Lin Xiaohe focused all her attention on controlling the mecha.
After discarding all the cumbersome structures, she felt this light armor had become much more agile, almost as if it were merging with her own body.
Not having to worry about physical limits, just running with the wind—this feeling was absolutely amazing.
The Flamebird seemed like a completely different mecha as it charged forward.
Every leap, every change of direction was incredibly sensitive and smooth, like a master performing parkour. It was as if it had become a living person, not just a hunk of steel.
“This… was Lin Xiaohe holding back earlier?” Outside the exam hall, people’s attention was gradually being drawn to Lin Xiaohe without them even realizing it.
The garishly colored Flamebird was using the battlefield as its stage, performing an art form of rapid assault.
Lin Xiaohe’s mind and body were immersed in the mecha.
The Five-Star Matrix allowed her to share her field of view with her Xinbaos.
It felt as if her perspective had floated up to a spaceship in space, observing the planet from above.
She could see everything clearly, from the grand mountains, rivers, and seas down to the smallest enemy combat units.
Pushing her speed to the limit, the mecha tore through the jungle and mountains like a moving rainbow, leaving mountain ranges and rivers far behind.
“What in the black hole! How is she avoiding every single Imperial patrol?”
This absolutely couldn’t be luck; it had to be skill.
People watching on the Star Net gasped simultaneously. They were all staring blankly at that dazzling rainbow, which completely overturned their impression of Lin Xiaohe.
That level of control, merging with the mecha, required top-tier mental strength and excellent physical constitution.
Lin Xiaohe definitely wasn’t the poor student her academic file made her out to be, with supposedly low mental strength and physical fitness.
Edwin asked Melina, “What is she trying to do? How does she plan to sneak into the capital city? She’s not going to try and blast her way in, is she? Haha, she… she wouldn’t, right?”
Edwin sounded very uncertain asking that last question.
Good grief, he couldn’t understand what was going through young people’s heads these days. It was only a 30-year age gap—was the generation gap really that huge?
Melina’s mouth twitched, and she said awkwardly, “I have no idea either. You know, I’m only ten years younger than you.”
Give an 18-year-old a mecha, and they’d dare to blast a hole through a planet.
Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Lin Xiaohe crossed mountains and rivers, putting into practice a simple truth: the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.
Her target was the capital city!
“Look out!” The audience noticed a squad of Imperial soldiers appearing one kilometer ahead of the mecha.
At Lin Xiaohe’s speed, they would meet very soon.
Everyone couldn’t help but worry for Lin Xiaohe.
To achieve that incredible speed, she had stripped the mecha of all its weapons and defensive gear.
If the Imperial soldiers spotted her, Lin Xiaohe would be in danger.
Melina’s palms were sweating. Every leap Lin Xiaohe made seemed to carry Melina’s heartbeat with it, making it hard to breathe.
Then she suddenly remembered—Lin Xiaohe had removed the radar too! Lin Xiaohe probably hadn’t even noticed the Imperial soldiers were there!
Oh my black hole, please protect Lin Xiaohe.
Just a minute or two later, they met.
Lin Xiaohe raised her hands. Two beams of green light shot from the mecha’s arms.
The green pellets easily pierced the Imperial soldiers’ armor, reaping their lives like the scythe of Death.
The entire fight didn’t even take half a minute, and it didn’t slow Lin Xiaohe down at all.
An uproar erupted on the Star Net.
“This has to be a bug!”
“I’m one of the Flamebird‘s designers. I swear, Lin Xiaohe definitely dismantled every single weapon!”
“Her every move was under our observation. I swear on my military rank, Lin Xiaohe wasn’t carrying any weapons!”
The education departments of the First, Second, and Third Star Rings all sent inquiries to Nuwa, demanding a verification of whether Lin Xiaohe’s Star Net data had shown any anomalies.
[Nuwa: Verification in progress… Verification complete. No anomalies detected in Lin Xiaohe’s Star Net data.]
“That’s impossible!”
Nuwa’s investigation results were staggering.
The people on the Star Net were in an uproar over Lin Xiaohe’s exceptional performance.
Lin Xiaohe, however, paid no mind to all the noise. She was about to reach the capital city.
The capital’s defenses were much tighter than the outskirts. The Empire had deployed five divisions, completely surrounding the capital.
Fighter jets patrolled the skies above the capital planet 24 hours a day.
On the ground, a total of eight giant radar stations constantly monitored the surroundings.
Thanks to her Xinbaos’ skills, Lin Xiaohe’s mecha had remained undetected for now.
Lin Xiaohe took a deep breath, cursing the exam proctor in her mind. Since they’d left her a mecha, why couldn’t they have left the activation key too?
Since she couldn’t store the mecha away, she’d have to force her way through.
Lin Xiaohe piloted the mecha, sometimes moving like a nimble cat, using tall buildings to evade Imperial patrols, and sometimes like a sneaky thief, skulking only through the shadows.
But she didn’t dare go any further when she was ten kilometers from the Presidential Palace.
Imperial patrols were posted every few dozen meters, and roadblocks were set up starting two kilometers from the Palace.
A gunship hovered directly above the Presidential Palace, its dark launch ports aimed straight at it.
It was obvious: if anyone tried to forcefully rescue President Johnson, the Empire wouldn’t hesitate to fire and send Johnson to the afterlife.
A captured president was a valuable president.
Such tight defenses not only left the examinees feeling helpless but also made the audience tear their hair out.
Cassian rubbed his messy hair and smiled bitterly. “Nuwa is treating these examinees like they’re Imperial soldiers being put through the wringer.”
The Command Academy’s president nodded. “The defense wasn’t this tight during the Battle of Serfa Star. Nuwa has learned from that battle and plugged the holes.”
He assigned his Command Academy students a task: How to Rescue President Johnson.
The Command Academy students brainstormed and finally came up with a plan with a success rate of less than 30%.
The plan was for Gabriel to split his forces. One group would rescue the over 700 captured examinees, creating a diversion to draw the attention of the Imperial defenders.
The other group would then launch a direct assault.
If the defenders near the Presidential Palace could be drawn away, the success rate would increase by 5 percentage points.
As for Lin Xiaohe, the probability of a solo soldier rescuing the President was zero. Her best option was to join Gabriel’s team.
The Command Academy president nodded in agreement with this plan.
Everyone else also felt this was an incredibly difficult mission to accomplish.
First-grade Chief of Staff Edwin frowned. “Isn’t the exam a bit too difficult? Based on the current situation, there’s a 90% chance of failure.”
Levin, a Third-Grade Chief of Staff from the Third Star Ring, looked puzzled. “Who exactly made the exam so hard? Nuwa wouldn’t set a goal that’s impossible to achieve.”
So, who was the hidden expert among the examinees? Gabriel? Yue? Or some examinee from the Second Star Ring?
Melina spoke up. “Why can’t it be Lin Xiaohe?”
Uh…
Although her performance earlier was impressive, overall, it didn’t seem enough to make Nuwa raise the difficulty to this level just because of her.
Everyone turned their attention back to Lin Xiaohe, and their eyes immediately went wide as saucers.
What on earth was Lin Xiaohe doing?!
