Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Classmate Wang, my big spender, don’t die!

The next day, Qian Qi set up her stall at the duel square again.

This time she met a very generous student, who bought all her Hemostatic Potions in one go.

“Boss, you’re amazing! Wishing you great fortune and big luck and tons of money,” she beamed, then hurried to upsell her “new” item: “Boss, carrying this many Hemostatic Potions is a pain, right? Take a look at this cardboard box. Brand new. Super sturdy!”

She patted the cardboard box she had fished out of a trash bin yesterday and showed it off: “Ten bucks. Say the word and it’s yours.”

The male student stared. He had just spent tens of thousands on potions, and she would not even give him a junky box for free?

“Boss?” Qian Qi tapped the box again, urging him along: “Want it or not? If you don’t, you’ll have to carry a pile of Hemostatic Potions in your arms.”

“…I’ll take it,” the student muttered, speechless. He had never seen anyone this stingy. Good thing he was only the courier and not spending his own money, or she would have driven him mad.

After transferring the money, he hurried off with a box full of potions.

With work finished early, Qian Qi was thrilled. She picked up her little stool, ready to watch how the Skills Department students fought. She had heard they could use Elemental Power to attack with metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, and there were Marksman types and supports too. It sounded exciting.

“I’m telling you, System, what’s the key move to trigger an elemental skill? Come on, tell me in secret,” said Qian Qi, rubbing her hands.

“There isn’t one,” said the System.

“No way, great Lord System does not even have that?” Qian Qi teased.

“Ask again and I’ll slap you,” said the System.

Qian Qi put on a fake wail: “Heartless Lord System.”

Meanwhile, at the duel square:

“Old Wang, go get ’em! Don’t embarrass our Elementalist major!”

“Old Sun, crush him! Win and we’re getting barbecue tonight!”

The stands were loud with cheers. On the square, Classmate Wang stared at his opponent with a serious look. He belonged to the Skills Department’s Elementalist major and could attack with ice, inflicting chilling damage. His sparring partner was Sun Ping Yong from the neighboring Marksman major. Sun’s skill was Bow and Arrow, which let him conjure a bow and arrows to deal solid physical damage.

Wang tightened his fingers. When the referee’s whistle blew, he rushed in first, his ice attack swinging toward Sun Ping Yong.

Knowing his own weakness, Sun began to pull away to open the distance. At the same time, a brown longbow formed in his hands. He nocked an arrow and shot toward Wang.

“Whoosh.” The arrow screamed through the air. Wang dodged aside at once, and that dodge widened the gap between them.

“Icicle Rain!” Wang spread his palm. The ice skill he had trained flew toward Sun Ping Yong.

A flurry of icy spikes fell from above like cold rain. But because the area was fixed, the prepared Sun raised the shield on his back, took a few hits, and then stepped out of the falling icicles.

The distance closed again. Using the run to help his aim, Sun fired two quick arrows at Wang.

They were very fast. Luckily, the range was still long, and Wang managed to slip past. While running, he pulled in cold from the air, shaped an ice spike in his palm, and blasted it toward Sun at high speed.

Sun tugged the bowstring and loosed an arrow straight down the line of the oncoming spike, clearly trying to cancel it. At the same time, both he and Wang moved, leaving their original spots.

The duel square was huge. Fighting a Marksman meant a long battle, because shooters trained their long-distance running, always trying to open space and build the perfect shooting angle. But Wang was no pushover. His Elemental Power was near D class, enough for more ice techniques. He could last.

Just as the crowd watched with tight nerves and bright eyes, and just as Wang and Sun saw nothing but each other’s attacks, something no one expected happened.

Sun’s arrow, which should have met the ice spike head-on, was off by a hair and slid past. The glancing blow made the spike twist, and because it was screamingly fast, it struck the arrow from the side, sending it spinning off in a new line.

Its new line pointed straight at Wang.

“Snick.” Before anyone could react, the arrow stabbed the back of Wang’s neck.

“Dude! Wang!” A classmate gasped, jumped from the stands, and sprinted to him. Sun Ping Yong went pale and ran as he shouted, “Hurry! Call the school doctor!”

People swarmed around. On the ground, Wang writhed in pain. He coughed blood out of his mouth, his throat jerking out raspy hacks. The sudden pain wiped his mind blank. After more than ten seconds, he finally realized what had happened. [It hurts so much.] [What do I do?] [Am I going to die?]

“What happened?” Qian Qi had just reached the square. Seeing the huge crowd in the center, she squeezed in with curiosity: “Hey folks, you done watching? Make a gap, let me take a look.”

The panicked ring was packed tight, but Qian Qi was slim and slipped inside fast. She glanced down, and her pupils tightened.

It was the big spender from yesterday-no, her very first little patron-Classmate Wang.

What happened to him?

She shoved aside the person blocking her, slid to her knees at Wang’s side, and with shaking fingers, started digging through his jacket pockets. She shouted, voice raw with grief, “Classmate! Hang on! You must not die!”

For a second, her worry was so strong it looked like she was kneeling over her own brother. The crowd felt moved, until she wailed again: “You still have to spend so, so much money on my medicine! If you die, where will I find another big spender?”

Everyone: “…”

My tears were about to fall, and you say that?

Luckily, the Hemostatic Potions Wang bought yesterday were still on him. Hands trembling, Qian Qi tore open a powder packet and looked at the arrow in his neck.

People said the weapons created by an Awakener’s Marksman skill-bows, arrows, guns, bullets-were energy constructs. Unless they met a huge impact, they would dissolve on their own within half an hour to keep energy balanced. But Wang clearly could not last that long.

“When will the school doctor get here?” she asked the nearest student.

“Fastest is five minutes!”

Qian Qi judged the blood on the ground. “Too late.”

She drew a deep breath and told Wang, “I’m going to pull the arrow. Bear with it.”

Before he could answer, she yanked the arrow straight out in one sharp move, then poured all the powder on the wound.

In front of everyone, Wang’s struggling arms slowly went limp. The jerking in his throat calmed. The harsh, blood-choking coughs faded.

Soon, he stared white-eyed at the sky and stopped moving.

The crowd stared at his still body, at a loss.

Half a minute passed.

“Could he… be dead?” someone whispered.

Silence slammed down. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Every eye turned, with a different look, to Qian Qi.