Something was off, very off.

He Yan stared at the three messages quietly lying in the chat box, deep in thought.

[Crimson Bone]: Let's set a fixed time from now on.

[Crimson Bone]: When are you free?

[Crimson Bone]: .

Anyone who had been through the mecha training grounds knew that Crimson Bone, the top-ranked god, was a very aloof person.

Of course, as the number one on the mecha training grounds leaderboard who was streets ahead of the second place, this kind of aloofness was perfectly normal. Even though there were countless threads about him on the gossip section of the Imperial Mecha Forum, there had never been any juicy gossip about him, because every time "Crimson Bone" appeared in the training grounds, he was either battling or battling.

If someone tried to chat with him, the most they could get was a "hmm". Later on, as he rapidly improved, there were gradually no more opponents who could fight him in the training grounds. His appearances in the training grounds became less and less frequent, eventually almost disappearing, showing up on average only once every two months, completely becoming an untouchable legend of the training grounds.

Until recently, "Crimson Bone" seemed to have developed some interest in a newcomer in the training grounds whose momentum was no less than his back then. He personally went to battle the newcomer a few times, and his frequency of appearing in the training grounds gradually increased. Of course, most of the time was spent battling that newcomer. As for harassment and pick-up lines from others, he ignored them all as usual.

So the gossip-eating crowd on the forum quickly built up threads, marveling: the training grounds finally had someone who could make the god Crimson Bone spare a few more glances! And the newcomer clearly had a lot of potential too. Who knows if one day he could surpass the god?

As for He Yan, the one rumored to be especially favored by the god, although Crimson Bone's attitude towards him was quite friendly and he was willing to waste time sparring with him from time to time to guide him, that was about it. He Yan had also sent Crimson Bone a few messages, but the replies he got were basically just one or two words, not showing any special favor at all, completely maintaining the aloof persona.

But now, the god had actually taken the initiative to send him messages, and three in a row at that?

He Yan counted, including punctuation there was a total of seventeen characters... It seemed like the total number of characters Crimson Bone had replied to him before didn't even add up to this many?

Could it be that after a period of observation, the god felt that he had acceptable aptitude and decided to formally teach him?

Just as He Yan was speculating, a new message appeared in the chat box:

[Crimson Bone]: There?

He Yan was startled and quickly replied: Here, but won't it be too much trouble for you?

On the Imperial Mecha Forum, there was a thread dedicated to guessing Crimson Bone's real-life identity. The most accepted guess was that when this god first came to the training grounds, he might have still been a student, but by now, he was at least a high-ranking military officer, otherwise there was no way to explain his current skill level.

He Yan also quite agreed with this guess. In any case, someone with Crimson Bone's abilities must also be a big shot in real life, and definitely wouldn't have much free time.

A reply came quickly from the other side.

[Crimson Bone]: It won't be. Two hours a week, you set the time.

[Yi]: Then can we do 7pm on weekends?

Generally speaking, even for military personnel, there would be time off on weekends, so He Yan considered it and chose a weekend time.

However, at this time he was not aware that in the empire, there was one position that had no days off all year round.

[Crimson Bone]: Okay, if something comes up I will notify you in advance.

[Yi]: Thank you great god.

[Crimson Bone]: No need to thank me.

[Crimson Bone]: You have a lot of potential.

He Yan: ".................." Faced with the great god's sudden encouragement, he felt inexplicably awkward, completely not knowing how to respond.

Still felt like the great god was a bit off today!

*

After half a month, the finals of the mecha competition finally decided the final results. Unsurprisingly, Aaron took first place in the fourth-year group. The second and third-year groups didn't have any big changes compared to last year. Compared to the stability of these three grades, the results of the first-year group could be said to be quite eye-catching.

"Qi" undoubtedly took first place. This student had been crushing opponents all the way from the beginning, with a skill level clearly more than a notch above his first-year classmates. Him getting first place was expected by all. Some even speculated that if "Qi" went up against Aaron, it was hard to say who would emerge victorious in the end.

The second place was somewhat unexpected. It was not the first-year class president who had the most hype before the finals, but a mysterious student named "Y" who, like "Qi", had not had his identity revealed.

"Y"'s performance in the competition was very impressive. Before the results came out, many people speculated that he had a very good chance of making it into the top ten, but at most that would be it.

But surprisingly, Y's luck always seemed to be heaven-defyingly good. In the last few matches, he was beaten to a pulp by his opponents in almost every one, but bizarrely, he was able to make a comeback and narrowly defeat his opponent at the last moment in every match, stunning those who didn't think highly of him.

As for third place, it was that first-year class president who had the most hype for winning the championship before the competition started. This class president, pressured by two dark horses above him, suffered two invisible slaps to the face and could be said to have lost a lot of face. The thread mourning for him on the forum was also filled with neat rows of "2333333333333".

After the final rankings were out, the Imperial Military Academy would announce the real names and majors of the top 500 students on the official website at 3pm that day.

So on this morning, after the final match of the finals finally concluded, the official website of the Imperial Military Academy instantly hit a peak in traffic. Countless people impatiently crowded onto the website after the last match ended, excitedly refreshing the page over and over, waiting for the moment when the true identities of those mysterious students would be revealed, especially those two dark horses from the first-year group. Most people were here for these two!

Elai, like everyone else, had opened the Imperial Military Academy's official website early, waiting for the moment of the announcement.

He could already imagine, when the result that the second place in the first-year group was an omega came out, how many people's gazes would gather on him, and his name would also be known by people all over the empire due to the immense influence of the Imperial Military Academy's mecha competition!

Although he regrettably didn't get first place because that mysterious "Qi" was simply too strong, it didn't matter. Even second place was excellent enough. After all, in previous mecha combat competitions, the best result an omega could achieve was only 17th place.

In any case, he was much better than those waste omegas, right? In fact, many omegas, especially those from big families, had spiritual power strength above A-level but were unwilling to focus their energy on piloting mechas, wasting their talent.

Just like He Yan, who had the same S-level spiritual power strength as him, yet didn't cherish his talent. He spent all day relying on his family's power to bully Aaron's admirers, not realizing that if he himself wasn't outstanding enough, how could Aaron keep rejecting him?

Elai thought happily, already imagining the angry and jealous expression on He Yan's face when he learned that Elai had gotten second place.