Why Could She Do It

In the Federation's venue, the champagne bottle opened at halftime shattered, leaving a pool of liquid on the floor. The cleaning robots dutifully mopped it up; they were the only things moving in the entire arena.

Tansen Meilin sat in his competition cocoon, unable to muster the strength to stand and walk out. Cold sweat clung to his forehead as the scenes he'd witnessed on the course replayed endlessly in his mind.

Xu Lingqu was a madwoman. That asteroid field, to any normal person, was tens of thousands of enormous fireballs hurtling about at high speed with no discernible pattern. Unless someone had a death wish, no one would charge straight into it like she had—let alone use a battleship's cannons to exchange fire with those fireballs and weave through the debris.

His hands trembling, he thought: How did she manage it? How did she dare?

The situation in the Empire's venue wasn't much better. Senior Colonel Ren and Professor Zhuang at the commentary desk were both rendered speechless, mired in a long silence. Everyone was consumed by shock.

Xu Lingqu, meanwhile, acted as if nothing had happened. She exited her competition cocoon and, as usual, headed straight back to Moye's chief commander's lounge. This time, everyone was too stunned to pester her with random questions, which she found refreshing.

About five minutes later, Senior Colonel Ren finally managed to speak. "Just now, Xu Lingqu completed the course in 30 minutes and 56 seconds, shattering the Merlin family's monopoly on this speed trial record that they've held for years. And in the end, Moye Military Academy took the Lianda event—a strong suit of the space forces—with an almost total annihilation."

The final score wasn't a total annihilation, because Tansen Meilin was still alive. Xu Lingqu had spared him, allowing him to enter the speed trial and watch up close as she set the record in 30 minutes.

For Xu Lingqu, if she truly wanted to humiliate someone, there were countless ways; a simple annihilation was far too boring.

The people in the VIP viewing section finally snapped back to reality. Xu Lingqu had just delivered a nearly perfect demonstration of starship piloting and combat.

"30 minutes—that's 50 minutes faster than the previous record of 1 hour and 20 minutes," Hei Yingzhi murmured. "The records you found—are you sure they were really left by Xu Lingqu? I don't believe it anymore."

30 minutes was a crushing blow to any current achievement.

"I don't know." Jinfang Taibai shook his head, his gaze a bit dazed. "Xu Lingqu... how did she actually dare to pilot the Wanderer straight into that asteroid field?"

It was unimaginable how terrifying the first-person view must have been—with 70% pain feedback, it was no different from someone deliberately running steadfastly into a blazing fire.

Jiang You shook her head. "Moye Military Academy is one giant mental institution."

Everyone there was seriously ill; Xu Lingqu was the most severe case but with the least obvious symptoms, which made her the attending physician.

[What did I just see? What did I just see?]

[You saw Xu Lingqu shattering the asteroid field and crossing the most dangerous piloting route in space—30 minutes of pure content. I saw it too. I thought I'd eaten something toxic and was hallucinating.]

[Wait, no one told me this was possible? Didn't the Merlin family insist you could only pass this course by following their route, or else you'd have to humbly take the long way around?]

[I can only say the Merlin family conned us all, and they conned themselves in the process.]

[I actually thought about crossing directly too, but I couldn't manage to time the cannon fire to hit the asteroids precisely while piloting a battleship at full speed... For asteroids coming straight at me, I could use the auto-lock system, but for side ones, I had to rely entirely on my own prediction. So in the end, I gave up and studied the Merlin family's route and techniques... Never thought someone would actually pull it off in practice...]

Various comments flew by rapidly—praise and amazement—which pleased Liu Ming to no end.

He had witnessed Xu Lingqu's entire journey of learning starship piloting from scratch. From her early inability to even perform simple wing-flip evasion to her current achievement, Liu Ming wasn't surprised at all.

Due to her ability, intelligence, and psychic power, Xu Lingqu took far less time to master something than an ordinary person, but that didn't mean she got everything handed to her without effort.

Liu Ming still remembered when Xu Lingqu first tried this course—she had crashed and died at least 20 times in a single day. Even he found it hard to watch, but she insisted on tackling it her own way. She was too stubborn; she wouldn't stop until she achieved her goal.

The records she'd left in the simulation room earlier were from her first successful run using her own method; her second and third attempts focused on conserving ammunition, so those records deviated significantly from her true skill level.

She had never been influenced by others' ideas. Once she decided on a course of action, she stuck to it, and when she hit a wall, she simply tore it down. The next time through, it was a clear path.

In this most dangerous piloting course in space, every pilot—whether Federation or Empire—would get a prompt upon entry, suggesting they watch the Merlin family's piloting video first.

Xu Lingqu simply dismissed the prompt without watching.

The Merlin family—a family that wielded immense power in the Federation and whose influence reached across the entire star system. Almost all interstellar humans viewed them with a mix of awe and fear.

What the Merlin family said was the truth; what they did was the only correct way; and the so-called correct route and records they established were never questioned by anyone.

They were the authority of this world, casting a shadow over everyone. This most dangerous piloting course was just one point of their outward influence.

Originally, the course was just a map designed by a starship chart designer to relieve stress, with difficulty cranked to the max. It wasn't a realistic recreation of space; it was purely for entertainment, and most people explored it with a smile.

But when the Merlin family got involved, the nature of the course changed.

It inexplicably became the "ceiling" of starship piloting, and for decades, the records remained in the hands of the Merlin family, demonstrating to all interstellar humans that the Merlin family produced a starship genius every year—the strongest family in the star system.

This concept was continuously instilled and subtly influenced everyone. The result was that everyone assumed only the Merlin family could pass this course, and if you wanted to challenge them, you had to study them, follow their path, and acknowledge their strength and authority.

This most dangerous piloting course was a massive maze, with asteroids serving as tens of thousands of high-speed, extremely dangerous maze walls. The Merlins fancied themselves as having found the correct route and declared to everyone that it was the only way out.

Everyone was trapped in the maze of the Merlin family's strength and authority, going in circles like ghosts following their complex route—including the Merlins themselves. And so, decades passed, until Xu Lingqu appeared.

With an unstoppable force, she destroyed the maze walls and crossed the entire maze, shattering the Merlin family's self-constructed myth of records and inheritance.

Why could Xu Lingqu do it? One, she had formidable ability; two, she never blindly believed in authority.

In her eyes, what did it matter even if she tore a hole in the sky?