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Chapter 100: Contest Center

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

It was Han Sen's turn. His opponent was a guy called Lei Ban. The moment Han Sen got on the stage, Lei Ban summoned a beast soul bow and three beast soul arrows and shot all three arrows at him. The three arrows almost flew to Han Sen at the same time.

Han Sen was surprised. Lei Ban was at least as good at archery as him, and even had better techniques than him. Judging from the look of his bow, it was likely a sacred-blood beast soul bow and two of the three arrows were dark green, so they were probably poisonous like his mutant black stinger arrow. The third arrow was made from blue crystal and sounded as if it could tear air apart when it was in the air, which suggested it could be a sacred-blood beast soul arrow.

"Sure enough, there is no one weak here." Han Sen swiftly dodged the strongest blue crystal arrow and summoned his mutant sawfish spear to ward off the other two arrows.

Han Sen felt a bash as the arrows and his spear collided. The spear almost fell from his hand.

"Excellent archer and weapons," thought Han Sen in awe. He squeezed the spear and approached Lei Ban.

Lei Ban was not only fast, but was also able to shoot while running. The arrows were not affected by his movement at all. Unable to trap Lei Ban with his spear, Han Sen had to run after Lei Ban while dodging his arrows.

Han Sen had a lot of respect for this opponent, who had much better footwork than him and could shoot arrows in all positions when moving with both great strength and accuracy. Han Sen had also worked hard on archery but he was only able to shoot when standing still. His accuracy would suffer a lot if he tried to move.

Lei Ban was indeed much stronger than him in archery, so Han Sen was not in a hurry to end the match. Instead, he started to observe his opponent and learn from him.

Han Sen's match had also attracted a lot of people's attention. After all, Dollar was popular. But compared with Yi Dongmu, his performance was less than impressive. More than half an hour had passed and they were still running after each other, rendering the audience drowsy.

In First God's Sanctuary, people were quite disappointed in Dollar, except for his hardcore fans. Since a match with an unknown person had cost him so much effort, Dollar didn't seem to have what it took to become the Chosen.

When the match had been going on for more than an hour, Han Sen shapeshifted into the bloody slayer, approached Lei Ban and beat him in a close combat, which Lei was not good at.

The same day, all major media in the Alliance had covered the contest. Although there was no image, the reporters managed to depict the matches vividly with words.

Their main focus was on Yi Dongmu's match. Yi's background was also published—the grandson of Senator Yi who had graduated with stellar grades from the best posh school before entering God's Sanctuary.

His background and his seckill of Dragon Swordsman made him a major contender this year.

The victory of Tang had also made him a favorite.

Another top contestant was Lin Feng. His match, however, benefited his opponent, who was considered to have lost by a narrow margin by the media.

There were articles on Han Sen too, but they were rather short in general. The longer ones were all focused on the disappointment in Dollar.

Most of the reports were filled with phrases like "narrow win," "work to be done," "hard to live up to the reputation" and "to be improved." There was not much description.

In fact, those who saw Han Sen's match, including his fans, had to admit Dollar was just average.

The team of the TV program "Contest Center" was holding a meeting in their office building. In the conference room, the station director Xu Kangnian was tapping his finger on the table. He looked at Fang Mingquan sitting on his right side and suggested with a smile, "Fang, do you think we need to make some alterations to today's show?"

"Which alterations do you have in mind?" Fang Ming frowned, as he could guess what Xu Kangnian wanted to say.

Since Dollar's video became viral, Fang Mingquan was poached by Huaxing Station's "Contest Center" team. Because he had taken the place of an old host in the station, he was not the most popular person here. He was targeted here and there, which made it difficult for him to realize his career goals.

"Fang, we journalists have to focus on the hot issues. Contest Center was designed for this contest and we ought to focus on the more outstanding matches." Xu Kangnian paused and said, "Shall we put Dollar's content on hold, and release it when he had a better match? Let's focus on Yi Dongmu first. What do you think?"

"The director has a point. Yi is so popular right now, of course we should focus on him. Dollar was just lucky to have killed a badly injured Shura. His weakness was exposed in the contest and he couldn't even be in the top 100, let alone the Chosen. There is little point covering his match. We need to focus on Yi who could be the first place." Wang Changqing said with his face stern, giving Fang Mingquan a cold stare.

This program used to belong to Wang Changqing, and he was replaced by Fang Mingquan in the end, which explained why Fang was not his favorite person.

"Yes. It's settled then. Fang, let's roll with Yi Dongmu for this one," said Xu Kangnian.

Fang Mingquan curled his lips and felt suffocated. He suppressed his anger and scanned each onlooker. Shooting Wang Changqing a cold stare, he looked at Xu Kangnian and said calmly, "Director Xu, if you still want me to host Contest Center, I will talk about Dollar, not just for this episode, but for all future episodes. I will also tell everyone that Dollar will be the winner of the contest."

Everyone in the conference room paused and looked like Fang Mingquan as if he were crazy.

Chapter 101: Infamy

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Every year during the contest, there was a lot of special programs that covered different matches. Although Contest Center was just a new program, it was produced by Huaxing Station, which was a prominent TV station. With a celebrity host Fang Mingquan, the program had good ratings and was among top 100 in the Alliance.

Top 100 may sound less than impressive, but was in fact an amazing achievement. In the entire Alliance, each planet had tens of thousands of programs, many of which were from the authority. It was quite something to stand out and be among top 100.

And of course, during the contest, a program focusing on the contest itself would naturally have higher ratings.

On this day, the content of Contest Center caused an uproar in the Alliance. Fang Mingquan had introduced and analyzed Dollar's current situation and predicted that this year Dollar would become the final champion, which had lead to outspread outrage.

"Fang Mingquan is a retard. Look at Dollar's performance, how can he win?"

"We know that you are famous because of Dollar's video. But there is no need to kiss Dollar's ass like this."

"Rubbish. If Dollar is the champion, I will live broadcast myself eating s*#t."

"What do you think of Yi Dongmu if you think Dollar could win?"

"Ha-ha, Fang Mingquan is so dumb. Dollar will meet Yi Dongmu before he gets to top 10. He'd be lucky to survive. To win? LMAO."

"My Tang Zhenliu would never let him!"

"My Lin Feng would never let him!"

"Stupid, stupid, stupid..."

"Although I also like Dollar, he didn't do that well in the contest so far."

"Fang Mingquan, you are too subjective about this. I can't even watch this stuff and I am a fan of Dollar's."

"You call yourself a fan? Go be other people's fan, please."

"Dollar is nothing compared to Yi."

"Yi must win."

"Dollar little angel, I will always support you."

...

Contest Center and Fang Mingquan had been made a hit by all the criticism. Many peers were satirical about Fang's grandstanding, too. Some even asked him to quit journalism.

Except for a few hardcore fans of Dollar, all comments on Fang was negative. Even many Dollar's fans thought Fang's report was over the top and didn't dare to support him.

"Fang, I'm sorry you are wronged." In the conference room of Huaxing Station, Xu Kangnian grinned from ear to ear.

Although Contest Center and Fang Mingquan were severely criticized, the ratings had risen a lot, sending the show in top 50.

A large number of other contestants' fans flooded into Contest Center, especially those who supported Yi Dongmu, this year's dark horse who would encounter Dollar before becoming the Chosen. The Skynet community of the show had almost burst.

Although it was only top 50, for Huaxing Station it was a great achievement. There had been less than a handful of shows that could accomplish this in the station's history.

Therefore, Xu Kangnian was quite pleased with what Fang Mingquan had done and Wang Changqing was naturally upset. He didn't know that Fang Mingquan would try to improve the ratings this way.

"This is just my job. I have Director Xu to thank for my achievement." Fang Mingquan said modestly, flattering Xu at the same time.

Xu Kangnian was even happier and patted Fang Mingquan on the shoulder. "Fang, keep talking about Dollar and the stronger you say he is the better. If everything goes well, we might have even higher ratings and could break our record."

"Please rest assured that I will do my best." Fang Mingquan did not think it was grandstanding as he sincerely believed Dollar would win. However, others didn't see it that way. Fortunately, the result was good anyway. For a journalist, criticism was not always a bad thing.

Xu Kangnian praised Fang Mingquan some more. After the meeting was over and Xu had left, Wang Changqing said coldly, "You are ignoring the facts for fame. You might be popular now but the reputation of the program would be ruined by you. Which station would hire you in the future? Xu's compliment means nothing. You think you can get away with it when he finds out the show was discredited?"

Of course, Fang Mingquan understood that as well. Someone had to take the fall when the fad passed. He himself would be that someone in this case. Xu was just trying to keep him onboard now to raise the ratings. Fang had been in this industry long enough to know that.

Smiling, Fang Mingquan looked at Wang Changqing and asked, "What if Dollar really wins?"

Wang Changqing paused. If Dollar really wins, then Contest Center would become famous for real and Fang Mingquan's name would become a household name. Xu Kangnian would treat Fang like the God of Wealth.

"Keep on dreaming," Wang Changqing scoffed. Anyone could see that Dollar did not have what it took to win. He was just average and far from top 10, let alone winning.

"Whether you believe it or not, I firmly believe that Dollar will be the champion." Fang Mingquan got up and went away.

"Idiot," Wang Changqing whispered. He was waiting to see how miserable Fang would be.

Han Sen did not go on the Skynet, so he was not aware of the debate about Contest Center. At the moment, he was practicing with Tang Zhenliu in Fang Jingqi's villa.

Although Tang Zhenliu would not meet Yi Dongmu before top 10, he felt like they were going to meet when they were both top 10 eventually. So, he was still practicing with Han Sen when he had time.

Only Han Sen knew that Tang would not ecounter Yi Dongmu because he would eliminate Yi himself before Yi rose to top 10.

But a sparring partner like Tang was so precious that Han Sen was happy to oblige.

Having practiced for two days, Tang finally let Han Sen go just before the next round of match began.

Han Sen knew who his opponent was and did not panic. He had made up his mind to practice in the match and gain some practical experience from his opponent.

After all, these were the champions of different shelters and it was such a rare opportunity to fight them one-on-one. Han Sen had not much experience in this kind of matches and was happy that he got a chance to gain some.