At this moment Cheng Sui had slipped into a state of pure flow.
The crowd, the cheers—everything vanished. In his eyes there was only Caesar, and the single thought of how to defeat him.
Attack, attack, attack!
That was the only idea in Cheng Sui's mind.
Bang!
The sound of flesh meeting flesh rang clearly in the ears of every breath-held spectator.
Yet it wasn't Cheng Sui colliding with Caesar.
Angers had appeared like a ghost between them, his aged but powerful palm catching Cheng Sui's elbow strike.
The blow had stopped barely five centimetres from Caesar's temple.
Caesar swallowed, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
If that strike had landed, he would have been bedridden for at least two or three months.
Angers casually hid his hand behind his back and smiled at Caesar. "Student Caesar, if you have no objection to the outcome, I'll announce it now."
Caesar managed a strained smile; during the fight adrenaline had masked the pain, but now his body felt as if every bone had snapped.
He walked over to Cheng Sui and said weakly, "You win."
With that, Caesar raised Cheng Sui's hand, proclaiming the final victor to the crowd.
"Cheng Sui! Cheng Sui! Cheng Sui!"
The stadium erupted in a tsunami of cheers as every spectator shouted Cheng Sui's name, as though crowning a new king.
Caesar and Angers both quietly left the arena, yielding the stage to Cheng Sui.
But no one noticed Angers' other hand, the one that had caught the elbow, trembling behind his back.
"..."
Standing at the centre of the field, Cheng Sui felt dazed beneath the deafening roars.
His youth had been too quiet; even now, near its end, he hadn't realised he had lived in this world for three years and was about to graduate from Cassell College.
He'd never met the cute, air-headed junior he once imagined, never tasted passionate campus life, never acted with carefree abandon, never enjoyed the many beautiful things idolised in manga—only some worn memories of dusk-lit windowpanes and tree shadows.
Yet now it seemed he owned everything; everyone was cheering for him.
Cheng Sui smiled—a smile of freedom and confidence.
Under the gaze of the crowd he raised his right fist high, claiming his victory.
[You defeated Uzumaki Naruto in front of the entire class, earning everyone's respect. The Third Hokage silently watched the duel and is very pleased with you.]
[Quest reward: Rasengan]
"A Sui, you won! You beat Caesar!"
In the dorm Sang Jie danced with excitement as if he himself had just toppled Caesar.
Cheng Sui chuckled. "You used to call me A Sui and I let it slide. What should you call me now?"
Sang Jie snapped to attention and saluted. "Boss Cheng!"
The two looked at each other, finally unable to hold back their laughter.
Ring-ring, ring-ring!
A phone rang and Sang Jie hurriedly answered.
His handset was a knock-off Nokia costing barely a dozen bucks; frugal as ever, he sent every cent of his scholarship home.
"I have to report to the Equipment Department tomorrow? OK, OK—yeah, I'll head over tonight." Whatever the caller said, Sang Jie bobbed his head in reply.
Cheng Sui picked at his delivered dinner. "What's up? Equipment dragooning you for manual labour again? You're the ultimate workhorse."
"Workhorse?" Sang Jie looked puzzled.
"Forget it. Just a Chinese slang word for someone reliable and down-to-earth."
"Then you're a workhorse too, A Sui—top-tier workhorse."
"Cut it out—I'm not worthy of the title."
Sang Jie packed while flipping open a little notebook. "So, A Sui, have you locked in your internship? Didn't you say you wanted to join the Execution Department?"
Cheng Sui shrugged. "Headmaster Angers found me a mentor internship, but I haven't decided whether to take it."
Suitcase shut, Sang Jie sat on the bed, bewildered. "Why not? Mentor internships usually give great marks—people beg for those."
"Various reasons. Still weighing it."
Before the System awakened, Cheng Sui would have seized such a chance without hesitation.
But now that he had the System, merely graduating was no longer his goal.
Besides, after today's performance Angers would have to be out of his mind to hold him back a year.
After watching Sang Jie leave the dorm with reluctant eyes, Cheng Sui opened the email Angers had sent earlier.
He scrolled to the bottom, finger hesitating over the digital business card.
Ding!
A new email arrived—from Caesar, of all people.
It showed Caesar lying in a hospital bed, arms and legs in bandages, yet giving the camera a big thumbs-up and a grin.
"Though I lost this time, I'm looking forward to our next match.
Your friend,
Caesar Gattruso."
Reading it, Cheng Sui couldn't help smiling.
Caesar might be a bit chuunibyou, but he was decent—able to take loss in stride—and Cheng Sui was happy to befriend him.
Of course, the key point was that more contact with Caesar meant more System quests and more power-ups.
The same went for Chu Zihang on the other side.
So far he could confirm: Caesar was Naruto, Chu Zihang was Sasuke, Nono was Hinata, and Angers was the Third Hokage.
Without exception, every character recognised by the System as a Naruto counterpart was an important figure in the Dragon Clan storyline.
Therefore, to grow stronger he needed to interact more with these people.
Wait—
Cheng Sui scrolled back through the email, struck by a sudden thought.
"The Execution Department is sending our best diving specialists, Ye Sheng and Sakatoku Aki, to carry out this mission."
Ye Sheng and Sakatoku Aki—the ill-fated couple from Dragon I—had left a deep impression on him.
Surely the System wouldn't ignore such important characters.
With that hope, Cheng Sui clicked on Professor Mance's digital card and dialled his number.
To his surprise, Mance picked up almost immediately.
"Hello, who's speaking?"
"Professor Mance, this is Cheng Sui, a senior recommended by Headmaster Angers. He told me about the internship and I'm very interested in joining this mission."
"Ah, our rising star at Cassell College. I'm still in the Yangtze region and can't interview you in person, but I'll be back at the college soon. I look forward to your performance."
"Oh, by the way, Nono is my student—if possible, I'd appreciate it if you could look after her a bit."
Come on—with Nono's personality, she's more likely to bully others than need protection.
Thinking that, Cheng Sui still answered dutifully:
"I only beat Caesar by a fluke; as for Nono, I'll definitely help watch over her."
"Thanks. All right, I won't keep you—busy here. We'll talk when I reach Cassell. Bye for now."
Before Cheng Sui could reply, Mance hung up.
From the background noise of surging waves, Cheng Sui guessed Mance had taken the call on the river.
So preparations for the Kui Gate Project have already begun—he'd have to power up fast.
Only moments ago Cheng Sui had been basking in sudden strength; the call now sharpened his sense of crisis.
One year from now, Lu Mingfei will enroll.
He had to grow strong enough within that year to survive Nortan's assault.