Chapter 51: Followed By All
There were from thousands to tens of thousands of students practicing against each other on the Sector Championship’s platform at every moment. Therefore, no one had applied to spectate the newbie match between Shadow X and Fang. Plus, both their accounts were just newly registered, so their follows and followers were completely blank, and so no one learned about their battle in time.
The people who had published the ‘streaking’ incident on the forum’s front page did not follow ‘Shadow X’, it was just an amusement they had found after a period of intense training. Meanwhile, those who had accused ‘Shadow X’ did not follow him either. This was because they felt like they would shame themselves by doing so. This had also caused them to pass by a huge opportunity.
Both sides automatically entered a single combat battlefield after agreeing to a versus battle.
After pressing ‘Start’, Fang did not move. After all his opponent was just a rank B non-military-academy student. If he had acted first, it would feel a little like he was fighting a one-sided battle or bullying the weak. Cillin also knew what his opponent was thinking, so he attacked first.
A white shadow flashed towards him. For an average person, it might appear to be very swift, but to Fang it was just passable. Hence, Fang had even split his attention to evaluate his opponent’s movements and posture while he lifted his hands to block the attack at the same time.
Not bad...
While Fang was still thinking, he then realized that his arms were somehow knocked slightly off position just before they were about to block his opponent’s attacks. It was just a single opening, but his opponent’s hand had already cleverly pierced through the gap with twice the traveling speed, and hit him.
Bang!
Fang was struck backwards a few steps away.
Cillin made his own silent appraisal. He hails from a military academy alright. If this was someone else, they should’ve been sent flying, but this person before him had only taken a few steps backwards. His body was very tough, and his reactions were also swift. Although he wasn’t able to avoid the attack due to being distracted, Fang’s chest bones and muscles were all in a state of high alert, which lowered the offensive power of his strike. Moreover, even if Cillin did seize the opportunity to put in a combo, he was sure that Fang would be well prepared against it.
After Fang had stood still and stared at this generic robot-like fellow, he suddenly felt a little heat rushing to his cheeks. He was actually beaten back by a non-military-academy rank B newbie! Moreover, Fang was a little angered when he saw his opponent stayed quietly at his spot instead of rushing towards him, seemingly waiting for him to recover.
I was careless. Before the Sector Championship’s platform had started, the instructors had already told them not to belittle those who hail from non-military higher education institutions. There were plenty of people who were hiding their true strength, and it was up to their luck whether they would encounter these people. He did not expect to encounter such a person right after he registered his account.
He felt anger, but that anger was eclipsed by the fighting spirit inside him. Fang put up a defensive stance and signaled his opponent to attack.
Seeing that Fang was ready and not distracted this time, Cillin too kicked his strength up a notch.
Cillin’s attacks appeared light and floaty, but at close range, they would suddenly speed up and become extremely unpredictable. It was incredibly hard for Fang to instantly predict Cillin’s intentions. Moreover, Cillin’s attacks contained heavy strength behind them, and a single blow was enough to strike Fang backwards a few steps. The more he was beaten, the further back he was blown away.
Fang himself noticed that something was amiss after he was blown backwards for the fifth time. It felt like his opponent was just probing his strength all this time, or to put it bluntly, playing with him.
A rush of anger flooded to his head. Fang couldn’t give a care about keeping his tricks under wraps any longer; it wasn’t his style to hide himself anyway. He wants a fight, I’ll give him a fight.
This time Fang did not defend, and went on the offensive instead.
At the same time, at a certain accommodation at the Third Military Academy, three people exited from versus mode after ending their respective battles.
“As I thought, we can only versus against someone from a military academy. Those people from Sector B are just too weak.” A person complained.
“You’re still searching around Sector B? Leave those for Grade One students, man, at our level we can only seek out our own kind. Look, I’ve always challenged those from the First and Fourth Military Academy.”
The First Military Academy had ranked second place in the Sector Championship last year. The Third Military Academy was ranked third as usual, and the Fourth Military Academy was the champion. As for the Second Military Academy, they were laughed at quite a bit by the other academies for ranking bottom out of the four military academies.
“Right, that Grade One fellow should’ve registered by now, should he?”
“You mean that ‘Fang’ Faratin?”
The Third Military Academy’s Grade One student, Faratin’s individual combat strength was ranked fifth in the entire academy. The students all called him ‘Fang’. However, it appeared that he was sent away by the instructor on some mission a few days ago, and there was no news from Faratin during the first few days of the Sector Championship’s platform’s opening.
“Do you know what’s his ID? Let’s search around for a bit.”
“Just search for ‘Fang’, he should be using this nickname.”
“Eh, there really is a ‘Fang’. The account was just registered today, and the information board indicates it’s from our Third Military Academy. But he’s in versus battle right now.”
“Versus battle?” Everyone in the accommodation rushed over.
Most of the accommodations in military academies were communal, with four to tens of people living within them. This accommodation had eight people in it. The eight of them were all gathered around in a discussion.
“His opponent actually comes from Seven Lights, and he’s a rank B genotype no less. With Faradin’s strength, why would he bully a student from Seven Lights?”
“The battle has been going on for sixteen minutes, and it still hasn’t ended yet. That Faradin kid is probably not going all out, his opponent is a newbie after all.”
While speaking, the screen showed that the versus battle had ended.
“Hah, there’s the game over. I told you that Faradin kid is... huh? He... he lost? How is this possible!”
Fang’s combat result was a shocking 1 loss, whereas Shadow X’s was a 1 win.
After a long silence, someone asked.
“This Fang isn’t our Fang, is he?”
No one said anything. According to the information, this Fang should be Faradin alright, but this combat result was just way too bizarre.
“Give me a minute. Let me ask someone.” One of them turned on the Third Military Academy’s on-campus chat app.
Meanwhile, at an accommodation in the Third Military Academy.
Faradin sat at his place with sweat all over his body. His arms were shivering, while he panted heavily.
The rest of the people inside the accommodation were shocked by his appearance, but when they saw ‘Fang’s’ combat result on the screen, their faces were as if they had seen a ghost.
Faradin could feel the pain in his muscles. The sensors had clearly transmitted that pain to his body. That Shadow X’s entire style earlier could almost be summed up with a single word ‘entangle’; entangling him while continuously increasing his own force until he was finally forced to convert his fighting spirit to murderous intent at the end. And then...
Faradin hugged his head. The sweat on his forehead dropped incessantly the moment he thought of that single instant.
Shadow X, while wearing the appearance of a generic robot, had looked like a Demon King back then. If this was an actual combat, Faradin was absolutely sure that he would be dead already. There would be no chance of survival, and both his arms would have been torn to shreds.
After getting his thoughts and emotions under control, Faradin sucked in a deep breath and moved his somewhat stiff arms a little.
“Faradin, that Shadow X...”
“Very strong. That guy’s very strong.” Faradin sighed. Then he got up and headed to the balcony with his communicator.
After Faradin had walked out, the people inside the accommodation matched each other’s glances. There weren’t many peers at all who could get a ‘very strong’ appraisal from Faradin. And so, they logged into the Sector Championship’s platform, searched for the ID Shadow X and followed him.
Meanwhile, the people at the high grade accommodation were still guessing after sending an all chat on the on-campus chat app and getting no response. Then, one of them cried out, “Someone followed Shadow X!”
There were five people who were shown to have followed Shadow X, and when they clicked open the window, they discovered that all five were new students of the Third Military Academy. Five minutes later, Fang himself had followed Shadow X. Meanwhile, Faradin had also replied to the all chat on the on-campus chat app and said, “I am Fang. Shadow X is very strong.”
Faradin did not grow dejected just because he experienced a loss on his first battle on the Sector Championship’s platform. On the contrary, he was extremely excited, and he did not intentionally hide the fact that he had lost to Shadow X either. He had told his instructor about this matter, and his instructor had assisted him in analysing the reason behind his defeat. Moreover, this was very beneficial in helping Faradin to discover his own flaws and shortcomings. Every encounter with a new combat style was a perfect opportunity to improve himself, and Shadow X’s combat style was without a doubt a very good example.
Faradin’s words caused every high grade student to boil up, and so the words began to spread from one to ten, and ten to hundred...
And this was how the epic scene where the generic-looking ‘Shadow X’ had come to be followed by tens of thousands of people on his first day, and all of them were Third Military Academy students.