"Brilliant!"
Up in the stands, Kurei couldn't help but clap his hands in absolute admiration. As a fellow Explorer, he had been absolutely certain that 'Liu Wuxiang'—whose real Space ID was Tuantuan—was a dead woman walking. He never imagined she would flawlessly shatter the death trap in such a spectacular fashion.
Who gave a damn about 'face' or 'pride'? True Explorers didn't care about trivial garbage like that. Once they cleared this Mission World, they were leaving forever. Who among these native NPCs was ever going to see her again?
Surviving and clearing the mission was the only absolute truth.
Earning Terminus Coins ain't pretty, but it pays the bills.
"What the hell?! Is she forfeiting? You call that a fighter?!"
"Hahahaha! This is Kouou Academy's representative?! I'm dying of laughter! So much for the 'new era of female gladiators'. She literally dropped to her knees the second she faced the Fang of Metsudo!"
"Going down in history, huh?! Hahaha! Well, she's definitely going down in Kengan history, alright... as the biggest joke of all time!"
...
After a few initial seconds of stunned silence, the entire arena erupted into a tidal wave of mockery, jeers, and howling laughter.
The people with the ugliest expressions in the entire stadium were the executives of Kouou Women's Academy. Shion Soryuin was gripping the railing so hard her knuckles were turning purple. She glared down at the kneeling figure in the ring. "What exactly are you trying to do?!"
She had agreed to Liu Wuxiang's insane request, assuming the girl was simply overconfident and wanted to make a massive splash by challenging the Fang in the first round.
She hadn't been afraid of Liu Wuxiang losing... but she absolutely never imagined a scene like this!
Is Liu Wuxiang actually a corporate spy sent by a rival faction to completely humiliate Kouou Academy?! Did she do this on purpose just to make us lose face?!
Surely she couldn't have just been completely crushed by Lu Li's aura and dropped to her knees out of sheer terror, right?!
The situation inside the arena was spiraling into absolute chaos. Even the master MC, Sayaka Katahara, was struggling to find a way to smoothly narrate the bizarre scene. "O-Oh my! What just happened?! Did the Fang of Metsudo launch an attack so impossibly fast that none of us even registered it?! He actually forced the Queen of Assassins to her knees! What exactly is the meaning behind this bizarre standoff?!"
Listening to Sayaka's desperate commentary, Lu Li's mouth twitched. I'd really like to know what's going on too.
"What is the meaning of this? Are you forfeiting yourself, or are you waiting for me to physically throw you out of bounds?" Lu Li asked, furrowing his brow. "Since you stepped into this arena, I won't treat you like a fragile woman. You have exactly three seconds to formally surrender."
Hearing this, Liu Wuxiang secretly let out a massive sigh of relief. The absurdly overpowered Boss standing in front of her didn't seem like a mindless, psychotic killing machine. He was actually reasonable.
Thanks to Lu Li's brief confusion and the crowd's uproar, exactly thirty seconds had passed since the match officially started. Her Main Mission was fully complete.
Having secured her return qualification, she technically could have instantly commanded the Terminus Space to extract her. The Space would seamlessly generate some sort of spatial anomaly to cover up her sudden disappearance in front of the massive crowd.
But she didn't choose immediate extraction, because that directly violated the sacred teachings of the Holy Bible of Cowardice and Survival.
"Thank you so much for letting me off, Boss! I'll transfer you 3,000 Coins. Just rough me up a little and knock me out of bounds!" Liu Wuxiang—or rather, the Explorer Tuantuan—whispered urgently.
If she simply used him to clear her mission and vanished, Lu Li would eventually figure it out and likely be deeply annoyed. As fellow Tier 1 Explorers, there was a very real possibility they would cross paths in future Mission Worlds. According to the Bible, it was absolutely crucial to be "tactful" and pay proper tribute to a supreme powerhouse. That way, she wouldn't get hacked to pieces the next time they met, and might even be able to cling to his coattails again.
"Huh?"
Lu Li was completely dumbfounded. He never expected to score a massive, unexpected payday just by showing up to a tournament match. Why the hell is my opponent actively paying me Terminus Coins?
He couldn't immediately wrap his head around the logic, but free money was free money. Knowing he was getting paid, he suddenly found Liu Wuxiang significantly more pleasing to the eye. What a polite, wonderful young woman.
Acting his part, Lu Li vaulted into the air and unleashed a devastating front kick, planting his foot squarely into Liu Wuxiang's abdomen as she was rising to her feet, violently launching her over ten meters through the air.
Visually, the kick looked absolutely catastrophic, carrying immense, explosive power. In reality, he had perfectly utilized a soft-force redirection technique (qiaojin). Liu Wuxiang wouldn't suffer any actual internal injuries, and her landing was entirely cushioned.
However, Liu Wuxiang was a phenomenal actress. The moment she hit the sand, her head lolled to the side, her eyes rolled back into her skull, and she looked exactly like she was about to start foaming at the mouth.
The referee was completely stunned for a few seconds before finally rushing over to check her vitals. Waving his arms, he yelled, "The Winner is... The Fang of Metsudo, Lu Li!"
Despite the official declaration, the atmosphere in the arena remained incredibly bizarre. There was practically zero cheering. In the eyes of the audience and the other martial artists, the Fang of Metsudo hadn't displayed any overwhelming, superhuman power. It just looked like Lu Li threw a basic, uninspired kick, and Liu Wuxiang instantly collapsed.
Was the match rigged?! Was this a massive corporate fixed fight?!
"What a truly bizarre duel! It's a profound shame we didn't get to witness the true strength of the new Fang of Metsudo today. We will simply have to wait for the second round!" Sayaka Katahara desperately tried to smooth things over and salvage the hype, but the audience was already murmuring with heavy suspicion that Chairman Metsudo had paid the opponent to take a dive.
As the Chairman's daughter, Sayaka knew perfectly well her father would never stoop to such petty, underhanded tactics. Moreover, with Lu Li's apocalyptic, anomalous strength, why would he ever need a rigged match?
Even if they were going to rig a fight, they wouldn't have orchestrated such a laughably pathetic, amateurish display of a fighter dropping to her knees immediately. It was too clumsy.
Lu Li calmly exited the arena and headed down the backstage corridor. He found Liu Wuxiang already waiting for him. The moment he approached, she initiated a system trade request.
"Oh? You're quite wealthy," Lu Li remarked, genuinely surprised. The trade window clearly displayed 3,000 Terminus Coins. An ordinary Explorer definitely shouldn't have the luxury of hoarding that much cash before entering a world.
"It's literally my entire remaining net worth. To be honest, Boss, I actually earned a massive amount in this world. But I needed to survive this match to keep it. So I really do owe you a massive thanks for letting me live," Tuantuan explained. Her Main Mission had consisted of multiple phases, and she had even completed a lucrative Hidden Quest with Kouou Academy. Her total income for this world had already exceeded 10,000 Coins.
But the brutal reality was that the failure penalty for her final mission phase was Eradication. She had absolutely no way out. If she had actually tried to fight Lu Li head-on, she knew she would be a dead woman.
"Not bad. You're very tactful," Lu Li nodded in profound satisfaction. This was the first time he had met an Explorer with such impeccable manners. Compared to Kurei, this female Explorer was vastly more sensible.
"You can just call me Tuantuan, Boss! I feel like this island is hiding a ton of lethal dangers, so I'm extracting right now. I hope we meet again someday!"
With that, Tuantuan turned and sprinted down the hall. At the far end of the corridor, Shion Soryuin was furiously storming toward them, clearly demanding answers for the absolute humiliation in the ring.
Holding his freshly earned Terminus Coins, Lu Li happily returned to his private waiting room, quietly waiting for the real show to begin.
Twenty miles off the coast of Ganryu Island. Beneath the calm surface of the ocean.
A massive, state-of-the-art submarine hovered silently in the freezing depths.
Through their hacked surveillance feeds, the occupants were watching the live broadcast of the Kengan Annihilation Tournament and maintaining real-time tracking of various movements across Ganryu Island.
"So the Fang of Metsudo was actually replaced. What a fascinating piece of intelligence. It seems the little pet you trained turned out to be completely useless garbage," a massive, muscular man with slicked-back blonde hair and dark sunglasses chuckled mockingly, casually lighting a fresh Cuban cigar.
If Erioh Kure had been present, he would have instantly recognized this man. It was the traitor of the Wu lineage, the leader of the Westward Faction: Edward Wu.
"He was nothing more than a defective reject who ran away halfway through the Gu ritual. I never considered him my disciple. He barely managed to learn the absolute basics of the Niko Style," drawled a middle-aged man with messy white hair, lazily lounging on a leather sofa.
He was the last surviving "Tokita Niko"—widely known as White Niko (Tiger Niko). He was a high-ranking executive serving directly under Shen Wulong, and an absolute monster among monsters.
"Heh. But I heard that Setsuna Kiryu—who you actually did train quite thoroughly—also died recently. Is your precious Niko Style actually useful for anything at all?" Edward Wu's mockery was utterly merciless.
Thick veins instantly bulged across White Niko's forehead. He slowly sat up, his eyes locking onto the Westward Faction leader. "Edward. Do you want to die?"
"Hah? Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"
Edward Wu stepped forward, his massive frame radiating suffocating pressure. The invisible collision of their apocalyptic auras caused the lower-ranking Worm operatives inside the submarine to tremble in absolute terror.
"Stop it. Now is not the time for infighting."
Just as the two monsters were about to clash, a deeply exhausted, exasperated voice echoed through the room. The source was a strikingly handsome man with long, pale blonde hair.
This was the supreme Head of the Worm, a man who shared an incredibly close bond with the Connector: Xia Yan.
Xia Yan rubbed his temples, looking like he was nursing a massive migraine. "The Tiger's Vessel was killed. The situation is already bad enough. Are you two really trying to give me an aneurysm?"
Hearing this, both Edward Wu and White Niko slowly retracted their killing intent. They didn't stand down because they feared Xia Yan; they stood down because they feared the Connector, Shen Wulong.
Xia Yan looked at the two powerhouses. "Do you still remember our objective for this operation?"
A cruel, bloodthirsty smile spread across Edward Wu's face. "Of course. Since the Tiger's Vessel was destroyed, we naturally have to return the favor in blood. It's high time an obsolete relic like the Kengan Association was completely wiped off the map."
Yes. The reason the Worm had mobilized such a massive army—dispatching three of their absolute highest-ranking Grandmasters to a single location—was to launch a catastrophic, decapitation strike on Ganryu Island.
They were going to completely annihilate the entire upper echelon of the Kengan Association in one fell swoop.
__________
PLEASE SUPPORT ME ON PATREON:
Patreon.com/IndifferentVillain
Early Access and + 60 chapter ahead of webnovel monthly, ur support keeps me motivated...thanks and enjoy reading
Chapter 205 is out on patreon....hope u support
_______________