Chapter Eighty-Seven: The Hero Challenge Tournament, Part Sixteen

With tomorrow’s challenge match focused on the individual event, I skipped logging in today to train and level up. In two days, the main city teleport network would be unlocked anyway, so there was no rush. Since I had the rare chance to take it easy for a couple of days, I did not want to wear myself out. As Murong Shanshan had said before, too much of a good thing was still too much. There was no need to play a game as though it were a matter of life and death.

Then I suddenly remembered that Murong Shanshan had asked me to treat her to dinner. I had just taken out my phone and was about to dial when she called first.

"Lin Fan, I need to go home tonight and won’t get back until tomorrow morning for the competition, so tonight I can’t take you up on that meal. Buy me dinner another time instead, all right?"

I smiled. "Of course. Your home is in the new district, isn’t it? Be careful on the way back."

"Mm."

She gave a rare, obedient little answer, sweet and soft, then hung up.

I shut down the computer and suddenly felt like going out for a walk. Xin Yu and Lu Xuehan were busy helping Xu Lin prepare dinner, so I greeted them and left. It was only four in the afternoon, and we had agreed to eat at seven.

...

The snow had long since stopped. The streets were full of melting ice and snow, and the cold evening wind cut into my skin like a blade. Watching the crowds moving along the street, I suddenly thought: I wonder if Murong Shanshan wore enough clothes. If she catches a chill on the way back, that would be troublesome. She might not even be able to make it to tomorrow’s preliminaries.

A vendor’s call rose nearby, hawking roasted sweet potatoes. I turned and saw a retired worker, about sixty years old, standing in the freezing wind and shouting to passersby. His weather-beaten face was red from the cold.

I walked over. "Sir, I’ll take a bigger one."

The old man quickly reached into the stove, pulled out a large sweet potato, weighed it, and said, "Half a pound. One yuan will do."

Just then, two girls came out of the bookstore behind him, books in their arms, and joined the crowd around the stall. "Mister, give us two sweet potatoes, and make them the best-smelling ones!"

I turned around and saw that the two girls were also staring at me.

"Isn’t that..." one girl rubbed her eyes, and the other looked equally incredulous.

I froze. "Is what? Don’t just go recognizing people at random."

"Yeah, we must have the wrong person. How could the number one expert be out buying sweet potatoes at this hour?" The girl in the red coat tugged at the other one.

"True enough. Sir, here’s two yuan." The girl handed over the money, then turned to me and said, "Handsome, we’re leaving. Sorry about that just now. My classmate mistook you for someone else."

"No problem, no problem..." I waved my hand repeatedly, staring blankly at their retreating backs.

Damn it, that girl with the mole on her nose looked familiar. Where had I seen her before?

Right. At the foot of Murong Shanshan’s teaching building — one of her classmates. No wonder she recognized me.

"Young man, do you play Moon Horizon?" the sweet potato vendor called after me.

I was rather startled. How had he figured that out?

"You... how did you know?"

"Ha, just by the way you look, all sleep-deprived and worn out. Gaming isn’t a bad thing, but you should still get out and walk around more. Head west a bit and you’ll find the new digital street. It’s pretty suitable for young people like you. Go have a look when you have time."

I nodded and walked west for a bit over half a mile. Sure enough, there was a new digital plaza holding an event.

On the wide electronic screen, the opening sequence of Moon Horizon was playing. A large crowd of young people stood below, discussing it animatedly. After the opening footage ended, the screen suddenly shifted and began showing a player-versus-player recording. I took a close look — the person in dark blue armor was none other than me. And opposite me, the girl who was skillfully retreating while tracing elegant arcs in the air with sword energy was unmistakably Murong Shanshan. A thief lurked in the shadows; from the bystander’s perspective, one could clearly see him quietly coating his dagger with poison. The blade gleamed with a cold blue light that sent a shiver through anyone looking at it.

Wasn’t this the final match we had just finished at noon?

I never expected the recording to be broadcast in public so quickly. I glanced around in a hurry. Everyone was too absorbed in the footage to pay attention to me, so I was safe.

"Brother Yang, that little slut Murong Shanshan is doing pretty well now. She can actually go toe-to-toe with Green Vegetable and White Jade Soup, the country’s number-two expert?"

A lewd voice came from behind me. I turned and saw a short, thin man speaking to a burly middle-aged man beside him. That middle-aged man had an Y-shaped scar on his face.

No, that scar...

That middle-aged man was Crazy Battle!

I never imagined I would run into Crazy Battle here. Looking at his strong, imposing build, he was clearly not someone to be trifled with. Back when Ye Qiu and I were nicknamed the Black Wind Twin Fiends — punching the elders’ home in Wuzhong and kicking the kindergarten in Suzhou — we might have acted like we feared no one. But the few men standing behind Crazy Battle all looked as if they were his people. If a conflict broke out now, I was probably headed for a hospital bed for a few days.

"Hmph. Sooner or later, I, Yu Yang, will make that little bitch kneel before me and beg. That damn White Jade Soup isn’t any good either. I’ll settle the score for him killing me last time, sooner or later!" The middle-aged man ground out the words between clenched teeth.

"Brother Yang, with tomorrow’s individual competition, I’m guessing the final will still be Murong Shanshan and that Green Vegetable fellow. If so, their levels will be even higher. If we want revenge, won’t that make it even harder?"

"Harder my ass. No matter how high his level gets, he’s still just one person. We bring more men, and I don’t believe we can’t hack him to death!"

"Boss, well said! By the way, how’s your cousin’s injury?"

"He’s still lying in the hospital. When he gets out, he’ll probably be crippled. That useless brat — why didn’t he just drug Murong Shanshan? Damn it, he had to force it. In the end he got beaten into that state by that vicious woman. Shameful, isn’t it?"

"Mm. Brother Yang, in two days we’ll be able to enter the main city. Didn’t you recruit several hundred brothers and say you were going to join some amazing guild? I heard the guild leader is supposed to be pretty formidable."

Crazy Battle gave a sinister chuckle. "Relax. Would I call him big brother if he weren’t worth trusting? Murong Shanshan means nothing. My big brother could deal with her in ten seconds. Believe it or not?"

"Ah, the boss’s boss is that strong? Hahaha. Then we’ll never have to put up with Murong Shanshan’s temper again!"

...

I shook my head and turned away from that dangerous place. Behind me, Crazy Battle and his gang were still laughing loudly.

Someone who can deal with Murong Shanshan in ten seconds?

He probably still hasn’t been born, that idiot Crazy Battle...