by Feng Yue
“Are you stupid?” Bai Xi muttered. “We lost one-hundred seventy-thousand and now you’re giving two hundred thousand?”
“Everything’s going as planned.” Charles smiled mysteriously. “They’ll forget their own failures once someone succeeds and want to try again. The people who were just looking will want to try too. Just watch, more and more will come give us points…And we’re not losing either.”
With that, Charles showed her the income from the short period secretively. Bai Xi gaped for a long while and gasped. “Did you rob the Church’s bank?!”
“Are you kidding? This is better than robbing a bank!” Charles whistled and smiled at the students in line. He suddenly sighed. “Ah, I don’t know why, but I keep thinking they look like chives…Am I seeing wrong?”
-
At the entrance, Cullen, who was getting ready to leave, suddenly felt a chill go down his spine. It felt as if an eerie wind blew at the back of his head. He glanced around in suspicion, but could only conclude that it was his mind playing tricks.
“Oh right, where’s Ye Qingxuan?” He glanced at Charles, who was not far away. “I remember he was still sleeping here when I first came.”
“Don’t know.” Charles ate baked seeds and spoke casually, but his smile was mysterious. “Maybe he went out to play.”
For some reason, Cullen had a bad feeling again. He shook his head, trying to shake it away, but his badge that he had blocked began shaking wildly after he left. Dozens of student council members were trying to contact him. He froze and then connected with a bitter smile.
“Cullen, you…”
“I know, I know” He sighed, “I’ll return the points right now. I’m sorry.”
“It’s not the points!” Ingres interrupted. “There’s a problem! Hurry back, that Eastern concertmaster is coming! He’s almost here!”
The call cut off. Cullen sprinted back without even thinking.
Something has still gone wrong!
-
When he got back, it was already too late. Everyone at the School of Royalty’s exhibit sat in their seats in the settling dust without a word.
“What happened?” Cullen rushed in, panting for breath. “What did the Eastern concertmaster do? Did he fight?”
“No, it’s already over.” Ingres chuckled dryly. “An hour ago, he went to the Modifications’ exhibit. Forty minutes ago, he went to Summoning. Ten minutes ago, he was still here…”
The bad feeling in Cullen’s gut enlarged quickly. “And then?”
“He just tried twice. Twice.” Ingres’s face was ashen. “He passed in two tries and he even found some loopholes and cleared all the stages on the spot. He took the sixty-thousand points…”
“How is that possible?!” Cullen yelped and quickly said, “Where’s the video? Show me!”
The recording was quickly brought to him. In the video, he saw the steel chariot slowly pass through the complex map. It waited patiently on the path the enemy must use and destroyed them all, one at a time.
There was no hurrying or panic at all. The entire process was calm and steady, even when he reached the sixth level and all enemy chariots had upgraded to the newest military strategy and surrounded him. Instead of caring about his commanding center under fire, he hid behind two small blockades and actually destroyed all the enemy chariots.
When he destroyed the last chariot, his fortress had been blown apart completely. The Griffin emblem was out in the open without any protection. He would be defeated with just one aether cannon.
Just one.
It was a miniscule difference, but the results were completely different.
“How did he pass the last level?” After pondering, Cullen skipped directly to the last level. Ye Qingxuan’s second fail had been here, because here, all enemy chariots were upgraded with music scores. They could become temporarily invincible.
There were always nineteen chariots; if one was destroyed, another would take its place. They were arranged in a previously-planned formation and forged on until it pushed into Ye Qingxuan’s camp and destroyed the Griffin emblem.
The recording soon jumped to the last part, but the familiar style came once again. It was as if the principal had returned. Ye Qingxuan used all the saved up points to upgrade the fortress in the beginning until the camp became green gold.
Then, he welcomed the incoming enemy. His actions were crazy and desperate, yet calm and steady at the same time. Each round was flawless, whether it was dodging the attacks or dragging the pursuers through a maze of blockades. No action was a waste of time. In the end, when the enemy had entered his camp, he had pushed into the enemy’s nest as well.
But the moment the enemy flattened his camp, he successfully shot a cannon at the broken fortress before him. He instantly turned the tides.
He used space to exchange for time, entered enemy grounds alone and used flawless speed and control to win. The line between victory and defeat was still miniscule. He had gambled everything on his speed. If he was a second late or took one wrong step, everything would be flipped and he would be the one dead.
After finishing, Cullen felt his scalp go numb. This strategy was even scarier than the principal’s wildness—he had that every action and reaction of the enemy was in Ye Qingxuan’s control the entire time.
After a long silence, Cullen looked up. He sucked in a cold breath and rubbed his numb face, asking, “Is he…a robot?”
Ingres shook his head wordlessly, either disagreeing or just saying that he did not know.
Despite the strict difficulty level, Cullen had been prepared to have people succeed, but this method was still dumbfounding. Thankfully he had won some “advertisement fee” from the history department. After paying his debts, the remaining amount was enough to make up for the loss.
Cullen could not help but chuckle bitterly. What had he been doing this entire day? Working for the history department for free? Or had that white-haired dude thought of this from the beginning?
He shook his head, gathering his senses. “Where’s Ye Qingxuan now?”
“Now?” Ingres thought for a moment and a gleeful expression appeared. “Probably at Revelations.”
The four major schools were connected. If they must die, they would die together.
-
At the same time, Ye Qingxuan was in the Joker illusion of the School of Revelations.
On the card table, the default illusion had gone from energetic to extremely stiff—one could faintly feel the heat rolling off of it. It was calculating every possibility, guessing the youth’s cards from the cards already put down.
Across from it, Ye Qingxuan was still leaning back in his chair lazily. His cards were face down on the table; he could not be bothered to even look at them. The more casual he acted, the worse the student behind the illusion felt. He had no clue how to calculate what cards the *sshole had.
As if he was bored, the white-haired youth tapped the table and said composedly, “Are you going to follow? Hurry up and stop wasting time…Don’t think I can’t tell that the person playing changed a few minutes ago.”
The features of the student behind the illusion twisted. He said through the illusion, “I’m following!” He pushed the coins forward. The mountain of coins clacked against each other.
“Then flip the cards.” Ye Qingxuan did not even glance at the coins; he just stared at the illusion’s eyes.
He was clearly looking at that nonexistent image, but for some reason, the student felt as if Ye Qingxuan was looking at himself. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead and his pupils dilated. This guy…was still pretending!
Gritting his teeth, the student flipped the cards. There was one nine of hearts and aces of all suites—four of a kind!
“Ha, pretty good.” Ye Qingxuan smiled and showed his hand—jack of spades and ace of spades. With the three visible cards, he had…a royal flush.
The student behind the illusion instantly felt as if his eyes had been stabbed. He shook
involuntarily and finally reacted, but realized that his shaking had caused the illusion to flash. He pale and sweating self had been revealed.
“How about this? I won’t take the extra money.” Ye Qingxuan swept all the illusionary coins into his school badge and turned to leave. He halted at the entrance though and half-smiled at the dazed illusion. “Good game.”
The youth walked away. The only sound in the still illusion was a tired roar.
-
This was destined to be an unfortunate day. After the tricks and lowly actions of the second round, the white-haired youth had taken a good nap. Then he climbed out of the chair and started harvesting points from each exhibit.
The entire academy began thinking of the fear brought on by the Eastern concertmaster’s harvesting in the first round, and the scarring memories of when that guy robbed them of their points. That Eastern devil…
Ever since midday, that guy had been continuously testing everyone’s heart. Practically every graduation work had its flaws and errors revealed after his testing…And after he finished, he would also rate them, writing down different solutions and ways of improving…This could be seen payment for taking their points.
He came and left lightly with fluttering sleeves, leaving behind ruins.
The only one left unharmed was Modifications’ graduation work, Thunder, because Ye Qingxuan was truly unskilled at controlling energy scores and those packed battle techniques.
There were no other survivors.
-
“You should stop before it’s too much.” Gavin shook his head and sighed. “Everyone’s about to unite together and report you to the student council. You should give them some hope.”
“Really?” Ye Qingxuan snickered. “But I heard that some people were going to play each other for the last round and make sure I don’t win, even if it means they’ll lose.”
Gavin could only chuckle dryly at that. He had heard the rumors too, but he could not do anything—he did not care, but how could the others let this Easterner win so much in their school?
He cleared his throat and asked quietly, “Is first place really that important to you?”
“Ah, what are you saying? I don’t care about that shallow stuff. Bench Guy, you still don’t understand me well enough.”
Hearing this, Gavin really wanted to spit at him, but Ye Qingxuan suddenly said, “But why should I give what belongs to me to other people for weird reasons? If they really have an eighty or ninety-year-old mother at home who wants their kid to get first place before they die, then I wouldn’t care. But if I can’t get what I deserve because of some racists, isn’t that unfair?”
“…” Gavin’s expression grew troubled. “Fairness is a rule created by the majority. If you want to maintain the fairness, you’ll have to make sacrifices sometimes.”
“That’s why it’s unfair, isn’t it?” Ye Qingxuan asked back. Gavin could not reply, but heard Ye Qingxuan’s chuckle. “Don’t worry, I’ve already stopped. I won’t go and clear all the machines anymore.”
Gavin blanched. “Really?”
“Because I have enough points. If someone wants to spam and push me down, then they should get ready to sacrifice everyone else in order to win alone.”
Gavin was speechless. Indeed, Ye Qingxuan did not need to do anything else now. If one estimated a bit loosely, this guy would probably have one-third of all points by the end of the day. The other two-thirds would be scattered in everyone’s hands. The scattered forces could not fight with him at all. He had won the moment he decided to stop.
“Go back and tell them,” Ye Qingxuan imitated how passionately Charles spoke when he was talking in his sleep and smiled. “First place is mine.”
225 Congratulations
It was afternoon in a cramped room.
“If he wants to be first, then let him be.” As Gavin spoke, the expressions of the others changed dramatically. The other student council members were stunned. They whispered to each other, expressions powerless and displeased.
“I understand that you don’t want an Easterner to become so successful in the Royal Academy of Music—this is Anglo’s glory, after all,” Gavin stated. “But if people want to win, shouldn’t they do it fair and just? We’re all musicians and not some lowly thieves. If you can’t even think about winning fairly, then how are you qualified for searching for the Originator and the ultimate truth?”
Someone hesitated and said quietly, “Actually, if we unite all the schools…”
“Must I remind everyone of something?” Gavin interrupted expressionlessly. “The world is large and there are many types of people. All types have been investigated by early saints. I won’t say much about this, but you must understand that no matter how many types of people there are, Ye Qingxuan is definitely the most difficult to manage. The more pressure you give him, the stronger he’ll bounce back, and the more terrifying he’ll be. I’m sure you’ve all experienced this personally, yes?”
Gavin’s words caused everyone to sink into silence and let out wry chuckles involuntarily. Indeed, had they not experienced enough? Not only had that Easterner been forced out due to the pressure in recent months, he had even risen higher and higher. He was definitely not the kind who tolerated injustice well. Whenever he felt that he was being insulted, he would slap them right back. It was fast, harsh, and painful. Now…they were powerless against him.
Cullen shook his head and sighed. “So should we just sit here and ignore it?”
“Why not?” Gavin asked in reply. “If we follow the rules of the game, isn’t it logical that he’s first place?”
“But…”
“There are no buts. He deserves this, doesn’t he? What right do we have to deny this result?” Gavin shook his head slightly. His expression grew serious and he gazed at the others. Raising his voice, he said, “I will officially graduate and leave after one more month. The student council will be handed over to Cullen. We’ve all seen his working ability and contributions to the school, so there aren’t any objections, correct?”
Gavin’s words stunned everyone. Cullen could not process them. After one minute, he pointed at himself in shock. “Me?”
They did not expect that Gavin had chosen his right-hand man Cullen. He had become used to being the right-hand man and had never thought that he could one day become the president.
“I…can’t?” Cullen was a bit hesitant.
“Wasn’t I far worse than you now when I first entered the position?” Gavin chuckled and patted Cullen’s shoulder. “Everyone here are the elites of the academy and the core of the student council. Nothing will go wrong with all these people. Don’t worry. I’m going to report to the Royal Musician Division tonight, so let’s part now.”
He rose, put on his jacket and hat, and nodded toward everyone in the room. “I hope that everyone will be as united as when I was here and continue to maintain this excellent order. Do not let dust gather on our glory.”
“Do not let dust gather on our glory!” The youths rose and chanted the motto of their school, seeing Gavin off respectfully. Gavin smiled and turned to leave, walking into the afternoon sun outside the door. He faded into the distance.
-
As the afternoon sun descended gradually, dusk’s glow illuminated the world. The school day had finally ended as well. After the series of weird events and psychological attacks that caught them by surprise, the hellish trials that tested everyone’s willpower and hearts finally ended.
It was such great news. Everyone thought of the beauty of a peaceful life, and content smiles filled their faces; they were practically celebrating. If this was in the East, the students would definitely use firecrackers to send the bad luck away.
In the auditorium, everyone sat gravely in their seats, waiting for the arrival of the last moment, but there was a light and cheery atmosphere between them all. The authority figure at the podium was saying things that sounded impressive but were actually useless bullsh*t. Behind the podi
um, Ye Qingxuan was nervously tidying himself up. He had put on formalwear just for the occasion.
Charles yanked and the collar tightened. Ye Qingxuan abruptly felt like he was putting on a noose. “Senior, be gentle! You want to strangle me?”
“Be more serious. You have to go up for the award later.” Charles dumped a thick wad of hair wax onto Ye Qingxuan’s head, slicking his hair up. His bare forehead glistened. Seeing the youth’s discomfort, Charles said seriously, “Later, the principal will award you personally. Yezi, don’t be nervous.”
“Why do you want to make me look so weird?!” Ye Qingxuan sighed. “And anyway, it’s just the principal. It’s not like I’ve never seen him before.”
Charles raised an eyebrow. “My friend, you pretending to be cool reminds me of my younger self.”
“Ha, you’ve taught me well.”
“The feeling is mutual.”
The two snarky friends started praising each other, not caring that the people around them had quietly moved away and pretended not to know them.
“Senior, did you notice that no one wants to deal with us anymore?”
“Really?” Charles glanced around and chuckled. “They’re probably jealous of our beauty.”
Ye Qingxuan’s lip curled; he did not want to deal with Charles anymore either.
Just as they were talking, cheers traveled from the stage. The students backstage waved hurriedly, reminding him that he was supposed to go on soon. Onstage, the principal could wait no longer.
“Where’s our first place? Where’s Concertmaster Ye?” He whistled happily and continued on, making things worse. “It was really unexpected for an international student from the East to win first place at the school day trials of Anglo’s Royal Academy of Music. All of you must work harder not to be passed by too much!”
The audience was deathly silent; clearly, it was a blow to their dignity. The coaches behind the principal did not have pretty expressions either, but they could not do anything—this was reality.