The First to Appear

Fortunately, the stinging pain in his eyes came and went quickly. It didn't trigger his brain's protective response and make him pass out.

"Congratulations! [Battle Eye] has upgraded to [Battle Eye-Lv1]!"

It worked?

I'd failed three times in a row even with a 99% success rate. And now I'd pulled off something with far lower odds on my first try?

Li Shu could hardly believe it. He couldn't help thinking that odds were both wonderful and infuriating—and thrilling, too. They could send your emotions soaring and plummeting in an instant.

He suddenly understood why so many people were hooked on gambling.

When one of those low-probability successes happened to you, it made you feel incredible.

If he had enough achievement points, he would've upgraded [Never-ending Dinosaur Leg] several times right then and there. With luck this good, it would've been a shame not to press his advantage.

"Something seems off."

Li Shu suddenly realized: why didn't [Battle Eye] have a description?

What was the difference between [Battle Eye] and [Battle Eye-Lv1]?

He wanted to ask the system, but quickly stopped himself. The consultation fee was too expensive. He couldn't afford it.

"Big brother, are you okay?" The brief change in Li Shu's expression caught the attention of Wukong and the others.

[Battle Power: 80.93]

Li Shu looked at Wukong and froze for a moment before replying, "I'm fine. The sun's a little bright."

Just then, their group ran into Yamcha and his companions.

During their conversation, Li Shu learned something important.

"What? The champion only gets a million in prize money?" Li Shu was a little speechless. He hadn't expected the amount to be so far from what he'd imagined.

He could make more than that selling a single dinosaur.

But it didn't matter. He cared less about the prize money and fame than about the system's achievement rewards.

Li Shu's battle power was now as high as 77.25. As long as he didn't have terrible luck and run into Master Roshi or Wukong during the preliminaries, third place was practically guaranteed. Maybe he'd even get lucky and beat Wukong to take second.

After all, there were only three points between them. It mainly came down to how well they performed.

Back on Mount Paozu, Li Shu often sparred with Wukong. He lost more than he won, mostly because he was afraid of getting hurt. In that regard, he couldn't compare to Wukong, a battle maniac who only got more excited the more it hurt.

As for first place, Li Shu wasn't interested. The [Super Saiyan Epiphany Potion] didn't mean much to him. He preferred the [Super Transformation Epiphany Potion].

The only disappointment was that the achievement reward for winning the championship was surely much higher than the rewards for second or third place.

"Hurry up and draw your numbers. There are 138 competitors this time, divided into four groups. The top two from each group will advance to the quarterfinals. Let's hope none of us get paired up," Yamcha said.

"Ha ha, you guys go ahead. I'm going to the bathroom." Master Roshi laughed it off and slipped away.

Li Shu glanced at Master Roshi. He knew exactly what the old man was up to, but didn't call him out.

Soon, they had all drawn their numbers.

"No way! Wukong and I are in the same group!" Krillin looked at Wukong in shock, already intimidated before the match had even begun.

Wukong glanced at the brackets. "Our numbers are far apart. We probably won't have to fight each other."

Li Shu studied the brackets too. Just as Wukong had said, the top two from each group would advance to the quarterfinals. Wukong and Krillin's numbers were far apart, so they wouldn't face each other.

If all went well, they'd both advance to the quarterfinals and meet in the semifinals.

"Yamcha?" Li Shu saw the name and turned with an odd look toward the confident-looking man beside him.

[Battle Power: 30.87]

Yamcha had also noticed that he and Li Shu were in the same group and would face each other in the first round.

"You're number 34?" Yamcha asked, his face beaming with confidence.

A hint of pity crossed Li Shu's face as he nodded. "That's right. I didn't expect us to meet in the first round."

Yamcha's luck was truly terrible. He'd drawn himself a ticket to an early exit and didn't even know it.

The more confident he looked now, the more miserable he'd be later. Li Shu couldn't help feeling a little sorry for him. After all, they knew each other.

Yamcha had no idea how strong Li Shu was. As far as he was concerned, Wukong was his only real rival. His goal was to win the championship!

"Sorry, but I won't hold back. I spent a whole month training hard by myself in the mountains for this tournament," Yamcha said with a confident smile, though he sounded regretful.

A whole month of hard training? Li Shu was at a loss for words. He hadn't thought much about Yamcha before, but he hadn't expected him to be so conceited.

"Yamcha, my big brother is really strong. Don't underestimate him," Wukong said from the side.

"Is that so? Well, let's wait and see." Yamcha smiled confidently, then turned to Wukong. "Things worked out pretty well. We're in different groups, so we should meet in the final. Then we can have an exciting fight."

"Wukong, don't lose in the preliminaries!"

Wukong's fighting spirit blazed. "I won't lose!"

Yamcha smiled confidently. "Neither will I. See you later!"

With that, Yamcha left for Group Two without sparing another glance at Li Shu, who was in the same group.

It was as if, in his eyes, Li Shu had already lost and wasn't worth paying attention to.

He had only one goal: to defeat Wukong and win the championship!

He'd worked hard for a whole month to make it happen.

"Wukong, your friend doesn't take your big brother seriously at all," Li Shu said, pretending to be unhappy.

Krillin chuckled. "He's going to regret that. I'm the one who's most afraid of facing either of you."

Unlike Yamcha, Krillin had trained with Li Shu for several months. He had some idea of Li Shu's strength and a fairly realistic view of his own. He'd be satisfied just to take third place.

Wukong said, "Big brother, Yamcha's pretty strong. You should take him seriously."

Wukong knew his big brother Li Shu very well. He was great in every way, except that sometimes he didn't take things seriously. He often slacked off during training, and he was especially afraid of getting hurt. He wasn't at all what a martial artist was supposed to be.

As big brother put it, he was pretty laid-back and liked to take it easy.

Wukong didn't really understand what that meant.

"Got it. The preliminaries are about to start, so I'll head over." Li Shu waved and made his way to Group Two.

Wukong and Krillin went to Group Four.

All 138 competitors waited for the preliminaries to begin.

A few minutes later, the referee shouted through a megaphone, "The preliminaries are beginning! Competitors whose numbers are called, step into the ring!"

"No killing during the matches!"

"No weapons or outside assistance!"

"Each preliminary match will last one minute!"

"Falling out of the ring, conceding, or being unable to get up within ten seconds counts as a loss!"

"Competitors number 34 and 35, please step into the ring and get ready to fight!"