Arena Speedrun Legend 6

Ming also chose the Strength model. Both sides were clearly committed to pure brute force, and the crowd was electrified.

This kind of match was a visual feast—thrilling enough to keep everyone on the edge of their seats.

Meanwhile, debates erupted over who would come out on top.

【Mighty King Rabbit Owo is strong, but Ming's going to shut this down, no objections, right?】

【Isn't it obvious? Ming's been rank one for two years. Think about it—you're a newbie who climbed to 50, and now you're gunning for number one? I suggest Dolanston Academy and Longyuan scoop her up right now.】

【Mighty King Rabbit Owo lasting ten minutes against him would be impressive.】

【No one's rooting for Mighty King Rabbit Owo? I don't care, I'm betting on her.】

The moment the match began, both Strength mechs drew their blades and charged. Steel clashed with a deafening roar, drawing collective gasps as killing intent flooded the arena.

They pushed off each other simultaneously, and Ming's short blade immediately slashed toward Mighty King Rabbit Owo's face. With no time to adjust her stance, Xu Lingqu raised her left arm to block.

For the first time on this stage, someone had dealt her effective damage.

Liu Ming felt that Xu Lingqu had become a different person—an invisible killing intent radiating from her. After blocking that strike, she flipped her blade, leaped into the air, and brought it down in a vertical slash aimed straight at Ming.

The strike came fast. Ming barely managed to hold his blade up to block, but the force sent him stumbling back several steps.

Xu Lingqu didn't give him a second to recover. She snapped her leg up, kicking him in the left shoulder, then swung her right fist, aiming for his face.

Ming's stance was unbalanced after the kick, teetering as he staggered, but his reflexes matched Xu Lingqu's. He blocked her subsequent attacks one by one. In an instant, he absorbed the impact of that slash, switched from defense to offense, and engaged her in a long-blade duel.

The spectators watched with unwavering focus as the two massive mechs executed maneuvers more intricate than any human hand-to-hand combat, afraid to miss a single exchange.

The two of them moved as if they'd rehearsed it—every sequence flowing seamlessly into the next. One tiny slip from either side would spell certain death.

It was a sensation she'd never felt even in her one-on-one with Instructor Zhang. Xu Lingqu's movements grew faster, and the clash of blades became more and more frequent.

Ming had a profound understanding of mech combat, repeatedly finding openings in Xu Lingqu's guard to launch attacks. She weathered them stubbornly and mirrored his methods, striking back in kind.

At the same time, both were exploiting their short blades to the fullest—calculating the trajectory of every throw and recall with unrelenting precision, as if puppeteering the weapons to leave as much damage on the other's mech as possible.

This high-frequency, high-level exchange continued for over a hundred moves before Xu Lingqu began to feel the strain. Still, she gritted her teeth and pushed on. A side slash sent Ming's blade flying from his grip.

His strength had given out; he was already at the end of his rope.

Xu Lingqu didn't hesitate. A few more strikes landed on the disarmed Ming, and the system soon declared her victorious.

As the words "Challenge Successful" appeared before her eyes, thunderous cheers filled her ears. Xu Lingqu gasped for breath, watching Mighty King Rabbit Owo's ranking shoot straight to number one.

Four hours, thirteen matches total—she had shattered every record in the Sky Network mech arena in every conceivable way. No one had done it before, and no one ever would again, because this was the absolute fastest time to reach the top, the perfect convergence of timing, opportunity, and skill.

It was a long while before Ming stepped out of the virtual mech. His face was expressionless as he walked slowly up to Xu Lingqu and extended his hand.

Sensing he had something to say, Xu Lingqu muted the arena's spectator feed and reached out to shake it.

"You're strong," Ming said. "You belong in the cadet mech soldier ranks of the Six Great Academies."

"I'm not." She indeed wasn't—her surface-level psychic power hadn't made the cut. Xu Lingqu tossed the words back at him. "By strength alone, you should be there too."

Ming fell silent for a moment, then offered a bitter smile. "My psychic power level is C."

He didn't even qualify to enter the Six Great Academies.

Xu Lingqu froze.

"I've never told anyone this, but—maybe because I lost today, I can't keep it bottled up anymore." Ming wore a lost expression. "My psychic power level is C. There's nothing mystical about it like everyone guessed. I'm just an amateur mech enthusiast who took a whole month just to adapt to virtual mechs. I used to fight in underground matches—life-or-death bouts. I can feel it in your moves—same as mine. Every strike is aimed at the opponent's life."

He murmured, "Honestly, I was about to give up. I'll never get the chance to touch a real mech in this lifetime, so I could only lose myself in the virtual world of Sky Network. Lately, I kept thinking I should wake up already. But then you showed up—and honestly, thank you."

Without a worthy opponent, he'd felt his passion for virtual mechs draining away. Today, logging into Sky Network on a whim, he'd stumbled across this Mighty King Rabbit Owo's arena match against Put-all-points-into-defense. In that moment, a long-lost thrill of facing a true rival had surged through his blood once more.

Ming spoke earnestly, "I won't give up for now. At least not until I beat you."

"Your psychic power won't hold you back," Xu Lingqu replied. "You'll create an ordinary person's miracle."

With that, she exited the arena. The rank-one title was now bound to Mighty King Rabbit Owo. The first boosting contract of the interstellar era was finally complete.

She sent a reminder to Logan Bill's personal terminal from that account: "Done. Log in and check."

Then she had Liu Ming wipe the cabin login information from that account and logged out of Mighty King Rabbit Owo.

Logan Bill had just been about to drink the warm milk his home robot had brought over and head to bed, having just seen off the piano teacher his parents had hired. The moment his personal terminal received Xu Lingqu's message, he nearly spat out a mouthful of milk.

This person was a scammer, right? There was no way someone could reach number one in such a short time!

Filled with doubt, he hurriedly logged into Sky Network to see what was going on. The first thing that hit him was his bound title, and then a flood of messages and friend requests came pouring in from curious Sky Network users eager to see the new rank one.

Logan Bill muted the notifications and, with trembling hands, opened his arena battle records. When he saw that his Mighty King Rabbit Owo had beaten his idol Ming, his vision went completely black.

The kid wired the money fast. Xu Lingqu soon received his transfer through a newly created anonymous account. After getting the funds, she forwarded the amount to Natata and, seeing that the time was about right, went straight to sleep.

Completely oblivious to the fact that Sky Network had been thrown into utter chaos because of her.