Meanwhile.
In the monitoring room of Compartment 12.
"Boss Lin, has the matter of Li Yi not receiving a Mind Seal been resolved?"
"Not yet. We need to wait for Li Yi's final result in the second round."
Lin Guotao shook his head and continued, "Now it depends on whether Li Yi is outstanding enough for the Surveillance Department to overlook certain issues."
"Boss Lin, I don't really understand."
Lou Cheng said, "Didn't you originally say that barely making the top ten was the script you had planned?"
"The situation has changed. It's not just the Fleet Captain paying attention to his results. Even the commander has heard about him."
Lin Guotao said, "So if the Surveillance Department discovers Li Yi's problem later, just tell the truth. At the very least, I'll preserve your Level One authority. Understand?"
Lou Cheng said thoughtfully, "You mean I'll take the blame, but you'll take care of what comes after?"
"Don't worry. The shift in the wind is becoming more and more obvious. The good days are still ahead."
In the blink of an eye, two days passed.
During that time, the two revival match slots were also decided again.
Just as everyone had expected, they went to Lin Qin and Liang Xing.
It was worth mentioning that Lin Qin had chosen the Gravity God Heavy Core Mech this time—and lost.
Liang Xing had chosen the Thunder God Sequence: Falling Eagle Mech.
In the end, the finals would still be a battlefield of ten people.
At this moment.
"I hope you'll become Evolvers as soon as possible, meet the conditions for switching mechs, and come here to choose a Divine Mech better suited for Evolvers."
Before the elevator, the Crimson Gourd AI bid everyone farewell with a cheerful smile.
"I'll send your exclusive Divine Mechs directly from the reserve depot to your arenas later. Work hard and try to win yourselves a decent Assist Module!"
Everyone thanked the Crimson Gourd AI in turn.
It had to be said that during these two days of getting familiar with their Divine Mechs, the Crimson Gourd AI's guidance had indeed saved them a great deal of time.
They had also more or less managed to release their respective combat techniques and Inherited Skills through their Divine Mechs.
Everyone entered the elevator and immediately fell silent.
A few minutes later, the elevator doors slid open, and everyone filed out.
The venue was still in its pre-match preparation stage. Only a few lights were on, making the place seem rather eerie.
"Welcome back."
The Evergreen Fairy AI materialized as a projection and drifted lightly to the ground.
"There are still twenty minutes before the official start. You can find a quiet place to sit and rest for a while."
Understanding her meaning, everyone dispersed.
Li Yi walked over to a bench by a passageway and sat down.
Zhong Xiufa soon approached from that side, as reserved as ever.
"Brother Yi, can I sit beside you?"
"Sure."
"Thank you, Brother Yi."
Zhong Xiufa let out a breath of relief and carefully took a seat.
"Go on. What is it?"
Zhong Xiufa had originally wanted to work up to it, but seeing Li Yi get straight to the point, he simply lowered his voice and asked.
"Brother Yi, why have you been sleeping more than training these past two days? Is piloting a D-rank Divine Mech too much of a burden?"
Li Yi said, "Uh... I didn't expect you to be paying such close attention to me. That's right, that's the reason."
He had been wondering how to explain it, but Zhong Xiufa had unexpectedly come up with the reason himself.
"Actually, everyone has been watching you. They all say that although Brother Yi probably can't last until the end, you'll definitely try to win through speed early on. So some people have already discussed dragging out their own matches as much as possible, so they can eliminate you, this formidable opponent, ahead of time."
"Haha, that might not necessarily be the case."
Li Yi stroked his chin, smiling meaningfully.
During these two days, he had frantically captured memory fragments from parallel worlds. Although many had been irrelevant, most were still memories of piloting the Pluto Mech.
As a result, his total active duration had stretched to nearly an hour and a half.
If he revealed the speed of that improvement, it would absolutely stun a whole crowd of people.
But for the finals.
It still was not safe enough.
If those people deliberately dragged things out and extended the total duration of the tournament, there was nothing he could do to interfere.
Moreover, although his startup speed had improved slightly, it did little to change the overall situation.
Each activation still took an hour.
So for the early live mech battles, he planned to drag things out a little and use actual combat to accelerate his absorption of the memory fragments.
By fighting to fuel his fighting, even if the finals were dragged out, he would still have a chance of lasting until the end.
"Alright. No matter what Brother Yi decides, I'll try my best to shorten the match I'm in."
"Alright, then thank you."
"Then, Brother Yi, I'll go warm up first. Also, if you run into me, don't hold back. I don't mind."
After saying that, Zhong Xiufa gave Li Yi a slight bow, his face faintly red, then hurried away as though fleeing.
The match order had been announced.
In the first round of the ten-person elimination tournament, the drawing results were Lei Lan versus Lin Hua, Li Yi versus Pang Haoren, Zhong Xiufa versus Liang Shaocong, Liang Xing versus Xie Zhenye, and Long Guanshan versus Chen Changxiu.
The second round would involve another draw. Since only five people remained, one person would receive a bye.
The person with the bye would have to face a challenge drawn from the losers of the previous round. If the bye recipient lost, the advancement slot would be taken by the revived challenger.
The third round would be a final round-robin among the last three.
Li Yi's draw was not particularly good, but it was not particularly bad either.
The good part was that if he had been in the first match, his activation speed would have been too slow, and he would have been unable to participate in the live appearance at all, resulting in immediate elimination.
The second match, however, gave him just about enough time to activate the Pluto Mech.
Because after the draw results were announced.
The officials had given them half an hour of activation buffer time.
Combined with the time between each match.
And his own buffer time before the match began.
It was barely enough.
The bad part was that if he had to keep his mech active starting from the second match, it would be almost the same as keeping it active throughout the entire tournament until the final.
That would put him under even greater pressure, making the outcome even harder to predict.
Moreover, the Power Clan specifically chose Divine Mechs of the same type as their Inherited Skills.
When the time came, the boost to their combat power would not be insignificant either.
"Good things take time."
Li Yi sighed and entered the Insertion Pod without using Ling Essence.
Ling Essence was extremely expensive. It was only provided for the first activation of a Divine Mech.
With a click.
The Insertion Pod dropped into the connection port at the back of the Pluto Mech's head.
In the enormous combat arena.
Two Divine Mechs, each over thirty meters tall, collided again and again with booming impacts.
Suddenly, the Magma Mech, dark crimson all over and covered in dim patterns, unleashed a fierce punch that blasted its opponent out of the arena and into the wall, ejecting the Insertion Pod straight onto the ground.
"Damn, Lin Hua is really strong too. He settled his opponent after just over ten exchanges."
"Li Yi is up next. Now we can finally watch Li Yi perform properly and see whether he can recreate the crushing results he had during the points competition."
In the distant stands, many professionals outside the mech pilot profession had also come to watch.
Live Divine Mech battles were undoubtedly the most thrilling spectacle in the Deep Space Fleet.
As a result, even some people who had never watched the virtual simulations before had gradually arrived.
Quite a few had even come specifically because they had heard that this batch of newcomers included the strongest rookie in the history of the points competition, the one with the highest score.
At this moment, the scene was more spectacular than ever.
Below the stage, Zhong Xiufa was somewhat worried.
"Lin Hua definitely ended the match quickly on purpose. That will drastically compress Brother Yi's activation time. I wonder whether he has finished yet?"
Before you continue