After about five or six seconds of silence, Ke Lei finally sensed something was off.
He looked somewhat confusedly at Luo and Yun standing at the doorway, feeling an awkward atmosphere permeating the room.
Did I say something wrong? Ke Lei couldn’t help but wonder.
To break the awkward silence, Ke Lei cleared his throat and attempted humor: “That ‘I’m So Weak’ guy probably got scared. If he knew ‘L’ was Da Chuan, how would he dare accept the PK invite? Right? Haha.”
Yun Xingze: “…”
Yun Xingze glanced subtly at Ke Lei, his eyes flashing with complex emotions.
Ke Lei continued: “Or maybe that guy was cheating and isn’t actually that strong. Da Chuan, why did you send me to test him? Don’t tell me you’re interested in him? Haha.”
Luo Wenchuan: “…”
Ke Lei: “Just kidding, haha. What you actually like is—”
“There seems to be a mouse that ran into your room,” Luo Wenchuan suddenly turned and pointed at Ke Lei’s door. “Maybe you should go check?”
“What?!” Ke Lei hated mice more than anything. He rushed back to his room immediately.
Yun Xingze and Luo Wenchuan exchanged glances.
With Ke Lei present earlier, Luo Wenchuan hadn’t spelled things out.
But their eyes seemed to share an unspoken understanding.
After Ke Lei left, Luo Wenchuan entered Yun Xingze’s room.
Yun Xingze took a step back, and with a soft click, the door closed behind them.
Standing face to face, Yun Xingze couldn’t help but swallow hard.
“Care to explain?” Luo Wenchuan raised an eyebrow, his narrow eyes filled with inquiry.
Yun Xingze racked his brain but couldn’t come up with a response, so he decided to turn the tables: “What about you? What did Ke Lei mean by ‘testing,’ Senior Luo?”
Luo Wenchuan looked calmly at Yun Xingze before speaking after a pause: “My intuition tells me that account called ‘I’m So Weak’ is you.”
Yun Xingze muttered under his breath: “Your intuition is terrifying.”
Luo Wenchuan stared directly into his eyes and asked: “When I asked you before, why did you hide it from me?”
“Well…” Yun Xingze recalled all his questionable behavior in the game and suddenly had an idea. “Actually, I was cheating. It was all the hacks, not me.”
Luo Wenchuan let out an “Oh” before slowly asking: “What kind of hack taunts people?”
After a long silence, Yun Xingze tried to wriggle out of it, but under Luo Wenchuan’s sharp gaze, he finally gave up and admitted defeat: “Fine, it was me. But I definitely didn’t mean any harm.”
Luo Wenchuan waited for him to continue.
“I was just afraid ‘L’ wouldn’t PK with me, and I wasn’t sure ‘L’ was you at the time,” Yun Xingze said earnestly. “You’re not mad, are you?”
“No,” Luo Wenchuan replied succinctly. “Then how did you confirm it later?”
“The next day when I saw how terrible you looked, I knew it was you,” Yun Xingze said.
Luo Wenchuan: “…”
After another pause, Luo Wenchuan asked: “Then why did you run away after the match?”
“I didn’t want you to feel bad,” Yun Xingze said seriously, looking at Luo Wenchuan. “I can’t stand seeing Alphas cry. It was actually my way of caring for you.”
Luo Wenchuan gave a cold laugh: “You sure care about protecting a lot of people. You’ve shown concern for all three opposing school teams in the group matches.”
Yun Xingze pretended not to hear him when called out like this.
Yun Xingze’s habit of winning and immediately leaving had indeed provoked many people, and Luo Wenchuan had been quite angry about it at the time.
But now that the troublemaker stood before him, Luo Wenchuan found all his anger had inexplicably vanished.
Instead, he felt somewhat amused.
Noticing the guilt in Yun Xingze’s eyes, Luo Wenchuan softened his tone and stopped pressing the issue: “Still playing at this late hour?”
Yun Xingze was taken aback. He hadn’t expected Luo Wenchuan to let him off so easily.
He’d thought any employee who provoked their boss would surely get fired.
“Professor Richard said I lack competitive spirit,” Yun Xingze answered truthfully. “So, I wanted to challenge you to see.”
Luo Wenchuan lowered his gaze briefly before asking: “Fighting me… makes you feel competitive?”
Yun Xingze nodded earnestly: “Yes, I really want to defeat you.”
Realizing how that might sound, he scratched his head and added: “I just want to win the match, Senior Luo. Don’t take it personally.”
Luo Wenchuan studied Yun Xingze’s face for a moment before smiling faintly: “No offense taken. Next time you want to spar, just ask me directly.”
Yun Xingze looked at him in surprise before breaking into a smile: “That’s perfect.”
Suddenly remembering something, Yun Xingze asked: “But there’s one thing I don’t quite understand is competitive spirit really that important for us?”
“Of course it is,” Luo Wenchuan answered without hesitation.
Yun Xingze pressed further: “Then to achieve the state of man-machine unity, does one first need strong competitive drive?”
“Correct,” Luo Wenchuan confirmed.
A trace of disappointment flashed in Yun Xingze’s eyes as he frowned slightly: “But winning or losing matches isn’t that important to me.”
Luo Wenchuan looked at him and lowered his voice: “You don’t want to win?”
“I just feel,” Yun Xingze’s voice unconsciously softened as he mused, “that unless my opponent is you, winning doesn’t seem particularly meaningful.”
Luo Wenchuan froze.
Yun Xingze’s words took him completely by surprise.
Yet when he recalled their in-game duels, there had indeed been that rare mutual respect between masters.
He couldn’t help but smile slightly.
Yun Xingze looked up to see Luo Wenchuan smiling and blinked in confusion.
“I’m honored to be considered the sole rival of the infamous ‘I’m So Weak’,” Luo Wenchuan said half-teasingly, half-seriously. “Since you put it that way, I definitely won’t lose to you next time.”
Yun Xingze laughed at this before retorting: “It’s not that infamous, is it?”
After a pause, Luo Wenchuan’s expression turned serious again:
“Still, you need to understand one thing: mechas are weapons born for war, and we are future mecha pilots who wield them. How can soldiers maximize their weapons’ lethality without absolute determination to win?”
Luo Wenchuan rarely spoke at such length.
Yun Xingze remained stunned by his words for a long moment before finally coming back to himself.
Luo Wenchuan’s words hit the nail on the head, pointing out a fact that Yun Xingze had long overlooked.
In his previous life, he had lived inside a medical pod, never experiencing war. Although he was passionate about designing mechas, and mechas had indeed improved human survival rates to some extent, ultimately, they would still be used in warfare.
No soldier fights purely out of love for their weapons.
“Of course, we’re in a competition now,” Luo Wenchuan paused before continuing, “Even if you lack the unwavering conviction of the battlefield, you can still win with sufficient skill.”
Yun Xingze knew Luo Wenchuan was trying to comfort him, so he nodded in acknowledgment.
But from Luo Wenchuan’s gaze, Yun Xingze could tell that he didn’t agree with the notion of “competing purely out of passion.”
Even if it wasn’t actual warfare, the arena for military academy students was essentially a simulation of war.
“As for the state of man-machine unity.” Luo Wenchuan thought for a moment before saying, “I haven’t studied it. But when you truly understand the importance of a match to you, you’ll entrust everything to your mecha. That feeling will make you stronger.”
Yun Xingze took a deep breath, realizing he still had a long way to go.
“Thank you, Senior Da Chuan. I understand now,” Yun Xingze said.
The two had been standing at the door for quite a while, and Luo Wenchuan had said so much to him. Feeling somewhat embarrassed, Yun Xingze hurried to the fridge to get him a drink and invited him to sit for a while.
Luo Wenchuan sat on the leather sofa, his gaze falling on the vase atop the fridge.
After accepting the drink from Yun Xingze, he opened the can with one hand and casually asked, “Who gave you that bouquet?”
Following Luo Wenchuan’s line of sight, Yun Xingze replied:
“Ah, that bouquet was from a spectator. I actually left it in the waiting area of the competition venue, but Oliar brought it back for me. The spectator said they came specifically to watch my match, so I found a vase to put it in.”
“Is that so.” Luo Wenchuan took a sip of his drink, stood up, and walked over to the flowers, his Adam’s apple bobbing slightly. “You shouldn’t just accept flowers from strangers.”
“I had someone check them. They said these are Noah flowers, a specialty of Noah Star,” Yun Xingze said, drinking from his can of cola. “It should be fine, right?”
Luo Wenchuan examined the flowers carefully before confirming, “Yes, they’re just ordinary flowers.”
The faint fragrance of Noah flowers filled the room, creating a refreshing and pleasant atmosphere.
“It’s getting late. Next time you want to PK, remember to come straight to me,” Luo Wenchuan returned to the sofa, bent down slightly, and lightly clinked his drink can against Yun Xingze’s, producing a soft sound. “I’m leaving.”
