Two boys—no, young men—stepped forward. They were Zhan Jun's upperclassmen. Too proud to gang up on someone, they came forward to challenge Liu A'dou one-on-one while the others were still discussing strategy.
Liu A'dou figured, 'Fine by me. I'll fight them while waiting for the rest to get ready.'
As the match began, the rest of the students stopped talking and started watching, especially Zhan Jun and Inaho. They both knew Liu A'dou was strong, but neither had seen him fight in person. Zhan Jun had only played video games with him. In real life, he had no idea what Liu A'dou could really do. So this was their chance to observe him closely.
The two challengers weren't even planning to fight together—they insisted on going one at a time. Liu A'dou didn't mind. Typical hot-blooded youth, completely unaware of how outmatched they were.
"Ready… begin."
"Hero sir, I won't hold back!" Hiss—hydraulics hissed as the orange training KG6 mecha launched forward.
Both KG6 and KG7 stood 13 meters tall, but KG6 was the older model. It was lighter and moved faster, while the KG7 had thicker armor and could take harder hits.
As soon as the KG6 activated, it lunged forward several meters. Its paintball weapon fired with a loud bang bang—two rounds shot toward Liu A'dou.
He didn't move at first, like he didn't react in time. The paintballs were getting close when suddenly he moved. In a flash too fast for the eye, he drew his tactical knife and held it up in the air—catching both paintballs mid-air on the blade.
The crowd froze. Mouths hung open. Paintballs skewered on the blade? No one had ever seen anything so cocky—and cool. Good thing it was just paint. If those had been live rounds, someone might be dead right now. Still, Liu A'dou's skill clearly wasn't something to take lightly.
Paint oozed from the paintball shells and dripped to the floor through the blade's edge. The student on the other end finally snapped back to reality. "You're no joke… but I'm not giving up yet!"
He fired again. Liu A'dou blocked some shots, dodged the rest. When the student ran out of ammo and started to reload, Liu A'dou finally moved. With one clean shot, he splattered paint right across the guy's visor. Game over.
The second student jumped in right after. He went for close combat, trying to duel with Liu A'dou using cold weapons. His mecha deployed its glider wings and came in fast. This guy had solid skills—he zigzagged toward his opponent and flashed a cold gleam from his tactical knife.
Still, Liu A'dou barely moved. He hadn't even left his spot—just shifted side to side within a single step's range. As the knife lunged at him, he tilted his feet, dodged cleanly, grabbed the attacker's wrist, lifted his arm, and flipped him over with a textbook shoulder throw. Another one down.
The remaining students realized they'd underestimated him. One-on-one wouldn't work. They regrouped immediately, forming squads. Mixing ranged and melee—way more effective.
Liu A'dou holstered his gun and knife. Piloting mecha was actually fun. Like cars—men were just naturally drawn to machines.
The remaining 30 mecha didn't all charge at once. Some moved in to flank and surround, others held back and closed in slowly. Liu A'dou started feeling real pressure. But they forgot—he had a gun too.
The students used the school-taught formation: groups of 3, opening fire to suppress first. Paintballs rained down like a storm. This time, Liu A'dou didn't just stand there pretending to be cool. He rushed forward.
He twisted through the air, almost like surfing the sky, firing as he moved. His paintball shots were like homing missiles, each one hitting its mark right between the eyes. By the time he emptied a single magazine, the student army had been cut down to just a few.
But the ones still standing weren't easy to deal with. Zhan Jun and Inaho were among them.
No time to reload. Liu A'dou dropped his rifle and grabbed a fallen mecha from the ground, using it as a shield.
Thump thump—two paintballs splattered against the "corpse."
Inaho frowned. His shot should've hit. He'd been counting Liu A'dou's bullets this whole time and only made his move now. But he'd still missed.
Zhan Jun activated his Zero Field, but it barely made a difference. Liu A'dou dodged every bullet with impossible precision. Even when he should've been hit inside the Zero Field, he somehow pulled off insane dodges right before impact.
He didn't just use the student's mecha as a shield—he even picked up its weapon and started firing. A few more shots rang out, and soon only Inaho and Zhan Jun remained. Liu A'dou had taken them all down.
"That was amazing!" Even the teachers couldn't help applauding. It really was the strength of a true hero. The students may have never seen combat, but most had solid mecha scores. Yet Liu A'dou crushed them like it was nothing. "Only two left now."
But the principal could tell these last two weren't like the rest. Inaho needed no introduction—his sharp instincts had already taken down Martian mecha. And Zhan Jun wasn't bad either. Every one of his shots had been precise and forced Liu A'dou to stay on his toes. Not bad at all.
Only three mecha remained. Zhan Jun and Inaho stood side by side, quietly exchanging a few words.
Then, all of a sudden, they split and darted off in opposite directions.
"Oh? Not bad at all. They're trying to mess with the enemy's judgment," the principal commented. "It's a balanced strategy—whoever gets attacked first, the other can support."
Their shooting rhythm was tight and calculated. Each fired while keeping exact count of their ammo.
By now, Liu A'dou only had a tactical knife left. He pulled it out, spinning it around his fingers like a toy. He was practically showing off with that KG6, like he was customizing it on the fly. Then he moved. The knife flew straight at Inaho.
Inaho narrowed his eyes and quickly shifted his mecha to dodge. The knife wouldn't change direction mid-air.
But right then he heard Zhan Jun shout, "Poker Face, watch out!"
What??
Inaho's eyes snapped up. Liu A'dou's mecha had vanished from where he'd been. Where did he go?
"Above you!" shouted Zhan Jun.
Inaho looked up—just in time to see a shocking sight. Liu A'dou's mecha was airborne, landing right on the flying knife. The machine's heavy foot balanced perfectly on the blade's back.
Everyone watching thought they were hallucinating. But it wasn't over. Liu A'dou twisted his mecha's legs, kicked the knife downward in the opposite direction, and used that recoil to launch himself—defying physics—straight at Inaho.
Zhan Jun had been prepping to support Inaho, thinking the knife was the threat. But now the blade was flying straight at him. His Zero Field flared, sending a chill through his body. He crouched in time—the knife scraped his shoulder and stripped a layer of paint.
Inaho wasn't so lucky. He'd been dodging the knife, but now Liu A'dou's whole mecha barreled down on him. He couldn't react fast enough. Liu A'dou slammed down from above like a mountain, smashing the camera on Inaho's unit and disabling it completely.
Liu A'dou didn't give Zhan Jun a chance to recover. He scooped up Inaho's rifle and fired short bursts to pin Zhan Jun in place, cutting off all escape routes.
Paintballs moved slower than real bullets, and Zhan Jun could predict their paths. He dodged frantically, barely staying in the fight. But it was all defense. No chance to strike back.
Sweat poured from him as Liu A'dou closed in step by step. Finally, Zhan Jun couldn't move anymore. The rifle muzzle was already pressed against his mecha's head.
The match was over. Liu A'dou had given the students a brutal lesson. The student team was wiped out—complete victory for Liu A'dou. Though, truth be told, the KG6 he piloted probably had its lifespan cut short. Its joints were already worn from the overuse.