Chapter 183 : Chapter 183
Chapter 183 – Victory
How the hell could she tolerate this?!
How could Yi Ning tolerate this?!
What was this?
This was nothing less than a blatant betrayal of Yi Ning!
Where was her sacred status as the arch-nemesis of Lu Zheng?!
Yi Ning practically ground her teeth as she glared at Lu Zheng, who stood on the arena stage, wishing she could leap up there and tear his flesh apart with her bare hands.
Seeing Yi Ning in such a furious, humiliated state, the members of the “Friendly Money-Making” Squad thought she was simply upset that Lu Zheng was losing. They quickly gathered around to try to comfort her.
“Miss Annali is the instructor in charge of adventurer promotions. She’s really strong.”
“Yeah, everyone in the Adventurer’s Guild has been beaten up by Miss Annali at least once.”
“Losing to Miss Annali isn’t shameful.”
Losing to Miss Annali…
The more Yi Ning heard, the angrier she became!
She lost to Lu Zheng, and now Lu Zheng was going to lose to Annali?
Wouldn’t that mean she’d indirectly lost to this Annali woman?!
Was that woman even worthy?!
At first, Yi Ning had only been upset because Lu Zheng was holding back just because the opponent was a pretty girl. But now that she’d worked through the logic, she found it completely unacceptable.
Yi Ning had swept through life undefeated, with Lu Zheng as her only loss.
Even when bound by budget constraints, forced to invent with one hand tied behind her back, she still reigned supreme in the world!
How could she suffer such an unclear, unexplained loss to some woman from some backwater alien planet she’d never even heard of?!
Seeing Lu Zheng still pretending and putting on an act in the arena, Yi Ning felt her anger boiling over.
She looked down at the ground.
Then bent down, picked up a stone, and hurled it straight at Lu Zheng’s head.
Lu Zheng, you bastard, throwing a fake match?! You deserve death!
Of course, this kind of sneak attack couldn’t possibly hit Lu Zheng.
He didn’t even turn his head.
With a slight jolt of intuition, he tilted his head and easily dodged the incoming projectile.
Then, with a bridge-like movement, he avoided another sweeping strike from Annali.
Just a few more moves, then I’ll pretend to lose after taking a hit, he thought as he kept half his attention on the crowd outside the ring.
Who was that bastard that just tried to sneak attack me?
A glance to the side—and there it was.
Yi Ning, being held back by the “Friendly Money-Making” Squad, her restrained right hand still tightly clutching a rock.
Okay, no need to guess anymore.
It was clearly Yi Ning, that damn villain.
Yi Ning, who had been watching Lu Zheng closely, also noticed his gaze.
She flung the rock to the ground, pushed aside the people holding her back, and began pointing and yelling at Lu Zheng from the sidelines.
Though her voice was barely audible compared to the roaring cheers around them, Lu Zheng still caught every single word she said.
And after hearing it, he looked… embarrassed.
It would’ve been better if he hadn’t heard it.
Yi Ning was cursing him.
“Lu Zheng, you son of a ○, you’re throwing the match, aren’t you?!”
“WDNMD!!”
“Disgraceful traitor who lets lust cloud his judgment!”
“I swear to Kir, I’m planting a damn loquat tree in the backyard tonight!”
Lu Zheng ducked to avoid another incoming slash, a helpless expression on his face.
It wasn’t like he didn’t understand what Yi Ning was saying.
She was clearly dissatisfied with him throwing the match on purpose.
But was it really necessary to take this fight so seriously?
“You’ve still got time to be distracted?”
Annali’s wooden sword arrived before her voice did.
Lu Zheng instinctively tilted his head to dodge again, shifting his focus back to the fight—only to awkwardly catch sight of Yi Ning, now jumping and shouting in rage as she argued with other adventurers.
She pointed up at him on the platform, yelling:
“That jerk’s only pretending because he saw a pretty girl! Otherwise, he’d have won ages ago!”
“Annali’s not even that strong! If she weren’t good-looking, Lu Zheng would’ve chopped her into eighteen pieces in under three seconds!”
“A bunch of clueless hillbillies!”
No, no, no!
Even if the opponent weren’t a woman, he’d have done the same thing, okay?
Don’t make him sound like some pervy lowlife.
The other side had been kind enough to bend the rules for him—how could he make her lose face in front of all her peers?
As Lu Zheng dodged another wave of sword strikes from Annali, he continued mentally rebutting Yi Ning’s slander.
But perhaps because half of his mind was now focused on Yi Ning, he forgot about his own plan to “take a hit and surrender in two or three moves.”
Not only did he easily dodge one sword strike after another, he even reflexively counterattacked a few times.
Fortunately, he remembered that the opponent wasn’t some evil organization member in need of a beatdown, so he held back his strength in every move.
Otherwise, just one punch would’ve floored her.
Lu Zheng glanced at the surrounding adventurers cheering for his opponent, then looked back at Yi Ning arguing furiously with several adventurers.
And suddenly—he felt that…
Maybe he didn’t need to lose after all. Maybe winning wouldn’t be so bad either.
In fact, the moment Lu Zheng had dodged Annali’s very first sword slash, his adventurer assessment was already complete.
The Adventurer’s Guild didn’t have such high standards—being able to somewhat protect yourself was enough to qualify as a low-tier adventurer.
Annali had kept fighting this long mostly because of Lester. She wanted to see how strong Lu Zheng really was so she could place him directly into the proper rank, saving him from having to go through the tedious promotion process later.
But the longer she fought, the more surprised Annali became by Lu Zheng’s strength—until now, when Lu Zheng finally made his first real counterattack of the fight.
A bloodthirsty smile began to form on Annali’s face.
Her long-buried desire to fight was starting to rise to the surface.
“I guess I’ll have to use a little force now.”
She licked her lips, took a few steps back, and looked at Lu Zheng with renewed intensity—then, with a flash of movement, appeared in front of him once again.
Only this time, she was faster than before!
And her sword strikes—sharper than ever!
Naturally, this shift in tempo was noticed by the watching adventurers.
They cheered for Annali’s true strength, and grew more excited at the thought of a newcomer who could actually bring it out of her.
Lu Zheng dodged a swing of the wooden sword.
But this time, instead of instantly preparing to evade the next blow as before, he suddenly closed in and slammed shoulder-first into Annali’s chest.
The unexpected strength and speed caught Miss Annali off guard.
And in the very next second—
“Pa!”
Lu Zheng slapped the wooden sword right out of Annali’s hands.
The fight was over.
The outcome had been decided.
Everyone was stunned by this sudden turn of events. The thunderous cheering that had filled the arena came to an abrupt halt.
For a moment, a rare silence fell over the combat arena.
Miss Annali had clearly been in control—how did she suddenly lose?!
No one could believe their eyes.
Except for one person.
“See that?! SEE THAT?! What did I say?!”
“A bunch of scrubs!”
“You dare argue with me? Was your household registry bought wholesale?!”
Yi Ning was practically bouncing in place with joy.
She pointed furiously at the adventurers who had just argued with her about whether Lu Zheng or Annali was stronger, gleefully gloating as if kicking them while they were down.
“I told you! Lu Zheng had this fight in the bag from the start!”