Qualifier Match Two Begins

As the saying goes, the unknown is what's truly terrifying. Xu Lingqu had little to go on regarding Yun Yao, but she hadn't spent all night studying her—she'd said that deliberately to gauge her reaction.

"Cramming at the last minute rarely ends well."

Gu Tingzhi smiled. It was exactly the answer he'd expected.

Once all the academy teams had assembled and stood in formation, the host began announcing the results of the first qualifier match:

The eight winning teams were: Imperial Longyuan, Imperial Dolanston, Imperial Moye, Imperial Cimei, Federal Lianda, Federal Qingjun, Federal Zhicheng, and Federal Youfeng.

"These teams have already accumulated three points in the qualifiers," the host announced. "Next, the second qualifier match will be held in a group format with a 6-6-4 grouping. Please have the chief commanders of each academy come forward to draw their groups."

Kai Ang's materials had explained the 6-6-4 grouping: in the six-person groups, the first through sixth places earned 5, 4, 3, 3, 2, and 1 points respectively. The four-person group's scoring was 4, 3, 2, 1.

Competition in the four-person group was relatively less intense, and while the points weren't as high as the six-person group's, it was steadier.

Xu Lingqu was the first to enter the competition pod and arrive at the virtual space draw point. Staff had her draw from a box using numbered name tags.

She reached in and looked at her result: Group One.

Yun Yao, who had drawn after her, also opened hers—also Group One.

The two exchanged a glance.

"I didn't expect to run into you this early," Yun Yao said with a smile.

The big screen updated the group assignments in real time alongside the commanders' draws.

Guan Chuanjun was both nervous and relieved. He'd drawn Group Two for Shaji, and in that group, Shaji was incredibly lucky—the other three academies were all relatively weak, basically securing them first place.

But Guan Chuanjun had learned to fear the phrase "basically securing." Last time they'd fought Moye, everyone had predicted his first match victory.

Then Xu Lingqu had come out of nowhere.

This time, he had to be cautious—cautious, cautious, cautious!

In the end, the three groups were as follows:

Group 1: Imperial Moye, Imperial Cimei, Imperial Situke, Federal Lianda, Federal Zhicheng, Federal Dongwen

Group 2: Imperial Shaji, Imperial Xiyue, Federal Xili, Federal Menze

Group 3: Imperial Longyuan, Imperial Dolanston, Imperial Du'e, Federal Qingjun, Federal Kezhen, Federal Youfeng

Nobody had expected Group Three to draw all three of this year's championship favorites together—it was practically a group of death.

The bullet comments were going wild:

[The Sky Network must have done this on purpose, right? Making a spectacle to attract eyeballs? How shameless.]

[With those three crammed together, the other groups are practically dodging a bullet.]

[I can't imagine how exciting Group Three's matches will be.]

[You all said that during the first match too, but after the first round of this year's league, the most-watched one... well, need I say more?]

Amid all the anticipation for Group Three, the commanders of Group One gathered in the virtual space anyway, preparing to draw their match map for this group stage. They were the first to start.

Xu Lingqu had already met Yun Yao. As for Situke's commander, Lei Nuo, she had gone to receive him before but had no real impression of him. This time, when they greeted each other again, Xu Lingqu made a point to remember: Lei Nuo was a stocky commander with some stubble on his face and a serious, stern expression.

Zhicheng's commander, Jie Luo, had a bearing that was remarkably mature for his age, yet his face could somehow make you feel young and old, male and female, all at once—a presence hard to ignore.

Dongwen's commander was a taciturn, gloomy man named Yetai Yangquan. When he spoke, he avoided looking others in the eye, his gaze darting around as if dodging someone.

The only one missing was Lianda's.

Xu Lingqu looked up and saw Tan Senmeilin of Lianda walking slowly toward them. His long hair was tied back, and he glanced at Xu Lingqu with a contemptuous look. "So you're Xu Lingqu?"

His posture was clearly provocative. Yun Yao watched with curiosity, wondering how she would handle it.

Xu Lingqu suddenly turned to Yun Yao. "What was his name again?"

Yun Yao: ...

Tan Senmeilin frowned. "Didn't the staff call my name during the draw? Why pretend you don't know me?"

"Right," Xu Lingqu said, smiling at him. "Didn't the staff call my name during the draw? Why pretend you don't know me?"

Yun Yao nearly wanted to applaud.

Tan Senmeilin's face darkened, and the tension between them turned sharp.

Just then, after they had all confirmed their draw numbers, the big screen displayed their match map from the Sky Network.

"Fortress Assault, Capture-and-Hold Point Scoring."

A simple terrain map appeared before everyone. It showed ten fortress points, each marked with its point value.

To capture a point, a team needed to place their emblem in the center of each fortress for ten minutes. Each fortress had an energy shield on its perimeter that could absorb a certain amount of firepower. In principle, to take one down, you either needed overwhelming firepower or a special squad that could break through the fortress's defenses and fight their way in.

This time, there was no decapitation condition. Ranking was based on captured point scores plus the number of surviving personnel at the end. Only if an entire team was wiped out would they be considered eliminated early.

This match map would last two days, and each academy's medical staff had come; for safety, they personally handled the nutrient fluid replenishment for the students' competition pods.

Commentators Professor Zhuang and Senior Colonel Ren, along with the other pair—Lieutenant Quan and Teacher Chang—would alternate covering the match.

Everything was ready, and all remaining participating students entered their pods.

With a blink, Xu Lingqu found herself standing on a grassland. The grass here grew remarkably tall, with deep patches reaching up to a person's shoulders.

This time, there was no random spawn—each academy was clustered together, and their starting positions were all uniformly in the lower-left corner of the map, fairly close to one another.

In this match, the chief commander could view the map in real time, the capture status of the fortresses updated continuously, and their channel had gained a new feature: commanders could communicate directly with each other.

Xu Lingqu first sent out reconnaissance mobile units to survey the surroundings, then had the rest of the team hold position, concealed and alert, with their weapons ready. Analysts began taking stock of the ammunition and firepower that had spawned with them this match.

With the energy shield mechanic in play, firepower quantity had become an important factor to consider.

Their spawn was in the far corner of the lower-left, while Cimei had spawned slightly above them.

Yun Yao was still instructing her analysts to do their inventory when a scout urgently reported that Lianda was already on the move—and had passed directly by them.

"You're saying they saw us but ignored us completely and just headed straight in one direction?" Yun Yao said, her expression darkening as she spoke to Ye Yu. "They're probably heading for Moye."