No. 60 High didn’t forget about their alliance with No. 59 High. After they reached the top, they drew a teleportation array, and summoned the students from No. 59 High who had been at the bottom.
“Why is it just the few of you?” Super Chen asked as he looked at Tang Jingze, He Bufeng and some other familiar faces in the teleportation array.
“Those transfer students from Imperial High ran too fast…” He Bufeng fell silent.
Those transfer students were new, but while they were quite strong, they clearly hadn’t completely integrated with the group. The moment the whistle sounded, they didn’t follow the plan at all, and followed the fervent crowd in climbing the stairs! This had directly led to No. 59 High being short of four members at the top of the pagoda…
But He Bufeng didn’t think it was a big problem overall. It wasn’t like these Imperial High students weren’t strong; it was unlikely that they would be knocked out in the first round.
Just like that, No. 59 High’s and No. 60 High’s mediocre rankings actually went up.
In addition, no one had expected No. 60 High to be the third team to qualify with all their members.
Such fierce momentum was astonishing. Those who arrived at the top first naturally had priority in choosing rooms, but there was a problem for No. 60 High. These were all double rooms, and according to the rules, only after two participants checked into a room together would they qualify for the second round.
But the problem which No. 60 High faced was that there were ten of them and five rooms, but there were three girls… Did one guy and one girl have to share a room?
That might cause a misunderstanding.
Fortunately, No. 59 High also faced the same problem.
“What’s the arrangement?” asked Li Youyue.
He Bufeng thought for a while, then said, “We also have three girls, but two are from Imperial High, who are still climbing their way up… How about one of you girls share with our female team member?”
After saying that, he pushed forward a girl with short hair that was dyed yellow and whose fierce expression looked a little terrifying. “Let me introduce you to my younger cousin, He Chun. She might look like a guy, but she’s actually a girl.”
After He Bufeng said that, He Chun directly punched him in the stomach.
Then, He Bufeng coughed up blood!
It trickled down from the corners of his lips…
“Are… are you alright…”
“It’s fine, I’m used to it.” Whenever and wherever, the gentle smile on the face of the rehabilitated He Bufeng remained the same.
Everyone: “…”
On No. 60 High’s end, Lotus Sun and Li Youyue were worried.
He Chun was too brash, and gave off the air of a female delinquent. It would be a little scary to stay with her.
In the end, however, the problem of dorm assignments was resolved happily.
Li Youyue and Lotus Sun shared one room.
And… Liu Qingyi and He Chun shared another.
It was Liu Qingyi who had proposed it.
Of course, there was a condition — Lotus Sun agreed to give Liu Qingyi a platinum member’s card for the Conch Lady restaurant chain, which would give her a twenty percent discount.
To Liu Qingyi, there was no better bargain than this at this point in time.
Wang Zhen was green with envy on the side; he also wanted a discount card!
And so, he howled at He Chun, “How about I sleep with you?!”
He was instantly punched in the stomach…
But this time, it was He Bufeng who punched him.
After being a delinquent for so long, there were times when it was still a conditioned reflex. However, Wang Zhen indeed hadn’t been punched in a while. After all, this guy had taken regular beatings growing up; plus, there was a frivolous air about him.
In the end, Wang Zhen was the odd one out on No. 59 High’s side, and he wound up sharing a room with He Bufeng.
He Bufeng’s reason was that he was worried that Wang Zhen had indecent designs on his little sister.
This reason could be said to be utterly irrefutable, and no one present could dispute it.
In the end, the dorm assignments on the boys’ side were: Wang Ling and Fang Xing.
Gu Shunzhi and Zhenyuan.
Super Chen and Hero Guo.
Tang Jingze and Xia Ming.
But No. 59 High was still waiting for the four Imperial High transfer students, and while the rooms had already been assigned, they still needed to go occupy the rooms first, just in case.
And so, after the two schools discussed it, Wang Ling, He Bufeng, Wang Zhen and Super Chen were sent to occupy the rooms.
Sitting in the room by himself at that moment, Wang Ling seemed unbearably lonely…
However, he had a strong feeling that this first elimination round wasn’t that simple.
…
At 10.32pm, after the last student checked into the dorm, the list of participants who had qualified in the first round was announced.
Everyone from No. 59 High and No. 60 High had advanced, and no one had been eliminated, which was a good thing.
However, the really nerve-racking segment had yet to start — the second elimination round would begin at 1am!
In other words, most of the participants, especially the students who had climbed the stairs, basically didn’t even have time to rest!
Having just completed such intense exercise, they had less than two hours to rest. For a time, there was the sound of numerous complaints.
“There’s so little time! They really don’t treat us as human beings!”
“Being a student is still good — it’s after you graduate from university when life gets really hard. Do you know what it means to ‘graduate from one of China’s top 985 universities, work 996 hours, get fired at 35 years old, be detained for 251 days, and your legal rights 404’ed…’” Someone brought up this topic which had been trending online recently, and revolved around an employee who applied for severance pay with his company before leaving his job, only to be charged with extortion once the company gave him the payout[1].
And then, that was it…
This employee was jailed for 251 days before he was acquitted, and received one hundred thousand in compensation from the state.
The whole story probably wasn’t as simple as it seemed, as it involved a complicated network of interests. However, the arrogance of these sorts of large enterprises, which had been built on the support of their customers, had already left a deep impression on the people.
When they thought about it carefully now, the happiest was still to be a student.
There was no more time to complain; there was still a second elimination round at 1am, and the real competition would officially start at eight tomorrow morning.
No one knew the specific details of the second elimination round.
They heard that Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal would announce it at 1am.
Wang Ling waited in the room as time passed, and he was quite satisfied with Fang Xing’s unexpected silence. This was a worthwhile roommate; even if he did sneak glances at Wang Ling from time to time, at least he didn’t bother him.
At around five to one, Wang Ling pricked his ears when a girl screamed in the hallway.
Many people were alarmed by the shriek. They opened their doors to see a boy from Titan High lying in a pool of blood and a girl crying as she held him. “Everyone, help me. My senior brother really is going to die!”
Everyone gathered round as she sobbed, and had a clear look at the dead boy’s face.
Zhu Hanyun?!
How could it be him???
A lot of them covered their mouths in stunned shock.
[1] Refers to the backlash against Huawei after a former employee the company accused of extortion was acquitted.
