Wang Hao froze on the spot. Had the times really changed this much?
In his memories, his father had taught him that technological weapons were strictly forbidden in a duel. But it had only been a few years since his father's disappearance. How had the rules shifted so drastically?
"If they say the times have changed, then I'd better get with the program." Wang Hao let out a cold sneer, white-hot rage surging through him. If he hadn't dodged that attack just now, he'd have ended up bedridden in the hospital for at least six months. And with medical fees as exorbitant as they were these days, where the hell would he get the money for treatment?
Lin Tingbai hadn't spared a single thought for that. He'd clearly intended to cripple or kill him outright. Faced with such an arrogant, overbearing brat, if he didn't teach him a lesson, how could he live up to his grand goal of saving the world?
The System let out a sigh of admiration. Truly, the shameless are invincible!
Lin Tingbai snapped back to his senses and sneered contemptuously, "Even if you've mastered a footwork technique to Peak Perfection, this is an arena. Your range of movement is limited. There's no way you can escape the blast radius of my Electromagnetic Ring."
"Is that so?" Wang Hao curled his lip, slipping his hand into his pocket.
"You really have a death wish!" Lin Tingbai's face twisted with rage. A broke loser like him dared to look down on him? It was unforgivable.
The next second, terrifying power erupted from Lin Tingbai's fist, violent qi surging outward like a collapsing mountain bearing down on its target. Coupled with the crackling lightning unleashed from his Electromagnetic Ring, the strike boasted power on par with a full-fledged Martial Master.
The students below the arena could feel the sheer brutality of the strike with crystal clarity. The dense, overwhelming force of the fist, paired with the vast area covered by the lightning, left nowhere to run—it blanketed the entire arena in an instant.
"That's horrifying! Even without the Electromagnetic Ring, that punch would turn a fully grown elephant into paste."
"No kidding. With the Electromagnetic Ring added in, the power of that strike has at least tripled."
"The fusion of technology and martial arts is truly terrifying."
"This kid Wang Hao is finished. Look at him—he's frozen stiff with fear."
In the VIP viewing area, Su Mu narrowed his eyes and murmured softly, "Hao'er, the path of martial arts demands more than just raw talent. It requires combat instinct and a sharp mind. This is your test."
If Wang Hao only had talent and no combat instinct, he would never let the boy walk the path of martial arts. On this path, battle was inevitable. A weak combat instinct meant a higher chance of fatal mistakes, and ultimately, an early grave. If that was the case, he'd rather let Wang Hao live out his days in peace on Earth than send him out into the universe to meet a brutal end.
But if Wang Hao possessed both unparalleled talent and razor-sharp combat instinct, he would pour every ounce of his power into nurturing the boy, helping him restore his father's former glory.
On the arena stage, Wang Hao slowly pulled three vials of potion from his pocket, each glowing with a faint red light. This was the Passion Burst that the previous owner of his body had so carefully concocted.
He'd originally planned to skip class and sell the potions to earn some money for food, but Xia Weiwei had ruined that plan. Luckily, Principal Zhongli had been more than generous, trading three days of luxury meals for a single stone statue, so he'd lost any urgency to sell the Passion Burst.
But now that they'd said the times had changed, and cold weapons were a thing of the past, surely there was nothing wrong with him using a chemical weapon?
Shatter!
The three vials of Passion Burst shattered at Lin Tingbai's feet, and a thick red mist billowed outward, filling the air in an instant. In the blink of an eye, Lin Tingbai's face flushed bright crimson. An unmistakable bulge formed in his pants, veins bulged on his forehead, and his eyes slowly turned bloodshot.
A male student in the crowd below let out a shocked yell, "That's Passion Burst! It's an aphrodisiac!!"
"What the fuck!!"
"Are you serious? He's using an aphrodisiac as a weapon!?"
"What a shameless fiend, carrying that kind of potion around with him."
"He really is the number one scumbag at Number Eleven High. I bet this is how he got to Xia Weiwei and Mai Mengmeng."
"No wonder Xia Weiwei was screaming about a shameless lecher back then."
"I bet this scumbag Wang Hao took photos of them and is blackmailing them into keeping quiet."
"That has to be it. Why else would the goddesses of my dreams be with a degenerate like him?"
"Goddammit! Give me back my pure, innocent goddesses!"
"I didn't believe it before, but seeing this aphrodisiac with my own eyes? There's no other explanation."
"Degenerate! The biggest degenerate in the history of Number Eleven High!"
At that moment, Wang Hao seemed completely oblivious to the furious curses from the crowd below, his focus fixed entirely on the stream of system notifications ringing in his ears.
"Ding Dong. Congratulations to the Host for using an aphrodisiac during a duel. Even the System is forced to acknowledge your unparalleled depravity. Awarded 3000 Villain Points."
"Ding Dong. Congratulations to the Host for being labeled a degenerate. Awarded 10 Villain Points."
"Ding Dong. Congratulations to the Host for being labeled a shameless fiend. Awarded 10 Villain Points."
…
"Ding Dong. Total Villain Points awarded to the Host: 13,000."
When Wang Hao heard the final total, he nearly threw his head back and laughed out loud in exhilaration. A single arena match had earned him 13,000 points! Added to the 3,400 points he already had, that brought his total to 16,400 points. He'd struck it rich overnight!
"Wang Hao, this is against the rules." The referee's face had turned thunderous black.
"How is this against the rules?" Wang Hao shot the referee a disdainful glance. "You're the one who said the times have changed. Did you expect us to duel with cold weapons like they did in ancient times? What I'm using here is a biochemical weapon. Got a problem with that!?"
"You…" The referee was seething with rage. This bastard was utterly shameless, throwing his own words right back in his face.
But just then, the referee received a message from Principal Zhongli, with a single line: This is not a violation of the rules.
"Hmph!" The referee let out a cold snort and fell silent.
Wang Hao glanced at Lin Tingbai, who was barely holding on by a thread, and felt he'd done society a favor by taking this brat down a peg. But this punishment clearly wasn't enough to teach this arrogant rich kid a lesson. He needed to crank it up a notch.
"Attention, all female students! A quick announcement!" Wang Hao raised an eyebrow, his voice ringing out across the field. "This pretty boy Lin Tingbai is in desperate need of a woman right now. Any volunteers!?"
"Shameless Wang Hao! How dare you treat my prince charming like this!"
"You degenerate Wang Hao! This is utterly disgusting! Using an aphrodisiac in an arena match!"
"You're a disgrace to Number Eleven High! We despise you! But my Tingbai is in danger right now. I'll make you pay once I help him recover!"
"Nonsense! He's not your Tingbai, he's mine!"
"Stop fighting! He belongs to me!"
Wang Hao watched the female students bickering furiously below, a look of quiet smugness on his face, as if he'd known this would happen all along.
Lin Tingbai might have been arrogant, but he was still the campus heartthrob of Number Eleven High. He was devastatingly handsome, and his family was unfathomably wealthy—on a Tier-1 Planet like Earth, he was the very definition of an ultra-rich second-generation heir.
If any of these female students spent a single night with Lin Tingbai and got pregnant, they'd be marrying into a wealthy family the second they graduated. They'd never have to suffer the same fate as the other graduates—scrambling for a dead-end job, marrying a random man to become a housewife, or wasting their years at some no-name university with no future.