The Only Ultimate Alpha in the Universe - Chapter 12

Even though he couldn’t use a mech and had no mental entity, Xiao Sa could still choose a weapon.

The rookie room provided various conventional weapons common on the market, both melee and ranged. However, almost no one was foolish enough to carry a laser rifle and try to go head-to-head against the thick alloy shell of a mech.

Glancing over the dazzling array in the weapon column, Xiao Sa skillfully commanded Hainuo: “Help me pick a weapon that can maximize power.”

[Nano-alloy gauntlets. They have extremely high efficiency in converting mental power into physical strength and offer the highest concentration of power.]

Xiao Sa nodded. Although they were only C-grade, they were barely enough for now.

He clenched his fingers into fists, and a pair of alloy gauntlets instantly appeared on his hands, with a row of sharp, short steel spikes protruding from the knuckles.

Xiao Sa walked to the center of the arena, cracked his knuckles, and lightly tapped his fists together. The alloy gauntlets let out a dull, vibrating thud. He extended a hand toward the dark-red mech opposite him and beckoned with his fingers. “Come here.”

Sitting in the cockpit of the armor, Wenxi saw this provocative gesture and found it both irritating and hilarious. “Where did this idiot come from? He knows he can’t win, yet he still wants to put on a show?”

Using long-range firepower against a guy without a mech felt like bullying. Wenxi thought to himself, Forget it, being too serious with a brand-new rookie will only make me look cheap. He lightly pushed the lever on his right, lowering the output power to about thirty percent.

“This battle will be over in one punch.” Wenxi gripped the control stick confidently. His double-A mental power was like a spiderweb, firmly attached to every neural link port inside the cockpit.

The three-meter-tall dark-red armor stepped out gracefully, its target locked onto the black-clad knight in the middle of the field. It ran, accelerated, and raised its right fist, preparing to blast Xiao Sa away.

To everyone’s surprise, the opponent stood his ground, neither dodging nor flinching.

Passersby in the rookie room audience let out a collective sigh of disappointment.

“Is it over already? I thought the streamer was doing something special. How boring.”

“Did he really just give up because he doesn’t know how to use a mech?”

“Don’t tell me he’s actually a total amateur. I feel like a clown for expecting a good show.”

The chaotic comments in the bullet-chat area did not affect Xiao Sa’s actions at all.

“Is he going easy on me? How slow.”

Xiao Sa watched the oncoming red mech and took a deep breath. He raised his fists, and his right arm pulled back in a wide arc. His materialized mental power manifested as a faint platinum glow, flowing along his arms to the alloy gauntlets and completely enveloping them.

His fists now looked like two glowing spheres of light.

Fist against fist. Human hand against mech.

Xiao Sa stepped back with his right foot, stamped heavily on the floor, twisted his body, and used the momentum. All his power poured into his right fist as he smashed it head-on against the incoming mech hand!

Boom!

A massive shockwave instantly echoed throughout the arena. The bullet-chat area for the entire audience went blank for several seconds.

As the simulated dust settled, Xiao Sa was jolted back three steps. He loosened his fist and shook his numbed hand, a grin of genuine interest appearing on his face. “That was great! Exhilarating!”

At this moment, Wenxi sat in the cockpit with his mouth hanging open. “No way… how is he still standing? Where is the system referee? Why hasn’t it declared me the winner?” He rubbed his eyes hard to confirm he wasn’t hallucinating. Yet, Xiao Sa stood there as calm as ever, even finding the strength to wave him over again. “Come at me again.”

Wenxi’s face flushed with rage. “What kind of freak is this guy?!”

The bullet-chat area was now flooded with “Holy crap!” while the share buttons on viewers’ screens were nearly being pressed to the point of smoking.

“He actually has real skill! I was the clown all along!”

“Brother, you’re so hard… I mean your fists.”

“Even if the system lowered pain sensitivity to zero percent, you shouldn’t be able to tank a mech’s punch like that. Even a comminuted fracture would be an insult to mechs!”

Landis and his group, watching from the Eye of the Future research base, shared the same look of surprise. Duke Lotte’s face twitched. What the hell is going on?

Carlo adjusted his glasses and blinked. “Admiral, is it possible the mech hasn’t been calibrated yet?”

Landis shook his head, his gaze fixed on the screen. “Perhaps the mech is just testing the waters. It’s too early to draw a conclusion.”

Before his voice finished, the red mech launched a second attack. This time, Wenxi didn’t dare be overconfident. He initially wanted to push the lever to one hundred percent power, but hesitated; he felt losing his nerve over one punch would be too embarrassing, so he changed it to seventy percent.

“It must have been because I underestimated him earlier. I won’t give this guy another chance.” He took a deep breath and maneuvered the mech into the air. The jet streams under its feet allowed it to hover for a long time.

The red mech pulled out the pulse gun at its side. Enjoying the absolute advantage of aerial suppression, it began a frantic barrage against Xiao Sa on the ground. The entire arena was shrouded in simulated electronic dust. One could only vaguely see the shadow of the black-clad knight rolling rapidly across the ground, dodging left and right in a desperate scramble.

“It’s over for him. How can a bipedal human fight something flying in the sky? Can a fist reach as far as a long-range pulse gun?”

“The pilot is a bit shameless, but that red armor is so cool. Is it a new model that hasn’t hit the market yet? I’ve never seen it before.”

Seeing Wenxi take complete control of the situation and force the black-clad knight to run for his life, Duke Lotte finally breathed a sigh of relief. A marketing team had already been arranged on the Star Net to record clips and write promotional articles. Once the public’s attention was on this batch of newly developed combat armor, the advertising campaign would follow immediately. Once the market was launched, a surge in the investment group’s stock price was a certainty.

If they successfully gained the favor of the Imperial Military for large-scale procurement, the profits would be enough for a tenfold return on investment. It was just a pity the opponent was too weak to showcase the mech’s true combat power.

Beside him, Landis sat with his arms crossed, watching the red mech show off in mid-air. His brow furrowed slightly as he shook his head. “Nothing but openings.”

As a master who had long operated S-grade mechs, all the red mech’s movements could be quantified into data in his eyes. Although this new batch of armor improved efficiency and attack power, the cost was a reduction in movement speed and the removal of heavy weaponry. Wenxi was trying his best to show off flashy movements that only a double-A grade could perform, but they were of no help in real combat.

Hadn’t they noticed that although the black-clad knight looked heavily suppressed, he was still perfectly alive and kicking?

After dodging a round of heavy attacks, Xiao Sa, who was sprinting across the field, performed a tactical roll. He propped himself up with one hand and crouched in a half-kneeling position in the center of the arena. Wenxi had just finished a series of high-difficulty maneuvers, and his mental power was heavily consumed. Even as a double-A, he was starting to feel the strain. He was panting and covered in sweat, but his state was highly excited.

“How was that? Still not surrendering? I won’t go easy on you next time.”

“I’ve pretty much figured you out…” Xiao Sa narrowed his eyes, concentrating intently on every movement of the red mech: every angle the gun was raised, every firing interval, and every habit of its maneuvers.

“Hainuo, record this for me. Movement speed 40 to 50, peak 57. Pulse gun attack interval 0.5 to 0.8. Inertial deflection to the right, angle 23, flight distance 3…”

A pale blue, semi-transparent visor projection appeared before his eyes—it was the materialized form of the lightning optical brain within the arena. Xiao Sa’s sharp gaze was like a precision instrument. Through naked-eye observation, he completely saw through the various performance parameters of the red mech and the pilot’s true skill level.

As he recited the string of data, the optical brain’s powerful computing capacity presented every detail of the opponent in his visor. Wenxi and the red mech were like open books before him; they had no secrets left.

[Xiao Sa, do you need me to calculate the opponent’s weaknesses for you? This doesn’t count as cheating. ^_^]

“No need.” Xiao Sa casually brushed his bangs back and shook away the sweat. A faint, cold light flowed over the silver mask clamped to his face. Under the mask, his brow lowered slightly, and a smile touched the corners of his lips. His eyes burned with a bright, soaring fighting spirit. “I already know.”

Wenxi, in the mech cockpit, felt victory was within his grasp. He felt he had performed enough. “One final blow to finish you!”

Just as the red mech repeated its previous maneuver of spinning and drawing its gun to fire, Xiao Sa suddenly stamped on the ground with enough force to nearly cave in the arena floor. He leapt high into the air.

His speed reached a new level, so fast that he was almost impossible to track. Wenxi instantly lost his target lock. When he refocused, Xiao Sa was standing with incredible precision on top of the raised gun barrel!

“One punch.”

Xiao Sa’s raised right fist slammed down with the weight of a thousand tons. The force was so violent that both of Wenxi’s arms gripping the control stick went numb. It felt as if the mech’s mechanical arm wasn’t holding a gun, but was being struck by a tank.

Crack! The pulse gun let out a slight snapping sound. The most fragile conduit cracked directly, and it misfired on the spot!

“What?!”

Wenxi was horrified. Before he could react, Xiao Sa pressed his toes against the gun barrel, used the momentum to jump again, and blurred past the mech’s shoulder like a bolt of lightning to land on its back.

“Two punches.”

This time, Xiao Sa’s fist struck heavily and violently against the joint of the mech’s right knee. A deep, heavy thud echoed through the arena. Wenxi felt the right side of the mech give way. It instantly lost its balance and fell into a one-knee position, with its right hand still maintaining the pose of holding a gun.

Joints were a well-known weakness of almost all mechs, but an excellent pilot would never easily allow an enemy to succeed. Clearly, Wenxi was not among them.

The bullet-chat area exploded with a frenzy of comments: “What’s going on? Why is he proposing in the middle of a fight?”

Wenxi’s blood boiled with humiliation. He regained his senses and immediately tried to counterattack. However, to Xiao Sa, who was at full speed, every move Wenxi made was as slow as a snail. Every habitual action was perfectly predicted.

“Three punches.”

Xiao Sa’s gaze was focused and cold, like a heartless machine counting numbers. He smashed his fist down once more, repeating his previous trick and striking the left knee joint. Now, the single-knee proposal had become a full double-knee kowtow.

The bullet-chat area was overjoyed: “Happy New Year everyone! He’s already paying respects!”

Wenxi was now in a state of absolute rage, ashamed and annoyed. He was like a powder keg with a lit fuse. In his fury, he pushed the power output to ten percent, ignoring the red warning signs on the screen about mental instability. He began a frantic attack on Xiao Sa. The lasers from both arms and the micro-particle cannon on the chest were poured out as if energy cost nothing.

Beneath the mech, a massive mutated man-eating flower seemed to burrow out from underground. Several thorned vines as thick as arms flailed in mid-air, desperately trying to envelop Xiao Sa.

“How shameless! He has a mech and he’s still using a mental entity? This is three against one!”

“With this level of operation, a hen could do better if you sprinkled some grain on the console.”

Faced with such a high-intensity attack, Xiao Sa’s situation immediately became precarious. Everyone in the audience broke into a cold sweat for him. They were dying of anxiety—why was this guy still hiding his mental entity? Summon it and fight back!

Yet, there wasn’t a hint of fear on his face. Instead, the more he fought, the more courageous he became. A low laugh escaped from behind the silver mask. “So you can even summon plant-type ‘battle pets.’ Interesting.”

Hainuo’s voice corrected him in time: [Xiao Sa, this is a mental entity. Basically everyone has one. Oh, except for you.]

Xiao Sa: “…” Who asked you! He let out a sneer. Wasn’t it just a form of materialized mental power?

A soft hum, an inaudible ripple, expanded from Xiao Sa at the center, instantly encompassing the entire arena. Whether it was the red mech, Wenxi in the cockpit, or the man-eating flower with its gaping maw on the ground—all fell within the range of his mental domain.

In an instant, Wenxi’s flower seemed to be choked by the neck. The previously flailing vines wilted, as if something incredibly heavy was pressing down on them. Even the flower’s stem was bent under the pressure.

Wenxi felt as if he had been struck by lightning. The mental power network connected to the operation ports felt as if it were stuck in a magnetic field, running with extreme sluggishness. A physical nausea welled up, and he dry-heaved several times. He gritted his teeth and strained his mental power even further, forcing the man-eating flower to spray poisonous juice at Xiao Sa.

However, his mental power had already been over-exhausted during his earlier showing off. The backlash now felt like needles stabbing into his brain, making him clutch his head in pain. His greatest advantage in the mech was his double-A mental control; now that he had lost even that, his childish operational level and physical weaknesses were completely exposed.

Outside the arena, Carlo stared at the holographic projection in shock. “So strong! This is the first time I’ve seen someone suppress a mech using nothing but alloy gauntlets! Even if it’s just a micro-mech, it’s still a mech!”

Landis watched every move of the black-clad knight intently. His hands, previously crossed in a relaxed posture, unconsciously loosened. His right hand habitually rested on the sidearm at his waist, and he even leaned forward slightly. His expression was solemn, and a hint of interest appeared in his eyes. “…Even if it were me in his place, I might not be able to do this much.”

By now, the audience had increased tenfold. Their mindset had shifted from watching a joke to collectively hoping the knight could create the miracle of defeating a mech with his bare body.

Seeing the offensive and defensive roles reverse in such an incredible way, Duke Lotte could no longer sit still. He pulled the base supervisor aside and gave several stern orders. The latter nodded helplessly and ran toward the control room.

On the arena floor, Xiao Sa was aiming for the mech’s knee joints. Just as he was about to successfully disable one of the mechanical legs, the red mech—which had been spiraling out of control—suddenly stood up again. Even its nearly exhausted energy was replenished in an instant. The system referee did not issue any warnings. The audience didn’t know what had happened; the screen was filled with sighs of regret. As expected, only a mech can break a mech’s defense!

[Xiao Sa, the data on the other side is clearly anomalous. It’s strange; the sub-processor port should have noticed it.]

Xiao Sa dodged an attack and asked, “Aren’t you the main brain? Doesn’t the arena fall under your jurisdiction?”

Inside the virtual pod in reality, Hainuo’s projection stood beside Xiao Sa. He shrugged and tilted his chin. [I have countless matters to deal with every day. Special personnel are in charge of these small sub-processor ports. If I don’t actively mobilize resources, the sub-ports won’t report up.]

Xiao Sa’s gaze grew cold as he watched the red mech. “I’m a newbie, and you’re cheating against a newbie? How rude.”

[Little newbie, do you want me to report him for you? I can kick him offline immediately. ^O^]

“Where’s the fun in that?” Xiao Sa licked his dry lips. His rich, aggressive Alpha pheromones swirled actively around him, forcefully pushing away the incoming poison and vines.

Powerful mental power gathered continuously in his fists, a faint gold light flowing from them. Xiao Sa’s athletic figure leaped up, stepping off the mental entity’s stem. He grabbed a thick vine, swung it like a whip to wrap around the red mech’s neck, and stepped onto the vine as if on level ground, finally reaching the back of the mech’s neck.

He tapped his alloy gauntlets together lightly and curled his lips into a smirk full of dark humor. “Newbie Normal Punch.”

Xiao Sa aimed for the power system device at the back of the neck and the cockpit behind it and hammered down with everything he had!

Boom! Boom! Boom boom boom!

Terrifying metal-on-metal impacts echoed through the arena, loud enough to pierce eardrums. In the audience, countless people watched with their jaws dropped as Xiao Sa used his fists to blast apart the mech. The bullet-chat area completely boiled over.

Outside the arena, Landis couldn’t help but take a step forward. His ice-blue eyes were burning with a fighting spirit that could not be suppressed. He felt a faint heat at the back of his neck. He subconsciously unbuttoned his top collar to relieve the dryness caused by his soaring adrenaline. Black Flame instantly appeared by his legs, its tail standing up in excitement.

Within a second, dozens of posts appeared on the Star Net, all with the same title: A dark horse has descended upon the rookie room! Who on earth is this black-clad knight?!

Support The Only Ultimate Alpha in the Universe