Fragile

For Jinfang Taibai, breaking into the Military Department's system was as easy as breathing.

At Jia Xiangying's prompting, he launched into his hacking display right on the spot, pulling up the data he needed in less than five minutes.

"The records in our simulation room haven't been touched, but the data aggregated at the Military Department shows several records that were broken." Jinfang Taibai's eyes widened. "If these are Xu Lingqu's records, does that mean she's a hacker too?"

Only that would explain how she'd erased all traces of her identity.

"What are those times?" Jia Xiangying pressed.

"Uh, let me look—slowest is one hour forty minutes, fastest is one hour twenty. That's a full hour faster than the current record holder, Tansen Meilin." Jinfang Taibai marveled. "If that really is Xu Lingqu's record, she's a genius. I thought she'd only started learning starships not long ago... oh wait, no—the more impressive thing is her hacker work. She cleaned it up too perfectly. All that's left is a bare number, no ship type, no route through the map. Just a dry, lifeless stat!"

"Let's see if Xu Lingqu enters the race map, and what time she clocks," Jia Xiangying said, eyes fixed on the big screen.

As of now, every starship from Lianda save Tansen Meilin's was dead, and only one minute remained until the race map's passage opened!

Moye's students grew restless. Tansen Meilin had always been a master pilot, and now that he'd activated stealth mode, there was no way to track his scout ship.

But no one questioned Xu Lingqu's decision. Their commander must have her reasons—they just had no idea how many more surprises and thrills she had in store for them.

Xu Lingqu peeled off her commander's coat and turned to leave the command bridge.

Under the stunned gazes of Moye's students, she climbed into a Wanderer-class battle cruiser.

Was she... going to personally shoot down Tansen Meilin's ship and deliver the killing blow?

That would be very Xu Lingqu. The thought set everyone's blood boiling. She'd spent basically the entire starship battle sitting in the command bridge; if she wanted to stretch her legs, let the commander out for a stroll!

Xu Lingqu entered the Wanderer. The very first day she'd entered the starship simulation room, she'd gone from beginner to mastery in piloting the Wanderer alone.

She started the ship with practiced ease, and at the same moment, the system announced the three-hour mark had arrived. The race map's passage officially opened, and Tansen Meilin's scout ship's stealth time expired, exposing him fully to view.

Xu Lingqu, Tansen Meilin, and the race map's passage occupied the same space.

For Tansen Meilin to enter the passage, he had no choice but to cross into her line of fire!

Everyone at Moye held their breath, waiting for her to time it perfectly—to blast him out of the competition at the moment he came closest to hope.

But Xu Lingqu didn't. Instead, she followed Tansen Meilin straight through the passage into the race map.

Every Moye student stood frozen.

What exactly was their commander doing?

Forget Tansen Meilin's usual bragging, the whole "glory of the Merlin Family" nonsense—she was driving a battle cruiser, and Tansen Meilin was driving a scout ship! In a race, the scout ship obviously had the edge!

Xu Lingqu's voice rang out on Moye's comm channel: "You can come watch."

Shen Shouli and a few others caught on immediately and dove into the race map one after another, but the majority were still blinking in confusion.

They weren't the only ones. Every spectator in the arena and the livestream was dumbfounded. Even Tansen Meilin himself was stunned.

In truth, he'd already abandoned hope when he'd seen Xu Lingqu's battle cruiser appear. This match had already seen him wholly crushed, wiped out, dying at the threshold of the race map. Tansen Meilin was convinced this was the most thorough humiliation Xu Lingqu could inflict on him.

And he'd half accepted it. Left alone in the end, the fight had suddenly lost all meaning.

But Xu Lingqu had actually let him go, allowed him into the passage!

Had she made a mistake?

The flame of hope roared back to life in Tansen Meilin's chest. He knew it! Xu Lingqu was human too—she made mistakes—and this one would be fatal! A blunder she'd regret for the rest of her life!

He nearly wanted to throw his head back and laugh from the pilot's seat. Xu Lingqu would still fall to him in the end. This was destiny's favor toward the Merlin Family!

Arriving at a map he knew like the back of his hand, a vast field of chaotic, tumbling asteroids filled his view. In this race map, you had to weave through them to reach the finish, where a giant clock awaited—crashing into it signaled arrival and ended the whole run.

Tansen Meilin knew every inch of this map! He looked back at Xu Lingqu piloting the Wanderer behind him and found it almost laughable.

Did she have any sense? A battle cruiser on this course? Was she insane?

Just as the sneer formed in his mind, Xu Lingqu didn't hesitate. She shoved the throttle lever to full, hurling herself straight into the asteroid field!

"This madwoman! Is she trying to kill herself?" Tansen Meilin yelped in genuine fright.

The Wanderer shot through the asteroid swarm at full speed in a dead straight line, and every time it was about to collide with a rock—or a rock with it—the ship fired a single cannon blast, pulverizing the obstacle into dust.

The so-called "one and only viable route," painstakingly researched by the Merlin Family, was something Xu Lingqu didn't bother to investigate at all.

If there was no road, she would blast open her own. Anything that blocked her path—whatever it was—would only ever meet a single fate: shattered to pieces.

Xu Lingqu followed no one's footsteps. She carved her own way.

The Wanderer picked up speed, its cannon fire growing ever more relentless.

At that moment, whether on the course, in the arena, or on the livestream, whether Federation or Empire, everyone rose to their feet. The director's camera locks onto Xu Lingqu, refusing to drift for even a second.

The Wanderer tore through asteroid debris and cannon fire with unyielding resolve, Xu Lingqu at full throttle, nothing in existence capable of stopping her.

And then, at last, the clock that symbolized the finish line appeared, and the Wanderer slammed hard into it.

The bell that marked the end of the race rang out.

Everyone's first instinct was to check the time.

"How long? How long?"

"Thirty minutes."

Tansen Meilin collapsed limply into his cockpit pod.

That final bell was the death knell Xu Lingqu sent to the Merlin Family.

That wicked, vicious woman—she'd done it on purpose. She hadn't humiliated Tansen Meilin; she'd humiliated the entire Merlin Family. A thirty-minute record turned the three-hour-plus record that the family had treasured as a sacred heirloom into a complete travesty, a laughingstock.

She ruthlessly stomped the Merlins' pride beneath her heel and made it public spectacle, letting the whole world witness just how... fragile they truly were.