Everyone's Studying You

Xu Lingqu took a bite of a cream bread, holding it in her mouth as she scrolled through the messages on her smart brain.

She'd essentially disappeared for the entire day. Xu Xiqin and the others had gone to watch the matches, and each of them had bombarded her smart brain with a flood of commentary. Roughly speaking, out of a few hundred messages, Liu Zheng sent ten, Shen Shouli sent ten, Tang Muwen sent a few, and the rest was almost entirely message-bombing from Jin and Xu Xiqin.

Aside from that, there was also Jinfang Taibai, who had forcibly added himself to her smart brain using his impressive hacking skills. He didn't have anything important to say—just sent Xu Lingqu over a dozen messages asking, "When are you transferring to Du'e?"

Xu Lingqu blocked him, then, like a primary school teacher grading essays, sent the others a single "Noted" before picking out the more useful pieces of information from the pile.

Liu Zheng and Shen Shouli's summaries were still quite efficient—the twenty messages between them contained far more useful information than everything Jin and Xu Xiqin had said combined.

The main takeaway was that Qingjun was incredibly strong in today's matches. They had six S-level soldiers in this year's cohort, plus the S-level commander Jia Xianglan. Today's matches were a complete sweep, with a casualty ratio even more lopsided than Shaji's beating of Moye.

As for Lianda, after their legendary commander Qike Meilin left, they'd become somewhat of a shadow of their former selves. Although the current commander, Tansen Meilin, came from the famous Merlin family of the Federation and boasted S-level psychic power, he was still far behind Qike Meilin.

Tang Muwen, meanwhile, sent her a few cryptic lines:

"This league might get to the later stages before I can no longer be of use to you."

"Regardless, I bear you no ill will whatsoever."

"Soon I'll shed all my disguises and stand before you openly."

Who knew what that guy meant, playing riddles again like some kind of mystery man? Xu Lingqu ignored him outright and moved on to watching the combat footage of Qingjun's S-level soldiers that Shen Shouli had sent her.

Just then, Jinfang Taibai—who she'd already blocked—popped up again.

"You actually blocked me! You're too heartless!"

Xu Lingqu replied, "Where are you now?"

Jinfang Taibai sent a question mark. "Why do you ask?"

"Send me your location," Xu Lingqu insisted.

Could she actually be wavering and thinking of transferring to Du'e? Planning to talk it over with him in person? Jinfang Taibai's mind started scheming as he replied, "Du'e dormitory, room 208."

He waited expectantly for Xu Lingqu's response.

After a while, a slow reply came back: "Send one more useless message and I'll come beat you up."

Jinfang Taibai glanced at his dormitory door, recalling the image of her kicking open Shaji's command room door and decapitating Guan Chuanjun, and a chill ran down his spine. He let out a wail: "Xu Lingqu has issued a death threat against me!"

Li Muyi hurriedly craned her neck to look at the message on his smart brain, then reached over and smacked Jinfang Taibai on the back of the head. "She threatened you well!"

Jinfang Taibai fell quiet, and Xu Lingqu's smart brain went silent too. She wolfed down the cream bread in a few quick bites and decided to head back.

Tomorrow would be the draw and matchups for the second round of the qualifiers. According to Liu Zheng, they'd draw group brackets and then start immediately, and these group-stage matches could last one to two days once they began, so she needed to rest up.

As she turned to walk toward the dorms, a person with gray hair and pink eyes across the way kept staring at her. Jia Xiangying's pink eyes were far too striking—even more attention-grabbing than Shen Shouli's light brown ones.

Still, since she didn't say anything, Xu Lingqu didn't either. She walked straight past without looking aside. Only after she'd put some distance between them did Jia Xiangying call out in exasperation, "Xu Lingqu!"

Why did she always ignore her like that!

Xu Lingqu stopped and turned around. "Something I can help you with?"

"I watched your match yesterday," Jia Xiangying said, strolling up to stand in front of Xu Lingqu. "You're pretty strong!"

She stared hard at Xu Lingqu, using the pressure she radiated to try to find some trace of wariness or discomfort on Xu Lingqu's face.

But Xu Lingqu just nodded casually. "Yeah, I am pretty strong."

So what if she was? Was there a problem?

Jia Xiangying choked, nearly tripping over her own tongue. Her pink eyes went wide. "You—! When someone says that to you, shouldn't you be modest?"

"Why?" Xu Lingqu looked at her. "Would it make you feel better if I were modest?"

The question was a bit offbeat and somewhat pointed, and Jia Xiangying found herself at a loss for how to answer. Her usual heiress air had dissipated considerably as she struggled, "It wouldn't make me feel better. But... maybe it would for other people."

Jia Xiangying had been raised with the principle of striving to be the best while maintaining verbal modesty and hiding her edge—claiming she was merely average while performing at a level far beyond that.

Xu Lingqu's question jumped entirely outside her mental framework, leaving her momentarily adrift.

"In that case, since I'm in a rivalry with all those people anyway, why would I want to make them feel better?" Xu Lingqu replied.

Jia Xiangying: ...

She'd nearly forgotten her actual reason for stopping Xu Lingqu in the first place.

"Since you're so sure you're that strong, know that I've done thorough research on you," Jia Xiangying said, remembering that she'd run into Xu Lingqu for the sole purpose of throwing out a couple of provocations. "If we meet in tomorrow's qualifiers, I'll show you the results."

Xu Lingqu turned and walked toward her dormitory. "I look forward to it."

With her back turned in the darkness, she raised a hand and waved goodbye to Jia Xiangying.

Jia Xiangying stood in place, thinking that she absolutely had to get matched into the same group as Xu Lingqu for tomorrow's qualifiers.

She wasn't alone in that thought.

The next morning, Moye Military Academy stood at attention, sharp and ready. After their opening victory, the cadets of Moye looked even more spirited and upright than they had during the opening ceremony.

When the camera landed on Xu Lingqu at the front, Professor Zhuang gave a knowing smile, listening to the crowd's cheering that was clearly several times louder than at the opening ceremony.

"Cadet Xu Lingqu has stepped into the public eye and become quite popular," Professor Zhuang said with a smile. "Today's group-stage draw should be something the audience is looking forward to, right? Starting from this match, no one can take the command position away from her."

Senior Colonel Ren adjusted his earpiece and nodded. "But I think this level of attention can actually be a lot of psychological pressure for a student."

If Xu Lingqu failed to pull off another reversal miracle like the last match and instead ended up at a disadvantage in the group stage, a lot of people would certainly come out of the woodwork to kick her while she was down.

"Still, I hope that today Cadet Xu can remain unaffected and truly show us her skill as a commander."

Xu Lingqu herself didn't feel much of anything. After leading her team into the arena, Gu Tingzhi from Long Yuan, whose team was lined up next to theirs, walked over to her.

Xu Lingqu gave him a once-over and commented matter-of-factly, "Your dark circles are pretty bad."

Gu Tingzhi wasn't annoyed. He smiled. "Guan Chuanjun, Jinfang Taibai, Yun Yao, and Jia Xiangying aren't any better off either. We're all just studying you."