Chapter 44

Chapter 44: The Principal Cracks

He looked at the student in front of him, then glanced at his VVVIP front-row seat. The Principal was baffled: “Huh? Then why did I pay for this VVVIP front-row seat? Just because it sounds fancy?”

He tugged a student closer and asked, “Classmate, how much is a regular ticket?”

The student answered: “Fifty.”

The Principal went silent, then he felt like he split apart. He spread his fingers, did some quick math, and finally slapped his own mouth twice with a crisp snap. [Serves you right for running your mouth. Why did you ask the price? If you didn’t know, you could still pretend you did. Now you know, and you’re mad enough to cough blood.]

Old Master Sun couldn’t hold back a laugh as he patted the Principal’s shoulder and said with meaning: “I think I know why you ended up paying out of pocket.”

The Principal, who had just bragged about a second big win, was speechless.

Hearing the price, Chen Tong and Chen Miao Miao both looked awful. They knew they had been taken, especially Chen Tong, who wanted to rush onto the square and strangle Qian Qi. [That money-obsessed maniac. Why did she squeeze me for even two hundred more?]

It wasn’t that he cared about that tiny bit of small change. It was that being fleeced by Qian Qi again and again felt like having a fly and a chunk of bitter herb stuck in your throat at the same time, both disgusting and unbearable. Worse, he still hadn’t gotten Qian Qi’s Light-Brain. Right now he was like a powder keg. Yet he had to pray: [Qian Qi, do not die here. If you die, I lose my source.]

On the square, Qian Qi swallowed a Defense Fruit, then sprinted straight at the Iron Bear Beast. This one wasn’t fully grown. An adult Iron Bear Beast could reach six or seven meters tall, but this one was only about three meters, clearly still young. Its fists, elbows, and knees were covered with hard gray stone scales, and thick dark-blue fur clumped tight over its heavy frame to form a layer of defensive armor. Its bloodshot eyes locked on Qian Qi with a cruel, savage glare unique to a Magibeast, and the ugly folds piled on its huge bear head stirred a deep fear in humans.

On the stands, the students gripped the rail and stared at tiny, bean-sized Qian Qi before the Iron Bear Beast. Some whispered: “She’s actually charging straight in,” and, “I heard she’s just a normal person. No Awakener Skill at all,” and, “Isn’t she in the Magiplant department? If she had a Skill, why would she pick such an unpopular, hated major?” Someone blurted, “What is she doing?”

Suddenly, while running, Qian Qi hit the brakes and stopped right in front of the three-meter-tall Iron Bear Beast. She dug into her pocket, then pulled out a single middle finger. The crowd froze.

She shouted a taunt: “Come on then!”

The Iron Bear Beast’s face fell. The insult set it off. Before the Beast Tamer could give an order, it threw back its head and roared, then smashed its massive fist into the ground. In an instant, an earth attack burst from that punch. A gigantic Earth Spike, about twenty meters wide and thick with earth power, exploded up from the square. It shot out from right under Qian Qi’s feet and drove a huge, sharp spear of packed soil straight at her.

Everyone’s hearts leaped. They didn’t even dare blink. The next second, they watched Qian Qi go “biu~” into the sky.

They stared as she went “whoosh~,” got popped clean out of the square by the Earth Spike, and shrank to a black dot in the distance.

“So… it’s over?”

“A D-level Magibeast is that scary.”

“Can she even be alive? Isn’t the Defense Fruit supposed to block damage? Is it fake?”

They swallowed hard while staring at the towering Earth Spike that took up almost half the square. Fear settled in. When they graduated, could they really enter a D-level Dungeon? D-level Magibeasts were terrifying.

“No wonder the outside Awakeners only take E-level Dungeons. I used to call them cowards.”

“Even Wang Qing He, with a D-level Skill, couldn’t last three moves.”

“If D-level is like this, what about C-level and B-level? Do humans even have a future?”

College students didn’t have the experience to answer. They turned to the Principal, hoping for guidance: “Principal, when we graduate, can we really bring new hope to humans?”

Would they end up like many Awakeners outside, swallowed by the crowd?

The Principal was stuck. He knew the Dungeon situation best. Sending these kids into anything above E-level was like sending them to die. But he couldn’t say that. After a pause, he stood and spoke in a steady voice: “Even if we can’t bring new hope, we must pass hope on.”

Eyes reddened. They heard the meaning beneath the words. Their strength was too low. E-level Awakeners outnumbered all other levels, yet compared to the vast number of ordinary people, they were still just a drop in the ocean. Awakeners were fewer than the Dungeons, not to mention the countless Monsters inside.

How could they fight so many with two fists? Some people thought getting into an Awakener university meant a bright future, but it was like wearing Kong Yiji’s long gown. It looked grand, but you could hardly move. They couldn’t protect most people, and sometimes they couldn’t even protect their own families.

There wasn’t much they could do. Besides constant sparring and killing Dungeon Monster bosses to grow a little stronger, only Beast Tamer work and Beast Contracting could bring more Awakener Skills. After that, there were no other paths to make humans stronger. It felt like the end had been written already, and the world was stingy with help.

The mood sank. The Principal watched their lost faces and felt both pain and helplessness. He could do nothing. The world looked bright on the surface, but decay had set in underneath. No one had found a road out of this gray fog. Maybe humans took a wrong turn at the start and kept making it worse. Even the Principal was confused.

Then a loud, crisp voice cut through the heavy sky like a giant axe, and light poured through the crack: “I, Qian Han San, am back!”

Everyone turned, stunned. The saving voice rushed closer, and under thousands of eyes, Qian Qi pedaled a broken bicycle, puffing her way to the center of the square. She yelled as she rode: “Hey friend, have some honor, okay? You launched me so far that getting back was a pain. Look, half of the ten minutes is gone. I wanted to show my Audience more of the Defense Fruit’s power!”

She was scolding the whole way, and not a scratch was on her.