The Clash Begins

The pre-match fleet configurations were posted quickly.

Moye Military Academy had gone all in on combat vessels: one command ship with a capacity of 40, thirty single-pilot fighters, two medium warships, and ten reconnaissance ships.

The moment the lineup appeared, today's commentators—Professor Zhuang and Senior Colonel Ren—both froze.

How to put it? Unexpected, yet entirely in character? It was very Moye.

"Every time I see this batch of Moye students, I feel they've regained something crucial that those Moye students on the flourishing tree once possessed—their fighting spirit," Professor Zhuang said, adjusting his glasses. His commentary with Senior Colonel Ren had always been measured and impartial, but now, with Moye facing Lianda, he could finally praise Moye and Xu Lingqu openly.

Senior Colonel Ren nodded, signaling for him to continue.

"Their combat capabilities might not be perfect yet. Although their genius commander Xu Lingqu compensates for that well, we can also see these students themselves are improving rapidly." Professor Zhuang watched the students following Xu Lingqu into the competition venue. Despite drawing an unfavorable match map, none of them looked discouraged; instead, they were all brimming with fighting spirit.

"They trust Xu Lingqu, but not by dumping all responsibility and pressure onto her," Senior Colonel Ren affirmed. "So I think this fully offensive star-fleet configuration Moye ultimately fielded wasn't decided by Xu Lingqu alone—it was a collective decision."

The will to win was written in every Moye student's eyes.

[This lineup... I don't know what to say. Are they just ignoring the race map later? Feels like Xu Lingqu is a bit blindly arrogant.]

[Here we go, the regular show. I can't even touch the threshold of a military academy, but I can still question and lecture Xu Lingqu before any results come out.]

[I think questioning is fine, but didn't you hear Senior Colonel Ren? This was probably decided by everyone at Moye. Isn't it too much to single out Xu Lingqu?]

[Move aside, let me do it. I swear, when I get online, Xu Lingqu is the emperor. No creature in this world is allowed to defy Xu Lingqu.]

[Ahhh sister, we're a country with real royal power! You just said the word 'emperor' so casually? Aren't you afraid the net police will come knocking?]

[So what? Real royal power doesn't mean I don't have freedom of speech. Besides, Princess Fulian of the royal family publicly stated a few days ago that she appreciates watching Xu Lingqu's matches. The Euripheses are all watching Xu Lingqu compete—stop self-censoring~]

The Euripheses weren't just watching Xu Lingqu's match—Jin Euriphes was right there on the battlefield awaiting her command.

As he settled into the competition cocoon pod, he sneezed hard. Jin was speechless. Who the hell was thinking about him now...

Lianda's configuration was also quite surprising.

Tansen Meilin had also maxed out his offensive lineup: a 30-person command ship, thirty fighter ships, two medium warships, and twenty reconnaissance ships.

Many at Lianda were familiar with the final and most dangerous space race route. Most had originally assumed Tansen Meilin would pick thirty reconnaissance ships, avoid direct confrontation with Moye, and once the latter half of the map opened, send a large number of people into the race for better fault tolerance.

After all, even for someone from the Merlin family, entering the most dangerous driving route in space carried some risk of failure—the more people sent, the safer.

Though the current record was held by Tansen Meilin himself, according to the rules of this match, commanders had to stay aboard the command ship during the first half of the competition.

Unless the command ship was destroyed or the latter half of the map unlocked, commanders couldn't transfer to another vessel.

Tansen Meilin personally tackling this route carried a certain risk.

He'd originally thought the same way, but after being provoked by Xu Lingqu, he'd made up his mind: he would definitely challenge that route himself, preferably setting a new record. He wanted Xu Lingqu to truly experience what happened when she ignored him.

Maxing out the fighter-ship configuration was also Tansen Meilin's response to Moye's intentions.

Almost no one at Moye had the ability to navigate the most dangerous route in space, so they would absolutely focus on the first half of the map, clashing head-on with Lianda, ideally ending the match before the second half began.

"Delusional." Tansen Meilin sneered, looking at Moye's star-fleet configuration, which was exactly as he'd predicted.

Xu Lingqu was only at this level. He had already figured out how to beat her.

This time, he'd have Lianda fight Moye to the bitter end, and once the latter half of the map opened, he would personally enter the race route and catch Xu Lingqu completely off guard.

Hadn't she pulled that trick in the desert map before? Having everyone else fight fiercely while she went solo to clear the Pyramid where the energy core was located.

Tansen Meilin had decided to replicate Xu Lingqu's approach—pretend to fight Moye to the death in the first half, then, once the second map segment unlocked, go solo into the race and clear it, leaving Xu Lingqu to regret her choices!

Once both fleets' configurations were fully publicized and under the supervision of the staff, all participants connected to their competition cocoon pods.

Amidst the vast sea of stars, two colossal command ships appeared.

[Space Fleet Combat Race:

After three hours of mutual combat, if no victor has emerged, the race map will unlock. The race channel will randomly spawn somewhere within the combat map. Once inside the race channel, attacking is forbidden; attackers are automatically ruled as eliminated.]

Xu Lingqu stood in the command center of her ship, her combat uniform now replaced with the Empire's star-fleet captain's uniform—highly similar to the commander's uniform Vice Principal Su had customized for her during the opening ceremony.

The combat map was simple in design: one massive circle, with Moye's and Lianda's fleets occupying opposite sides. The two sides could see each other's fleet positions with the naked eye. The map designer might as well have shouted in both camps' ears, "Fight! Just fight already!"

The fighter ships and reconnaissance ships were docked aboard the massive command ships.

Moye's small-ship pilots quickly made their way to their vessels, and one by one, small ships detached from the command ship.

Both star-fleet forces were now fully on a war footing.