Absolute Choice
Absolute Choice - Chapter 72: Battle of the Holy Grail

"What a shameless asshole!"

After Shi Xiaobai left the room, he could not help but curse.

The asshole was clearly referring to Wang Qiang. Over the past seven days, he had encountered a few assholes who sat on the floor asking for their deliverance after they failed to beat him. As such, Shi Xiaobai was furious over such matters.

"Those assholes keep pleading for This King to give them death, but unfortunately, This King does not have any game credits to buy any super weapons..."

Shi Xiaobai sighed. He had neither grasped any Psionic Ability offensive skills, nor had the time to focus on Psionic Ability offensive skills. He had to focus on cultivating Crab Steps during the seven days. As such, he was unable to kill his opponent, preventing him from gaining victory. The only way he could win was to force his opponent to quit.

After Thomas left, Shi Xiaobai encountered numerous opponents. Amongst them, fewer than ten people could hit him while he was using Crab Steps. The remaining could only watch him helplessly.

However, the reason why Shi Xiaobai failed to obtain victory all this while was because—other than those assholes like Wang Qiang who just gave up—he would suffer an exhaustion of his Psionic Power and stamina.

In Unrivaled Heroes, Psionic Power and stamina were reflected by actual numbers. Every time he used Crab Steps or Wavelet Shield, they would expend his Psionic Power and stamina; hence the reason why Shi Xiaobai lost a majority of the time was because he was drained of his Psionic Power and stamina.

Thus, throughout the seven days—other than steadily improving his proficiency in Crab Steps, as well as deepening and consolidating the essential Crab Steps principles he learned from Thomas—the greatest benefit he gained was learning the allocation of his Psionic Power and stamina.

Shi Xiaobai learned how to use the smallest possible motions needed to dodge an attack. He learned how to use the least Psionic Power and stamina to complete every move.

Hence, he finally managed to obtain ten successive rounds of victory!

Then ten successive opponents had struggled an hour with him. After they realized that there was no way to hit him, they quit the room in a fit of rage.

After losing nearly 2000 rounds, Shi Xiaobai had finally obtained victory, so he was in an extremely good mood, until his 11th round where he met an asshole calling himself the King of Leopards....

"Assholes are so hypocritical."

Shi Xiaobai said with a sigh. Suddenly, he felt dizzy and lightheaded. Fatigue seemed to sweep at him like a tsunami, causing him to nearly faint.

Shi Xiaobai hurriedly bit his lower lip to use the pain to keep himself awake.

It had been seven days. Although his improvement was very significant, he did not hear the Absolute Choice announcing his completion of the task. This meant that his Crab Steps had yet to reach the "Dominating Refinement" realm.

Thinking of it, it was indeed no surprise. Spending seven months to improve any combat skill to the "Dominating Refinement" realm was already considered an astounding feat, a human sensation.

An attempt to complete a sensation that took seven months in seven days would be called a divine miracle, so how could it be done so smoothly?

Perhaps, this choice was a mistake from the very beginning.

Since this Absolute Choice was a daily-style choice, there was no chance for him to repeat it. If he succeeded in the mission, he would be rewarded. If he failed, he would receive a punishment. It was very fair, but also very cruel.

However, Shi Xiaobai did not mind if he was rewarded or punished. As long as he had the feeling that he was slowly becoming stronger, he would feel excited. This uncontrollable excitement made him unable to stop himself. For him, to be able to be mad and excited over a particular goal, the goal did not matter. It did not matter how impossible the goal was, as long as he immersed himself in the joyful pursuit of the goal.

"This King will definitely create a miracle!"

Shi Xiaobai waved his fist and looked up at the blue sky that made up the game interface. After a a few minutes of rest, he realized he was getting even more tired, so he decided to stop resting. He was in a hurry to begin the next match.

Clicking on Single Person Battle Mode, Room Mode...

"Warning! Warning! Severe Warning! You have spent 25 consecutive hours in virtual immersion. It is extremely harmful to your mind. Please wake up from the virtual immersion as soon as possible or there might be dire consequences."

The system's warning blared.

Shi Xiaobai was slightly surprised. Only then did he realize that he had not left the virtual world for 25 hours. Upon realizing the existence of reality, he immediately felt pangs of hunger attack his stomach.

At this moment, a voice came blaring from the sky.

"Life detectors have detected the entry of another living object into your room. For your safety, the virtual reality connection will be severed automatically in three seconds to wake you up immediately."

"3, 2, 1!"

The moment the system finished its countdown, Shi Xiaobai felt his as though his consciousness was being struck by sea waves. The world in front of him went black, and soon it was flooded with light. He blinked his eyes in discomfort as the virtual immersion box's internals came into his view.

At the same time, there were the sounds of high heels tapping on the rosewood floor coming from outside the virtual immersion box.

"I'm Yang Weiwei, sorry for disturbing you."

...

...

Ten minutes later.

"So you mean, you wish for This King to represent this branch for the Battle of the Holy Grail?"

Shi Xiaobai was sending warm pork into his mouth. As he looked at the delicate-looking girl in white-collared clothes in front of him, his eyes shimmered with a strange glint.

"Yes, Manager Xia admires your strength greatly. He wishes that you can represent [Gaia] branch at this week's seven-person free-for-all."

Yang Weiwei found Shi Xiaobai's gaze strange, but she did not think too much about it. She did not correct Shi Xiaobai on him terming the seven-person free-for-all a "Battle of the Holy Grail". She was only worried over how to persuade Shi Xiaobai into joining the seven-person free-for-all. If it was the previous her, she would definitely explain the rules of the battle carefully and brag about the great prizes at the weekly match. However, the present her had already been enlightened to the truth—nonsense was king!

Hence, she continued, "The battle arena cafe will set up a viewing hall. Every week's weekly match will be aired free to all residents in Steel City. When that happens, you would receive the undivided attention of thousands of people. And the key thing is that Shi Xiaobai might even watch it!"

Who didn't wish to be the focus of attention? Who didn't wish to show their best in front of their idol?

Yang Weiwei once again made a brazen lie.

Shi Xiaobai swallowed the ground meat in his mouth and he appeared to be deep in thought. He then asked moments later, "The other six contestants, are they strong?"

Yang Weiwei hesitated for a moment. If she verbally weakened the other six contestants to scam Shi Xiaobai into joining, then it might lead to Shi Xiaobai underestimating them. Yang Weiwei had hopes that Shi Xiaobai would keep a low profile in the free-for-all and survive as a result, allowing his ranking to be higher. Hence, she said hesitantly, "Those six contestants...are strong. However, the seven-person free-for-all is a competition of survivability. Your Crab Steps is a huge advantage, so I believe you would give a wonderful performance!"

Yang Weiwei suddenly recalled that she had told Xia Lin that Tu Dahei was extremely afraid of death, hence she had to bite the bullet and say, "The other six contestants are regulars when it comes to competing in the weekly matches. They have certain friendships and also conflicts, so you must try to keep a low profile. As long as you think of a method to lower your presence, you will definitely obtain very good results at the weekly match."

"So those six people that were chosen by the Holy Grail are very powerful, and the rules allow these six people to gang up on one person?"

After Shi Xiaobai heard Yang Weiwei's explanation, he gave his own understanding of the matter.

Yang Weiwei thought for a moment before nodding and said, "The rules allow six to fight one, but as long as you keep a sufficiently low profile, and are careful enough, that situation would not happen. So I suggest that you hide from the beginning, then..."

"This King agrees!" Shi Xiaobai interrupted Yang Weiwei's blabbering.

"What?" Yang Weiwei was stunned.

"This King agrees to participating in the Battle of the Holy Grail. This King does not have time to waste time with you. Since the Battle of the Holy Grail is in the virtual world, This King will first go to the virtual world and wait there."

After Shi Xiaobai said that, he went back into the virtual immersion box and laid down. Today was the last day of his Absolute Choice mission, so he had no time to spare. As for agreeing to participate in Yang Weiwei's described seven-person free-for-all, it was because he had been training against others one-on-one. He believed that if six people were to gang up on him, he might be able to make another breakthrough with his Crab Steps.

"Aren't you resting?"

Yang Weiwei struggled to swallow a mouthful of saliva. Although she was pleasantly surprised that Shi Xiaobai easily agreed to joining the weekly match—when she thought of how Shi Xiaobai spent an average of 22 hours a day for 7 continuous days in virtual reality and had to participate in the grueling seven-person free-for-all—she believed that he would need to rest. If not, how could his body take it?

Yang Weiwei suddenly felt upset as she vaguely felt like she had done something wrong.

Shi Xiaobai did not answer.

No, he used his actions to give his answer.

He pressed the activation button twice and entered the virtual world once again. Green has the connotations of being a cuckold in Chinese, especially in 'wearing a green hat'.