Refusal

At the moment when the Expeditionary crashed, everyone held their breath.

It wasn't until it slammed heavily onto the ground, like the collapse of a mountain, that the audience in the stands and in front of their television sets erupted into cheers, the deafening roar echoing through the sky.

Due to its massive weight, when the Expeditionary hit the ground, it created a huge crater on the island of Lacfania, causing the entire island to tremble as if in an earthquake. Despite this, it miraculously remained intact, although its outer hull sustained significant damage from the impact, resembling the aftermath of being bombarded by thousands of missiles. The powerful safety systems of the starship prevented it from exploding, but the violent collision provided an exhilarating free fall experience for all the crew members, some of whom collided with the bulkheads during the descent, sustaining injuries despite the protective membranes.

Two unlucky individuals even broke their necks on impact.

Well, accidents couldn't just happen to the participants, could they?

A league with fatalities among its members undoubtedly attracted more attention.

The two hosts were dumbfounded as well.

Lilith watched the scene before her in disbelief. "It's down, he really made it down."

"Incredible, it's nothing short of a miracle!" The male host next to her murmured in agreement.

Then he glanced at Lilith. "I remember you saying that if he made it through the preliminaries, you'd give him a passionate night, didn't you?"

This comment was broadcasted to every member of the audience through the microphone, causing another uproar.

Lilith looked at Reno and smiled. "Of course, I remember."

The cheers grew even louder.

Due to the Expeditionary's crash, all remaining participants automatically passed the preliminaries, making it the preliminaries with the highest number of successful candidates in the history of the Storm League—nearly half of the participants passed.

Everyone cheered for this, except for the Storm Group, who were furious—they would have to pay a hefty prize money, not to mention the losses caused by the Expeditionary's crash. Although this incident would greatly boost the league's viewership ratings, the cost was too high.

After the competition ended, Reno unsurprisingly stood on the winner's podium.

He became the MVP of the game, and according to the rules, he would receive a prize of three hundred thousand.

Lilith gracefully approached Reno and handed him a trophy representing the MVP of the game, along with a check for three hundred thousand in her hand.

Reno waited for her to hand over the check, but instead of passing it to him after giving him the trophy, she grabbed his hand and lifted it high.

The cheers grew even louder.

The woman exclaimed loudly, "Today, we witnessed the birth of a hero. And that is... Shadow!"

"Shadow!"

"Shadow!"

"Shadow!"

Everyone shouted together.

Never before had Reno been the center of attention for tens of millions, no, hundreds of millions of people.

Standing in the center of the platform, listening to the surging cheers, Reno's mood was remarkably calm.

Lilith seemed to greatly enjoy the adoration of the masses. She held Reno's hand like this for quite a while, until the applause subsided, and then stopped, her face adorned with a sweet smile as she said, "Well, I have to admit I was wrong about our rookie... Don't look at me like that, I know what you want to say."

Boos erupted, and the audience sent out lewd laughter.

Lilith had already looked at Reno.

She smiled and said, "You're a true hero, and if you're willing, I'm yours tonight."

With that, she opened her arms.

As long as Reno reached out, he could embrace Lilith.

The boos grew louder.

"Hug her!"

"Fuck her!"

"Bang her!"

Everyone screamed, shouted, and after the intense and exciting mech battle, witnessing a scene of hero and beauty like this was undoubtedly something everyone enjoyed.

Of course, there was also envy and jealousy. Watching Lilith's seductive face, Matthew in front of the TV felt a rush of heat from his lower body, his hand frantically moving at his crotch as he howled into the air.

The atmosphere at the scene was as fiery as ever, but Reno's heart remained calm.

He looked at the beautiful woman waiting for him to embrace her, and reached out.

To take the check from Lilith's hand.

Snap!

The atmosphere at the scene abruptly stopped, as if the brakes had been applied, and Reno turned and walked down the stage.

"Please make way," he said.

Pushing Lilith aside, like pulling aside a curtain, he walked down to the stage.

Lilith stood there dumbfounded.

Everyone stared blankly at the scene before them.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang, and the crowd erupted into intense cheers once again.

At that moment, the roar was louder than ever before, mixed with incredulous roars, wild laughter, anger, madness, surprise, and laughter, all occurring simultaneously, reflecting off each other, creating a boiling wave across the entire Isle of Death.

At that moment, the entire night sky was ignited by Reno's actions.

"He rejected her!"

"Oh my God, Lilith was rejected."

"I've never seen such a cool rejection!"

"Can you believe it? He told Lilith to move aside, haha, he said move aside!"

In various corners of the universe, different voices played out one after another—there were praises, curses, laughter, and hatred.

"That bastard, he made Lilith a laughingstock!" someone backstage at the broadcast exclaimed angrily.

"Well, it depends on how you interpret it. For me, rejecting Lilith clearly has a better effect than accepting. This incident will become a topic of regional significance and will continue to be hot for at least three days," replied a marketing planner. "You have to know, in this day and age, creating such a topic isn't easy."

"But anyway, Lilith won't like it."

"She's just a host. In the Mech League, mechs are the eternal protagonists, not the hosts," someone said.

As he stepped down from the winner's podium, a fiery-haired girl approached him.

Reno recognized her as the pilot of the red mech. Her marksmanship was astonishingly accurate, and her adaptability was very fast. If it weren't for his unexpected rise, she might have been the MVP of this competition.

She walked straight to Reno, tall and graceful, her curves captivating even Reno's eyes for a moment.

"Hello, I'm Antonia."

"Hello," Reno replied.

"That last hit was well done. I look forward to your performance in the next match," Antonia said with a smile. She gave Reno a confident but competitive smile, then turned and left.

"Coming to challenge me," Reno muttered to himself as he watched her leave.

But obviously, she wasn't the only one coming to challenge him.

Another person approached, wearing a black scarf over his face just like Reno—a man.

Reno remembered him as the pilot of the sinister black mech—wearing a scarf was the right choice for him. With his sinister tactics and brutal methods, if he exposed his true face, he might not live to see the sun rise tomorrow.

Compared to the redhead, the man in black had a colder gaze, like a snake staring at him, sending shivers down Reno's spine.

Reno had no fondness for him.

Sure enough, the man in black spoke:

"You're just lucky. In the next match, I'll stab your heart. Remember my name, Musashi Yamada!"

His tone was full of arrogance and self-confidence, and his eyes on Reno were filled with disdain.

Faced with this blunt and arrogant provocation, Reno thought for a moment before replying:

"I don't think I'll remember. There are many people I want to defeat, and I don't have the energy to remember them all."

Musashi Yamada was clearly stunned by Reno's response. He hesitated before saying, "Bastard, how dare you compare me to others. I'm different from them!"

"No difference," Reno shook his head. He said, "Only losers need to issue challenges."