Assessment Complete

Inside the simulation pod, Liang Xingchen watched as his fleet occupied the optimal attack positions on the tactical display, while Lin Fan's fleet remained completely unresponsive.

He had a nagging feeling that something was wrong, yet he could not pinpoint the issue. This was the first time Liang Xingchen had encountered such a situation.

But no matter what, the meat was already on the table. It would be absurd not to eat it.

Just as Liang Xingchen prepared to launch his attack, he discovered that his own fleet was under fire. The incoming fire came from his right.

Through the radar, Liang Xingchen saw three fleets suddenly appear to the right of his own fleet, totaling one hundred warships.

What was going on? Why did Lin Fan have two hundred ships?

Still puzzled, Liang Xingchen looked again at the fleet ahead on the radar, then abruptly widened his eyes in disbelief.

The hundred ship-shaped light clusters on the radar were no longer as complete as before.

He could vaguely make out that every warship-shaped light cluster was actually composed of dozens, or even hundreds, of smaller light clusters.

"So that was it? You had been playing me from beginning to end? Old Man Li will probably laugh at me for years over this!"

"Still, even if you made me stumble, winning in the end will not be so easy!"

Liang Xingchen did not order his fleet to turn right and engage the enemy. Instead, he ordered the fleet to accelerate and charge straight ahead at maximum speed, without the slightest hesitation.

At the same time, in another simulation pod nearby, Lin Fan frowned.

In his plan, Liang Xingchen should have turned to engage the enemy, and during that turn, at least thirty percent of his warships would have been destroyed.

Then, with one hundred warships against the enemy's seventy, Lin Fan was confident he could win this war outright.

Yet Liang Xingchen had not turned to engage. Instead, he accelerated forward.

Lin Fan's highly developed brain performed the calculations in an instant and immediately produced the result.

If Liang Xingchen fled in a straight line, at least forty percent of his warships would be destroyed by side fire during his escape, and Lin Fan would be able to bite onto his tail and launch a pursuit battle.

In the end, he would win this battle even more easily!

But what Lin Fan could not understand was this: could Liang Xingchen really be that incompetent? This style of fighting was exactly like that of some useless people at the academy!

A few minutes later, Lin Fan checked the radar feedback. The enemy had already lost forty-two warships and was about to leave his firing range.

Although Lin Fan had many doubts, the current situation gave him no choice but to react. If he did not act immediately, he would not be able to latch onto the enemy fleet's tail and pursue them.

Setting aside all his doubts for the moment, he ordered his fleet to advance at full speed and begin the pursuit battle.

One hundred intact warships pursuing fifty-eight mostly damaged ones—no matter how he looked at it, Liang Xingchen should have had no hope left. Yet Lin Fan felt deeply unsettled, as though he had overlooked something.

Soon, the fleet traced an arc and arrived behind the enemy fleet. Just as Lin Fan was about to launch another attack, he spotted an anomaly on the radar.

A massive number of light dots had suddenly appeared behind his fleet. There were fully three thousand of them, and they were quite close to his fleet.

"Damn it, I fell for it. No wonder he chose to accelerate instead of turning to engage me. He wanted to lure me into this position!"

In an instant, Lin Fan understood the purpose behind Liang Xingchen's strange maneuver. To pursue the enemy, he had to advance and turn, following an arcing route to get behind them.

Yet the enemy had actually deployed three thousand mechs here. Lin Fan did not need anyone to explain the details for him to guess them.

When the enemy had accelerated earlier, whenever an asteroid blocked the space between the two fleets, they must have hurriedly released some of the mechs and hidden them behind the asteroids.

As expected of Liang Xingchen, the war god of the Federal Fleet. I still have a long way to go.

As for the outcome of this battle, Lin Fan had already calculated it. A fleet caught at close range by three thousand mechs would be slaughtered without any ability to resist.

After all, all of his mechs and Drones had already been deployed. As for the warships' cannons, forget it. They were all slow-firing, high-powered types. Using them at close range against highly maneuverable mechs would be a joke.

His mech force and Drone force had also gone too far ahead and could not return in time. Even if he wanted them to attack Liang Xingchen's fleet, that would not be easy.

After all, the five carriers in Liang Xingchen's fleet were still intact, and they contained more than ten thousand Combat Drones.

Meanwhile, the mech force and Drone force were still a considerable distance away from Liang Xingchen's fleet.

Mechs might be the bane of warships once they got close, but that only applied after they closed in. Before that, warships were the bane of mechs.

If they tried to approach the fleet in a straight line, more than half of them would definitely be destroyed by the warships. The remaining few would be wiped out completely by Liang Xingchen's ten thousand Combat Drones.

I lost. Heh. Since coming to this world, this was the first time, wasn't it? He really is worthy of being called a war god!

Watching his warships get destroyed one after another, Lin Fan could not help lamenting his first defeat in this life.

Ten minutes later, the simulated battle came to an end. Liang Xingchen had annihilated Lin Fan's one hundred warships at the cost of forty-two warships.

"Lin Fan, you are very good. This is the first time anyone has made me suffer such a huge loss!"

After stepping out of the simulation pod, Liang Xingchen looked at Lin Fan, who stood beside him and saluted, and spoke.

"I am still far behind you, Commander Liang. Your final move to turn defeat into victory was truly brilliant."

"What you lack is combat that puts you face-to-face with life and death. Only after experiencing it will your tactics mature. An academy is still just an academy. Come to Mars Base. That is where you can truly temper yourself!"

"Yes, Commander!"

The change from "Commander Liang" to "Commander" was only the omission of a single word, but it clearly conveyed Lin Fan's intent.

He was willing to join Mars Base and fight on humanity's front lines!

Liang Xingchen looked at Lin Fan with satisfaction, nodded, and continued.

"Very good. I will sign your transfer order shortly. This afternoon, you will be commissioned at the academy. Once the commissioning is complete, you will return to Mars Base with me."

"Yes!"

Afterward, the two of them went together to the virtual observation hall.

"Well, Little Liang? Are you satisfied?"

Li Fulai grinned mischievously at Liang Xingchen, his face full of ill intent.

"That is enough, Teacher. Please stop making fun of me. Lin Fan is very capable. I will formally commission him this afternoon, then take him back to Mars Base."

Seeing Li Fulai's smug expression, Liang Xingchen could only smile helplessly.

Teacher? Lin Fan and Emma, standing nearby, were both stunned. The academy president was actually Commander Liang's teacher?

Seeing the shock on their faces, Li Fulai smiled and said.

"You two do not need to look so surprised. He was in the academy's thirty-second class. Technically speaking, he is your senior. It is just that his records are currently classified at the 3S level, so you did not know."

Fair enough. Lin Fan found that explanation perfectly reasonable.

Seeing that everything had been explained, Li Fulai cleared his throat, put away his mischievous grin, and spoke solemnly.

"I now announce that Lin Fan, cadet of the fifty-fifth class of the Interstellar Military Academy's Fleet Command Department, has passed his graduation assessment with perfect results!"