Goldie waddled back into the house at nightfall .
Flamy swallowed a huge, fat fish from its bucket in one gulp and frowned at Goldie . For some reason, the duck seemed awfully weary .
Goldie plopped down on the ground and stared lifelessly at the food in front of it .
I'm such a dunderhead .
Goldie could feel tears welling up in its eyes . However, it knew that it had to stay strong . Big ducks don't cry, it reminded itself .
Gao Peng decided not to pay Goldie any mind for now . He had already let the duck keep the winnings for his bet on Zhang Yi . Instead of doing the sensible thing, like saving the money for a rainy day, it had gone behind his back and blown all of its money on a losing bet .
"Serves you right!" muttered Gao Peng .
Goldie tearfully looked at Gao Peng, as if it was expecting a word of consolation from him . When it heard what he said, it nearly burst into tears .
"Let me ask you something—how did you get the shop owner to let you place your bet? He shouldn't have been able to understand you," asked Gao Peng curiously .
Not too far away, Stripey shuddered when he heard Gao Peng interrogating the duck .
I knew it, the duck's going to rat me out .
Stripey squirmed uncomfortably as it observed Gao Peng's face, trying to figure out if he had found out about its involvement .
Then it scuttled out of the house before anyone noticed its absence .
"Stripey is smart . Its writing was so beautiful," Goldie stammered .
Outside the house, Stripey nearly fainted when it heard the duck say its name . It quickly dug a hole in the backyard and buried itself inside .
This has nothing to do with me . I'm innocent, thought the spider . Gao Peng would definitely come after it as soon as he was done grilling the duck for information .
"I see, so Stripey helped you," said Gao Peng, nodding . He went into the backyard and stomped on a freshly disturbed patch of dirt a couple of times . He said to it, "Cut the act, Stripey . I know you helped Goldie write the message . Instead of poking your nose in other people's business, why don't you focus more on your studies?"
The next day, Goldie was reading a magazine titled "Finance and Wall Street . " It had been reading the magazine for three whole hours . Finally, it stood up and threw the magazine into the trash can .
"Screw this!" grumbled Goldie . It looked down at its puffed-up chest and paused there for a moment, as if it had come to an epiphany . It was me . I was the one who messed up .
. . .
The tournament's third round commenced that day . Unlike the first two rounds, all contestants would be matched against each other, regardless of region of origin, in the third round .
Sixteen contestants now remained in the tournament .
Those who managed to make it this far were considered to be the cream of the crop .
On average, every region had three to four finalists advancing to the third round . However, some of the teams had been completely wiped out .
The Huaxia region had four contestants remaining in the tournament: Zhang Yi, Jun Moyi, Gao Leshi, and Long Binyu .
Each finalist had their own ace familiar .
Zhang Yi's strongest familiar was the Fire-type Skyfire Hound, who had been nicknamed "Hellhound Emperor" by fans . However, according to rumors, Zhang Yi didn't like the name .
Jun Moyi's main familiar was the Black Anaconda, while Gao Leshi's was a Perfect-grade Commander-tier Bloodhorn Armor Wolf .
Long Binyu's was a Perfect-grade Polar Scarab .
Only Zhang Yi's Skyfire Hound was an Epic-grade monster . The rest were only Perfect-grade . Even in such a large-scale event, an Epic-grade monster was extremely rare among the contestants .
Apparently luck was on Huaxia region's team, as none of its members were matched against each other .
When their matches were announced, all four of them let out a collective sigh of relief . None of them had Gao Peng as their referee .
Among all eight participants from the Huaxia region who had been disqualified, six of them had matches that had been refereed by Gao Peng .
Of course, all of them had been eliminated from the tournament due to a lack of skill . However, the fact that all the matches that Gao Peng had refereed had ended in Huaxia's defeat was way too unlikely to be a coincidence .
Even the less superstitious ones in the stands had begun whispering about it .
Gao Peng didn't know whether to laugh or cry . This had nothing to do with him . He was also a citizen of the Huaxia region . He had no reason to undermine his own region .
In the name of unbiased refereeing, he simply couldn't take matters into his own hands every time a Huaxia contestant lost his or her match .
Gao Peng didn't know what to do about this . In truth, his job as a referee wasn't as exciting as he had been led to believe .
Zhang Yi's opponent was Brandy from the Yinglie region . Brandy was the one who had defeated Huaxia's Yu Ge in the first round, so a lot of people in the stands were eager to watch this match .
The match between an Epic Fire-type familiar and an Epic Wood-type familiar had gone just as everyone had expected . Zhang Yi's Skyfire Hound had the upper hand from the start . Waves of fire billowed from it, roasting the Wailing Serpent Snake alive .
The Wailing Serpent Snake let out a terrible shriek from the hole in its trunk . In the end, Brandy conceded, and his familiar was carted off of the field to have its injuries treated .
Every match ended surprisingly quickly in the third round as the spectators cheered uproariously for their teams from the stands .
Commander-tier familiars were all capable of Elemental Discharge . Despite not being as powerful as Lord-tier familiars, most of their abilities were flashy enough to put on a good show for the audience .
All this reminded Gao Peng of the underground monster fighting rings back home, which weren't too different from this .
One was simply held under an official flag, while the other was illegal .
Chapter end
Report
|
Donate
Oh o, this user has not set a donation button.
|