Arena God 3

This time, Xu Lingqu picked the Force class without a second thought, going with her favorite. Force meant two blades—a long, tempered sword for close combat, and a short blade that could be thrown as a hidden weapon and would return automatically after release. Together, they allowed for varied attack patterns, maximizing her strengths.

Anyone who played Force well was bound to have solid hand-to-hand skills. Every move was pure body technique.

Hei Shi watched as Mighty King Rabbit Owo chose Force, and his heart skipped a beat again. Could it be that he'd really run into a tough opponent this time?

He gritted his teeth. Since he'd already talked big, he couldn't back out now. He chose his most proficient heavy mech. The moment the match began, Hei Shi charged forward with a roar, wielding his axe, determined to strike first this time.

Xu Lingqu simply watched him charge. When the distance felt about right, she maneuvered her mech to leap straight over him, and in the same motion, whipped her left arm back with a blade. The long sword sank deep into the right arm of Hei Shi's mech, pinning him against the transparent protective barrier.

Two seconds later, she pulled the sword free and retreated several steps. Hei Shi felt utterly humiliated. He activated his defensive gear—a half-body shield—and simultaneously hurled his axe at Xu Lingqu with all his strength, trying to land a lethal blow.

But she merely sidestepped, dodging it with a slight shift of her body, and responded by flinging her short blade like a hidden dagger.

The blade seemed to have eyes, curving around the shield with precision and striking the back of Hei Shi's mech's head. The impact sent him lurching forward, nearly stumbling to the ground. Then the short blade returned to her.

Xu Lingqu burst into motion, leaping upward. Midair, she used the returning blade as a springboard, kicking off it to launch herself higher. Her tempered long sword came down from above, slamming into Hei Shi with brutal force, leaving a crimson afterimage blazing across the sky.

The sheer power of that strike sent Hei Shi's heavy mech crashing to its knees, and he was immediately declared defeated.

This challenge had lasted barely a minute and twelve seconds. Bored, Xu Lingqu climbed out of the cockpit. By now, the arena stands were packed to near capacity.

"This guy has this many fans with that level of skill?" Xu Lingqu's tone was dripping with skepticism.

Liu Ming, however, reported excitedly, "Hei Shi's fans are only a tiny fraction of the crowd. Most of these people came from the Star Network forum."

The thread about Mighty King Rabbit Owo destroying the noob-stomping streamer Hei Shi had gone viral on the Star Network forum.

For one thing, some people had long been fed up with these noob-stomping streamers bullying newcomers. For another, Xu Lingqu's flawlessly fluid and beautiful moves combined with her ID created an enormous sense of contrast.

A lot of people kept asking:

[What the heck is a Rabbit Owo?]

[Mighty King really is mighty, but what's up with Rabbit Owo?]

[You're the 'what'! That's our top interstellar animation diva, Miss Rabbit Owo, okay?]

[I thought my fellow fans were all elementary schoolers, but it turns out they're out here dominating the arena.]

...

As a result, the interstellar animation section and the arena streaming section experienced a bizarre crossover. The streaming section quickly rolled out Rabbit Owo emoji packs, and Sky Network made a fortune off it.

But compared to all that, what Xu Lingqu cared about most was that she'd secured her ten-win streak, and the five hundred points were in. Now she could look into how to tackle the cross-tier challenges.

After being crushed again in the second challenge, and with Sky Network failing to ban Mighty King Rabbit Owo—proving her innocence—Hei Shi was beyond humiliated.

While everyone was focused on Xu Lingqu, he logged off and fled. Not even his handful of fans noticed, though.

Because at that moment, all eyes were on Xu Lingqu. She'd just gotten her five-hundred-point qualification and immediately opened the rankings to initiate a cross-tier challenge.

Cross-tier challenges were an official fast track designed for especially formidable newcomers. The system understood public sentiment well—what people loved most was the underdog rising, the weak toppling the strong.

The tale of a grassroots comeback was cliché, but its core still inspired everyone.

Some streamers even staged such plots to attract attention, pretending to be newcomers and bribing a top-hundred player for a scripted match, only to get permanently banned by Sky Network as a warning. After that, no one dared to take such risks.

Was Mighty King Rabbit Owo a new kind of script, or did she really have the skill?

Everyone watched as she first challenged the fiftieth-ranked player. Rank fifty was also a streamer named Put-All-Points-Into-Defense. His specialty was defensive mechs—he climbed to fiftieth by outlasting opponents. His fans affectionately called him "Turtle Ancestor" and "Shell Emperor."

At that moment, he was streaming too, completely unaware of the Mighty King Rabbit Owo blowing up across the Star Network. He just assumed some newcomer had mistakenly clicked a cross-tier challenge. Since breaking into the top fifty, he'd been getting boring new accounts challenging him daily, and he couldn't be bothered.

So Put-All-Points-Into-Defense rejected Mighty King Rabbit Owo.

Xu Lingqu received the rejection notice but said nothing. She simply scrolled up one rank and challenged the forty-ninth.

It was already shocking enough that she'd publicly challenged rank fifty. Now that she'd been rejected, she just moved on to forty-nine, looking like she was working her way up the rankings, looking for trouble!

[Can the people crying 'scripted' come out and talk? Mighty King Rabbit Owo can't have bribed the whole top fifty, right?]

[She's only up to rank 49. What's the rush? Let's see if she challenges the entire top fifty.]

[Honestly, did anyone notice when Hei Shi ran off? I wanted to pour oil on this clown, but he bolted too fast.]

[He left ages ago, and he's already hinting in his stream that he took Mighty King Rabbit Owo's money to throw the match. Does he think we're idiots?]

Rank 49 was a guy named Fast-and-Accurate-Shooter. He was a military cadet from a decent academy in Star System No. 2, though not one of the six great academies. He'd been lurking online the whole time, so naturally he knew the full story of today's hot topic and that he'd become Mighty King Rabbit Owo's next hunting target.

Accepting would definitely bring him a ton of attention, but he didn't dare agree to this cross-tier challenge.

His specialty was using Attack-class mechs—long-range mechs that relied on cannon precision. And Attack mechs were most vulnerable to Force mechs with strong movement.

The moves Xu Lingqu had used against Hei Shi barely revealed anything, but Fast-and-Accurate-Shooter could tell she was an exceptionally powerful close-combat fighter.

Cannon suppression wouldn't stop her. If he accepted, he'd definitely lose.

So he decided to play dead.

Rejected again, Xu Lingqu frowned slightly. This was getting troublesome.

Liu Ming, quick to read the situation, spoke up. "Master, how about I send the challenges for you?"

Leave the messaging to a super AI.

Xu Lingqu agreed. And so, in front of everyone, Mighty King Rabbit Owo simultaneously challenged the top forty-eight players on the current Star Network rankings, complete with a taunting message.

"Accept if you're not afraid of getting destroyed."

Just as she was reading the embellished line Liu Ming had added, Xu Lingqu received a message on her personal smart device—from Jin.

"Commander, I'm bored out of my mind, so I thought I'd check in. What are you up to?"

Xu Lingqu replied casually, "Doing good deeds."