A Mock Battle? More Like a Feeding Frenzy

"Su Bai, have you lost your mind?!"

In the academic affairs office at Linhai No. 3 Middle School, Qin Wan slammed her palm down on the desk in a fury, making the thermos on top of it jump.

She stared at Su Bai, who stood before her looking utterly unruffled, and felt her blood pressure about to spike.

"Do you know what a full-scale connection battle means? It's a direct clash between divine kingdom cores! Once Gu Chengfeng's berserker army charges into your divine kingdom, it'll take them just ten minutes to smash your core to powder!"

"I went to so much trouble begging the director of academic affairs on your behalf. I said you only talked big yesterday because you were overstimulated, and I tried to get this connection battle changed into a normal points match. And what did you do? You went straight to the forum and accepted his challenge?"

"And you said ten thousand people weren't enough to kill? Do you want to die that badly?!"

Qin Wan was genuinely furious.

As his homeroom teacher, she was usually strict, but she certainly didn't want to see her student go to his death.

She had always wanted to help students like Su Bai, whose families were struggling, find a way to survive.

Seeing Qin Wan so furious, Su Bai was actually a little touched.

In this cold school, Qin Wan was one of the few people who truly cared whether he lived or died.

"Teacher Qin, please don't be angry. It isn't worth damaging your health." Su Bai smiled, his tone sincere. "I know you're looking out for me. But if I don't accept, Gu Chengfeng will keep biting at me like a rabid dog."

"If I take a step back, he won't leave me a boundless sea and sky. He'll just think I'm easy to bully."

"Besides..." Su Bai paused, a glimmer of confidence flashing in his eyes. "Who says my divine kingdom is bound to be shattered?"

Qin Wan froze for a moment and looked into Su Bai's eyes.

They were remarkably calm, without the slightest trace of panic or madness. There was only a depth to them that she couldn't see through.

"You... did you somehow create a special kind of follower over the past few days?" Qin Wan asked hesitantly.

Su Bai didn't answer directly. Instead, he asked, "Teacher Qin, according to school rules, as long as you win a mock battle, whatever means you use are legal, right?"

Qin Wan frowned. "That's true, but only if you can win. Gu Chengfeng's S-rank talent is right there for everyone to see. That's genuine, hard power."

"As long as it's legal, that's enough." Su Bai nodded. "Teacher Qin, just wait and enjoy the show. I guarantee everyone will remember this divine war for the rest of their lives."

Watching Su Bai turn and leave, Qin Wan rubbed her temples in frustration.

"Where on earth does that kid get his confidence?"

"Forget it. I need to go to the infirmary and have an emergency treatment pod prepared in advance. If his divine kingdom shatters, at least we can save his life."

Meanwhile.

In the senior year's Class One, the elite class.

Gu Chengfeng sat on a leather sofa in the back row, looking at Su Bai's response on his phone, and couldn't help bursting into laughter.

"Hahaha! That trash actually accepted!"

"I thought he'd be a turtle hiding in its shell for the rest of his life. Didn't expect him to have some guts."

A few lackeys nearby immediately crowded around to flatter him.

"Young Master Gu, that kid's brain must be full of water. He probably doesn't even know how a divine war is fought."

"Exactly. Ten square kilometers of wasteland? One charge from our berserkers will trample it flat."

"Young Master Gu, you should go easy on him when the time comes. Don't actually kill him, or it'll be hard to explain to the school."

Gu Chengfeng snorted, a cruel glint flashing in his eyes. "Kill him? That would be letting him off too easily."

"Inside his divine kingdom, I'll tear his followers apart bit by bit—if he has any—and then I'll grind his divine kingdom core under my foot and make him watch his little world collapse!"

"I'll show him what happens when someone in Linhai City dares to anger me, Gu Chengfeng!"

Gu Chengfeng stood up and rolled his neck.

"Come on, let's go to the divine kingdom training room. I want my berserkers to get a taste of slaughter ahead of time."

Over the next six days.

A strange, feverish atmosphere gripped all of Linhai No. 3 Middle School.

Everyone was talking about the upcoming "most lopsided divine war."

Someone opened a betting pool on how many minutes Su Bai could last.

In the end, ninety-nine percent of the bets were on "instantly killed within one minute."

Yet Su Bai, at the center of the storm, was unusually quiet.

During those six days, he didn't come to school or post a single word on the forum.

His daily routine consisted of collecting dead rats at the garbage dump during the day and wandering around the abandoned old city district at night, absorbing stray resentment and pollution to constantly strengthen his divine kingdom.

He even went to the black market and spent the last of his money on a battered, rusty bronze bell.

Then he hung it atop the abandoned school building in his divine kingdom.

That was Hongdou's "trigger medium."

Finally.

The seventh day arrived, the day of the citywide mock divine war.

The large divine war arena at Linhai No. 3 Middle School was packed to capacity.

Not only were all the teachers and students there, but even some officials from the municipal education bureau and inspectors from the Divine Kingdom Security Group had come.

After all, Gu Chengfeng, with his S-rank talent, was one of the promising talents Linhai City was focusing on nurturing this year.

At the center of the enormous ring of stands stood two connection pods, each ten meters in diameter.

Once both sides entered their pods and connected their spiritual power, a passage would open between their divine kingdoms in the void, allowing them to clash directly.

Gu Chengfeng arrived early.

Dressed in a magnificent combat outfit and surrounded by a group of elite-class students, he looked like a king about to ascend the throne.

"Where's Su Bai? Don't tell me that trash pissed his pants and was too scared to come?" Gu Chengfeng glanced at the time and spoke impatiently.

As soon as he finished speaking, the doors to the divine war arena swung open.

Su Bai walked in at a leisurely pace, wearing an old school uniform faded from washing, his hands in his pockets.

The chubby Lin Que followed beside him, sweating profusely with nerves, his legs trembling.

"Brother Bai, it's not too late to back out. I'll cover you. Let's run..." Lin Que pleaded in a whisper.

"Run? We're already here. We ought to collect an appearance fee, at least."

Su Bai patted Lin Que on the shoulder and walked straight toward the connection pods.

The stands erupted in deafening boos and laughter.

"The trash is here!"

"Su Bai, hurry up and surrender! Don't dirty Young Master Gu's berserkers!"

"A ten-square-kilometer divine kingdom? Let's see what waves you can stir up with that!"

Amid the torrent of jeers, Su Bai calmly walked up to Gu Chengfeng.

Gu Chengfeng looked down at him, a vicious grin curling his lips. "Su Bai, if you kneel and beg me now, I might consider breaking only half of your divine kingdom."

Su Bai yawned and said lazily, "You talk too much. Are we fighting or not? If not, I'm going back to sleep."

"You're courting death!"

Gu Chengfeng's face darkened. He turned and strode into the connection pod on the left.

Su Bai entered the pod on the right without hesitation.

As the pod doors closed, the giant holographic screen above the arena lit up.

The screen split in two.

On the left was Gu Chengfeng's vast, boundless heavy-metal wasteland.

Ten thousand berserkers, each two meters tall, clad in heavy armor and wielding a giant axe, let out deafening roars, brimming with killing intent.

On the right was Su Bai's pitiful ten square kilometers of wasteland.

Black mist curled around ruins strewn across the land, with a dilapidated school building standing in the middle.

There was no sign of any living creature.

The deathly silence was enough to make people laugh.

"Countdown commencing!"

A mechanical electronic voice echoed throughout the arena.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"Divine kingdom passage, open!"

Boom!

At the center of the holographic screen, an enormous spatial rift tore open with a thunderous roar.

Gu Chengfeng's divine kingdom and Su Bai's divine kingdom were officially connected!

"Berserker legion, charge! Crush that garbage dump!"

Gu Chengfeng roared madly inside his connection pod.

Like a black torrent of steel, the ten thousand heavily armored berserkers surged through the spatial passage and into Su Bai's wasteland divine kingdom.

Their heavy footsteps shook the entire wasteland.

Spectators in the stands shook their heads.

"It's over."

"No defenses, no followers to stop them. Once those ten thousand berserkers charge through, a few stomps will be enough to make Su Bai's divine kingdom core collapse."

Qin Wan clenched her fists nervously, ready to press the emergency disconnect button at any moment.

Yet just as the entire berserker legion stepped into the wasteland and prepared to wreak havoc.

A slight change suddenly occurred in Su Bai's hitherto silent divine kingdom.

"Dong-"

A deep, drawn-out toll, carrying an endlessly chilling aura.

It suddenly rang out from the top of the abandoned school building.

The toll pierced the black mist and echoed in every berserker's ears.

The fierce berserker legion involuntarily faltered for a moment.

Immediately afterward.

A woman's shrill, mournful, ethereal singing drifted eerily through the black mist.

"The sky is dark... rain is coming down..."

"Who's behind you... watching you..."

The singing wasn't loud, but it seemed to carry an irresistible enchantment, burrowing into the berserkers' minds.

The spectators in the stands froze.

"What's that sound?"

"Someone's singing? What is Su Bai hiding in his divine kingdom?"

Inside the connection pod, Gu Chengfeng frowned and shouted an order. "Ignore that sound! Keep charging! Tear that ruined building down!"

At his command, the berserkers raised their giant axes again, ready to charge.

Just then.

A berserker squad leader at the very front suddenly felt a bone-deep chill behind him.

It was as if a pair of icy hands had gently settled on his shoulders.

"Don't look back..."

A woman's whisper sounded in his ear.

Berserkers were famously hot-tempered and fearless. How could a few words frighten one?

The squad leader roared, turned without hesitation, and raised his giant axe to strike behind him.

But.

The instant he turned around.

He saw a flash of glaring scarlet.

And a deathly pale face with no features except a great, bloody maw.

Crack!

A bone-chilling crunch rang out.

The two-meter-tall second-tier berserker squad leader, whose defenses were astonishing, had his head twisted a full one hundred and eighty degrees in an instant.

He didn't even have time to scream before his massive body crashed to the ground.

Above his fallen corpse, a scarlet figure flickered in and out of view.

The entire arena fell deathly silent.

Everyone stared wide-eyed at the holographic screen in disbelief.

An instant kill?

A second-tier, heavily armored berserker had simply looked back once and died?!

"What happened? Did anyone see it clearly?"

"I don't know! What was that red shadow?!"

Before anyone could react.

The shrill singing suddenly grew louder.

"Whoever looks back... dies..."

More and more berserkers felt the chill behind them, felt someone patting their shoulders.

Out of instinct, or out of anger.

One berserker, then ten, then a hundred turned their heads.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

A rapid succession of bone-cracking sounds erupted across the wasteland like firecrackers.

Every berserker who looked back, no matter how strong or how thick their armor, had their neck forcibly snapped at the same instant by an invisible power of rules!

In a mere ten seconds.

The thousand berserkers at the front fell to the ground in unison, like stalks of wheat being harvested.

Blood stained the wasteland red.

Fear spread like a plague through the remaining berserker legion, running rampant.

Inside the docking capsule, Gu Chengfeng's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"How is this possible?! My berserkers! Those were second-tier dependents!"

"Su Bai! What kind of sorcery did you use?!"

Su Bai sat in the docking capsule, watching the enemies fall one after another on the screen, a cold smile curving his lips.

"Sorcery? No, these are the rules."

"Gu Chengfeng, welcome to my Ghost Story Paradise."

"The game has only just begun."