Attraction and Coercion

Wang Tong had already gotten bored with the game, but Mr. Wannabe was still thrilled by it. "Nice, nice! It was so much fun! However, your punch was too weak, if it had been me, I wouldn’t even need to evade the strike in the first place, one blow would settle the matter."

"B*lls, this game is about skill, not brute force."

"Skill my a**, if you had stepped left instead of right, you could have saved half of the maneuver time."

"B*lls, the right side was more intuitive."

"How dare you question me? You wanna bet? Stepping left would have saved you 0.03 seconds of time."

"Yea I’m down for the bet, I know I’m right." Wang Tong had learned these techniques from battles with the Zergs; therefore, he was very confident to enter the bet.

"Alright, here we go."

Mr. Wannabe quickly performed two sets of moves, and stepping left was indeed quicker and more efficient than stepping right. Wang Tong felt dejected as he conceded his defeat. He felt like he could never be right in front of Mr. Wannabe as he always nipped away Wang Tong's newly sprouted confidence.

"Fine, a bet is a bet, what do you want, I don't have money."

"You piteous miser! Fine, let's play another round of the game tomorrow, the noob we fought today was a piece of cake, tomorrow, we will find someone tougher. "

"No, I don't have time, I need to focus on my studies."

"How about the day after tomorrow?"

"No."

"Oh.. for f*ck sake, don't you want to be stronger? These fights are your greatest opportunities. Haven't you seen those sleek moves of the Windward Consecutive Strikes? Why don't you learn from others?"

"Looking sleek would mean nothing when he had become a morsel in a Zerg's mouth." Wang Tong had been tired with these set moves that were taught at schools as if they were being manufactured from a production line. He knew that they would be useless on a battlefield where even the Zergs knew to change their moves from time to time.

"Yea, yea, I know you are disappointed, but your last opponent had been too weak, more powerful fighters, like myself, of course, know to strike unpredictably." Wannabe digressed as he realized that he had overrated Stock's moves which in truth were only fit for impressing girls. The principal of Capth might not react kindly if he had heard what these two had said about their student's training.

Wang Tong shook his head once again, unmoved by what Mr. Wannabe had said.

"Well, sc*ew you! When then?" Mr. Wannabe started huffing and puffing again. "You little sh*t, don't you know that being trustworthy is the number one merit of a man? A bet is a bet!"

Driven speechless by Mr. Wannabe’s words, Wang Tong pulled his hair in frustration and finally said, "This weekend!"

"Haha, that's more like it! Make sure that this time you find a worthy opponent, not some freak with a METAL suit fetish. A man, ought to fight with his bare fist!" Mr. Wannabe said as he squeezed his fists and raised them high up to pose like in one of his vague memories of some warrior’s statue.

Wang Tong hurried off to shut the crystal as he cringed at Mr. Wannabe's gross ostentatious posture. He didn't agree with what Mr. Wannabe had said; it was because of the METAL suit that humans stood a chance with the Zergs on the battlefield. If he had the chance to use one on Norton, he would have taken it in no time. Fighting in the game was nothing like fighting in a real war when soldiers act together as a group, which had given the Zergs a natural advantage due to their larger numbers.

"Stock! Stock!"

Stock's friends closed in on him in a circle around the computer. Capth had plenty of resources, it had installed a computer in every single classroom, although they were only allowed to be used for ATP training.

"This guy is suspicious, we should report him."

"That’s right; I just checked his profile, he’s only sixteen years old, I bet he’s a freshman in some academy."

"No, I don’t think he cheated, otherwise I would have already noticed," Stock said and fell into deep thought again.

"Stock, are you sure? Anyways, I smell something fishy in the air; there is not a single student even in our school that can defeat you without using a METAL suit. It was imp—"

Stock cut him short with a wave of his arm, "I’m fine, I’m just thinking..." suddenly Stock clapped his hands, the loud noise startled his classmates. "Holy Sh*t! Replay the video clip again."

One of his classmates clicked on the screen and brought back the video that Stock had recorded himself, his original intention, however, was to record his successful ascension.

When the video was replayed at a slower speed, everyone was astonished at what they saw- Wang Tong's attack wasn't a single action. Instead, he had attempted three other spots before he finally decided on a spot on the shield. "But why the shield? Everything seemed so crazy!" Stock thought to himself.

As a matter of fact, Wang Tong's attack wasn't as sophisticated as they thought, he was simply testing the shield's weak point, there was no point in wasting a strike without hitting the most vulnerable spot.

"Zoom in on his eyes, zoom in... Okay, stop!" Stock said abruptly.

Wang Tong had a cold and severe expression, as fearsome lights flashed inside of Wang Tong's eyes, his face was frozen on the screen, and it made everyone's hair stand on end.

The video record brought back Stock's memory of that terrible moment when Wang Tong struck while he was frozen in fear and felt like being suffocated.

"He has a terrible expression in his eyes." One of his classmates noticed.

Stock shook his head and said, "Not only does it look horrifying, but I can feel the equally horrifying power as well. Thescoco would finally have a worthy opponent after all if this dude is really from an academy."

"For real? No way! Thescoco has been the champion among our second-year students for three consecutive terms; he is almost invincible."

"Well, we will see when the two fight, if this guy continues to fight and win a few more rounds, I'm hopeful that we will see Thescoco taking his challenge soon."

Thescoco was the best fighter among the second year students at Capth, not only could no one in his school year challenge him, even in the military, his strength would be on par with higher level officials. However, he rarely participated in the PA fights, not even in TPA.

"Miao Xiu, come here, I found something interesting."

"What's up Luv Ma, I'm busy."

"Give me a break; I know you are just talking to girls, come here!"

Miao Xiu walked towards the screen nonchalantly, but as soon as he saw what was on the screen, he became serious almost immediately. "Interesting… send him an invitation for me please." Miao Xiu licked his lips, a reaction that had already become a muscle memory when he spotted prey.

"He he, I knew you would be interested, look, this guy has a heavy punch."

"Noob, can't you see how much more brilliant his maneuver was? No wonder you can only major in Battlefield Commander. Ohh… Look at his move! I really like this dude."

Luv Ma believed in Miao Xiu’s keen observation. After reexamining the video clip, Wang Tong's clumsy moves suddenly appeared to be well orchestrated. However, Luv Ma was still wondering if Wang Tong was suicidal since he was fighting against a METAL fighter without wearing any METAL suit.

Luv Ma believed in Miao Xiu's judgment because he was well aware that despite his many notorious habits, such as being ignorant, and perverted, he was also one of the strongest fighters among the students. This was, allegedly, because he was born with an incredibly powerful GN power which gave him almost infinite potentials. Thanks to this gift, Miao Xiu was accepted into the S-Class Starry Academy despite being a notorious trouble maker.

"Luv Ma, what's up with your name? Every time I’ve brought a girl here, they always misunderstand me after I call your name. Can you change it please?"

"F*ck off, you dirty pervert."

Luv Ma can’t help yelling at Miao Xiu, his best friend ever since childhood, who was also the only person that dared to make fun of his name. Despite Miao Xiu's bad joke, Luv Ma had noticed that Miao Xiu had an excited expression in his eyes which hadn't been seen in ages.