Volume One: Schemes and Deceptions in the Imperial Capital - baka vs baka

A dozen or so bubbles shot out one after another, heading straight for Chen Sheng. Chen Sheng neither dodged nor avoided them, but smiled as he watched the bubbles rush towards him.

"I'm getting angry just looking at you so easily! Go ahead and get blown to smithereens!" Si Nan Ying roared, uttering a common line from a low-level villain. I could already see the ending.

"I'll return the second half of that sentence to you verbatim," Chen Sheng snapped his fingers lightly, "And switch it!"

With a whoosh, the surging bubbles vanished!

No, it didn't disappear, it "transferred"! The bubble that was just very close to Chen Sheng suddenly vanished just before it was about to explode, and then reappeared around Si Nan Ying in the next instant!

"Varied--!"

Si Nan Ying reacted too late and failed to stop detonating the bubbles in time. With a huge roar, smoke and dust billowed from one side of the arena, completely engulfing Si Nan Ying!

"Miss!"

"Little Ying!"

We screamed in shock. No one expected it to end like this. Surrounded by so many bombs, we were either dead or barely alive!

"I... I'm fine."

When the smoke cleared, Si Nan Ying was completely unharmed. Her body was enveloped by an earthen-yellow, bowl-shaped membrane, which had several cracks and was dim in light, indicating that she had suffered severe injuries.

"So you were carrying a protective Spirit Artifact. That's fortunate, Miss Si Nan. Unfortunately, as far as I know, the competition only allows one piece of equipment above Mortal Artifact to be carried per person. I wonder how long your Spirit Artifact will last?"

"Tch... It's none of your business!"

Si Nan Ying withdrew her defenses and stared warily at Chen Sheng. What exactly was this guy's special ability? In any case, based on the previous two experiences, she absolutely could not attack rashly again!

"They've stopped attacking? A wise choice. Now it's my turn...!"

"!?"

The moment Si Nanying finished saying the word "I'm done", Si Nanying's whole body shivered, and she rolled sideways by instinct, dodging the dagger coming from behind by a hair's breadth!

"You reacted pretty quickly. What a pity. If I had acted a little faster, I would have won by now." Chen Sheng shrugged. He had suddenly appeared behind Si Nan Ying the instant he finished speaking, without any warning!

Now is not the time to be shocked; the important thing is to quickly create distance!

Having made up her mind, Si Nan Ying quickly released hundreds of nearly powerless, white bubbles at Chen Sheng to distract him before running away at top speed. This utterly unreserved running style was the best interpretation of "tumbling and crawling".

"Changing the distance... that's a bit tricky." Chen Sheng, hindered by the bubbles, reacted a beat too slowly and couldn't keep up immediately.

"But one more time will do!"

As he spoke, Chen Sheng sprinted forward as quickly as before, using agile zigzagging to dodge the bubbles' attacks and rapidly approaching Si Nan Ying! Having learned her lesson once, she quickly dodged, not daring to let Chen Sheng get close again.

Strange... Why didn't he use teleportation this time? Si Nan Ying racked her brains as she moved. Come to think of it, when he moved the exploding bubble the first time, why did he move it into the air instead of towards her? If he had done that, the outcome would have been decided much earlier!

Is there some limitation to his ability? Every time he moves something near her, there's always a "getting close to her" action. Does he have to get close to her before he can use his ability? If so, how do you explain moving the bubble into mid-air?

That said, at the beginning, Chen Sheng made a gesture of waving his hand towards the sky, which I didn't pay much attention to at the time. But now that I think about it, that gesture was less like waving and more like... throwing?

"Ah!"

As Si Nan Ying ran, she suddenly tripped over something and fell heavily to the ground. Just as she was about to get up—

"Ouch, ouch, ouch... Huh? This stone..."

She fell because she accidentally stepped on a small stone. There were many loose stones on the ground, so stepping on one was not unusual at all, but the problem was with this stone.

The arena floor was made of pure white marble, and the gravel was also pristine white, but the stones she stepped on were black, which looked quite out of place on the white surface.

"What? Not running anymore?"

Chen Sheng suddenly appeared in front of Si Nan Ying, his dagger flashing down. She quickly summoned her earthen-yellow membrane to block the attack, using the opportunity to create distance once again.

... I think I understand his special ability a little better now.

Chen Sheng suddenly appeared precisely where the small black stone was, down to the last detail.

And thinking about it carefully, it seems like Chen Sheng threw something into the air when Chen Sheng his hand earlier.

The dozen or so bubbles she emitted were moved to a position very close to the ground when they were transferred to her side.

"..." I see.

The moment Si Nan Ying realized what was happening, she took action. She neither attacked Chen Sheng nor continued to dodge or escape, but instead swiftly kicked at the other black stones beside her!

"Give me a flight!"

With a thud, the black stone was kicked away, tracing a graceful arc before landing outside the arena. She then released several Implosion Style bubbles, which, as if possessing intelligence, flew towards the other black stones on the ring!

"Tch, got caught?"

For the first time, Chen Sheng showed displeasure. With a snap of his fingers, the bubbles were instantly moved outside the arena. A closer look would reveal a black pebble directly below the spot where each bubble disappeared.

"I see... You had it all planned beforehand, probably when you walked towards the arena! Your ability isn't teleportation or anything, it's swapping positions! You can swap the positions of the 'things' and 'black pebbles' on the field, including my bubble and yourself! You rushed towards me earlier to scatter pebbles around me! And you also made preparations below the arena!"

"I'm really surprised, I didn't expect you to notice so quickly..."

"The biggest weakness of your ability is that it can only swap the positions of objects including yourself. This ability cannot be used on humans other than you!"

Chen Sheng's cheek twitched slightly. Si Nan Ying's words were indeed true, and he had no room for rebuttal. His ability could not be used infinitely; it could only swap the positions of "objects including himself" and "objects marked by him." Objects marked by his ability would inevitably turn black, which was a major drawback.

The two stopped what they were doing, staring at each other silently for a long time.

"Heh, things have come to this point, it would be too rude of me to keep putting on a brave face." Chen Sheng suddenly revealed a relieved smile.

"Huh? You mean...?"

"Once my ability is discovered, it will be difficult to turn the tide of battle. Besides, this ability itself is not suitable for combat. If you stay in an unmarked area, it will be difficult for me to launch an attack. You should plan to stay in an area where I haven't marked any stones and use your bubbles to destroy the other stones one by one. If you keep doing this, I will eventually run out of steam. Rather than being defeated in a sorry state, it's better to save your energy."

"So..." Chen Sheng took a deep breath, raised his hand, "I admit defeat!"

"In the eighth match of the second stage, Chen Sheng concedes defeat, Si Nan Ying wins!" The referee immediately announced, and a clamor erupted in the arena, with many people still somewhat confused.

"What happened? What happened? Why did Chen Sheng suddenly admit defeat?"

"I don't know... Could it be that they're scared?"

"Could it be that the Si Nan Family gave the Chen family some kind of benefit?"

"Heh, if that's really the case, this second young lady's reputation will be ruined, although it wasn't exactly good to begin with..."

The hard sole of the shoe slammed into the heads of the two whispering men, almost sending them flying. A burst of pain erupted, and the two men, tears welling in their eyes, turned around angrily, about to hurl insults, but swallowed the words that were on the tip of their tongues.

"Miss Liu Ye?"

"You, what brings you here?"

"Have you finished spouting nonsense?" I stared at them coldly. "If I hear you say it again, it won't just be a couple of kicks."

"Yes, I understand..."

Watching Si Nan Ying jump off the stage with a radiant smile, I suddenly felt a pang of emotion. Thinking back to when I first met her, she has undoubtedly improved so much. What's even more commendable is that she won this battle through her wit rather than brute force. That's amazing.

However, there's something I still care about...

Walking through the athletes' passage, I ran into Chen Sheng was returning from the field.

"Ah... you are, Miss Ye?"

"Hello, Young Master Chen Sheng, I just watched your match."

"Really? I've made a fool of myself."

"Actually, there's something I don't quite understand. May I ask?"

"Go ahead and say it."

"Um, why don't you use a gun?"

"... Huh?"

"Think about it, you can mark the bullets, then you won't have to bother with close-range positioning during the match, and it can also increase the lethality, killing two birds with one stone."

"... I," Chen Sheng clutched his head in anguish, "I... I never expected this!!!"

... Idiot, is this guy?