Chapter Ninety-Two: The Hero’s Challenge Tournament, Part Twenty-One

The exact number of matches I fought over the course of that entire day had already become a blur. The system announced that the top sixty-four would be decided tomorrow morning, and that in the afternoon the battles would continue until a champion was crowned.

All eight of us from our little studio had made it through today’s matches. According to the rules, anyone who advanced today would receive a certain amount of experience after tomorrow’s competition ended. It would not be enough to level up, but it was still a fairly generous reward. In a way, it was the system’s little compensation to the players who took part.

After logging in, I found that Murong Shanshan was still in the cathedral. Yesterday, after our match ended, we had been directly teleported there. Whoever came out early would immediately mock those who had lasted longer, and then the banter would begin, continuing on and on until nightfall. The two of us actually talked until then without tiring, our conversation never running dry.

Morning’s matches remained uneventful. We still did not run into any true experts, though the others were not so fortunate. Xinyu, Xu Lin, and Snow Han were all quite formidable; even when they met the occasional strong opponent, they still managed to cut their way through with little danger. The other four girls from our studio, however, were eliminated early. After all, Hurricane City drew together many top players from the Jiangsu and Shanghai regions, and these girls had not played much before. Naturally, they could not compare with those veteran hard-core players. Their elimination was only to be expected.

By noon, the top thirty-two were finally decided. Murong Shanshan, Ye Qiu, Mad Battle, and the others had all entered the next round as expected, and four people from our studio had also made the top thirty-two. Murong Shanshan’s thief friend had qualified as well. In the TOT team, aside from Ye Qiu, only Fine advanced; the rest had been knocked out long ago.

After lunch, we waited quietly in the cathedral for the round of thirty-two to begin. Morning’s matches had gone rather smoothly. The strongest opponent I had met was only a level twenty-seven ax fighter. One strike from a level-three battle axe had actually failed to take away even two hundred of my health. Suffering such a blow to his pride, that player simply conceded and quit the tournament...

Four of our family’s people had reached the top thirty-two, which meant that two hundred thousand rmb had already fallen into our pockets. So this was how easy making money could be!

The thirty-two players were teleported simultaneously to their respective battlefields. Until the top eight were decided, the matchups were still assigned at random by the computer. Since there was no live host in this individual competition, many of the cumbersome details were omitted. That made a lot of players very happy. Turning the game into something like those nauseating variety shows would have ruined it.

System Notice: You have entered Arena Fourteen. Current number of spectators: 2,346,232!

Excellent. Most excellent.

No matter how it was counted, I was the level-one player in Hurricane City, and the only one taking part in the competition with a bright red infamy. The number of people watching my match might not necessarily surpass those watching Murong Shanshan, but it certainly would not be much fewer either.

My opponent was a level-twenty-eight mage. When I looked more carefully, I realized he was actually an old acquaintance—the mage we had cut down in the very first round of the team competition qualifiers: Reckless Youth!

The moment Reckless Youth saw that it was me, he looked as if he wanted to die on the spot. Tears shimmering in his eyes, he stared at me and said, “Why? Why? Is this fate?”

I gave an awkward laugh. “I didn’t want this either, but maybe we’re just too destined to meet. There’s nothing I can do...”

Reckless Youth nodded. “Sigh, I guess I’m the unfortunate one. Oh, right, Brother Qingcai, have you ever thought about starting a guild? If you do, how about I bring along my brothers and join you?”

When I heard that, I knew it was a good thing, and hurriedly said, “Though I haven’t thought about starting a guild for now, Murong Shanshan definitely will. If you don’t mind, you could join her team. I may very well join her guild myself at that time...”

Reckless Youth nodded again. “All right, then it’s settled. If Murong the Beauty starts a guild, please help introduce me to her.”

“No problem.”

“Then let’s begin!”

The moment Reckless Youth finished speaking, a Fireburst came crashing down on my head—

This brat actually tried to ambush me...

That Fireburst dealt more than three hundred damage. It seemed Reckless Youth’s magical attack was pretty decent. He was indeed something of a talent, and unlike Mad Battle’s crowd, he did not seem crude or slovenly. It was easy to imagine that his brothers were not a ragtag bunch either. I had helped Murong Shanshan so much, I wonder how she would thank me.

Reckless Youth had clearly mastered the fire-and-ice style to an uncanny degree, and I concentrated fully as I played along. I abandoned Frost Seal and Mana Bind altogether, using only normal attacks to hack at him. It was not that I looked down on him; rather, against a mage, those two skills were simply too unbalanced. Any mage who encountered me was usually in for a very dangerous time.

Reckless Youth’s positioning as a mage was excellent, but my pursuit was even tighter. Before long, I had closed in on him and slashed out with the opening blow!

Seven hundred and fifty-four!

It was only a normal attack, and not even a critical hit. Against a mage with little defense, damage in that range was perfectly ordinary for my five hundred and twenty to six hundred and sixty-five attack power.

Seeing half his health bar hacked away in one stroke, Reckless Youth was shocked and retreated repeatedly in panic. When I closed in on him again, frost energy suddenly exploded from beneath the ground, and my legs were instantly sealed in ice!

System Notice: You have been hit by Reckless Youth's Frost Nova. You cannot move for three seconds!

So that was his hidden trump card. No wonder he had managed to make it into the qualifiers so safely. If he had not run into me in the round of thirty-two, he might well have had a brilliant show waiting further ahead.

But now, the performance was over.

With one sweeping slash, I sent Reckless Youth out of the battlefield, and formally entered the top sixteen!

Because I had spent quite a bit of time fighting Reckless Youth, my next match started very quickly.

Once again I found myself facing an old opponent. Standing before me was none other than Murong Shanshan’s thief friend—Thief Sky!

The match began at once, and without wasting words, we moved straight into action.

The most troublesome thing about a thief was stealth. No matter what class you were, facing such a ghostlike, elusive skill could leave you helpless. The reason thieves were so slippery in battle was precisely because of this. After their second promotion, a thief’s stealth ability would be enhanced, and with luminous powder they could enter stealth at will even in the middle of combat, striking fear into countless cloth-armored classes!

Crack!

Thief Sky made his move!