The Only Ultimate Alpha in the Universe - Chapter 13

Xiao Sa smashed his fists down one after another, his movements incredibly swift. After a dozen strikes, the red mech’s power system began to flash rapidly with a red warning light.

Inside the mech, Wenxi felt the entire cockpit vibrating violently, as if a huge hole could be punched through at any moment. The thick alloy steel plates now seemed so fragile that they offered him no sense of security.

His man-eating flower, ignoring his near-limit mental power, surged wildly toward Xiao Sa. Its blood-red petals opened fully, like a gaping mouth dripping with gore, wanting to swallow Xiao Sa in a single bite.

The aggressive pheromones surrounding Xiao Sa were invisible and colorless, and though no one could see them, they were very real.

Just as it seemed his figure would disappear into the flower’s mouth, the central stamen, flickering like a snake’s tongue, made contact with his pheromones. Like a mouse seeing a cat, it froze in mid-air as if struck by immense terror.

One last punch!

The power system was officially declared paralyzed, and even the emergency exit door was pounded out of shape. The red mech fell face-forward in despair. The word “VICTORY” appeared in large letters beside Xiao Sa, signaling the final winner of this battle.

The audience’s bullet-chat area immediately erupted in a carnival:

“Witness the moment of a miracle! What are you standing there for? Take a screenshot!”

“My mom asked me why I’m watching a live stream on my knees.”

“What? You can’t send gifts in the rookie zone?”

Normally, the number of spectators in a rookie room rarely exceeds ten people. After this duel, as the audience shared and forwarded the link, the number of people entering the room skyrocketed, quickly breaking through 100,000. Within the few minutes it took for Xiao Sa to defeat the red mech, it doubled again several times over.

On the front page of the Star Net’s Arena Forum, every thread was suddenly about the black-clad knight, Alpha.

It wasn’t until Xiao Sa received his points for the first victory and the system automatically opened his personal column and ranking that everyone discovered Xiao Sa was actually a C-grade!

“Don’t lie to me just because I’m uneducated. A C-grade can tank a mech head-on? This is total hype; it’s clearly because that pilot was a total noob!”

“To the person above, didn’t you notice that Alpha didn’t win by brute force? No feelings, just pure skill! He’s so young yet totally blind to the truth; how pitiful.”

“Frame-by-frame analysis of the black-clad knight Alpha’s combat techniques. Pay for access; I’m not selling movies.”

Wenxi sat dazed in the cockpit for a long time. His face was pale, and he completely failed to understand how a match that should have been a landslide victory could turn into this. He didn’t dare imagine how Landis or his father would look at him. Would they see him as a pathetic, failing clown?

In reality, Landis didn’t give a damn about Wenxi’s insecurities.

He casually patted Black Flame’s furry head and looked at the red mech in the testing field with some disappointment, calmly delivering his final conclusion:

“The mental power conversion rate of this new batch of armor is indeed high. Even someone without rigorous military training can easily master it with high-grade mental power. However,” the turning point in his speech made Duke Lotte’s eyelids twitch. To be precise, ever since Wenxi was pummeled by that mysterious dark horse Alpha, the smile on the Duke’s face had remained frozen.

Landis continued his ruthless evaluation: “It was achieved at the cost of sacrificing speed, part of the firepower, and defensive capabilities. For the military, it’s basically a useless ornament. If released to the civilian market, it might make for a decent performance prop.”

Hearing these words, which bordered on mockery, the corner of Duke Lotte’s stiff mouth twitched.

The Third Prince smiled to smooth things over. “Admiral Landis still knows how to joke.”

Landis said coldly, “I am not joking. Our Third Legion faces off against xenomorphs on the front lines year-round. I have to be responsible for my soldiers. Combat is not a game, and I will not equip my soldiers with toys.”

The adjutant, Carlo, smiled bitterly. His commander was still as blunt as ever, even after thirty years. He then thought to himself that perhaps it was precisely because the commander was so sharp-tongued that he had been able to maintain a neutral position in the Empire’s complex political environment for so many years.

Carlo silently gave his commander a thumbs-up. Brilliant!

Elsewhere, Wenxi stared miserably at the large “DEFEATED” on his newly registered account’s record. He wanted to cry, especially when he discovered that the opponent who had crushed him was merely a C-grade. His emotions completely collapsed.

“Impossible! How can a mere C-grade beat me? Cheating… this guy must have cheated!”

Wenxi found a logical reason for himself and immediately became convinced. “Where is the system referee? Where is the rookie zone administrator? I want to report this guy for hacking!”

His fierce words soon caused a massive uproar in the bullet-chats and discussion threads:

“Holy crap, hacking in the rookie zone? Are the system referee and administrators eating dirt?”

“Haha, I said it was impossible for a C-grade to tank a mech. Only some uneducated kids would hype it up. What ‘Cyber-Godfather’? What ‘skill’? He’s just a hacker king!”

“Why do I feel like the red mech pilot just had a total mental breakdown? And didn’t the red mech’s knee joints get deformed from the beating earlier? How did it stand back up like nothing happened?”

In the arena, once a controversial report appeared, neither side could leave the room normally. They had to wait for the system to give a verdict.

Xiao Sa looked at Wenxi, who was being self-righteous on the opposite side, and blinked slowly. “What’s wrong with this person? He’s the villain, yet he sues first?”

Hainuo folded his arms and rubbed the stubble on his chin: “Well, look, he was the one who proposed a data screening. It’s only reasonable for me to mobilize resources to give him a little help, right?”

Xiao Sa raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you say the arena was handled by sub-processors?”

Hainuo smiled proudly. “My authority is higher.”

Speaking of which, Xiao Sa realized he had been ignoring a question. If everyone’s intelligent optical brain was served by a sub-port extended from the central main brain Hainuo, why did his own always talk in a tone like he was the boss? He hadn’t downloaded any weird personality resource packs either.

Xiao Sa touched his lightning earring suspiciously. The possibility he was thinking of was a bit outrageous. He wasn’t sure, so he decided to keep observing.

Inside the Eye of the Future research base, the laboratory supervisor panicked when he saw Wenxi publicly accusing Xiao Sa of cheating and demanding an investigation. He immediately scrambled to delete the recent history logs, attempting to use his lab’s testing authority to forcibly modify the mech’s parameters.

However, with Hainuo’s active intervention and the mobilization of massive resources, the data screening and calculation were finished in an instant. In less than a minute, a verdict was given:

[After data comparison, Player 047 Alpha’s behavior in the rookie room is normal. Player 048 Wenxi’s data is abnormal, with multiple instances of data port modification. Player 048 Wenxi is determined to have falsified data and interfered with the fairness of the competition. Penalty: Revocation of eligibility to participate in the Ladder Arena.]

[Sub-processor port audit anomaly found. Data transmission management authority for the corresponding port is revoked.]

Seeing the red ban warning suddenly appear on the lab’s large screen, the supervisor’s face turned deathly pale. He was banned? And right when the new mech was about to be launched on the market with a planned marketing campaign on Star Net and the arena. What was even more unbelievable was that this punishment was sent directly by the central main brain. The supervisor felt the world go dark, and he didn’t even dare think about the look on Duke Lotte’s face.

Once the system verdict was announced, the audience was in an uproar:

“Huh? Wait, this plot is moving a bit fast. Alpha didn’t hack, but the mech did?”

“No way! The red mech couldn’t even beat a C-grade while hacking? It seems the quality of this mech is worrying.”

“A high-end joke only needs a simple plot twist. Where is that person who was laughing at him for being a hacker king? Come out and take a walk!”

The audience was thoroughly amused by this announcement, and the Star Net forums were filled with laughter. In stark contrast, Wenxi, the pilot, was in a state of universal-level social death. He climbed out of the cockpit in a daze and returned to Duke Lotte’s side, trembling. However, his father didn’t utter a single word of the expected scolding. Instead, he gently patted his head.

“It’s okay, Wenxi. It was just a test. Are you getting along well with your other brothers on Central Star? I’m sorry it took so long to bring you and your mother from the lower-tier planet. Don’t lose heart; the road ahead is long.”

Duke Lotte chuckled meaningfully, appearing not to be angry at all.

The Third Prince nodded in approval with an elegant noble tone. “Duke Lotte is truly a tolerant and good father.”

But Wenxi understood the underlying meaning behind his father’s words. A bone-chilling coldness surged up his spine, and his face turned ghostly pale. Yes, his father had many talented sons; he didn’t lack one like him. He could lift him to the heavens, but now that he had ruined everything, he could be discarded at any time.

After leaving the Eye of the Future research base, Landis sat in the back of a military aircraft. His posture remained as upright as ever, but a persistent weariness hung between his brows.

Carlo, who was driving, looked at Landis’s face in the rearview mirror and asked with concern, “Admiral, was your date request approved?”

Landis pursed his lips and silently opened his optical brain. To his disappointment, the matchmaking date request he had sent to Xiao Sa still hadn’t been approved.

“No,” Landis sighed inwardly. When he sent the request, he had specifically noted that he was an Imperial soldier; he didn’t want to hide that fact on purpose. Although it was a 100 percent match, the other party’s grade was too low and they were mentally disabled; it was perfectly normal for them to be unable to bear the risk of bonding with a soldier.

Carlo guessed as much from his expression. Having been colleagues for many years, he knew all too well what kind of person his superior was. To put it nicely, he was upright and steady; to put it bluntly, he was thick-headed and stubborn.

“Admiral, why don’t you send him a gift? The more expensive, the better! Maybe then they’ll agree.”

Landis frowned. “What kind of gift?”

Carlo slapped his forehead. “You don’t even know that you can send gifts with a date request? You buy it directly in the virtual store and send it over. Once the other party receives it, they can redeem it offline at any time.”

Landis fell silent. He really didn’t know, as he had never proactively sent an application to anyone before.

“Quick, pick something precious to send. Do you really want to stay single for the rest of your life, or would you rather go back and agree to a blind date with that Lotte kid?”

“Of course not,” Landis immediately retorted. Even though he didn’t know what kind of person this 100 percent match was, Wenxi Lotte was clearly terrible. Nothing was more loathsome than a petty person who took shortcuts.

He rested his forehead on one hand and looked out the window. The glass clearly reflected his sharp, cold eyes, filled with disdain. “The pampered children of great noble families often have no real strength yet love to use every means to gild themselves in the Ladder Arena. They take away opportunities from others, causing true geniuses from the bottom to be buried. How unjust.”

Carlo sighed. He knew that Admiral Landis’s father was a hero who had climbed from being a commoner to the position of general through military merit, only to die in the war against xenomorphs years ago.

His persistent advice finally worked. Landis browsed the optical brain for a long time and finally selected the gift he considered most precious to send to his match.

Carlo asked curiously, “Admiral, what gift did you send?”

Landis raised his chin confidently. “The jewelry and diamonds in the store are not worth mentioning. Following your advice, the more precious the better, so I sent a copy of my personal combat notes regarding the use of mental power as a gift.”

“What?!” Carlo nearly collapsed. “You sent mental power combat notes to a C-grade disabled person? Admiral, couldn’t you send some of the luxury items people usually send on dates? A designer bag, diamond jewelry, or even just some roses!”

Heavens, will anyone in this life truly be willing to marry the Admiral?

Landis’s ice-blue eyes swept across the rearview mirror with displeasure. “What’s wrong? More exercise and consumption help mental power grow. Many studies have confirmed this.”

“That’s not the point!” Carlo said, beyond frustrated, shaking his head. “Admiral, you are going on a blind date, not mentoring a soldier.”

Landis: “…”

Before he could speak, the optical brain in his hand vibrated again, and an important notification popped up:

[The online matchmaking date request you sent has been approved. The other party has scheduled the time for tomorrow at 3:00 PM. You can choose to agree or send a modification request.]

Landis froze for a rare moment, then held up the optical brain and said expressionlessly, “The other party agreed.”

Carlo: “??? What the hell!”

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