On the high platform, Miriam narrowed her eyes slightly.

“Ming Yi... this guy’s a little more surprising than I expected.”

Moran also nodded thoughtfully. “Honestly, when I first started teaching him, I was wondering the same thing. For a Corruption Artifact like his, one with nothing particularly special about it, was that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“Exactly. No one could really make sense of his Corruption Artifact. On the surface, it just looks like blood with barely any killing power. But in truth, it holds endless possibilities. When I first snatched him over to our branch, I was taking a bit of a gamble too.”

At that, the corners of Miriam’s lips lifted slightly.

“Luckily, it seems I won that bet.”

Miriam lowered her head and looked at Ming Yi, who was chatting happily with Mike inside the maze. A trace of anticipation rose in her heart.

Your future—

just how many possibilities do you still have?

—

Meanwhile.

Xiao Chengcheng and Chu Tong were running around the maze, panting for breath. After searching for quite a while, they finally found their target at a fork in the path.

By now, more than ten students from the Resident Division had gathered there. Facing them off were Yang Zijie, Xu Fan, and Ning Si.

From the looks of it, the Resident Division students had already surrounded the three aggressively, planning to force them into submission with sheer numbers.

“You three are surrounded now! Put down your weapons and surrender!”

“Damn it! So what if you’ve got numbers? If you’ve got guts, come fight one-on-one!” Yang Zijie shouted back indignantly.

“One-on-one? You think we’re idiots?” The guy opposite him snorted in disdain. “We’ve already gathered four squads, and our president stayed behind to intercept your reinforcements! This round is already over. Your Third Generation Division is definitely losing!”

“Is that so?”

Xiao Chengcheng’s cold laugh came from behind him.

The guy whipped around in shock. “Who are you? How did you come from that direction?”

Then his face turned pale.

“Don’t tell me... the president lost?”

“That big dark lump’s probably getting beaten stupid by our vice president right about now,” Xiao Chengcheng said mockingly.

“Bullshit!” the man roared in fury. “No matter what underhanded trick you used to get past the president, it won’t change the fact that you’re about to lose!”

“Lose? Because you’ve got more people?” Xiao Chengcheng dug at his nose, flicked a booger at the guy, then spun the staff in his hand. “If numbers actually solved everything, Great China would’ve unified the planet ages ago.”

“I really hate people who just talk big. And I’m even lazier when it comes to that whole playing weak to hide strength thing. As a proper protagonist, the simplest way is obviously this—”

“I’ll send you all flying fair and square!”

The next moment, Xiao Chengcheng turned into a gust of wind and charged straight into the crowd.

Yang Zijie, Xu Fan, and Ning Si were all dumbfounded, staring at Xiao Chengcheng in disbelief.

“Holy crap... this guy was actually this fierce?”

Xiao Chengcheng rampaged through the crowd, smashing left and right. Every swing of his staff sent someone flying.

And no matter how powerful or bizarre the Resident Division students’ Corruption Artifacts were, none of their flashy tricks meant anything in front of Xiao Chengcheng’s iron staff. Every last one of them got smashed into a puddle of mangled blood with a single blow.

He tore through them like there was no one there.

“Come on!”

Xiao Chengcheng had picked up a few injuries in the melee, but it didn’t affect him at all. The battle lust in his eyes only surged harder. It was as if the more enemies there were, the more excited he became.

“You pieces of trash—are you even enough for me to fight?”

Seeing how crazed he looked, the Resident Division students all started to feel a little fear.

“Don’t panic! We’ve got numbers!” the first guy still shouted at the top of his lungs, trying to steady everyone. “If nothing else, we can wear him down! The president will bring more people to support us any minute now!”

But right after that, a voice hit him like a bucket of cold water.

“If you’re counting on reinforcements, then sorry. Looks like you’ll be disappointed.”

The man turned around, only to discover in despair that it wasn’t the president he had hoped for.

It was Bai Ming’s three-man squad.

And behind them were more than ten surviving students from the Third Generation Division.

“We happened to run into them on the way here,” Bai Ming said. “We helped out a few squads while we were at it, and before we knew it, this many people had gathered.”

“But now, that just happens to make up for our disadvantage in numbers.”

Bai Ming narrowed his eyes slightly.

“You still want to use numbers to bully the side with fewer people?”

“I...” The man couldn’t get a single word out.

Truthfully, he understood it too. At this point, the situation was already obvious. The Third Generation Division had basically regrouped, while the largest remaining force on their own side—his group—had been trapped here. Their elimination was only a matter of time.

Something must have happened to President Mike, or he would’ve come to support them by now. And aside from the few people Xiao Chengcheng had just knocked out, there were fewer than ten of them left. Once they were eliminated, this school festival would basically be over.

Even so, he still held onto a trace of hope for Mike in his heart. So he clenched his teeth and roared,

“No matter what, surrender is impossible! We’ll fight to the very last second and buy time for the president!”

“Admirable courage.” Xiao Chengcheng raised a brow. “But useless as hell.”

—

The Resident Division students fought to the very end.

Unfortunately, the scene they had been hoping for never came.

Even after the last person was knocked unconscious by Xiao Chengcheng’s staff, Mike still never reappeared in their sight.

And right as that final person passed out, Miriam’s voice rang out through the broadcast system, echoing across the entire maze and stadium:

“Alright, that’s enough. I now declare—”

“The match is over!”

“The winner is the Third Generation Division!”

A moment later, the stadium erupted into deafening uproar. Inside the maze, the surviving students of the Third Generation Division were overjoyed, hugging each other and cheering wildly.

“The Third Generation Division actually won!” On the stands, the girl beside Sharina covered her mouth in shock and turned to her. “You really called it!”

Sharina giggled. “I told you. Never underestimate the people from the Third Generation Division.”

“Seriously, that Xiao Chengcheng and that Ming Yi are both insanely strong! One of them fought more than ten people from our side by himself, and the other beat President Mike in a one-on-one!”

Sharina looked at Xiao Chengcheng celebrating on the screen, and the corners of her lips lifted without her noticing.

“Holy shit! We won! We actually won!”

“This isn’t a dream! We really won!”

“Xiao Chengcheng, damn, you’re something else!” Yang Zijie threw an arm around Xiao Chengcheng’s shoulder. “You fought that many Resident Division students by yourself and didn’t back down at all!”

“Of course. I’m the protagonist. I’ve gotta have at least this much plot armor.” Xiao Chengcheng grinned smugly.

“Yeah, right. What kind of protagonist are you? In the end, wasn’t it me who brought people over to save the day?” Bai Ming rolled his eyes.

“Hah? Even if you hadn’t shown up, I still could’ve taken down those ten-plus guys, okay? If anything, you only showed up at the very end. What, were the enemies you ran into on the way really that hard to deal with? I almost thought you’d been eliminated already.”

“Xiao Chengcheng, who the hell are you looking down on?!”

“I look down on whoever’s the youngest. Come hit me if you can. Bleh.”

Watching the two of them launch into yet another endless bickering match, Chu Tong let out a helpless sigh.

Still, a win was a win.

You two really did it, huh, she thought to herself with emotion.

—

Ming Yi and Mike were still squatting beneath the high platform. When they heard Miriam’s broadcast, both of them froze for a moment.

“Oh? It ended that fast.”

Hearing the announcement, Mike sighed and shook his head. Then he smiled at Ming Yi.

“Congratulations. Your companions didn’t let you down.”

“You let us off easy. Your side was really strong too. We only won this one with great difficulty,” Ming Yi replied with a smile as well.

“There’s no need for false modesty. We’re not the type to hide the fact that we were outmatched. One or two losses won’t break us.”

Mike’s expression turned a little more serious.

“When we get back, we’ll learn from this and train properly. I’m looking forward to fighting you again next time.”

“Me too.”

Ming Yi nodded seriously as well.

“Let’s go. We should find Lady Miriam.”