Chapter 25: Game Start

[Dragons Shrine Sect][Māo Tóu Yīng's Narrative]

The large ebony doors split open, revealing the beautiful interior of the Yu Pavilion. Eight huge pillars made out of black marble standing tall on each side of the carpeted path from the entrance, white cranes embroidered on the two golden banners near the throne at the end of the room. On the throne is man wearing a lustrous green outer robe with white upper garment and ankle length skirt that is wrapped in the middle with a green sash, silver guan with a single green emerald on its front adorned the bun of his long brown hair. A few steps below where the throne sits, six guards from the Imperial Palace of the Lim Capital stood guard, another two on each side of the throne.

His eyes really does seem to be throwing knives just as Brother Yan told.

I stood a meter away from the first step of stairs towards the throne, I clasped my hands and bowed to greet, his face brightened.

He spoke, the tone of his speech sounded urging for a quick answer. "You are the owner of the Huang Chen Pavilion, is that right?"

I immediately replied, "I am not, I apologize for the trouble that Yan Chao Xiang brought upon you, Lord Heng. I am only here to represent the Huang Chen Pavilion."

Lord Heng waved his hand to dismiss the men that's guarding him, all of them immediately left in two orderly lines.

He chuckled and went down from the throne, he stood beside me and whispered, "Make sure that child will be useful. We do not need another pig to feed. Understood?"

I bowed my head slightly, "Yes, absolutely."

[Dragon Shrine][Zhang Xi Yin's Narrative]

Shhk! Spurt!

My opponent frowned and grunted in pain as the gruesome sound of a sharp weapon stabbing through his palm followed.

It has been two minutes since we started fighting, but he had yet to land any hit on me. Did I overestimate them too much? But who knows if this guy is just acting to make me drop my guard. That's not good, but I'm prepared.

Without wasting any second, I immediately jumped towards him again and landed several hits on his abdomen, I kicked his knee which sent him stumbling backwards. I swirled around to gain momentum and threw the dagger that I was holding towards his direction, his eyes grew wide, but he managed to hit my dagger, sending it back. I dodged the dagger and captured it as it fly midair by holding its hilt.

This realm is indeed different. But I'm also not the same anymore. Although it is indeed quite disadvantageous that we can only fight by using brute force and a regular weapon of choice, it shouldn't be too difficult for me as a former member of a karate-do club, my experience should be able to help me even slightly. Hopefully this body also have an innate cheat that would allow me to fight well with a weapon.

My opponent stood regaining the confidence of his stance, I quickly reinforced my grip on the hilt of my dagger as I prepare for another attack.

Suddenly, he spoke with a cocky grin on his lips.

"Handsome guy, should I let you win? But in exchange..." He paused while his hands played with the grip of his whip. He kept moving his hand up and down on it.

Unfortunately, whatever it is, I'm not interested to hear it.

Without saying anything, I closed the distance between us before quickly sliding behind him. I held on tightly on the cloth that hangs on his sash. The cloth works as a flag that the opponent will have to destroy or take, although I can also win by being able to remain in the arena before the time runs out, it would be better if I take his flag rather than wait for the five incense sticks to run out, but this only works for those who have the ability, if you're weak, you would only embarrass yourself by overestimating yourself. 

But all these aside, why let us use a weapon if we would be eliminated if we kill the opponent? Don't tell me they're trying to instill discipline on us? What?

With no time spared, I immediately split the knot of the fabric with the spine of my dagger untying it from his sash without any damage. We are allowed to destroy the flag, but I chose to keep it intact. I jumped three meters away from where he stood, clutching tightly on the fabric.

He turned around with a face of disbelief which was quickly replaced by a grin.

He shakes his head, "Hahahaha! I was going to let you win in exchange for your body, but you just have to be stupid and refuse a toast. How stupid..."

He raised his left arm and opened his hands, the flag which was tied on my sash was destroyed into four parts, it landed slowly on the ground of the arena.

Collective gasps erupted from those who are watching.

Fortunately, I wasn't a fool who would ignore the questionable instructions.

Contestants are supposed to steal their opponent's flag while avoiding any attacks that the opponent may throw, the contestant may destroy or simply take the flag into their possession.

Why would they give us an option to destroy the flag if we can just take it from our opponent? If we are only allowed to use brute force to fight, why would they give us a weapon even if it's only a regular type? And the last one, which can be easily overlooked, the venue of the competition. Why would they choose an arena that is owned by a sect that enforces strict discipline all the time and in any method? It doesn't make sense. Unless, you're able to think like a deceitful person.

First, one must be knowledgeable of the history and principles of the sect. This sect strictly believes in the proverb, "Laws control the lesser man; right conduct controls the greater one." Which could be related to the discipline that they are trying to share through the instructions.

In our case, the instruction is supposed to have us practice control and perform actions based on good morals during the whole fight regardless of the options given by the instruction. Following the option which would be against the good morals would make the side who chose this option as the loser.

Simply put, I won.

My opponent chuckled, completely fooled by his understanding of the instruction. Shortly, his celebration and the roar from the crowd who are cheering for him was stopped with the mere presence of what they called the Guardian of this arena.

He teleported between me and my opponent. He stood quietly, his hands on his back.

He opened a scroll that he pulled out from inside his outer robe, he spoke. "The representative named Zhang Xi Yin of the Huang Chen Inn won this round against the representative named Ye Lai Xiang of the Zeng Hai Commerce Pavilion. Once again, the Huang Chen Inn remains victorious!"

The venue became completely quiet, it was as if no one was around aside from us three for several moments until the area where the servants of the inn who possess high positions within their respective inns that they serve, are assigned to occupy started to shout the name of the inn with the name of Yan Chao Xiang.

Within a few seconds, more people started to shout the same thing.

That guy really is famous. Can't he just use his popularity to get more customers rather than putting me in this arena?

Seriously, that guy is like an ass. Full of shit. Being in this arena feels very awkward, I better get something good from this.

I continued to listen to the crowd's cheering as I watch Ye Lai Xiang to begrudgingly leave the arena. He stopped and sighed before waving at me, he jumped down from the arena and was happily greeted by several men wearing similar clothes which I assume is the uniform of the place that they came to represent. They laughed happily, giving Ye Lai Xiang a pat on his back and shoulder, but it seems that they did so with too much force that he started coughing.

Even this dream or game is trying to make me feel envious. But what good would it do if I became friends with traitors? I'd rather be alone.

A screen window appeared in front of me, everything around me had frozen in place.

⟨⟨Loading... ⟩⟩

⟨⟨Setting up the data... ⟩⟩

⟨⟨Syncing player data... ⟩⟩

⟨⟨Loading...⟩⟩

⟨⟨99% of data has been loaded successfully. Please stand by... ⟩⟩

What the heck is this about?

⟨⟨Data has been loaded successfully. Press "Start" to play the story mode.⟩⟩

Oh, so the story of the game is starting now.

Wait... What? Uh, Who is the protagonist? I found them? When? Where...?

Although I felt quite confused, my curiosity was too much to let me have my time to express my confusion about this event.

'Start.'

Suddenly, the screen changed and displayed an art cover, featuring several silhouettes with only one that is actually displaying a portrait of the face to the waist of Li Qian on the fourth position.

'Ahaha... It was you after all. Well done in making me feel stupid.'