Nine Star Burden

Chapter 196: Who’s in First Place?

It was a morning during wintertime in Jiangbin City.

When those three words appeared, everyone could almost feel the chilly wind blowing against their faces without having to hear any description of the environment.

It was 6:30 am on a Saturday morning.

Even those who were forced into their current plight by their circumstances were unwilling to get out of their warm blankets.

One ought to laze in bed during the weekends.

However, a beautiful girl in an ordinary residence actually woke up early to dress up and left the house at 6:30 am.

Unlike most people who would put their hands in their pockets, the little beauty was holding onto a selfie stick and seemed to be conducting a live-stream.

A live-stream at 6:30 am...

Okay.

That was not the most terrifying.

The most terrifying thing was that there were actually people watching...

In this beautiful, snowy world, the girl was dressed fashionably and beautifully in a white down jacket. Her pretty face had also become a little flushed because of the cold.

Su Rou scurried towards a breakfast bistro while stepping on the snow beneath her feet.

Her large eyes were filled with tears and she was on the verge of crying because of the cold.

Countless homebodies had witnessed that scene while lying in bed and being in a daze. While being half-awake, they had many unrealistic fantasies.

It was a small breakfast bistro which was rather clean and not too crowded.

Su Rou was a regular visitor. Hence, as soon as she entered the shop, the elderly man manning the shop asked, “The usual?”

Su Rou nodded fervently like a chick and took a seat right beside the wall. She finally had time to look at the screen of her mobile phone. She said, “Fortunately, I ran fast enough. Had I stayed out any longer, my mobile phone would have shut down and run out of battery because of the cold.”

Several pop-ups appeared on the screen:

“Nonsense, your mobile phone has been charging for an entire night. You’ve only gone out for ten minutes. Why would it run out of battery and shut down?”

“You probably don’t know how harsh the winter is in the North.”

“How did you know that Pork Bun had been charging her mobile phone for an entire night?”

“I’ve been watching her sleep for the entire night. Once she goes for her meal later, I’ll wash up and go to bed.”

“Impressive...”

“What an obsessed lover!”

“Awesome!”

Su Rou looked at the pop-ups on the screen and suddenly had a peculiar feeling. Strictly speaking, she obviously wanted others to watch her sleep since she broadcast it on her live-stream.

However, when she received the response, she still felt somewhat shy.

Clearly, Su Rou was not a pretentious bitch. What was the use of feeling ashamed and embarrassed? Who would care about her pride and dignity?

Earning money was the most important.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been so active in hosting broadcasts every day and night.

Thanks to her talent and stellar results, she made it to the elite class of Jiangbin High School. Due to the people’s curiosity about the Awakened students and their admiration towards the “godly” students, Su Rou, a student from the elite class of the elite school in the city, live-streamed successfully and was getting more and more popular.

She looked at the pop-ups on the screen and finally found a topic that she wanted to talk about.

Su Rou repeated the question that was in one of the pop-ups. “The School Tyrants team of your class has already made it to semi-finals of the Beijiang Provincial High School League. Did you watch the news yesterday?”

Su Rou said, “Of course, I found out about the news yesterday. They were so suave, alright? They scored more than 2000 points! The team in second place only scored more than 900 points! Apart from the team from our class, none of the participating teams scored more than a thousand points!”

Sensing Su Rou’s excitement, the viewers sent more and more pop-up messages.

“The truth has proven that the School Tyrants from Jiangbin High School will really excel without Gao Junwei.”

“I watched the paid rebroadcast yesterday. When Goddess Xue opened her Sky Smasher and Brother Li moved all of the weapons out, the classmates and referee beside me were all dumbfounded. Haha.”

“Haha, yeah, I saw it too. Xia Yan looked rather interesting when she shook the backpack too. The medals fell out of the backpack like a downpour. The members of the other participating teams were all green with envy.”

“Don’t mention it, the worst was the little toxic healer. After the scores were tabulated, he suddenly slapped his head and pulled out two red medals from his pocket, claiming that he had forgotten to take them out earlier. Isn’t that infuriating!?!”

“What do you mean? Why don’t I understand?”

“Psht... hahahaha, that red medal is an item that is worth points, and would only be found in Ape Ghoul Kings. Each medal is worth 300 points.”

“Oh my god, 300 points? I think most of the teams couldn’t even score 300 points.”

“Are you sure? This group of high school students was able to kill the Gold Quality creatures?”

“Why would I lie to you? There are footages of their first-person point of view online now. You can pay to view them.”

“Uh... forget it, I’ll just listen to the news. I’m penniless.”

“You can just rub around the edges and not enter.”

Seeing that the conversation was about to go off-topic again, Su Rou hurriedly interjected. “By the way, how do you guys feel about the character rankings that I drew up in the past few days?”

While speaking, Su Rou grabbed the millet porridge from the owner of the bistro and thanked him sweetly.

There were already plenty of pop-up messages on the screen.

“C’mon, that ranking of yours is extremely silly. My Xia Yan is only in seventh place?”

“Yeah, yeah, Xia Yan’s physical fitness is really superb. I doubt there are many who can match her this time. Why is she ranked seventh? Besides, what about Xiaopi and Li Weiyi? Surely they’re not in the top three? If they are, I’m going to go blind.”

“The two of them are in the top three? Hah, they are just functional props.”

“Uh... tools? Oh no, I’m corrupt...”

“Go to hell, why wouldn’t my majestic toxic healer be in the top three? He might just kill you with one of his Blessings!”

“Toxic healer alert!”

“He should kill you to death, you horrible old fogy!”

Su Rou shook her head continuously and said, “Don’t jump to conclusions so quickly. Hah, you guys don’t know enough yet. Don’t just look at these famous people, there are plenty of formidable ones in this cohort.”

Su Rou said, “I think Wu Haoyang from Xindan Creek High School No. 11 should be ranked third in individual combat effectiveness during the Beijiang Provincial High School League this time.”

“I know of him. He’s tall and handsome. He’d definitely garner a huge bunch of female fans if he were to star in a movie.”

“Who is he? Never heard of him.”

“The battle god from Xindan Creek High School No.11. Ever since Year Two started, he went to every school to fight and won every single one of them!”

“Damn, so impressive? He sounds really passionate and vigorous. This is what youth is...”

“Uh, don’t get me wrong, Xindan Creek is only a fourth-tier city. It’s not as big as you think.”

“That’s already impressive enough, okay? Not to mention the fourth-tier cities, if I can win every fight I pick in an eighth-tier city—no I mean, if I can win every fight in my village and never get defeated, I’ll feel proud enough.”

“...”

“Wonderful.”

Looking at the pop-up messages, Su Rou continued, “I think the second place for the overall ranking should go to Han Jiangxue from Jiangbin High School.”

As soon as Su Rou finished speaking, a strew of question marks were scattered all over the screen.

“????”

“Host, please wake up! Did you rank her in second place, just because she’s your classmate? A Rules Awakened who’s in charge of control can come in second? She doesn’t have much of an attack-output ability, alright?”

“Goddess Xue is only ranked second? She controls the Sky Smasher and she’s an invincible figure. Yet, you only ranked her in second place?”

“Damn it, you’re being a little too real, eh? It begins now.”

“Han Jiangxue? Why? Just because she has a Gold Quality Star Technique?”

“Are you guys blind? No output? Her output abilities are incredible, alright?”

“Frankly speaking, if there was really a life-and-death battle with real swords and real guns, no one in this class will be able to hold a candle to Goddess Xue.”

“Bullshit. Can’t hold a candle? Are you looking down on God Xiaopi? He’ll heal you to death.”

Su Rou munched on her pork bun, taking one small bite at a time. With a smile, she suddenly changed the topic. “I asked for leave from school tomorrow. I’ll be watching the competition with you guys at 9 am tomorrow. You’re welcome to follow and subscribe to my live-stream channel~”

“???”

“Who’s in the first place?”

“Who’s in the first place? Announce it?”

“Wow, I’m so happy to be able to watch the competition together with Pork Bun!”

“How blissful~”

“It’s so early and you’re all already online?”

Looking at the feedback on the pop-up messages, Su Rou was filled with joy. She had always wanted to take advantage of her classmates’ popularity to shoot herself to fame.

However, she thought about it again and again and chose not to broadcast the preliminary round, because she knew that it would definitely be violent and full of bloodshed. On one hand, it would be difficult to obtain permission to broadcast the competition, and on the other hand, she would easily violate the rules.

It would be different for the semi-finals, which were a proper competition with official referees, hosts, and spectators.

It was a competition that would be broadcast on national television and Su Rou could totally watch the competition together with her viewers in her live-stream.

Su Rou suddenly regretted it. She felt that she should have asked for a few more autographs from Jiang Xiao, the toxic healer, who was extremely famous and widely-raved about now.

Although the preliminary round was available for view in a paid broadcast, it was at least a provincial league, and there was still a specific audience group that was permitted to watch it. Everyone had witnessed the actions of the students from Jiangbin High School.

The topics on Weibo had been revolving around them, especially after they killed the two Ape Ghoul Kings and the large group of Ape Ghouls. The topic even reached the peak of its popularity two nights ago, causing it to be pushed up to the hot search list.

Jiang Xiao’s method of slaughtering the Ape Ghoul King was undoubtedly special.

Jiang Xiao was initially known as the “toxic healer”, but it seemed that his nickname was here to stay.

Su Rou believed that the School Tyrants would definitely attract everyone’s attention during the semi-finals of the provincial league this time. Hence, she and her classmates would definitely become even more famous.

Since she had gained some clout, she definitely couldn’t let go!

Su Rou repeated, “9 am tomorrow. Remember to be on time, everyone...”

“Ah! Damn it!”

“Hurry and tell us who’s in the first place! I’m getting so eager!”