*Bing-Bong*
It has come to the writerâs attention that not many people are familiar with the term, "heel", so we will be interrupting the normal flow of the chapter to explain.
...
In the world of professional wrestling, the fighters normally fall into one of two roles: the babyface and the heel.
The babyface is the term to for the protagonists in wrestling.
Theyâre the "good guys", the honorable heroes, the one who makes the audience loves them, the person everyone roots for because theyâre the underdog or fighting for a cause, that kind of thing.
The heel on the other hand are the antagonists of wrestling.
They mock people, they fight dirty, they actively piss off the audience, they try invoke boos instead of applause, for all intents and purposes, they are the "bad guys".
Of course, it should ben noted that these roles are never set in stone, and that fighters will regularly switch between the two roles depending on the storyline.
...
We now return to your regularly scheduled chapter, thank you.
...
Couldnât help but notice youâve been using this little blurb thing less frequently as of late.
|I like to think Iâve been more organized with my plot.|
S-sure.
|...|
...
|Stop judging me.|
Never.
*Bing-Bong*
_____________________________________________
[Milord...Iâm confused. Why did you choose to antagonize everybody in this arena and your opponents all in the same breath?,] Nepherage asked.
As a kaijin with a core literally dedicated around [Heroism], she was a touch concerned about how Zhen Liu was acting more or less like an arrogant villain. Granted, she was used to him acting like a weird evil mastermind, but that was usually in the private chambers of the library and involved elaborate disguises aimed at one person in particular, maybe two if he was feeling up to it.
This time he was doing it in broad daylight, while an entire arenaâs worth of people was watching.
All in all, it didnât look good.
âWell, Nepherage, I actually have a-â
[Isnât obvious mi amiga?,] Hurricroak interjected with a dramatic tone[our lord is finally hitting is villain arc!]
âI...what?â
[What...?]
[Excuse me?]
Seeing how she had grabbed everyoneâs attention with her unusual statement, Hurricroak proceeded to ham it up a bit more.
[First, it starts with out lord being disrespectful to his opponents. Next, heâll start to liter and be rude to his parents.]
[Thatâs...fairly mild...]
[Then heâll start eating babies,] Hurricroak continued,
[Okay, nope, that is a...massive leap in logic,] Spring Brawler pointed out.
[Finally, he will conquer the world and then he will fulfill his mater plan and HE WILL CUCK EVERYONE, INCLUDING THEIR PETS!]
[...]
âWhat the fuck?â
[Or heâll do none of that and heâs just doing this because itâs funny.]
[What...just...what?]
[That...that went from zero...to sixty....to a like a billion...real fast,] Razorstella pointed out.
âA-anyways...,â Zhen Liu said in an attempt to move the conversation along, âI actually have two good reasons to play the bad guy. The first of which is to become the center of attention, but not in a gloating way. The way I see it, if I act like a massive tool, that means Iâm a massive target. Even if my cousins do absolutely amazing in the tournament, people are more likely to cheer for them and redirect any sabotage or cheating attempts towards me specifically. My cousins are damn good warriors and could probably handle that shit just fine, but Iâm the one with the indestructible(?) body here thatâs...probably immune to poison, I still need to test that later. Either way, itâs better for people to gun for my head than theirs.â
[Huh. That is actually very noble of you milord. I apologize for not noticing this sooner.]
âItâs cool Nepherage, itâs cool.â
[Wait...what was the second reason, maestro?]
âWhat...what are you talking about?â
[You always have two reasons whenever you do stuff. One that is actually justifiable and sounds somewhat sensible, and one that is either out of left field or...mildly petty,] Razorstella elaborated.
âNo, I...donât...â
[...]
<=...=>
âOkay...I got caught up in the moment of the slap and rode that high into making some questionable decisions in a moment.â
[There it is.]
[Is...is it good thing or a bad thing that you can always seem to find a justifiable reason behind dumb decisions.]
âYes.â
_____________________________________________
To say Zhen Liuâs statement was antagonistic would be putting it mildly, at best.
Trash talk was normal, almost expected in a tournament setting such as this, but it was another thing entirely for someone to say that theyâre going to defeat their next seven opponents with a literal slap to the face.
It should go without saying that the reactions to this declaration, combined with the manner in which Zhen Liu left the arena floor in order to go to the lounge area was rather...mixed. Although, it was leaning heavily on the reactions being mostly negative.
<<Did...that kid seriously just declare he would literally slap his opponents into submission? The audacity!>>
<<I have seen disrespectful youth...but this is whole other level.>>
<<I...sincerely wish, someone put this upstart child in his place...preferably a coffin...>>
However, surprisingly, there were a couple positive reactions scattered about.
"On the one hand, that was unnecessarily arrogant...on the other, I kind of want to see him do it."
<<You know...someone rolling up to humble the Zhen Clanâs disciples isnât necessarily a bad thing...>>
{Oh, I just know this yearâs fights are going to be great!}
Of course, the people who had the biggest reaction to this declaration were the ones who were closest to him, aka, his family and lovers.
_____________________________________________
In the lounge area...
"Did...did Zhen Liu seriously just do that?!," Zhen Feng asked in disbelief.
"I mean, I knew he was strong but damn that was...brutal."
"Yeah," Zhen Tai agreed, "I mean...he canât use a single art without his puppets, but damn that tradeoff."
"A part of me feels annoyed that I wasnât the one to make a big ass challenging declaration like that...but at the same time, Iâm kind of glad he did it first."
"Uh...whyâs that, Zhen Hai?"
"Because now I got reference material for my own declaration."
"Aight."
_____________________________________________
Inside the fighting arena where Zhen Xing was fighting...
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
"Huh? Whatâs so funny?"
"Nothing, nothing," Zhen Xing replied as he wiped a laughing tear from his eyes, "itâs just that...thatâs my cousin down there who made that declaration."
"Okay..."
"And now I feel like I need to up my own game here!"
"What are you-what the fuck?"
Before his very eyes, Zhen Xingâs form began to turn hazy and smoky, as clones of him appeared on the battlefield, accompanied by a strange dance-like movement.
"I donât know why, but I have been feeling more...dance focused as of late. Try not to get to lost into the rhythm, otherwise, this is gonna hurt!"
_____________________________________________
"I know Zhen Liu directed his challenge towards those in his round robin portion, but why did it feel like he just challenged the entire arena with that statement?," Rianna asked.
"Because, my buff and buggy friend, Xiao Liu definitely did just that," Jin Fang answered with a complicated expression.
As an unofficial member and servant of the Zhen Clan, respectively, Rianna and Jin Fang didnât get a chance to go up into the skybox alongside the elders and their immediate family.
They were however allowed to watch the fighting from the lounge areas since one of them was technically a personal servant, and the other just use the lie she was a bodyguard.
A lot of people took just one look at Rianna and believed that lie almost immediately.
âI feel like I should be more annoyed at Zhen Liuâs act,â Jin Fang thought to herself, âbut...â
Jin Fang felt conflicted as on the one hand, she found Zhen Liuâs borderline arrogant confidence absolutely annoying and couldnât help but wish for someone to smack some sense to him...on the other, she found it unusually endearing and wanted to be the smack him...before tying him to the bed.
Jin Fang wasnât sure why, but Zhen Liuâs "evil" performances had a tendency to wake something in her...it may have had something to do with those "otome games" Pathos let her play sometimes...
"Okay, I think I need to stop hanging around-wait, Rianna, where are you going?"
"Iâm going to go mark his stuff before any other females try to take him."
"That...thatâs not how humans work!"
"Then why have I seen many a woman spray perfume on an item of clothes before giving it to their mates?"
"That...Iâm just gonna go with you."
"Thatâs what I thought."
_____________________________________________
Up in the skybox...
"Xiao Yan..."
"Seventh brother..."
"Honey..."
"I...have no idea where he got that from."
Patriarch Zhen Shi. six of the seven elders of the Zhen Clan, and the Seventh Mother were staring directly at the Seventh Elder, Zhen Yan, because since he was the father of Zhen Liu, he was technically responsible for the sheer amount of arrogance the young man had displayed on the field.
In fact, they all believed that Zhen Yan should directly apologize to the matriarch of the main clan for this disrespect...however...
<<BAHAHAHAHA! By the scales! You guys know how to raise some feisty bastards in the desert, er, no offense.>>
The matriarch of the Zhen Clan seemed to love it.
For some reason.
<<Ey yo, if your formerly crippled wonderkid is this much of a riot, howâs the rest of the young masters and missy like? Are they just interesting?>>
"Uh..."
Evidently, this was a question that would be addressed during their fights.