Repaying a Favor with Myself

The three trainees in the back of the vehicle had also seen the figures displayed on the screen. They glanced at one another.

A trainee with Western features asked quietly, "That guy looks like a newcomer, doesn't he?"

"Bullshit. Looks like he's from Kyoto Courtyard in Huaxia Country," a Black girl said.

"Yesterday it was that Spirit Reader, and today it's this guy. Are all the new trainees this fierce?"

Su You, sitting at the front of the vehicle, naturally had no idea how shocked they were. He was busy planning his hunting strategy for the coming days.

An Elementary Beast General-level monster usually cost a thousand times as much as an Advanced Beast Soldier, but was worth only ten times the points. Most of the points he'd earned today came from Advanced Beast Soldiers; the five Elementary Beast Generals had only earned him 500 points altogether.

Well, I'm not short on money right now. There's no need to insist on killing every War General-level monster. I can just drive it away. For now, I should focus on earning points.

Su You thought it over. His physical fitness was only at the Advanced Warrior level, and although he could kill Elementary Beast Generals, it took quite a while. If he wanted to earn points faster, he needed to focus on killing Advanced Beast Soldiers.

The staff member across from him sat down and typed rapidly on the keyboard for a few dozen keystrokes. Then he stood and smiled at Su You.

"Trainee Su You, we've deposited the payment into your account. Your contribution points have also been added to your martial artist ID, and your points have been sent to the Training Camp."

Su You glanced at his Communication Watch and saw that he'd indeed received a bank notification about the deposit. He nodded, then headed straight to the back of the vehicle.

The three trainees in the vehicle saw Su You approaching and all stepped forward to greet him. The trainees at the Training Camp respected the strong, after all, and the number of points Su You had earned was proof of his ability.

Before long, the remaining four trainees returned as well. The vehicle set off at once, speeding toward the Training Camp.

Beneath the Black Dragon Sculpture at the Basic Training Camp, quite a few trainees were watching the rankings. After all, the Basic Training Camp didn't offer any Combat Power Amplitude bonus, so the ranking a trainee earned on the first day usually wasn't much different from their final one.

As time passed, the trainees ate, drank, and chatted while discussing the rankings.

"Look at number 47!"

"Su You? Who's that?"

Although there were more than six hundred trainees at the Basic Training Camp, only around fifty or sixty had War General-level strength. Su You clearly wasn't a familiar face to them.

"He's a newcomer, from Kyoto Courtyard in Huaxia Country."

"Another newcomer?"

"Newcomers are all monsters."

It was already past ten at night when Su You returned to the Training Camp. The moment he stepped out of the vehicle, a crowd surrounded him. Many trainees were there to invite him on behalf of the forces they represented.

But this was only a ranking from the Basic Training Camp, so the terms offered by each faction were rather ordinary. The Two Great Dojos hadn't even extended an invitation.

Su You listened to their offers with interest, then coolly turned them all down one by one. Hmph, I'm a man you'll never get.

The next day, while Zhang Yue was in the loft, Su You walked in carrying the Flying Dagger.

"Can I help you?" Zhang Yue asked, her expression blank.

Su You held out the dagger with a grin. "You saved my life yesterday, Miss. I could never repay you. The only thing I can do is offer myself to you. What do you say?"

Zhang Yue's eyes, which had been somewhat indifferent, widened slightly. A hint of amusement flashed across her otherwise expressionless face.

"No need," Zhang Yue said coldly.

"Alas." Su You sighed, as if he felt sorry for her.

"Then let me treat you to a meal."

Seeing that Zhang Yue was about to refuse again, Su You quickly added, "You saved my life, after all. I wouldn't feel right if I didn't thank you."

Zhang Yue was silent for a moment. Then she took out a pen and a piece of paper, wrote down a string of numbers, and handed it to Su You.

"What's this?" Su You asked, taking the note in confusion.

Zhang Yue's voice was ice-cold. "The cost of the meal. Transfer it."

Su You turned to look at Zhang Yue, his eyes wide as saucers. The room fell silent.

A few minutes later, Su You walked out of Zhang Yue's loft, looking dejected. He headed gloomily toward the Small Nine-Story Tower, planning to test his physical fitness.

On the balcony of the third loft east of Kyoto Courtyard, a burly young man watched Su You leave Zhang Yue's loft. His brow furrowed slightly, and he couldn't help asking the lean young man beside him, "Brother Yao, that kid completely ignored what we told him, didn't he?"

The lean young man frowned and replied in a low voice, "He ranked 47th on the Black Dragon Ranking yesterday. You know that, right?"

"Of course, but..."

The lean young man waved a hand. "One genius is already enough to offend. If our feud with Zhang Yue weren't beyond reconciliation, do you think the family would want to make an enemy of someone that talented?"

"But... are we just going to let it go?"

"Our target is Zhang Yue. The little tricks we use to annoy her from time to time are enough. There's no need to make another genius our sworn enemy over this."

The lean young man gave a wry smile and shook his head. "I even suspect our earlier warning made him rebellious, so he started approaching Zhang Yue on purpose."

The burly young man froze, then nodded repeatedly.

"That could really be it. Zhang Yue's pretty, but she always wears a deadpan expression. Any normal guy would give up after hitting a wall two or three times. But this kid goes to see her almost every day. Looks like he's deliberately picking a fight with us!"

"So there's no need to bother with him. Once we deal with Zhang Yue in a while, the problem will resolve itself."

"The family's going to make a move?"

The lean young man smiled faintly. "Zhang Yue can't hide in the Training Camp or Hongning Base City forever."

After returning from the Small Nine-Story Tower, Su You threw himself back into training. His footwork was good enough to rank among the top few at the Basic Training Camp, and his swordsmanship and force output were decent too. His only weak point was his physical fitness.

A punch force of 6,123 kilograms and a speed of 81.2 meters per second—that was where his body stood. He was still some distance from the Low-level War General threshold of an 8,000-kilogram punch force and a speed of 90 meters per second.

But for Su You, the only way to improve his physical fitness for now was to train hard, since he couldn't get his hands on either Dragon Blood or a Spirit of Vegetation.

In the days that followed, Su You trained at the Training Camp on odd-numbered days and hunted monsters in City 1002 on even-numbered days. His physical fitness improved gradually. By the end of October, his speed had crossed the Low-level War General threshold, and his punch force had risen to seven thousand kilograms.

Meanwhile, after Su You adjusted his hunting strategy, he earned quite a few more points each day, at the cost of making only around two million Huaxia Currency a day. He was losing a huge amount of money without even realizing it.

In the end, his Black Dragon Ranking stabilized at 42nd place, just ahead of Yao Zhengang of the Wang Family, putting him second at Kyoto Courtyard.