Chapter 1 The Impact

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Pale white shockwaves erupted on the arena, leveling the surrounding rocks and trees.

Lin Kun’s figure flew out like a leaf in a hurricane, uncontrollably crashing into the audience seating’s protective barrier with a deafening bang, eliciting a chorus of gasps.

On the arena, Li Xiaoyin retracted her fist, casually dusting off her hands. She glanced at the unconscious Lin Kun, who resembled a pancake plastered against the wall as he slowly slid down, scratched her head, and returned to her teammates, who showered her with adulation.

"Too brutal…"

Zhou Jing watched from the audience, his eyelids twitching.

This was the third Gemology Department contestant to be defeated by Li Xiaoyin. None of them could walk off the stage themselves; they were all knocked out on the spot and carted away by the medical staff.

Li Xiaoyin had gone on stage three times, barely moving from her spot. The combined time it took her to defeat the three opponents didn't exceed three minutes.

She started with a wide-range shockwave, and those who couldn't withstand it were immediately eliminated, unable to even get close.

Only Lin Kun had gritted his teeth, desperately enduring two shockwaves despite the damage, finally managing to reach Li Xiaoyin and throw a single punch.

However, Li Xiaoyin had easily evaded the attack with an astonishingly fast ducking motion, while simultaneously delivering a counter-attack to Lin Kun's abdomen with a fist concentrated with impact.

The result was the scene just witnessed: Kun Kun had taken a concentrated close-range punch, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets, before soaring upwards once more, unsurprisingly passing out – essentially a repeat of their previous sparring session.

Three appearances, and Li Xiaoyin left the ten thousand-plus students with only one impression…

Overbearing!

Terrifying ability power, tyrannical force overwhelming everything. No matter how her opponents tried to respond, they were all summarily blasted off the stage.

They were crushed without a chance to use any skills, making it difficult to muster the courage to oppose her.

No complex techniques, no flashy moves…

Only extreme violence!

This was a level of strength completely beyond that of a freshman!

Whoosh – only the Zhanqi students were cheering wildly in the audience.

The Crown and Gem areas were deathly silent.

Li Xiaoyin's overwhelming performance had robbed the students of these two departments of their confidence.

Zhang Xiao stared blankly, trembling. "Jing-ge, do you have a chance to beat Sister Yin?"

"Do you have a chance to beat me?"

Zhou Jing retorted, annoyed, his face helpless.

Li Xiaoyin's three one-hit-kill performances had filled him with dread.

Compared to when they had first enrolled a month ago, Li Xiaoyin's shockwave power had significantly increased. She was exceptionally talented and improving rapidly.

Furthermore, Zhou Jing could see that Li Xiaoyin's seemingly crude, wide-range ability release had actually incorporated the techniques learned in the ability development courses. Her control over the power was more refined; she was no longer just randomly firing it off.

He remembered that not long ago, Li Xiaoyin had said in their group chat that she was trying to compress the shockwave's power to reduce energy loss.

In the final blow that had eliminated Lin Kun, Zhou Jing had vaguely seen the results of her training. Li Xiaoyin had successfully condensed the shockwave into a close-range attack, increasing its lethality by leaps and bounds. This had qualitatively changed her combat power.

In addition to a surge in attack power, Li Xiaoyin could also use compressed shockwaves for sudden bursts of acceleration, with astonishing explosive speed… Zhou Jing had seen it when she dodged Lin Kun's punch. Li Xiaoyin had already initially mastered this technique.

An SS-rank ability had too much potential for development, with too much room for application. There was no need to rush to increase its strength. As long as she developed new ways to use it, Li Xiaoyin's combat power would change every day, growing significantly in all aspects.

"Terribly strong…" Zhou Jing couldn't help but rub his temples.

Such an opponent was simply overwhelming. He wasn't sure how long he could last against Li Xiaoyin; he lacked the confidence to fight and win.

The arena competition had only reached the third round, and Zhanqi had almost swept Gemology. All the S-rank cores were wiped out, leaving only a group of trembling ordinary contestants, whom Zhanqi was using as fodder to farm points.

In terms of round control, Zhanqi was better than Crown, able to ensure that more ordinary opponents advanced to the next round to gain points.

Because of the rule against passively competing, Gemology couldn't intentionally throw the match, so the remaining matches were foregone conclusions. It was just a matter of how many points Zhanqi could farm off them.

This was the result of core combat power holding an absolute advantage. It wasn't just Li Xiaoyin overwhelming everyone; Zhanqi had another S-rank core who had also swept Gemology's S-ranks.

Zhou Jing couldn't help but turn his gaze to a tall, thin man with black-rimmed glasses in the Zhanqi team.

"Lei Wanjun, a psychic ability user who also cultivates in the Mystic Arts system. It is said that he has astonishing aptitude for spells… He also had an overwhelming performance against Gemology's S-rank, eliminating all of their scoring opportunities along with Li Xiaoyin."

Zhou Jing's expression was grave.

With two overwhelming-level core combatants… the Zhanqi Department's advantage was too great.

…

Unsurprisingly, the following matches were one-sided. In the end, the result of the arena competition was a complete碾压 (niǎn yā - overwhelm) by Zhanqi.

After the team competition, Zhanqi accumulated a total score of 75 points, while Gemology had 61 points.

Because of the competition system, if one side wanted to farm points, the other side's score wouldn't be too low either. Only the point difference could represent the degree of advantage, and Zhanqi's advantage was clearly enormous.

Of the three departments, Gemology had already finished two matches, accumulating a total score of 116 points. They had finished their freshman competition schedule, leaving only the final match between Zhanqi and Crown.

Crown currently had 66 points, 9 points behind Zhanqi.

This meant that to win the championship, Crown's score in the next match had to be above 50 and surpass Zhanqi's by 9 points. Zhanqi only needed to win against Crown steadily and ensure that their score in this match was above 41 points.

The gap was vast.

That evening, the Crown team held a pre-battle meeting and unanimously agreed that their chances of winning the championship were slim.

Deng Yunjie watched the recordings of the match and shook his head helplessly:

"If we can't solve Li Xiaoyin, we definitely won't be able to widen the gap in the arena competition. Even if we can solve all her teammates, she will definitely stand in the fifth round, conservatively taking 15 points for Zhanqi… unless one of you can defeat her."

As soon as the words fell, everyone looked at each other.

There was a moment of silence in the room, and then Tang Liu suddenly raised his hand and said loudly:

"Just leave it to me, I will use my extreme speed to push her off the stage!"

"You can't beat her." Deng Yunjie waved his hand and refused.

Tang Liu was indignant: "Who said that? No matter how strong her attack is, I can dodge it. As long as I find an opportunity, I can win!"

"Then we'll see how it goes."

Deng Yunjie perfunctorily dismissed him and turned to look at Zhou Jing, asking in a deep voice:

"I know that yesterday's victory over four S-rank cores wasn't even your limit. Are you confident that you can defeat Li Xiaoyin?"

Everyone also looked at him, even Tang Liu stopped making noise, filled with curiosity and unwillingness.

Zhou Jing pondered for a while, then shook his head helplessly: "I'm not lying to you, everyone. I really don't have confidence. Li Xiaoyin's strength is far beyond our level."

Although they knew this would be the answer, everyone's mood couldn't help but sink.

After yesterday's battle, Zhou Jing had been regarded by everyone as the arena competition's trump card. If even he had no confidence, then there was really no way to win the arena competition.

Tang Liu scratched his head and couldn't help but ask: "Isn't everyone outside saying that you and Li Xiaoyin are good friends? Can't you ask her to go easy on you?"

Hearing this, Zhou Jing's expression became stern:

"That's impossible! First of all, Xiaoyin wouldn't do that. Even if she wanted to, I wouldn't ask her. Even if we're friends, we have to rely on our own abilities on the field. If we can't beat her, then we can't beat her. There's nothing embarrassing about losing. I won't play these off-the-field tricks."

"I was just making a suggestion, why are you so serious…"

Tang Liu muttered.

At this time, Li Yun knocked on the table and said seriously:

"Zhou Jing is right. The meaning of the academy holding these competitions is to build a stage for everyone to actively compete. The victory or defeat of the departments is not that important. What is truly important is that students grow and have the opportunity to perform in the competition. We must not cheat for the honor of the department. This violates the academy's original intention of establishing departmental competition and puts the cart before the horse.

"For example, we can just slack off tomorrow and let Zhanqi farm points off of us. Our scores will increase accordingly, and our total score will easily exceed 50, surpassing Gemology to become the second place… but we will never do that! Even if we want second place, it must be something that we strive for through hard work. We can't get high scores by slacking off. Even if it's hard work, and we might even lose the second-place position, we won't hesitate. This is the spirit that departmental competition wants."

Everyone's spirits were lifted, and they nodded, their low morale boosted.

Losing the game is nothing to fear. Just do your best. The academy has a two-year curriculum, and everyone will grow up in the future. There will be more opportunities for competition. This is one moment, and that is another.

But losing the game and losing face would be too embarrassing.

Zhou Jing nodded secretly; he had had this concern just now.

If the Crown Department chose to slack off tomorrow in order to stabilize its victory, without even the courage to fight, then he would really have to consider transferring to another department.

This was a right that all freshmen had, and it was originally a two-way choice.

But he quite liked Crown's attitude now.

Staying in this department and being an opponent with Li Xiaoyin seemed like a good idea…

Although he and Xiaoyin were best friends, and she would definitely be willing to protect him, if he forced himself to stay by her side, even if he could latch onto her, he would be overshadowed by her brilliance.

The Crown Department had no big shots to rely on, so he would just be one himself. Even if he couldn't succeed in everything on his own, it would be a beneficial experience.

'I won't join the winning side this time.'

Zhou Jing let out a breath, looked around at his teammates, and made up his mind.

He tapped the table, attracting everyone's attention, and Zhou Jing said in a deep voice:

"I'm not sure about Li Xiaoyin, but I'll leave that Lei Wanjun to me. I can give it a try."

"Good!"

Deng Yunjie gave a thumbs up.

That person was also Zhanqi's trump card. Although he wasn't as strong as Li Xiaoyin, he was also an overwhelming combatant. It would be very difficult to deal with him. He didn't know if Zhou Jing could really beat him.

If he lost, then Crown would have no overwhelming combat power to steadily beat the other S-rank cores.

Now that Zhou Jing had taken the initiative to invite the battle, he was happy to see it happen.

At this time, someone said faintly:

"Then I, the first special selection, will also set an example. If you don't send me to face Li Xiaoyin and really want to fight her, then let me go."

Everyone looked over at once, with different expressions.

The speaker was named Ding Qiu. He was Crown Department's first special selection freshman and an S-rank core in the arena competition. He had an energy release ability and could control explosive power, which was also extremely lethal.

To some extent, his destructive power wasn't much lower than Li Xiaoyin's.

But his biggest weakness was that he couldn't completely negate explosions, which led to a too obvious shortcoming.

At this time, Ding Qiu had a face of tragic determination, and under everyone's gaze, he said in a deep voice:

"I will attack Li Xiaoyin head-on, using my explosions to counter her shockwaves, recklessly injuring her. Because my weakness is obvious, she will most likely give up long-range attacks and come close to me, which will be my chance – I will detonate at close range, causing both of us to be injured, so that she can't participate in subsequent competitions!"

"Too risky…" Li Yun was about to sternly refuse.

But Ding Qiu raised his hand in advance, stopping him from speaking, his expression firm:

"There are protective arrays on the arena, so my injuries will be limited, and there are academy's healing instructors, so neither Li Xiaoyin nor I will have any sequelae… This is the best way to defeat her. No one can eliminate Li Xiaoyin without paying a price…"

"Let's put this plan on hold and see what happens tomorrow."

Deng Yunjie stopped this topic in time and interrupted the argument.

Seeing this, Zhou Jing swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue and shook his head without speaking.

At this time, his phone suddenly lit up and received a text message.

Zhou Jing picked it up and saw that it was a message from Li Xiaoyin:

[See you on the field tomorrow. I won't show any mercy!]

Zhou Jing smirked and sent a text message back:

[Me neither]

…

On the last day of the freshman competition, the Rising Sun Training Ground was packed, and the Crown and Zhanqi students cheered loudly.

The two teams arrived in their respective waiting areas and discussed their strategies.

The VIP area was filled with viewing guests, more than the previous two days, with many new faces coming for Li Xiaoyin of the Zhanqi team.

"This little girl's ability is really not ordinary violence. Our military needs such talents."

The military representative who came this time was a senior staff officer, and he made no secret of his optimism about Li Xiaoyin.

The Superpower Bureau cadre chuckled: "Our Superpower Bureau also needs such talents to be in charge. We have more experience in training superpower users. If she accepts our training, she may become a Level 6 superpower user, and even Level 7 is not impossible to imagine in the future."

"This kind of superpower user with distinctive characteristics should come to the Superpower League. Her playing style is especially popular, and she also has good physical conditions. We can completely make her popular, and even become a cosmic-level popular player who participates in inter-planetary and inter-star region events!" A Superpower League scout rubbed his hands, his face full of excitement.

People from multiple organizations expressed their optimism about Li Xiaoyin and wanted to reserve her, extending olive branches.

Only the Exploration Bureau cadre remained indifferent, looking at Zhou Jing instead.

Because of the nature of their work, ability users with a less strong style like Zhou Jing were more needed by the Exploration Bureau.

Time passed minute by minute, and in the noise, the match finally officially began.

Everyone thought that today's arena competition would be the same as the previous two days, with ordinary players sent up first to test each other.

However, to everyone's surprise, Li Xiaoyin was the first to take the stage, as Zhanqi's first starter, opening the prelude to the arena competition.

Zhanqi directly put up its trump card.

No cover, no strategy, this was unparalleled confidence!

Under the gaze of the crowd, Li Xiaoyin hooked her fingers at the surprised Crown team, smiling casually, but exuding strong confidence:

"Who wants to be the first to be eliminated?"

The same words had different effects when spoken by different people.

When Tang Liu said this, everyone just heard it as a joke.

When Li Xiaoyin said this… no one present thought it was boasting.