Oscar Defects

In the early morning at Shrek Academy's sports field, the dew had yet to dry, and an awkward silence filled the air.

Flender stood before the group with his hands behind his back, his broken spectacles reflecting a cold light beneath the sun. Pointing at Oscar beside him, who was pushing a small cart with a fawning grin, he spoke as sternly as if pronouncing a sentence.

"This is your first lesson today—adaptation."

Flender's gaze swept over the group before finally settling on Ning Rongrong's pale face. "The Spirit Master World is full of the unknown and danger. Sometimes, to survive, you must eat rats, cockroaches, and things even more disgusting. Compared to those, Oscar's sausages are gourmet delicacies. Whoever can't eat them can get the hell out of Shrek right now!"

Oscar held a steaming hot sausage in his hand. The incantation, "I Have a Big Sausage," still echoed through the air. Combined with his thick beard and lecherous eyes, its destructive power rivaled a mental attack.

Ning Rongrong covered her mouth, her stomach churning. Zhu Zhuqing remained expressionless, but her body honestly shrank back behind Qian Mo.

"I'll eat it."

A slightly weak yet resolute voice broke the deadlock.

Tang San stepped out from the group. The swelling on his face had not yet faded, and he still limped slightly as he walked, but a fire called stubbornness burned in his eyes.

He walked up to Oscar and took the greasy sausage.

"Thank you." Tang San nodded. Then, in public, without the slightest hesitation, he swallowed the sausage in a few bites.

As the food system soul power took effect, some color returned to Tang San's pale face. He turned around, wiped the grease stain from the corner of his mouth, and stared straight at Qian Mo, who sat in a grand tutor chair while Zhu Zhuqing fed him peeled grapes.

"It tastes pretty good." Tang San's voice was not loud, but it carried a lecturing tone. "Qian Mo, you may think this is disgusting. But Teacher once said that only by casting aside needless dignity can one survive in desperate circumstances. You've been pampered too much. With that mindset, you are destined to suffer great losses in a true life and death battle."

Tang San felt that his image was exceptionally lofty at that moment. He had proven through his actions what a strong person's heart truly meant.

Flender nodded in satisfaction. "Not bad! Tang San is right! This is the awareness an monster should have!"

Pfft.

Qian Mo spat out a grape seed, accurately striking the dirt beside Tang San's feet and kicking up a little dust.

"Finished?" Qian Mo accepted the silk handkerchief Zhu Zhuqing handed him and leisurely wiped his fingers. "Tang San, do you have some misunderstanding about the words 'strong person'?"

He rose to his feet, his white golden robe snapping in the morning breeze, his golden eyes filled with mockery.

"A lion will not eat carrion just because it is hungry, and a dragon will not drink muddy water just because it is thirsty. A true strong person possesses the ability to change their environment, rather than adapting to trash like a wild dog merely to survive."

Qian Mo walked up to Oscar's small cart and disdainfully poked at the sausages with two fingers.

"Never mind how vulgar the incantation is. The hygiene problem during its production alone is enough to turn one's stomach. You treat this as a tool for tempering one's will? Sorry, but in my eyes, this is merely the self-indulgence of the incompetent."

Tang San's face reddened as he was about to retort, "What do you know?"

But Qian Mo had already stopped looking at him and turned his gaze toward the bearded youth, who had kept his head lowered and his eyes shifty.

"Oscar."

Qian Mo's voice suddenly became gentle, yet it carried a magic that pierced the heart. "An Innate Full Soul Power food-system genius, unprecedented in the continent's history. Do you intend to spend your entire life in this dump, chanting vulgar incantations and pushing a broken cart to sell sausages?"

Oscar abruptly raised his head. A trace of shock and bitterness flashed through his peach blossom eyes.

"I... I'm an orphan. Dean Flender took me in..." Oscar muttered, his voice growing quieter and quieter.

"He took you in just so you could become this?"

Qian Mo sneered and suddenly clenched his right hand in the air.

Buzz—!

Golden light burst forth.

A heavy tome exuding an Ancient Primordial Aura, with Seven-Colored Divine Light flowing across its cover, appeared out of thin air in his hand.

The pages turned on their own, and countless golden runes leaped forth, weaving together into enticing phantoms in the air—not ordinary food, but supreme delicacies containing the laws of heaven and earth.

[Ancient God of Food Record]

The faintest trace of its aura alone made Oscar's martial soul tremble madly, letting out a yearning wail.

"This is..." Oscar's eyes widened, his breathing rapid like a drowning person's.

"No incantations required. Use spiritual energy as ingredients and cook all things." Qian Mo spoke calmly, the Divine Book in his hand radiating fatal temptation. "Follow Tang San, and all you will learn is how to roll around in mud pits and sell sausages to passersby. Follow me, and this book will be yours."

Qian Mo stepped forward and casually slapped the Divine Book, enough to drive the entire continent mad with greed, onto Oscar's greasy small cart.

"I will pile Spirit Hall's finest resources onto you until I make you the first... God of Food on this continent."

"God... of Food?" Oscar murmured. Those words were like thunder, splitting open his muddled life.

"Oscar! Don't listen to him!"

Tang San panicked. Though he did not know what that book was, he instinctively sensed an immense threat. The feeling that he was about to lose an important source of support made him ignore his pain as he rushed over and blocked Oscar.

"Oscar, we're brothers! Shrek is our home!" Tang San tightly gripped Oscar's shoulders, his tone urgent. "Money and treasures are merely external possessions. Only feelings are the most precious! He only wants to use your talent. He's from Spirit Hall, a place that devours people! Don't let his sugar-coated bullets corrupt you!"

The same old routine again.

Dai Mubai, standing nearby, could not help chiming in. "That's right, Xiao Ao. We may be poor, but we're happy! As long as us brothers are together, what won't we have in the future?"

Qian Mo could not help laughing as he watched this display of deep brotherhood.

His laughter was filled with undisguised ridicule.

"Brothers? Feelings?"

Qian Mo shook his head, his gaze stabbing into Tang San like a blade. "Tang San, don't you feel ashamed saying that?"

"What do you mean?" Tang San glared at him.

"Omniscience Omnipotence told me," Qian Mo said, pointing to the exquisite Twenty-Four Bridges Moonlight Night at Tang San's waist, "that you have at least three thousand Gold Soul Coins inside that belt. They were left to you by your father, along with the savings you accumulated while studying as a work student in Nuoding City."

The entire place fell deathly silent.

Oscar froze and turned to look at Tang San.

Qian Mo continued twisting the knife. "You clearly possess a huge sum of money, yet you watched your 'good brother' Oscar push his cart around Suotuo City every day for a few Copper Soul Coins, hawking sausages, being mocked and looked down upon. You were not even willing to spend money to buy him a decent set of clothes."

"Is this what you call brotherhood? Is this what you call sharing fortune?"

"Or..." Qian Mo leaned close to Tang San, his voice low like a demon's whisper. "Do you simply enjoy the atmosphere where everyone is equally poor and miserable, so you can indulge that sense of superiority that says, 'I may be poor, but I work hard'?"

"You're talking nonsense!!" Tang San's face instantly turned deathly pale, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "That... that was funding Teacher gave me! I..."

"An explanation is a cover-up." Qian Mo straightened and ignored Tang San's pale excuses.

He looked at Oscar and extended his hand.

"Choose. Will you continue being a despised Sausage Uncle here, or come with me and become a god above all others?"

Oscar lowered his head and remained silent for a long time.

His hand trembled.

He remembered all the disdain he had endured in Suotuo City over the years. He remembered the noble young ladies covering their noses and walking away whenever they saw him. He remembered the days when he could not even bear to buy himself a razor to save money.

Then he looked at Tang San, who constantly called him a brother but had never truly cared about his difficult life.

"Phew..."

Oscar slowly exhaled a long breath of foul air.

He abruptly raised his head. His once-clouded eyes now shone with a terrifying brightness.

"I'm sorry, Dean."

Oscar turned around and bowed deeply to Flender, whose face had turned ashen. "Thank you for taking me in all those years ago. But the money I earned over these past years is enough to repay the cost of my meals."

"Xiao Ao, you..." Flender clutched his chest, feeling as if his heart were bleeding.

"I want to be a person." Oscar straightened his back, grabbed the Ancient God of Food Record, and viciously kicked over the sausage cart that had accompanied him for three years.

"I don't want to be a monster who can only chant incantations anymore!"

He strode up to Qian Mo, dropped to one knee, and shouted, "Boss! This book is mine, and from now on, this life of mine is yours!"

"A wise choice."

The corner of Qian Mo's mouth lifted slightly. Looking at Oscar's thick beard, he frowned faintly.

"However, your appearance is too shabby. Taking you out would embarrass me."

Qian Mo flicked his fingertip.

Whoosh—!

An invisible wind blade swept precisely past Oscar's cheek.

Beard hair drifted down everywhere like withered leaves.

When the last few bristles hit the ground, a chorus of sharp gasps rang out.

The greasy, lecherous middle-aged man was gone. In his place stood an extraordinarily handsome young man with deep peach blossom eyes. Though his looks could not compare to Qian Mo's otherworldly beauty, he was still enough to leave Dai Mubai and Tang San far behind.

"Wocao..." The chicken leg in Ma Hongjun's hand fell to the ground.

Ning Rongrong, who had been standing off to the side watching and had previously avoided Oscar at all costs, now stared so wide-eyed they resembled brass bells. She stared fixedly at Oscar's handsome face, and a faint blush appeared on her cheeks.

"This... this is the sausage seller?!" Ning Rongrong screamed inwardly. "He's this handsome?! If I'd known earlier, then I..."

Oscar touched his smooth chin. Seeing the amazed look in Ning Rongrong's eyes, the gloom that had built up in his heart over the years vanished in an instant.

This feels fucking amazing!

"Let's go." Qian Mo turned around, wrapped an arm around Zhu Zhuqing, and headed toward the resplendent Cloud Top Heavenly Palace in the distance. "Go take a bath and change clothes. My divine palace does not keep filthy things."

"Coming, Boss!" Oscar eagerly followed after him, not even sparing a glance at the mess everywhere on the sports field behind him.

Flender stood where he was, seeming to age ten years in an instant.

His most prized genius... had been poached just like that?

They had not even swung a hoe, yet the other side had simply carried off the whole tree!

Wind swept several withered leaves across the sports field.

Tang San still held the half-eaten sausage in his hand, standing lost in the wind. He watched Oscar's cheerful back, then touched the cold Twenty-Four Bridges Moonlight Night at his waist. An unprecedented sense of loneliness and coldness welled up in his heart.

"Xiao San..." Dai Mubai patted his shoulder, his tone bitter. "Stop looking. Some gaps... cannot be bridged through hard work alone."

"No!"

Tang San suddenly crushed the sausage in his hand. Purple light flickered wildly in his eyes—it was jealousy, and it was venomous resentment.

"He has been blinded by profit! Such advancement without a foundation will collapse sooner or later!"

"I will prove that I'm right! Once my hidden weapons are complete... once my Blue Silver Grass evolves..."

Tang San gritted his teeth and turned toward that dilapidated wooden house. "Teacher is still waiting for me. I'm going for special training!"

Night fell.

Shrek Academy presented an extremely divided scene.

To the east, Cloud Top Heavenly Palace was brightly lit. Melodious music drifted out alongside the aroma of roasted meat. Oscar's excited laughter and Zhu Zhuqing's cool voice could faintly be heard. It was spring all year round there, brimming with spiritual energy.

To the west, several dilapidated thatched huts swayed precariously in the night wind.

Ning Rongrong sat on a hard wooden board bed. By the dim light of an oil lamp, she looked at the red, swollen mosquito bites on her fair and tender arm.

Buzz buzz buzz—

A spotted mosquito as large as a thumb circled beside her ear, making a taunting hum.

Slap!

Ning Rongrong slapped her own face. The mosquito was not dead, but her cheek burned with pain.

Through the drafty window, she looked at the palace opposite that resembled an immortal realm, where Oscar—who had once ignored her and now looked devastatingly handsome—was feasting heartily inside.

"Why?!"

Ning Rongrong grabbed her pillow and viciously hurled it against the wall, tears spilling from her eyes. "Why can even that sausage seller live in a palace while this young lady has to feed mosquitoes in this horrible place?!"

"Flender! Tang San! You bunch of broke ghosts! This young lady has had enough!!"

A sharp roar tore through the night sky, startling a flock of resting crows into flight.

On the terrace of Cloud Top Heavenly Palace, Qian Mo swirled the red wine in his glass. Hearing that roar, an amused curve formed at the corner of his mouth.

"The second one... will be soon."