Top Warzone Analyst Chapter 175

Generally speaking, the commanders from the major military universities all had a rough estimate of their own scores. Even allowing for some margin of error, it was rare for all four universities to believe they had a shot at victory.

Tao Rui strolled over to the supply depot, where Tong Xun and Kang Zhenxue also walked up, each holding their optical computers.

The supporting NPCs didn’t log out immediately. Instead, they lingered nearby, some squatting, some standing, leaning on their rifles as they waited for the results alongside the students.

Cheng Feng stepped out from the crowd of UFU students.

No one knew who had started it, but the four supreme commanders naturally formed a circle like heads of state at a diplomatic summit. They took turns shaking hands, each wearing the cool, proud expression of a victor.

The ceremony, however, was so formal that it came across as oddly awkward. Once they had gone through the motions, everyone except Cheng Feng looked faintly bewildered.

…Why did we just do something so embarrassing?

Tao Rui withdrew his hand, tugged at the corner of his mouth, and offered a polite smile. “That was an excellent match.”

His comment eased the atmosphere a little.

Tong Xun added, “A huge part of the successful defense belongs to Cheng Feng. Even though it was her first time participating in a grand battlefield exercise, she showed an excellent grasp of the bigger picture.”

As he spoke, he gave Cheng Feng an approving nod.

Kang Zhenxue couldn’t be bothered with formalities. He simply threw back his head and laughed.

Watching the scene, Shen Dan raised an eyebrow in confusion and hesitated before asking, “…We really won, right?”

Jiang Linxia had spent the previous two hours in a critically wounded state, enduring constant pain. Afraid of missing any exciting moments, he had stubbornly refused to log out. Now that the simulation had reset his condition, he collapsed onto the ground, limbs weak, and replied, “You’re kidding, right? Just look at our kill count. Have a little confidence, will you? Look at Cheng Feng.”

Surrounded by a group of young men who were all more than twenty centimeters taller than her, the diminutive Cheng Feng still radiated an overwhelming, aggressive presence.

Yan Shen couldn’t help teasing, “She’s way past confidence at this point – she’s completely inflated. I bet she’s thinking, ‘You’re all surrounded by me.’”

Comrade Shen Dan, self-proclaimed master of micro-expression analysis, shook her head. “No. I think her face says, ‘I’m giving you all the opportunity to admire me.’”

“What bad intentions could Cheng Feng possibly have?” Chen Huayue said with a laugh. “If she had anything on her mind, she’d just say it outright.”

Cheng Feng overheard their slander and shot them a sidelong glance over her shoulder.

The NPC who had logged in first covered his mouth halfway and gave a loud, pointed cough.

The surviving UFU students instantly caught on and began showering the NPCs with enthusiastic praise.

“Thank goodness the big shots came to rescue us!”

“The seniors really are every bit as formidable as the rumors say!”

“Wherever the Expeditionary Force stands, the enemy can’t advance a single step!”

“We’ve learned so much from the Expeditionary Force’s example!”

“The Expeditionary Force?” Tao Rui’s eyes widened as he looked from one face to another in surprise. “How did you even find them?”

The NPC folded his arms across his chest, his eyes half-lidded. He was far too proud to explain himself.

A truly elite identity always needed someone else to speak on its behalf.

Cheng Feng understood that perfectly.

“It’s a long story,” she said earnestly. “We hit them, insulted them, questioned them. They couldn’t swallow that kind of humiliation, so they came out to prove themselves.”

She said it with such complete sincerity that, after their initial shock, the other three commanders found themselves almost believing her. A series of dangerous possibilities flickered across their ever-changing expressions.

“…You could give it a try,” one NPC sneered. “The first thing we’ll do after coming out is kill you.”

Tao Rui’s expression turned serious. “May I know the rules governing this support mechanic? If that’s really the Expeditionary Force, then even a force of only sixty soldiers makes the match rather unfair.”

Before the NPC could answer, the San Yao system administrator published the detailed rules directly.

A row of black text appeared before everyone’s eyes, explaining the activation conditions and restrictions for the Expeditionary Force squad.

As it turned out, San Yao had prepared four possible identities for support NPCs: AI units, San Yao players, instructors, and the Expeditionary Force.

Which role would be activated was entirely up to the NPC overseeing the assessment. The young man whom Cheng Feng had argued with for nearly half the battle had ultimately chosen the Expeditionary Force.

Cheng Feng couldn’t help but gain a newfound appreciation for him.

The NPC let out a derisive snort, turned his head away with a huff, and thought to himself:

I’ve seen through her now. There isn’t a single decent person among commanders.

After reading through the final four rules, Tao Rui quietly closed the page, a trace of regret crossing his face.

If it had been him, even in the same situation, he wouldn’t have made that choice.

The others had nothing to add.

Silence settled over the area once more. A growing tension gradually spread through the air.

Tong Xun murmured, “Why is the score verification taking so long this time?”

The words had barely left his mouth when a stirring, blood-pumping orchestral theme erupted in the background. Driven by a barrage of pounding drums, the music built steadily toward its climax.

Everyone knew the results were finally about to be announced. As one, they lifted their heads and looked into the sky.

At the peak of the music, as the final triumphant note crashed down, the dim heavens suddenly blazed with light, swallowed by a dazzling golden radiance.

Streams of brilliant colors gathered together, forming a line of enormous characters suspended high above everyone’s heads.

Someone read the words aloud at the very same moment the system’s announcement rang out:

“Congratulations to United Federation University for earning the MVP title in this year’s Grand Battlefield Tournament!”

The deep, solemn voice echoed throughout the testing grounds, repeating the proclamation again and again. There was an indescribable power in its lingering resonance, as though it reached straight into the depths of one’s mind.

It was 5:26 in the morning.

Across UFU’s campus, thunderous cheers erupted. Hoarse cries of triumph rose from every direction, merging into a single deafening roar that seemed ready to split the heavens.

Yet beneath the golden light, among the hundreds of illuminated faces, there was only shock… and disbelief.

In unison, they cried out, “Impossible!”

The detailed scoring breakdown was finally released.

Everyone’s eyes instinctively went to the middle of the rankings first before slowly moving upward.

United Military University, commanded by Tong Xun, had recorded 589 kills with 201 survivors remaining.

The Second Military University, under Kang Zhenxue’s command, had achieved 631 kills with 175 survivors.

Then came the First Military University, led by Tao Rui – and there was an obvious gap.

1,086 kills.

276 survivors.

The numbers alone were enough to make Kang Zhenxue and Tong Xun’s hearts skip a beat.

But sitting at the very top of the leaderboard was the emblem of United Federation University.

“…One thousand two hundred and ninety…” Tong Xun murmured under his breath. His nostrils flared slightly as disbelief overtook him. “How is that even possible…”

With all five military universities fighting together, UFU alone had claimed nearly half of the White Team’s total casualties. Its kill count was almost double that of the allied academies.

It was simply absurd.

The lead was so overwhelming that even after deducting points for damage to the town’s buildings and factoring in the weighting for surviving personnel, UFU’s overall score still stood a full tier above the scores of the two allied military universities.

The First Military had earned points across more scoring categories, but the 50% base score bonus ultimately tipped the scales, allowing UFU to edge them out for first place.

“How could UFU possibly have racked up nearly 1,300 kills?!” Kang Zhenxue demanded of the sky. “They lost a huge number of people not long after the match started, didn’t they? By the time they were down to half their fighting strength, they probably hadn’t even reached five hundred kills! There’s no way they could’ve fought their way to a score like that, even if they traded lives for it!”

Both Tong Xun and Kang Zhenxue had estimated their own schools’ kill counts to be somewhere between seven and eight hundred.

But those estimates hadn’t come from reports sent back from the front lines.

They had been worked out backwards.

By the latter half of the battle, there simply wasn’t enough time to stay connected with every individual soldier and tally the numbers. Based on experience from previous years, battles this chaotic usually ended with all the participating academies performing more or less evenly.

UFU had started with the fewest troops. Even if the kills had been divided evenly among the three major forces, they should have ended up with fewer than nine hundred.

Though, to be fair, Kang Zhenxue also felt that his soldiers had fought exceptionally fiercely that night.

…But who could say for certain?

Almost instinctively, he turned to look at the person beside him.

The movement was mirrored across the entire battlefield.

Every candidate’s gaze converged on the shortest figure standing in the middle of the crowd.

Feeling the blazing stares around her – so intense they were practically tangible – Cheng Feng folded her arms across her chest. Mimicking the Expeditionary Force soldier standing beside her, she raised her chin ever so slightly and lowered her eyelids halfway.

“Well, actually…”

She was just about to begin what looked suspiciously like an acceptance speech.

She had barely worked herself into the right emotional state when a tidal wave of ecstatic cheering erupted from behind her, cutting her off mid-sentence.

A powerful sense of impending doom suddenly washed over Cheng Feng.

She whipped her head around, only to see a group of broad-shouldered, sturdy young men spreading their arms and charging toward her:

“Cheng Feng!”

“Commander!”

“Junior, I’m coming!”

A shiver ran through Cheng Feng from head to toe. Her mind went completely blank.

She turned around and ran.

Jiang Linxia, who was charging at the very front, shouted, “Cheng Feng, don’t leave! This is a proud tradition passed down through every generation! Let us toss you up once, come on!”

“We can’t skip the ceremonial moment!”

“Cheng Feng, don’t you want to fly up high?”

“We need a photo! We haven’t even taken a group picture yet!”

Cheng Feng yelled at the top of her lungs. “I don’t want to!”

Everyone shouted even louder. “Cheng——Feng!”

Kang Zhenxue and the others’ frustration and disbelief were completely shattered by this group of ridiculous people. They genuinely couldn’t understand how these guys – who looked like they had screws loose in their heads – had managed to pull off a desperate comeback and achieve such a massive lead.

Meanwhile, San Yao also released a selection of battle footage from the match for them.

They were finally able to witness with their own eyes what Cheng Feng had secretly done behind their backs, in the places they had never seen.

The phantom image of mechs flickered across the sky. Cold gleams flashed as their weapons swept violently across the screen.

Amid flying sand and rolling stones, the furious curses of the mech operators and the screams of fallen infantry blended together, making the already horrifying battlefield appear even more intense and brutal.

Only then did Kang Zhenxue and Tong Xun realize that Cheng Feng and Xiang Yunjian had managed to rack up nearly 400 kills with just two mechs.

That was the biggest mistake in their calculations.

Their estimated data had been thrown off by a massive margin because they had completely underestimated those two.

Kang Zhenxue’s mouth fell open. After silently cursing under his breath, he simply forgot to close it. His expression shifted several times before he finally settled on looking at the fleeing Cheng Feng with an expression that could only be described as:

This person is not human.

Cheng Feng was eventually forced back against a building. With nowhere left to run, she leapt up and landed behind Xiang Yunjian, grabbing onto the back of his collar.

Xiang Yunjian’s tall figure blocked the stairwell entrance. He hooked two fingers under his own collar and gestured for her to let go, then turned to scold the eager crowd in front of him. “Act a little more like seniors. Aren’t you embarrassed? Move aside.”

The group shamelessly shouted back, “No way! Something feels missing if you don’t do this. The match just doesn’t feel complete.”

“Our university hasn’t won the Grand Battlefield MVP for four years! Do you know what four years means?! This is the kind of regret a military student can never make up for in their entire life! Unless they repeat a year!”

“Cheng Feng – make a heart with your hands!”

“No!” Cheng Feng insisted, poking her head out from behind Xiang Yunjian. “It looks incredibly undignified.”

At that moment, San Yao’s edited mech battle footage came to an end and transitioned into scenes from the later stages of the competition.

Aside from the 110 “seeds of fire” left behind to guard the equipment depot, all of the UFU candidates had poured onto the battlefield, actively fighting on the front lines.

Wounded soldiers were carried back to the equipment depot, while comrades in good condition stepped forward to replace them. The two exchanged no words; as they passed each other, they simply slapped hands once before immediately returning to the battlefield.

Inside the communication channels, reports from squads across the battlefield rose and fell one after another. They calmly counted personnel, adjusted positions, and coordinated movements – without a single unnecessary word.

The two deputy commanders wore expressions of fierce intensity. Even Chen Huayue, who was normally gentle and composed, lost his usual restraint and roared into the communicator.

A terrifying sense of impact burst out from the footage.

Anyone watching could feel their determination, their refusal to yield, and their complete devotion to the fight.

They were like beasts with blades pressed against their throats, every muscle in their bodies stretched to its absolute limit, constantly gathering strength, waiting for the chance to bite down and tear a piece out of their enemy.

Kang Zhenxue had no choice but to admit that the UFU candidates, despite being suppressed for half the battle, had refused to surrender – and their condition was actually better than theirs.

The frustration of injustice and the determination to stake everything on a final gamble had drawn out their full potential.

This was their second mistake.

They had assumed Cheng Feng would choose a cautious, defensive strategy and avoid direct confrontation.

In reality, she had been even more proactive and aggressive than they were. Using the sacrifice of more than 250 people, the serious injuries of over 30 others, and the support of the Expeditionary Force, she had managed to secure the crucial kills they needed while fighting from a disadvantaged position.

…

But.

Kang Zhenxue turned his expressionless face away again.

It was simply impossible to connect those ferocious, battle-hardened warriors from the footage with the group of goofy idiots standing next door.

Xiang Yunjian was being dragged around by the crowd so much that his footsteps became unsteady.

They had abandoned Cheng Feng as their target and decided instead to lift Xiang Yunjian up into the air.

With absolutely no loyalty to her teammate, Cheng Feng betrayed him from behind and gave him a shove.

“Ugh.”

After watching the edited footage, Tong Xun let out a quiet sigh. Tao Rui also closed the page without saying a word.

The three of them exchanged glances once more. After staring at each other in silence, they all pulled out a slightly helpless smile.

“We lost.” Tong Xun pressed a hand to his forehead and laughed at himself. “Are the younger generations really this terrifying now? Good thing I’m graduating soon.”

“Our uni…” Kang Zhenxue clutched his chest as if in genuine pain. “It’s already been eight years since we last won the Grand Battlefield MVP!”

It was practically a wound shared by two generations!

And Cheng Feng was only a second-year student.

How many years would it take before this shadow finally disappeared?

Kang Zhenxue stepped forward and punched Tao Rui lightly on the left shoulder. “Hey, don’t look so devastated, alright? Your uni lost the faction battle, but you still managed to overtake us in points. Reacting like this is really making us look bad.”

Tao Rui’s expression was somewhat dazed. His thoughts had already drifted far away, and it was only after Kang Zhenxue bumped into him that he finally returned to his senses. “I…”

The world suddenly fell silent.

Everything went black before everyone’s eyes, and they were all transported to the waiting hall.

The transitional game lobby was not open to the public. Only Mr. Luo and the host stood on a raised platform, applauding for them.

Everyone had removed their military uniforms. They stood scattered around, listening as Mr. Luo delivered the customary closing remarks.

Most of his speech consisted of praise for the candidates. From infantry performance to team cooperation, Mr. Luo made sure to commend every military academy fairly and generously.

The speech lasted more than half an hour.

Although the process was lengthy, everyone still listened with great interest.

By the time it ended, the sky outside had already begun to brighten.

Tao Rui looked around at everyone and prepared to log out.

Suddenly, Cheng Feng strode over. She stopped directly in front of him, standing less than an arm’s length away.