The observation deck had gone very, very quiet.

Professor Krenn stared at the screen with the expression of a man whose entire worldview had just been politely disassembled. "Did he...just weaponize a volcano?"

"He really weaponized a volcano," Professor Iona confirmed, her voice unnaturally calm. "Using a pulse gun to deliberately destabilize the thermal gradient of an active geological formation, thereby triggering a premature eruption that eliminated his opponent while simultaneously accepting his own elimination with a calculated timing differential."

"That’s..." Krenn struggled for words. "That’s not really something we could ask our students to do."

"Yeah." Iona’s eyes hadn’t left her data streams. "But it just shows his adaptive combat cognition is at an extraordinary level.

"He realized that he couldn’t win through conventional means, so he identified an environmental variable that could be manipulated, and executed a strategy that prioritized victory conditions over personal survival." She finally looked up, meeting her colleague’s gaze. "When’s the last time you saw a student think like that?"

Krenn didn’t answer.

The question was not that important anyway.

In the student section, Michael had both hands pressed over his mouth, eyes wide. Michelle sat beside him in stunned silence, her avatar’s expression frozen in disbelief.

"He won," Michael whispered. "He actually won."

"By blowing himself up."

"Still counts!"

The chat exploded.

[StormRaider]: WHAT DID I JUST WATCH

[TheGreatest33]: did he really just...???

[RandomStudent47]: VOLCAN WINNER CONFIRMED

[ProPilot_X]: That move should be illegal 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

[VeteranWatcher]: I’ve watched academy tournaments for twenty years, but I’ve NEVER EVER seen anyone think of that just because this is a game.

Michelle finally found her voice. "He’s insane."

"He’s a genius," Michael countered.

"I don’t know about that."

○●○●

Back in the game lobby, Neville allowed himself exactly three seconds of victorious gloating before Grayson’s avatar materialized beside him.

Grayson had... a complicated look on his demeanor.

His expression cycled through several emotions of disbelief, irritation, and grudging respect before settling on a kind of helpless exasperation.

"A volcano, really?"

"Well, there is one, so I just had to use it." Neville agreed.

"What were you thinking when you triggered a volcanic eruption to win a mecha match?"

"Nothing much really. And technically, I just destabilized the pre-existing geological instabilities. The eruption in that map was just a natural occurrence."

Grayson rubbed his temples, "You know that would never work in real combat, right? If—"

"Good thing this isn’t real combat," Neville couldn’t stop smiling.

Still, he won against all odds.

"Now, that’s one-to-one. We have one more match to decide it."

"You’re still thinking about continuing?"

"I already said best of three." Neville faced Grayson’s avatar head-on with defiant determination. "Unless you want to forfeit?"

The exasperation remained on Grayson’s avatar, and so was the helplessness.

"Fine," Grayson said, and his voice carried a soft note. "One more match. But I’m not going easy on you this time."

Neville grinned. "Like you can."

[MATCH 3 PARAMETERS]

Mode: 1v1

Time Limit: 5 Minutes

Map: Desert Expanse (Random Selection)

Loadout: Standard Mecha - Plasma Blade, Light Pulse Gun, Triple-Shot Projectile Laser Missiles

The world materialized around Neville in a wash of golden light and scorching heat.

Desert Expanse.

Of all the maps, the randomizer had chosen another one of the hard maps in this game.

Endless dunes stretched before him, broken only by scattered large rock formations that jutted from the sand like the bones of some ancient behemoth. The artificial sun beat down mercilessly.

Even though Neville knew it was just a simulation, he could swear he felt sweat forming on his brow.

His mecha stood motionless on a rocky outcropping. In the distance, perhaps a kilometer away, he could just make out another shape.

Grayson’s mecha.

Neville’s hands rested on the manual controls.

[MATCH START]

Seconds ticked by.

Neither mecha moved from their places.

The wind howled across the dunes, sending streams of digital sand cascading down slopes.

Neville’s sensors pinged with environmental data.

The visibility was drastically reduced during sandstorms. The heat signature tracking was compromised by thermal interference, and the structural integrity of rock formations was at 43% and continuously decreasing.

Still, Grayson didn’t move.

And neither did Neville.

[Aren’t you going to do something?] Grayson’s voice came through, tinged with genuine curiosity.

"I’m thinking."

[About what?]

"About how much I’m going to enjoy annoying you."

A pause stretched between them, filled only by the whisper of sand against metal.

Then, incredibly, a soft laugh came through.

[Really, now?] Grayson said.

"Really."

Then, Neville made his move.

His mecha’s arms extended, fingers releasing the plasma blade and light pulse gun. The weapons tumbled through the air, landing in the sand with dull thuds.

Across the map, Grayson’s mecha went very still.

[What are you doing?]

"Surrendering."

[...what?]

Neville let the moment hang, savoring the Graysons’ confusion on the other side.

"Just kidding!"

The missile launchers on his shoulders roared to life.

’NOW!’

Triple-shot projectile laser missiles streaked across the desert in a blazing arc, homing in on the stationary target that had, for just a split second, hesitated.

[That’s cheating!] Grayson shouted, but the sound of explosions drowned out his voice.

○●○●

In the spectator feeds, absolute chaos erupted.

"Did he just—"

"How could he do that?!

"A false surrender! He—"

"That’s a war crime!"

Michael had both hands pressed against his face, watching through the gaps in his fingers.

Beside him, Michelle had abandoned all pretense of composure and was screaming at her screen.

"How could you do that? He’ll kill you! Run!"

Professor Krenn’s expression could have frozen lava.

"A psychological warfare," he murmured, making a note. "Unconventional, but effective."

"You’re calling it that now?" Professor Iona’s eyes were bright with academic fascination. "Look at the response time on that pivot. He’s compensating for manual control lag with predictive positioning."

"Is this even allowed?" someone in the crowd asked.

"The rules don’t explicitly forbid false verbal surrendering. After all, he did attack immediately after, so it can be classified as a distraction?" another voice replied with an uncertainty in his tone.

"That feels exactly like something the rules should forbid!"