Chapter 51

Yi Jiamu entered the combat room and waited a while for his late opponent.

Even in the interstellar age, there were occasional network delays. Yi Jiamu didn’t think too much about it. Then he became stunned when he noticed the ID of the other person. He always felt that this name was familiar but he couldn’t remember where he had seen it.

Burning Wood was Sublime Star’s rival school and the platform nicknames of their players were indeed in the statistics. However, today Jing Yao logged into a side account he didn’t usually use. Yi Jiamu only had an impression of it after seeing it in an information booklet. This already showed that his memory was amazing.

The moment Jing Yao entered the room, he noticed Yi Jiamu’s expression of surprise. He looked at the opponent’s system face and had no memory of it at all. He couldn’t help frowning slightly. Such a reaction made it seem like the opponent knew him.

However, the account he was currently logged into wasn’t used very often and ordinary users shouldn’t know it—unless the one in front of him was also a member of a college ability association.

Such an idea came to his mind but Jing Yao immediately laughed and shook his head.

The next stage of the competition was about to start soon and players who were finalists wouldn’t waste time to practice on a side account at such a critical moment. As for teams that didn’t make it into the final stages, they had been eliminated directly in the preliminaries and there was no need to care about them.

Jing Yao remembered his desire to start the next match quickly and immediately issued an invitation to start the match. Yi Jiamu accepted it very simply.

It had been two years since Jing Yao entered the Burning Wood Abilities Association and his ability belonged to the ice type. He wanted to fight quickly so after the battle started, he didn’t hesitate to launch an offensive.

Icicles rose from the ground under Yi Jiamu’s feet and immediately attached to his limbs. If someone looked closely, they could see that the ice that touched the body was rapidly turning into water but since the subsequent freezing effect was too quick, it seemed that he was tightly confined in place.

Yi Jiamu lowered his head to look at his body that was trapped in a crystal and his eyes brightened.

Sure enough, there was a big gap between the low level venues and the high level venues. This time, he finally encountered a relatively normal ability.

Jing Yao saw that Yi Jiamu was in a daze and completely restrained. His lips curved up and he approached Yi Jiamu with no hesitation. His ability made the surrounding ice seem like a living thing and it completely covered most of Yi Jiamu’s body.

At the same time, the fist that Jing Yao swung also had ice condensed on it. It approached the most vulnerable position in the icicles and wanted to defeat the enemy.

However, just as the fist was about to hit, all the icicles that formed an ice sculpture suddenly burst. An arm stretched out from among the thousands of cracked fragments and approached in an imposing manner.

The moment the two fists collided, all the ice shattered into thousands of crystal particles.

Jing Yao was blown away by a punch and he couldn’t help being stunned.

His ice type ability was absolutely top-notch when looking at the entire college league. He was even invited by a professional ice type Ability Masters Association. Yet this new account that he despised so much made him feel a complete sense of defeat he had never felt before.

The ice kingdom that was created and belonged to him was completely disintegrated by his opponent so lightly. Yes, disintegrated. Jing Yao might be reluctant but this was the first word that came to mind. Moreover, this disintegration was in a flash. He didn’t even have time to see his opponent’s abilities clearly. He obviously couldn’t be a newcomer with such strength. He was more like a mature and senior ability master.

However, if the other side was really an ability master, why chose Venue A for this new account to challenge? Shouldn’t he choose to directly enter the S level venue?

Countless thoughts flashed through his mind. Just then, an agile figure approached in a flash. Jing Yao saw the expressionless system face again and his inner emotions inevitably felt a bit complicated.

Nevertheless, he had already condensed the icicles again. He watched his opponent’s movements vigilantly, ready to find an opportunity to fight back at any time. His current mentality was obviously very different from before.

Earlier, he thought the opponent was a novice who could be dealt with casually. Now the strength that had been exposed aroused Jing Yao’s fighting spirit. He was curious. What type of ability was it? Let him have a good look!

A hint of motivation flashed in Jing Yao’s eyes. He locked onto his opponent in an instant, trying to see through battle. He never expected that the opponent in front of him wouldn’t even give him a chance to see the ability.

The moment Yi Jiamu got close, he directly ignored the ice ability and simply and roughly caught Jing Yao.

10 seconds later, the battle was over.

Jing Yao was sent out of the combat room by the system and his entire body felt bad. A figure appeared next to him. It was his teammate Liang Qiuzhi who had left the observer stands to follow him. The two of them looked at each other and no one spoke for a moment.

Who would’ve thought that an official member of the Burning Wood Abilities Association would lose to a new account doing the challenge mission of the A level venue. In addition, he didn’t even hold on for one minute.

After a long time, Jing Yao finally found his voice. “The new account must belong to an S grade ability master.”

Liang Qiuzhi muttered. “Ah, um... he is a master.”

Jing Yao’s tone was slightly heavy. “I was careless just now. I exposed my ability too early and failed to grasp the situation of the opponent. That’s why... that’s what caused such a passive situation.”

Liang Qiuzhi was silent for a moment. “Then do you still want to practice?”

“I won’t practice anymore.” Jing Yao sighed and smiled helplessly. “I say, the competition is about to start. Can’t you see that I’m trying to find reasons to restore my frustrated self-esteem? Why can’t you say something nice to comfort me?”

Liang Qiuzhi thought for a moment before stating in a serious tone, “The other person is an S-grade ability master, the opponent is too strong, I don’t blame you for being too weak.”

Oh, he was sorry for being too weak!

“......” Jing Yao’s mouth twitched. “Forget it. Don’t talk about this.”

Then he turned around and quickly called up the system interface. He clicked on the game information just now.

Liang Qiuzhi came over. “Are you going to review your own fiasco?”

Jing Yao resisted the urge to beat up this person and gritted his teeth. “I want to see this person’s other challenges! He just played one match against me. If there isn’t an accident, he needs to win one or two more matches.”

He pressed the ‘special attention’ button for this person, glanced at the other person’s online situation and finally showed a slightly happy expression. “Look, he is starting a new round!”

Liang Qiuzhi didn’t understand it. “Is this person related to our next match? Why do you care about him so much?”

Jing Yao was silent for a moment. “I lost so miserably. I have to know what the other person’s ability is or else I won’t be able to easily sleep at night!”

Then he entered the spectator mode without hesitation. Liang Qiuzhi was taken aback for a moment before also following.

On the other side, Yi Jiamu had no idea that he attracted the attention of other players. He didn’t relax after successfully winning and continued to enter the next match.

This time, the opponent’s strength obviously wasn’t as good as Jing Yao. He might have a physical enhancement type ability but he just rushed forward brainlessly. Since his ability didn’t have any effect on Yi Jiamu, it was no different from sending him a person.

In less than half a minute, it was over. He continued to challenge the third round of the task. It was a fire ability who was resolved quickly in 40 seconds. The challenge was successfully completed.

Yi Jiamu confirmed his qualification for the A level venue and pursed his lips with a complicated expression on his face. He didn’t choose to continue entering the queue and returned to the initial platform.

Jing Yao and Liang Qiuzhi watched two matches in succession. They only left once they saw the other person wasn’t continuing. This time, the two men’s expressions were more complicated than before.

Liang Qiuzhi was the first to break the silence. “Ah Yao, do you think this new account is a bit weird?”

Jing Yao gave a small nod. “It is a bit.”

Liang Qiuzhi wondered, “Is it a problem with the system?”

In the last match, they clearly saw the opponent’s fire attack hit. However, the new account didn’t seem to feel it at all and his offensive movements weren’t blocked.

Still, how could it be a system bug? Everyone knew this combat platform was jointly developed by the Interstellar Ability Masters Association and so far, it had been running with no flaws apart from the devastating entire platform failure incident after being attacked by hackers.

Or was this account using a cheat?

Jing Yao thought about it before deciding. “Report it.”

***

Yi Jiamu was sorting out the data.

Gu Yesheng came back and happened to see the child’s serious back. He came up curiously. “Why did you come back so soon? How were your matches?”

He glanced at the A level venue qualification on Yi Jiamu’s profile and was a bit surprised. “You entered the A venue so soon?”

Yi Jiamu glanced back at him, voice dull. “If I knew this, I wouldn’t have chosen the A level venue for the challenge mission.”

Gu Yesheng asked, “Why?”

Yi Jiamu thought for a moment. “It’s too weak.”

Based on this voice, there seemed to be some grievances.

He thought that there would be some references after entering the A level venue. He didn’t think it would be a near crushing situation. It was really boring.

Gu Yesheng saw Yi Jiamu’s demeanor and couldn’t help wanting to laugh. “The strength of the A level venus isn’t weak. It is just that the next stage of the competition is starting in two days and fewer masters are logging in. Just wait until the top six is finished. Don’t worry.”

Just then, a message arrived on Yi Jiamu’s panel.

Gu Yesheng took a look and couldn’t help blinking. “What have you done? Someone actually reported you?”

The platform’s reports all used real-name systems and the reported person would receive a notice. If the report was true, it would be handled accordingly. However, if it was unfounded then the reporter would be punished. This was why people usually didn’t take the risk of making a report unless there was a ‘deep hatred.’

Yi Jiamu was somewhat surprised when he saw the notice. He passed on all the match information he had just compiled to Gu Yesheng. “I don’t know who it is. Look, the matches I played just now are all here.”

Gu Yesheng casually looked through it and couldn’t help being happy when he saw a familiar ID. “You actually fought Jing Yao?”

Yi Jiamu wasn’t a stranger to the name ‘Jing Yao’ and finally reacted. No wonder why he always felt that the opponent in the first match looked familiar. Yi Jiamu asked, “Jing Yao, is he a member of Burning Wood?”

Gu Yesheng nodded. “That’s him.”

Yi Jiamu looked up. “I won against him. Does this prove that I am actually qualified to participate in the Abilities League?”

Gu Yesheng saw this expression of anticipation and smiled. “In my heart, you have always been qualified.”

Yi Jiamu’s eyes lit up at the affirmation.

Gu Yesheng was hit with a critical attack. He finally remembered business and immediately threw away JIng Yao’s matter. He opened his system panel and happily passed a piece of data to Yi Jiamu. “By the way, I have made many sets of appearances for you! Come on, try them on and see if you like them!”

The author has something to say:

Can I refuse?