Chapter 257

Chapter 257

Of course, apart from this, the logistics team of Shoujun had specially prepared a separate break room for him.

Though it was just a cleared-out storage room with a simple bed frame and field cot padding, at least he wouldn’t have to sleep on a desk or the floor anymore.

Bai Xingshu’s eyes lit up at this, gladly accepting the private rest area and deciding to send Shen Geng packing back to work.

*No slacking off on his account!*

Moreover…

Recalling his first assault into Anhua’s defenses and the enemy’s lightning reflexes, Bai Xingshu didn’t think counting their chickens before they hatched was a good idea.

Shen Geng actually felt the same way.

Now that they’d reached the finals, while Shoujun felt victory was within grasp, Anhua would also sense their impending defeat.

No one would accept such an outcome.

In the previous match against *Changying*, even when at a disadvantage, *Changying* dug in their heels, refusing to concede until the very end.

*United*, on the other hand, fought until their energy reserves were depleted, still unwilling to give up.

Anhua’s reaction would only be fiercer.

Did Shoujun’s students realize this? Shen Geng believed they did.

However…

—"We’ve beaten *Changying*, we’ve beaten *United*—why would we fear a lightweight like Anhua?"

Shen Geng could practically taste his classmates’ confidence.

So… if they believed they could do it, then let them try. Shen Geng didn’t see anything wrong with that.

In the end, Bai Xingshu couldn’t shake him off, and the two entered the private break room together… only for Bai Xingshu to watch as Shen Geng pulled out a surveillance camera from his pocket.

Though he didn’t mind being "rewarded" to Bai Xingshu, he wasn’t about to fuel rumors about what the two of them might be doing alone in there.

Besides, Shen Geng’s choice wasn’t about laughing at his classmates behind their backs.

If they were gonna mess with them…

It should be done openly in front of them!!

Shen Geng linked the feed to the command center, monitoring room, and livestream, then—dragging Bai Xingshu along just like their usual dorm discussions—began analyzing Anhua’s possible counterattacks and how to counter them.

Supposed to be off-duty, Bai Xingshu blinked. "…"

Well, it wasn’t impossible.

Shen Geng’s opening move was to set up dummies at standard engineer fort spots, preferably disguised as already destroyed outposts to avoid raising suspicion.

After all, grunts in mechs usually wouldn’t investigate who exactly wrecked an outpost.

Meanwhile, the actual defenses would be placed at the map’s dead zones, while putting up an all-in, backs-against-the-wall vibe.

If the enemy believed victory was assured, they wouldn’t go ham, letting Shoujun stall for time.

Seizing this chance to build up quietly, then striking when the enemy thinks they’ve already won.

To Shen Geng’s plan, Bai Xingshu just said—

"Alright, I’ll give it a shot when I’m up—maybe I’ll just blitz straight into their Commander’s center."

If their engineer strongholds aren’t well-defended, Bai Xingshu is absolutely sure he can smash through and rampage into the enemy’s main base.

Shen Geng and everyone else who heard Bai Xingshu’s words: "..."

He said it so offhandedly, like it was nothing, that it kinda rubbed people the wrong way.

Though during their school’s internal drills, Shen Geng had faced Bai Xingshu as an opponent before.

But hearing this guy’s totally busted, cheat-code-level tactics still made his head throb on reflex.

Still, he’d accounted for contingencies—like the enemy, riding high on confidence, going all-out in a relentless, full-force assault to punch straight through their defenses.

"If the key engineer positions are lacking, the Commander’s center will relocate for sure. The old spot’ll be trapped, and once the original command post is destroyed, the hidden mines will blow, taking out everyone in the blast."

Bai Xingshu glanced up at Shen Geng.

Damn, that’s dirty.

But...

"I can sense if the Commander’s center is occupied." Every soldier’s packing heat, so they’re easy to spot—though with cameras watching, he kept it vague. "As for hidden mines, they’re no big deal."

Hidden minefields evade all conventional detection—radar, sonar, metal detectors—thanks to special external treatment.

But Bai Xingshu has an ability.

His power is conceptual metal manipulation, laughing off those tricks. As long as there’s metal inside the mines, he can sense them.

Shen Geng, hearing this: "..."

Alright, time to recalibrate just how OP Bai Xingshu is.

Deadpan, Shen Geng moved on: "Since this plan’s countered, onto the next."

Research, design, simulate, solve—while tweaking their plans on the fly based on frontline updates from the command center.

Back at command, listening to their Commander’s schemes to exploit the situation, the staff’s faces kept twitching.

Yikes.

Even though none of it had happened yet...

It still stung.

They found themselves missing their once-honorable, by-the-book Squad Leader Shen from freshman year.

If you’re gonna date, whatever—but don’t let that gremlin Bai Xingshu ruin you!!

Meanwhile, Shen Geng adjusted tactics while scribbling out a rough battle map. When he saw their forces had eaten up a third of Anhua’s turf, he went quiet.

This silence wasn’t because Anhua seemed weak, or because his strategies were sweeping unchecked toward victory.

Rather...

"I think... this time it's us who need to move the command center."

Danger alarms were blaring in Shen Geng's mind.

He'd only rested here with Bai Xingshu for three hours.

Without their A01 squad, the rest of the Combat Department shouldn't have advanced so quickly against a line of defensive mechs.

This made no sense.

Anhua couldn't be this weak!

Even if they'd been faking weakness and camouflaging their defenses as he'd first suspected, they shouldn't have been rolled over this easily.

Whatever the enemy was planning had to be beyond anything he'd imagined—something far worse than his worst-case scenarios.

Shen Geng had wanted to let his classmates test the waters, not test the waters only to drown.

The unknown scared them most.

Shen Geng bolted to the command center.

Bai Xingshu smirked as Shen Geng left, never mentioning how his abilities already let him sense the metal structures in Anhua's command center.

He knew... what Anhua was building.

What they were building...

Bai Xingshu stared toward Anhua's command center.

Two days later, a kilometer-wide energy beam split the sky, flooding the blue with searing light before slamming down with devastating force where Shoujun's command center had stood.

This was...

A planet-cracker cannon—the kind mounted on capital ships!

An overpowered planetary-class weapon.

Of course, Anhua was using a miniaturized prototype.

But even this stripped-down version was overkill for a military academy competition.

Everyone gaped in shock at the sight.

Anhua had dismantled their own defenses, scrounged up every resource to build this weapon... and actually pulled it off.

More shocking...

Shen Geng had detected the danger just from their suspiciously fast push—unable to identify the threat but still convincing his team to evacuate their entire HQ in time.

Shoujun's team stood in numb shock, staring at where their base had been, too stunned to move.

Only the military-grade simulated energy used in the league prevented real destruction—otherwise they'd have been vaporized with their headquarters.

Thank god...

As Shoujun's members turned to Shen Geng—the one who'd played it safe—they were flooded with relief.

Meanwhile, in Anhua's command center...

Everyone gazed at the result of combining the whole team's efforts. Upon hearing the data feedback confirming their precise hit on the target, the entire group burst into cheers, with many embracing each other in excitement.

This star-destroying cannon plan was proposed during their training in the first semester of their junior year.

However, it was an all-or-nothing gamble with a low probability of success, so it had been shelved and never used.

But Xing's ability blew all their expectations away.

So...

Why not surpass everyone's expectations?

This was their one and only shot.

And they succeeded.

Victory! We're champions!

Anhua's first championship ever!!

They did it!

The Anhua team celebrated for a while, then eagerly strained their ears, waiting to hear the announcement of their victory from the organizers.

But nothing came.

The first group to listen seemed to realize something and gradually fell silent.

Slowly, the others quieted down too.

The truth hit them.

No victory.

They had not won.

"Was it... a calculation error? Did we miss the target?" The Anhua Commander looked up at the screen and asked whoever was watching.

Watching these students who had plummeted from heaven to hell, just wanting an answer, the judges in the control room sighed and looked at each other.

They all knew in their hearts what Anhua's fate was after throwing everything they had into this single strike.

No chance remained.

So...

Against protocol, the voice of the organizers came over Anhua's comms.

"The match continues."

Not an answer, but more telling than any answer.