer of moonlight.

Though it was an inappropriate time, someone still commented, “It’s quite elegant.”

Wen Fang, watching the livestream, remained silent for a moment before saying, “Her system’s level of intelligence is extremely high.”

Activating full-body defense mode in half a second.

That’s something many star-level mechs couldn’t do.

Just as he finished speaking, Fang Yanli beside him said in a low voice, “…She’s testing her mech.”

Wen Fang looked up at him in disbelief.

What did that mean?

Since Han Qianqian appeared, Ji Fu’s maneuvers had been smooth and efficient, with evasions and counterattacks perfectly timed.

So Wen Fang hadn’t noticed anything unusual and found the combat thrilling.

But Fang Yanli was saying Ji Fu was deliberately testing her new mech?

Wen Fang paused. If anyone else had said that today, he would have thought they overestimated Ji Fu. But it was Fang Yanli speaking.

He incredulously enlarged, minimized, and used his system to freeze and rewind the livestream.

After exiting and reviewing the footage three times, he found what he was looking for in a single frame.

In the frame, Ji Fu seemed to glance down at her smart brain.

This glance was just before the Thunder Cannon’s impact.

Was she precisely timing the Thunder Cannon’s activation speed?

Wen Fang was still trying to comprehend this, but the livestream showed another astonishing scene.

The three Thunder Cannons landed, turning all living things in the area to pieces.

But the silver-white mech was flickering in the footage.

High-level flicker defense.

Jiaoyue’s system prompted: **[Defense system damage: 89%]**

Ji Fu paused, realizing Jiaoyue’s current defense system could withstand at most three Thunder Cannons.

A fourth strike would directly destroy the defense system.

She thought the performance was mediocre and saw room for further improvement.

After all, it was a mech built in seven days, and there were indeed areas that could be refined.

Unbeknownst to her, the livestream’s comment section had exploded.

An S+ mech blocking three star-level Thunder Cannons?

What a joke!

Yet they didn’t know this was just the beginning.

Ji Fu pressed a button on her smart brain, and the mech prompted: **[Attack test begins]**

She looked at the star-level mech not far away.

Under countless gazes, she drew a giant mechanical sword.

The long sword seemed mismatched with her mech’s size, looking like it was meant for a standard mech.

She lifted the sword, and as the mechanical arm locked it in place, the silver-white mech jumped into the air.

Han Qianqian didn’t have time to react as Ji Fu swung the sword down, severing the heavy mech’s right arm with one slash.

Crack.

The white giant sword tore through the mech’s defense system, and the arm broke off with a loud crash.

Inside, Han Qianqian hadn’t fully grasped what happened before feeling a sharp, tearing pain in her arm.

An arm injury in mech combat wasn’t fatal, so her insignia only briefly lit up without ejecting her from the test site.

However, while Han Qianqian was still reeling from the pain, Ji Fu made another move.

Leaping up, she shortened the mechanical sword mid-air, making it seem less formidable.

But in a split second, she used tremendous force to pierce through the mech’s engine.

Sizzling.

The engine was punctured, sparking heavily.

The small silver-white mech discarded the mechanical sword and dropped with immense force.

Bang—

She stomped and crushed the head of the mech below.

At the same time, a piercing alert echoed throughout the test site, resonating in every candidate’s ears.

**[Han Qianqian of the Imperial Military Academy, eliminated!]**