"Okay!"
Meanwhile, in the observation room, the instructor slammed his fist against the armrest when he saw his top candidate score the first point.
The solid thump rang out like a war drum, blending with the cheers outside the window.
Thomas was surely going to secure a spot in Moebius now. A warrior that brave was right under his command.
Revil was getting old. His judgment was slipping.
Thinking this, he looked toward the other man expectantly, hoping to see amazement and shock in his eyes.
But he was soon disappointed.
Revil hadn't even opened his eyes. He just sat with his head bowed, as if dozing off.
He looked just like... the instructor's father back home, asleep in his chair while watching a boring baseball game that had reached a deadlock.
"..."
The redneck instructor's face was genuinely red now.
Suppressing the urge to rebel, he spoke up.
"Lieutenant Colonel, Xu De's up."
If Revil didn't want to watch God's own warrior, then he could watch that inferior, second-class citizen get crushed by the Ginn.
Besides, the general himself had overruled everyone else and approved the Ginn's one-to-one controls.
"Hmm."
At that, Revil opened his eyes.
He glanced at the instructor. His sharp eyes seemed to see right through him, and the instructor hastily toned down his gloating smile.
But Revil soon looked away, as if the instructor had only imagined it.
As for Xu De, amid the many cold, disdainful, and curious gazes—
"I'll be watching your performance."
As Xu De passed Thomas, the fallen hero was looking at him with a smug, challenging expression.
His thick eyebrows were practically raised to the ceiling.
There was no need to ask. The crowd's cheers and applause had greatly boosted Thomas's pride and self-esteem.
"Thanks."
Ignoring Thomas, Xu De quickly climbed into the simulator.
Everything was just as he remembered from the original owner's memories.
Xu De placed his hands lightly on the controls.
At once, a familiar feeling welled up inside him.
It wasn't a cheat or a system. It came from his familiarity with fighter planes in his previous life.
"Let's go."
Xu De murmured to himself in the seat. The eyes that had been as still as a well suddenly lit up.
He only made a few minor adjustments to his posture, but he gave off the impression of a treasured blade drawn from its sheath, its edge gleaming.
The battle began amid a field of wreckage.
Debris rotated slowly between zero gravity and Earth's pull, like building blocks carelessly tossed aside by a child.
Xu De had chosen a field of wreckage in low Earth orbit as the arena.
Looking at the setting and weapons Xu De had chosen, the crowd began arguing among themselves.
The loudest and most numerous voices belonged to the supremacists, who thought Xu De was asking for humiliation.
After all, there were so many obstacles in the arena that they, as new recruits, could easily crash into one with the slightest mistake.
The Ginn, by contrast, could move freely and wouldn't be affected at all.
What's more, Xu De had chosen a Vulcan Cannon and a Linear Cannon. That left him unable to deal any real damage.
"What a coward."
"I told you, how could that monkey possibly be brave?"
"I don't know how someone like him could ever measure up to Thomas."
"Ridiculous."
"Hans, I think you'd better cut ties with that wimp, too."
Hans listened to them, feeling their occasional glances on him.
He clenched his fists and lowered his head, looking like he was enduring it all in silence.
Meanwhile, the instructor in the observation room gave a scornful laugh and sneaked a look at Revil, who had his eyes wide open.
There was a hint of mockery in the instructor's gaze.
Judging by Revil's surprised expression, he clearly knew he'd misjudged Xu De.
But Revil outranked him by several grades. The instructor would just say a few more things praising Thomas.
As for Xu De, he had no idea what people outside were saying. Once he entered the arena, he didn't charge straight at the Ginn.
Instead, he moved in a circle around the Ginn, weaving nimbly through the wreckage of the colonial satellite.
"What's he trying to do?"
"Buy time?"
Doubts spread through the company.
But during the maneuver, some people began to notice a few clues.
Especially those who had just piloted a Moebius.
Xu De looked so skilled that he couldn't possibly be piloting one for the first time.
He made perfect use of every bit of inertia.
He was even getting faster and faster. He wasn't fleeing or stalling, as the others had claimed. It looked more like he was getting familiar with the machine and the battlefield.
They only managed to keep control because the system was fairly intelligent.
If their machines were like sports cars with no brakes at all,
then Xu De was driving a brakeless sports car at full speed—and drifting on top of that.
It was as if they and Xu De weren't even piloting the same machine.
As Xu De's laps grew faster and faster, the jeering in the training area gradually faded. In its place came stunned, open-mouthed amazement and hushed discussion.
Likewise, the instructor's expression grew worse and worse as he watched the situation on the screen.
He'd never imagined that Xu De might actually know how to pilot one.
"Impossible. He's only read the manual. How could he...?"
The instructor couldn't stop muttering to himself.
It was true that an ordinary person could manage Thomas's level of performance after reading only the manual. Though that was cheating, the results alone weren't bad.
Xu De's movements weren't as impressive as those of the elite pilots he'd seen, or the pilots of the Zero.
But there was no way to call them the work of an ordinary recruit.
Meanwhile, Xu De's mind was completely absorbed in the battlefield.
He didn't care at all what the people outside thought.
After another sharp turn, he used the wreckage to evade the Ginn's machine-gun lock-on.
This time, Xu De didn't keep circling. He made fine adjustments to the thrusters on either side, smoothly pulling off a sudden stop and turn that should have been nearly impossible for a new recruit.
The Moebius he piloted seemed to be gently nudged by an invisible hand. It traced a graceful, tighter arc between the wreckage, avoiding both obstacles and lock-on while closing the distance to the Ginn.
The move looked clean, simple, and effortless, but everyone drew in a sharp breath.
A maneuver this smooth, with the pilot and machine moving as one, was impossible for anyone but an elite pilot.
After his earlier practice, Xu De could now anticipate the effect each movement would have on the machine's inertia. He adjusted in advance, keeping the machine at top speed at all times.
Even when turning.
The calculations involved were enough to make an ordinary person's mind snap.
It was like performing a delicate operation—one where the slightest mistake would mean death.
It would be understandable if he had experience. Or if he had great talent and instincts. That wasn't unheard of, either.
But he was a new recruit!
How could any new recruit pull off moves like these? To them, it was a crushing advantage. It was almost unfair.
Thinking about it this way, many people felt that Xu De's earlier disregard for Thomas wasn't all that strange.
He was so skilled. So what if he ignored you?
That was how some people in the Atlantic Federation thought, aside from Blue Cosmos.
Simply put, it was Darwinism: survival of the fittest.
The strong and the elite naturally enjoyed all kinds of privileges.
Before you continue