The divisional semifinals bracket, like a death warrant, was projected onto the squares of every city in the Empire.
My name, Vex, was listed alongside a codename—"Sequence Five."
"Oh my God! Vex's opponent is none other than 'Sequence Five'!" The commentator's voice was filled with exaggerated shock. "Ladies and gentlemen, this might be the most one-sided semifinal of this tournament!"
"That's right, Charlie!" another commentator chimed in immediately. "'Sequence Five' isn't one of those pampered noble brats! He's a true monster! A professional mercenary who has undergone extensive cybernetic augmentation! His nervous system is directly linked to his mecha, making his reaction speed three times that of a normal human!"
A collective gasp rippled through the stands.
On my personal terminal, my inbox was blowing up with messages from Jinx.
"Vex! Did you hear that? A cyborg! This guy is a killing machine in human skin!"
"His mecha, 'Razor,' is just like him—built for ultimate speed and precision! He's stripped away all heavy armor just to turn every attack into a lethal strike!"
"You have to be careful! His neural link means his mecha is as agile as his own body! Your 'Wrench Combat' might be completely useless against him!"
I cut the comms and took a deep breath.
In the cockpit, the smell of engine oil and sweat mingled—nauseating, yet strangely familiar and reassuring.
I looked up toward the opposite side of the arena.
The "Razor" mecha stood there silently. It was pitch black and as slender as a praying mantis, its arms ending in two high-frequency vibration blades that gleamed with a cold light.
It had no cockpit glass; the entire head was a completely sealed sensor array.
I knew that beneath that dark armor was a monster who had long ago abandoned his human flesh and blood.
And at that moment, in the VIP stands at the highest point of the arena, a figure made his first public appearance.
The Imperial Crown Prince, Leon Valerius.
He leaned back languidly in his ornate seat, his golden hair shimmering under the lights, an amused smirk on his handsome face.
Like a monarch watching a gladiatorial match in a colosseum, he looked at me with great interest—at this piece of junk about to be torn to shreds.
He was waiting—waiting for me to be ripped apart by that monster so he could waltz into the finals and claim the trophy that already belonged to him.
The starting bell rang.
"Swoosh!"
A black blur flashed past my eyes!
Too fast!
I didn't even have time to react before I heard the screeching sound of metal being sliced!
"Clang!"The entire left arm of the "Wrench," along with its heavy reactor shielding, was sliced clean off, slamming heavily onto the ground!
"My god! The match has only just begun!" The commentator's voice cracked. "'Sequence Five' only needed one strike! Just one hit to sever the 'Wrench's' left arm! Is this the power of a professional mercenary?!"
The stands erupted! Screams, whistles, and frenzied cheers merged into a tidal wave of sound that threatened to drown me.
I stared intently at the alarms flashing across my screen.
Left arm hydraulic system failure! Balance module damaged! Structural integrity down thirty percent!
A cold chill surged up my spine.
For the first time since the tournament began, I felt the threat of death.
"Too slow." A cold, metallic voice sounded directly inside my head.
It was "Sequence Five"! He had hacked into my private channel!
"Your reactions are like a rusty tractor." There was no emotion in his voice, only a pure statement of fact.
"Swoosh—!"
Another blur!
I jerked backward; the "Wrench" toppled clumsily back, narrowly avoiding that lethal blade!
The high-frequency blade skimmed past my cockpit, leaving a terrifying, deep gouge in the armor!
"Crash!"
I slammed heavily onto the ground, the entire cockpit shaking violently.
"Vex is being completely overwhelmed! She's utterly defenseless!"
"She's like a clumsy toy, completely outmatched by 'Sequence Five'!"
Mockery surged toward me like a tide.
In the VIP seats, Crown Prince Leon's smile deepened; he even picked up a glass of wine, prepared to enjoy the upcoming slaughter.
I struggled to stand, but "Razor" gave me no chance!
"Slash! Slash! Slash!"
The black blade flashed wildly around me! Every cut was incredibly precise, peeling off large chunks of armor while skillfully avoiding the core engine and cockpit.
He wasn't killing me; he was toying with me! Like a cat with a mouse, he was dismantling my limbs bit by bit, savoring my despair!
Soon, the "Wrench" was riddled with holes, armor peeling away in large patches to reveal the ugly, tangled wires and hydraulics within.
I lay on the ground like a pile of half-dismantled scrap metal, unable to move.
"It's over." Sequence Five's cold voice rang out again.
He raised the blade on his right arm and aimed it at my cockpit.
The entire arena fell silent; everyone held their breath, waiting for the moment I would be run through and torn apart.
Is this it?
Am I going to... die here like some kind of joke?
No
No! I refuse!
Images flashed through my mind: my father's calloused hands, the warning written in blood in his logbook, and the Crown Prince's arrogant face!
I haven't had my revenge yet! I haven't uncovered the truth! How can I die here?!
A wild thought surged through my body like an electric current!
Since I can't dodge, I won't!
Since I can't block, I won't!
At the very last second, just as Sequence Five's blade was about to pierce my cockpit, I abandoned all defense and stopped struggling!
My fingers flew across the console, bypassing every safety protocol!
"Engine Overload—100%!"
"All power—divert to thrusters!"
Through my "Engineer's Eyes," the world slowed down.
I saw the dense neural data streams inside the "Razor," flowing like a surging silver river from the inhuman monster in the cockpit to every joint of the mecha.
And within that rushing river, I saw a delay so minuscule it was almost negligible.
0.01 seconds.
The time lag between his biological brain processing information and converting it into electronic signals to drive the mecha.
To an ordinary person, this delay didn't exist.
But to me, it was his only weakness—and his most fatal one!
"Roar—!"
The Wrench's old agricultural tractor engine let out a frenzied roar like never before!
Under the shocked gazes of the crowd, my half-wrecked, scrap-heap mecha lunged forward like a suicide cannonball. Using every last ounce of its strength, it didn't retreat, but slammed head-on into the lethal blade!
"Is she insane?!"
"This is suicide!"
Sequence Five was clearly stunned by my death-wish maneuver; he instinctively tried to pull back his blade and retreat.
But that 0.01-second hesitation...
...was enough!
My target had never been his reinforced mecha!
At the moment of impact, I grabbed a high-voltage cable with my remaining right arm—torn from the wreckage and still sparking—and, like the fang of a venomous snake, thrust it with pinpoint precision...
...into an extremely well-hidden vent on the side of his cockpit!
It was the physical port where his neural data was exchanged with the mecha!
"ZZZZZT—!!!"
An ear-splitting crackle of electricity echoed through the arena!
I funneled all the energy from the Wrench's overloaded engine—a terrifying current capable of powering a small city—into him in less than a second!
The massive surge rushed along the neural data stream like a flood from a broken dam, instantly obliterating Sequence Five's brain firewall!
"AAAAAHHH—!!!"
A shrill, inhuman scream erupted from Razor's speakers, lasting less than half a second before cutting off abruptly.
Razor's slender frame suddenly stiffened, and the glow of the high-frequency blades on its arms instantly died out.
Then, like a puppet with its strings cut, it toppled straight backward.
*Boom!*
Mech destroyed.
Pilot dead.
A deathly silence fell over the entire arena.
Everyone stared dumbfounded at the earth-shattering scene.
The commentators' mouths hung open, unable to utter a single word.
The frenzy and mockery on the faces of the audience froze into pure shock and terror.
I won.
In a manner bordering on torture—cruel to the extreme.
I slowly pulled myself up from the ground, dragging my mangled mech as I limped toward the wreckage of Razor.
I looked down, staring at the pile of expensive scrap metal.
Then, I raised my head, my gaze cutting through the terrified crowd and locking onto the VIP box.
There, the smile on Crown Prince Leon Valerius's face had long since vanished.
His hand, still holding the wine glass, was frozen in mid-air. For the first time, a grave—even wary—expression appeared on his handsome face.
He was no longer looking at an amusing toy.
He was looking at a true monster, one capable of threatening him.