Chapter 41
Chapter 41: The Ultimate Trump Card Strikes: Since You’re Already Here
Free was impossible. Not in this lifetime.
Dueling a d-rank contract beast was hard work, okay?
So why would she let them watch for free?
Of course she had to charge.
Pay to watch the match, then bid on her defense fruit afterward. A thoughtful, seamless one-stop service. Besides Qian Qi, who else could offer that?
No one, obviously.
She pinched a ticket between two fingers and waved it. “Classmate, fifty bucks won’t buy you a brand name and it won’t buy you a lightbrain, but it will buy you a once-in-a-lifetime match. Tell me—is it worth it?”
“Don’t you want to see what a defense fruit that can block d-rank magic beast damage actually looks like?”
“And…” She paused, then dropped her ultimate trump card like a guillotine. “Since you’re already here, wouldn’t it be a shame not to go in?”
That line stabbed the crowd right in the soul.
Yeah. Since they were already here.
They’d waited this long—going home now would be stupid.
And that “Dong Fang Qian Qi” stunt had already hooked their curiosity. This was a human versus a d-rank contract beast. How could anyone not want to see it?
Sure, streamers recorded and livestreamed fights in instances, but those were just videos. A screen could never give you the same punch in the chest.
And the Beast-Taming Department’s usual “matches” were mostly e-rank blazing hounds chewing on each other. Fine. Educational. Whatever.
This time was different.
This was a human against a d-rank contract beast.
At their school, that was unheard of.
“Give me one! I’m buying!”
“Me too!”
Students surged in, shoving money at her like it was a holiday sale.
Awakeners University had a massive student body. Luckily, Qian Qi had printed a mountain of tickets—and with the Old Ones helping, the sales went smoothly.
Even so, the crowd exceeded her expectations. She even spotted Su Xing Le, leading a whole pack of Magic Beast Department students over to “support” her.
Qian Qi counted heads, counted her remaining tickets, then pulled out a red stamp pad with a smug little hum.
A genius like her always had a Plan B.
“Junior,” Su Xing Le said quietly as Qian Qi stamped the back of his hand. He glanced around and lowered his voice. “Chen Tong also promoted it on the campus forum. Is he plotting something?”
Like getting the whole school to witness Qian Qi’s spectacular demise?
“Senior Su, don’t talk about Senior Chen like that.” Qian Qi looked offended. “He’s clearly kind and generous, helping me make money.”
Su Xing Le stared at her. “…What?”
She tilted her head and smiled. “Also, Senior—tickets are fifty.”
Su Xing Le stiffened.
So watching cost money?!
In that case, Chen Tong really was kind, generous, thoughtful…everything.
Su Xing Le transferred fifty to Qian Qi. Just then, Chen Tong walked over. Su Xing Le immediately patted his shoulder with heartfelt admiration.
“Chen Tong,” he said earnestly, “you’re broad-minded. I misunderstood you before.”
Chen Tong blinked, baffled. He assumed Su Xing Le meant the time he’d paid to sponsor the defense fruit test. He smiled and waved it off. “No, no. It’s what I should do.”
Qian Qi nearly choked.
She swallowed the laugh, slapped on her brightest grin, and stepped directly into Chen Tong’s path.
“Senior Chen!”
She glanced left and right, then produced a ticket like a street magician and shoved it into his hand. “VVVIP front row! Saved just for you! Only two hundred, and you can watch me duel a magic beast up close!”
She waggled her eyebrows. “Tempted?”
Chen Tong’s face went flat.
Tempted, my ass.
He’d already been bled for fifty thousand—and now she wanted another two hundred?
“Senior Chen~” Qian Qi leaned in close and lowered her voice, her smile turning eerie. “Don’t you want to see, up close, what I look like when I spray blood three feet?”
Chen Tong jolted, every nerve snapping tight.
But when he looked again, Qian Qi had already gone back to her bright, shameless grin, like he’d hallucinated the whole thing.
“Everyone else paid~” she said sweetly. “You’re not going to refuse, are you?”
Chen Tong’s eyelid twitched.
He’d sponsored this entire duel. And she couldn’t even spare him a free ticket?
But he wasn’t as shameless as Qian Qi, and he didn’t have her poisonous mouth. He could already see it: the moment he argued, she’d flip the script and brand him a cheapskate.
Sure enough, Qian Qi flicked imaginary dust off her shoulder. “Senior Chen, you wouldn’t want the whole school to know you’re a huge cheapskate, right?”
Chen Tong ground his teeth and transferred two hundred.
Fine. She wouldn’t be smug for long.
Let’s see if she could still grin when she was bleeding all over the place.
From an angle no one else could see, Chen Tong gave her a vicious, threatening smile. “Then I’ll look forward to it.”
In the distance, Chen Miaomiao had been hobbling after them. She didn’t know what Qian Qi said, but she saw the two of them leaning in close—whispering, intimate—and every alarm bell in her skull went off.
She hopped over on her bandaged leg. “Senior, can I sit next to you?”
She did not want Chen Tong and Qian Qi getting too close.
Qian Qi turned, saw the bandages, and clicked her tongue. “Our Miaomiao is truly inspirational.”
Then, without a shred of mercy, she pulled out another VVVIP front-row ticket. “Your senior bought VVVIP. You buying too?”
Chen Miaomiao instinctively looked to Chen Tong.
Chen Tong didn’t even pretend to care. “Why are you looking at me? Buy it yourself.”
He walked off, clutching his ticket like it was a life raft.
Chen Miaomiao’s eye twitched. She cursed him as a scumbag in her heart, then whipped back around and glared at Qian Qi.
Qian Qi held up two tickets and smiled. “Miaomiao, classmate, do you want a regular ticket…or a VVVIP ticket?”
Chen Miaomiao clenched her jaw. Poverty won. “Regular.”
Qian Qi sighed dramatically. “Fine. For my roommate’s sake, I’ll sell it to you for a hundred.”
She leaned in, delighted. “And I’ll seat you right next to Senior Chen. How about that?”
Chen Miaomiao narrowed her eyes. Qian Qi being kind was suspicious by default. “You mean it?”
“Of course.” Qian Qi stuffed the ticket into her hand. “What are we, after all?”
Chen Miaomiao stared at the ticket. A hundred was…barely acceptable. She grit her teeth and paid.
Qian Qi’s grin could have powered the campus.
Once her two key customers were secured, she turned and shouted, “Grandpa! Time’s about right! Open the gate! Let in the students with tickets and stamps!”
Grandpa Sun called back and unlocked the gates, checking tickets as the crowd poured in.
At the same time, the principal sat in his office, opened the campus forum out of habit, and tapped into a thread titled:
#Is the principal bald or not?
At the top of the hottest comment chain was a post that made his eye twitch.
[—Dong Fang Qian Qi: The principal is so scared he’s going bald! An ordinary student wants to duel a d-rank contract beast? He’s decided to rush to Beast-Taming Plaza at 10 a.m. the day after tomorrow to stop a tragedy!]
The principal stared.
“…What?”
Who was it?
Which suicidal maniac dared to challenge a d-rank contract beast?
He immediately pulled up Old Li’s contact and started hammering out a message.
Middle-Age Baldness Panic: Old Li?
Middle-Age Baldness Panic: Beast-Taming Plaza has a match today?
Middle-Age Baldness Panic: Ordinary person versus d-rank contract beast?
The principal’s temples throbbed.
Old Sun?
Old Sun never liked joining the fun. Why was he suddenly involved?
The principal snapped open Old Sun’s contact too—the retired gatekeeper from the Beast-Taming Department who lived life on “whatever happens, happens” mode.
Middle-Age Baldness Panic: Old Sun!
Middle-Age Baldness Panic: Beast-Taming Plaza has a match today?
Middle-Age Baldness Panic: Ordinary person versus d-rank contract beast?
Old Sun Loves Guarding the Gate: Haha, yeah. It’s really interesting.
Old Sun Loves Guarding the Gate: Little Zheng, want to come have some fun?
The principal’s blood pressure spiked.
Fun, my ass.
Stop fanning the flames just because you like watching things burn.