In truth, Pei Liang had sensed something was wrong long before anyone warned her.
No matter how fiercely the military academy students competed now, they were all destined to become soldiers. They shared the same future and the same dream of fighting the Zerg side by side.
And so, an agreement sworn on a soldier’s honor—made in full view of countless cameras throughout the arena—was not one either side could possibly break.
That was why everyone had put away their mechs. It was partly to reveal their identities, and partly to conserve as much mech energy as possible.
If they could encounter such troublesome Zerg even in a place like this, the trials ahead were easy enough to imagine.
Hodgson, however, had always been just a beat too slow. At first, it did not seem suspicious.
The atmosphere had relaxed, after all. No one could be expected to move in perfectly synchronized, machine-like unison.
Pei Liang had already stowed her mech. As she and the boy across from her recognized each other, Hodgson’s mech was only halfway retracted.
Only a small part of his body remained covered by the armor, its living metal molecules still drawing back and condensing.
But in the instant the two locked eyes and their attention shifted, Hodgson’s mech abruptly surged back over him.
At incredible speed, the mech returned to combat mode. One arm swung out, and the most powerful fluid alloy in the universe shifted shape in an instant, forming an enormous blade.
It came crashing down toward Pei Liang, who looked almost tiny before the mech.
Of course. He had only made a verbal agreement with that Alpha from Poseidon Military Academy not to attack each other before dawn. He had never said he would not strike down his own teammate.
The force of the descending blade whipped Pei Liang’s hair about. Less than a second had passed since Hodgson launched his attack, and everyone could still see the unmistakable awkwardness on Pei Liang’s face.
Her attention and emotions had clearly not been on Hodgson behind her.
She was dead.
The same thought surfaced in everyone’s mind the moment they saw Hodgson’s betrayal.
Only the boy who had shouted the warning moved before his words could fully reach her. He shot toward Pei Liang as if launched from a cannon.
But the distance between them was simply too great. Before their relationship had been confirmed as non-hostile, no one would cross the safe distance between groups—a gap of several dozen meters.
That distance was enough to give them time to react if the other side suddenly attacked, but it also meant they could not interfere with the other party’s actions.
As the boy sprang forward, his mech rapidly wrapped around his entire body. There was no longer any possibility of helping Pei Liang dodge the blow.
Still, no matter how foolish Hodgson was, he would not deliberately murder a military academy student during the tournament. That was why he had chosen a cold weapon rather than a particle cannon.
If there was still any chance to save her now, then—
One of the boy’s arms transformed directly into a long spear, which he thrust toward Hodgson.
All he could do was gamble on how desperately Hodgson wanted to eliminate Pei Liang and force her out of the competition.
But the boy lost that gamble.
Hodgson did not choose to evade despite the threat bearing down on him. He still chose to take Pei Liang out first.
He merely adjusted his posture slightly, ensuring that his mech would not suffer serious damage.
The boy’s heart sank. Before his eyes, he could almost see the scene of that girl being torn apart in a spray of blood.
With the sophistication of modern medicine, as long as no one actually died, they could be treated quickly once they got back. Hodgson’s method of eliminating his opponent was a little too extreme.
A mech against an unarmored human body—and with a sharp-edged weapon, no less. He was clearly aiming to leave that person half-dead.
Just how irritating did this guy have to be to provoke someone like that? the boy thought bitterly.
Yet the scene he had anticipated from experience did not unfold the next second.
Pei Liang merely shifted on the balls of her feet, and the massive blade came down grazing past her face.
The boy breathed a sigh of relief. As long as she could evade the first strike, he would make it in time—
But Hodgson did not stop there. An experienced fighter, he felt his heart sink when his first attack unexpectedly missed.
Instinctively, the mech swung its wrist sideways, sweeping the blade horizontally toward Pei Liang in an obvious attempt to cut her in half at the waist.
This time, Hodgson did not care that she was still without her armor deployed. A ring of energy blades sprang out around the weapon’s edge—things that could slice through tough metal with the slightest touch.
With the enormous blade sweeping across and the energy blades extending its reach, there should have been no way for her to avoid it. At the very least, the energy blades should have carved a layer of flesh from her.
But to Hodgson’s disappointment, she seemed to have anticipated this as well. With an almost uncanny movement, she slipped precisely through the edge of the energy blades’ effective range. Rather than retreating, she drew ever closer to his mech.
Pei Liang smiled. “So you’re all fired up when it comes to stabbing people in the back, but when it’s time to do actual work, you turn into a babbling idiot. You eat my food just to pull something like this? Senior, you’re really something.”
Hodgson was horrified. After failing to land two consecutive attacks, he already knew he had chosen the wrong moment for this ambush. Still, he refused to let the opportunity go.
That woman had not only dodged his attacks with ease—she even had time to talk back to him.
At least she was smart enough not to confront a mech head-on. After all, the strongest individual combat weapon in the interstellar age was not something a human body could withstand by force alone.
Even so, her performance was chilling enough. It was as if the mech’s superior reach and agility could not make up for the gap in skill between them at all.
As though, so long as he could not hit her, the mech’s overwhelming advantage against bare flesh was meaningless.
Cold sweat broke out on Hodgson’s forehead. No. He refused to believe it. He absolutely refused to believe that, even in a mech, he still could not defeat her.
His movements therefore grew increasingly frantic and chaotic, devoid of any coherent pattern. The weapons he deployed became more and more lethal.
Even the spectators watching the livestream began to frown—
【What is Hodgson trying to do? Is he seriously aiming a particle cannon at a fellow contestant on the battlefield?】
【They’re competitors now, aren’t they?】
【But Pei Liang isn’t wearing a mech. If he has any pride as a soldier, he should take off his mech and fight her, or at least wait for her to deploy hers.】
【But Pei Liang doesn’t seem to have any intention of putting on her mech. She still has enough energy to mock Hodgson—there’s no way she hasn’t found an opportunity to deploy it.】
【Does she know she’d definitely lose in a mech battle, so she’s trying to use a soldier’s code of honor to pressure Hodgson into fighting on her terms?】
【Too bad for her, Hodgson isn’t stupid.】
【Take her out already, Hodgson! You’re my only hope of turning this around!】
At first, the doubts surrounding Hodgson were swept away by the tide of vested interests. In the end, most people still wanted to see Hodgson win.
But tonight, they were destined to be disappointed.
Once Pei Liang had gained a rough understanding of close-quarters combat in a 3S-class mech, she launched her real counterattack.
Because she had needed time to adapt to her current mech, she had missed far too much information gathering. She could only observe and learn as the match went on.
One look was enough to confirm it: this was not something she could brute-force with her body alone. Piloting a mech still presented no small technical challenge.
Even now, Hodgson had merely been thrown off his rhythm. Had he been at his peak, Pei Liang might not necessarily have held the upper hand.
Once she had a clear grasp of the situation, the mech around Pei Liang rapidly unfolded even as the battle continued. First came the arms. Her pair of red-and-gold mechanical arms swept past Hodgson’s energy blade and seized his arm directly.
Pei Liang grinned.
Hodgson’s heart sank. Then a piercing pain shot through his arm.
On the live broadcast, everyone watched as Pei Liang—whose mech had not yet fully finished equipping itself, its lower half still adjusting—cleanly and decisively bent Hodgson’s mech arm into a grotesque angle.
Though a mech’s outer shell had no sensory function, its entire arm was mentally linked to the pilot in order to ensure flexible control.
Superficial damage might not matter much, but an entire arm—
The agony made Hodgson freeze for a split second. In that instant, Pei Liang’s mech finished equipping itself. Then the massive machine moved with unimaginable agility, unleashing a merciless beating on Hodgson’s mech.
Hodgson’s mech was even larger than Pei Liang’s, yet it was battered back step by step. He could not even escape. In the end, it was forcibly twisted into a crumpled ball.
If it had been a person subjected to such treatment, it would have been horrific abuse.
But while the spectacle of a mech being mangled did not look particularly gruesome—if anything, it was almost comical—the pain Hodgson himself endured was entirely real.
At last, Pei Liang planted one foot atop Hodgson’s balled-up mech. The pointed toe of her mech nudged it back and forth as she said to Hodgson inside, “Since you didn’t actually manage to cut me in half, I’ll let the lesson end here.”
“Not because you didn’t want to, of course. You were simply too useless to pull it off.”
Pei Liang crouched down and patted Hodgson’s mech, producing a crisp metallic clang. “So, Senior, you’d better behave. It’s already awkward enough for a junior to lead a senior. If you’re this uncooperative, it won’t be good for the whole team.”
“The league is fiercely competitive right now. Do you still want to win?”
Win? Do we even have a chance of winning anymore? We’ve already been humiliated in front of audiences across the universe and the military. What the hell does your personal victory or defeat have to do with us cannon fodder and grunts?
Brian cursed inwardly, though he was even more relieved that he had not rashly stepped forward like Hodgson had.
Hodgson had been far too confident that he could win as long as he put on his mech. Perhaps he had also wanted to defeat Pei Liang single-handedly and prove himself superior, which was why he had not discussed it with anyone before suddenly making his move. Their combat pace had been too fast for him to intervene, and Pei Liang’s unruffled composure—no different from how she had been at the start—had made him hesitate.
That moment of hesitation was precisely what spared him from ending up like Hodgson: beaten into a ball.
Meanwhile, the spectators outside the arena—especially those who had placed bets on Hodgson, Brian, or Ares Military Academy—were destined to lose sleep that night—
【Damn it! Hodgson is useless.】
【It’s over. With two 3S Alphas, there’s no chance of turning this around. What can Ares Military Academy possibly gain from the first round? At the final standings, won’t they fall out of the Big Four this year?】
【Forget the bets. Has no one noticed Pei Liang’s mech?】
【Ahhh! That was the mech His Majesty the Emperor once used. The whole bar screamed the moment it appeared.】
【That’s a 3S mech, isn’t it? Why can an S-rank use it?】
【Are there seriously still people who believe she’s only 3S? Her control over that mech is overwhelmingly better than Hodgson’s. We already know Hodgson is 3S—do you really think someone who can defeat a 3S in a mech would rank below him?】
【What? We need to file a complaint. Imperial Military Academy falsified a contestant’s information and misled people into placing bets.】
【Give it a rest. The betting pools for the Mech League aren’t officially recognized to begin with. The authorities simply turn a blind eye because no one makes an issue of it. Plenty of nobles gamble on them too, so they’re large-scale and stable. But expecting the military to take responsibility for your little betting pool? That’s a joke.】
【Besides, the military has always been critical of it. There was once a noble who tried to use his influence to manipulate the League’s results, undermining its fairness. His Majesty the Emperor stripped him of his title for it. That was only a little over ten years ago—have people already forgotten?】
Regardless, the organizing committee was flooded with calls, all asking about Pei Liang’s true rank and whether Imperial Military Academy had really falsified a contestant’s information.
The Academy might not be responsible for the betting pools, but it was responsible for ensuring the competition was fair, wasn’t it?
The reaction from ordinary spectators was intense enough. The upper-class circles with connections to the Pei family were even more stirred up.
Pei Liang had not appeared out of nowhere. She was someone who had grown up in the same social circles as them. Because of her parents, she had even been a target of ridicule and mockery within those circles.
Of course, that was also because she had not been strong enough. Among the nobility, an S-rank was practically considered defective. After all, nobles were nobles because of their superior genes and noble bloodlines. They paired with the finest Omegas to produce heirs, ensuring the perfect continuation of their exceptional genetics.
But why had a figure once treated like a clown transformed overnight into a 3S-rank? And not merely a 3S-rank, but one capable of utterly crushing other powerful 3S fighters of her generation?
Going back several hundred years, the Pei family had never produced a combat talent with such outstanding performance.
As a result, the Pei family was now being inundated with calls of concern from people throughout their social circle, each with their own motives.
At that moment, however, Elder Uncle Pei wanted nothing more than to smash his younger brother’s head in.
“You gave A-Liang to the Valen family? And you’ve already signed the adoption papers?”
The veins on Elder Uncle Pei’s forehead were practically bursting. “You idiot—why didn’t you discuss this with me beforehand? Do you know what my friend in the military just told me?”
“Richter said it himself: A-Liang has evolved into a 3S. Her records haven’t been updated yet only because assessing an evolved rank requires repeated testing over a long period to ensure accuracy and stability. That’s merely a matter of due caution. Given Richter’s personality, he would never say anything he hadn’t fully confirmed—much less allow A-Liang to take the place of a 3S Alpha candidate.”
“An unprecedented level of evolution. The research value alone could bring the family enormous benefits and give us a tremendous edge over our competitors. And she’s demonstrated such formidable strength—there’s a real chance she could open up military interests for the Pei family, an area where we’ve always had nothing.”
As he spoke, Elder Uncle Pei muttered to himself, “This is my fault. I should have known that someone like Richter would never stoop to petty schemes. He values a warrior’s honor above all else. There could only be one reason A-Liang obtained that qualification: her strength convinced him.”
Pei’s father nodded as well. “Yes. I called Richter before this, but he didn’t say a word.”
“If only he had revealed even a little about my biological daughter’s true situation, I wouldn’t have—”
“Shut up, you idiot!” Elder Uncle Pei roared. “You were nothing but a fool led around by pillow talk, desperate to get her back.”
“Use that pig brain of yours. If A-Liang had been worthless, why would Valen suddenly bring up an adoption arrangement? How could such a good deal possibly have fallen into your lap? You should have been wary and investigated at once, instead of happily signing the papers.”
At the time, Pei’s father had assumed Valen was merely taking another route to keep his wife tied to him. Now, however, it seemed Valen had been plotting all along.
“Valen must have known long ago. Even if Richter didn’t state it outright, he must have given him some hint. As long as we can find evidence, we can overturn that agreement.”
Elder Uncle Pei gave a cold laugh. “Between Valen and Richter, whose side do you think is careless enough to leave evidence for you to dig up?”
The secrets held by high-ranking military officials were far more important than those possessed by politicians. For an outsider to think they could pry secrets from them was a joke.
Elder Uncle Pei continued, “A-Liang is already an adult. She has the right to choose her own guardian. Hurry up and clear out whatever you prepared for your illegitimate son, then explain yourself properly. I’m sure she still feels attached to the Pei family.”
Pei’s father was confident about that point. He nodded. “All right. I’ll make the arrangements immediately. But we also need to guard against her mother siding with Valen.”
Then he reassured himself, “Probably not. That girl has already run into her mother’s illegitimate son in the competition. She despises the illegitimate children her mother and I had outside the family. Once she gets out, her disappointment in her mother surely won’t fade anytime soon. We just need to take this opportunity to talk her around.”
Elder Uncle Pei felt somewhat relieved at that. After all, the girl had no emotional attachment to the Valen family. If they coaxed her properly, she probably would not make an extreme choice out of momentary anger.
Yet no sooner had he hung up than Elder Uncle Pei’s secretary hurried in.
He said to him, “Sir, according to information from the instructors at the Imperial Military Academy, Miss Liang developed her fighting techniques on her own from ancient texts passed down through her family.”
Elder Uncle Pei: “...”
No, he should handle this personally. Such a genius had been neglected by the second son for so many years—he couldn’t trust that idiot anymore.
Meanwhile, inside the arena, Hodgson’s mech had already been stripped away. He sat in a corner with his knees hugged to his chest, staring blankly at the sky, looking utterly dead inside.
Beside him, Brian patted him on the shoulder. “Pull yourself together. Everything will be all right.”
Hodgson turned expressionlessly and fixed Brian’s face with a vicious stare. “You could at least wipe that smile off your face before saying that.”
Brian’s tone was gentler than ever. “I’m trying to comfort you. I can’t exactly do that while wearing a funeral expression.”
Hodgson gave a cold laugh. “Oh, I get it now. The first time I got knocked flat, I noticed there was something like shit smeared on your pant leg.”
“Back then, I wondered whether you’d stepped in shit. But if so, why was it on your trouser cuff instead of your shoe? And why wouldn’t that person let you touch any food?”
“So that’s what happened. Looks like the Imperial Military Academy people are still as good as their word as ever. They said they’d beat the—”
Before he could finish, Brian immediately clapped a hand over Hodgson’s mouth and snarled, “Shut up. Damn it, neither of us has any right to laugh at the other now.”
“I only have one witness. You’ve got several. Unless you plan to keep them quiet without my help, I’ll make sure everyone hears about it.”
Hodgson didn’t dare say another word. Then, all at once, he understood the look Brian had worn earlier—because the same familiar tears were now glinting at the corners of his own eyes.
Pei Liang glanced at the two idiots. They should behave themselves for a while now.
Then her gaze fell on the young man. He crossed his arms and gave a disdainful snort. “Haven’t seen you in years, and you’ve gotten quite a bit better.”
The young man was Lancelot, the original owner’s younger half-brother through their mother.
Pei Liang’s spirit was far too forceful. When she inherited the original owner’s memories, she was not easily influenced by the original owner’s emotions.
Even so, she knew that the original owner disliked—indeed, deeply loathed—this younger brother.
A few years ago, after their father died, Pei’s mother had arranged for the two children to meet. Perhaps she had merely wanted them to know of each other’s existence. Or perhaps she had harbored some further hopes.
In any case, the moment Pei Liang saw the young man, those memories surfaced on their own.
He had still been very young then, not yet entirely rid of a child’s softness. The instant he saw the original owner, his cat’s-eye-green eyes had been veiled with mist, and he forced a nervous, hopeful smile onto his face.
He had walked up and taken her hand, his voice soft and sweet. “S-Sis... Sister.”
What had the original owner done in response? She had shoved him to the ground and cursed him, saying that an illegitimate child like him had no right to call her his sister.
That soft, sweet little child from years ago had now grown tall and sturdy, radiating the presence of a powerhouse. One foot had already crossed into manhood.
Damn. What sins those bargain-bin parents of the original owner had created.
When Pei Liang said nothing, Lancelot understood that she despised him, so he did not press the matter.
With that, he turned to leave.
But he had barely taken a step when someone caught him by the back of the collar and yanked him back.
His sister by blood draped an arm over his shoulders, smiling as she said, “Why are you leaving? Traveling alone is so boring. Let’s go together.”
Lancelot frowned and slapped her hand away, staring at Pei Liang as though she were some kind of monster.
Sure enough, there was no disgust or rejection in her eyes. He sneered inwardly. It seemed that the past few years had made her more mature.
Even her opinion of him was no longer something she would openly display. But then again, he wasn’t exactly any different—
Lancelot lifted his chin. “I don’t have time to play house with you ordering your senior around. Besides, we’re hardly the sort of relationship that should spend too much time in front of the cameras, are we?”
He looked at Pei Liang. She had always hated being reminded of their father’s illegitimate son. Neither of them was exactly unknown among the upper class.
Lancelot himself might not have much of a presence on the Imperial Capital Star, but his father was a true great noble on Neptune. Their relationship was impossible to conceal.
He could practically picture the expression on her face once she realized that countless people who knew the truth would be watching, discussing, and teasing them over this scene.
Sure enough, Pei Liang’s face revealed a hint of difficulty, as if she were hesitating.
Lancelot gave a derisive laugh. “Good. Since you understand, let go. Stop getting in my way.”
But then he heard her say, “Are you using your status as my little brother to act cute?”
At those words, every hair on Lancelot’s body seemed to stand on end. Like a black cat with its fur puffed up, he shouted in embarrassed indignation, “Who’s acting cute with you?”
He was wearing the combat uniform designed by the organizing committee. The black outfit made his already fair skin look even whiter, and the flush on his face all the more obvious. There was no hiding it—his ears were nearly red as well.
Pei Liang looked at him. “If you’re not acting cute, then why are you hinting that I should let you go?”
“You saw Senior get beaten into a pulp. It’s not like you can’t understand the situation right now, can you?”
As she spoke, she patted his soft cheek.
“You’re a prisoner now, dear little brother.”
