Volume Two: The Many Faces of Youth, True Yet False Chapter Ninety-Seven: The Shameless Contest

In the era of supernatural abilities, only one kind of war existed: the war between humanity and calamity. The so-called war mode was a timed contest to see which side could kill more calamities.

Shen Jiewen summoned an interface on the control panel—it was the basic information screen for this competition. On the second line of the information, in bold letters, was the war mode.

“So clever,” Feng Wuming remarked. “On the surface, it looks like a futile stand against the stars, but in reality, they’re playing to their strengths—fire.”

Feng Wuming’s comment was incomplete, so Shen Jiewen, well-versed in VRF matters, added, “When the challenge was first proposed, Burning Mountain Fire apparently insisted on choosing the map, and the Stars agreed. It seems Burning Mountain Fire was well-prepared, because this map belongs exclusively to the Flame Demon Hall. They can modify parameters at will. By changing the calamities inside to bloodwing mole crickets—creatures with low defense, that swarm in groups, and are incredibly vulnerable to fire—they can use flames to sweep through large areas like burning grasslands. This greatly increases Burning Mountain Fire’s chances of victory.”

For a moment, nearly all the spectators shared the same thought: “Burning Mountain Fire is so shameless! But it’s Huo Ye who’s getting trapped. Well, serves him right!” The mood shifted quickly; after all, Huo Ye had earned much resistance due to his arrogant behavior at the school opening ceremony.

“Burning Mountain Fire is truly ingenious!”

“Thumbs up for Burning Mountain Fire’s cunning! Amazing!”

The barrage of comments praised Burning Mountain Fire, but in reality, they were resisting Huo Ye. Of course, a few accused Burning Mountain Fire of being unscrupulous, but they were rare.

Huo Ye and Jiang Feng, from their own interfaces, noticed the issue and understood Burning Mountain Fire’s malicious intent. Furious, Huo Ye cursed, “Those two damned treacherous scoundrels! Let’s go cut them down!”

“Boss, boss, we’ve already gone pretty far. Can you please put me down?” Jiang Feng felt like he was about to vomit after dinner.

Huo Ye set Jiang Feng down. After a couple of dry heaves, Jiang Feng said, “Boss, since it’s war mode, shouldn’t we be killing calamities quickly?”

“Why kill calamities? Isn’t this about who kills more?” Huo Ye retorted.

The audience was puzzled by these words—weren’t they contradictory? Before many questioning comments could appear, Huo Ye continued, “We only need to take out their team, then casually kill some calamities and just survive until the end. Easy and relaxed!”

“I f***…”

The same comment kept flooding the screen, overwhelming the chat. Huo Ye’s statement was shocking! It was like two shops competing side by side—normally, everyone tries to improve their own efficiency and win fairly. But Huo Ye said, “I’m going to burn down their shop.”

So despicable! Absolutely inhuman! Does being S-rank mean you can do whatever you want…? Well, S-rank really does mean you can do whatever you want—if you’re strong enough to kill two opponents alone, then sure, you’re impressive.

Huo Ye’s logic left the three commentators speechless. They were supposed to keep explaining the situation, but now they were silent. The live director didn’t blame them, though; this was a lot to process.

Shangguan Yudie and Alice glared at Huo Ye as he spoke. Alice suddenly asked, “Xiaoyu?”

“Hm?”

“Do you feel something?”

“What?”

“A sense of disillusionment! I had it too—being deceived by a seemingly elegant facade, only to discover he’s such a shameless scoundrel. Ah! This guy’s a total jerk!”

Alice recalled the days she struggled with finding out Huo Ye’s true identity. But Shangguan Yudie thought it was no big deal—this was just the usual Xiao Ye vibe: appearing normal but ready to betray you at any moment.

At that moment, their neural interfaces chimed simultaneously. In the Stars’ group chat, Luo Jiajia sent a tearful emoji: “Waaah, so the leader is really like this? My illusions are shattered!”

“Don’t cry, Jiajia. Youth is just the process of seeing through dreams and reality. Stay strong,” Kazama Ruri said, seemingly comforting but actually delivering a sharp jab.

“Yeah, stay strong,” straightforward Lei Limi added.

Already half-drunk, Luo Jiajia hid away to cry.

“Boss! Boss! I beg you! Please just play it normal. I can’t handle fighting both Burning Mountain Fire members!” Jiang Feng clung to Huo Ye’s leg, trying to stop him.

“Then you go kill calamities. I’ll be right back. Today’s special training is paused—I’m going to personally cut down those two who dared to ambush me,” Huo Ye said darkly, his face grim.

“How can I possibly handle a swarm of bloodwing mole crickets alone? It’d be fine if I were fire-type, but I’m not! Boss, didn’t you say you’d help me get stronger? You can’t just leave me!” Jiang Feng shouted.

Everyone thought Jiang Feng’s shameless begging was unnecessary. With Huo Ye’s personality, no matter who you are, he’d only do what he wanted.

Unexpectedly, Huo Ye glanced back at Jiang Feng, sighed, and said, “Alright, we’ll deal with them when we meet. After all, I’m your leader. Oh? They’ve already killed a bunch? 163? B-rank calamities are easy to kill. Trying to outpace us with fire’s mowing speed? Stand here and don’t move. First, we’ll even the score.”

Having received the intel from his interface, Huo Ye said this to Jiang Feng.

Instantly, Huo Ye entered battle mode. Drawing dual blades, he took a powerful stride forward, assuming a starting pose. His taut muscles revealed the explosive power within. As he breathed, the air pressure around him shifted, as if the half-meter radius around him no longer belonged to this world but was his own playground. His whole body was like a drawn bow; when the string released, it would unleash unstoppable force.

On his third breath, Huo Ye’s ability reached its peak. Every nerve was saturated with dark energy. He murmured, “Falling Slash of the Setting Sun, Hundred-Stream Breaks the Stormwind.”

With a thunderous boom, Huo Ye seemed to launch forward. The ground beneath him cracked, leaving a silver line tracing his charge across the scorching earth.

Twenty seconds later, Huo Ye returned to Jiang Feng at a speed barely visible to the naked eye. Opening his interface, he proudly said, “243 to 207—we’re a bit ahead. Let’s go, keep hunting calamities.”

Shen Jiewen was flustered. Huo Ye had moved too fast; manual camera control couldn’t keep up. She had no choice but to replay earlier footage during a lull.

“Next, let’s slow down and replay Huo Ye’s action,” she said, slowing the footage to 0.1x speed.

At this slow pace, Huo Ye’s legs still moved so fast they nearly disappeared. His dual blades were clenched tightly and dragged behind him. Upon spotting the large swarm of bloodwing mole crickets, he suddenly bent both knees and slid on his knees into the midst of the calamities. His blades spread like the wings of a giant eagle, dark energy extending the length of the blades.

Relying on the momentum of his charge, Huo Ye sliced through the entire swarm in just three seconds—like a scythe cutting down a field of weeds. Since the bloodwing mole crickets were low to the ground and required careful angle for attacks, Huo Ye’s knee-slide lowered his height, effortlessly finishing them off in one stroke. The air filled with shattered limbs and fragments of calamities.

Because the crickets were flat-bodied, Huo Ye’s horizontal slashes left almost no survivors. Occasionally, a lucky half-escaped one was finished off when Huo Ye circled back on his return.

Twenty seconds total: seventeen for the round trip, three to kill the calamities. What kind of monster was this?