Chapter 48

After finishing his daily practice of the Root-Solidifying Stance and Foundation Building Fist, a drenched Ye Ziheng went to the bathroom to take a shower.

As a student in the key class at First High School, he had been training even harder every night since Antu City began its lockdown and the school canceled evening classes.

His martial arts talent was not considered exceptional, but fortunately, his family was quite well-off, allowing him to frequently consume expensive martial arts supplements and occasionally eat meat from a Ferocious Beast that could boost his Blood-Qi Value.

Because of this, his Blood-Qi Value was not low; even in the competitive key class at First High School, he could rank around 50th.

This month, his father had even gone through special channels and put in a great deal of effort to obtain two new types of martial arts supplements called "RN-003" that had not yet been officially released.

The effects of these supplements were extremely potent, raising his Blood-Qi Value from 4.90 to 5.55 in just one month.

Precisely because of this, he had a small moment of glory during today's midterm exam, raising his Blood-Qi ranking from 49th to 41st.

However, it was a pity that the price of "RN-003" was expensive even for his family, required special channels to acquire, and the medicinal effects were so intense that each dose required a period of time to be fully digested and absorbed; any excess would place a severe burden on the body.

If it weren't for the approaching College Entrance Exam, and his father spending a fortune to help him improve quickly, he might not have been able to get these two doses at all.

Therefore, Ye Ziheng had run out of "RN-003" several days ago; otherwise, if he could have taken them continuously, he would have even been confident in pushing for the sixth stage of Blood-Qi this month.

However, not everything went smoothly for Ye Ziheng during today's midterm exam.

Because his Blood-Qi Value had increased too quickly in a short period, his control over his body had not kept pace, instead falling from 86 points to 81, a matter for which he had received a special warning from his homeroom teacher.

At the time, he agreed on the surface, but in his heart, he didn't care, believing that rapidly increasing Blood-Qi was the true path and that control could be regained later through training.

But in the subsequent simulated combat project, he immediately tasted the bitterness of having low control.

Despite giving it his all, he only managed to score 90 points, ranking only 50th in the class, a significant gap from his Blood-Qi ranking.

He always felt that his classmates were gossiping behind his back about him being a "lopsided student," and he felt a loss of face.

This was precisely the main reason why he had been training even more desperately than usual after returning home tonight.

After showering, he returned to his bedroom, his gaze falling on the Virtual Pod by his bed, which was a birthday gift his father had given him a few months ago.

It had brought him a lot of joy during his spare time from studying and practicing martial arts.

Especially after coming into contact with the Heaven Martial Battle Net, he quickly became addicted to it, playing fifty ranked matches in just a few days.

But when he discussed the Heaven Martial Battle Net with his classmates, he was mocked by everyone.

In the high-pressure environment of a key class at First High School, comparison between students was everywhere.

Comparing Blood-Qi Values, cultivation technique realms, grade rankings, and even family backgrounds.

But what Ye Ziheng never expected was that they would even compare their win rates on the Heaven Martial Battle Net!

Previously, in his spare time from studying and training, as long as he wasn't mentally exhausted, he would play ranked matches constantly, feeling only the thrill of battle without caring about the outcome. As a result, after fifty ranked matches, his win rate was only 52%.

However, almost everyone in the key class who had played ranked matches on the Battle Net had a win rate of over 60%, and a small number even reached 70%; he was like an outlier among them.

Unfortunately, Heaven Martial Battle Net accounts were bound to real identities, so he could neither change to a new account, delete the account to start over, nor clear his past battle records.

Thus, to improve his win rate, he completely changed his strategy:

He no longer played ranked matches easily, but instead focused on training, choosing to play a few matches cautiously only when his own strength had clearly improved.

Once he encountered a defeat, or began to be matched against difficult, strong enemies due to an increase in points, he would immediately stop playing and continue training.

He repeated this cycle to control his wins.

In this way, his win rate began to climb steadily.

55%...

60%...

Until some time ago, he finally raised his win rate to 65%, which was considered above average even within the key class.

Recently, Ye Ziheng hadn't logged into the Heaven Martial Battle Net for a while because he was preparing for the midterm exam, and his hands were a bit itchy.

Moreover, his strength had improved since the last time he played, so he prepared to play two matches to relax his mind, which had been tense from the exam.

When he was matched with an opponent, he discovered that this anonymous person was also in a promotion match like him, and then he habitually glanced at the opponent's Blood-Qi Value, which was only 4.51, much lower than his own.

A flash of joy crossed his heart, but immediately, alarm bells rang! With such a low Blood-Qi Value, to still be able to reach the 990-point bracket was absolutely abnormal; this person was likely a difficult, tough nut to crack!

However, when he carefully examined the opponent's record [197 total matches, 53.8% win rate], he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"So it's just a 'point carrier' who slowly ground their way up through a high number of matches. You scared me."

After all, the ranking rules had a mechanism to protect against Blood-Qi Value differences; as long as one played enough matches and their win rate didn't collapse too badly, it was theoretically possible to continuously gain points.

Looking again, the opponent had a [Previously Encountered] tag, and since he had no impression of them, Ye Ziheng concluded in his heart: this was most likely some defeated opponent he had easily beaten before, and they were not to be feared at all.

"It seems the system has arranged a welfare match for me to be promoted to Bronze." His confidence increased, and he prepared to enjoy a crushing victory.

Inside the battle arena, the countdown for the preparation time quickly ended.

The moment the battle began, Ye Ziheng took the initiative, preparing to finish off his opponent as quickly as possible and complete his promotion.

But he was surprised to find that the anonymous person with the blurred face on the opposite side did not dodge or evade, but charged straight at him.

"Huh? This person dares to go head-to-head with me? Don't they realize the absolute gap in Blood-Qi?"

Encountering such a "free points" opportunity, Ye Ziheng naturally wanted to accept it with a smile and immediately swung his fist to meet them.

However, the result of the collision of their fists was completely different from what he had expected; the opponent's fist force was only slightly inferior, and there was no absolute suppression as he had imagined.

"Such a high Body Control Degree! It must be over 90 points! Otherwise, it would be impossible to unleash this kind of power..." Ye Ziheng realized instantly, and thinking of his own control degree that had just barely crossed 80 points, a surge of inexplicable irritation welled up in his heart.

He immediately increased the force of his punches, his offensive becoming even more ferocious as he sought to finish off this annoying opponent as quickly as possible.

However, after more than ten exchanges, the more Ye Ziheng fought, the more alarmed he became; the opponent's mastery of fist techniques was far beyond his own.

His moves were neutralized one by one by the opponent, and in turn, the opponent's seemingly plain counterattacks made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

"This isn't right... this feeling is completely wrong! What happened to the 'easy win' I was promised?!"