Chapter 37: The Winner Is...
Everything had happened so fast that even Ron and Mark couldn’t react in time. Ron had already pushed his body to its absolute limit. At that point, he didn’t have any strength left to pay attention to anything else.
Even Nexus had to raise an eyebrow slightly as he watched the battle between these two weaklings. The disciple he had just accepted was... interesting?
The men looked at Nexus without even swallowing, as if waiting for his final judgment.
What they had just witnessed showed them just how terrifying the gap in strength between the two sides was. They might have had the numbers, but they were nothing more than a few dozen ants that couldn’t withstand a single stomp from an elephant.
"Why are you looking at me? Why not look at the main character?"
Other than waking the system up to do its job, Nexus hadn’t done anything this whole time. He really couldn’t understand why this group of people kept treating him as the center of the story.
The system had been the one doing all the incredible things this whole time, yet they all thought it was Nexus’s ability or some AI. Though it was true that the system was Nexus’s ability, it had its own consciousness.
Hearing Nexus say that, everyone awkwardly turned their heads elsewhere. They hadn’t meant to, but the atmosphere had suddenly become so strangely quiet that they didn’t know who they were supposed to look at.
Before the fight, both Ron and Mark had said a lot, yet after it ended, he remained silent for so long. Perhaps even he was shocked by the outcome of the battle.
After landing on the ground, Ron stood motionless like a stone statue. The fresh blood covering his body still wasn’t enough to convince him to believe this result.
Ron had won. The one who had lost the upper half of his body was Mark. Most of the blood covering Ron belonged to Mark. Only a small portion was Ron’s.
Of course, it wasn’t because Mark had injured him. Those wounds were caused by Ron pushing his attacks beyond what his body could endure, causing his body to bleed.
"I... won?"
Ron muttered blankly, his eyes trembling in disbelief. Looking at the blood-filled crater and what remained of Mark’s body, an overwhelming sense of pride surged within him.
He had overcome his fear of Mark’s pressure, had fought on with determination beyond his limits. Ron had succeeded, succeeded beyond even his own expectations.
"I won. I really won! Hahaha... Arghh!"
Everything had just started to make him laugh when the pain became so intense that Ron collapsed to the ground, his entire body curling up on instinct. The adrenaline had worn off, and all the pain came flooding back at once.
Even though the agony made Ron grit his teeth, there was still a deeply satisfied smile hidden behind that grimace.
For the first time in his life, he truly felt that he wasn’t worthless. It wasn’t the satisfaction of bullying the weak to feed his ego, but the joy of overcoming someone he had once believed he didn’t even deserve to stand before.
Mark’s pressure had made Ron want to kneel. Even an A-rank hunter couldn’t make him feel this kind of pressure. It was obvious just how crazy Ron had been earlier, betting everything on what he had once believed would be his final moment.
Now he was still alive. More than that, he was alive and well. Even though his body was in agony, Ron’s spirit had never felt this peaceful since the day he became a hunter.
This feeling of comfort was just like when he had been a carefree child, growing up under the protection of the adults around him. Like the days before his family died during a dangerous dungeon raid.
Seeing Ron crying and screaming in pain while somehow looking like he was laughing at the same time, the men watching frowned.
They thought Ron had suffered such a severe mental shock that he had gone insane. He had clearly been the strongest among them, yet now he was lying helpless on the ground.
Still, they couldn’t help but respect Ron. While they had all knelt down, Ron alone had tried to stand up and face Mark.
[Nexus!]
The system finally couldn’t hold it in anymore and started yelling. The blue screen immediately turned red.
[Where the hell did you find an idiot like this? When did I ever tell him I’d given him power beyond mortals? All I did was return his soul and restore his body a little, yet he went looking for death again. What the hell is wrong with him? I didn’t even have time to confirm his identity as your disciple before he died again.]
A moment ago, if the system had managed to confirm Mark’s identity as Nexus’s first official disciple and record his name in the Cultivation Academy’s roster, Ziz would have awakened in time and unleashed its power to suppress everything.
"Didn’t you like him too? Wasn’t Mark’s arrogant attitude that made everyone kneel just a fraction of yours? He’s your and my disciple, so what’s the problem?"
Nexus shrugged and dumped all the blame onto the system. This whole mess was the system’s fault, so why was it pinning the blame on him?
When it saw Mark’s performance, the system could have warned him immediately, but instead it watched with pride.
Take the credit when things succeed, push the blame away when they fail. This damn arrogant system really was a complete bastard.
[...]
[Fine. This great system admits that brat is a tiny, tiny bit like me. But his strength and innate talent are complete trash. Even if he’s F-rank, that’s still better than his trash G-rank master, but he’s still nothing special. Lucky for him, he has this great system. Otherwise, he’d be trash for the rest of his life.]
After pausing for a moment, the system felt that still wasn’t enough to elevate its own status while putting Mark down, so it continued.
[Of course, this mortal must treat me with reverence and worship me as his one and only god. Otherwise, don’t even dream of receiving the system’s blessing.]
"Whatever you say. My job is just to teach him how to cultivate."
Nexus was already used to the system’s personality, so he let it curse all it wanted. Unless it talked too much and got way too vulgar like last time, then he’d use the mute function to force it to shut up.
While Nexus and the system casually chatted as if no one else was around, everyone nearby was so anxious they were about to have heart attacks.
Seeing Nexus witness such a horrifying scene with such an indifferent expression, they all assumed he was a cold-blooded killer who didn’t even blink at taking lives, and they were so terrified they were on the verge of passing out.
Ron had been the most reliable pillar among them, yet now he was curled up on the ground like a madman, making them feel even more hopeless.