Chapter 139: Perhaps You Should Just Give In

Gate 3.

Xu Tiange carried her long hammer on her back as usual, her ponytail held high...

No, looking closely, it seemed even higher than usual.

An aura of exuberant vitality radiated from her from the inside out, visible even without intense focus.

After the proctor finished reading the detailed rules and announced the sequential entry, she took a long stride forward without hesitation and stepped in first: "I won't actively attack you, but you'd better not come looking for trouble with me either, otherwise, don't blame me for disregarding our classmate ties, ha!"

Her perfect back silhouette vanished into the darkness amidst the fleeting shadow of her hammer. Left behind were only a ground full of shattered examinees—oh, and similarly shattered proctors and spectators.

Why?

Because before Xu Tiange disappeared into the darkness, her giant hammer clearly transformed from one into two—she was now dual-wielding.

Pfft, dual-wielding wasn't the main point.

The main point was that this kind of transformation from one to two, two to three, and three to infinitely many weapons was exclusive to the Four-Star Mind-Fusion stage!

This girl had already reached Four Stars?!

Just graduated from high school—no, not even graduated yet—and she was already Four Stars?

Many students, even after graduating from university or working for several years, couldn't reach Four Stars in their entire lives... yet she was already a Four-Star?

It felt just like Son Goten and Trunks inexplicably turning Super Saiyan...

It felt just like someone else's child, before even finishing high school, starting from scratch and buying cars and houses through their own ability...

In Jiangcheng's history, it seemed a Four-Star high school senior had never appeared before, right?

In fact, Three-Star fighters were already very rare. In past years, gathering even two digits of them was considered a decent crop, all enjoying all-star-level treatment. It was only this year, with the advent of holographic helmets, that their numbers exploded into the triple digits, making them seem rather ordinary.

However... Four Stars?

People still didn't even dare to imagine it!

At first, there was absolute silence, and then earth-shattering cheers erupted like a volcanic eruption, causing spectators whose focus was elsewhere to turn their heads in bewilderment—what, the match just started, and you guys are already climaxing? How are you going to handle the rest?

However, once others explained the situation, they instantly climaxed as well.

Four Stars? There was actually a Four-Star fighter?

This year's competition was... going to be unwatchable! There was zero suspense left at all...

==========

Although there was no suspense, the broadcast director still gave Ye Chao plenty of screen time.

After all, the romantic rivalry between Xu and Ye was the absolute focal point of the arena.

Even though this so-called "romance" had turned into an advance-and-retreat stalemate since the wager, with neither of them having met once or spoken a single shy word to each other.

Ye Chao was also entering the arena.

He was holding a tablet in his hands, and on the screen was precisely the footage of Xu Tiange walking into the examination hall.

"Xu Tiange has reached Four Stars?" He couldn't help raising an eyebrow.

Even for him, this brought a deep sense of pressure.

Three-Star and Four-Star tiers after the Cataclysm were nothing like hotel ratings before it, casual and vague. Every single rank up made an absolute difference, especially in combat.

A higher-tier fighter beating a lower-tier one was like an adult beating a child; it was hard to lose even if you tried.

"Yeah, and she even leveled up inside the Imaginary Space," Alpha-chan said with relish, munching on sweet life-popcorn.

"Such an important matter, and you didn't tell me?"

"This Palace did tell you!"

"When?"

"This Palace said you were making a dying struggle."

????????

Glancing at Ye Chao's depressed face, Alpha-chan's voice softened a little: "What's the use of telling you in advance? It's nothing more than a dying struggle anyway... Life is like rape; if you can't resist, you might as well just lie back and enjoy it."

Sigh, Ye Zichao, oh Ye Zichao, why are you so dense?

Why take a duel between a man and a woman so seriously?

Just muddle through it somehow; lose when you're supposed to lose, kneel when you're supposed to kneel, there's no shame in that.

Huang Rong was so smart, was she really unable to beat Guo Jing at first? As for Ah Qing, she was immensely powerful, yet didn't she still lose completely in the end? So, does it matter who's on top and who's below? You need to get your positioning right and adjust your mindset. Don't tell me you want to be Lin Chaoying?

Nobody knew the inner monologues of Ye Chao and Alpha-chan.

But even without knowing them, Ye Chao's behavior still left Jiangcheng's two hundred thousand spectators speechless in wave after wave.

While not quite as shocking as Xu Tiange's earlier display, it was close.

The image displayed on your tablet is clearly the broadcast from the plaza's giant screen, right?

Can you also see and hear the commentary from the various broadcasting anchors? Well... actually, you really can.

You, you, you—isn't this considered cheating?

Peeking at tiles in mahjong, screen-peeking in video games, feeling guilty while beating your kids...

To the noisy boos and endless protests from the audience, the proctors turned a blind eye and a deaf ear.

Save it!

If we actually penalize that kid for cheating, you lot will start protesting about shady deals and biased whistles again; don't think we don't know.

Besides, the guy isn't even cheating. Did the exam rules say screen-peeking isn't allowed?

Information and clues gathered through one's own ability are no different from hearing and seeing them with one's eyes and ears. How can that be called cheating?

Just speaking strictly on the merits here, we are definitely not saying this just because that kid's Imaginary-realm grandmaster master is standing right beside us...

Mixed martial arts thus began amidst these various unexpected circumstances.

==========

Gate 33.

After collecting a heart-guard mirror and putting it on under the proctor's supervision, Ye Chao walked through the gate along with the other students.

The light ahead suddenly dimmed, and a warm, damp breeze rushed toward their faces, carrying a mixture of fresh plant vegetation, the musk of animals, the earthy stench of soil, and the moldy rot of fungi... Without even using his eyes, just by smelling the scent, one could tell that the terrain here was intricate and the situation complex.

Glow sticks, flashlights, electric toothbrushes, vibration batons... various detection equipment activated one after another.

Equipment was no longer prohibited during the mixed martial arts stage.
Those with weapons took out weapons; those without weapons would have them provided by the school. Genesis-type weapons were even better, which was why it was called mixed martial arts.

Of course, if you knew the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms and preferred to go bare-handed, that was fine too.

Reconnaissance, battle preparation, engaging the enemy, clearing the battlefield... children of this era were far more familiar with the four elements of combat than the four narrative elements of introduction, development, climax, and conclusion—and Ye Chao was no exception.

"Bzzzz..." With a wave of his hand, several micro-drones flew out in all directions like a swarm of diligent little bees.

However, "Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..." several attacks targeted the drones almost simultaneously, including darts, stones, and even remote-controlled weapons.

The battle erupted abruptly!

However, the most powerful attack came from a top-one-hundred Three-Star student from No. 1 High School named Chang Kongxin.

He was very similar to Xu Tiange, with his Genesis weapon being a high-pressure gas canister. But rather than swinging the canister around, his habitual attack method involved several air guns connected to the high-pressure gas cylinder—after Three-Star enhancement, it could truly be called an air cannon!

Simultaneously, several golf-ball-sized projectiles sprayed toward Ye Chao at high speed.

Speaking of which, the twenty-four-person squads in mixed martial arts were structured very meticulously.

First of all, the number of students from each school in a team was equal. If students from all four schools were present, it was 6+6+6+6; if one school was missing, it was 8+8+8, maintaining strict equilibrium among factions.

Strength also followed rules, assigned by rankings with one person chosen every sixty spots from front to back, impartial and balanced, much like World Cup group stages.

For instance, in this squad at Gate 33, the person within the top sixty was Ye Chao; the one between rank sixty and one hundred twenty was Chang Kongxin, who was ranked 77th; followed by a certain Two-Star from No. 2 High School ranked 189th, and a certain Two-Star from No. 4 High School ranked 256th...

Since Jiangcheng currently had over a hundred Three-Star fighters, almost every squad featured a direct dialogue between two Three-Star fighters.

All sorts of intricate information flashed through Ye Chao's mind in a fraction of a second, but... his body felt as sluggish as a slow-motion video, completely failing to make any reactive dodge in time.

He watched helplessly as various attacks flew toward the drones, while the deadly golf-ball projectiles headed straight for the heart-guard mirror on his chest.

And then, they narrowly grazed past him by the skin of his teeth...