"I kowtowed and apologized."
"Can I leave now?"
Dai Huabin raised his head with difficulty, his vicious gaze landing on the girl before him as he spoke through gritted teeth.
He had fulfilled the terms of their wager.
It was time for him to leave.
"That's all. Our wager ends here."
Huo Yudie spoke bluntly, her gaze cold.
"Master, shall we go?"
As she spoke, her gaze shifted to Chu Ge.
"Hmm..."
Chu Ge looked thoughtful. In truth, he was not quite ready to leave. After all, the system's mission was still unfinished. He was supposed to punish Dai Huabin this time. Did this really count...?
[Congratulations, host, on slapping Dai Huabin, letting him savor the hearty smack he loves after so long, and making him kneel and pay a small price.] [Reward obtained: Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone]
"Huh?"
The mission's complete.
Only then did Chu Ge nod. Since that was the case, there really was no reason to stay.
"Dai Huabin, was it?"
"If I catch you causing trouble for Yudie again, it won't be this little slap on the wrist. I'm sure you wouldn't want to end up missing an arm or a leg."
Chu Ge fixed his gaze on Dai Huabin and spoke casually, flashing a lethally friendly smile.
But in Dai Huabin's eyes, that smile seemed like the most terrifying nightmare in all creation. He shuddered uncontrollably, cold sweat breaking out across his forehead.
"Yudie, let's go."
"Okay, Master."
Huo Yudie obediently answered, then followed Chu Ge off the stage without looking back.
She clearly had nothing to say to Dai Huabin, who had now become a strutting clown.
Watching the pair leave the stage, Dai Huabin stared at Huo Yudie with such resentment that he wished he could devour her flesh.
From the moment he knelt, all his glory and all his pride had gone down the drain because of her.
The reputation as a genius he had built over the years had been destroyed in a single day.
"Zhu Lu, help me up."
"Let's go."
He rose unsteadily and looked toward Zhu Lu, motioning for her to come support him as he spoke with difficulty.
A gentleman can wait ten years for revenge!
I'll never forget today's humiliation. Someday, I'll make her pay!
I, Dai Huabin, am not someone you can offend so easily.
"Huabin..."
At his words, Zhu Lu hurried to support him and slowly headed down from the arena, her face filled with indescribable sorrow.
What she had feared most had happened after all. He had never stood a chance against them, and now he had ended up like this instead. How had her fiancé let things come to this...?
She truly treated Dai Huabin exceptionally well. Those thoughts stayed in her head, never actually leaving her lips. The others clearly were not so kind.
"Who challenges someone to a match and demands that they kowtow? And he calls himself the outer court's greatest genius? Shameless! Dai Huabin, right? Pah!"
"He's trash and doesn't even know it. She beat him in a single move. What a disgrace to Shrek. If that were me, I'd just drop out of the academy."
"And he's supposed to be from the Star Luo Dai Family? Tsk, tsk, tsk..."
On his way out, the spectators, always eager to stir up more trouble, clearly had no intention of sparing him. They lashed him with their words one after another.
He had challenged a girl a whole major rank below him, someone supposedly too weak to truss a chicken, demanded that she kneel, and then failed to beat her. He had truly stacked every negative buff on himself.
Those icy words reached Dai Huabin's ears, making it even harder for him to lift his head. The hand Zhu Lu held clenched tightly, his heart brimming with indescribable fury.
In the end, this once-arrogant fellow's vision went black, and he fainted outright.
"Huabin!"
"What's wrong, Huabin? Are you all right...?"
Zhu Lu was instantly startled by the sudden turn of events. Like a bewildered kitten, she hurriedly tugged at him, unable to keep the panic out of her voice.
But he could no longer give her a response.
"Let go. I'll take him back."
"He may not be a decent person, but he's still a student of our Shrek Academy..."
Du Weilun appeared there. Looking at Dai Huabin, who had fainted from sheer rage, he sighed quietly.
The Dai Family...
How did they produce someone like this?
Although his talent surpassed Dai Yueheng's somewhat, judging by what had just happened, he fell far short in every other respect.
Just the fact that he had worked himself into a faint after losing a bet put him miles behind Dai Yueheng.
"At least we discovered it early."
"With his talent and his status as a member of the Dai Family, he would probably have become a priority for the academy's training. If we only discovered this side of him later, that would be a real problem."
"Dai Huabin fainted?"
"That actually happened?"
As Chu Ge and the others walked back, Tang Wutong looked toward Xiao Xiao beside her, struggling to keep a straight face as an irrepressible smile spread across it.
"Yep."
"I was shocked when I saw it. While his friend Zhu Lu was holding him, he heard what everyone around him was saying, and his vision went black. Then he passed out..."
The petite Xiao Xiao nodded earnestly. There was absolutely no way she had remembered it wrong.
She had watched that scene very closely.
"Hahahaha! Good, good, good!"
"Leave it to you, Xiao Xiao."
Tang Wutong burst into delighted laughter, her pretty face full of joy as she spoke.
"That's what he gets for picking on our Yudie. Serves him right, falling flat on his face! And this is only the beginning. If he bullies our Yudie, there'll be plenty of bitter fruit waiting for him. He can wait for his death!"
As she spoke, her mood shifted back to her earlier displeasure, and her words turned indignant.
"This really is only the beginning."
Huo Yudie came back to her senses and smiled, speaking softly.
Making that fellow kowtow and admit his mistake was only the tiniest, most insignificant step. What she wanted went far beyond that.
"Anyway, Dai Huabin will never be able to hold his head up again. He could've built himself an image as an outer court prodigy and become a famous genius, but who would believe him now?"
Xiao Xiao nodded, her expression serious.
This Xiao Xiao...
Has she become close with Wutong and the others, just like in the original story? She really is an important character destined to be here.
Watching the girls chatting together, Chu Ge looked amused and could not help thinking to himself.
Although he did not know when they had gotten together, from the look of things, they would become close-knit friends in the future too.
Sure enough, there was simply no escaping fate's arrangements.
Just then, the system's mission notification sounded again, reaching his mind.
[Soul Tool Department freshman] [Rookie host, in Zhou Yi's class, your strength is weak and you have yet to be given an important role. However, she has noticed some promising strengths in you and wishes to take you to the Soul Tool Department.] [Earn the recognition of the Soul Tool Department's director or someone of higher standing, and qualify to become a Soul Tool Department freshman.] [Note: Zhou Yi's husband is himself a director of the Soul Tool Department. Befriending him might bring some truly extraordinary benefits.] [Reward: god-level soul engineer talent]
"I'm already a Titled Douluo, and now I'm supposed to be a Soul Tool Department freshman?"
Chu Ge smiled dismissively, but as he read further, his expression grew strange.
"Fan Yu's recognition?"
"System..."
"Am I just destined to butt heads with this married couple?"
Fan Yu: So?
(End of chapter)
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