How Do We Play If This Boss Isn't Nerfed?-Chapter 58 - 56: The All-School Grand Competition (2)
Lin Ye walked through the school gates.
He went upstairs and returned to the Class 7 senior classroom, a place he hadn’t seen in a long time.
The classroom was a cacophony of voices.
Before their homeroom teacher, Chen Meng, arrived, this group of underachievers certainly wasn’t going to study on their own.
The girls gossiped about who had confessed their feelings to whom in which class.
Their stories were met with a chorus of oohs and aahs.
The boys discussed the latest hero released in *Hero’s Throne*—whether they were top-tier or total garbage.
Then they argued incessantly over build paths and stat allocations.
Amidst this boisterous crowd, Lin Ye seemed somewhat out of place.
He was a little nostalgic for this atmosphere.
He, too, had once been a part of the noisy throng.
But nostalgia was one thing; Lin Ye would never go back to being that person.
He hadn’t forgotten the promise he’d made to Chen Meng.
Today was the day of the grand competition for all the seniors.
The uproar in the classroom ceased the moment a burly figure appeared at the door, as if an invisible hand had instantly clamped down on every voice.
In an instant, it was like someone had hit the pause button on the entire Class 7.
No one dared to speak another word.
Chen Meng had arrived.
The nickname "Mr. Chen" was no longer just an inside joke in Class 7; it was known throughout the entire senior class.
In front of this iron-fisted homeroom teacher, not a single student in Class 7 dared to act out.
Chen Meng’s gaze swept over everyone in the room like a searchlight, lingering for an extra second on Lin Ye in the corner.
"This morning is the school-wide senior grand competition."
"This afternoon, you’re off."
Chen Meng’s voice wasn’t loud, yet it reached every student’s ears with perfect clarity.
The silent classroom instantly erupted as everyone cheered for the half-day off in the afternoon.
Whistles and the sound of desks being slapped rose and fell in waves.
However, the celebration lasted less than two seconds.
A single cold glance from Chen Meng swept over them, and the students, who had just been dancing with excitement, immediately fell silent and sat up straight, as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over their heads.
"Look at you lot. Pathetic."
A disdainful sneer touched the corner of Chen Meng’s lips.
"All you can think about is that half-day off this afternoon."
"But," his tone shifted, his voice suddenly rising.
"There’s one person among you who has long been waiting for today’s stage."
"He’s going to use this stage to show everyone that he has changed!"
SWOOSH—!
Almost subconsciously, every head in the class swiveled in unison to look at Lin Ye.
Ever since Chen Meng had brought Lin Ye to crash the combat classes of Class 1 and Class 2 a week ago, all sorts of rumors about him had exploded on the school’s internal web forum.
This week, the number of posts discussing Lin Ye had even surpassed those about the school beauty and the grade’s top student.
Someone had posted a detailed account of how Lin Ye, all by himself, had successively taken down five geniuses from Class 1, including a seamless three-round gauntlet.
The post instantly blew up among the entire senior class.
Then, with countless people adding their own exaggerations and embellishments, the rumors started to become more and more outrageous.
"Did you hear? That Lin Ye from Class 7 has infinite stamina! He didn’t even break a sweat after beating five geniuses!"
"My friend in Class 2 said that guy is a total monster! Just one look from him feels like it could scare you to death!"
"The version I heard is even crazier. They said it wasn’t a spar—Lin Ye was out for blood. None of the five geniuses escaped unscathed. They all had broken arms or legs and are still laid up in the infirmary!"
Gradually, amidst these embellished legends, Lin Ye earned an extremely domineering, yet slightly terrifying, nickname.
"Demon King"!
Although he was currently only ranked tenth in the grade.
But now, in the minds of the several hundred senior students, his image was even more mysterious and frightening than that of Jiang Feng, the top-ranked student.
Even more curiously, he had gained a massive number of fans.
The vast majority of students at Dongjiang First Middle School were ordinary people, so they could more easily empathize with Lin Ye’s identity as an underdog who had risen from the bottom.
They were also happy, even eager, to see a dark horse emerge and mercilessly stomp all over the so-called "geniuses" who usually walked around with their noses in the air!
As for Lin Ye, he had reaped a huge amount of negative emotion points from this wave of strange legends sweeping the campus.
The jealousy, resentment, and bitterness from the geniuses, as well as the awe and fear from the ordinary students.
All of it had been converted into tangible rewards on his system panel.
It even allowed him to effortlessly complete the weekly mission [Infamy] without having to stir up any trouble himself.
"Today, I’m not asking for any stunning performances from you."
Chen Meng’s voice rang out again.
His gaze swept across the class, his tone carrying an authority that permitted no argument.
"But!"
"When Lin Ye gets on stage, you’d better get the atmosphere hyped up!"
"You all are going to be his mouthpieces!"
"Provoke them, heckle them, and curse them out—I want you to do it all!"
"Unleash all that energy you usually use to curse me out!"
"Show those arrogant little shits from Class 1 and Class 2, and their cheerleaders, what real pressure feels like!"
"Can you do it?!"
Chen Meng practically roared the last sentence.
"Yes!!!"
The entire class roared back a deafening response at the top of their lungs.
Their long-suppressed class pride was completely ignited in that moment!
"Lin Ye, you’re awesome! I swear I’ll be the first one to scream for you when you get on stage!"
"We’ve gotta give Ye the hype he deserves! When it comes to putting on a show, our Class 7 can’t lose!"
"Ye, go for it! Take down those fucking idiots who look down on us!"
Normally, there was plenty of minor friction and conflict among the students of Class 7.
But when it came to a collective struggle against an outside opponent, they were absolutely the most united group in the entire grade!
Lin Ye looked at the faces, red with excitement, and listened to the heartfelt cheers and encouragement, a warmth spreading through his chest.
He simply raised his right hand, made a fist, and then extended a single index finger.
1!
Everyone understood what Lin Ye meant.
Number one!
...
Soon, all several hundred senior students had gathered in the large gymnasium that was used for the last placement test.
Even though no students from other schools were participating this time, the gymnasium was still buzzing with noise, the atmosphere incredibly electric.
On the main stage, the principal, Wang Zhengguo, cleared his throat and offered a kindly smile.
"Students, please quiet down. Before the competition begins, I’d like to say a few words..."
「Half an hour later.」
Amidst a smattering of listless applause from the students below, Mr. Wang finally concluded his speech.
The school-wide grand competition officially began.
The rules for this competition were much simpler and more brutal than the last joint exam.
It was divided into two parts.
The first part was the Martial Arts Foundation Test.
It was the same old three: a striking power test, a Qi and Blood index test, and a life index test.
These were hard metrics used to evaluate each student’s growth over the past period.
And then came the moment everyone was waiting for, the real main event—the combat assessment!
The rules were extremely direct.
The top fifty students in the grade were divided into groups of ten.
For example, ranks one through ten formed the first tier, ranks eleven through twenty formed the second tier, and so on.
Within each group, opponents were randomly drawn to face off in battle.
The winner would keep their original rank.
The loser would drop directly to the bottom of their group and have to face challenges from the winners of the tier below.
But the rule that got everyone’s blood pumping was one reserved exclusively for the top students.
The Unlimited Rank-Swap Bloodbath!
For this day only, anyone with a rank higher than 20th place could issue an unlimited number of challenges to anyone on the leaderboard ranked above them!
As long as you believed you were strong enough!
As long as you had the stamina to keep going!
You could challenge your way up the ladder, all the way to the top spot in the grade!
