The next day.
November 3rd.
Shengshui High School.
The moment Qiao Sang stepped into Training Ground No. 1, she saw Wang Yao, Shi Gaofeng, Xu Yixuan, He Datao, and others crowding around Zhang Dezhou. They seemed to be in the middle of a heated argument, while Zhang Dezhou wore an expression of utter grievance.
"What are you all talking about?" Qiao Sang asked as she walked forward.
Zhang Dezhou looked over, and seeing that it was Qiao Sang, his eyes instantly reddened.
Like a bullied female lead in a melodramatic school drama, looking aggrieved yet struggling to hold back tears, he shouted, "It wasn't me!"
Qiao Sang was stunned.
What happened?
"What wasn't you?" Qiao Sang asked, bewildered.
"The person who posted and sold information about you wasn't me!" Zhang Dezhou cried out in grief and indignation.
He recalled the events of last night and early this morning; the more he thought about it, the more stifled he felt.
Being a substitute was one thing, but when he returned for evening self-study yesterday, he had been approached by several groups of people in turns, all asking the same question: whether his ID was "Genius-Again-Again-Again-Mu."
At first, he didn't understand, but later he found out that this ID belonged to the "Shengshui Traitor" who had been selling information about Qiao Sang in posts some time ago.
The moment he realized that the internet was claiming he was the owner of that ID, Zhang Dezhou felt as if his face were covered in question marks.
What the hell?
Who the fuck spread this rumor!
Was he, Zhang Dezhou, the kind of person to betray his teammates!
He had spent half the night explaining himself, only for some people to give him looks of "I understand," which nearly drove him to a breakdown.
He had finally managed to get some sleep and feel a bit better, only to be interrogated by the school team members the moment he arrived at the training ground this morning!
The only consolation was that Xu Yixuan and He Datao were relatively clear-headed and believed him.
Still, Zhang Dezhou felt deeply wronged. He had been bottling it up, and the moment he saw Qiao Sang, his emotions overflowed.
In all seriousness, although he had been relegated to a substitute, he genuinely admired Qiao Sang's strength and didn't want the party involved to misunderstand him as well.
"I know it wasn't you," Qiao Sang said.
This single sentence left Zhang Dezhou stunned.
She believes me?
She actually believes me?!
Wang Yao frowned. "Qiao Sang, but based on the analysis, he is the most likely person in our school to have sold your information."
"That's because you don't know Zhang Dezhou," Xu Yixuan said. "His strength might not be great, but his character is fine. His grades have always been consistently among the bottom few in the class, but even so, he has never cheated."
"And another thing!" He Datao added from the side. "Analyzing that post from Litan Beast Taming High School isn't something Zhang Dezhou would do. He's the type to just go to other schools' posts and start cursing directly; he couldn't possibly be that brainy!"
Zhang Dezhou's mouth twitched. The gratitude he felt for these two vanished, replaced by a desire to just say "heh."
Shi Gaofeng spoke up with dissatisfaction, "What's wrong with being in the bottom few of the class? Who gets into Shengshui High School without having a brain?"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Dezhou looked over, surprised and somewhat touched.
The two locked eyes, understanding each other's meaning with a single glance.
*Brother, I didn't expect you to be a slacker too!*
The training ground fell into a temporary silence. Then, Qiao Sang cleared her throat and suddenly spoke: "Actually, the person selling my information in those posts was me."
After saying this, she sighed inwardly. Her secret identity had been exposed, but there was no other way; she couldn't let Zhang Dezhou take the fall. Looking at the guy, he seemed like he was about to cry.
Zhang Dezhou: "!!!"
The group froze in place, completely dumbfounded.
"You sold yourself?!" After a long while, Wang Yao was the first to recover, her face full of astonishment.
"It was me," Qiao Sang scratched her head, looking embarrassed. "Think about that ID; if you put the characters together, isn't it just my name?"
Everyone: "!!!"
In fact, among the forum discussions regarding the ID "Genius-Again-Again-Again-Mu," it wasn't as if no one had pointed out that "Again-Again-Again-Mu" combined formed the character "Sang," and some had speculated if it was Qiao Sang herself.
But they had all been ruthlessly mocked by other netizens.
After all, who would be crazy enough to sell their own information?
This was the National Campus Beast Taming League!
Once a year!
Only three times in an entire high school career!
Even someone with a hole in their brain wouldn't necessarily do this, let alone someone like Qiao Sang, who gave off the vibe of not being an ordinary person at a single glance.
"Cough, it's like this. It was a day near dusk..." Qiao Sang began to recount the origin and process of the matter.
A few minutes later, Wang Yao remained silent for a moment before asking, "So there really was someone in our school selling your information, but they identified the wrong person, and you intercepted them?"
"Correct," Qiao Sang nodded.
"Then why did you specifically open a post to sell your own information afterward?" Shi Gaofeng asked, bewildered.
Qiao Sang said seriously, "Because I discovered it's incredibly profitable."
The group fell into another brief silence.
Suddenly, Xu Yixuan spoke up: "Can I have the 1,000 I spent buying information back?"
Qiao Sang: "!!!"
Good grief, she had forgotten about that!
The atmosphere in the training ground returned to its usual normalcy. Zhang Dezhou, his name cleared, chatted and laughed with everyone.
"Hahaha, I told you that you didn't seem like such a brainy person!" He Datao laughed, patting Zhang Dezhou on the shoulder.
"Get lost!"
After about twenty minutes of free training, Sun Boyi and Zheng Guoping walked in.
"Everyone stop for a moment, I have an announcement," Sun Boyi said. "After morning training, we'll head to Hongrao Town in Shanglong County after lunch."
"The sophomores come with me to the Pet Training Base in the Jiudu District," Zheng Guoping added.
Hearing this, Qiao Sang was not surprised at all.
When she learned the competition locations yesterday, she had looked them up; Huicheng Beast Taming High School was located in Hongrao Town, Shanglong County.
This competition site was relatively close.
After the preliminary rounds came the main tournament stage, which was divided into group stages and knockout stages.
The group stage used a single round-robin format. The 576 contestants who advanced from each grade level in the preliminaries would be divided into 16 groups, with 36 people per group.
During the group stage, only 18 slots per group would advance.
Based on points, those with similar strength levels would be separated during allocation, meaning a single group would contain both top-ranked and bottom-ranked players.
At this stage, the competition venues for the contestants would be scattered across various locations within the province.
Hongrao Town was at least still within Hanggang City, while some distant venues were in other cities.
Furthermore, the venues and competition times for the first, second, and third-year students were generally staggered; for instance, the main tournament for the first-years had already begun today.
"Hongrao Town, huh? I heard there's a legendary person there who won the lottery jackpot three times," Xu Yixuan suddenly recalled a news story she had seen recently and remarked.
"How big were the prizes?" He Datao asked curiously.
Qiao Sang remained indifferent on the side.
Lottery news like this was far too common; it was designed to trigger people's gambling instincts, making them think they could also win big so they would buy tickets.
"One time it was ten crates of A-grade energy recovery fluid, once it was an item appraised as S-grade, and once it was a Big-Mouth Dragon egg."
Qiao Sang: "!!!"
(End of Chapter)