Chapter 55

When Han Qianqian faced off against Ji Fu, the spectators considered many possibilities, but no one expected her to lose so quickly and so miserably.

By the time she was teleported back to the battleship, she had already lost consciousness.

The livestream comments were abuzz with discussions.

Before this, who could have imagined that an ultra-star level pilot would be eliminated so swiftly?

**[Well, it’s understandable. Even in berserk mode, she could only use 50% of her mech’s performance. And then she overreached by launching three Thunder Cannons. After firing those, she couldn’t even utilize 20% of her mech’s capabilities. Her strength was inferior to a normal S+ mech pilot, so isn’t it reasonable for her to be eliminated?]**

**[True, but her opponent is also a mech pilot.]**

In the earlier scenario, if it had been a regular mech pilot, they would have been eliminated by the three Thunder Cannons’ onslaught.

Han Qianqian was indeed eliminated quickly, but this only further highlighted the prowess of Ji Fu’s mech.

The concept of flicker defense was unheard of before.

The Thunder Cannons fired by Han Qianqian were somewhat underwhelming. Thunder Cannons are charged, booming heavy missiles. She couldn’t fully utilize her mech’s capabilities, treating it merely as a mobile artillery platform, resulting in mediocre damage.

But fundamentally, it was still a star-level weapon.

The shells didn’t even manage to break through Ji Fu’s defense system…

Calling it a duel would be generous; it was a one-sided crushing.

Nevertheless, Ji Fu did eliminate an ultra-star level opponent.

Every year in the joint exam, even the worst-performing ultra-star level participants make it to the final round. This has been the case for years, and never has such a situation occurred.

An ultra-star level participant eliminated in the second round of the team competition, and the one who eliminated her was just an S-level.

So, when the elimination notification spread throughout the exam field, everyone from the Imperial Military Academy was stunned.

Before Han Qianqian was eliminated, Fang Yu’an and the others finally located the students from the Interstellar Academy but initial negotiations failed.

The opposition was unwilling to compromise on the matter of survival resources.

Fang Yu’an squinted slightly, scrutinizing the Interstellar students. The most talented among them were only star-level.

He wondered where they got the confidence to refuse the Imperial Military Academy’s proposal.

Before he could figure it out, he heard the news of Han Qianqian’s elimination.

Si Fan’s face darkened abruptly, “Han Qianqian? Eliminated?”

For a moment, he suspected there was a problem with his hearing.

There was an ultra-star+ level guard at the base, and Han Siyi herself wasn’t weak. How could Han Qianqian be eliminated so quickly?

Fang Yu’an’s expression was equally grim.

Out of the five ultra-star level participants from the Empire, one was eliminated right away. Although she wasn’t the strongest mecha pilot, the Empire had never faced such humiliation in all the years of the joint exams.

That was an ultra-star level participant!

Not someone you could find just anywhere! And eliminated in the second round…

His face turned darker, and he lost interest in negotiating with the Interstellar students, directly ordering, “Attack, eliminate all the Interstellar Academy students stationed at the base!”

Eliminating Han Qianqian was a clear declaration of war.

Did the Empire fear the Interstellar Academy?

On the other side, Zhou Xingyu also received the elimination notice.

Han Siyi had just met up with him and was incredulous upon hearing the news.

She had indeed warned Han Qianqian not to act impulsively, but she never imagined that within minutes of her departure, Han Qianqian would be eliminated.

Could it have been Zhou Lu Hai’s doing?

Han Siyi looked up sharply, only to see that the person facing off against Zhou Xingyu was Zhou Lu Hai.

…So it wasn’t Zhou Lu Hai.

Who could have eliminated Han Qianqian so quickly!?

Zhou Xingyu frowned slightly and looked at the mecha in front of him. “The one who eliminated Han Qianqian is that Ji Fu?”

Zhou Lu Hai’s every move in the Interstellar Academy was known to Zhou Xingyu.

Naturally, he knew that Zhou Lu Hai was closely associated with a low-talent pharmacist there.

Zhou Lu Hai looked impatient.

Zhou Xingyu was pretentious at home, and even in the exam field, he continued to act the same way.

From the moment he arrived, blocking Zhou Xingyu with his mecha, Zhou Xingyu remained calm, regardless of what was happening at the base.

Zhou Lu Hai narrowed his eyes slightly and suddenly pressed the communication button on his mecha, mocking, “So, are you injured?”

The livestream comments were filled with exclamations.

**[Right, everyone had been discussing Zhou Xingyu’s talent, forgetting that he had just returned from the legion.]**

That’s why Zhou Xingyu hadn’t directly confronted Zhou Lu Hai.

The Empire’s team had ultra-star level mecha pilots, but mecha pilots aren’t pharmacists; they can repair mechas but can’t treat injuries.

Zhou Xingyu had come directly to the exam field after leaving the battlefield, likely without even entering a medical pod.

Han Siyi turned to look at Zhou Xingyu.

On the surface, she couldn’t tell he was injured.

But if he was fine, there was no reason for him to call her over so quickly.

Zhou Xingyu paused, then looked up at Zhou Lu Hai and released his mecha.

The appearance of the ultra-star+ top-level mecha, Rose, silenced everyone.

Zhou Lu Hai’s expression changed immediately, and he activated Deep Sea’s berserk mode.

He knew that as long as Zhou Xingyu could pilot his mecha, eliminating the Interstellar Academy students would be easy.

Zhou Lu Hai prepared for battle.

Given the vast difference in mecha levels, Deep Sea couldn’t withstand a full-power strike from Rose.

He raised his hand, placing it on his console.

Before he could press the button, Ji Fu’s voice came through the communication channel.

“Hello?”

The entire exam field was in chaos. Inside the base, Tan Xi and Li Yunyi, even with the support of the battleship, couldn’t gain any advantage against Fang Yu’an.

Tan Xi was injured, spitting blood.

Li Yunyi shielded her, narrowly avoiding being hit by Fang Yu’an’s stray bullet.

Meanwhile, Zhou Xingyu’s mecha, Rose, stood tall under the scorching sun.

The massive ultra-star+ mecha exuded an unparalleled sense of oppression from the moment it appeared.

The entire exam field was on the brink of eruption, and the situation at the Empire’s invaded base was in utter chaos.

Although they had eliminated Han Qianqian, the significant disparity in strength led to substantial losses for the Interstellar Academy.

Wan Feng roughly estimated that since the fighting began, at least seventeen of their students had been eliminated.

The disparity between the 19 people eliminated by the empire and us is not significant.

This is despite the fact that they struck first.

Now, the entire Imperial Military Academy has reacted, and in less than three minutes, the empire will launch a full counterattack.

At that time, the situation will spiral completely out of control.

Most of the students from the Interstellar Academy will be eliminated.

From the beginning, this was an unwinnable battle.

But they still did it.

Wan Feng looked up and saw Ji Fu bending down not far away. Her hand touched the ground, gently for two seconds, and then she whispered:

“It’s done.”

Ji Fu pressed the school-wide communication button and calmly said, “In 30 seconds, everyone, activate full-body coverage mode.”

Full-body coverage mode was a term many people had never heard of.

But the moment she said it, Zhou Xingyu, sitting inside his mecha, suddenly lifted his head.

Since entering this examination hall, he had always looked uninterested.

Now, his expression finally changed, but it wasn’t because of the Interstellar Academy, nor was it because of Zhou Lu Hai in front of him, but because…

Boom!

A tremendous explosion roared, shaking every live broadcast room.

Not just one or two rooms!

But all of them! This meant it was an earth-shattering sound that covered the entire examination hall.

As soon as the explosion occurred, not only did the people inside the examination hall feel the intense shaking, but even those watching the broadcast experienced it.

【What happened? What is this?】

【What’s going on? This shaking is making me nauseous…】

The commotion was so great it seemed like the whole world was quaking.

But many noticed that just before the explosion, students from the Interstellar Academy, who received the warning in advance, poured a large amount of liquid onto themselves or their mechas.

As the liquid touched the mecha suits or the mechas, it dried and solidified instantly, forming a layer of bright green shell on the surface.

…The color was extremely glaring.

But compared to the students’ reactions, the things emerging from the cracked ground shocked everyone even more.

【What the hell? What is that???】

In almost every live broadcast room, there appeared unknown biological tentacles, massive and seemingly alive, extending from the cracked ground.

Everywhere, densely packed.

Though called tentacles, these things had a mechanical sheen.

They combined the flexibility of living organisms with the explosive power of machines, crushing everything in their path, including alien plants, alien beasts, and students in mechas, into powder.

【Empire Military Academy’s Li Butterfly, Shen Kangrui, Zhou Yun… eliminated】

Eliminated! Eliminated! Eliminated!

Elimination notices began to echo continuously throughout the examination hall, resonating in everyone’s ears.

And all those eliminated were from the Imperial Military Academy.

Originally, Fang Yuan was just one step away from completely eliminating Tan Xi, but now he was entangled by the massive tentacles descending from the sky. He shouted angrily, “What is this!?”

Instinctively, he activated his mecha to break the tentacles, but was blocked by them.

Thud—

The tentacles flung Fang Yuan’s ultra-star mecha dozens of meters away with a single swing.

Viewers in the live broadcast rooms finally snapped out of their daze.

【??? It can withstand ultra-star level strength, what kind of monster is this?】

Looking again, they saw that all the students from the Imperial Military Academy in the live broadcast rooms were being frantically targeted by this creature.

Fang Yuan, Bai Ye Ming, and other ultra-star mecha pilots could barely hold their own.

Those below ultra-star level, including star-level mecha soldiers, were destroyed within three seconds if hit by the massive mechanical tentacles.

The brutality and ferocity of this creature were beyond common imagination.

The issue was, it didn’t attack the Interstellar Academy students, only targeting those from the Imperial Military Academy.

Many people, realizing this, quickly switched to the Interstellar Academy’s live broadcast.

There, they saw that most Interstellar Academy students had donned the strange green shells and were lying down. The massive mechanical tentacles brushed past them as if they didn’t exist.

The entire scene was eerily quiet; everyone was stunned by the monster’s selective recognition.

Even more astonishing was Ji Fu’s situation.

She hadn’t used the liquid but had activated the mecha’s mimicry mode the moment the explosion occurred.

That’s right, the mecha’s mimicry mode.

Many people never thought they would ever see the word “mimicry” on a mecha.

Even more bizarre, once she entered mimicry mode, the creature didn’t attack her.

More astonishingly, several mechanical tentacles seemed to deliberately avoid her, moving around her as they passed by!

The sight left everyone dumbfounded.

Ji Fu then pulled up the mecha’s control panel, which displayed a prompt showing—

【Ultra-Star Mimicry Alien Plant, Severed Dwarf Tree]

The live broadcast rooms fell silent, then exploded with messages.

【What? What did you say? What level?】

【…Wow, I never thought I would live to see such a high-level alien plant】

【I almost couldn’t pronounce this monster’s name; are ultra-star level alien plants really this terrifying?】

Of course they are.

Every ultra-star level alien plant or beast is a force of destruction.

Otherwise, Zhou Xingyu, an Ultra-Star+ mecha pilot, wouldn’t have been seriously injured while facing a beast of the same level.

The creature before them was only Ultra-Star level, not Ultra-Star+.

Yet its destructive and killing capabilities were already extreme, nearly surpassing the reaction time of the Ultra-Star level badges worn by the students.

The appearance of this creature caused a drastic change in the expressions of the examiners.

The entities appearing in the examination hall were, of course, reviewed and approved by the organizers before being utilized.

…But the timing of the Dwarf Shue’s appearance was completely off.

Upon seeing the Dwarf Shue, the exam leader shot up from his seat, shouting angrily, “How could the Dwarf Shue activate so quickly!?”

“Where are the people in charge of the examination hall? What have you done!?”

This year’s entrance exam was indeed extremely challenging, and from the second round onward, it reached a hellish difficulty.

The exam was set on this giant planet because of the Dwarf Shue’s presence.

The exam leader had a simple plan: this year’s candidates were the strongest in recent years, with Zhou Xingyu, an Ultra-Star+, leading the second round.

There shouldn’t have been any problems.

According to their estimates, the Dwarf Shue would only appear towards the end of the second exam, with a maximum delay of no more than three days.

After three days, the students would all automatically be transported back to the spaceship. This entity would increase the exam’s difficulty and allow Ultra-Star students to showcase their skills.

Moreover, multiple considerations had shown that the destructive power of Ultra-Star level alien plants was far less than that of beasts of the same level.

The reason was simple: alien plants are rooted in the ground; the soil is their life.

Even the Dwarf Shue, which could hunt at high altitudes, wouldn’t pose any safety issues once it left the planet.

Everything was proceeding as planned, but no one expected the Dwarf Shue to activate so quickly.

It wasn’t just activated early; technically, the entrance exam hadn’t even officially started yet…

Indeed, it hadn’t started. One military academy hadn’t even entered the examination hall yet!

And the Dwarf Shue had begun attacking people.

Moreover!

The entrance exam leader’s veins bulged on his forehead, “Why are all the scores from the students eliminated by the Dwarf Shue being accumulated under the Interstellar Academy!?”

As soon as he finished speaking, countless eyes turned to Zhang Huan.

Zhang Huan: …

Why were they looking at him? How was he supposed to know what was going on?

This thing couldn’t be Ji Fu’s doing, could it?

Actually, it was.

The Fang family representative took a deep breath to calm his anger and pointed at the screen.

He yelled, “The Interstellar Academy’s previously used agents are problematic.”

He referred to the special explosive agent that the Interstellar Academy had launched from a small warship at the start of the battle.

Zhang Huan had seen Ji Fu use this agent during the novice exam.

Every exam was recorded, and this year’s novice exam was particularly spectacular. Many teachers had watched the recordings.

Having seen it, Zhang Huan assumed it was just a regular explosive agent.

But now it seemed… Ji Fu wasn’t normal.

At first, the representatives from the families and the alliance couldn’t believe it. After all, no such oddity had ever occurred in previous exams.

She turned the biggest hidden weapon into part of the exam.

Looking up again, everyone in the Interstellar Academy was wearing turtle shells.

Since the Dwarf Shue’s appearance, not one of them had been eliminated.

What was there not to believe?

If Ji Fu hadn’t released this thing, did the students at the Interstellar Academy have a fortune-teller among them, who prepared turtle shells for everyone in advance?

This maneuver left everyone completely bewildered.

There were explanations popping up in the comment sections.

Some even guessed that Ji Fu had everyone in the Interstellar Academy wear mecha suits and operate mechas not to fight the Imperial Military Academy, but to avoid the special agent that formed the turtle shells.

The agent probably didn’t work directly on the human body.

But…

【Wasn’t she busy building mechas for seven days straight? When did she manage to create so many agents!?】

Of course, it was through mechanical processing.

In the age of technology, as long as there was a sample, machines could mass-produce it, tirelessly, with multiple units operating simultaneously.

When Ji Fu entered the exam hall, her food supplies were confiscated, but she still had all her mechanical devices.

After entering the exam hall, while others made nutritional solutions, she made stinky explosive agents.

That was what she threw at the Empire.

When she landed on this giant planet, she noticed the peculiar soil.

On the first day, while everyone was scrambling for resources, she took a cup of soil for testing.

The test results showed it was almost identical to rootless soil.

Rootless soil is a special type of soil unsuitable for most alien plants but perfect for the growth of the Dwarf Shue.

Later, she found that 80% of the planet was covered with this soil, leading her to speculate that a Dwarf Shue was buried beneath.

She probed deeper that night and found the Dwarf Shue was very deep.

This Ultra-Star level alien plant, being a special mimicry type, merged completely with the soil, making it undetectable without piloting an Ultra-Star+ level mecha.

Based on the timeline, the Dwarf Shue’s activation was still some time away.

She guessed that it was supposed to be the toughest challenge in this exam; otherwise, the exam wouldn’t be exactly 42 days long, coinciding perfectly with the Dwarf Shue’s revival period.

Since that’s the case, whether it’s early or late, she simply activated this thing forcibly.

The potion she used wasn’t anything high-end either, it had a very unpleasant plant smell. She extracted that thing into an essence and added it to the explosive potion.

Then she used this potion to bombard the empire.

Hmm… the effect was very significant. Just by looking at how frenzied the attacks from the broken short trees were on those two areas, the students could tell.

As for the turtle shells used by the Interstellar Academy, that was also a kind of mimetic potion.

It could mimic them into short tree-like bushes. The broken short trees were ferocious and violent, with a high level of danger, but excessive mutation caused this thing to almost completely lose its visual function. Moreover, it didn’t devour similar alien plants and rarely attacked normal plants.

Ji Fu looked at the broken short trees running rampant all over the world with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile.

Well, even alien plants know not to attack their own kind.

Humans don’t know.

Under countless gazes, she calmly pressed the call button and asked, “Is everyone okay?”

All the focused Interstellar Academy students: …

Li Yunyi: “Can I speak?”

Ji Fu raised an eyebrow, “You can sing if you want.”

For a moment, everyone didn’t know what expression to put on.

Shi Xueying looked up, watching the broken short trees indiscriminately attacking the empire’s students. Those students manipulated mechas, running as if mad, chased by countless mechanical tentacles.

The scene was quite absurd.

Even more absurd was that they were fighting fiercely with Fang Yu’an one second, and the next second, they watched as Fang Yu’an was surrounded by seven huge mechanical tentacles of the broken short trees.

Both being superstars, the mechanical tentacles of the broken short trees could infinitely regenerate, posing a challenge even to the empire’s superstars.

But Ji Fu didn’t forget that there was still a super star+ on the empire’s side.

She directly spoke, “Haizi, come over.”

Zhou Lu Hai: …

The last time Ji Fu repaired his mech, she somehow thought of it and installed a shower system for the deep sea.

Just now, with the loud noise, the deep sea automatically sprayed itself with a layer of tortoiseshell.

He now looked down at his body covered in verdant green, feeling only a headache.

But when Ji Fu called, he rushed out in a frenzy.

The broken short trees that were besieging Zhou Xingyu and Han Siyi turned back in confusion, as if sensing something passing by.

Zhou Lu Hai flew towards Ji Fu, while Ji Fu swiftly moved in another direction.

A prompt flashed on her panel, from Yue Yue: [Target Locked]

She connected to Jiaoyue and swiftly glided towards Jiaoyue’s location.

Zhou Lu Hai also arrived soon after, dodging the attacks of the broken short trees all the way. He rushed over in a frenzy, and when he arrived, the people here were still catching their breath.

Looking up, he saw Ji Fu squatting on the edge of a large pit, waving at him and cheerfully saying, “Haizi, come!”

“Digging.”