Preliminary Round Strange Events (Part 2)
"The game is suspended!"
The referee team finally gave the order, the security door slowly opened, and students from the two colleges walked out of the secret room.
Linyin rubbed her temples and watched the staff quickly put the damaged equipment into boxes and replace them with new ones.
By chance, a staff member passed by her holding a box. She pretended to bend down to interact with the kitten and took the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the label on the bottom of the box.
【For the first session only】
According to the schedule, the first match should have been the Thorn Flower match—if it was man-made damage, it would be directed at them. However, if they clearly wanted to pass them in the group, why would they cause trouble for them during the official competition?
"Please invite the players from Thorn Flower Academy to enter."
Before she could figure it out, the urging voice of the stage manager came over the radio.
"Boss?" Yuzhu nudged her gently. "The Senyu people have already gone in. We're leaving too."
"Yeah." Linyin rubbed Yuzhu's furry buzz cut, "Don't worry about the game, Xiaomao and I will help you watch over the sidelines."
Upon hearing this, the kitten raised its head proudly.
After discussion by the referee team, the previous match between Cappadocia and Fangbei was cancelled, and the two schools will play another match after all the matches are completed today. Some people are very dissatisfied with this.
"I've been with the team for 20 years, and I've never seen such a chaotic ladder match."
The Fangbei Academy teacher's voice of complaint reached Linyin and Yuzhu's ears. She turned on the terminal recording, spitting indignantly. "Halfway through the competition, they actually said it was over! How can this be allowed! We need an explanation!"
Linyin turned Yuzhu's gossipy head towards the arena, "Go quickly, and when you come back, I'll tell you what happened."
…………………………
Below the platform, a large group of shadow guards knelt, all hidden in the misty phantom beast armor.
Flora waved her sleeves, and the phantom lights throughout the main hall dimmed. "Have you figured out who tampered with those headsets?"
The Shadow Guard Captain, kneeling in the front row, bowed his head and replied, "Palace Master... this must be the order from the Frost family." His eyes beneath his visor held suppressed anger. "The operation is scheduled for three days. They're diverting attention to Group A now. How despicable."
"Not surprising."
Flora sighed softly. Project V had devoured so many resources, how could those old foxes at Frost have been so unaware? It was perfectly natural for them to take advantage of their positions and preemptively attack Subject 0.
The Shadow Guard Captain breathed a sigh of relief; it seemed his answer had passed the test.
However, the next second, as Flora grabbed him through the air, the phantom armor on his body suddenly collapsed inward. He arched his body in pain, and his knees sank deeply into the ground.
The blood-red thread broke in Flora's pale palm. "But public opinion won't care about Forrest, Forrest—they'll just say I, Flora, am a loser who can't even manage a tournament properly!"
Flora's distorted shadow was painted on the wall, ceiling, and ground by the phantom lamp, like a monster that devours souls.
"The Martial Arts Center is only the size of a palm, and even with all the Shadow Guards deployed, they still keep making mistakes! They want to achieve their goal, can't you stop them?"
"This subordinate has failed in his duty! Palace Master, please calm down!" Almost simultaneously, all the shadow guards prostrated themselves on the ground. No one dared to look up, no one dared to breathe. Only the phantom lamp, swaying with Flora's energy, continued to make a crackling sound.
"Palace Master..." Pinkie spoke softly from the shadows. She was afraid, too, but with Lucien gone, she was the only one who could talk to the enraged Flora.
Flora turned her head suddenly.
Pinkie Pie took a step forward and knelt down to salute. The flickering light of the phantom lamp finally barely illuminated her face.
She looked directly at Flora. "This might be our chance to completely sever ties with Frost." Her eyes shone with a startling glint. "It's not just the chaos in the ladder tournament, the illegal experiments, the monster riots... all of this could be orchestrated by them to sideline you."
"Lady Biqi!" the Shadow Guard Captain interrupted hastily, "This... news of these internal struggles will make the Fantasy Beast Hall a laughing stock! Even the families that support us will have objections..."
"Support our family?" Flora glanced playfully at the Shadow Guard Captain, then offered her hand to Pinkie Pie, motioning her to stand. "If they have objections, then so be it. Even when they didn't have any objections... they never stood on my side."
This outburst of public opinion made her see clearly that even though her shadow guards risked their lives countless times for their commissions, they were still secretly colluding with Furost behind her back, just waiting to welcome the next "real" heir to the Fantasy Beast Palace.
"Peach, good girl, you said it very well."
The tail of Flora's black robe billowed like a dark cloud. She looked around at the people crawling on the ground and opened her red lips slightly.
"The operation has been rescheduled. Everyone, follow Pinkie's instructions."
…………………………
The game went smoothly.
Forest Language Academy excels at controlling fantasy beasts. However, among the five fantasy beasts that Thorn Flower brought into the field, there are three heavenly-level fantasy beasts that are almost completely out of the category of "beasts" and can obey orders accurately: Yingyue Spirit Deer, Ashe and Stone Man.
The stone man, relying on his weight, would jump up and shake the ground with every step, seriously interfering with the movement of other mythical beasts—including his own people. So, under Crystal's command, he spontaneously carried the clouded leopard on his back.
The snake was a natural tripwire, barely slowing down the level, but it would suddenly trip Senyu's phantom beast around a corner, causing it to fall. After Yingyue Linglu unleashed a series of debuffs to hold the opponent back, the snake's tail entangled the dreamy mammoth's nose, carrying it straight to the finish line.
Rin watched the game closely for a while, and when she felt that it was not a big problem, she leisurely combed the kitten's hair.
The tacit understanding competition at Sen Language Academy has always attracted a lot of attention, and the quirky performance of Ashe and his friends has attracted more and more spectators to this venue.
When the phantom beast of Thorn Flower was about to reach the finish line, the holographic projection lens suddenly cut to Song Baiyue. After the beauty was magnified many times, the shock was also magnified many times.
The noisy audience even fell silent for a moment.
Seeing this, the director zoomed the camera in closer so that everyone could see his mint-colored eyes that looked like glass.
As if he realized that he was captured by the camera, he took off the headset and looked up. His eyes were like spring water under the ice, melting for someone behind the camera.
Linyin couldn't help but smile, her chest filled with a sense of peace and satisfaction.
Suddenly, the bench she was sitting on sank.
"What a coincidence, Rinone-san."
The man was wearing an exquisite woolen uniform, with every wrinkle ironed to sharp corners and his graying hair combed meticulously. He sat down beside Lin Yin, and gently placed a cane that looked very old beside the chair.
The kitten was very alert, with its fur slightly standing on end, and it hissed threateningly.
"As one of the organizers' representatives, it's not appropriate for us to have private contact." Lin Yin reluctantly withdrew her gaze and combed the kitten's fur. The pressure was just right, and the kitten squinted in comfort and gradually relaxed.
"A straightforward girl." The man smiled and wanted to talk about some trivial topics to break the ice. However, Linyin's next action directly disrupted his plan.
She expertly opened the terminal and greeted the camera, "Hello everyone, I'm Linyin, the captain of the Thorn Flower Academy team. I'm currently at the ladder tournament preliminary round."
She pointed the camera at the field——
"Our players have performed very well. We've already won the first half and are leading the second half! The guy next to me—"
She turned the camera back and the person was forced to appear on camera with a stiff smile on his face.
"—It's Mr. Maotan, the organizer," Rinone introduced, pointing at the comments and Maotan, explaining, "Everyone's been praising you for your well-maintained appearance. You look only seventy."
Holding the anonymous stored-value movement in his hand, Mao Tan, who had just celebrated his 45th birthday, almost crushed the movement when he heard the words.
"This one says your cane is nice and looks like it's worth at least two gold coins."
Mao Tan glanced at the cane that symbolized Butler Frost's power, took a deep breath, and closed his mouth.
In the blind spot of the video, he calmly placed the stored-value device on the empty space between the two of them. Then, he smiled at the camera and stood up to leave.
On the bench, the movement lay quietly, only the size of a fingernail, its metal surface polished to a cold, matte finish. There was no trademark, no number, no mark to trace its origin.
Bearer stored-value mechanisms often appear in shady transactions.
Linyin paused the live broadcast at some point. She picked up the movement, held it up to the light, and saw the extremely small words engraved on it:
[Honorably purchase your special Fantasy Beast Cat. 50,000 gold coins have been deposited and can be redeemed at any time.]
Four zeros...that's a lot of money.
Rinyin winked at the kitten, and the kitten proudly shook its fur, shaking off her hand that was combing its fur. Rinyin grabbed it back and sucked hard on its head, which caused the kitten to meow in dissatisfaction.
"Mr. Maotan, you seem to have left something behind." She stood up and called Maotan.
With his back to Rinyin, the smile on Maotan's face peeled off like melting wax: "As long as you want it, it's yours."
"It won't belong to me." Linyin looked at the kitten who continued to act like a spoiled child and ignored her with some amusement. She calmed herself down and said to Maotan in a serious tone, "If you don't want to see it in the news, please take it away."
…
"I wanted to resolve this in a civilized manner. Unfortunately, those who don't know the current situation never give me that opportunity."
As Mao Tan walked down the stairs, he took off his gloves and handed them to his follower who was waiting in the audience.
"This student is so ungrateful." Seeing Mao Tan empty-handed and looking unhappy, the attendant realized that Mao Tan's operation had failed and quickly changed the subject: "But right now, Star Network public opinion is even more unfavorable to Flora. I just received a tip that Flora is furious again."
Seeing that Mao Tan didn't show any joy, the henchman could only continue to flatter him, "Sir, you've got a plan for everything! Just quietly replace their equipment. If all goes well, we can legitimately arrest the Thorn Flower gang for questioning. Then, won't that little cat be easy for us to control?" He made a gesture of control, "Even if it doesn't work, as it's going now, it'll be enough to give Flora a hard time, hehe."
The wrinkles around Mao Tan's eyes deepened. "After all these years, even the slightest disturbance in public opinion can still make her lose her composure. She's always been a little lacking in temper."
The attendant lowered his head and leaned closer: "What do you mean, sir?"
"You just walked all the way. Do you know what the ants said about the way you walked?"
"This...what can an ant see?" The follower held the gloves, a little confused.
Mao Tan looked at him with a smile.
"Besides, I think... there is no need to care about what the ants think..." Seeing that Mao Tan did not interrupt him, the follower continued speaking haltingly.
"Yes." Mao Tan tapped the ground with his cane. "How can ants understand human behavior? And why should humans care about the thoughts of ants?"
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