Sorry, Your Opponent Is...

"A commander can only configure basic ship types, but the specific vessels that appear are still random... Moye Military Academy drew two medium-class ships." Senior Colonel Ren frowned as he studied the specific ship configurations on both sides.

Sky Network wouldn't dare make such blatant modifications; the actual ship type ratios for the combat and reconnaissance ships on both sides were perfectly normal, on the same level.

But for the two ten-person medium combat ships both sides had, Lianda randomly drew a Manta with photon turrets and a Lipper equipped with a quantum oscillator blade, while Moye ended up with two identical Qiwes, both fitted with massive energy barriers.

The Qiwei's defensive configuration was top-tier among medium ships, but what Moye needed right now wasn't defense.

"The Qiwei is highly favored in other space combat maps, but in this one, Moye drawing two in a row goes against their original strategy of maximizing offensive power," Professor Zhuang said bluntly. "With the students' average starship piloting level below Lianda's, can Moye really take down Lianda within three hours with an unfavorable ship configuration?"

"Bad starts always seem to plague Moye Military Academy," Senior Colonel Ren said, watching the big screen as the camera cut to Xu Lingqu. "But they always have the ability to turn misfortune into fortune. Let's trust them."

Back on the battlefield, when the two Qiwes appeared, Moye's own students were startled as well.

Xu Lingqu, however, remained as composed as ever. She had always had a clear understanding of her luck—she'd drawn a seven-person team where only one person had a combat role and that person was a cowardly scumbag, so randomly getting two Qiwes now was actually pretty fortunate.

"It's fine. We'll adjust again now—have the two medium ships move in and dock with the command ship. All the people originally reserved for the medium combat ships with combat piloting experience will be transferred to single-pilot combat ships."

Moye had very few people who could skillfully handle combat ships; only about sixty could properly pilot a starship with any real proficiency.

They had already prepared for several combat ships and reconnaissance ships to be "wasted," since before the match they'd assumed the high-damage medium combat ships would need three to five experienced combat pilots aboard.

Now that the Qiwes had appeared, the people originally reserved for the medium ships were freed up—they could directly take over the combat ships and let the novices board the Qiwes.

Now the two Qiwes and Moye's command ship were directly linked, with the people on the medium ships not needing to pilot at all. They only had to activate the massive energy barriers, turning the whole formation into a gigantic, impenetrable space fortress.

This sequence of operations actually greatly boosted Moye's combat capability. Reconnaissance ships and combat ships would need to return to the command ship for fuel and ammunition resupply after fighting for a while.

So ensuring the command ship's safety was crucial and necessary. Now, all of Moye's combat-piloting personnel were in single-pilot combat ships, and the command ship plus the two medium ships formed an unbreakable logistical bastion.

After a short round of adjustments, Xu Lingqu had brought Moye's combat capability to its peak.

"Commander, all thirty of our combat ships have reached their battle positions."

"Commander, our reconnaissance ships have plotted their infiltration reconnaissance routes."

In the vast command room of the command ship, a star chart lay before Xu Lingqu. She tapped it lightly, and a point instantly zoomed in, the chart transforming into a tactical display of their own ships' positions on the battlefield.

Her eyes flashed. "Attack."

Both fleets immediately plunged into formal combat, and the quiet corner of the universe was instantly engulfed in a storm of gunfire.

Tansen Meilin stood in his command room with a dark expression. He couldn't quite articulate what he was feeling, because he'd discovered that Xu Lingqu had deceived him before.

If she hadn't studied him at all, then why did his tactical arrangements now seem so thoroughly understood by her?

Lianda's and Moye's ships clashed at close range. Tansen Meilin had his own carefully thought-out strategies for localized starship combat—for instance, he favored positioning the Wanderer and the Yiming in a top-bottom formation to fire their main cannons simultaneously, maximizing damage to enemy ships.

These ideas were all ones he'd tested over and over alone in the starship simulator. Back then, Qike Meilin had been the pride of the Merlin family, while he, Tansen Meilin, was just an obscure nobody living in the shadow of the genius Qi Ke.

Everything he'd achieved up to now came from his relentless study of starship combat and piloting. Because of that, his space warfare had a very distinct style of its own.

If someone hadn't seriously studied him, they couldn't have made Moye, with an overall lower skill level, fight Lianda to a standstill from the very start!

"Xu Lingqu... you really did study me after all." Tansen Meilin felt a strange swell of pride. So he wasn't the only one treating Xu Lingqu as a destined rival—she was seriously studying him too!

She just refused to admit it, and that denial itself was one of her psychological tactics. Tansen Meilin knew that Xu Lingqu specialized in psychological warfare against her opponents!

At that very moment, on Moye's command ship, Guan Zhongli sneezed violently.

Lin Xiao, sitting beside him, glanced over. "What's wrong? Are you sick?"

Guan Zhongli shook his head. "Am I sick...?"

"You stayed up all night compiling that bastard Tansen Meilin's combat habits and caught a chill," Lin Xiao said, while evaluating the status of several of Lianda's ships based on reconnaissance reports and relaying the information to Xu Lingqu. She added consolingly, "Even if you are sick, it's worth it. Our combat ships can barely hold their own against Tansen Meilin now."

The research on Tansen Meilin's tactical arrangements had all been done by Guan Zhongli. It wasn't something he'd done on the spur of the moment—his family was wealthy, and he'd started studying starships early on.

He'd always been interested in the subject, and he'd researched several rising stars in starship combat each year, naturally including Tansen Meilin.

He never expected that this good habit would prove so crucial in the semifinals. After receiving Xu Lingqu's recognition, Guan Zhongli was practically walking on air.

He'd also proposed several counter-strategies, which were handed over to Xu Lingqu, with the chief commander making the final refinements and decisions.

Xu Lingqu hadn't lied to Tansen Meilin. She hadn't studied him, and that was that.

Guan Zhongli was the so-called "destined rival" Tansen Meilin had imagined.