Sword Among Us

Panda Novel

When the second segment ended, Happy had quite the amount of time left on his hands. He quietly logged off the game and opened his eyes, and he was just in time to hear the Three Lonely Wolves talk about their former senior Orochimaru taking revenge through gritted teeth. He listened to them while retaining his composure, but as he heard more, he slowly furrowed his eyebrows.

Orochimaru…

He had heard this name before.

It was the name of an antagonist from a popular manga known as Naruto. He did not think that someone would actually use this name to walk about World of Martial Arts. In his previous life, when he heard this name, he did not pay too much attention to it, but later on, this person created an outrageous incident known as the Hundred Man Massacre in the game.

During a mission to search for a treasure, whoever took up the quest had to go through a deep and narrow ravine in Five Dragon Mountain. At that time, one hundred or so martial artists had to go through it.

When they reached the middle of it, countless poisonous creatures fell upon them. They were followed by poisonous smoke and fog, and the hundred or so martial artists simply did not have any room to dodge. If they were not bitten to death by the poisonous creatures, they were sucked into the poisonous smoke or fog while trying to crawl forward. The situation had been incredibly devastating and terrifying. All the people’s power was greatly reduced, and they were killed by Orochimaru, who had hidden himself in the group.

None of the one hundred or so people survived!

This matter had incited more than twenty sects to gather together to pursue him. However, while they chased after him, there were players who were continuously killed by Orochimaru when he struck back, and his name rang through the entire game.

Speaking of which, Orochimaru could be considered as an infamous evil player who was ruthless and would use all means to achieve victory. He was well-known for his brutality and because he stood at the other side of justice.

‘It’s him?’

Happy lay down on his bed and breathed quietly.

In the beginning, he had thought that his final opponent would be Brother Tea Words or Rampaging Dragon in this martial arts tournament. His chances of victory against them would be above 90%, but by the looks of it now, it seemed like another unknown factor had just entered the equation.

The threat Orochimaru brought was quite great.

He did not enter the tournament just because he wanted to take revenge on the University of South China, much less because of the reward for first place. He wanted to get first place in the South China Martial Arts Ranking Board region so that he could humiliate the university.

If he succeeded, he would deal a fatal blow to the morale of all the students in the University of South China…

If Orochimaru got through this test of strength in South China Martial Arts Ranking Board and was set to have his strength examined by the international martial arts tournament, the public would definitely direct their anger at whoever had recommended him. If they did not handle this matter well, South China Martial Arts Ranking Board, which the Three Lonely Wolves had worked hard to manage, would receive a heavy blow. If the situation went bad, they might not even be able to recover from the setback.

When he thought about this in-depth, a fierce glare shone in Happy’s eyes. He made a decision in his heart. Since South China Martial Arts Ranking Board got into trouble because of how he spurred the events, he had to take responsibility and protect it!

‘Orochimaru, since you provoked the University of South China, then I will do as you wish!’

Once he made that decision, Happy logged back into the game without batting an eye. He returned to the dimension the official developers developed—the stage for the martial arts tournament.

Time flowed like a rapid stream, and soon, they the third segment began.

By then, the number of participants in the University of South China had been cut down to less than two hundred. All the people were gathered in one dimension, and many of them were familiar faces. They were all people who had once shown their brilliance on the influence ranking board.

Happy’s appearance quickly gathered many people’s attention.

Quite a number of gazes were gathered on him!

However, when a cry of surprise appeared, even more people’s attention moved to a corner of the stage. Orochimaru was there, and he was dressed in tight-fitting, black clothes. He looked like a warrior with samurai swords fixed diagonally behind his back.

Happy also saw Orochimaru. He frowned, because he was forced to recall a certain unpleasant country based on his attire. Killing intent rose in him for a brief moment.

“Happy!”

A familiar voice with a hint of happiness quickly drew close to him. When he turned his head around, he saw Butt Shaker, who had nearly ended up injuring him badly at the risk of his own life. He squeezed through the crowd with his disheveled appearance and approached Happy.

“Bum, you’re here too?”

When he heard Happy call him Bum, Butt Shaker was instantly stunned. He stared at Happy dazedly.

“Just who are you?”

Only a handful of people who were very familiar with him would call him Bum. However, he knew all of his close friends’ in-game IDs, and he did not find anything familiar about Happy. Yet somehow, Happy had called him that name in a very casual manner.

“You’ll never guess.” Happy grinned and noticed that two other people were heading his way. His expression froze, and he immediately wanted to turn away and flee.

“Stay where you are!”

Phoenix Dances’ voice immediately drowned out quite a number of voices in the area. Many people’s gazes were attracted to them. They looked at Phoenix Dances’ graceful and alluring figure and the masked and mysterious Happy with indecipherable expressions.

Phoenix Dances might have a number of pursuers in the university, but all of them had failed. There was no other reason for it besides Phoenix Dances basically being an all-round genius.

Those who had strong bodies were not as eloquent as she was, and those who were eloquent could not win against her in a physical fight. Those who could win against her could not play an instrument, and those who were very good at persuading others would usually be defeated when she challenged them to drink a bottle of white wine with her. Those who were good at drinking did not dare to show that they had high alcohol tolerance, because there was no one who could challenge her when it came to drinking.

Over the last two years, many people had been utterly defeated in their quest to date her, and within a short period of time, all the boys who tried to woo her failed. From then on, a saying came to circulate among the boys. “A boy who can stand up to this girl hasn’t been born yet…”

Happy was one of the boys who knew what went on, so he did not want to catch this girl’s attention…

‘Too feisty. Not my type.’

Hence, when he saw Phoenix Dances walk over with traces of hate in her bright eyes, he shuddered, turned around, and wanted to run. He was truly worried that this girl would recklessly pull off his mask.

But when he was called, he did not want to destroy his own reputation either.

He chuckled, and his gaze landed on Phoenix Dances, who was as dazzling and charming as ever. “I was wondering who it was. It’s you, huh? My greatest hobby is to talk with beautiful ladies, so why don’t we go to a quiet place and talk?” He spoke to her with a tone reserved for very familiar friends. But when other people heard it, he sounded just like a rascal.

“Who’d want to talk with you?”

Phoenix Dances fell for it, just as expected. She stood seven feet away from him, looking like she wanted to keep a distance from him.

“Hmph, I came here to tell you that the person over there is yours! You must do everything you can to defeat him. If he places first in the ranking board, even if I have to dig three feet into the ground, I’ll still dig you out of your grave!” When she said this, her gaze was fixed on the person in black standing at the corner far away.

Happy rubbed his nose and joked, “I’m not dead yet, did you have to curse me?”

Phoenix Dances’ eyebrows twitched, and she looked like she was about to fly into a rage.

Butt Shaker saw this, and his heart thumped against his chest. He quickly ran up to mediate the situation.

“Let’s not be rash, he doesn’t know about it…” He turned around and whispered to Happy, “Bro, just promise her. One of the girls in Phoenix Dances’ dorm was tortured and killed by Orochimaru. Anyway, that bastard is a bad guy… She cried for a long time, and Phoenix Dances has already declared war under the thread Orochimaru posted. The entire university knows about it. You… know about it as well, right?”

Happy did not say anything. Once he heard Butt Shaker’s explanation, he put away the joking look on his face.

His gaze slowly turned cold, and he stared at Orochimaru through the crowd, who was also staring at their side while arrogantly standing in the corner with a straight back. There was a look on his face that made chill crawl up the hearts of all the people in the area.

“I’ll deal with him.” Happy’s voice was cold and ghastly, and he spoke with confidence.

Happy did not notice that when he said those words, Bum, Phoenix Dances, and Brother Tea Words, who had walked over with her, sensed a presence from him that made their hearts quiver.