The small group chat reacted faster than Cheng Feng.
Just as Cheng Feng opened the chat window, Jiang Linxia’s message popped up.
What’s Good About Summer: [Image] Fateful bond, eh, Fengfeng.
What’s Good About Summer: My heart hurts. This is not a scene I wanted to see.
My Family’s Got a Mine: Don’t laugh too loudly. I can hear you even through the wall – that’s disturbing the peace. Also, don’t bounce hard on the bed. If it breaks, don’t come trying to squeeze into my bed again.
What’s Good About Summer: @Xiang Yunjian, see? Didn’t I tell you so?
Ye Guicheng: How can you be such a noob?
Cheng Feng had always thought Jiang Linxia’s scores ranked near the top, so they shouldn’t have run into each other so early. But after she just went back to check the score bulletin board, she realized that Jiang Linxia’s previous personal ability test results only placed him in the middle range of examinees.
My Family’s Got a Mine: He said he wanted to clear out threats from the high-score bracket for Xiang Yunjian in advance, but really he just messed up his own score trying to show off.
Ye Guicheng: [Owl’s Stare]
This reaction image shows an eagle with its eyes wide open, radiating multicolored light – it’s the little owl’s strongest attack.
Everyone in the group felt dazzled by it and told Cheng Feng to take the reaction image back immediately.
What’s Good About Summer: It’s time to place your bets, brothers! Staking our years of friendship – who are you supporting?
My Family’s Got a Mine: Bet on Cheng Feng winning or you losing? That choice is actually kind of hard. Both are fine in a way.
What’s Good About Summer: [Draws a blade]
Xiang Yunjian: Are you guys already done washing up?
What’s Good About Summer: That’s all you care about?
A Little More Reckless: Getting breakfast? I’m heading downstairs now.
What’s Good About Summer: Get lost! Like I’d believe you!
Cheng Feng sighed, feeling that running into Jiang Linxia in the fourth round really wasn’t a stroke of luck.
Ye Guicheng: @What’s Good About Summer, wanna practice a few more rounds before the match? [Image] My schedule.
What’s Good About Summer: Normally, my rate as a sparring partner is quite high. But considering you’re one of our own kids, I’ll make a special exception for you. Meet me in the computer lab at 12:30 noon, and I’ll also show you who’s who in the family. [Flex]
Ye Guicheng: [Owl Dash]
…
Song Zheng sat in the cafeteria eating breakfast, sniffling as he sipped his hot soup.
The cold snap had come too suddenly. After training last night, he had collapsed onto the sofa while still wearing a short-sleeved shirt, forgetting to turn on the room’s temperature control. When he woke up this morning, his head felt groggy and heavy – he had bravely joined the ranks of the common cold.
Fortunately, his league career for this season was already over. As one of the few sensor mecha pilots among his peers who had managed to get through the qualifying rounds, he had made a brief heroic appearance in the preliminaries before being officially eliminated from the infantry assessment.
Although that “brief appearance” was exactly that – brief – for Song Zheng, being able to achieve such a result in his first league participation was already pretty good.
His individual ability test scores were too low. To win against the top-twenty upperclassmen in the mecha combat round was practically a pipe dream. He was self-aware enough not to entertain such fantasies.
The only thing he regretted was that his league journey had been too short, as if he had wasted Cheng Feng’s painstaking coaching.
Scrolling through various posts on San Yao, Song Zheng wasn’t sure whether it was because of his cold or his inner frustration, but the content that normally made for good mealtime entertainment today only killed his appetite.
He really couldn’t understand – why did netizens look down on Cheng Feng, a big shot who was so excellent, so legendary, so well-rounded, and such a great leader?
This world felt way too surreal to him. So many armchair critics online lacked the eyes to recognize true strength.
Just as San Yao released the match list, Song Zheng opened it immediately to check.
“Cheng Feng vs. Jiang Linxia?” The young man across the table slurped a mouthful of noodles, grabbed a tissue to wipe up the splattered soup, and said in a muffled voice, “Oh man, how’s she supposed to fight this? Aren’t they on the same team? Won’t this affect their team harmony if they have to go against each other so soon?”
Song Zheng sniffled and muttered, “Why would it affect anything? Can’t Jiang Linxia lose?”
The young man across from him looked up, scanned his face with a strange expression, and asked, “You really think Jiang Linxia will lose? His mecha combat skills might not be as good as Xiang Yunjian’s, but he’s still undeniably a top student at the university.”
Quite a few netizens were following Cheng Feng’s progress just as closely.
Song Zheng was invested because of the deep bond between him and the commander; the curious online audience just wanted to see how far Cheng Feng could go.
As soon as they saw the name “Jiang Linxia” appear across from Cheng Feng, the funeral dirge for her league journey started playing across the entire forum.
“If Jiang Linxia doesn’t throw the match, Cheng Feng is guaranteed to lose.”
“Is Jiang Linxia’s mech too weak to carry its cannons? How dare someone doubt his ability!” – “It’s time to let Cheng Feng understand what real sensory mecha combat is. She’s been getting away with her weird, unorthodox fighting style against weak opponents. No offense meant to her previous opponents, of course.”
“Cheng Feng’s flashy, show-off style only works because she’s never faced a real challenge! Jiang Linxia, we hope you won’t go easy on her just because you’re teammates.”
“These people are just jealous! That’s why they’re so fired up with hatred!” Song Zheng slammed the table with his hand and declared confidently, “Cheng Feng definitely has her own plan. These people don’t know the first thing about strategy!”
The young man across from him said quietly, “To be honest, even several professional data analysts can’t figure out her playstyle. Can you?”
“I can’t figure it out, but I know it must be useful!” Song Zheng waved his hand without changing his expression. “This is valuable life experience – only those who’ve been through it understand!”
The young man studied his determined face for a moment, then went back to eating his noodles.
There’s no saving a die-hard fan. Stay away, or you might get infected.
Song Zheng pushed his bowl and chopsticks aside, gripped his optical computer with both hands, and focused intently on browsing the relevant forums, hoping to find a soulmate of Cheng Feng out there in the vast sea of netizens – someone he could use to help reinforce the bridge of friendship between himself and Cheng Feng. So far, no well-known analyst had come forward to explain Cheng Feng’s actions, and the university’s official publicity department had also remained uncharacteristically silent. Most likely, they didn’t want to interfere with Cheng Feng’s training rhythm, and they were worried that too much explanation would reveal her strategy.
Netizens on San Yao were also actively searching for authoritative commentary at this time.
The infantry matches hadn’t yet reached their most exciting stage. Many professional-level data analysts were still in the observation phase, waiting to gather more data, or simply didn’t find the matches worth watching.
There had been quite a few analysts who tried to break down Cheng Feng’s operations, but very few managed to stick with it all the way through.
Cheng Feng’s fighting style lacked regularity and went against the conventional knowledge they had learned. Even if they completely stripped down her code, analysts still wouldn’t be able to confidently determine her intentions. On top of that, given the intense online controversy, they were afraid of getting into trouble and one after another declared, “I don’t get it – I’m out.”
Song Zheng scrolled down anxiously, his heart burning with worry, when suddenly he noticed an ID called “Crazed Charmer.” His gaze paused, and his eyebrows rose involuntarily.
Crazed Charmer was a professional commentator known for his deep, magnetic “male god” voice. He had first risen to fame in the commentary circle for his sharp, precise insights and his rich, attractive vocal tone.
Everyone assumed he was a industry heartthrob – at least 180 cm tall, with a six-pack, and looks that had no upper limit – possibly a military university graduate or a retired military officer. But when he eventually showed his face in public, he turned out to be a rather unkempt, scruffy, and rough-looking middle-aged man with stubble.
Overnight, the romance and beauty standards of the commentary circle lost a dream lover, but also overnight, the streaming world gained an inspirational, talented figure who didn’t rely on his looks.
Crazed Charmer had never done commentary on manual-operations matches. However, he had conducted quite in-depth research on players like Jiang Linxia. Given his professional level, even if the field wasn’t exactly his specialty, he should still be able to see some of the underlying logic.
Two minutes ago, he had updated his personal page with a message, indicating that he was about to weigh in on the upcoming match.
[Crazed Charmer: After watching all four complete matches, Cheng Feng… she… could it be that she—]
Song Zheng clenched his teeth, loosened his jaw, then couldn’t help clenching again -just barely holding back a string of curses.
“??”
“How are you still alive? Have you been afraid to leave the house for the past two years just to stay alive?”
“Compared to this guy, Cheng Feng is such a little sweetheart.”
“How nice would it be to have a little sweetheart like that at home? You get pissed off every single day, you feel like you’re dying every single day, so every single day you’re welcoming a new life! [Open arms]”
The young man across the table said with pleasant surprise, “Crazed Charmer came out? Nice. He must be stepping up for Cheng Feng this time.”
Before Song Zheng could respond, an update notification popped up on the page.
[Crazed Charmer: Ah hey, stop cursing, I’m here. I did get a bit of a sense before, but I wasn’t too sure, so I didn’t dare say it outright. I was afraid Cheng Feng would lose too early, and then you’d all come after me for being fake.
In her next match against Jiang Linxia, even the casual viewer should be able to see just how many tricks she has up her sleeve. Here, I’ll just offer one simple reminder:
In those 151 qualifying-round victories, totaling 2,416 minutes – over 40 hours – Cheng Feng did not spend a single minute underestimating or disrespecting her opponents. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have won all the way to the end.
Before I knew about Cheng Feng, I actually held an extremely pessimistic view of manual-operated mecha. I don’t know whether it’s feasible on a real battlefield, but within San Yao’s battle simulation rules, manual-operated mecha is very impractical. Cheng Feng’s fighting style, on the other hand, really opened my eyes and made things feel a bit interesting.]
[We’ll wait and see the official match. I’m also quite curious about the actual results. I suggest you comrades watch your words from now on and stop torturing that old face of yours that’s been slapped so many times.]
[Crazed Charmer: Anyway, I’m going all in. I’m betting on Cheng Feng. No other reason – I just like doing the opposite of you netizens who curse me out.]
Song Zheng nodded with satisfaction and read through it again. He realized that although this guy was speaking in support of Cheng Feng, it was almost all empty talk – which left him feeling a bit complicated.
He reluctantly gave a like, set three alarms before the match, then went to Cheng Feng’s comment section to post a few lucky koi fish pictures to share his good-luck energy.
As a die-hard fan, there wasn’t much more he could do.
