Chapter 114: The Grudge of Those in the Refresher Course
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
With just a few words, Meng Chao understood.
The people who seemed to have come from everywhere and were composed of all sorts of men and women were students from society, who joined the refresher course in the martial arts course.
Refresher courses in universities were concepts that existed even on Earth.
There were a lot of superhumans who only awakened after being twenty-eight years old. There were also those who only awakened while they were thirty or forty years old. They needed to cultivate as well, but they did not have the time nor energy to adhere to the full-time university education that would last for a few years. They never reached the standards for full-time education either.
And half of the fees used to maintain universities came from the education budget given by the Survival Committee. As for the other half, the universities had to gather them themselves. They faced quite a lot of pressure because of that. After all, peerless elites could only be created if people piled up money on them, and no one would ever complain if they had money in their hands to create these peerless elites.
To the authorities, the superhumans created by universities were not enough to deal with the large monster hordes.
Agricultural University’s martial arts course recruited hundreds of new students every year.
Dragon City University’s martial arts course was of an even larger scale, so it would recruit around one thousand new students.
If the war was about to get worse, this number would not be enough. If any one person died, their hearts would ache for a long time.
Hence, all sides came to an agreement, and a lot of night universities, special training cla.s.ses, independent universities, CEO refresher courses and other such organizations were born to specifically train the superhumans born among people who were already working in society.
The labels these organizations used were very frightening. For example, the one used in Agricultural University was Agricultural University’s elite martial arts refresher course. At first glance, the people in there were even greater than the proper undergraduate students. It sounded like they were attending the legendary MBA cla.s.ses.
But in truth, the resources, teachers, and cla.s.ses they had and the graduation certificate they obtained at the end were completely different from an MBA.
The undergraduate students who got into university after studying hard for years usually looked down on those from refresher course students who were members of society.
They felt that those people used the label of being students in the martial arts course to throw their weight around and cause trouble. They destroyed the reputation of the martial arts course and were just a group of fake martial artists.
The students who were members of society also looked down on the undergraduate students. They were the ones who had awakened to supernatural abilities while fighting for their lives. They nearly lost their lives for it, so there was no way a brat who had yet to fully grow up could compare to them.
The conflict between both sides ran deep, so the two sides fought often and hard. On the first day of the new semester, they also decided to greet each other with the new semester by drawing blood.
“Junior, you have no idea just how disgusting these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are,” the soph.o.m.ore said angrily and in an aggrieved manner. “Just now, didn’t we fight against the monster controller course? These people from the refresher course naturally don’t have the right to join it, but they actually started betting with each other as to who would win or lose.
“But that’s not all. The university doesn’t forbid us from gambling during the compet.i.tions, after all. This is also a way for them to test the students’ judgment. The problem, these guys actually bet that the monster controller course would win all the matches!
“They’re in the refresher course for the martial arts course, so they’re martial artists! How could they betray us like this?! Do they even have the pride of a martial artist?
“We were defeated by the monster controller course and were feeling gloomy, but these traitors won a huge load of monster coins and came to the canteen to celebrate. They ordered a whole bunch of good food and started shoving it down their throats while talking happily to each other. Isn’t that the same as rubbing salt into our wounds?
“Junior, don’t you think that these shameless b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are just horrible and deserve to be beaten up?
“Um...”
They were indeed quite horrid. Meng Chao felt that he had beat up the right people.
But he had something else more important to do. Once he found the Blade Dancer, he could fight against them.
“Senior, do you know Gu—”
Before Meng Chao could finish his question, the soph.o.m.ore picked up a spoon with a long handle and charged forward with a yell.
And Meng Chao was targeted by a person who eyed him with hostility.
It was Ma Hong, the one he had hit in the air and made foam at the mouth.
This person was in his thirties and had a wound that ran deep into his left cheek. It tugged at his lip, making it curl up, and it made him look as if he was constantly sneering coldly.
He gave off a really fierce presence, and his skin shone with a bronze glow. He looked like a saber which had killed hundreds of monsters and was now sent back to be refined because its blade was bent.
Even if Meng Chao had struck him hard with the heel of his palm, it had only taken him half a minute to recover his fighting strength and come to challenge Meng Chao again.
He first gave Meng Chao a thumbs up to praise his knifehand strike. Then, he took up a stance and made a gesture. “Again!”
Meng Chao sighed. He nodded and suddenly picked up a stool to throw at Ma Hong while he turned tail and ran.
Ma Hong avoided the stool and launched the first strike. His leg tore through the air and swept at Meng Chao’s neck.
Meng Chao yelped and fell to the floor in a very uncool manner. He used the greasy floor and slid under a few tables.
Ma Hong’s roundhouse kick was like a saber that cut a table in half.
It grazed Meng Chao’s back. There was only a hair’s breadth between them.
Meng Chao felt as if his b.u.t.t had just been whipped. His muscles rippled like a wave, and he instantly slid more than ten meters away.
Ma Hong snorted coldly and moved like lightning. He chased after Meng Chao.
Two undergraduate students came to block him, but he smoothly put them down.
Even though he had never gone through full-time studies in university before, killing intent seeped through his every pore. He seemed like someone created from piles of corpses and someone a greenhorn of a university student could compare to.
Meng Chao scurried away through the crowd like a small creature fleeing from the fight between hippopotamuses and rhinoceroses. In just a moment, his body was covered in soup, water, vegetables, and rice. He looked really pathetic.
Even so, he was still forced into a corner by Ma Hong.
“Bro, it’s a misunderstanding!” Meng Chao turned his head around and found himself wanting to cry, but having no tears. “I’m a freshman, and I’m very much a greenhorn. I don’t know anything, so why do you keep chasing after me?”
Ma Hong was stunned, and his killing intent disappeared for a moment.
Meng Chao flung his arm, and the contents of a bottle of pepper came splashing in his face.
Ma Hong was shocked. He shut his eyes to avoid it, but he still sucked in quite a lot of the stimulative powder into his nose.
Before he could sneeze, Meng Chao suddenly spat out two toothpicks from his mouth that went straight for his eyes.
Ma Hong was shocked and angry. He lowered his head a little, and the two toothpicks snapped when they crashed into his head.
A bowl of hot red oil came at him.
In truth, Meng Chao had been searching for these hidden weapons while he was fleeing earlier.
Pepper, toothpicks, and chili oil. Hidden under the chain attack from the three items in the canteen was Meng Chao’s real killing move.
“Demon Subduing Slash!”
When Ma Hong came charging at him in anger, Meng Chao had already finished creating his spirit energy magnetic field. Spirit tattoos surrounded his right arm. The spirit magnetic field rotation energy turned into electrical arcs at his fingertips, and they gathered together to turn into cracking electricity!
Ma Hong sensed great danger. The hair on his skin stood up, but it was too late for him to avoid the attack. He could only grit his teeth and gather the spirit energy in his left leg. His roundhouse kick was like a battleaxe that went at Meng Chao’s knifehand strike.
In terms of physical strength, roundhouse kicks were stronger than knifehand strikes.
But Ma Hong had attacked hastily. He did not have time to create his spirit energy magnetic field.
Meanwhile, Meng Chao had been acc.u.mulating power, and his strength burst forth like a tidal wave. In fact, from the moment he turned around and fled, he had already calculated each of his opponent’s moves.
Their “weapons” clashed. Spirit flames and sparks flew, and the sound of metal clashing could be heard.
Ma Hong was sent flying again.
He fell among around eight rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses. For the time being, he could not get out.
Meng Chao sighed in relief and looked around himself. Everyone was fighting fiercely and had soup as well as vegetable gravy blurring their sights.
He quickly hunched his shoulders and crawled behind a barrier in the corner created by a few tables.
‘Huh? There’s a greasy looking fatty hiding here.’
The man appeared to be in his thirties or forties and had a huge face as well as a thick neck. He appeared like a chef in the canteen, but he wore a suit and had all sorts of accessories. He was dressed up really crudely.
He even had four rings with crystals embedded in them on his really thick fingers. All that was missing were the words “nouveau riche” stamped on his face.
When he saw Meng Chao jump over, the chef-like nouveau riche shrank into the corner and put on an awkward smile.
By the looks of it, the meticulously put together barrier was the fatty’s work.
Meng Chao saw him staring at his right arm, which was still surrounded by spirit flames after he had just released his Demon Subduing Slash. He intentionally flung his arm. “You saw it?”
“I saw it.” The fatty gulped and gasped in amazement. “Ma Hong is an elite scout from the Red Dragon Army. He fought three days and nights in the fog and killed hundreds of monsters. At that time, he became a superhuman and was sent for advanced studies in Agricultural University’s martial arts course. What’s that move? You actually managed to put him down twice.”
“Demon Subduing Slash,” Meng Chao said. “You’re in the refresher course as well. Do you want to try it?”
The fatty was stunned and shook his head so much that it almost fell off. “No, I wouldn’t dare to. Peace is the key to success and we should keep to it!”
The fatty’s facial features were squashed together, and he looked like a meat bun with a lot of creases. Meng Chao really wanted to laugh. “What’s wrong? I heard from my senior that all of you students working in society are really fierce and violent.”
“That’s other people like Ma Hong. He’s from the Red Dragon Army. When he was a normal person, he had already carried out dozens of missions and slept among monster carca.s.ses. When he became a superhuman, he naturally only got fiercer!” the fatty said pitifully.
“But there are also many students working in society who are normal white-collar workers or chefs working in canteens. We just awakened to supernatural powers out of the blue and want to get a cert from a refresher course so that we can get promoted, get an increase in wages, and get higher ratings. How could we be fierce?
“What’s your situation? You’re really fierce, and even Ma Hong was defeated by you. Why aren’t you beating down everyone?”
“Ah, forget about it. I’m only a soph.o.m.ore, and I came here to look for someone. I don’t even know how I got into a fight against all of you. What’s going on?!”
Meng Chao finally found someone he could talk to, and he sighed in relief. “Move your b.u.t.t over a little, will you? We’ll squeeze in together. Don’t be afraid, I’m actually very gentle and elegant.”
“‘Kay.” The fatty obediently moved into the corner and sized up Meng Chao curiously. “You’re a freshman, so shouldn’t you be going through your admission test? Who are you looking for in the canteen?”
“The test is over,” Meng Chao said. “I came to look for Mr. Gu Jianbo in hopes to be his successor. Do you know him?”
The fatty was stunned. “You want Gu Jianbo as your personal tutor? What’s going on? Was your admission test that bad that you couldn’t get a single monster coin? With your Demon Subduing Slash, that shouldn’t be the case!”
“No. I got monster coins worth twenty-five thousand,” Meng Chao said.
“Twenty-five thousand?” This time, the fatty was really shocked. “You can then choose Jiang Ming or Li Yingzi as you like, right? Do you have some problem you can’t say that caused you to look for that b.a.s.t.a.r.d?”
Meng Chao blinked. Did the Blade Dancer have a bad reputation in this era and was not actually just someone who had faded into obscurity?
“Bro, do you know Mr. Gu?” Meng Chao sized him up.
“Of course! He’s in charge of teaching the refresher course!” The fatty rubbed his face and grinned. “Those in the refresher course of the Agricultural University are basically children taken care of by stepmothers. If you have money, you can enter, so there are all sorts of people here. You won’t learn profound martial arts principles with them. You’ll just learn to make a few fixed spirit energy magnetic fields and learn some basic skills to hunt monsters and get some experience hunting them.
“That’s enough for students in society who awakened accidentally. But you’re an undergraduate student, and you got yourself twenty-five thousand worth of monster coins. You should be ranked at the top in the martial arts course, right?”
Meng Chao nodded. “First place.”
“Oh my goodness!” The fatty slapped his thigh. “Think. He’s someone who’s sent to teach the refresher courses, so how could he be good? You’re an undergraduate student ranked first in the martial arts course, but you came to be Gu Jianbo’s disciple? You’re really sick in the head, kid!”