Chapter 112: Data and Humanity

"Right, we're now seeing both teams engage in their first clash!"

"Federal cadet Janice lured Imperial cadet Cen Yuehuai into an alley… an ambush! Federal's Ya Ning Kelly bursts from a collapsing wall with a lightsword strike—luckily, Cen Yuehuai's teammate arrived in time. It's two-on-two now; how will this battle unfold?"

Shortly after the commentary began, many muted the background audio.

It wasn't that the commentator was bad—neutral stance, fluent delivery, booming voice, clearly pouring every ounce of passion into the match, and evidently experienced… but something was off.

For casual mech duel broadcasts, commentators needed deep industry knowledge, team histories, and even gossip to spice things up, keeping the spiel lively. Beyond recapping the action, analysis and predictions were key: dissecting tactics, shifts in playstyle, forecasting outcomes…

But these teams hailed from the top military academies of two nations. Their personal data was classified. Commentators got no combat stats beforehand and couldn't guess signature moves or team synergies.

Even if they had the data—would they dare speak freely? Boldly predict match developments?

Normally, senior officers with clout would handle such commentary, but none volunteered. Predicting winners in this role was a surefire way to make enemies.

The commentator, stuck, plowed on. So, save for casual spectators, most insiders muted the voiceover.

Just watch the match.

…

In the arena, Cen Yuehuai and Yu Yan watched Janice and Ya Ning Kelly dart into the same ruins but split in opposite directions.

"Who first?" Cen Yuehuai asked. "Past intel suggests Ya Ning Kelly's likely the commander, and he's easier to take down solo… but this is a 5v5 team match. Without him, the Feds still have others to call shots."

They exchanged a glance, deciding to probe "Janice" further.

"Janice moves fast and shoots sharp," Cen Yuehuai said, inhaling softly. "Your heavy mech's at a disadvantage against her. I'll take point; you cover."

Yu Yan nodded.

Silver-white wings unfurled, her mech streaking like a meteor. Swoosh, swoosh—Cen Yuehuai flickered midair, silently closing on Janice's mech. Her weapon morphed instantly, twin crescent axes spinning like sparking buzzsaws.

Cen Yuehuai lunged, blocking Janice's path, elbow snapping as she struck like lightning at her foe's ribs.

Janice's mech engines wailed, knees bending for a sudden stop, sliding back two meters, dodging the blow.

In a flash, Cen Yuehuai's eyes widened. That reaction speed!

Janice's reflexes and piloting outclassed most cadets she'd faced.

Undeterred, Cen Yuehuai pressed, twisting and slashing at Janice's throat.

Janice leaped, kicking her elbow.

A deliberate opening! Cen Yuehuai grinned, tossing her weapon skyward. It spun, arcing like a bird through trees, aiming for Janice's back.

Wooom—Janice's mech let out an odd hum, her form blurring into an afterimage. A faint gust, and her mech reappeared meters away midair!

What was that, a shadow clone?!

Before Cen Yuehuai could process, a beautiful yet deadly silver crescent gleamed overhead—Janice's plunging slash!

Clang!

Silver blade met heavy sword in a brutal clash.

Yu Yan raised his sword, barely parrying the eerie strike.

Janice deftly retracted her blade, then charged Yu Yan, unleashing a torrent of slashes like crashing waves.

Yu Yan couldn't react!

Time seemed to freeze, every motion slowing… The trembling silver gleam in Cen Yuehuai's eyes sharpened, the blade inching toward Yu Yan's shoulder…

A nerve in Cen Yuehuai's brain sparked wildly.

On the holographic screens, her mech dug into the ground, wings flashing as she shot like a cannonball between Janice and Yu Yan.

A glint!

Cen Yuehuai locked Janice's curved blade with one crescent axe. Without hesitation, she hurled the other, which Janice sidestepped. Cen Yuehuai caught the returning axe, stabbing at Janice's knee—a fluid combo, dodged again, but no matter—Yu Yan seized the moment, charging a sweeping sword strike that smashed the off-balance Janice away.

The blow carried a do-or-die ferocity. Cracks spiderwebbed Janice's mech abdomen.

Yu Yan moved to pursue, but Ya Ning Kelly and Yan Jingyi appeared from nowhere.

Yan Jingyi attacked like a tiger, her slashes so fierce Cen Yuehuai mistook her for a heavy mech. Barely parrying, Cen Yuehuai saw Jingyi crouch, slashing again. Cen Yuehuai dodged, only for Jingyi to flip midair and kick her mech's rear.

Cen Yuehuai: "…"

What kind of style was this?! Jingyi's chaotic, brawling moves were straight-up thuggish!

And Cen Yuehuai couldn't match her.

The burst of adrenaline from saving Yu Yan faded, returning Cen Yuehuai to her usual self. Jingyi's relentless assault pinned her, leaving no room to counter.

Yu Yan rushed to help.

Meanwhile, Ya Ning hoisted Janice over his shoulder, scaling a ruined building, leaping between windows to escape.

He descended a crumbling concrete wall, debris rolling—only to be crushed by another mech's foot.

Ya Ning glanced up.

Yo~

Bai Sha waved. Her towering silver mech's five fingers splayed in a oddly cute greeting.

Ya Ning chuckled instinctively—then froze. Wrong moment.

They were enemies today.

Bai Sha thrust her spear, and Ya Ning parried just in time. On the second move, burdened by Janice, he faltered.

Then, Janice, limp as if powered down, sprang to life—

She stomped Ya Ning's back, launching herself like an arrow at Bai Sha, her longsword weaving a dizzying blur of afterimages.

Ya Ning, kicked: "What the hell!"

Bai Sha raised an eyebrow, twirling her spear. Its meteoric tip pierced the silver sea of blades, splitting Janice's assault in two!

Janice vanished in that instant.

Bai Sha didn't pause, sweeping her spear like a gale through willows. Locking Janice's faint position, she gripped the shaft, thrusting upward at the airborne shadow, then spun into a crushing slam.

A soft thud.

Janice's mech hit the ground, its rear thrusters shattered. Bai Sha's spear pinned her to the earth.

Bai Sha, in control, clearly held back.

But to spectators, the scene was subtly terrifying—

No stormy spectacle, no blood-pumping buildup. In mere dozens of seconds, she subdued her foe with ease. On a real battlefield, she'd have ended Janice already.

It made sense.

Real battlefields were chaotic, not staged duels. One misstep meant death—Bai Sha's style was the norm.

"Your mech's interesting," Bai Sha said, eyeing Janice's machine with curiosity, her sharp gaze like she'd dismantle it on the spot. "Jump engine? First time I've seen that on a mech. How's your body handling spatial distortion? Or…"

Janice froze.

She ignited her engines to lunge, but Bai Sha's spear pierced her mech's shoulder, nailing her down.

"I said your mech's neat, but I know its guts. So I won't spare it—or hesitate to hurt you. Got it?"

Bai Sha's hand shifted, morphing into—a screwdriver.

Crowd: ???

They belatedly glanced at the Imperial team's info:

Bai Sha Roning.

Chief Mech Engineer.

Oh, an engineer…

Holy crap, she's an engineer!

They watched, horrified, as Bai Sha leaned toward Janice's mech—

The next second, every holographic screen in the arena went black.

Bai Sha dismantling the mech wasn't fit for public viewing… it involved Federal military tech, after all…

Minutes later, the screens flickered back on.

Bai Sha stood, her hand back to normal fingers. The ground was littered with mosaic-blurred mech shells and parts—nothing else.

Janice was gone. So was Ya Ning Kelly.

Bai Sha, satisfied, pocketed a few parts into her storage space.

Federal spectators collectively lost it.

"Can't anyone stop her? Seriously, no one?!"

"That's our military tech! Just taken by an Imperial?!"

"They carved through us like it's a free-for-all. Bai Sha Roning's basically looting a supermarket!"

"She's not awakening some weird fetish for dismantling mechs, is she?!"

If Bai Sha heard that, she'd retort on the spot.

She, Bai Sha Roning, had standards.

Elsewhere, the cameras shifted.

Ji Ya and Xino faced the Zhou twins in a two-on-two.

In a straight fight, Zhou Ying was no match, but his quirky gadgets often caught them off-guard. With Zhou Ye, they'd claimed a complex tenement block as a stronghold, popping out sporadically. Xino and Ji Ya played whack-a-mole, chasing.

Xino marveled, "How'd they find this spot? Didn't they say no one scouted the terrain? How're they so familiar?"

The arena was co-built by both nations, so leaking the map seemed unlikely.

"Maybe they've got good memory," Ji Ya exhaled. "A few more rounds, and I'll know it too."

Her eyes narrowed, firing laser rounds at a spot.

Dust exploded, and something stirred in the shadows.

"Knew they'd show there," Ji Ya grinned. "Wait it out. Trapped engineers can't aid their team—they're more antsy than us."

Their team channel buzzed with updates.

Yan Jingyi still tangled with Cen Yuehuai and Yu Yan, no victor yet.

Bai Sha reported: "Ya Ning and Janice are heading your way."

Ji Ya and Xino exchanged looks. That didn't add up.

First, with Her Highness on them, how'd those two escape intact? Second, this tenement wasn't prime real estate—hiding here meant getting sniped if they peeked out. With the whole arena to flee to, why pick a death trap?

Then, they spotted Ya Ning, hauling a figure, scrambling into the tenement. Ji Ya tried to aim, but the range was too far. Still, she saw Ya Ning carried a person, not a mech!

…What?

"Janice's mech's toast—I dismantled it," Bai Sha said over comms. "That's one down, right?"

Match rules: a cadet was out only when fully incapacitated.

Talk about genius rules.

A 5v5 mech duel—lose your mech, and what're you dueling?

…

Meanwhile, Ya Ning, carrying Janice, vaulted through a tenement window, broadcasting distress signals.

Help, help!

Skidding through a dim corridor, he ran into Zhou Ying, toolbox in hand.

Zhou Ying, expecting Ya Ning's mech to be wrecked, had calculated a rendezvous. Seeing Ya Ning's mech mostly intact, he frowned—until Ya Ning dumped the unconscious Janice before him.

"Zhou Ying, save her!"

Janice was in bad shape.

Her silver mechanical pupils flickered erratically, blue circuit patterns pulsing chaotically on her wrists, limbs twitching.

"Data… error…"

"Computing… rebooting…"

Zhou Ying's eyes widened, then he groaned.

"I'm a mech engineer," he gritted out, "not a cybernetics PhD!"

"But mechs involve neural mechanics, right? You told me," Ya Ning said, helpless. "We can't just leave her like this."

"They're different fields—ugh, fine. What happened? How'd she end up like this?"

Janice's computing prowess was undeniable.

Early in the match, she'd scanned the arena, analyzed optimal combat zones, and tailored counter-strategies, benefiting Zhou Ying and the team.

Her combat skills were top-tier—how'd she crash so fast?

Zhou Ying: "Bai Sha?"

Ya Ning: "Kinda. She got hit twice."

Zhou Ying: "…"

Speechless, he climbed out of his cockpit, hauling an instrument from it and yanking wires from his mech for a quick setup. "Check her for ports," he said.

Ya Ning blinked. "She's got ports?"

"Not a full human, but she's half-cyborg," Zhou Ying replied.

Ya Ning hesitated. "That's… not right, is it?"

Zhou Ying, amid scattered tools, looked up flatly. "You want me to do it?"

Ya Ning: "…"

Zhou Ying paused, then muttered, "Besides, you don't have a girlfriend."

Ya Ning rolled his eyes, took a deep breath, and hopped out of his cockpit. Feeling Janice's neck, he said, "There's a hard spot here."

A subdermal port.

Zhou Ying sliced her pale neck skin with a knife, revealing a small port. He jury-rigged an adapter from his mech, plugged in, and began scanning her system database.

After a bit, he sneered at Janice. "All our combat data's in her system."

Ya Ning: "From our training?"

Zhou Ying: "No, predates meeting her."

They fell silent.

As a commander, Janice needing their data made sense. But being reduced to "data" felt… off.

During repairs, Zhou Ying yanked out his hair in frustration but pinpointed errors.

Checking their timestamps and recapping with Ya Ning, he realized they aligned with Janice's clash with Cen Yuehuai and Yu Yan.

"Imperials too strong? Beat her into a glitch?" Ya Ning asked, incredulous.

"Dunno," Zhou Ying shook his head. "But it's not physical damage. More like a software bug…"

Pausing, he recalled Janice's "computation error" and "reboot" murmurs, diving back in.

"…Took forever, but I've got a theory," Zhou Ying said. "Janice's system profiles every enemy, building a database. It dictates her reactions. But if an enemy's performance spikes beyond her data's predictions, her calculations crash, and her combat logic fails."

Ya Ning, cautious: "So…?"

"Her database is from the barren-star exercise," Zhou Ying said coldly. "Either they held back then, or they skyrocketed overnight."

Ya Ning's mouth twitched.

Zhou Ying tried deleting the faulty data. After wiping the database, Janice quieted but didn't regain consciousness.

"I'm done," Zhou Ying said, face grim. "Either surrender and send her for repairs. It's their military tech failing, not us—my uncle can't blame us."

"She's still a person," Ya Ning sighed. "Calling her a 'military product' is harsh."

Suddenly, Janice's arm jerked, seizing Zhou Ying.

Her eyes flared with life, though her speech was labored.

"Link me… to your… mech system…" Janice's silver eyes glowed like ghostfire. "I'll help you… win…"

Tears welled—not true crying, but a reflex.

Zhou Ying stared blankly, then yanked her connection, kicking the toolbox to her.

"Awake? Fix yourself. Do it right, we keep fighting. Fail…" He smirked, tone vicious. "I'll ship you back to my uncle."

Ya Ning: "…"

Next second, Janice struggled up, hands trembling like leaves, pressing a wrist button to link her wrist-device, starting data repairs.

This actually worked?!