I Really Am a Genius

One of Shen Guanyu's arms hung loosely at his side, while his other hand gripped its elbow tightly. He looked extremely nervous.

The jeers around him grew louder and louder. He glanced uneasily at the crowd below the stage, beads of sweat on his forehead reflecting the scorching light overhead.

"He looks nervous," Zheng Xun said.

"Out of practice? That can't be right. I haven't followed Silver Snow's news in ages, but he should have been on the first team this whole time," Cheng Jie replied.

Zheng Xun opened his wristband and looked up information on the Silver Snow Guild.

With a tap of his finger, he found a flood of news about Shen Yuan, one of Silver Snow's senior leaders, who had died while inspecting the guild's new premises. It seemed to have caused quite a stir at the time.

Shen Yuan had once been Silver Snow's guild leader, but he later stepped down in favor of the current leader, citing health reasons. During the years under Shen Yuan's leadership, Silver Snow had been a regular in the top ten rankings. But not long after the new leader took over, Silver Snow's strength had fallen sharply. Now it was barely hanging on around twentieth place, half dead.

Shen Guanyu was Shen Yuan's only son. Just as Cheng Jie had said, he had made a name for himself at a young age. He debuted at eleven and was already leading teams into dungeons on his own by fifteen, which showed how talented he was.

A highlight reel of Shen Guanyu was embedded in the middle of the post. Zheng Xun opened one of the clips.

It showed Shen Guanyu at eleven. His combat style had yet to take shape, and many of his movements relied purely on instinctive reactions, but he had already shown a talent for fighting that even a layman could recognize.

He truly lived up to the name "child prodigy."

But after Shen Yuan's death, Shen Guanyu had gone three full months without entering a dungeon, only to appear in the Blue Tower now.

It seemed he had become a casualty of the power struggle among the guild's upper ranks.

Poor guy.

Having gotten a basic understanding of the situation and cleared up his confusion, Zheng Xun draped himself over the second-floor viewing stand's railing as if he had no bones and yawned in boredom.

"What, sleepy again?" Cheng Jie turned his head. "Knowing you, I thought you'd get involved."

"That's their guild's internal business. Didn't you see that strangely dressed person down there? That's got to be a Silver Snow player sent to keep an eye on Shen Guanyu. I don't want that kind of trouble. But there's no harm in watching the show."

Cheng Jie remarked that he couldn't believe the words "I don't want trouble" had actually come out of Zheng Xun's mouth, but Zheng Xun couldn't be bothered to move, so he stayed put too.

The two continued watching.

Shouts erupted from the stands in wave after wave. On the platform, Shen Guanyu looked like a herbivore surrounded by wild beasts. His gaze swept helplessly over the crowd before settling on the tall, burly player in front of him. The player said a couple of things that couldn't have been pleasant, and Shen Guanyu's face went pale.

Two people behind Zheng Xun were whispering to each other.

"Can he do it? His arms and legs look so scrawny."

"I doubt it. I just hope his death isn't too bloody. I can't stomach that kind of sight. Makes me sick."

It wasn't just the spectators around him. Almost everyone was shouting the other player's name, as though victory had already been decided.

The referee in a black-and-white checkered mask raised a flag, and the match began.

The challenger knocked his fists together, his features twisting into a vicious grin. He stepped back, then shot straight at Shen Guanyu like a human cannonball!

Boom-

A tremendous crash of colliding bodies erupted from the platform. When the spectators saw what had happened, their mouths fell open in shock.

No one had seen what happened, but the challenger was already sprawled facedown outside the platform in a most undignified position.

Shen Guanyu's body was stretched out, his legs apart and his hands hanging at his sides. He quickly brought his legs and hands back in and resumed his original stiff stance.

Shen Guanyu had actually won!

The confused murmurs in the stands turned into thunderous cheers!

Cheng Jie was surprised too. He knew Shen Guanyu was a child prodigy, but he hadn't expected that after years of honing and refining his skills, his fighting technique would have reached an even higher level!

He turned, ready to wake Zheng Xun up so he could see something exciting.

But Zheng Xun wasn't asleep. His hands were folded on the railing as he quietly watched the player on the platform with lowered eyes.

The second challenger had already stepped onto the platform. She was the female player who had won with a chokehold earlier.

The female player lasted about five minutes longer than the previous challenger, but unfortunately, the outcome was the same.

Two consecutive wins!

The roar from the stands grew increasingly deafening.

"He's using a fist technique."

Zheng Xun suddenly leaned over and spoke, catching Cheng Jie off guard.

"A fist technique?"

"Yeah. Looks like the kind passed down in a family, too. I've never seen it before."

To push his own combat skills to their limits, Zheng Xun had once studied the mainstream fighting methods of this world while running simulated dungeons. He had Little Red Riding Hood threaten the bosses into staying still while he practiced on his own nearby. Once he mastered a technique, he used it against the bosses in actual combat.

What Shen Guanyu was using was somewhat different from what the major guilds currently taught their players. It placed more emphasis on rhythm than strength.

He could disrupt his opponent's rhythm and draw them into his own.

Once he succeeded, his opponent could only be described as utterly unable to fight back.

Zheng Xun guessed that this kind of rhythm probably wasn't limited to fist techniques. If Shen Guanyu wielded a sword or some other item or weapon, he could achieve the same effect.

Challengers came one after another, and the atmosphere grew more and more heated.

Shen Guanyu seemed to grow bolder with every fight.

The voices around them had changed, all shifting in Shen Guanyu's favor.

"This kid is seriously fierce."

"Which one is this? The tenth?"

"Could he actually become the first person to successfully defend the platform in the unlimited-round challenge? The Blue Tower in this district has only been around for a year or two, and nobody's managed it yet."

Blue Towers were located in several districts with large permanent populations, and this one was relatively new.

"Nine moves."

Amid the noisy discussions about who would win or lose, one voice stood out.

Zheng Xun counted on his fingers to make sure.

"That's right, nine moves."

"What?" Cheng Jie didn't understand what had gotten into him this time.

"His fist technique."

Zheng Xun, who had figured out all nine moves of the fist technique purely by watching, smiled in satisfaction.

"Not bad. A few moves were a bit complicated, but I still managed to break them down."

"Fucking amazing," Cheng Jie said, giving him a friendly hand gesture. "Talent like yours is what makes a real genius. Makes me want to shove you off here and kill you."

"See? That's a twisted mindset. I suggest you see the team's psychologist and get that jealousy treated."

Zheng Xun had learned a new fist technique and felt the trip had been worthwhile, so he was about to tell Cheng Jie it was time to head back.

He glanced at Shen Guanyu on the platform. No matter how talented he was at fighting, he couldn't withstand a succession of opponents. He had already started wiping sweat with his sleeve, and his breathing had grown uneven.

In another two or three rounds, he would probably be exhausted to death and collapse on the spot.

Zheng Xun had suddenly lost interest in watching a genius fall. Just as he was about to turn and leave, the cheers that erupted around him made his ears ring for three seconds.

"Holy shit, isn't that Little Zheng Xun?"

Zheng Xun himself, standing right there: ?