564 Chapter 564: The New Student Even (1/2)

”Did you get all the info we need?”

”Yeah, the important points anyway.”

One of them smirked as he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. His friends gathered around him, listening intently. I couldn't help but stop to eavesdrop because I was a busybody.

”Hai Da Pang summons a Crystal Armor Scorpion. Their class representative, Zheng Ying Shou, I believe, summons a Lava Golem. And then they have someone who can summon a Skeletal Vulture.”

”Skeletal Vulture!” one of them exclaimed in horror. ”You've got to be kidding me! There's no way we can fight against that!”

The group of friends milled about, contemplating over what they had learned. Then one of them raised a hand.

”There's also a guy called Richard Huang, right? Have you heard anything about what he can summon?”

”Nope,” the information giver replied. ”It just so happens that he's not in the same dormitory as the other six summoners.”

Oh, the rest of them stayed in a dormitory? That sucked. At least Dad was able to help me rent an apartment here. I felt fortunate when compared to them. A mercenary wasn't super-rich, but he was admittedly more well off than othr vocations.

”Well, it can't be helped.” The info giver sighed. ”We'll just choose to fight the weakest one. As long as you can defeat one of the summoners, you'll be rewarded by the university.”

From a distance, I continued to eavesdrop, and then I sighed in relief. I had thought they would hear of me, I mean, what was the point of having social media and the Internet if they couldn't just google my name online and watch videos of my match? Either their Google Fu skills were not good or they just sucked at searching online.

Whatever the case, they had clearly never heard of me before. Hah! That lapse in their intelligence gathering skills could only serve to benefit me. Though I wondered if this was a result of plot armor or side character blindness. You know, where for some stupid reason, no matter what the protagonist did in urban cultivation or medieval cultivation stories, nobody in the rest of the world or continent or wherever had ever heard of him. the guy could wipe out entire families or become a grandmaster who was a half-step away from becoming a god, and nobody would have seen him or know how he looked like. It was just baffling, to say the least, especially when you considered how information networks and social media operated these days.

It had to be plot armor or something. There was no other way to explain the ignorance of side characters and the ever annoying crowd who existed solely just to trash-talk the main character.

Fortunately, there was someone who did recognize me.

”Hey, Richard!”

Zhao Zi Jun waved at me before striding over. He gestured for me to sit at a table with him. Since this was a cafeteria, there were plenty of spots for us to sit around. I was hungry anyway, so I grabbed a bunch of stuff to eat and sat with him.

”How are you?”

”Okay lor. What about you, bro? Long time no see, eh?”

”Yeah. It really has been a while. I hope you didn't get into trouble with the Hei family or something?” I still recalled the last time we spoke. Zhao Zi Jun had informed me of Hei Gui's attempt to get me assassinated over some reason as stupid and vague as me ”having a connection to her.” What an idiot.

”No lah. Don't worry about that. Brother Gui is a bit seow (crazy), so his parents sent him to a mental institution for treatment. He always anyhow say one lah. Lucky his parents never listen to him, otherwise we all very jia lat (will be in big trouble).”

Yay! I really missed Singlish. It was great to speak to a fellow Singaporean after a long while. Majulah Singapura!

”Anyway, bro, you got any info for me or not? We very gum (we are friends), right? Tell me about your summoned beast, can or not?”

”Okay lor. Not like I have anything to hide. But are you sure you don't know? You should have watched my matches during the national tournament last year what.”

”Alamak, how did I forget, huh?” Zhao Zi Jun looked as if he wanted to hit his forehead in exasperation. ”Of course I got watch! Sorry lah, bro. These days very busy, so every time forget. You have a spirit wolf, right?”

”Huh? Spirit wolf?” Was he referring to Canis Major? But Canis Major was more of a dog than a wolf, so even if he was referring to my huge Constellation spirit, he was still mistaken. ”No, not exactly.”

”Then it must be a few times stronger than even the typical matured monster!” Zhao Zi Jun laughed. ”Even if many people from our dormitory group up together, we still wouldn't be able to defeat you!”

”…are you mistaking me for somebody?” I asked, trying not to sound too angry. ”I'm not a versatile mage, you know?”

”Oh, right. You are not Bu Fan. Sorry for mixing you up.”

”Wait…wait, wait.” I raised a hand. ”Did you mention Bu Fan?”

”Oh, yeah.” Zhao Zi Jun nodded. ”He joined Ming Zhu University, but he ended up having the summoning element and shadow element shortly before he enrolled there, and now he has a spirit wolf in addition to his fire and lightning magic!”

”We are so going to be sued for copyright and plagiarism, aren't we?” I asked, burying my face in my palm. It was only a matter of time before this story got taken down and I got blacklisted. Even the excuse of parody wasn't going to get me very far.

”Don't worry lah. He's not the main character what. As long as he doesn't show up too often, nobody can complain about copyright and stuff.”

”That's assuming we hadn't gotten into trouble regarding the whole vampire arc earlier, which was clearly me making fun of a certain vampire shoujo manhua…granted, the writing was so awful and the characters made no sense whatsoever, so there was no way for me to resist making fun of everything that had happened there…”

”Anyway, it's going to be time.” Zhao Zi Jun glanced at his smartphone. ”My deparment wants us to assemble soon. I go first, okay?”