Qiao Ting could sense the rage in Zhao Jun's heart, and he knew the reason for it. The incident involving Luo Lang before the start of the tournament ... as long as one had the interest, it was easy to find out about it. What Qiao Ting had not expected was that Zhao Jun would take this slight against a teammate to heart so much after only having joined Lingtian for just a short couple of months. Was this another one of Ling Lan's unknown abilities?

Qiao Ting glanced at Zhao Jun with a troubled gaze, his emotions a rather complicated mess. He could not tell if he was admiring or jealous of Ling Lan ...

Right then, Jiang Shaoyu had already chosen one of the b.a.l.l.s. Holding onto it, he did not look at it any longer than necessary before turning around to walk back to his original position. He had yet to stop walking when the referee had already called up the second person to draw — it was Zhao Jun!

Zhao Jun took a deep breath and stepped forwards. As he brushed by Jiang Shaoyu, he sent a fierce glare at the other. Jiang Shaoyu saw Zhao Jun's hostile gaze and was instantly aggravated. He had not forgotten that this person had been there at the scene when he was at his most humiliated.

A savage air gripped him by the heart, and Jiang Shaoyu could hardly repress the killing intent that surged up in response ... he clenched his fists so tightly that his fingers almost gouged into the flesh, and the sharp pain helped him to calm down.

By then, Zhao Jun had already turned his gaze away. With a cold huff, he walked past Jiang Shaoyu to come before the choosing station and picked a ball. Jiang Shaoyu slowly turned his head to stare at Zhao Jun's back as he walked away and his eyes revealed a brief flash of killing intent.

He hoped that the ball Zhao Jun had chosen would have the same number as the ball he had chosen. He would be extremely glad to fight with the other now, not only because Zhao Jun was the weakest and would ensure him a sure pa.s.s, but also because he wanted to deal with this detestable person and collect some of the interest on his debt of humiliation.

After Zhao Jun had made his choice, the third to pick was Lin Xiao, and the final person was, as everyone expected, Qiao Ting. After the four youths had made their choices, the referee asked them to press down on the power switch of the small b.a.l.l.s at the same time.

As soon as the four boys pressed down, a gash suddenly appeared on the upper part of the ball. A beam of light shot out from each of the b.a.l.l.s to form a virtual screen. The four virtual screens were not blank — they each held a number and the audience could see at a glance what the pairings would be for the semi-final matches.

Amidst the cries of surprise coming from all around, Jiang Shaoyu's expression was dark. He threw a sullen glance at Zhao Jun who was standing in a row with him and mused moodily that the other was pretty lucky to have escaped.

Meanwhile, Zhao Jun was also somewhat regretful that his opponent would not be Jiang Shaoyu. He looked at his opponent for this round and sighed mentally. It looked like if he wanted to fight with Jiang Shaoyu, he could only hope that Jiang Shaoyu would lose. This was because his opponent was an old rival that could not be more familiar to him —— Qiao Ting! He knew very well that he was definitely no match for Qiao Ting.

That's right. In the semi-finals, the First Men's Military Academy was confronted right off with an internal clash, both surviving candidates forced to fight each other.

In contrast to the audience's surprise and regret over it, the spectating Ling Lan felt that this was an extremely reasonable arrangement. Among the four, Zhao Jun's strength was clearly one level lower. No matter who was matched with him, the opponent would almost be guaranteed a win. And now, by pitting the strongest against the weakest, and leaving the two other combatants with roughly equivalent strength to battle things out, no one could complain that they were unlucky ... everything would be determined by true strength — whoever was stronger would be able to progress further.

As the number above Zhao Jun's and Qiao Ting's b.a.l.l.s was the number one, they were of course the first to fight. The four boys went backstage where Qiao Ting and Zhao Jun boarded their mecha before operating their mecha to enter the field.

Qiao Ting's mecha was a long-range attack ace mecha. The Federation public was long accustomed to the various forms of mecha — the moment Qiao Ting's mecha appeared, pa.s.sionate cheers rang out across the hall. Everyone knew that Qiao Ting of the First Men's Military Academy had managed to advance to ace in his fourth year, becoming the second peerless prodigy to do so after General Ling Xiao, but they did not know which mecha Qiao Ting had chosen to master. And now, the answer was finally revealed before the audience. Although Qiao Ting's choice was different from the balanced mecha General Ling Xiao had chosen, this did not hinder the adoration and antic.i.p.ation the people held for him.

Meanwhile, on the other end, Zhao Jun had also operated his mecha onto the field. When he saw all the cheers going to Qiao Ting, he could only grin helplessly. However, it was also at this moment when he understood even better why Ling Lan had chosen not to partic.i.p.ate in the single mecha combat event. A fourth-year ace was already enough to send these people so wild — if the world knew there was another person who had broken General Ling Xiao's advancement record, achieving the level of ace in his second year, the entire Federation, perhaps even the entire human world, would certainly be shaken to its core ...

At this thought, Zhao Jun could not hold back a s.h.i.+ver, his heart clenching with fear. In order to prevent the Federation from gaining an extra ultimate weapon, the enemy nations would definitely send countless a.s.sa.s.sins over to target Ling Lan. And in response, to protect Ling Lan, the Federation would likely have to draft him into the army immediately and put him under protection in hiding. At that time, his team leader would have absolutely no freedom to speak of. Only after he had grown up to become the newest ultimate weapon for the country would he be able to regain his freedom. This was still the best case scenario — if the team leader never managed to advance to G.o.d-cla.s.s operator level for his entire life, did that mean that he would be locked up in some base all his life until he died? This was probably not an outcome his team leader wanted.

Zhao Jun was chilled — he had to keep the knowledge that Ling Lan had already successfully become an ace deep at the bottom of his heart and never ever reveal it ...

After receiving confirmation from both combatants that they were ready, the referee responsible for this match raised the green flag in his right hand up high. As soon as he swung the flag down, the fight would officially begin.

Everyone stared at the green flag of the referee, waiting for it to swing down. When it finally did and Qiao Ting was just about to charge over to attack, Zhao Jun on the opposite side did something beyond everyone's expectations. Without hesitation, he lifted both arms of his mecha over his head ...

Seeing what Zhao Jun had done, the referee's green flag had barely swung down when the red flag in his left hand was hastily raised. The referee waved the red flag vigorously — this announced that Zhao Jun's and Qiao Ting's fight needed to be suspended.

It turned out that Zhao Jun's action was the designated motion in mecha combat tournaments which signified surrender. In a compet.i.tion, if anyone did this action, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the referee would wave a red flag to declare a time-out. Next, an inquiry would be held with the mecha operator who had carried out the action to check if they had truly intended to surrender. If not, the operator who had done the action would have points deducted. This point deduction would be very steep, instantly taking off about one-third of the total marks.

Mecha combat was an event where taking down your opponent was the way to win, but sometimes, due to equivalent levels of strength, the battle might end up in a protracted stalemate. If an outcome had to be decided within a short period of time, there was little choice except to make it a death match and make both combatants put their lives on the line. Although the Grand Mecha Tournament's touted slogan was 'true battle', it was after all just a domestic compet.i.tion. The Federation's military did not intend for outstanding Federation talent to wither and die here, and so they had set up this point deduction system to determine the final outcome in cases such as the one mentioned previously.

Every mecha would have 100 points at the start of a fight. If the opponent scored an effective hit on you, a corresponding number of points will be deducted from your mecha ... the one whose score drops to zero first would lose. The referee would then end the fight and declare the results of the match.

Thus, as soon as Zhao Jun pulled this pose, although the referee was rather taken aback, he had still reacted swiftly to put up the red flag in his left hand. Seeing the red flag signal from the referee, Qiao Ting immediately stopped all motion to attack and waited for the referee to proceed with the following procedures.

The referee quickly connected to Zhao Jun's commlink, and after receiving confirmation from Zhao Jun that he was indeed admitting defeat, the referee immediately announced the end of the match. Zhao Jun had forfeited, so Qiao Ting would be moving on to the finals without having to fight.

After returning backstage, Qiao Ting grumpily controlled his mecha to the secured seat the JMC pointed out. He locked his mecha safely into the seat, and only then did he walk out of his c.o.c.kpit and use the landing cable to descend to the ground.

On the other side, Zhao Jun was doing the same. Qiao Ting removed his safety helmet and stood frowning as he waited for Zhao Jun to approach him. When Zhao Jun finally came up to his side, Qiao Ting asked with a dark expression, "Why didn't you fight?" Even though he had full confidence in himself, winning without a fight rubbed Qiao Ting the wrong way — he felt patronized.

Zhao Jun heard the muted resentment in Qiao Ting's voice and secretly rolled his eyes. Who would have expected the outwardly dominant and unreasonable Qiao Ting to be so just and forthright internally? Even winning without having to fight made him feel uncomfortable ... Zhao Jun could not help but think of his own team leader and his style of only focusing on the results without caring too much about the process. Yep, his boss would probably go further — following him was truly the right choice.

At this moment, Zhao Jun admired his good friend's eye even more for being so discerning in selecting a team leader. Oblivious to the fact that Li Lanfeng had already known Ling Lan from a long while back, Zhao Jun was once again completely fooled by Li Lanfeng, thinking that the other had asked him to join Lingtian purely for his own benefit ... even though that was certainly the truth, it also could not be denied that Li Lanfeng did have some selfish motives as well in doing so. He wanted to increase the strength of his rabbit's battle clan. It just so happened that his arrangement benefitted both sides

Qiao Ting's aggressive gaze let Zhao Jun know that it was impossible not to answer. Helplessly, he replied, "Since I know I can't beat you, why should I reveal my trump cards for others to see?" Zhao Jun shrugged. He looked towards Jiang Shaoyu and Lin Xiao, who were currently heading into the tunnel leading to the field, and continued, "Thing is, I want to keep a small surprise for one of those two. So I don't want to reveal too much."

"Jiang Shaoyu?" Zhao Jun's explanation dispersed Qiao Ting's dissatisfaction. He recalled what Zhao Jun had said to him previously, and was enlightened.

"Yeah. Now, I really wish the First Co-ed Military Academy's Lin Xiao will work a little harder and defeat Jiang Shaoyu so that I'll have a chance to fight him." Zhao Jun's eyes narrowed into slits. He was filled with fighting spirit to face Jiang Shaoyu. Perhaps he too wanted to tell his teammates that he was already one of them, so he could not bear to see a teammate of his being insulted ...

Just then, the communicator on Zhao Jun's wrist began vibrating violently. He lifted it to see and instantly began chuckling. It was a message from Li Lanfeng.

"Did something come up?" asked Qiao Ting.

"Yes. The regiment commander is looking for me. Qiao Ting, I'll be heading off first." Outside, Zhao Jun had always called Ling Lan 'regiment commander'.