Volume 15 - CH 2

[Welcome to the great sports field. Today is the triennial school festival’s sports competition. I am the announcer for this sports competition, Lucia. Long time no see, everyone!] The sports competition officially began at nine o’clock. When Miao Miao, I and a few others arrived at the sports competition, many classes were already there. The entire sports field practically only had two colors, red and white when you looked across. All of them were muddled together, but the teammates were quite clear at a glance.

After the opening, the announcer I saw during the athletics meet reappeared in the sunny sky, energetically kicking off the event: [This sports competition will adopt a completely different system than before. Similar to the double matchups from the eastern side of the original world, in this event, we’ll be divided into the red and white teams, which are the colors of the sportswear each of you students are wearing. Those with the same color will form the same team…If you unfortunately happen to be color blind, please come to our staff members.] Pausing, she flapped her wings cheerfully before opening her mouth again: [There are a total of eight events for the sports competition: solo race, tug of war, obstacle relay, water obstacle course, mixed riding battle, disguise mission, extreme crisis contest and hunting race.]

[Because the entire high school department is only split into two teams, there is a large number of people. Several of these games will begin at the same time—the first round: the solo race and obstacle relay will be held simultaneously in different areas. The tug of war and water obstacle course will be held at the same time, and the extreme crisis contest and hunting race will go on at the same time; next will be our lunch break. The mixed riding battle will start in the afternoon, and finally, the large-scale disguise mission, which is also the most anticipated one this time, able to make non-public schools and even other school friends participate together, will be the grand finale of the sports competition. Please look forward to it!] For some reason, after hearing these events, I felt completely dizzy.

Apart from the race and tug of war, what the hell are the rest of them!? What’s with that water obstacle course? Swim halfway and suddenly there’ll be a large amount of water monsters underneath pulling people or something!?

“Yang Yang, there are rewards for the side that wins the sports competition.” Miao Miao, who took out a program list of the sports competition from somewhere, cheerfully crowded next to me and showed me the list in her hand: “It’s based on collecting points. The winning side of each game will gain a lot of points. Plus, the performance of an individual can also add or deduct points. The side with the most points in the end wins.”

After taking the list, sure enough, I saw some words at the very top, which said that the winners today will get a gift from the school. Due to the many gifts (there’s a lot of students in a single team), they will be randomly selected, with even rare magic tools mixed among them.

I raised my head, and sure enough, a thick murderous aura appeared around the students who saw the rare tools being used as prizes on the sports field. “This is the most interesting time.” Light laughter came from the side. Wearing white sportswear, Olivia had been standing behind us at some point. It was rare for her long hair to be tied up and bound into a ponytail behind her head. She gave off a completely different impression from usual and also appeared more lively: “I heard about a couple gifts when I was at the student union, like seldom-seen magic fruits and medicine. The school spent a lot of money this time; their courage is commendable.” Seeing that the class rep was also on the same team as us, I felt relieved. Having said that, I realized something else, “Student union?” I don’t think I was ever aware of the school having something like this.

“Yeah, Olivia is the president of the student union.” Miao Miao threw herself on the class rep and happily said this. Uh, should I say that appearances are deceiving?

“Even grade one students can become the union president over here?” I also wanted to say that only grade three students are able to in the original world. It was already very impressive if a grade one student could scoop up an important post.

“Heh, because the president was so useless, I made him give up the position.” Saying terrifying words in a tone as if she was talking about the cat next door that gave birth to two kittens, the class rep shrugged, thinking that it was very natural: “I just said that he can’t even use his head to earn a dozen times more profit. There’s no one else besides me who could sit in this position after school.”

I deeply felt that the class rep is truly a god. Not only is she able to singlehandedly take on every big and small issue in the class, she can also take on the homeroom teacher’s and finally kick down the student union president to do his job herself; where would you find such a talent!?

“The competition is about to start. What are you guys chatting about here!?” Just when I was about to ask the class rep other things about the student union, a chilly voice suddenly came from behind. I immediately turned around with a start, and sure enough, I saw Senior standing behind me, his red eyes glaring at me.

As soon as she saw Senior descend, Miao Miao became even more cheerful: “Senior, we have to defeat the red team!”

“Nonsense, enemies can only be annihilated.” Looking at the people in red sportswear nearby, Senior revealed a scary expression. Basically…they’re still our classmates under that layer of red clothes. Is it alright to use the word “annihilate”!? Senior turned and sinisterly looked at me: “If they are not comrades, they are enemies. If you lose today, you’ll be sorry.”

…

Don’t be like this! How can I possibly win in such a place!? Can’t you just let me be an odd-job man who supplies cold water!?

“We’ll win for sure!” Raising her hands and cheering, Miao Miao and the others all ignored my pale face, then began to gather up the white team to hold a war meeting.

It was the same for the red team on the other side. I could see Chifuyu very uncomfortably following senior Gasai, at not too close of a distance. A large number of people there have also started gathering for an opposition meeting.

It was there that I saw Liliya…It’s seriously not easy to even be enemies like this. Glancing around, there were more people that I didn’t know over there. In contrast, I would have an easier time staying in the white team. After all, Senior, Miao Miao and the others are here.

Wait, I suddenly realized that I seemed to have missed someone.

Just when I was thinking hard about who was missing, a big commotion came over from the red team. The noise was so loud that I had to turn around to see what was going on—”Bastard! How long is it going to take to kill someone with this slow method!? This uncle protests! The most effective way to win during war is to kill all the talents as quickly as possible!”

The five-colored rooster head who caused the big commotion appeared in the enemy camp.

“Yang Yang!”

By the time Senior began to manage the selected players for the competition, he didn’t get to call me because of how long it took, so I stood a bit closer to the side, very close to the audience; at the same time, I heard the sound of what seemed someone calling me from the audience.

After turning around, I saw an unexpected person: “Ran?”

Bai Ling Ran, who I hadn’t contacted in a long time, suddenly appeared in the audience, even waving at me with a smile. Then he ran over and stood at the edge of the dividing line: “As expected, I didn’t mistake you for someone else. I was just thinking that I couldn’t find you.” He smiled at me, still seeming very kind, just like before: “I specially came to watch the sports competition. I wanted to come yesterday, but was detained by a teacher. It wasn’t easy for me to sneak out today.”

Hearing him say this, I suddenly felt a bit moved.

Because of the school, I didn’t even dare to tell my mom about the sports competition. Just like the original world, the parents of many students here appeared in the audience too. The entire periphery of the sports field was bustling with noise, but there was no one from my family among them. Ran, who had specially run over here, somehow gave me the sense that he filled in a vacancy, as if he was supposed to be here from the start.

“Yang Yang seems to really like the snacks I made for you guys last time, so I also brought some this time. There are a lot, and there’s also mung bean soup. Let’s eat together at noon.” Ran curved into a wide smile, making me nod unknowingly. In fact, if I don’t get dragged off at noon, I’ll probably eat in the restaurant anyway. When I thought of the snacks Ran brought last time, I couldn’t help but swallow. It’s been a long time since I ate mung bean soup, and once he mentioned it, I remembered it all. Although the restaurants here can make everything and make them taste delicious, they lacked that traditional taste I yearned for. Student Ran’s just so happened to taste exactly the same as my mom’s, which should be the first good thing that has happened before the competition began.

“Oh right, I brought a digital camera from the original world. It can help you guys take some pictures, or do you like taking pictures with the image orbs here?” Ran shook the small black bag in his hand and asked me.

“Uh, the digital camera is fine.” That way I can pick a few to show my mom. If I use pictures that can move, it’d be weird if she wasn’t scared to death.

“No problem.” The person carrying the camera replied straightforwardly.

Just when I still wanted to chat with Ran, a voice from behind suddenly interrupted our exchange: “Chu! If you don’t come back and hear me assign roles, you’ll compete against the entire field!” Senior’s evil-ghost voice came from the underworld behind us. I didn’t dare to pretend that I didn’t hear him, running back to the white team circle after hurriedly greeting Ram. Clearly noticing Ran’s presence too, Senior nodded before turning back to the little team meeting: “Now the white team will be split into two. The solo race, tug of war, and extreme crisis contest will be led by Mianda. I will take the lead in the obstacle relay, water obstacle course and the hunting race.” I glanced over at Senior’s side. The one named Mianda was a grade three senior, who was pale and looked like she probably wasn’t from the human race. “All team members must support during the morning games. The competition’s prizes will definitely be ours this time!”

After swiftly saying that, the other members of the white team immediately let out cheers, their entire morale improved. “Don’t, leave the team. Have, to try hard.” Mianda spoke in a weird way, then started to tally up the people she would take to the second round of games.

There was a limit to the conference time the organization gave us. After Mianda finished choosing, it was almost time to begin the first game.

Like the white team, the red team was split into two. The other portion was led to the second meeting place by the staff members.

I looked at the red team…I’m doomed. The team leader they left for this group was actually senior Gasai. Looks like people have a habit of choosing robe levels to lead.

Now this means that Senior and senior Gasai are going to go head to head!

I don’t know if I should say that I’m looking forward to it, but in short, minus my scared state of mind, I suddenly kind of wanted to see what sort of scene it’d be if these two partners fought; in addition to them, there’s Ryan and Chifuyu too. These two might not be much better either. Wait, thinking about it closely, the team distribution seems to have split up all the partners, “Some of the more high leveled ones were torn apart.” Senior glanced at me, snorting: “Otherwise, if they were all put together, wouldn’t the other team have no hope at all.”

If you put it that way, it does make sense. If Senior and senior Gasai were on the same team, then today’s outcome would’ve been decided already.

“Yang~this uncle won’t show you any mercy this time.” Standing in the enemy camp, the five-colored rooster head quickly noticed my presence and cheerfully broke into a wide grin: “Mountains and water can meet by chance*. When the time comes to fight or kill, you can’t blame this uncle!”

[T/N: Basically saying we’ll meet again]

The competition wasn’t made for you to fight or kill! And also, we definitely won’t be competing in martial arts or *qinggong. Which wuxia film did you learn to talk like this from?

[T/N: Martial arts technique of light footwork, scaling walls quickly, etc]

Just when both sides were starting to seriously clamor, Lucia spun around in the air, then picked up the microphone again: [Conferencing time is over. Starting now, our high school department’s triennial sports competition officially begins. First off, the first game of our first round on the sports field—the obstacle relay race, with ten people, all of whom must run five laps around our field. The first to reach the finish line wins!] The surrounds suddenly shook, and I saw a large track appear around the sports track, the kind that was eight hundred meters wide in diameter. The track looked extremely new and clean. With nothing on it at all, it didn’t seem that difficult, in fact.

Why is it just this obstacle course?

A thunderous tremor came from the ground.

A second later, something that would actually make me want to turn to look emerged. The track that originally had nothing at all abruptly began to grow a lot of weird plants that felt far from good at first glance. Some were even so large that they looked like they came from tropical rainforests, the kind where you immediately die upon entry.

You call this an obstacle relay!? “Chu, do you want to try running?” Beside me, Senior finished looking at the track that underwent plastic surgery and disinterestedly asked me. “I would rather die!” I don’t want to meet my death in the mouth of a plant for a relay race.

“You can’t die from this type. I don’t even want to play.” Lazily assigning a random class to pick out a few people, Senior gave me a glance.

I’m so sorry, I think I’d definitely die if I go in.

“Miao Miao wants to take the lead!” From start till now, Miao Miao has been in a good mood as she raised her hand.

“Alright, good luck.” Senior patted Miao Miao’s head, and the latter’s eyes were about to turn into hearts. Then several girls from the same team immediately rushed to say that they wanted to join the game too.

I suddenly realized that Senior, if you continue to dispatch people like this, there will definitely be many female schoolmates willing to die for you.

“F**k!” A shoe sole directly flew over at my face.

From not moving your hands to moving your feet, huh…

I held my face and crouched down in the same spot, probably in pain for several seconds.

Standing up after it stopped hurting, I saw that a group of about ten people has already been chosen. Apart from Miao Miao, most of them are schoolmates that I don’t know from other classes. “Oh, the first battle seems pretty interesting.” The class rep, who had disappeared in the crowd for a short time, once again returned to our side with even drinks and popcorn in hand. I looked up to see the homeroom teacher, who got hit on the head, standing in the outer ring. It can’t be that you two just went to make a bet on who wins and who loses, right!? The surrounding audience issued sounds of applause and cheer.

Because it wasn’t like the life-and-death battle from the sports competition last time, and the majority of those who came were friends and family, it didn’t make one feel too tense. The entire atmosphere of the scene wasn’t that bad, a hot-blooded feeling that makes one want to cheer. “Since you think you want to cheer, then get into the team!”

Just when I felt touched by the scene’s atmosphere, Senior directly grabbed my collar and pushed me into joining the team, before swapping out another girl.

I could feel that girl looking at me with a very resentful gaze.

“Yang Yang can run together with Miao Miao!” Miao Miao pounced over and hugged my arm.

That’s not right! I only wanted to cheer because I don’t want to join this!

Immediately looking toward Senior to protest, the other person stared at me with very sinister red eyes: “Would you prefer the water obstacle course where you can be pulled under by a water monster? Hm?”

…Compared to water, I would rather stay on land.

That’s not right! It’s all the same on water or land. I don’t want to join at all! “Yang Yang, good luck.” Popping up beside me at some point, Ryan patted my shoulder, then encouraged me.

“You want to join too?” Noticing that Ryan was also in the team, I was stunned.

“No, I’m passing by.”

Ryan nodded, then whispered to Miao Miao and I: “Senior said I’m joining the hunting game and also said that as long as I don’t tie my hair and focus on fighting, we’ll win.”

Senior, you’re pretty ruthless! That’s simply a sneak attack! And the other side has to die unwittingly, huh.

Standing a distance away from the team, Senior glanced at me, giving me a warning glare.

I immediately turned my gaze, not daring to look at him again.

“Suya.” Miao Miao held out her White Cat King, then let the Cat King stand on the ground: “Come on, let’s break through the obstacles.”

In almost an instant, the little cat immediately turned into that enormous Cat King I’d seen before.

“This is a race, right!?” Who would call out a mount for a running race!? Miao Miao and Ryan turned to look at me. Rubbing the Cat King’s chin while ignoring the looks sent by her opponents, Miao Miao “hehe” laughed: “This is an obstacle course. Yang Yang didn’t see the flow chart just now? Anything goes for the obstacle course. Running together is fine, attacking others is fine, as long as the relay item is successfully brought to the finish line in the end.” Which means that this is radically different from the little-baton-passing-one-to-one race that I imagined! How is this a relay race!? You got the stuff from the original world wrong, didn’t you!?

[Please get into position, competing students.] Lucia’s voice drifted over from high above and the staff members immediately guided us to the starting point.

Ryan still stayed in the same spot, waving at us, then quickly disappeared into the air.

“Which one of you wants to be the first runner?” One of the staff members walked up to the front of the team and took out a transparent sphere about the size of a basketball. In the sphere was a small model of a fishlike thing. The model floated in the center of the sphere without being supported by anything and looked very beautiful: “If the relay ball has been touched, the same person can’t touch it a second time. If the same person touches it a second time, the team will immediately be disqualified.”

The staff member told us briefly.

I stared at that ball and found that the ball really was beautiful, especially the model in the center. Although tiny, upon closer inspection, it was a colored glazed work of art, probably a handiwork of the Fairies or some other race.

“Give me it first then.” A boy with a long brown ponytail in our team stood out. He seemed quite handsome. Later I found out that he’s a senior from the grade three Class C, named Aslaine. After receiving the ball, he turned to look at us, “When the obstacle race begins in a while, if an enemy approaches, immediately finish them off without a word, or else the ones being finished off will be us.”

Several teammates instantly let out vigorous cheers.

“Take out your Illusionary Weapons. The battle has begun!” Aslaine pulled out his own Illusionary Weapon that turned into a saber and loudly said this, full of the momentum of some commander in a war period.

“The battle has begun!”

A second later, various Illusionary Weapons appeared at the same time.

“Class C junior.”

While we were waiting at the starting point for the signal to start, Aslaine walked over with the relay ball, smiling as he looked at me: “Hello, I am the Hunter of grade three Class C, Aslaine Shirey. I’ve heard many things about you and wanted to know you better, but I never got the chance. You seem to rarely show up at school social occasions.”

He held out his hand and I hastily reached out and shook it: “Uh…sorry.” Of course I rarely show up at school socials. Whenever I have time, if I’m not with Senior to observe his missions, I’m running around with Miao Miao and the others. To be honest, I don’t even know where the school’s social occasions are.

Wait a minute, Shirey?

I heard a certain very familar surname, and of the people I know there just so happens to be someone with name similar to this: “You are Mr. Dallow’s…?”

“Younger brother.” Aslaine smiled heartily: “The black robe Dallow is my brother, and I am the purple robe Aslaine. I’ve also heard Dallow talk about you. When something terrible actually happened within the dorm’s barrier, I was in the stable Purple Dorm barrier and couldn’t arrive in time, such a pity.”

So both brothers are in charge of the dorm keys?

I suddenly felt that their family might not be simple.

But in a way, the Aslaine in front of me had more of a hard-to-defy imposing manner than brother Dallow. Maybe in a few years, he will become a terrifying figure.

As soon as I remembered that such a person was also sorted into Class C, I suddenly thought his personality should be very good too. “Oh right, what kind of race are the Hunters?” With the Fairy Clan, Elves, Angels and Beastmasters that appeared at the start, I could more or less understand from the words, but I’ve honestly never heard of the Hunters.

Aslaine smilingly explained to me: “The Hunter Clan were born from the earth and lie between the Fairy Clan and the Elven Clan. They are a free race, guarding the wilderness and travelers and moving with the wind and clouds. If there’s time, I can bring you to the wilderness to visit the Hunter Race. I believe everyone will definitely welcome their visitor.”

His enthusiasm was very similar to brother Dallow’s. Sure enough, as expected of blood-related brothers.

Reaching out his hand, Aslaine waved it beside my ear, and I heard some kind of crisp bell-like sound. All of a sudden I went from being extremely tensed up to relaxing: “This is the sound that guides bewildered travelers, so that they can continue moving forward in the wilderness.” He said with a smile, then withdrew his hand: “It’s the same for humans and other races. At any moment in the currents of time, we choose a path. I can only guide you in the direction before you on behalf of the Hunters, and wish that you can walk on the way home to light.”

Maybe because of him, my emotions really started to subside. I still felt the fear and nervousness from just now, but most of it was gone already. Looking at Aslaine, I bowed back gratefully.

He patted my head like some sort of prayer.

“Yang Yang, Ali.” Miao Miao ran over and a moment passed before I realized that she called Aslaine’s nickname, “It’s started!”

Pointing at the sky, Miao Miao excitedly said.

In the next second, a huge spark burst in the sky, followed by the explosion of countless colorful, dazzling fireworks. Among the sounds of surprise and cheer from the audience, Lucia’s voice cut through the commotion—[The obstacle relay course has officially begun!]