“There it is!”
“He’s coming!”
“The King is here!”
At once, a giant elephant covered in gold jewlery burst through the doors of the carriage, bellowing and trumpeting. On its back was Qiu Feiyu, that bastard, his expression bright and gorgeous.
Feiyu stood on the back of the elephant, balancing easily as the elephant stomped and stampeded viciously, throwing its head back and forth. It was a wild, overdone, and wasteful display. I had never seen something more embarrassing. How they even managed to pull this off was far beyond me.
[Observers Chat]
SJJC: Oh my god
Aslan: This is incredible
Peenut: How do they keep pulling off incredible stunts every time??
MGirl193: Guys are we changing our votes…
Socrates: No!
Feiyu grabbed his stunning purple sword, throwing it into the air and catching it as his black clothing fluttered around him. His perfectly layered hair flowed in the wind, giving him an effortless but wild charm. Feiyu looked at the crowd and gave his first, bright smile, and the ghosts went utterly mad, screaming wildly and trying to reach him over the parade path.
“He’s beautiful!”
“He’s a disciple? From the apocalypse challenges? That man?”
“His physique!”
“Selling prayer candles! Help this man become a god!”
“How many do you have?”
“Give me all you got.”
“Here, here, save some for me!”
“Don’t hog it, you cow! You won’t catch the eye of the King!”
“Cow?! Who are you calling a cow, you fucking bitch!”
My entire body was almost shaking with anger. I looked up at Feiyu as he approached. I was entirely unmoving. Feiyu finally saw me, perking up before winking and blowing me a kiss.
I flushed bright pink. My jaw dropped to the ground.
The various ghosts around me instantly stopped fighting one another and stared at me instead.
“W-Who is that skank? Get out of the road, whore!”
I whipped around to the ghost who shouted that. “Skank? Whore?!”
Feiyu slid down the trunk of the elephant, who was now in sync with the rest of the parade, and walked up to me.
[Scathing Reviewer activated!]
For some reason, even though seeing Feiyu filled me with an unspeakable anger, I could never act on it when he approached. He made me rage, but he also made me weak. I could only blame it on my attachment to Surviving My First Run.
Even though it was entirely irrational, he was the only constant in my life for the last decade, and seeing him gave me a senese of security and made me want to wipe him off the Earth at the same time.
“Tch,” I scoffed. I was turning meek, and it was this ugly bastard’s fault.
When he finally stood just before me, I had never felt smaller. He towered over me, and he was far superior, both internally and externally. I knew I could never reach his tier. Feiyu had something he was born with that I simply lacked.
“Jiejie,” he muttered, leaning down until we were seeing eye to eye. “I’m so happy. I didn’t know you wanted a front row seat for my parade.”
[Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts gasps and covers his mouth in shock.]
[Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts gets a nosebleed.]
[Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts says Disciple Peijin and Disciple Feiyu look extremely good together.]
[Countless gods are scolding Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts!]
[Paradise is warning Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts not to have sinful thoughts.]
[Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts is doubling down.]
[Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts is scheduling a fan club meeting.]
[Observers Chat]
Socrates: Jia Li… please don’t fall for Feiyu’s teasing again…
Socrates: Jia Li, don’t do something stupid. Pretty please. Jia Li?
My eye twitched. I held myself together.
“Trying to ascend or something, huh?” I answered coldly.
“It does seem like that. Are you here to stop me, Jiejie?”
“I’m going to kill you, Qiu Feiyu.”
“Is Jiejie jealous? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to steal the spotlight from you. But Jiejie is already a god, so Jiejie doesn’t need a parade. Jiejie already has millions of devoted worshippers.”
Suddenly, it felt like thousands of burning lights were pointed straight at me. It was blinding. I moved my arms up to shield my eyes.
I was spotlighted, and all of the ghosts who hadn’t been watching me before were now staring at me.
Cheng stumbled back into the picture, standing only a few feet away from me and raising his hands into the air. “A wicked disciple had decided to challenge the King! Watch the King rightfully defend the ghosts and what he stands for. The King will need all the spiritual energy in the world from his people, so send all your prayers to him at this moment!”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Cheng flung out hundreds of thousands of prayer candles into the crowd. I scanned around for my party, panic welling in my chest. Was it that easy for a mere healer to strike down Yue?
I finally caught sight of Yue. The skin of her arm had turned a grotesque purple shade, and she was clawing at her throat, evidently struggling to breath. Yang stood just beside her, desperately administering concoction after concoction of elixirs. Yue’s expression was desperate, her face turning more blue by the second.
I looked back at Cheng, my jaw dropping. Cheng was… a poison user now?
[Divinity Spirit of the Jade Moon insists she is helping Disciple Yang heal Disciple Yue.]
[Divinity Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven is shouting at his screen.]
[Divinity Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven is spamming messages to both Disciple Yue and Disciple Yang.]
[Party Chat]
Yang: I won’t let her die. Take care of Feiyu.
Amelia: FEIYU HAS THE AMERICAN NODE!
My eyes jumped back and forth between Feiyu and Cheng. I couldn’t fight both of them at the same time. Feiyu was already going to be the hardest fight I’ve had against another disciple, and if Cheng was truly an adept healer and poison user, one strike could incapacitate me.
[Polling ongoing…
- 20%
- 70%
- 10%]
At this rate, depending on how much spiritual energy this poll awarded, Feiyu really might become a god.
That must’ve been the master plan. This entire setup, the parade, the spotlight—all of it was a specifically curated show meant to make Ruoming’s party look like the most brilliant and prestigious disciple group the universe had seen.
They were truly playing their role in the broadcast. They were entertainers. This was a game, and they had rigged it in their favor.
This theme was evident all throughout Surviving My First Run. The more you entertained and the greater story you told, the more success came your way. Feiyu’s secret to success was always telling the best story.
But, not once has the system so blatantly rewarded a fabricated performance like this.
The poll questions were tailored to awarding the greatest show, and Feiyu’s party must have known that.
It was like a live popularity poll used to pit streamers against one another. Nothing about this was organic. In fact, it lost all of the charm that Surviving My First Run had, and it infuriated me.
“Qiu Feiyu. Did you know about the poll?”
“Know what?”
“Ha. I should’ve checked you for a tattoo. You really get me going, Feiyu.”
[Party Chat]
Peijin: Do anything and everything. I want the greatest story these gods will ever witness. Amelia, summon the serpent.
A massive cloud of blue sparks erupted from the top of a nearby building. The sea serpent appeared, roaring viciously and instantly crashing down. It pinpointed Cheng and let out a vicious roar, spit flying everywhere.
At once, the surrounding ghosts dissipated, terrified for their lives, and Amelia ensured not to accidentally harm them. If she did, it would only make us lose ghost support.
Feiyu’s head jerked toward the serpent. In that mooment of distraction, I lunged at him, swinging my sword for his ribs. He blocked my strike effortlessly, pivoting his blade for my head. I scrambled back, readjusting my grip on Zhige and muttering to the blade.
This time, when I moved to strike Feiyu, I intentionally struck too short. Feiyu attempted to block a swing that would never land, and in that moment, Zhige lengthened, nicking Feiyu’s arm before Feiyu promptly retreated.
Some of the ghosts, who were still watching after avoiding the serpent, gasped in shock.
“She’s struck the King!”
“The King got hit?!”
“Did she strike his face?”
“Your blade can change sizes, too,” Feiyu said with amazement, blood dribbling down his arm. “I’m so jealous.”
I didn’t even want to think about how Feiyu was now wielding my initial dream sword.
“Stop wasting your breath and fight me,” I spat.
He let out a low whistle. “So feisty. Like a cute little kitten.”
We exchanged blow after blow, none of us seeming to get closer to the other. I spat out curses at him, and he stopped responding, too focused now on the battle raging between the two of us.
I pulled back for a moment, analyzing the situation. In terms of raw strength, Feiyu could beat me. Both of us could certainly level our stats up more, but that would just result in an arms race.
I frowned slightly. Feiyu adjusted his grip on his sword, jerking his head toward me as if beckoning me to continue my assault. Why wasn’t I stronger? Why couldn’t I be just a bit taller so I could at least fight him head on?
In terms of skills, I wasn’t sure if his skillset had changed from Surviving My First Run, but he was much more adept for offense than I was. Apart from the information that Hindsight could provide me, I didn’t have many offensive skills.
I couldn’t rile him up either. It was obvious that I would fall victim to his verbal taunts before he ever fell for mine. The situation was looking more and more bleak by the moment. Should I have Wei deal with him instead, and I could handle Qijing?
That would be a much more ideal situation for me, but it would be terrible in terms of my perception. It would make me look weak and like I was hiding behind Wei’s strength. I wanted to prove that I could at the very least match Feiyu.
“You’re the first god I’m fighting,” Feiyu said with a little smirk. “You can actually keep up with me.”
“Yeah, wanna send me a prayer candle, so I can be even better?”
Feiyu gave a breathy laugh, his eyes sparkling. “How many do you need to catch up?”
I glared at him, and he shrugged halfheartedly in reply.
I suddenly perked up. That was it. It wasn’t that I was far weaker than him in strength or level—especially not with Zhige—but I didn’t have enough spiritual energy to compete with him. Considering the amount of ghosts that must be lending him spiritual energy right now and the ongoing poll, I was far behind.
Just like I told my party to put on a show, I needed to do the same, even if I couldn’t rely on my strength or skills to do so. And, I still needed that goddamn node.
“Feiyu, should we play a game?”
Feiyu perked up, curious and always excited by the prospect of a game. “What is it?”
“The ghosts can bet on who they think will win with a candle. I’ll even throw in an additional 100,000 stars into the pot. That’s the reward for winning the arc. Can you match that?”
Feiyu grinned. “I can double it.”
I awkwardly looked at my balance, a drop of sweat falling down my forehead.
[264,498 stars.]
I crossed my arms, trying to keep my best pokerface. “You’re just trying to fund the entire ghost economy, huh?”
“Jiejie, I think you’ll win. I’m just trying to give you more stars.”
“Fine. I’ll double it too. 400,000 stars in the pot total.”
I opened up the system screens, quickly creating a contract and turning it toward Feiyu to sign. I didn’t want him to have any tricks up his sleeve.
[LIU PEIJIN AND QIU FEIYU CONTRACT
Both Liu Peijin and Qiu Feiyu will contribute 200,000 stars into the betting pool.
The winner of the fight will receive 400,000 stars.
The winner of the fight will receive respective spiritual energy from all wagered bets.
The winner will be declared when a disciple is able to land a killing blow.
No outside influence of other party members is permissible.]
“Am I missing anything?” I asked, turning the screen toward him.
My hand rested on my hip, and my eyes travelled all over Feiyu as he read the contract. Where could he be hiding the American node? The nodes were so small that it could be anywhere.
Feiyu let out a deep hum. “How interesting. ‘Able to land a killing blow on the other.’ So, we aren’t trying to kill eachother? Jiejie, I thought you said you were going to kill me.”
“I’ll make that a slow and agonizing death.”
“Jiejie is so mean.”
“Are you planning on killing me right here?”
Feiyu didn’t reply, only smiling at me.
“The contract is perfect, as I expect from Jiejie.”
[All signatories have signed! The contract is now in effect until a winner is declared.]