IMAO Chapter 80

Happy New Year!!! May everyone have a blessed and bountiful 2025!

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When the match replay ended, the arena instantly erupted with passionate screams.

Too powerful, they were really too powerful!

Whether it was YUAN’s predictive abilities or RONG’s fierce close combat attacks, the cooperation between these two was simply invincible!

Tyson turned to Alfonso beside him and said with undisguised envy, “Perhaps the Federation will see two more young and capable generals like Ji Chong in the future.”

“Haha.”

Alfonso beamed with joy at his old friend’s words.

“I really want to know what expression that guy Eric has right now!” said a general next to Alfonso, who was equally close to him, his eyes crinkling with amusement.

“He cares so much about his face, he’ll probably end up in the hospital from anger when he hears this news!” Tyson said with a laugh.

Eric was the Rick Empire’s supreme commander during the war. Although he had already stepped down from his position as the Grand Marshal of the Rick Empire, nobody in the interstellar community had forgotten the trauma this old man had brought upon them. Seeing the Federation deliver such a blow to Rick’s face made both men secretly happy!

“They’re here,” Tyson paused, looking at Alfonso beside him.

After the match, Jiang Yuan’s group left the arena. Following a short break, He Chuan brought them directly to the spectator stands instead of leaving as usual, mainly because Marshal Alfonso was present today, and they had to at least pay their respects.

“Marshal, hello.” The seven of them saluted in unison.

The old man looked at them kindly, clearly in a good mood, and said cheerfully, “You performed well in today’s match. You’ve worked hard, now go get some good rest.”

The old man patted Gu Bai’s shoulder, who stood at the front, speaking very amiably.

Just as the group exchanged a few words and prepared to leave, they ran into Ji Chong. Ji Chong came over, delivered his lover’s message, and then let them go.

Tyson frowned and turned to Alfonso beside him, asking curiously, “What’s that kid’s relationship with Marshal Ji Chong?”

“What else could it be? That boy is Ji Chong’s son,” Alfonso said with a smile.

“Ji Chong’s son? I thought he wasn’t married?” Tyson asked, puzzled.

But Tyson didn’t get an answer because Ji Chong had already seen the children off and was walking toward them.

“Ji Rong, what did your dad just tell you?” Gu Bai sidled over, asking Ji Rong curiously.

Ji Rong: “Nothing much, just passing on a message from my other dad, saying I performed well.”

Ji Rong recalled how his father had pulled him aside earlier, asked about the incident at the police station, and then warned him not to trouble his Omega father in the future.

Ji Rong pouted… it was only because going through Federation procedures was such a hassle that he’d asked his second dad for help!

After all, it was his dad’s fault for being inadequate!

Of course, these thoughts he only dared to keep in his mind, not daring to say them in front of Ji Chong.

[Here it comes, here it comes, the data stream analysis you’ve been waiting for!]

[Federation vs Rick Match: Detailed Commentary and Analysis]

—”These two Federation gods were absolutely savage! They even flew straight up to search for targets!”

—”YUAN is amazing for sure, but didn’t you notice how incredibly strong RONG is too? Seven kills in two and a half minutes! One against seven!”

—”Honestly, these two have incredible chemistry, it’s almost ridiculous!”

—”It’s not just good chemistry! Don’t you think they’re kind of sweet together? One charges in for close combat while the other provides cover fire from afar. I’ve shipped them so hard! [RONG/YUAN Beautiful CP Edit]”

—”Damn, I’m shipping it!! You guys are too much, waaaah!”

As a Federation member, Ji Yang hadn’t missed a single match between Jiang Yuan and Ji Rong. After watching today’s satisfying match, he just wanted to check the Interstellar Forum to see people’s reactions, but he never expected to find people shipping Jiang Yuan and Ji Rong as a CP!

The video compilation of the two mecha battles must have been pulled from countless matches. These clips looked fine when pieced together, but once the music was added, even he started to wonder if Jiang Yuan and Ji Rong were already together.

Sweet!

It was genuinely sweet!

Damn!

—”Thank you uploader, I’m satisfied!”

—”Ahhhhh, so sweet! Beautiful CP, I’m in love!”

—”Master editor, how are you so talented? Please make more content! I’m eating this up!”

Ji Yang, as if possessed, forwarded the video directly to Jiang Yuan.

Ding.

The communicator rang.

Jiang Yuan, who was sitting in the car heading back to the Silver Palace, picked up his communicator and immediately saw Ji Yang’s message: “You guys were amazing in today’s match! I’m satisfied!”

After that message came another: “Look what I found online! Check it out! Tell me what you think! [evil grin]”

The third message was a link: [RONG/YUAN Beautiful CP Edit]

Jiang Yuan slowly typed out: ?

“Who is it?” Ji Rong asked softly from beside him.

“Ji Yang, he sent this over.”

Jiang Yuan handed his communicator to Ji Rong. Ji Rong paused for a moment, saw the title Ji Yang had sent, and clicked it directly.

In the video, the first shot was of Thunder Fighter 01, followed by Fighter 02.

“Hey, isn’t this from when we introduced our personal profiles on the first day of the competition?” Gu Bai, sitting on Jiang Yuan’s left, leaned over when he heard the sound.

Then the scene changed to show some incredibly stunning mecha maneuvers, followed by voices.

“If they want to get close to you, they’ll have to get past my gun first!”

“My blade doesn’t agree with you touching him!”

“I’m glad you weren’t hurt. I was worried about you.”

“I’ll protect you. No one can get near you unless they step over my dead body!”

“I came here to fight for you!”

…

“Holy crap!” Gu Bai slapped his thigh, “I don’t remember you guys saying any of this!”

“Because we never did.” Jiang Yuan covered his mouth with his fist and cleared his throat. “It’s obviously dubbed by the creator.”

Just as Jiang Yuan finished speaking, Ji Rong suddenly said quietly, “The line ‘My blade doesn’t agree with you touching him’… I did say that during the match.”

Jiang Yuan: “Oh, did you?”

Ji Rong: “Yes!”

Jiang Yuan: “I don’t remember…”

Ji Rong: “It was during the fifth group match, when they tried to ambush you from behind, I…”

Gu Bai and Cyril listened to Ji Rong explaining to Jiang Yuan, then one by one turned their heads away awkwardly, exchanging glances with each other.

They weren’t sure about Jiang Yuan’s feelings for Ji Rong, but Ji Rong definitely had feelings!

This CP might become real any day now!

Two days later, all the quarter-final matches were completed, leaving only four teams: the Federation, Hoyt, Myorsa, and Lance national teams were heading into the semi-finals!

“He Chuan, you’re something else! I remember these two kids were substitutes before. How did you discover them? Didn’t they just enter school this year?” A Federation officer asked, hooking an arm around He Chuan’s neck.

“A teacher introduced them,” He Chuan said with a grin.

“By the way, did you hear? Basil didn’t watch any of the later matches and took his team straight back.”

Hearing his colleague’s words, He Chuan paused, “Who told you that?”

“A friend told me.”

Just as the two were talking, at the venue where a match had just ended, the host went on stage and called out to the last team in the top four: “Would the coach of the Lance Liberal Federation please come up to draw their next opponent.”

Called by name, Farr took a deep nervous breath and walked to the stage. He had to draw now, not knowing which country would be their next opponent…

His gaze swept across the players from the other three countries present, and his heart sank.

God bless him, let him draw Myorsa! They couldn’t win against the other two!

He reached out and felt a cold crystal ball, and as he pulled it out, he instinctively closed his eyes!

The commentator saw Farr’s draw result, swallowed, and immediately announced: “The next two matches will be Lance versus Myorsa, and Hoyt versus the Federation!”

“Myorsa?” Hearing the commentator’s words, Farr instinctively opened his eyes and looked at the crystal ball in his hand. It really was… Myorsa!

At this moment, all the spectators were stunned. “Damn, damn, damn! The Federation and Hoyt are meeting here! Holy crap!”

“This Lance guy’s hand, not bad! We get to see these two countries’ match early! I love it!”

“Myorsa must be overjoyed right now, right? Between those two, it’s a fifty-fifty chance, anyone could win. But against the Federation or Hoyt, there’s no chance! Whoever wins between those two countries basically gets handed second place!”

“What do you mean ‘handed’? Luck is also a kind of strength!”

“Damn, why didn’t our country’s drawer have this luck? If your hand’s unlucky, don’t draw! Drawing Hoyt in the first round, I’m so pissed!”

“Hugs to you, our country was the same, got sent home early by the Federation QAQ”

“The finals coming early, this is great!”

“Who’s going to win between the Federation and Hoyt? Ahhh, start the match already! I want to see!”

…

Hearing the match arrangement, Hoyt team’s Simon immediately grabbed Lu Yan beside him and shouted, “Captain, did you hear? Our next opponent is the Federation!”

“I heard, I heard, lower your voice, I’m not deaf!” Lu Yan irritably swatted away Simon’s grabbing hand.

Simon stuck out his tongue and said, “Tch, I saw you had no reaction at all, I thought you didn’t hear!”

“Finally, we can compete against them! I thought it would be at the end, didn’t expect it to be the next match!”

Simon licked his lips, “I can’t wait to face off against RONG!”

Like Ji Rong, he was the type of player who excelled at aggressive close combat without giving enemies a chance to breathe. Previously, he didn’t pay much attention to the Federation, but after Captain Lu Yan had them watch several Federation matches, he became particularly focused on Ji Rong, wanting to compete against him! To see who was the true king of close combat!

“Finally, I can face off against him!”

Hearing his teammate’s voice, Lu Yan glanced slightly at Simon. Who could disagree? He was just as excited for this match.

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