Yun Xingze logged into his “Mecha Star” account and searched for the name “L” on the leaderboard.
As expected, it ranked first.
The data Su Zinan provided was collected last year, meaning this mysterious “L” not only possessed formidable and consistent strength but had also maintained the top position for an entire year.
“So strong…” Yun Xingze couldn’t help but marvel.
Considering the vast population of the Star Empire, even though this game primarily targeted military academy students, its concurrent player counts often reached millions.
To remain firmly in first place among so many elite players, “L” had to be a top-tier military academy student or perhaps even someone from the military itself.
Clicking into “L’s” profile, the content was as minimalist as the ID itself.
There wasn’t even a single skin-equipped mecha listed just a default lightsaber mech.
It looked like a starter account, the kind that had never spent a single credit.
Yun Xingze figured this must be the mark of a true expert someone who focused solely on combat, treating the game as a training ground for self-improvement. His admiration for “L” grew even stronger.
So, Yun Xingze sent a message: “Hello, would you be interested in a sparring match?” followed by a duel invitation.
A long time passed, but “L” neither logged in nor replied.
Maybe they were busy lately?
Frowning slightly, Yun Xingze felt a twinge of disappointment at the missed opportunity. His time was limited, so he shifted his focus elsewhere.
He turned his attention to students from Gikot Military Academy.
On Su Zinan’s list, each student’s name was accompanied by their school’s emblem—Gikot’s was a sword, Starsea Military Academy’s a shield, Far Mountain Military Academy’s a peak, and St. Clythus Mecha Academy’s a black swan.
Apart from last year’s champion, Noah Military Academy, and runner-up, Vanyun Military Academy, the most frequent emblem on the list was Gikot’s sword, followed by Far Mountain’s peak and St. Clythus’s black swan. Starsea Military Academy’s shield appeared far less often.
Yun Xingze randomly picked a Gikot student from the leaderboard; their ID was “Don’t Provoke Me I’m Grumpy,” real name Cheng Jun, ranked fifth. Yun Xingze loved fighting people who seemed tough to deal with.
However, when he sent a challenge to “Don’t Provoke Me I’m Grumpy,” the other party instantly blocked him with a single reply: “Trash, scram.”
Truly living up to the name.
Yun Xingze didn’t even get a chance to retort. He thought to himself, his rank had already broken into the top 100, even if barely. Surely that didn’t qualify as “trash”?
After some deliberation, inspiration struck. He decided to challenge another Gikot student, this one with the ID “Let Me Treat You to Shaved Ice,” real name Hebrew, who seemed like a much more agreeable person.
[I’m So Fragile]: “Trash, come fight me.”
Almost immediately, “Let Me Treat You to Shaved Ice” replied with a “?” and asked, “You good?”
Ranked eighth, they were still far above Yun Xingze at ninety-eighth.
[I’m So Fragile]: “I’m Gikot’s strongest mecha warrior. Let’s duel.”
Seeing that polite requests either got ignored or rejected, Yun Xingze decided to embrace provocation.
Unsurprisingly, it worked.
[“Let Me Treat You to Shaved Ice”]: “Who the hell are you? Talking so big. Don’t cry when you lose.”
[“I’m So Fragile”]: “Haha, as if I’d lose to you?”
Soon, a “ding” sounded as the screen displayed a PK invitation from “Let Me Treat You to Shaved Ice.”
Yun Xingze happily clicked accept.
The opponent specialized in piloting the Shadow Mech, which was practically a bug-like existence in the game. While real-world Shadow Mechs could still be tracked by radar, in-game, they were like invisible assassins, dominating in PK battles.
However, this was obviously no problem for Yun Xingze.
Ten minutes later, Yun Xingze chased the opponent down in a Meteor Mech, completely destroying the Shadow Mech’s stealth nano-coating, leaving it looking like a mangy spotted dog with patches of missing fur.
“Let Me Treat You to Shaved Ice” clearly hadn’t expected this supposedly noob-ranked player (barely in the top 100) to be so strong. In the blink of an eye, they lost the match without even dealing much damage to “I’m So Fragile.”
Inside the game pod, a silver-haired boy named Hebrew felt indignant. After losing, he quickly sent a voice message: “Don’t run. One more match.”
Yun Xingze clicked to listen—the voice sounded like it had just passed puberty, likely a freshman at Gikot Military Academy, probably just turned eighteen, with the stubborn tone of a teenage Alpha male.
[“I’m So Fragile”]: “My mech’s out of power. Logging off.”
[“Let Me Treat You to Shaved Ice”]: “???”
[“Let Me Treat You to Shaved Ice”]: “This is a damn mech game! How can your mech run out of power?! You win one match and just bail?!”
Yun Xingze swiftly exited the PK room.
Furious, Hebrew climbed out of his game pod and yelled at his roommate, “Who the hell is that ‘I’m So Fragile’ guy in our school?!”
The roommate looked baffled. “Fragile? Who’s fragile?”
Hebrew explained, “No, I mean in Mech Star—some guy called me a noob right off the bat, then chased me down under the ID ‘I’m So Fragile’.”
Hebrew was an S+-rank Shadow Mech pilot, having been in the mech program since high school and earning a direct admission to Gikot Military Academy for his outstanding performance.
His roommate looked shocked. “There’s someone in our school who can chase you down?”
Yun Xingze had already collected Hebrew’s combat style and data, recording his habitual moves. The purpose of this PK was fulfilled, so there was no reason to continue.
Otherwise, if his identity were exposed later, opponents might use Yun Xingze’s own data against him that would be a losing trade.
To prevent this, Yun Xingze constantly switched mech types during battles. Unrestrained by mental or physical fatigue, his combat style varied drastically.
If Hebrew ever got the chance to watch “I’m So Fragile” in later matches, his jaw would drop. The fighting style would seem like an entirely different person.
Under the title of “Gikot’s Strongest Mech Pilot,” Yun Xingze challenged over half of the ranked students at Gikot Military Academy. Provoked, they all took the bait quickly, proof that Su Zinan’s list was reliable.
With an unbroken streak of victories against strong opponents, Yun Xingze’s ranking points soared, swiftly breaking into the top 50.
After most of Gikot’s students had been challenged, Yun Xingze began to challenge students from Yuanshan Military Academy and St. Clythus Military Academy, all under the identity of their respective schools’ strongest mecha warriors.
Soon, before the National Mecha League began, identical types of posts started appearing on the forums of Gikot, Yuanshan, and St. Clythus:
“Is there a top player from our school secretly smurfing on Mecha Star?”
“Who the hell is ‘I’m So Weak’?!”
“‘I’m So Weak,’ you shameless coward come out and fight if you see this post!”
At different times and across different military academy forums, students from all three schools believed their own institution had spawned a mysterious powerhouse, one with abysmal manners and no morals, provoking fights, winning, and then vanishing without a trace. Utterly despicable!
Most military cadets were hot-blooded young Alphas, and they vented their frustrations in the posts, drawing quite a crowd.
Someone asked in a thread: “Why won’t that guy accept my PK request?”
Another replied: “Probably because your rank isn’t high enough.”
Thus, another crime was added to “I’m So Weak” list, discriminating against lower-ranked players.
Yun Xingze, of course, remained oblivious to all this. After spending a week gathering data on the three powerhouse schools in the group stage, he was utterly exhausted.
But his efforts weren’t in vain. After analyzing the data, he had a clear understanding of their combat capabilities. In one-on-one battles, he wouldn’t be at a disadvantage against any of them.
Three days remained until the National Mecha League.
The match schedule was posted on the NCLM official website.
Starsea Military Academy not only had terrible luck with the draw but also an unfavorable match order. Their first group stage battle was against the strongest team, Gikot Military Academy.
After the schedule was announced, Gikot’s team members held a brief meeting.
Captain Cheng Jun addressed his somewhat dispirited teammates: “We got lucky this time, no matchups against Noah or Vanyun. The other teams in our group are all weaker than us, and our first match is against Starsea. Just treat it as a warm-up and take the easy win.”
Despite his words, none of Gikot’s team members smiled. They seemed preoccupied.
“Even though Starsea is a weak team, Yuanshan and St. Clythus aren’t pushovers,” Cheng Jun said with a frown. “So, don’t get too complacent. Stay sharp, now go train!”
The moment the team disbanded; murmurs broke out.
“I sent ‘I’m So Weak’ a ton of messages yesterday, but he still ignored me.”
“Who the hell is he? Does our school really have someone that strong?”
Hebrew gritted his teeth. “I have to beat him up before the tournament starts—he’s gone too far! Does anyone have a Mecha Star account he hasn’t fought yet? Lend me one.”
Cheng Jun frowned deeply as he listened to his teammates obsess over an in-game opponent. “It’s just a game. Why are you taking it so seriously?”
“Captain, haven’t you heard? There’s a top player in our school,” one teammate said. “The whole campus forum is talking about him, saying he might be the strongest in our academy. Captain, is ‘I’m So Weak’ actually you?”
Cheng Jun disliked being disturbed, so he changed his gaming nickname to “Bad Temper, Don’t Provoke Me” and set his auto-reply to “Noobs, get lost.” Sometimes, if he saw an opponent with a low ranking, he would immediately block them without giving them any chance.
Hearing this, he froze for a moment, recalling that he had once blocked a low-ranked player whose name seemed familiar.
Cheng Jun said coldly, “Focus on training. There are only three days left, stop thinking about games all the time.”
That day, after finishing his training, Yun Xingze suddenly received a PK invitation from “Bad Temper, Don’t Provoke Me” on Mecha Star.
Yun Xingze wondered; had his reputation in Gikot spread so far that it attracted this guy?
Soon, the two engaged in a match. Yun Xingze piloted a lightsaber mech, while Cheng Jun controlled a comet mech.
Fifteen minutes later.
A smile curled at Yun Xingze’s lips as he swiftly blocked the opponent and exited the room.
Cheng Jun stared blankly at the defeat screen, unable to calm down for a long time, his fingers trembling slightly. How could their school have such a hidden expert?!
When he tried to add “I’m So Weak” as a friend, he found himself blocked.
“Damn it!” Cheng Jun slammed his fist against the inner wall of the game pod. “What’s wrong with this guy?!”
Yun Xingze’s ranking soared, and he specifically asked Zhuo Feiyue to keep it a secret. Thus, no one knew that the Starsea Military Academy’s A-minus-level cadet had climbed to eleventh place in Mecha Star’s PK rankings.
Ke Lei hadn’t logged into the game for days. When he finally did, he saw his rank had dropped from eleventh to twelfth, with a player named “I’m So Weak” glaringly sitting above him.
Ke Lei was familiar with the top fifteen players, so this unfamiliar ID piqued his curiosity. Clicking into the profile, he discovered this player piloted every type of mech and had never lost a single solo PK match.
Wanting to reclaim his rank, Ke Lei sent a PK invitation.
The result, naturally…
Was a crushing defeat.
Yun Xingze recognized this as Ke Lei’s account, so he didn’t drag out the fight, swiftly ending the match and securing a spot in the top ten.
However, after defeating Ke Lei, something suddenly clicked in Yun Xingze’s mind.
If Ke Lei was ranked twelfth, and assuming Luo Wenchuan also played this game, then his rank had to be within the top ten.
So, Yun Xingze carefully scanned the list again.
Apart from “L,” none of the other names matched Luo Wenchuan.
Then, “L”…
Yun Xingze’s eyes widened slowly.
Almost instantly, he sent a PK invitation to “L.”
This time, for some unknown reason, “L” accepted the invitation almost immediately.
