Chapter 48: Championship

Chapter 48: Championship

By the time the first elimination round ended, Xu Shaoen's palms were slick with cold sweat without him even realizing it.

Every attack from his opponent made his heart clench, but thankfully Pei Ju wasn't hurt—otherwise, he probably wouldn't have been able to eat for the rest of the day.

Pei Ju secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

At least he hadn't made a fool of himself in front of Xu Shaoen.

He didn't immediately hug him, since his body reeked of blood. He didn't want his sweet, soft little cake to pick up someone else's scent.

But Xu Shaoen didn't care at all. He shot over like a little cannonball and slammed into his arms.

"You were amazing!" Xu Shaoen didn't skimp on the praise. He looked up, his almond-shaped eyes all watery, his lips bright red, clearly asking for a kiss.

Pei Ju couldn't help himself. He pulled Xu Shaoen in by the waist and kissed him without hesitation.

Their intimate moment was quickly caught by the eagle-eye cameras.

In an instant, cheers, whistles, and the teasing shouts of people who smelled gossip nearly drowned them out.

Xu Shaoen wasn't the shy-omega type. His excitement matched the arena's fever pitch, so he didn't hesitate. He boldly looped his arms around Pei Ju's neck and deepened the kiss.

This sweet scene drew cheers from the crowd but stung Ling Su's eyes.

How could they be so lovey-dovey?

Even if the big shot's emotions only slipped out for a second, plenty of people skilled at reading faces would pick up on it.

Even though Ling Su didn't say a word, the Alpha sitting beside him quietly called over his subordinates after he left. After a few orders, the event organizer got the message loud and clear.

He glanced at the up-and-coming newcomer, a hint of apology in his eyes.

Looks like Pei Ju's next matches were about to get even harder.

**

To line up with the Star Gate's opening, the next three days of matches were packed tight.

The winners barely had time to catch their breath before being rushed back into the ring.

As luck would have it, Pei Ju drew the two guys who'd been standing on the higher stone platforms during the elimination round.

"This newbie's got the worst luck!"

As soon as the matchups were announced, the crowd started buzzing.

The survival round was supposed to be about luck—pairs fought to pick the top five, then the final four battled for the top two, and the lucky bastard who got a bye after round one advanced automatically.

Not only did Pei Ju not get a bye, both his opponents were this year's top title contenders.

"Looks like the newbie's got a slim shot. Even if he scrapes by, his mental energy will be mostly drained by the time he faces the beasts! He might even get ganged up on by the other two Alphas and end up badly hurt, forced to drop out."

The crowd shook their heads. In the official betting pool, his odds were the worst.

But it was a clever boost for live-stream ratings. Out of the eight sub-arenas across the whole garbage galaxy, Kenter City's event quietly shot to number one in viewership.

Pei Ju wasn't bothered. So what if he had to face two A+ rank Alphas?

Sure, in the garbage galaxy, that rank made them big shots, but at Dome Military Academy, double-A physique and mental strength were just the bare minimum.

If he was scared of these two Alphas, then back on the Imperial Capital Star, where all the Alphas around Xu Shaoen were S-rank, was he supposed to shake in his boots and beg for mercy?

Pei Ju didn't think rank was everything, but in a world ruled by powerful Alphas, he had to get strong to protect the people he cared about.

Pei Ju didn't show an ounce of fear. His strength, skill, and footwork crushed those prejudices, and win after win proved to everyone that he wasn't weak—he was flat-out powerful.

After tossing another opponent out of the ring, Pei Ju's hair was barely mussed, and his clothes didn't even have a drop of blood on them.

He wasn't into tormenting his opponents. As long as they didn't run their mouths like Batna, he wouldn't beat them to a pulp.

Xu Shaoen was at the foot of the stage, clutching his chest.

His heart was pounding. The guy who used to worry about Pei Ju getting hurt every time he fought was now watching from the stands, totally hyped.

"Pei Ju! Pei Ju!" He cheered with the crowd, looking radiant and proud, his eyes so bright they seemed to sparkle.

Ling Su had lost interest in the third match against the beasts.

"Send them the invite."

He sighed and told the head of the Security Administration, "Set it for the banquet after the championship."

**

The final match wasn't in Kenter City. Instead, they picked an abandoned planet and split it into eight arenas.

"The organizers really went all out this year!"

Netizens across the star network were amazed. This time, the championship had fenced off a huge stretch of wasteland as the battlefield!

Steel structures towered everywhere, surrounded by scrapped mechs, running sewage, and dead trees.

Picking this spot for the finals was also meant to remind people in this galaxy to wake up to the importance of protecting the environment.

But changing the battleground meant the contestants would face even more dangerous conditions.

All the gladiators looked grim. They sat on the starship, none of them in the mood to talk.

For the final match, they were allowed to bring weapons—but just one short blade. What they had to face, though, were insect beasts in numbers too huge to count.

"This event's looking a little dangerous."

The other two Alphas who'd scraped through the survival round were old hands at the arena.

Before, they'd faced single big monsters. Now, in this terrifying junkyard, the format had switched to an individual points competition.

Killing different ranks of insect beasts earned corresponding points, ranging from 1 to 10,000.

Who knew what terrifying monstrosity that 10,000-point one was!

They also had to be wary of small insect beasts that could appear at any moment. These creatures came in all varieties, some even venomous. One misstep could easily spell disaster.

Although the organizers claimed they had the best medical teams on standby, no one dared to let their guard down.

Pei Ju was also pondering why the plot had changed like this.

Because of his intervention, the last scumbag love interest hadn't even had a chance to appear before being written out.

Could it be that the plan was to take him out and then deliver Xu Shaoen to that person's side?

Pei Ju narrowed his eyes, leisurely wiping the issued short blade with a piece of flannel.

There was no way he was letting that happen!

Pei Ju and the other two gladiators were dropped into a concrete jungle of steel, surrounded by abandoned factories, standing on the rooftops.

"This competition uses a points system: S-class insect beasts are worth 10,000 points, A-class 1,000, B-class 100, and C-class 1 point. You can hunt insect beasts of any level, and you score points based on the energy cores you dig out. Whoever kills the S-class insect beast automatically wins, but if you don't get lucky and manage to catch it, your final rank comes down to your total points."

After the rules were announced, the three stood on the rooftop and started hashing out a plan.

A wiry, dark-skinned guy fixed his eyes on Pei Ju and asked, "Should we split up or stay together?"

If they split up, running into that S-class beast solo would probably get you killed, but if they stayed together, it'd be tough to outscore each other.

The other guy, a big muscular dude, looked uneasy, scratching his head, not daring to say much.

Pei Ju could tell those two already knew each other and picked up on the dark-skinned guy's wariness of him.

"Let's split up then. If things get too hairy, we can call for backup—sound good?"

Pei Ju left it open-ended, in case one of them ran into a beast first and, out of pride, kept quiet about it, which would seriously up the odds of dying.

"Okay, we'll meet back up if we spot an A-class or S-class beast." The dark-skinned man let out a relieved breath. He checked his terminal; the number of beasts nearby was already climbing, which meant the organizers had already started letting them loose.

"Then it's every man for himself!"

The three split up, but two of them just happened to "bump into" each other again, and the Star Network erupted with criticism.

"That guy's shady—he knows Pei Ju's too strong and would out-hunt him any day, so he snuck off and teamed up with the other guy!"

"But hey, it's a strategy—playing dirty to win isn't totally wrong!"

While everyone was going back and forth over the dark-skinned guy's move, Pei Ju had already quietly extended his psychic sense and started scanning the area he'd been assigned.

Back on that deserted island, he could only sense about twenty miles out, but now his psychic sense spread out like fog, creeping all the way to the arena's edge without a sound.

Crew members were still hauling in cages and letting the beasts loose.

Through his psychic sense, most of these beasts showed up as red or green—weak, low-level stuff; they were just camouflage for the real threat hiding among them.

Then a deep purple blip, heavy and dark as stone, came rolling out through the tunnel.

If his senses weren't lying, that thing was definitely S-class.

Its whole body had a rusty, corroded look, so it blended right into the trash-strewn dump without sticking out at all.

Pei Ju's senses locked onto it instantly. The beast seemed to feel the threat, and the second it was free, it dove into the garbage and disappeared.

Pei Ju crept forward, step by step, carefully closing in on where the S-class beast was hiding.

On the way, he casually took out a few C- and B-class beasts, but steered clear of the A-class ones for now.

So his score fell way behind the two guys working as a team.

But he wasn't worried—those low-tier beasts were chump change and wouldn't change the outcome. Today, he had one goal: that slippery S-class beast.

His psychic sense slowly zeroed in on the creature's trail. Unlike those slow, clumsy little worms you could slice open with a knife, this thing had clearly evolved way further.

Pei Ju finally got a full look at it, and the tiny drone cameras hovering around him caught the species on film:

It was a mutant devil's flower mantis!

It wasn't the usual black-and-gray. Its whole body was blackish-purple, and in the sunlight it gleamed with a metallic blue-purple shine—that exoskeleton was rock solid.

It was like a souped-up version of the one from the arena—razor-sharp mouthparts, scythe-like forelegs, and those watchful compound eyes.

"No way, it's that thing! The organizers really spared no expense! How'd the detention center let it out?"

Someone started explaining where this S-class beast came from.

A safety inspector was doing a routine sweep of Karman Planet when he stumbled onto a devil's flower mantis nest. The squad wasn't ready, and a swarm of devil's flower mantises hit them hard. They fought like hell, but only three out of the whole hunting team made it out alive.

The other four, all A-class alphas, died under this S-class mantis's scythes! The two other A-class mantises captured alive were later sent to the arena, while this one was locked away in the detention facility and never seen again.

At the time, the hunting squad had even used particle beam guns, but now the contestants only had a short blade—how could they possibly compete?

"The organizers never intended for Pei Ju to win this match, did they? There's only one option now: avoid this mantis and focus on hunting other A-class beasts to rack up points. The gap isn't too wide yet—catching up is still possible."

Some fans, frantic with worry, pulled up footage of previous battles and wished they could jump into the screen to warn him: "Run! Go somewhere else! You can't kill this insect beast alone!"

Pei Ju couldn't see the Star Network's barrage comments, but he instinctively sensed the danger.

The insect beast's exoskeleton was as hard as steel. It drooled saliva as its scythes deftly sliced open an A-class insect beast's abdomen, then buried its head to feast—a gruesome scene.

This devil's flower mantis was the king of its kind, and having lived on this garbage planet for so many years, its internal organs were likely saturated with toxins. It might very well spray venom during battle, making it hard to defend against.

He sent a message to his two companions about finding the S-class insect beast. The burly man instinctively wanted to go help, but the dark-skinned man grabbed him: "Are you crazy? That's an S-class devil's flower mantis! Don't you know its history?"

The dark-skinned man, named Ding Feng, had joined the Saint Louis Guild and was one of their contracted streamers.

Yesterday, he had received clear intel: focus on hunting A-class insect beasts early in the competition and avoid provoking that S-class one.

Now it was clear—the intel was accurate. This insect beast wasn't released for them to hunt; it was released to hunt them.

A chill ran through Ding Feng. He knew this was likely a trap set specifically for that newcomer.

After all, they had signed life-and-death waivers—anything could happen on the battlefield.

They had no grudge against the organizers and were streamers helping promote the event, so why would they be targeted?

There was only one truth.

This newcomer definitely had someone high up wishing for his death!

So today, even at the risk of being criticized, he had to stay away from Pei Ju and also stop his partner from rushing to his death!

"Winning the championship is secondary—what matters is staying alive!"

He and this man had both fought their way up from the bottom, and there was a certain camaraderie between them. The dark-skinned man wiped his short blade clean and said coldly, "As for that Pei Ju, he should know his limits. With his strength, if he can't win, he can at least avoid."

He wouldn't throw his life away for nothing.

Call him cold-hearted if you will, but there was no way he was going to save Pei Ju!

Seeing his companion's firm resolve, the burly man sighed and continued hunting for A-class insect beasts in silence.

The message he sent received no reply, and Pei Ju knew his two companions wouldn't be coming.

He stood quietly behind cover, following along, assessing this insect beast's combat capabilities.

Its shell was as hard as steel, and it was venomous all over—a mere short blade would never be enough to fully break through.

If he poured mental energy into it and engaged in close combat, there was still hope of victory.

But the mantis's scythes and mouthparts were too lethal; it would be best to bind it from a distance.

Pei Ju thought for a moment, then silently turned and left. The Star Network audience, who had been holding their breath with racing hearts, were left disappointed.

"That's it? You waited in ambush all that time and did nothing? Total waste!"

"Sure, keeping his skin intact matters more! But without killing the insect beast, there's no way his score beats the other two's!"

The other two had already formed a tacit alliance, clearly planning to credit all the beasts one killed to the other's score. How could Pei Ju possibly take on two of them by himself?

But they soon realized Pei Ju wasn't wandering aimlessly—he was hunting insect beasts too, but he was being very selective about it. And when he found them, he didn't kill them right away—he collected them for something else.

"What's he grabbing all those King Kong silkworms for?"

These bugs had almost no offensive power—they just squirmed and sprayed sticky, clingy silk that was gross as hell.

Moreover, King Kong silkworms were C-grade insect beasts worth only one point each. Everyone figured they weren't worth the effort, so they were crawling all over the place.

But Pei Ju didn't mind the hassle. He strung the silkworms together in a row, their silk trailing behind him—impossible to miss.

Once he'd collected enough silkworms, he started tracking the devil's flower mantis.

The S-grade insect beast moved incredibly fast. Clearly, it didn't get out much and treated the arena like an all-you-can-eat buffet, chowing down happily.

Pei Ju cloaked himself in mental energy and crept quietly toward the beast.

The creature's mental senses were just as sharp. Spotting the pile of silkworms nearby and imagining their soft, chewy texture, it drooled and closed in fast.

Pei Ju tossed out one silkworm after another, and the devil's flower mantis happily gobbled them up, so thrilled it nearly flapped its wings.

"No way, is Pei Ju moonlighting as a zookeeper?" The Star Network went wild seeing the two of them not fighting but getting along just fine.

"I bet he's totally given up, just waiting for the beast to eat its fill while the match winds down. Don't hold your breath, folks—there's no twist coming. Go brush your teeth and hit the sack!"

"The cutie feeding the mantis is adorable though! I don't care, I'm here for the face—even if he's a bit of a coward, I'm staying till the very end!"

The Star Network was buzzing with theories, but Pei Ju stayed incredibly patient.

Finally, someone figured out his plan: "Wait, is he trying to trip the beast up with that silk?"

Since the King Kong silkworms moved so slowly, the devil's flower mantis ate them in a set order, and before it realized, silver threads had tangled around its legs. It could still move, but its speed had clearly dropped.

Pei Ju hid quietly behind a steel barrier. As the devil's flower mantis bent down to eat, he leaped up, condensing his mental energy into a steel needle and firing it at the back of its head.

It was the same trick he'd used on Chen Li, back when he'd used an S-grade energy stone and a tranquilizer gun—one hit had left the S-grade alpha completely paralyzed.

Pei Ying had also taught him that every beast's weak spot was the back of the head. If you damaged the brainstem, the beast would go into a frenzy fast, making it easy to exploit its openings.

His judgment was spot on. With that decisive strike, the mental-energy needle sank into the devil's flower mantis's skull, and it immediately hissed in fury, whipping its head around to pinpoint the source of the mental fluctuation.

Pei Ju was busted.

His heart seized as he ducked behind the barrier, but the devil's flower mantis was no slouch either. It spread its wings and lunged, spraying venom from its mouthparts in a torrent that turned the whole field black.

The screech of metal on metal was grating.

Blood splattered—bright red—and everyone's hearts jumped into their throats: was Pei Ju dead?!

Even slowed down, it was still an S-grade beast!

But then more green blood sprayed, and as the toxic mist cleared, the one on the ground wasn't Pei Ju at all—

The devil's flower mantis's head was half cut off, its abdomen ripped open, thick green blood and guts spilling everywhere.

And the black mist churned, slowly sinking into Pei Ju's mental sea.

The crowd gasped. So that wasn't just the devil's flower mantis's venom—it was mostly Pei Ju's own mental energy made manifest.

A dense black fog brimming with immense mental power.

In the middle of the black mist, Pei Ju's face looked cold and hard. He raised the short blade the organizers had issued, twirled it with a flourish, and split the beast's skull clean open.

A gorgeous phantom-purple energy core lay nestled inside.

The second he claimed it, his score jumped from 0 to 10,000.

His terminal flashed green, signaling he'd automatically won the championship match.

Pei Ju smiled slightly and stood up.

He wasn't unscathed. His pure black combat suit had been slashed open by the sharp scythes, exposing his lean forearms and taut abs.

He wasn't the soft, delicate pretty boy Bart had mocked. On the contrary, his smooth muscle lines were chiseled like stone, and his forearms were solid. The gash from the beast's scythe bled freely—far from hurting his looks, it gave him a rugged, battle-worn appeal that pulled at the heartstrings.

Pei Ju wiped the wound on his forearm, frowned, and ripped off a strip of fabric to wrap it.

He hadn't expected an S-grade beast to move that fast. Even restricted, it had still slashed his forearm and abdomen.

Remembering the promise he'd made before leaving today, Pei Ju felt a pang of guilt—his little kitty might cry golden tears again.

But before he could sigh in relief, a louder shriek rang out behind him—another devil's flower mantis!

Dodging on pure instinct, Pei Ju grabbed a nearby discarded mech part and hurled it, the impact with the mantis ringing out with a sharp metallic clang.

Pei Ju recognized it as the A-grade beast they'd seen in the arena. So it had been thrown in here too?

Maybe because Pei Ju was covered in mantis blood, this A-grade mantis went all out, leaving him no chance to set up a plan. It spread its wings and came at him.

Pei Ju twisted back to dodge, his mental energy flaring out in an instant, rippling into a visible wave.

"A mental field! Is he on the verge of S-grade?"

A professor from Sama Prime's combat academy was also watching the livestream. With sharp eyes, he immediately realized Pei Ju's mental energy was about to break through to A-grade!

Everyone knew the entire planet had only one S-grade—the Governor, Ling Su—which was exactly why no alpha could challenge his authority on Sama Prime!

Was Sama Prime about to gain another S-grade powerhouse?

But the field only lasted a moment. As Pei Ju held the devil's flower mantis in place, the instant it froze, he instinctively pulled all his mental energy back and channeled it into his short blade.

He hurled the blade skyward, it whistled through the air toward the devil's flower mantis, and before the beast's leaping form could land, it was sliced clean in two.

Pei Ju was breathing hard. The gash on his abdomen had torn wider from the strain. He clutched his stomach, stumbling a step as he got up.

But the Star Network was dead silent. No one mocked his brief moment of weakness, because everyone knew the devil's flower mantis was famous across the galaxy for its insane speed. The fact that Pei Ju could react so fast in that split second of relaxation after beating an S-grade beast was proof enough of his terrifying combat skill.

They didn't get mental fields, but the doubters shut up, leaving only a chorus of awed gasps.

Compared to that S-level beast of unfathomable strength, this devil's flower mantis had shown up more than once, and they'd all seen plenty of powerful alphas bite the dust against it. Yet Pei Ju took it out in one hit—that kind of strength was way beyond anything they, as mere onlookers, could second-guess.

Pei Ju caught his breath and casually scooped out the second mantis's energy core.

One big, one small—just right to make a matching pair of rings as keepsakes.

With the couple rings secured, Pei Ju was in high spirits. He spotted the livestream micro-camera and winked right at it, knowing Xu Shaoen was definitely watching.

Xu Shaoen had been watching Pei Ju's injuries with a knot in his stomach, but seeing him still had the energy to goof off, he finally let out a breath.

He stepped away from the broadcast area, only to be stopped by an alpha he didn't recognize.

"Congratulations to you both."

The guy's expression was tight and rueful, like he'd just screwed something up.

Xu Shaoen figured that made sense—after all, S-level and A-level beast energy cores were serious loot. By the rules, they all belonged to Pei Ju now, so the organizers had to be feeling the pinch, right?

The man handed over an invitation.

"I'm the event organizer. I heard you and His Excellency Pei Ju are a couple, so I'd like to extend an invitation for you to join tonight's championship banquet as well."

Xu Shaoen took the invitation. Since the competition was held on another planet, they wouldn't be able to see each other right away tonight.

But if he went to the championship banquet, wouldn't he get to see him immediately?

Xu Shaoen nodded to the alpha. "Sure, I'll be there on time."

==========Author's Note:==========

Two-in-one! Extra chunky today!

20 red envelopes randomly dropped! Thanks for the support!