Seeing Lin Fan like this, Li Fulai curled his lip.
Why had he never seen this brat behave so properly in front of me? What a little bastard.
"Cadet Lin Fan, are you ready?"
"Ready. Please begin the assessment, Commander Liang!"
Lin Fan still stood at attention as he answered loudly.
"Very well. We'll begin now. This simulated battle will be one hundred warships against one hundred warships. Both fleets will be standard mixed Federal Fleet formations. Any questions?"
"Reporting, no questions!"
"Excellent. Enter the simulation command pods now. The assessment will begin in five minutes!"
"Yes!"
The academy's simulation pod system used holographic simulation technology. Although it was not as realistic as the virtual technology provided by the system, it still offered a decent sense of immersion.
This assessment used one of the two-person simulation rooms in the simulated battle building, with only two simulation pods inside.
Observers would watch from the holographic hall on the second floor, where a circular viewing area surrounded a holographic projection zone of roughly six hundred square meters.
After Lin Fan and Liang Xingchen entered the simulation command pods, Li Fulai brought Emma to the holographic hall and activated the projection device.
Soon, a starry sky appeared in the center of the viewing area. Two small fleets could clearly be seen within it.
Lin Fan, seated inside the simulation pod, frowned slightly.
"An Asteroid Belt. Truly the least ideal terrain!"
That was right. In an encounter battle in open space, what was tested was Artillery Command, Evasion Command, and Formation Command. There was not much room for tactical maneuvering, after all. Unlike on the ground, there was no varied terrain for flanking, dividing, encircling, and so on.
Even if Lin Fan lost, he was confident he could make Liang Xingchen pay dearly for the victory.
But an Asteroid Belt was different. Combat here primarily tested tactical skill, even requiring all sorts of wildly imaginative approaches.
Lin Fan felt that Liang Xingchen had definitely reviewed plenty of his simulated battle records, learned that Asteroid Belt combat was his weakness, and deliberately chosen this place for the assessment.
Did he want to see what I would do when faced with terrain I wasn't good at?
After thinking it over briefly, Lin Fan more or less understood Liang Xingchen's intentions.
Indeed, Liang Xingchen wanted to see what method Lin Fan would use to break the deadlock while taking the assessment in terrain he was not proficient in.
But Liang Xingchen had gotten one thing wrong: Lin Fan's lack of skill in Asteroid Belt combat was a thing of the past.
How could Lin Fan, with the system, allow himself to retain such a glaring weakness?
Therefore, Lin Fan had once had the system arrange a massive number of Asteroid Belt combat simulations for him. It could be said that the current Lin Fan had already experienced more than a hundred wars in Asteroid Belts.
During that time, Lin Fan had not only come up with all sorts of imaginative tactics himself, but had also seen the many exquisite tactics used by opponents simulated by the system.
If Asteroid Belt combat had a proficiency rating as well, Lin Fan believed he was at least B+, perhaps even A-.
"Then let's begin!"
In an extremely short span of time, Lin Fan relied on his exceptional intelligence and twenty percent brain development to work out every tactical detail, then swiftly issued orders to the simulated crew on the bridge.
On the second floor, inside the virtual observation hall.
"President, what is Lin Fan planning? He deployed all the mechs and drones from the five carriers before he even found the enemy?"
"I can't see through his plan either. Is he intending to scatter the mechs and use them as scouts? This little fellow shouldn't be that foolish!"
The two stared blankly at the projected scene in the observation hall. Large numbers of mechs and drones were launching from the five carriers in the fleet, and they simply could not understand what Lin Fan was trying to do.
A few minutes later, a full three thousand mechs and over ten thousand drones had formed one hundred formations ahead of the fleet.
"My heavens, this kid is a genius! Mech forces and drone forces can actually be used this way? How had no one ever thought of it? This is an unprecedented innovation!"
Looking at the deployed mechs and drones, Li Fulai suddenly understood Lin Fan's plan.
It was an utterly wild idea. If it succeeded, Liang Xingchen might really suffer an embarrassing defeat.
Emma was somewhat confused as she watched Li Fulai beside her flush red with excitement.
"President, what exactly is going on?"
"Hehe, you still haven't figured it out? You need to recognize your own problem: you rely too heavily on textbooks and are too rigid. You need to learn that from Lin Fan."
"I..."
"Don't be so quick to deny it. Look at Lin Fan's mech and drone forces. What do the formations they've set up resemble?"
"Hm?"
Emma looked toward Lin Fan's fleet again. A few seconds later, her eyes suddenly widened, her face full of disbelief.
"Looks like you understand now. That's right, Lin Fan used the mechs and drones to form one hundred formations, each shaped after one of the warships in his fleet."
"In other words, unless someone gets close enough, detecting these mechs could very well make them appear as a fleet of one hundred warships on radar?"
"You understand very well. Now we'll see how Lin Fan arranges things, and whether Liang Xingchen takes the bait."
Lin Fan's fleet soon made changes as well, splitting into three smaller fleets and hiding within several nearby dense asteroid fields.
Meanwhile, the disguised fleet formed by mechs and drones slowly moved toward Lin Fan's right.
On the other side of the observation area, Liang Xingchen's fleet was slowly approaching.
"Just watch. The good show is about to begin!"
"Could Lin Fan really defeat General Liang Xingchen?"
Emma still found it somewhat unbelievable. If Lin Fan truly won, what would that mean? That man was the legend of the Federal Fleet!
Li Fulai glanced at Emma and spoke blandly.
"Little girl, you're thinking too much. Lin Fan might be able to make Liang Xingchen suffer a setback, but final victory is still unlikely."
On the third floor, inside one of the simulation pods in the small simulation room.
Liang Xingchen was currently staring at the radar in puzzlement.
Just now, one of the scout ships he had deployed had effortlessly discovered the location of the opposing fleet.
What confused him even more was that the opposing fleet was slowly advancing in plain sight, as though it were out for a picnic.
That was interesting. Even ordinary cadets should know that when fighting in the complex environment of an Asteroid Belt, concealing oneself should be the highest priority.
Had I overestimated him? Liang Xingchen could not help thinking. After all, he could see no issue at all. All one hundred warships were clearly present on the radar.
No matter what, since he had already found them, there was no reason not to attack.
Liang Xingchen immediately commanded his fleet to advance under cover and circle behind the opposing fleet.
More than ten minutes later, Liang Xingchen's fleet had arrived behind the disguised fleet and taken the optimal attack position.
Then, inside another simulation pod not far from Liang Xingchen.
Lin Fan looked at the data returned by the radar, and the corners of his lips slowly lifted into a smile.
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