Chapter 34 – A Cheap Kind of Feeling

Ma Dong also felt that there were too few people here; there really wasn’t any imposingness.. The Prodigy Society’s recruitment had been completely unsuccessful. All of the freshmen knew about the enmity between the Prodigy Society and Holy Judgement and Black Rose. Other than Grei with his nonchalant attitude, the rest of the freshmen had second thoughts about them.

As a special recruit, Emily was extremely busy, so she didn’t stay for long before running off. Barran, as a freshman of the soldier academy, had strict requirements for his physical training. Furthermore, he’d been selected for quite a number of miscellaneous tasks by his class, thus leaving Ma Dong without an outlet to feed his addiction of being president.

“Wang Zhong ah, do you think I should close down Prodigy Society?” asked the pitiful Ma Dong.

“Yes,” replied Wang Zhong as he nodded his head. From the very start, Wang Zhong felt that Ma Dong’s crazy thoughts weren’t very trustworthy.

“As my brother, how can you fight against me? You have to make it up to me!” All along, Ma Dong didn’t really care about the success or failure of the Prodigy Society. Although it was a pity, but during these past few hectic days, he’d felt disheartened as every single society had its own vision and goal while the Prodigy Society wouldn’t work with his initial attitude of just having fun.

“The latter half was the most important bit, right?!” Wang Zhong understood Ma Dong all too well. Everything about him being pitiful was fake; he definitely held ulterior motives.

“Hehe. Since we both sleep together, who is going to follow who?”

“We only share a dormitory!”

“Haha. It’s still similar. Tomorrow’s the weekend. Since you know I’d just idle around, why don’t I accompany you to that gathering. You don’t need to feel grateful toward me,” said Ma Dong as he smiled widely. A gathering planned by Scarlet definitely wouldn’t be bad. If luck was on his side, then he might even be able to meet a few girls. This way, his loneliness would end.

“Fine,” answered Wang Zhong. The gathering was for fellow schoolmates, so he didn’t really care.

“Great! That settles it!” Ma Dong jumped with joy. Scarlet was off-limits to him since he didn’t go after his brother’s girl, but there were still many beauties waiting for him.

At this moment, Wang Zhong wasn’t thinking about that. Instead, he was reminiscing about Carolyn. This was the girl he’d fallen for at first sight. He expected her to contact him, but there had been nothing up till now.

Could it have been a one-sided love?

At that moment, a very important problem popped into Wang Zhong’s head… he hadn’t given her his skylink information

☀

It was the rare chance for them to return to their dormitories together, so Ma Dong said, “Wang Zhong, let’s move out. With your intellect and my wealth, we could blend in very well inside Tianjing City.”

“Oh yes, and how much are you paying now?”

“Tsk. This is my way of training my own abilities, alright? Paying a little now is so that we can earn even more in the future,” Ma Dong said as he curled his lip. His attitude towards life was very open. He felt that since one only had a single life, one should enjoy it whenever possible. Suddenly, he said, “Hmm… did someone come over?”

Thinking about Carolyn, Wang Zhong revealed a slight smile. “A girl I like.”

Like an explorer that had discovered a new continent, Ma Dong screamed at the top of his lungs, “Fuck, brother! It can’t be that you’re seeing someone behind Scarlet’s back!”

Wang Zhong almost threw up some blood as he hurriedly said, “You, can you even die if you don’t talk? What mistress? I’ve already said that Scarlet and I only have a relationship of being fellow students.

Ma Dong didn’t believe a single word of Wang Zhong’s ‘excuse’. He was looking at the CHF promotional pamphlet on the table and was about to toss it when Wang Zhong rushed over.

“What’s the point in looking at this rubbish. Don’t tell me you want to participate?” Ma Dong asked.

“This year is*********, so I had the thought of trying,” Wang Zhong replied.

Academies within the Freedom Federation were assigned to one of the four large battle zones, each in the four directions of North, South, East, and West. Every year, a competition would be held within each battle zone, and the results would determine the academy’s rank placement. This will, in turn, affect the amount of resources and future support given by the Freedom Federation.

Every four years, the Federation would host this large competition. The one being held this year was coincidentally the competition’s 25th anniversary, along with it being the 100th year since the establishment of the Freedom Federation. Due to these two large reasons, coupled with the growing sensitivity between nations, the Federation had decided to enlarge the event in order to show off its own prowess, as well as increasing the pressure on the Empires and the alien races. This would also help verify the implementation of the OP system at the federal level, as well as to see the current growth of the young generation.

This was certainly unprecedented, and had also had a hand in last year’s intense division competitions. Yet, this didn’t have any relation to Wang Zhong and Ma Dong. Each academy only had ten slots; five main ones and five reserves. These slots were exceedingly valuable, and getting a slot would mean having your name etched in the annals of history forever, regardless of your results.

“Brother, this brother will support your in spirit!” said Ma Dong helplessly as he shook his head. He knew how stubborn Wang Zhong was, but there were some things that couldn’t be changed no matter how stubborn one was. Only talent could circumvent any of this.

Take himself for example. He possessed the same bloodline as Emily, but a side branch would only ever be a side branch. Furthermore, Emily possessed a special ability and was chosen by the Assassin clan while he had nothing. Luckily, Ma Dong was able to see past all of this and didn’t drown in it.

“Oh right, what academy does the girl you like go to?” asked Ma Dong casually.

“It doesn’t seem to be Tianjing,” replied Wang Zhong. He added, “And it was love at first sight.”

Ma Dong was stunned for a moment before replying, “I’m gonna faint. This situation of yours is called being hooked. Listen to me, absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder, it’s called being a side hoe. And you aren’t the only side hoe, but one of many side hoes.” As an expert on love affairs, Ma Dong possessed the most absolute knowledge of this topic.

Wang Zhong didn’t comment and just gave a hearty chuckle. The two of them had differences in their opinions on some matters.

“Don’t laugh. What I’m saying is serious, strike while the iron is hot. I feel that you should control your own future, not regret it when it’s too late. For you, tomorrow night will be your destiny, your deciding moment. There will only be two results waiting for you.” Ma Dong explained all of this with a stern expression.

Wang Zhong didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “It’s just a mixer, why do you make it sound like a jail sentencing?”

Scrunching up his eyebrows, Ma Dong said, “I’ve attended many mixers similar to this. Suddenly inviting an outside, either Scarlet has a thing for you or you are the… clown.”

“Clown?”

“Tomorrow, you will be the clown that livens up the atmosphere. What may be awaiting for you there would be ridicule from Scarlet, Reeves, and Milami’s group of people,” replied Ma Dong. Such an act wouldn’t be unusual for that group of people.

Thinking about it for a while, Wang Zhong asked, “If that really is Scarlet’s intent, it shouldn’t just be those people, right?”

Ma Dong rolled his eyes. “You have such high intelligence, but when it comes to relationships you’re out of your league. As your president and brother, I have a duty to care for and protect you!”

Wang Zhong rolled his eyes after hearing that statement. This guy definitely had some ulterior motives. “Why don’t I find an excuse to reject the invitation?”

“That’s not possible, we can’t be terrified as this matter isn’t just something between you and Scarlet. This one match would also determine the future relationship between the Prodigy Society and the Black Rose, so I have already told Scarlet that we the Prodigy Society will advance and retreat as one body!” exclaimed Ma Dong with stern righteousness.

For the rest of the night, Ma Dong practiced his own techniques while Wang Zhong was indifferent. From his few conversations with Scarlet, he felt that she wasn’t that kind of person.

For this problem, Wang Zhong didn’t care much about it and just went to sleep. Seeing Wang Zhong sleeping so deeply, Ma Dong felt very helpless. At times, this guy acted like a complete idiot, while at other times, he seemed to be brimming with intelligence. This made it extremely hard to identify what kind of person Wang Zhong truly was.

As a brother, however, he didn’t like tomorrow’s mixer. Although he’d said he would help Wang Zhong chase after Scarlet, that was just a sunny idea. That said, he was part of a group of playboys during middle school that had played tricks on and made fun of people, so he wasn’t exactly such a good person himself.