Before Elizabeth could return to normal and clearly think through what she had just experienced, she heard a voice from behind her curse, "Che! b.i.t.c.h, would it kill you to not look so frightening? Holy f.u.c.k, you"re a nasty one aren"t ya?"Stunned, Elizabeth turned around and it as if the person yelling such profanities wasn"t content. As he made eye contact with her, he continued saying, "Yeah b.i.t.c.h, I"m talking to you."
For a split second, Elizabeth"s system of facial muscles broke as she couldn"t decide how to react… Honestly, she felt like laughing at this random outburst of totally unwarranted cursing. Yet at the same time, she felt a heartfelt desire to annihilate the idiot before her for putting her on blast right before all these people.
"You mad? Heh, the f.u.c.k will you do about it?!" Hearing the man continue provoking her, Elizabeth"s undecided face finally frowned.
"What the f.u.c.k is his problem? Picking I fight with me even though I"ve never even talked to him… Mhmm..." Making use of the True Strength Probing ability she had gained from completing the Combat Genius Hidden Quest, Elizabeth successfully probed the hostile man"s status even though he technically outranked her.
[Status
Name: ???
Level: 24
Rank: Late Phase Martial King
Affection Rating: Hateful
Current State: Jealous]
"Jealous? Of what?!" Unfortunately, her status wouldn"t give her much more information. However, given the horrible first impression he gave off, Elizabeth didn"t extend much forgiveness. She said, "Do we know each other? Or are you usually a b.i.t.c.hy c.u.n.t wherever you go?"
"..." Raising an eyebrow, the hostile man returned a frown of his own as he tried to pressure Elizabeth with a horrifyingly bleak killing intent. Of course, to the uncaring demon that literally possessed a G.o.dslayer Fiend"s bloodline, the killing intent rolled off of Elizabeth"s body like rain to a windshield wiper.
Elizabeth began yawning in the face of the killing pressure as if to highlight how pathetic the jealous man was. Her goal of successfully humiliating him worked like a charm as the frown on his face kept deepening along with the stress he placed on his body to forcefully increase the level of killing intent he revealed to the world.
Shaking her head, Elizabeth said, "Hey r.e.t.a.r.d, it doesn"t matter how much you force yourself. You and your weak excuse for a killing intent are like air to me, got it? I"ve already wasted enough time entertaining a fool like you, so I"m going to leave now."
As she walked to catch up with her dojo"s members, Elizabeth thought, "He better wise up and stop bothering me..." Though she wasn"t at the point where she wanted to kill the man, she certainly entertained the thought of putting him out of commission as a pract.i.tioner, should they cross paths on the tournament stage. But, given the taste she"d already experienced of how unforgiving the people in the Martial Society could be, the thought that she might have to kill this guy wasn"t exempt from her thoughts.
As she walked through the streets, Jane, who had been by her side throughout the entire exchange, asked her, "Do you really not know that guy?" She had been a part of the Marital Society for years and even with her experience, it was anomalous for someone to come of so strongly against a stranger.
"Never seen him before that incident. Why, do you know who he is? Wait! Could he be a part of Jhan"s group?" It just occurred to her that perhaps the man was hostile because they were part of opposing factions. But then again, that didn"t really explain why he was jealous…
"I"m… not too sure. He might be an ally of Jhan"s, but in the Martial Society, he"s been known for making rounds during the last couple Wushi Tournaments. Actually… I"ve heard a couple bad rumors about him and seeing that little exchange you guys had, I think it might be true." Jane"s mouth cringed as her eyelids drooped.
"Um… what?" Elizabeth was still confused. However, it seemed like whatever rumors Jane was recalling were so impressionable that she had trouble grounding herself. When Jane finally snapped out of her thoughts, she said, "Right, so that guy"s called Tristan and he"s from an American faction. Now… the rumor goes that he"s a pretty petty guy, who dreadfully hates it when he finds women that are more "beautiful" than himself."
Whereas Jane expected Elizabeth to either not react or laugh the rumor away, instead she was met with the face of complete and total understanding. Out of the blue, Elizabeth started laughing as she thought, "What an idiot! But then again, I guess this counts as a butchered form of flattery... But to think that he made an enemy out of me just because he"s jealous of my looks! Hahaha…"
However, it did itch her curiosity why such a normal-looking guy had that kind of quirk. After all, Tristan didn"t dress up feminine or even speak in an effeminate way. Yet, he acted like a drag queen and belittled her for looking prettier than him? "Strange… very strange indeed..."
The two girls made their way through the streets and soon enough pa.s.sed by the entrance to the Tournament Square. Entering a line, the two girls didn"t have to wait long to turn in their forms as there were dozens of attendants at the ready. Once Elizabeth"s turn came up, she waved Jane goodbye and walked over to her attendant imagining the process to be over near instantaneously. However, as after she turned in her paper, the attendant gave her a strange look and said, "Oh dear..."
Surprised, Elizabeth asked, "What"s seems to be the problem?"
The attendant"s strange questioning look didn"t leave her face as she said, "You"ve marked down that you"d like to be attending over five events. Is that correct?"
"Yep." Elizabeth nodded her head, unable to understand how that could possibly be a bad thing.
The attendant"s skeptical expression only deepened after hearing Elizabeth respond in the affirmative. But, since it was not her place to comment on the choices of the tournament partic.i.p.ants, she focused on doing her job, only saying, "Nevermind… It"s your choice if you want to take on all these events. However, just understand that the tournament will be concluded before the day is over. The tournament will take place in the next twelve hours, so now is the last time you"ll be allowed to change your schedule. Or to put it simply, how you manage your time."
"Um… ok? What"s the current schedule look like for all the events I marked?" Elizabeth didn"t mind if she would be busy today. As long as none of the events overlapped, she felt confident in being able to perform well for each event. She had finished breaking through just a couple minutes ago and with Yrre"s Consummate Resting Pills, she hardly felt that fatigue management was an issue. Even if she did get tired, she could always unwind with some meditation or a quick use of her Acupoint.
The attendant tapped away at the electronic tablet in her hand to draw up a schedule for Elizabeth before showing her the rendered result. Elizabeth looked at the schedule and confirmed that she was up for the task before finally being let go by the attendant. As she imagined, the schedule was tight, but she could make it. After all, most of the secondary occupation events would take place before the main event which had been decided to take place in the late evening.
Now, after truly entering the Tournament Square, Elizabeth walked through the festival-esque environment and decided to treat herself. She"d been training practically since the day her whole world changed and while she did enjoy a break or two, it had mostly been an unending grind. She had a couple minutes before the events of the tournament began. So, she walked up to one of the various food vendors that lined paths of the Tournament Square and bought herself some sweets.
Though her own cooking was delicious and amazing on its own right, one of the pleasures she could not taste with all the constant training was good old fashioned junk food. With nothing but high-quality meats and fine dining for the past couple weeks, Elizabeth would probably kill for the Funnel Cake and Sweet Tea she got before her first event. Luckily, she didn"t have to resort to those measures, and though she looked like an ignorant tourist, trying to figure out the way to the Forging Event with a plate of powdered dough in one hand and a cup of sweet tea in the other, Elizabeth wasn"t too bothered after all the experience she"d acc.u.mulated in dealing with the social world.
To think that just a couple weeks ago, she dreaded the thought of walking through a shopping plaza and having to talk to strangers. Yet now, her self image was about as important to her as how hot the day was. With nothing but cultivation and thoughts of increasing her stats prevalent in her mind, the people in the real world had effectively become Non-Player Characters that she could ignore as she had in countless other games.