Chapter 74

The viewers in the livestream were stunned.

“What just happened? The audience is still here, but the examinees are gone?”

“Did they get pushed into the star layer fissure by ultrasonic waves? I’ve heard about this kind of situation from someone in the military…”

“This is too abstract!”

It was indeed an unusual situation.

Every year, the military academy entrance exam simulates extreme scenarios as part of the assessment. However, there had never been an instance where an examinee actively created an anomaly, sending everyone into the fissure.

Ji Fu didn’t even spare herself, taking everyone in Exam Center 03 along with her.

The exam supervisors were in an uproar, and Zhang Huan, facing this situation for the first time, was overwhelmed.

The discussion was heated.

“Did the Interstellar Academy violate regulations? They pushed so many people into the star layer fissure. What if something goes wrong? Can your academy take responsibility?”

Before Zhang Huan could respond, someone nearby sneered, “What violation? Be specific. Which rule explicitly states that you can’t push people into the star layer fissure?”

“There isn’t one, but that doesn’t mean this behavior is acceptable, right? If everyone starts doing this, the exam will be a mess!”

After a long silence, Zhou Xing spoke up fairly, “Using appropriate tactics within the exam rules to eliminate or avoid elimination is compliant.”

“The ones pushed into the star layer fissure are elite students from the top two military academies. They’ll face more extreme situations in the future when they join the military.”

“If they can’t handle this small variable, how will they fend off beast tides later?”

The Fang family’s representative glanced at Zhou Xing. Using ultrasonic waves for this was something Ji Fu discovered during a previous military training session. It’s somewhat related to the military.

However, Zhou Xing’s argument was unassailable.

The Fang family’s representative paused briefly before saying, “All the exam rules are encoded in the ID badges. If there was a violation, the badge would light up yellow.”

“Ji Fu’s badge hasn’t shown any reaction, so her actions are legitimate.”

This definitive statement shut down any further objections.

The other representatives remained silent for a long time.

Someone finally asked, “Does this mean we’re just going to leave them in the star layer fissure?”

Si Xun, with a faint smile, replied, “The ones who went in have a minimum talent level of S. Students of that caliber don’t need anyone to worry about them, do they?”

Si Fan and two other members of the Si family hadn’t joined Zhou Xingyu, Bai Yeming, and the others. This situation outside the star layer fissure was advantageous for those still outside.

By isolating the strongest, the remaining participants would have more opportunities to score points.

“Everyone went in with their mechas, so the danger is minimal,” the Alliance representative said. “Even if they can’t handle the magnetic field disturbance, the star layer fissure will close on its own in three days.”

“If we account for unusual circumstances, the star layer fissure’s duration could be extended to 7-14 days.”

In the context of students having to survive for over forty days while competing for resources in collective battles, there was no reason to be overly concerned about a few extra days.

The only real issue was that in the star layer fissure, optical brains couldn’t be used, and live streaming was impossible, making it difficult to observe the situation outside.

Apart from this, there was nothing particularly worrisome.

“The entrance exam was designed to test students’ abilities. There’s no reason to intervene just because of a slight anomaly.”

Moreover, the operation itself was compliant with the rules.

Given that this exam influenced the Alliance’s honors, and that it was being watched by everyone online, there was no way it could be abruptly halted as long as there was no rule violation.

“The exam will continue as planned,” the Alliance representative concluded decisively.

Inside the star layer fissure.

Ji Fu stood on the cracked ground, raising an eyebrow.

She had modified the howling mech’s voice core into a multi-frequency ultrasonic mechanical core, controlling the frequency with the star beast core outside.

This ensured that the ultrasonic waves hitting everyone had different frequencies, temporarily isolating everyone else and creating a space just for herself.

It seemed like she was trying to evade the pursuit of the imperial superstars.

But in reality, she was hiding the stolen goods.

After being pushed into the star layer fissure during military training, Ji Fu had modified her optical brain, following the military’s method to allow it to function even in a magnetic field disturbance.

Of course, due to the unstable magnetic field, the emergency mode of the optical brain had limited functions.

For her, it was sufficient.

No one could have imagined that she had brought all the resources she intercepted from the Shen family’s transport route with her.

During the security check for the third livestream exam, she placed the materials in her super optical brain and then transferred them to a standard optical brain once inside.

The emergency mode was also installed in this standard optical brain.

In the star layer fissure, the stability of the super optical brain was far less than that of the standard one.

Ji Fu opened the optical brain and browsed through its contents.

Including the star-class broken dwarf liquid core she had obtained earlier, she currently possessed six star-class materials and two howling ape fangs.

Time was of the essence, and she hadn’t planned to confront the empire after the star layer fissure opened.

She wasn’t even going to acknowledge them.

Instead, she intended to use this opportunity to attempt creating a star-class mech.

Creating a star-class weapon was a preliminary test.

The performance data of her current mech met her expectations, but the star layer fissure environment was not ideal for mech construction.

Mech builders knew that constructing a mech was delicate work. Not only would severe magnetic field fluctuations pose a problem, but even minor errors, down to the second decimal point, could lead to failure.

However, for Ji Fu, this level of magnetic interference was still manageable.

The main challenge was controlling the materials.

Building a mech was different from crafting weapons; even a slight mistake could result in complete failure.

Ji Fu sat on the ground, surrounded by top-grade materials.

Aside from the blazing starfish, almost all the Shen family materials were in her possession.

The blazing starfish was more ornamental, a gimmick for the affluent aristocrats to spend their money on.

All the other materials were useful.

When pieced together, they would only be enough to make half a mech.

This estimate included material losses.

The broken dwarf liquid core needed to be excluded.

The material was too high-grade and limited in quantity, and couldn’t afford any wastage.

Additionally, it was acquired during the exam and couldn’t be revealed just yet.

Excluding the broken dwarf liquid core, she could only afford half a failure.

Not even one full attempt—only half.

And this half-attempt didn’t include the mech engine.

She only had one set of engine materials; if she failed, it would be gone.

Ji Fu paused, not starting the mech construction immediately. Instead, she closed her eyes and rested for 30 minutes, allowing her body to gradually adapt to the magnetic field fluctuations within the star layer fissure.

Half an hour later, she opened her eyes and began working on the mech.

With no one else around, she released her mechanical dog, Yan Yan, to assist her.

Time passed slowly.

Over the next few days, Ji Fu didn’t move from her spot, focusing entirely on her task.

This mech was intended for Wei Lan.

Custom-made mechs typically required feedback from the mech warrior to refine each component for optimal performance.

But with the optical brain restricted, she couldn’t communicate with the outside world.

Ji Fu didn’t mind.

Creating a mech for someone else might be troublesome, but not for Wei Lan.

She knew all his habits and physical data.

Even before the wormhole engulfed her, Wei Lan had sent her his latest physical information.

His recovery progress had reached 47%.

In his current state, he was fully capable of piloting a star-class mech.

Ji Fu only needed to make minor adjustments based on his treatment progress.

Without the need to pause for livestream cameras, her progress was rapid.

Before the first star layer fissure closed, she had already completed the mech’s cockpit and engine.

The entire process was smooth, with almost no errors.

Her innate talent proved to be even more useful than she had imagined.

Opting to craft mechs within this interstellar crevice had yielded unexpected results.

The engine of this mech boasted a formidable capability to resist magnetic fields.

In her tests, Ji Fu only needed to start the engine once; on the first attempt, it could run at high capacity within the chaotic magnetic field, and on the second, it seamlessly integrated with the field, even manipulating it.

This unique feature of the engine could be directly utilized to create specialized weaponry.

However, lacking sufficient materials at the moment, she chose not to dwell on the matter of weapons.

The duration of the interstellar crevice here couldn’t surpass five days before nearing collapse and closure.

Just before the collapse, Ji Fu once again activated the blazing mechanical core.

Under the influence of the magnetic field, the effect of the ultrasonic waves was amplified several times over.

After two occurrences, another interstellar crevice emerged under the influence of the wormhole.

Yet, this second cycle of interstellar crevice lasted only five days as well.

Ji Fu’s progress was actually quite rapid. Once she got the hang of it, the mech’s construction was almost complete by the third day.

However, unfortunately, this construction attempt failed.

She invested a significant amount of time and materials into the mech, only for its body to be destroyed.

Although she attempted to salvage it immediately, only a portion of the materials were preserved.

The body was deemed unusable and had to be rebuilt from scratch.

Starting over wasn’t a problem, but the remaining materials were now scarce.

Furthermore, the interstellar crevice couldn’t sustain itself for too long.

The Lightbrain emitted a warning: [“Magnetic field anomaly, interstellar crevice will close prematurely.”]

It seemed that the commotion caused by several superstars trapped within the crevice was the cause.

Ultrasonic waves were also equipped on some mechs, albeit naturally made ones like the one Ji Fu possessed had a higher grade.

Hence, it managed to detain those people for quite some time.

But over time, there would inevitably be ways to break through the magnetic field and tear open the crevice.

With just a glance, Ji Fu resumed her focus on crafting the mech.

[“Time until interstellar crevice closure: 37 hours 43 minutes.”]

The time had been shortened to just over a day.

Listening intently, Ji Fu’s hands remained steady, devoid of any signs of impatience.

Since the fluctuation of the magnetic field appeared, she had worked continuously for twenty-five hours.

However, time was still relatively tight, and what she completed in the end could only be considered a semi-finished product.

Ji Fu calculated that after the third round of joint exams, returning to the asteroid and completing the final part should be achievable.

At this stage, the successful completion of the full assembly was almost a certainty.

There was only one troublesome issue.

During the failed attempt, one of the crucial materials was destroyed.

It was a particularly special super-grade material, and until a replacement was found, the mech couldn’t be used temporarily.

After some consideration, Ji Fu decided to abandon the remaining construction of the mech.

In the last few hours, she packed up everything and retrieved the two massive fangs of the Semihuman Orion from Ba Xianjing.

Despite working intensively on the mech for these past few days, her overall condition remained good.

Holding the two massive fangs in her hands, she pondered for a moment, forming a rough idea. After finishing everything, with time to spare, she leaned against Flame’s body and closed her eyes for a while.

When she woke up again, the entire interstellar crevice was emitting a tremendous abnormal sound.

The Lightbrain issued a prompt: [“Interstellar crevice about to collapse.”]

Hardly two seconds after the prompt sounded, a thunderous roar followed.

Everything before Ji Fu crumbled in an instant.

The crevice shattered and closed, and the wormhole outside had also ceased.

Two gigantic mechs crashed down.

Bang—

Upon impact, the surrounding land collapsed entirely.

Accompanying this tremendous commotion were lively barrage comments.

[“They finally appeared!”]

[“It’s been days, we were starting to think they vanished for real.”]

Who would have thought that from the first appearance of the wormhole until now, this group of people would disappear for nearly ten days.

For these many days, the netizens eagerly waiting for entertainment were almost going crazy.

They had been shuttling between empty live broadcast rooms, waiting for their return.

Fortunately, this group didn’t disappoint them. They appeared with such a heavyweight scene as soon as they emerged.

And it was two unexpected individuals.

Before the first interstellar crevice appeared, Ji Fu intentionally brought Bai Yeming and Fang Yu’an together.

But these two individuals surprisingly got along peacefully.

After resting for several days, Fang Yu’an had recovered most of his strength. He successfully separated from Bai Yeming during the second interstellar crevice and found Zhou Xingyu and Han Siyi in another crevice.

Together with them, they used the upgraded mech ultrasonic waves to break through the second interstellar crevice.

However, it was unexpected that Bai Yeming didn’t clash with Fang Yu’an but collided with Zhou Lu Hai instead.

After the second interstellar crevice began, although the two weren’t in the same location, both forcefully activating their mechs caused severe magnetic field fluctuations.

And they collided.

After the two mechs collided, they fought relentlessly for several days.

They fought all the way from the interstellar crevice to the outside.

The once dominant Taihe, which had been exceptionally strong before being engulfed by the wormhole, had suffered multiple damages on its body, all from the marks of heavy blows.

Zhou Lu Hai’s split wasn’t much better.

The mech had several ruptures, with the left mech arm blown open with a large hole.

Two people had been fighting continuously for several days, and it seemed that neither side had gained any advantage. In reality, Zhou Lu Hai knew clearly that without using extreme methods, he couldn’t defeat Bai Yeming.

It wasn’t because his strength was weaker than Bai Yeming’s, but because the strength of the opponent’s mecha was indeed higher than Fission’s.

Just as Ji Fu had said.

Every heavy punch from Zhou Lu Hai landed on Taihe’s body. If it were any other mecha, it would have been scrapped long ago.

Even Fang Yuan couldn’t withstand his punches.

But this mecha only had damage to its exterior, and its performance was not affected.

After Zhou Lu Hai stood still, he looked down and saw Ji Fu, who was still sleepy-eyed. He pressed the communication button and said in a deep voice, “The performance of his mecha is even higher than Rosalind’s.”

Wan Feng, who was synchronously piloting the mecha, heard this and felt a sudden halt in his heart.

In the nearly ten days of disappearance, Wan Feng was the one with the most leisure time. He hadn’t encountered anyone and had been healing his injuries alone inside. He had the potion Ji Fu had given him, and after drinking it, he casually repaired the mecha himself.

His condition was even better than Ji Fu’s.

Ji Fu was busy working on that super stellar mecha, and hadn’t even repaired Jaeil.

What went in was the same as what came out, just overdrawn physical strength was restored, and vital signs returned to a healthy level.

She squinted her eyes in the vast yellow dust caused by several mechas, looking towards Zhou Lu Hai.

Boom!

Zhou Xingyu piloted Rosalind and landed in front of her.

Zhou Lu Hai hadn’t yet determined the outcome with Bai Yeming, but on Ji Fu’s side, it was her and Wan Feng.

It was unclear if her mecha had been repaired, but as for Wan Feng, he currently posed no threat to Zhou Xingyu’s side.

Test site No. 03 had already been devastated. Ji Fu sat under the starry sky, holding a crescent-shaped weapon in her hand.

Zhou Xingyu paused slightly, and upon looking up, he saw the mechanical dog beside her instantly transform into mecha form. The jet-black mecha, holding the silver-white crescent-shaped weapon, dashed towards him.

The speed was extremely fast, but Zhou Xingyu didn’t pay too much attention. His focus was entirely on the crescent-shaped weapon.

Within the 0.5 seconds of its dash, Rosalind directly calculated the values of this weapon and gave a judgment:

[High-Explosive Super Stellar Weapon]

Although the test site was covered by a regional network, this weapon was crafted by Ji Fu within the seams of the stellar layers, so the information had not yet synchronized.

But upon hearing the words “super stellar,” the expressions of Fang Yuan and Han Siyi beside Zhou Xingyu changed.

They had both been residing in the stellar seams for several days and naturally understood how chaotic the magnetic field there was.

Let alone crafting weapons, even repairing mechas was not easy.

Zhou Xingyu came from the Legion, and his light brain had an emergency mode. After Fang Yuan found them and with materials in his hands, Han Siyi could only repair Fang Yuan’s mecha halfway.

She actually made another weapon?

“It seems like she sent everyone into the stellar seams just to free up time to make this thing.” Fang Yuan’s voice had just fallen when he saw Flame suddenly rise.

The super stellar weapon in her hand changed instantly, and in mid-air, it unleashed over a hundred gigantic quantum light waves.

The light waves fell densely, locking down all retreat paths of Rosalind and bombarding from all directions, illuminating the dim sky.

Before the myriad changes of the blade descended, Zhou Xingyu had already reacted. The Super Stellar + mecha surged, and in a breath, it moved directly in front of Flame.

He didn’t use any weapons, just raised his hand and struck.

Boom!

Under the powerful blow, Flame was almost crushed by a single blow.

The unmanned mecha activated emergency protection, and after the heavy blow, Flame reverted to its mechanical dog form.

The explosive force of the Super Stellar + mecha was too strong, and the unmanned mecha couldn’t withstand his blow. Everything seemed normal, but in such a disparate situation, Zhou Xingyu’s mecha was actually scratched by that weapon.

…This was truly absurd.

A series of warnings popped up on Rosalind’s control panel.

[Warning! Defense system damaged]

[Warning! Left arm of the mecha damaged!]

Even under the control of a low-level unmanned mecha, it could shatter the defense system of a Super Stellar + mecha with a single blow.

There were question marks all over the barrage.

[Her weapon is as outrageous as she is.]

Zhou Xingyu’s expression changed slightly, and his gaze fell on the crescent-shaped weapon in Flame’s mouth.

The Heavenly Ranking never made mistakes. The strength of the weapon she crafted was indeed worthy of ninth place.

…But having just a weapon wasn’t enough. The mechas she used, including the one that devoured moons, wouldn’t be his match.

She would still be eliminated.

The tall mecha raised its hand, and Zhou Xingyu fiercely smashed down towards the top of Ji Fu’s head!

With this blow, everyone in the broadcast room could see the badge Ji Fu wore on her chest flashing red.

After watching the broadcast for so long, everyone understood that this was a precursor to elimination!

[So did she really only make this weapon and leave herself no backup?]

Everyone held their breath.

From afar, Zhou Lu Hai was shuttling at an extremely limit speed, trying to block Zhou Xingyu’s blow.

But the distance was still too far, and even in the berserk state of the mecha, Fission was still a bit short.

His expression turned cold, and he was about to activate the two backup engines under Fission’s feet when he saw the red light on Ji Fu’s badge flicker and instantly extinguish.

Zhou Xingyu’s heavy blow, only a tiny distance away from hitting Ji Fu, but a sudden prompt sounded in the exam room. The next moment, an announcement echoed throughout the entire venue:

【Exam Over】

A Super Stellar + protective barrier lit up in front of Ji Fu, and Rosalind’s heavy fist only managed to shatter that barrier in the end.

The Super Stellar + plasma defense shield is an embedded protection system in the badge, everyone has it.

This thing is designed to prevent controversial content from occurring.

But just now, even if Ji Fu was teleported out, she still wouldn’t have been eliminated.

The reason is simple.

Ji Fu sent all the Super Stellar grades in, leaving behind a relatively fair competitive environment for each exam room.

In the span of ten days, most of the students in the entire exam room had been eliminated.

After coming out, Ji Fu immediately checked the scoreboard.

They had just come out and were unaware of the situation outside, and there had been no announcement from the exam room prompts.

She calculated directly from the scoreboard and figured out that there were only 37 people left in the current exam room.

The rule of the third survival battle is to have 35 people left.

Once the quota of 35 is reached, the exam will end directly.

After Ji Fu finished calculating, she sent a message to Shi Xueying.

After the second round, she left a lot of high-level potion bombs for Shi Xueying.

Shi Xueying informed two Star-ranked mecha soldiers, Tan Xi and Li Yunyi, to start bombarding planets without students from the Interstellar Academy with potion bombs.

Under indiscriminate bombardment, three people from the Empire were directly eliminated.

When Rosalind was about to smash towards Ji Fu’s head, there were already less than 35 students in the exam room.

The system calculated the elimination time, determined the last surviving person, which delayed a bit, and then Zhou Xingyu’s blow fell.

Ji Fu’s light brain flashed with multiple messages.

35 seconds ago, from Tan Xi: [Three people eliminated, the third round is over]

She saw it, then stood still, waiting for Rosalind’s heavy blow to fall.

After the announcement of the end of the exam, Ji Fu suddenly raised her eyes. Before the broadcast room closed, she said in a calm voice, “The Super Stellar Weapon — Half-Moon Sky Blade, will be auctioned off at the Shen Family Auction three days from now.”

“It’s the only one in the entire galaxy. For those who are interested, don’t miss this rare opportunity.”