Chapter 51 – The Prodigy Society’s First Battle
A little embarrassed, Ma Dong shook his head and said, “I’m not afraid. How could I be afraid? It’s just that I couldn’t bear to step on and kill ants ever since I was young…”
“Ma Dong, you scumbag! Don’t be so shameless!”
“Too shameless!”
“Now I really want to pick up a live ant and squish it to death!”
“Fuck, why didn’t I think of this method earlier?”
“Wang Zhong, let’s team up,” said Scarlet who was standing on the other side. She gave a faint smile and wouldn’t allow any of the others near her a chance. “There’re some things I need your advice on.”
The anticipatory eyes of every suddenly became stunned.
It was one thing for scumbag Ma Dong to manage to ‘court’ Milami, but was it possible for a blockhead like Wang Zhong to be able to obtain the favour of this goddess!?
This was simply illogical!
At this time, the guys saw Scarlet and Wang Zhong standing before the same operating table. All of them had the same collective thought; I won’t be able to love anything anymore!
Wanting to dissect a Sahara Metal-eating Ant wasn’t such an easy thing to do since one first had to break open that resilient exoskeleton. It was an uphill task, even when using an electric drill. What’s more, it demanded accuracy. This was a dissection, of course, and one couldn’t simply hammer it open with a club.
Wang Zhong and Scarlet worked together and started the dissection in unison.
Rizzzzz.
Sounds were produced when the electric drill touched the exoskeleton. It was just as though they were drilling through a thick piece of cast iron.
Ping.
A faint sound rang out.
“Careful,” said Wang Zhong as he quickly used a metal plate to block the hole.
When the exoskeleton beneath was drilled open, a thin stream of golden liquid spurted out and landed on the metal plate. A shhhh shh sound proceeded, revealing its extremely corrosive properties.
Wang Zhong followed up quickly and brought over a small vacuum flask. He waited until the spray of golden liquid had subsided before stuffing the flask against the drilled hole. At the same time, he examined the abdomen of the Metal-eating Ant and gave it a hard slap.
A few dozen strands of white stuff spurted from the hole and landed into the flask.
He shoved the cap on and then vacuumed out the excess air in one go.
“Metal-eating Ant eggs must not have any contact with air before they hatch,” Wang Zhong explained as he laughed. “Generally speaking, the eggs of a corpse shouldn’t have survived. This is just our luck.”
“Have you dissected Metal-eating Ants before?” asked Scarlet. Even she was surprised that Wang Zhong showed so much knowledge about the ant, more so when he moved to catch the eggs.
It had been done with extreme precision and speed, especially when he patted the abdomen of the Metal-eating Ant. Just piercing through the exoskeleton of the Metal-Eating Ant was difficult with an electric drill. Wanting to accurately smack the eggs out of its abdomen required more than simple strength alone.
Wang Zhong laughed as he shook his head, replying, “I’ve just seen many examples of their dissections.”
Scarlet chuckled. Being able to execute this after only watching, his skills were quite formidable. “I’ve actually been meaning to ask you about the fight with Holy Judgement in the next few days. Do you have any special strategy for it, any arrangements?”
“Five versus Five, KOF—King of Fighters. Five Individual Matches. There’s no need for any strategy, just pure strength.”
“That’s it?”
“Yep, that’s it.”
“What do you think your chances of victory are?” Even as the words left her mouth, Scarlet felt she’d asked a redundant question. How was the other party supposed to reply to such a question?
She never would have expected Wang Zhong to actually reply. He unexpectedly scratched his head while saying, “Hrm… I’ve never thought about this, but… I don’t think we’d lose?”
Scarlet stared at him for a long time before she couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing. “Your opponent is Holy Judgement; you sure have a great deal of self-confidence. Initially, I wanted to consider loaning you two helpers from our Black Rose, but from the looks of it, it seems you don’t need it anymore.”
“We definitely need it! We definitely need it!” Ma Dong shouted from the dissection table in front of them. He then turned his body around vigorously. “If it were possible for schoolmate Scarlet and madam Milami to willingly be our foreign aid, then we will absolutely be able to defeat Holy Judgement! There’s no need to say anything. Happy cooperation, happy cooperation…”
“Why did you use schoolmate for Scarlet and madam for me?” Milami asked. She felt dissatisfied after hearing Ma Dong’s words. “Am I that old?”
“What I said was madam, not old lady!” Ma Dong hurriedly explained.
“What’s the difference!?” Ladies were especially sensitive to the word ‘old’. Furthermore, there was that nickname Milami loathed the most, ‘Old Witch’.
When Milami started fuming, her chest expanded as well. This caused Ma Dong to swallow a large gulp of saliva.
… They sure are big…
Was there a difference between being called madam and old lady? But of course!
“That’s the difference. They’re bigger…” Ma Dong said, blood spurting out of his nose. He’d blurted out his inner feelings.
What quickly followed was a half-dissected, blood-still-dripping Sahara Metal-eating Ant about to cover his head.
“Ma Dong, go and die!”
Wang Zhong and Scarlet looked each other in the eye and didn’t bother to respond to these two fellows. Even Scarlet could see that Ma Dong was truly interested in Milami…
☀
After much anticipation, the Societal Group Battle between Holy Judgement and the Prodigy Society finally started.
There was a specialized group battle arena within the academy which had long been packed full of people before the participants had even arrived.
Credit had to be given to the publicity that followed Holy Judgement.
From Lu Zhan Tian’s viewpoint, anyone who dared to challenge them was just bringing shame and humiliation upon themselves.
This match was currently being broadcasted live throughout the school. A petite, pretty reporter was holding up a microphone as she shouted desperately before a camera:
“As you can see, the atmosphere here is explosive! Ah, there are so many people present that this two thousand seat arena doesn’t have any empty seats. All of the students present are also hyped up, and I can barely hear anything coming from my earpiece. There’s too much noise everywhere! Since the participants haven’t arrived yet, let’s first hear from the audience!”
The camera turned, and what followed was noisy chatter coming from all directions. It was simply ear-shatteringly loud!
“Please take note, please take note! The payout for the Prodigy Society is 10, the payout for Holy Judgement is 1!”
“Fuck, 1:10 odds! Isn’t this equivalent to not betting at all? Are you joking with me!?”
“Will Captain Reeves be joining the match!? I really want to see the image of Captain Reeves in combat!” shouted a lovestruck girl.
“If he were to step into the match in order to deal with the Prodigy Society, then Reeves’ value would just drop. Holy Judgement most likely wouldn’t sent out its core fighting strength.”
“Those at the front will be able to clearly see every blood-spurting moment in high definition! Your brother had come here last night in order to preserve a seat just to watch Ma Dong get his ass raped! I’m selling two seats as a bundle for three hundred Federation credits, no bargaining allowed!”
Ma Dong held some fame within the academy as he’d spent the last year courting the girls. Although his combat prowess was unknown, his image as a playboy was noted far and wide! Due to this, there were quite a few students from the other departments who wanted to beat him up.
Since the new semester had begun, everyone needed a blood-pounding battle to stimulate their fighting spirit after all that training during the holidays. In particular, this also helped them with their own training. No one expected, however, that the Prodigy Society would dare to challenge Holy Judgement.
The pretty reporter started her analysis. “It can be seen that everyone present is a supporter of Holy Judgement. As one of the four great societies of Tianjing Heroic Soul academy, they have a prominent history. They had once…”
As she was introducing Holy Judgement, they finally arrived.
As expected, Reeves wasn’t even present with the group. The one leading the squad was Vice-Captain Lu Zhan Tian. If they treated the Prodigy Society properly and fought them as if they were a dangerous foe, then even if they won they would have lost face.
Lu Zhan Tian puffed out his chest and raised his chin. He looked around whilst giving off the sensation of being disdainful of everything beneath the heavens. In actual fact, he really wanted to teach a vicious lessons to these newbies. His ego was at its largest, and now even Reeves was absent.
The other person who felt his ego growing was Ma Dong. Dressed in a completely bright red outfit, he also had on a cloak. He faked a confused expression and asked, “Where’s Reeves? Too scared to come?”
Lu Zhan Tian couldn’t resist laughing out loud. He stared at the other party with contempt, as if he were watching a clown. “Just by depending on you few pieces of bricks, how is there even a need for Captain to personally join in? If there hadn’t been a desire to teach you all a lesson, even I’d be too lazy to attend!”