Wang Tong listened carefully while Ma Xiaoru explained the tutorial questions to him. He was never after the title of "straight A" — he knew that he couldn't be a straight A student even if he wanted to — neither was he going to become a rocket scientist; therefore, he figured that he would only need to understand enough for him to graduate. He was deeply moved by Ma Xiaoru's patience and attention to details; it was the first time in his life that someone had given him so much attention and care. Wang Tong's only relative was Old Fart. Unfortunately, he doubted if Old Fart knew how to spell "caring".
Although Wang Tong was moved by Ma Xiaoru, he was also equally possessed by Samantha. For some inexplicable reason, Wang Tong had always experienced an uncontrollable fit of excitement whenever he thought about Samantha.
He started to find it hard to fall asleep at night as he was torn between the choice of the meek and caring Ma Xiaoru and the dangerous and sexy Samantha.
Having been mired in his infatuations, Wang Tong forgot about the TPA fights and didn't sign in ever since his last fight. However, his absence had been noted and had stirred up wild speculations and preposterous commands in the virtual community.
The reviews about Wang Tong's fight were mixed. Every day, more and more TPA fighters joined the ranks of challengers since the consensus of the online community was that Einherjar Wannabe's victory was a fluke, and he was not as powerful as his victory seem to have suggested. They believed that Einherjar Wannabe's popularity was primarily due to Wang Ben, yet, Wang Ben had been only an IPA fighter when their match took place. Therefore, the victory did not carry that much credence. Wang Tong's absences only added fuel to the fire as it gave other TPA fighters an impression of him being either cowardly or pretentious.
Amidst the ceaseless uproar, those who had deciphered the real power of Einherjar Wannabe had remained calm and silent as they quietly gathered more information about the mysterious fighter. Once they had gathered enough evidence to validate their speculation, they would strike without hesitation.
"Luv Ma, haven't you sent out the challenge? "
"Yes, every day. But I doubt that he would notice ours among the other thousands of challenges. I say you have a better chance exchanging barbs with Gadus." Luv Ma shook his head as he lamented over the free labor he had to provide for Miao Xiu.
"I'm not sure where Gadus is, I have been looking for him for days. I think he is hiding!" Mia Xiu pouted. He was not interested in his senior classmates at all, for, he knew that it was only a matter of time before he defeated Gadus and gained the title of No.1 Fighter of the second year.
The ranking system had remained a tradition at the Starry Sky Academy. The number one on that list would enjoy certain of privileges granted by the school. That being said, anyone could challenge the No. 1 fighter in a formal challenge, and the challenger did not have to come from the same year as the title holder.
Although the title of the first year's No. 1 fighter was still vacant, everyone knew to whom this title belonged. Although this person had never instigated a single fight, even the most arrogant brat such as Miao Xiu did not dare to cross path with him. Miao Xiu would rather fight a senior student than fight Patroclus.
Cao Yi had also become more popular ever since the fight with Wang Tong. Even the students at Bernabeu were caught off guard by his performance. They never thought that such a meek and kind classmate would unleash so much belligerent attack upon his opponent, neither did they thought that Cao Yi could reach such a high soul energy reading.
Cao Yi's friendliness didn't change even after he had become popular. He engrossed himself in his research, but he never refused his classmates' sparring requests and had always offered his suggestions openly.
Martyrus had also spent much time with this boy, grooming him into a powerful fighter. There were usually two types of talented person: one that was born with talents and the other that had earned it through strenuous efforts. Martyrus believed that Cao Yi was the latter and experience had taught him the ones that had gained talents through hard work were more likely to continue to be successful. What made Martyrus believed in Cao Yi even more firmly was the fact that the boy seemed to be genuinely interested in tactics.
Just like Miao Xiu, Cao Yi had been signing into the TPA system every day to wait out Einherjar Wannabe. Their fight had been inspiring to him, but it also provoked more questions. For one thing, he never believed that Einherjar Wannabe was only 16 years old; based on his usage of soul energy, Cao Yi had estimated Einherjar Wannabe to be around 35 or so.
Cao Yi had maintained a calm appearance, but it was a thin disguise of the wild turbulence the fight had stirred up in his mind. Before the fight, Cao Yi had always believed that as long as he kept his strike fast and precise, he could be invincible, but the match had proven him wrong. He started to realize that simpler moves sometimes could outweigh elaborated ones.
Suddenly, Cao Yi seemed to have realized something, he jumped out of his chair and darted out of the library. He realized that it wasn't a set of flawless moves he needed, but a simple and effective strike to settle the scores.
Wang Tong didn't consider TPA as the most important part of his life; therefore he only showed up when he was available. This weekend was a busy one for Wang Tong since he planned to visit a few robotic shops after his work was done. Although he was told that the chance of Charcoal's revival was slim, he had remained adamant in his quest to bring his friend back.
He didn't visit Ma Xiaoru's house this weekend either, not because he didn't receive her invitation, but he was still confused by his infatuations. Since he couldn't make up his mind between Ma Xiaoru and Samantha, he decided to push the matter aside and focusing on more pressing issues such as reviving Charcoal. Do nothing was always better than do the wrong thing.
He spent his morning visiting eight robotic shops, and none could come up with a good solution. All the official outlets unanimously suggested to handle the situation by the book, and their quotes for the job were astronomical. None of the black market robotic shops were useful either; some of them had proposed an overhaul of Charcoal's system but could not offer Wang Tong a warranty. Fearing that he might lose Charcoal for good, Wang Tong refused their proposal right away.
The recent development in the TPA had proved himself to be a competent fighter. Therefore Wang Tong was confident that it would only be a matter of time before he could earn enough money to revive Charcoal. He decided to wait rather than wasting his luck and money on a dodgy black market shop.
Wang Tong continued his search after lunch, but he was slowed down by the commuting around the city. Although Shangjin had a well-developed transit system, the enormous size of the city meant that the transit system wouldn't be able to cover every corner of the city. Therefore, Wang Tong had to walk to some places. After an entire day of searching that had bared no fruit, Wang Tong conceded that his only hope would lay at the search institutes, but he doubted that any institute would bother with a low-tire robot.
As the night fell, Wang Tong decided to give up and go home. He entertained the thoughts of traveling to the Moon as he had heard that there were a lot of skilled robotic mechanics there. But to pay for the expensive flight to the Moon, he needed to save more money — It always came down to the money.
As he walked along the bustling street of Shangjin, hearing the soft whirs of Meg-levs above his head, a strange mixture of exhilaration, nostalgia, and loneliness arose inside of him.
He saw a department store and remembered that he needed cover sheets for his bed, so he walked toward the store, thinking that he might as well grab a new T-shirt or two while he was there.
As soon as Wang Tong stepped through the threshold, he heard a deafening blare, and he saw a thousand pieces of broken glasses flying at him. He acted out of instinct as he sprawled on the floor.
"Sh*t, so much trouble for a set of bed sheets!"