Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

The ranking matches were held in the candidates’ rooms, and since Ruo Manni had ranked in the top ten for her previous assessments, she earned the reward of competing in the main arena.

This meant that she didn’t have to move; all twenty-ranking matches would take place in her own room. Although this room was also assigned as a competition space, it felt like a home court advantage, giving her some confidence.

Most importantly, Ruo Manni recognized the underlying implication of this information: all the top ten candidates were competing in their main arenas, which meant she wouldn’t have to face any of the top ten competitors directly.

It wasn’t that Ruo Manni was timid; given her current combat capabilities, without the forest’s navigational advantages, she was sure to lose against someone like Neptune, a late-stage level four warrior—it was just a matter of how many moves it would take.

As for the others, she didn’t have much confidence since she lacked real combat experience, but she still felt somewhat reassured.

Ruo Manni logged onto the network and entered the assessment area of the Xuan Gu First Military Academy. As soon as she entered the room, she noticed it was completely different from yesterday.

The room no longer resembled a lounge; instead, it had transformed into a competition arena. In the center, there was a circular arena of about fifty square meters, surrounded by more than a hundred spectator seats.

Fortunately, Ruo Manni’s first opponent drawn was a female candidate at the early level four warrior stage.

Given her current level, Ruo Manni was most concerned about facing power-type warriors, and the proportion of such warriors among females was quite low.

Over the past month, in real life, Ruo Manni had focused on training to multitask: using her longsword to defend against attacks while manipulating small, middle-finger-sized flying daggers with her psychic ability to ambush her opponent.

With her current skills, she could control up to four flying daggers at once in reality. Although she had become very fluid in her training and often used them while battling in the game world, she had never had real combat experience against humans. Thus, she wasn’t sure how much damage her flying daggers could inflict.

Moreover, she didn’t want strangers to know she was already an early-level five psychic, especially with so many matches ahead; she wanted to retain some of her strength.

Therefore, for this match, Ruo Manni decided to use only two flying daggers, confident she could effectively ambush her opponent.

“You’re the legendary psychic girl,” her opponent remarked.

The female warrior, upon realizing that Ruo Manni was only at the late stage of level three, didn’t relax at all; instead, she appeared even more on guard.

Ruo Manni felt a bit awkward. “If I weren’t so narcissistic, I’d say that’s me.”

Yesterday, Ruo Manni had taken some time to browse the trending news about the Xuan Gu First Military Academy’s admissions assessments and saw various posts from the audience about her.

There were comments like: “A dark horse suddenly appears, the empire unveils an unknown genius girl psychic.”

“Comments on the battle prowess of the unknown genius girl psychic…”

“The flying leaves in the hands of this genius girl are unprecedented hidden weapons…”

“Is this girl a master of ancient martial arts or a psychic prodigy?”

“Analyzing the origins of the unknown genius girl…”

“Desperately seeking the identity of this unknown girl…” and many other hot takes.

After reading these comments, Ruo Manni realized she had become an online celebrity, and she couldn’t help but feel relieved that her identity was well-concealed. Otherwise, being exposed online would have been quite shocking.

She clicked on all the trending topics, and most commenters believed her psychic level had already reached the late stage of level four. A few skill analysis posts even detailed her overall combat capabilities, stating that she excelled at using hidden weapons, had strong ranged attack abilities, and had practiced light-body techniques very well.

In conclusion, the best way to defeat her is to prevent her from creating distance and to quickly engage in close combat, thus eliminating her opportunity to use her psychic hidden weapons.

This approach is commonly used when battling psychic warriors, as it is well-known that low-level psychics are quite vulnerable and not very skilled with their psychic weapons, making close combat their weak point.

What makes Ruo Manni, this sudden dark horse, most striking is her exceptionally high martial artist level, which is one or two major levels above all other level four psychic candidates. This disparity makes it difficult for commentators to accurately assess her overall combat capability.

However, for a late-stage level three martial artist, defeating an early-stage level four martial artist can be achieved in just a few dozen moves. Therefore, the commentators unanimously believe that as long as they are quick enough to prevent Ruo Manni from using her psychic weapons, victory is assured.

Ruo Manni felt fortunate that today’s ranking match was not completely public like yesterday’s map PK match. While the assessment area’s hall was open, the rooms for the ranking matches could only be viewed by the mentors from Xuan Gu First Military Academy and the intermediate college mentors of the candidates, as well as the participating candidates themselves. Moreover, the seating in those rooms was limited, and latecomers would not be allowed in.

Clearly, her opponent had also read the comments about her, and had done so carefully. Therefore, as soon as the countdown to battle ended, the female candidate rushed towards Ruo Manni.

The female candidate ranked 3,485 was using dual swords. When Ruo Manni blocked the first strike with her sword, the second sword was already sweeping towards her neck. Ruo Manni quickly sidestepped this attack, but the third sword came at her again, prompting her to counter with her long sword.

The clash of the long and short swords produced a crisp sound, sending sparks flying as both retreated two steps.

Ruo Manni felt a numbness in her right hand from gripping the sword, but her opponent, seemingly unfazed, charged forward again with incredible speed, giving Ruo Manni no chance to catch her breath.

As Ruo Manni struggled to defend against two more strikes, the audience, filled with spectators, began to stir, sensing that she was about to be pierced by a sword aimed at her chest.

However, just as the sword’s tip was about to strike Ruo Manni, her opponent suddenly froze, and then disappeared in a flash of white light—she had been eliminated.

The audience, initially only slightly agitated, erupted into excited chatter. Even though Ruo Manni had set the audience to silent mode, she could read the lips of most spectators asking what had just happened and how the second candidate had inexplicably lost.

Ruo Manni guessed that the other candidates watching in the room were captivated by the rapid exchange of sword techniques between the two of them. The small, lightweight flying knives went unnoticed, but when the slow-motion replay was shown, they would definitely see the knife that had pierced the opponent’s crown point.