My starting summon is a small skeleton-Chapter 135: Day 1 of the Competition

At the high school Alliance competition’s opening ceremony, Jiang Yuexing didn’t stay long. After a brief speech, she hurriedly left, looking especially busy.

But that’s normal, since she’s the Governor, effectively the top authority of Jiangnan Province. She truly has a busy schedule.

However, once Jiang Yuexing left, the opening ceremony lost a lot of its color, even becoming completely uninteresting.

On the stage were just some boring old men speaking.

Lu Wu could only distract himself with daydreaming, pondering: "Should I take first place, or should I take first place?"

In the midst of Lu Wu’s daydreaming, the opening finally ended after the last boring old man finished his speech.

"Finally over. These old men can really talk, going on for two hours. Let’s go eat and energize. The competition starts in the afternoon!"

Saying so, Lu Wu stood up, stretched lazily, and prepared to leave the first arena with Dudu and the others, but before they had gone far, they were stopped.

Stopping him were two girls, one with short hair who looked particularly capable, and the other seemed to be flat as an airport despite her wealthy background.

Lu Wu immediately recognized the two as teammates of the Hengheng Monster.

Well, speak of the devil and he shall appear.

The guy pushed his way through his two teammates and menacingly threatened Lu Wu, "Hmph, Lu Wu, don’t let me encounter you in the competition, or I’ll definitely make you cry!"

After speaking, the Hengheng Monster skillfully turned around and walked away, swaying her ponytail.

Lu Wu was already used to this kind of scene, but he was curious why the Hengheng Monster’s two teammates hadn’t left yet.

The Hengheng Monster herself was a bit confused. After walking a few steps, she realized her teammates weren’t following and looked back.

Just in time to see her two teammates pull out their phones and close in on Lu Wu.

"Handsome brother, let’s be friends!"

"If you add me as a friend, I’ll go easy on you in the competition!"

The Hengheng Monster’s face turned green with anger.

These two traitors, who seemingly forgot their humanity at the sight of the opposite sex, had just promised to back her up, goading her into this confrontation, claiming it was to stand by her side.

The Hengheng Monster was quite moved at the time, only to realize that these two had been plotting this all along.

What infuriated the Hengheng Monster even more was that Lu Wu actually accepted their request.

After adding them, he even smiled at her, nearly sending the Hengheng Monster into a rage-induced illness as she huffed and stormed off.

Having teased the Hengheng Monster, Lu Wu’s mood suddenly improved quite a bit.

But Lu Wu’s good mood soon turned sour when, while exiting the venue, he bumped into one of the three big teams seated in the first row earlier.

There was no conflict, but the encounter took place just outside the first arena.

The other team was retrieving their Summoned Beasts, and during this process, Lu Wu saw the attributes of their Summoned Beasts, which made his brows furrow enough to kill a mosquito.

Lu Wu’s gaze and frown also caught the attention of the other team.

But they didn’t pay him any mind, glancing over Lu Wu and his team and then striding away.

There was no nod, no smile, not even a flicker in their eyes, as if they were looking at something as inconsequential as small fish or extras in a play.

This just couldn’t stand with Lu Wu.

He silently vowed not to let himself meet this team!

Otherwise, he was sure to give them a beating they wouldn’t forget.

However, thoughts sometimes just shouldn’t be voiced, not even silently to oneself.

No sooner had Lu Wu determinedly thought this than he ran into this very team again that afternoon.

The high school Alliance provincial competition had this structure:

During the preliminaries, 84 teams were divided into two groups, 42 teams each!

The two groups competed separately. These matches weren’t elimination rounds but were based on a point system.

Every team in the group played one match. Winning against a team added one point, while there were no points for losing.

After a round, the four teams with the highest points from each group advanced to the top eight.

Lu Wu’s team was placed in Group A with the team they had met that morning.

And their team numbers were perilously close—Lu Wu’s team was Group A 042, while the other was Group A 001.

One at the top, one at the bottom.

It looked distant, but in fact, it was very close because Lu Wu’s team’s first match was against them.

This was somewhat awkward.

Even though Lu Wu might be holding back internally after having glimpsed the other team’s Summoned Beast Attributes, he was well aware that his own team was not likely to win, at least not yet.

Even if they struggled through, it would surely end in mutual defeat.

With the matches so closely scheduled—one had to play at least three matches a day—coming out of one match battered would make the following matches even tougher.

So, Lu Wu was quite troubled.

However, he was troubled only momentarily before quickly coming to a decision—to let them have their way for now.

After all, it was just the preliminaries; there was no need to get into a life-or-death struggle right away.

He’d bide his time, saving a surprise for the finals.

This was the decision Lu Wu made in just three seconds after seeing information about the opponent.

However, this decision was known only to him and his teammates.

Others weren’t clear about the facts, so there was considerable interest in the upcoming match that Lu Wu and his team were about to play.

Whether it was the Hengheng Monsters that had been bullied in the morning or others paying attention to the three out-of-province teams, once they saw that Lu Wu’s seeded team was arranged to play against the out-of-province team in the first match, everyone without a match during that time slot came to the venue to watch.

Even those who truly couldn’t make it were following the battle on the official website.

Everyone understood that neither Lu Wu’s team nor the out-of-province 001 team would fight to the death in the opening battle.

But since both teams were seeded, there should be something worth watching.

Who would have known, as they eagerly awaited the start of Lu Wu’s match, what they got was Lu Wu’s team admitting defeat.

This result blew many people’s minds on the spot!

The competitors themselves were okay with this, as they could understand the choice made by Lu Wu’s team at this point.

To avoid the limelight in the early stage of the preliminaries was a very rational choice.

But the game’s spectators weren’t just competitors; the high school league, one of the most influential competitions, could be said to engage the heart of the entire Alliance.

According to statistics, nearly ten million people were online watching the Jiangnan Province official website at the start of the match, with over a million following Lu Wu’s match.

Updat𝓮d fr𝙤m ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com.

After all, this was the first direct confrontation between Jiangnan Province and the out-of-province Plucking Peach Team.

The submission by Lu Wu’s team displeased many, with plenty of internet trolls spraying their criticism online immediately.

"How can team 042 do this? How can they admit defeat without even fighting?"

"Preserving power doesn’t mean you do it like this, this is too shameful for Jiangnan!"

"To think they are a seeded team, they have no backbone whatsoever!"

…

At the venue, the Hengheng Monster was particularly unhappy.

Since she hadn’t gotten the chance to fight Lu Wu during the preliminaries due to not being grouped with him, she could only come over hoping to see someone make Lu Wu cry.

Instead, she witnessed such loneliness.

This made the Hengheng Monster very upset.

What made the Hengheng Monster even more upset was that after she rushed back to play her own match, earning one point, and then hurried over to watch Lu Wu’s second match,

she had just arrived when the referee announced the end of the second match, with Lu Wu’s team admitting defeat again.

This time, Lu Wu’s team faced a top-tier seeded team from Jiangnan Province, the one that had been sitting in the front row earlier.

Thus, the Hengheng Monster once again didn’t get to see Lu Wu take a beating.

This made the Hengheng Monster particularly upset.

What made her even more upset was that when she logged into the official website to check Lu Wu’s third match, she saw a considerable number of comments trolling Lu Wu.

This she should have been happy about.

But for some reason, she just couldn’t feel happy looking at those comments.

She couldn’t help but think of her own ranking being suppressed by Lu Wu in the Underground Cave, and now, seeing Lu Wu being sprayed with criticism, Hengheng Monster felt as if she had been offended as well.

So, the Hengheng Monster was all worked up, and unusually, she hoped Lu Wu would pull himself together.

Maybe make a strong showing in the third match and impress everyone.

If Lu Wu could make a spectacular comeback and they happened to meet in the finals, it would bring her even more of a sense of accomplishment if she could make Lu Wu cry.

The Hengheng Monster specifically checked, and Lu Wu’s third opponent was no longer a top-tier seeded team, but an Ordinary one.

This time, that guy couldn’t just admit defeat again, right?

He had to actually play at least once, right?

It couldn’t be like the last two times where he didn’t appear, could it?

Well, Lu Wu responded to the Hengheng Monster’s expectation, finally stepping onto the stage amidst the online jeering for the third match.

But as soon as Lu Wu entered the stage and saw the Summoned Beast of his third match opponent, he couldn’t help but scowl.

He felt like slapping himself from that morning; talk about a jinx, he really did encounter a dark horse.

This horse was so dark it was almost turning purple!

However, this time Lu Wu didn’t immediately admit defeat but tested the waters.

He wanted to see if the opponent would, like himself, consider holding back and admit defeat straight away.

But not testing would have made Lu Wuyi almost spew a mouthful of blood; the opponent timidly expressed that if their opponent was Lu Wu’s team, they still felt that they could try and have a fight.

Lu Wu’s face turned dark immediately.

What did that mean? Looking down on him, Lu Wu, were they?

Thinking he, Lu Wu, wasn’t up to the task, huh?

Did they really believe he wouldn’t stop playing nice and just smack them around?

However, reason eventually prevailed, and Lu Wu, rubbing his nose, declared that it hadn’t been easy for their Ordinary team to get this far, and as a seeded team, it was their responsibility and duty to look out for the Ordinary teams.

Yes, that’s right!

After a speech full of high-sounding words, Lu Wu admitted defeat once again, completing a three-loss streak on the first day!

The moment Lu Wu conceded defeat, the Hengheng Monster was so frustrated she almost jumped up.

However, the captain of one of the three out-of-province teams—the one who had shared a smile with Lu Wu earlier—watching through the network squinted her eyes.

On Lu Wu’s side, when he checked his opponent for the next day, his face darkened a bit; it was another seeded team.