Chapter 67: One Riddle Solved
Translator: Oneshotwonder Editor: Tehrn
A boy inside of Bernabeu’s campus was writing maliciously on his notebook. After a while, he paused and looked at the handwritten notes that sprawled a few pages satisfyingly. Handwritten notes had been his favorite despite its cumbersomeness. It was much better than audio notes in capturing the essence of his thoughts.
This boy’s name was Cao Yi, and he was Skyscraper. The riddle was solved, but even Miao Xiu had guessed wrong.
An image projected out from the open pages. It was the fighting actions reanimated based on the boy’s precise descriptions. These pages were of advanced technology, to use it was a privilege not to be given freely by Martyrus unless it was a genius like Skyscraper, discovered by Martyrus himself.
Martyrus had always believed in the hidden potentials among seemingly ordinary students. Therefore, he had established a series of guidelines that would make sure students with even the slightest hint of talent would not be left out.
When Cao Yi first entered Bernabeu, he had failed almost every single subject, which made his admission seem like a fluke. Martyrus never believed in flukes. After a few days of investigation, the old fox was shocked by what he had found: the boy was from one of the worst high schools in the city, and ever since he entered Bernabeu, he absorbed knowledge in an inhuman pace.
He had discovered the boy’s talent: tenacious learning ability, an ability that sounded incredulous even to Martyrus when he first realized it.
The image finally flickered and disappeared, Cao Yi nodded as he felt satisfied with the overall accuracy of his description. He lifted the pen again to draw the final, conclusive notes regarding the strength of the opponent — a routine he followed ever since he started to partake in TPA fights. But the tip of the pen hovered over the page as he found himself lacking words. Something was nagging him at the back of his mind, making him hesitant to draw any conclusions. He had a strong feeling that his opponent didn’t even reveal his real power.
“Hurry up Luv Ma! What takes you so long? I thought that you were always fast handed!” Miao Xiu grunted impatiently.
“Shut up or get the hell out of here!” Luv Ma refuted without sparing his friend a look. Visual analysis was a sophisticated work, and Luv Ma’s task was even more challenging since he did not have the raw footage.
“Please! You know I don’t have patience. He only saw the Fist of the Racing Tiger once, and there he was, the roaring and all. How could I be patient?”
Luv Ma ignored his friend’s complaint and focused on his hands that danced swiftly over the keyboard. Although Luv Ma was not a fighter, he possessed the unmatched ability of digital analysis.
“Done!”
“Oh honey, I knew you were the best! Kiss.” Miao Xiu closed into Luv Ma, and the latter kicked him away out of disgust.
The video of the entire fight had been broken down into segments. The segment that appeared on the screen was the finishing confrontation of the two fighters when Wang Tong had used the Fist of the Racing Tiger.
“It has to be the real Fist of the Racing Tiger. Look, I have compared Einherjar Wannabe’s move with Wang Beng’s move frame by frame, they look exactly the same. I wonder what kind of tactics can transform one’s arm into such a deadly weapon,” Luv Ma said as he showed his finished product to Miao Xiu.
“Only Wang Ben would know. It’s hard to tell based solely on the magnitude of the power, it ought to be the Fist of the Racing Tiger. That Skyscraper still needs more training, and he was not matched yet against the most aggressive attack of the entire Confederation.”
“Agreed. General Hu Ben was indeed a legendary fighter.”
“PAUSE!” Miao Xiu suddenly yelled. “Rewind… a bit more… Yes!”
Luv Ma watched Miao Xiu as he bit his fingernails: a sign of distress.
“Look at Einherjar Wannabe’s face. There was no fear, nor excitement. He looked like as if he didn’t even care that Skyscraper was using the “X” on him!”
“You mean you don’t think the “X” would even scratch him? “
“Who knows. But there is one thing that is for sure: he had many other options other than using Wang Ben’s Fist of the Racing tiger, some might be even deadlier,” Miao Xiu spoke with certainty.
“…faced with the deadly “X”, and he was still able to take his time to pick and choose, that sounds like far-fetched.”
“It’s achievable, I know of at least three persons who can do that.” Miao Xiu knew many high-level fighters, but none of those three he thought of could care to fight in the TPA. “Who exactly is this Einherjar Wannabe?” Miao Xiu mulled over the question and repeated the name in his mind.
Suddenly, he found a sense of irony in the name “Einherjar Wannabe”.
“What is he trying to prove? His arrogance?” he thought.
It had been a while since the TPA offered a good fight. There had been some great fights among the Military pro-users, but those contents were not meant to be published. Therefore, the fight between Wang Tong and skyscraper attracted a lot of attentions.
Both Wang Tong and Cao Yi, a.k.a. Skyscraper, had demonstrated a great deal of strength and quickly various speculations started to circulate regarding the relationship between Einherjar Wannabe and Wang Ben. However, the more people speculated, the more riddles seemed to surface.
“Why does Einherjar Wannabe know how to use the Fist of the Racing Tiger?”
“Is it because they had fought once? Or was it because of anything else?”
Eventually, the DREAM Corp. released a video analysis of the fight, which they haven’t done for many years. It was the Fist of the Racing Tiger that had convinced the corporation to make the decision. Unexpectedly, this video analysis opened doors to more mysteries.
People quickly noticed that the Fist of the Racing Tiger was far from the most peculiar piece of the puzzle as they discovered Wang Tong’s miraculous footwork. No matter how aggressive Cao Yi’s attack was, his strike was dissolved quickly by Wang Tong’s seemingly simple and short maneuver. If it were anyone else, it would have been an entirely different story. Every twitch of Wang Tong’s muscle seemed to serve a purpose at dodging attacks. Wang Tong’s ability suggested that he was a seasoned warrior, but his profile said that he was only sixteen.
Everyone weighted their hope and anticipation on Wang Ben’s shoulder as more and more of them started to understand the motives of Wang Ben’s request for a rematch. The general’s son had realized the exceptional strength of Wang Tong after their first fight. Wang Tong’s imitation of the Fist of the Racing Tiger screamed like a taunt at Wang Ben, making him even more determined for a rematch.
