Main Flagship of the 72nd Legion, Command Bridge.

Lin Xu hurried over to the conference area to report: “Sir! The First District Base is on the verge of falling!”

A holographic map was projected above the conference table, refreshing in real time to show the tactical deployment of both opposing forces.

The officers seated around the table felt quite taken aback by the current one-sided state of the battle.

“I didn’t expect the Ravens’ offensive to be this ferocious.”

“It doesn’t make sense. No matter how poor the Garrison’s individual combat capability is, it shouldn’t be worse than star pirates.”

“They’re getting utterly crushed—what an absolute embarrassment!”

“From the commander down to the soldiers, none of them are competent!”

“That Zhang Lin never had any real talent to begin with; he only secured his position as the First District Commander through connections…”

The officer who spoke last suddenly cut himself off mid-sentence.

Zhang Lin, the Commander of the First District Garrison, was the nephew of Meng Jian’s adjutant.

Meng Jian connected to the Ninth Legion and asked his eldest son, Meng Tu: “Still haven’t broken the Third Legion’s anti-interception program?”

Meng Tu was overwhelmed and exasperated: “No, we don’t have a single clue.”

Ten legions were stuck outside the door; the moment they drew any closer, they took a beating. They could only watch helplessly as the First District Garrison Base was overrun by the Royal Family. The group of officers was visibly irritated.

Meng Jian said calmly: “Focus on cracking the anti-interception program. Losing a single garrison base is no big deal.”

Meng Tu replied: “But after the Third Legion captures the base, they’ll turn right around to deal with us. We can’t maintain this stalemate for much longer.”

Meng Jian: “Hold out as long as you can.”

Meng Tu could only accept the order.

N001, First District Garrison Base.

After the Garrison’s aerial combat units surrendered one after another, the Third Legion’s ground forces moved in, sweeping into various core sectors of the base to carry out arrest operations.

Seeing the ground forces enter through the monitoring feeds, the Garrison Commander hastily ordered: “Lock down the Command Center! Initiate maximum level defense protocol!”

As long as the doors couldn’t be opened, the defense level here was robust enough to withstand a nuclear blast.

Beta Colonel: “Yes, sir!”

Before the control panel, a group of officers held their breath as they watched the fully armed ground troops surround the area, not daring to breathe too loudly.

Having reached this point, if they were captured, none of them would survive.

The ground forces had long anticipated that the Garrison would lock down all entry and exit points. The leader of an assault squad walked up to an entrance and gestured to his subordinates: “Tech team, break the access lock!”

Tech team: “Understood!”

Before the tech team could even begin, they watched as the heavy, five-layered metal blast doors slowly slid open one after another. A somewhat effeminate, sweet-sounding voice from the automated AI system echoed in their ears:

“Welcome~”

“Feel free to pick and choose any area you like! If there’s a door you fancy, remember to let me know, okay~?”

The bizarre tone gave everyone the illusion that they had walked into a shopping mall. For a moment, no one dared to move randomly.

Ground troops: “…?”

Officers in the Command Center: “…???”

After a brief, tense silence, the ground squad leader carefully poked his head out to scan the area, running a series of checks with detection equipment. Then, Song Jin’s relaxed yet impatient voice came through the public channel.

Song Jin: “The AI system has already been hacked. Move it.”

The eyes of the ground troops lit up immediately.

The squad leader gestured to those behind him, and they swiftly charged into the Command Center.

Total panic erupted inside the Command Center.

The Commander roared at the top of his lungs: “Relock it! Hurry!”

The personnel at the sub-consoles were frantically tapping away, but no matter how they configured the settings, as soon as the ground forces reached a door, it opened automatically.

The Beta Major at the main control console detected the backend data and hastily reported: “Sir, the AI system has been hijacked!”

The Commander was going insane: “Then fix it already!”

The Beta Major and a group of his subordinates busied themselves for a long while before finally clearing the anomalous data. A rare smile broke across his grave face: “Repairs complete!”

Just as he finished speaking, the AI system’s prompt rang out again on the monitoring screen:

“Welcome~”

Yet another blast door slowly slid open.

The Beta Major’s mind completely shattered.

Seeing the backend data, a subordinate cried out in shock: “The AI system has been hijacked again!”

The Commander burst into loud curses: “What the hell did you guys even fix?!”

Seeing that the ground forces were about to breach the final blast door, the Commander panicked completely. Abandoning all thought for the base, his mind was entirely consumed by the thought of fleeing: “Open the emergency escape route! Everyone follow me to evacuate first!”

Officers: “Yes, sir!”

Beta Major: “Sir! The emergency escape route won’t open!”

The Commander froze: “What?!”

High up in the sky, Li Xiao hovered his mecha above the Command Center. Through the monitoring feeds in his field of vision, he watched the ground forces apprehend Commander Zhang Lin along with everyone else.

Once the news of the Commander’s capture was broadcast over the Garrison’s public channel, the morale of the remaining obstinate Garrison troops collapsed completely. Before long, they were thoroughly defeated.

Li Xiao didn’t even need to raise a hand for the second half of the battle. The First District Super A-grade Garrison Base was captured with ease.

Leaving the cleanup operations to Yi Lian, Li Xiao and Song Jin led the mecha fleet back to the warship.

En route, Li Xiao contacted Wei Feng: “How are things on your end?”

District 32.

Wei Feng hovered his mecha beneath the night sky. Wrecked mechas were piled across the streets, while ground forces busied themselves rounding up personnel everywhere.

Overhead, special forces units disguised as Raven members were escorting captured Garrison mechas onto transport ships.

Wei Feng: “The mugging went very smoothly.”

Li Xiao: “As expected, professional work should be left to professionals.”

Wei Feng chuckled slightly: “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Li Xiao: “Don’t be so sensitive. It was a compliment.”

Wei Feng: “…”

At the same time, a victory announcement flashed across the public display screens in all districts—Control of the First District Garrison Base Has Been Retaken!

Eruptions of joy broke out both online and offline.

Related reports flooded the internet.

Military Headquarters compiled the frontline monitoring footage, condensing the Third Legion’s capture of the base into a thirty-second video.

[#VICTORY# Second Prince and Royal Consort Lead Third Legion Mecha Fleet to Capture N001 First District Garrison Base!]

Comments under the update flooded in:

“First victory in the Nanming Constellation! What a great start!”

“I’ll bet a cup of boba tea that the first one to charge out was definitely Song Jin! You can feel that explosive temper right through the screen!”

“Song Jin: ‘You have manners, but not many.'”

“So cool! Consistent top-tier damage output!”

“The gap in morale between the two sides is insane! The Garrison fought like absolute trash, yet they dared to act so tough earlier.”

“I can’t imagine how energetic and lively I’d be if I could march into battle behind the Second Prince!”

Beyond numerous military experts stepping forward to conduct formal analyses of the battle, many top-tier gaming figures posted technical breakdown threads, deconstructing Li Xiao and Song Jin’s combat moves frame by frame.

[Attack Speed + Technique = Invincible! 30-Minute Breakdown of Li Xiao’s 39 A-grade Combo Chains!]

[High-Energy Warning! Analysis of Song Jin’s 81 Frontal Assault Techniques! There are no unbreakable defenses, only swordsmen lacking skill!]

[Li Xiao’s Combo Chain Tutorial Is Here! Easily learn 3 moves; even those with potato hands can flex in-game now!]

[Song Jin Teaches You How to Fight Fiercely, Coolly, and Beautifully!]

Bolstered by various trending algorithms, these analytical posts surged onto the hot search lists.

Someone noticed that Li Ji had individually liked the popular posts under the topic—and it didn’t look like an accidental click.

The gaming community consisted mostly of young people. Once they realized Li Ji might leave a like, their enthusiasm for posting skyrocketed to unprecedented heights. Anyone who received a like from Li Ji was more thrilled than if they had won the lottery.

Before long, they figured out the pattern:

As long as you praised Li Xiao and Song Jin—praising them heavily, praising them to the heavens—the better the praise, the easier it was to get a like from Li Ji.

Third Legion.

Li Xiao and Song Jin parked their mechas in designated zones and initiated the automated diagnostic scan.

Once the two disembarked, the mechas descended into the maintenance bay below via an elevator platform.

Li Xiao chatted briefly with the approaching mecha squad leader regarding subsequent arrangements. As he walked up the steps, Song Jin was leaning against the railing of the circular metal corridor, looking at him with a lukewarm expression. He didn’t look refreshed from the brawl at all; instead, he radiated an air of resentment from not having fought enough.

“So slow.”

Song Jin watched Li Xiao approach, “One second later and I would’ve walked off on my own.”

Li Xiao: “Hungry?”

Song Jin: “Do you even know what time it is?”

They had departed around nine in the morning, and it was now seven in the evening—they had spent the entire day inside their mechas.

The cockpits had fresh-keeping cabinets and freezers, so eating wasn’t difficult. But on the battlefield, under a heavy surge of adrenaline, one wouldn’t feel hunger at all, nor have any desire to eat.

The key was that Song Jin had rummaged through the fresh-keeping cabinet earlier and found nothing he wanted to eat, leaving him hungry the entire day.

Li Xiao let out a light laugh: “Didn’t starve your abs away, did you?”

Song Jin looked at the excessively handsome face in front of him, his voice chilly: “You only care about my abs?”

Li Xiao nodded: “Of course I only care about yours. Other people’s abs belong to them—what does that have to do with me?”

Song Jin: “Then mine are on my body—what does that have to do with you?”

Li Xiao: “Your whole person belongs to me, so your abs naturally belong to me too.”

Song Jin was amused by his deadpan expression: “Childish.”

Having finally coaxed the fussy little lion into a better mood, Li Xiao took his hand and led him toward the elevator: “Before dinner, let’s boost your dopamine first.”

Song Jin glanced down at their joined hands and raised an eyebrow: “Just this? Not even enough to fill the gap between my teeth.”

Li Xiao: “…”

The moment they stepped into the elevator, Li Xiao was pinned against the wall by Song Jin and kissed thoroughly.

When the elevator doors opened again, Song Jin walked out feeling thoroughly refreshed, humming a tune with a delighted expression: “Remember that. Next time, replenish it according to this amount.”

Li Xiao licked his bitten lip, tasting a faint trace of rust: “…”

Very well. Spicy enough.

Arriving at the Command Cabin, Song Jin buried himself headfirst in the desserts sent over by Old Liu, eating so eagerly he had no time to speak.

“Is it really that delicious?”

Li Xiao didn’t even notice the faint trace of sour jealousy in his own voice.

Song Jin offered a pastry up to his lips: “Try it. Only one small bite though—this is the last one.”

Li Xiao: “…”

Li Xiao held his wrist and directly bit off the remaining half of the pastry in one mouthful, chewing with a straight face.

It really did taste quite good. If his brother retired in the future, he might actually make a fine dessert connoisseur.

Before he could even chew twice, he met Song Jin’s murderous glare. Li Xiao said impassively: “Your whole person belongs to me, so the pastry naturally belongs to me too.”

Song Jin cracked his knuckles loudly: “My fists belong to you too.”

Li Xiao: “…”

Song Jin flashed a bright smile: “Some people are living perfectly fine, yet they just insist on looking for a beating.”

Li Xiao: “…”

Seeing the young couple start squabbling and fighting over a minor disagreement, Old Liu felt anxious watching them. It wasn’t that he was worried about them hurting each other—they had been fighting all day, keeping their mental state tense and draining an immense amount of physical energy. He was simply worried the two kids would tire themselves out.

Old Liu hurriedly checked the pastry inventory and brought over two more for Song Jin, finally quelling a domestic incident.

Li Ji walked over from the command seat. Seeing the broken skin on Li Xiao’s lip, he casually asked: “Bumped your mouth? Apply some ointment before eating.”

Li Xiao pulled out a dining chair and sat down: “No need. Bitten by a wild little cat.”

Li Ji: “…”

Old Liu, serving the meal off to the side, desperately fought back a laugh: “…”

His Majesty, having accidentally been showered with PDA, is truly pitiable.

If he had a partner, he wouldn’t be asking questions like that, right?

Li Xiao reported some updates to his elder brother Li Ji, then glanced at the holographic map above the dining table.

Gao Wanxin’s forces had already reached various battlefields. Li Xiao turned to Old Liu and said: “Release the prepared materials.”

Old Liu asked: “Right now?”

Li Xiao nodded: “Let Meng Jian taste what it feels like when everyone pushes over a falling wall.”