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Chapter 102: See you at the final

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

Han Sen had made up his mind to practice Bladestorm in the contest by using Bladestorm only when facing his opponents. If others dared to do this, they might have died a million deaths already. But Han Sen was in sacred-blood armor, so hardly any attack was fatal to him. That was why he could practice in the contest.

Han Sen had given up on using his mutant sawfish spear. Without good spear skills, this weapon was useless in front of these champions.

Fighting opponents of different styles, Han Sen had made great progress and his Bladestorm got better and better--as long as his opponent was not too fearsome, he could always cope with using just Bladestorm, but it was always the bloody slayer that got him the victory.

This way, Han Sen's matches had become very hard to watch. He was always winning by a narrow margin and there were times it seemed that he was about to lose.

And there were two matches in which his opponents had already been seriously injured in their last rounds and were thus easily defeated by Han Sen. Everyone thought he got lucky.

The negative reports about Dollar were overwhelming. And in particular, the high praise Fang Mingquan sang in Contest Center fanned the flames.

Fang Mingquan was talking through his hat—as an evolver who could not even enter First God's Sanctuary, he managed analyze so much from his reporters' oral account alone. In general, he was saying Dollar was invincible, everything was in control and Dollar would be the final winner.

This of course had attracted much hatred toward Fang Mingquan and Contest Center. It chanced that although Dollar's matches were never fun to watch, he had never lost either, which supported Fang's claim.

The criticism got worse and worse. Especially those who were optimistic about Yi Dongmu were sniffy about everything Fang said and objected each day.

Yi Dongmu was still keeping a formidable record. In two consecutive rounds he was able to kill his opponents in one blow, causing many of his following opponents to quit the matches against him.

In three consecutive rounds, all his opponents threw in the towel, which made Yi's fame peak. Many media were running lengthy features about him and many predicted he would be the final champion this year.

He had even stolen Tang Zhenliu and Lin Feng's thunder.

As for the Contest Center, Fang Mingquan and Dollar, they had become a big joke in the press.

"Dollar will win" had become a popular spoof this year, as an irony, of course.

Some people found that Yi Dongmu and Han Sen would meet before one became the Chosen and posted the finding on the Skynet, which caused a heated discussion.

"I sincerely pray every day that Dollar had to keep winning so that he could meet Yi Dongmu, who will teach him what a master looks like."

"Ha-ha, funny! I agree, God bless Dollar!"

"Bless Dollar!"

"Bless Dollar!"

...

"Bless Dollar" had also become a buzzword, and was seen everywhere in the comments of all sorts of programs about the contest.

Especially in the online community of Contest Center, "bless Dollar" would flood the screen every day.

Han Sen knew about this, but did not react at all. He never thought of Yi as his equal.

In the Han Sen's view, the likelihood of Yi Dongmu winning Tang was less than 30 percent, and if Yi met Lin Feng, he would stand no chance.

The opponent Han Sen really cared about was Lin Feng. These days he had seen many matches and had a general understanding of most contestants, among whom he felt Lin Feng was the most formidable.

This quiet and gentle man made him feel unpredictable. His every move seemed very natural but followed a strange rhythm. Han Sen's prejudgment was quite good, but he was unable to predict Lin's rhythm, which scared him.

Han Sen had seen every match of Lin Feng's and almost all the matches were closely-fought. Lin was always winning by a small margin. Almost all Lin's opponents performed outstandingly and they all lost nonetheless. It felt so strange that Han Sen cringed.

"Formidable guy," Han Sen commented. He knew his techniques and strength were both weaker than Lin. Luckily he would not meet Lin before top 10, or else he was not sure if he could become the Chosen.

Tang was still practicing how to avoid Han Sen's attacks in a close fight. He was not making much progress though.

But Lin Feng said if Tang met Yi Dongmu, Yi would not be much of a threat to Tang, which was close to Han Sen's judgment—Yi didn't get the essence of the art of assassination, so he could hardly beat Tang.

Perhaps the phrase "bless Dollar" played a role here. In the next rounds, Han Sen's opponents either were badly injured or lost important beast souls in the previous rounds and some even had accidents in the Alliance. It took Han Sen no effort to keep rising. Even Han Sen himself felt quite incredible.

Those fans of the Yi Dongmu gave Hen Sen another nickname "Lucky D," taunting his lack of real skill.

One day, after the end of a match, Han Sen came down from the stage and saw Lin Feng finishing his match as well. Their stages were close, so Lin saw him and to his surprise, walked toward him.

Many around them had noticed this scene. After all, Lin Feng was the runner-up last year. although his performance was not that brilliant this year, he was still a favorite. Also, Han Sen had been the center of attention for a while.

Lin Feng approached Han Sen. He smiled and reached out a hand, "Always wanted to say hello to you, but never had a chance."

"Same here." Han Sen shook his hand.

Lin seemed to be satisfied with this, and said, "See you at the final."

Lin turned away, but his words stunned everyone who was listening, as if they had seen a 12.0 magnitude earthquake.

Chapter 103: The Fight between the King and the Imposter

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

It turned out to be a 12.0 magnitude earthquake in the press indeed.

Lin Feng had asked someone to meet him in the final, yet that someone was not Yi Dongmu, but Dollar, who was considered an imposter.

All major media had reported this, and Fang Mingquan from Contest Center was especially excited about it and had analyzed it from all angles. His conclusion was that "Dollar was simply great."

But obviously the major media and fans didn't share his enthusiasm. They thought Lin Feng wanted to gain popularity by participating in the grandstanding becaused he was no longer the center of attention.

"Rubbish. Lin was the runner-up last year but he had no vision. No wonder he was only the runner-up. Let him keep his ranking and be second to my Yi Dongmu this time."

"Keep his ranking? You think too much of him. He'd have to be lucky to make it in top 10."

"Lin and Dollar are just two weak guys feeling bad about themselves."

"Ha-ha, Yi Dongmu will get rid of Dollar in seconds before he beats Lin to show them who the real king is."

"What the heck? If Lin was going to see someone in the final, it should be Yi Dongmu."

"Even if it is not Yi, at least it should be Tang Zhenliu, right? How is Lucky D relevant?"

The Skynet had exploded for this matter. However, Lin Feng and Han Sen, the two who had caused it did not realize this at all. One was enjoying tea with Tang Zhenliu and Fang Jingqi, and the other was playing Hand of God in the gym of the teleport station.

Han Sen had spent all his time playing Hand of God when he was not practicing with Tang. But he had never been able to make another breakthrough. He always had one or two small mistakes with evolver-4.

Han Sen knew that he had reached his limit in both physique and reflexes. If he had no improvement in geno points, it was impossible for him to go any further.

Therefore he decided to take a break from Hand of God. Han Sen acquired two daggers and tried to practice Sleeveblade with both hands. Although he was not as good as Gambler, he could produce the daggers from his sleeves and put them back skillfully at the moment. Even someone very observant could hardly see his hands move, but it was just a start on Sleeveblade.

When Han Sen took the daggers back, his hands would shake slightly while Gambler was able to keep his hands perfectly still and retrieve the dirks using only his arm and palm muscles. Han Sen was not even close to that.

This mislead Han Sen to think that he needed to pass all the levels of Hand of God before he could get somewhere with Sleeveblade.

"After I win tomorrow's match, I will fight Yi Dongmu. If I beat him, I will become the Chosen and enter the ranking round, where I will meet Lin Feng, which I actually look forward to." Han Sen recovered his dagger, slowly closed his eyes, and thought about all the matches he had experienced.

The next day, Han Sen had an easy victory once again. His opponent still had not recovered from a bad injury and failed to show up.

Han Sen walked down the stage and wanted to see Lin Feng's match, but someone stopped him.

"I hope tomorrow you will have the guts to stand in front of me, because I will kill you." Yi Dongmu said coldly and walked past Han Sen without so much as throwing him a glance.

Almost everyone who saw this went crazy. Yi Dongmu's words caused another storm on the Skynet.

Basically everyone was guessing if tomorrow Dollar would dare to show up. The majority predicted that Dollar would quit.

After all, the difference between the two was huge. Yi Dongmu's performance had been outstanding and he had even killed several celebrity rivals, including Dragon Swordsman, who had the tenth place last year.

Dollar, on the other hand, had a rough journey. And he was here more for his luck than for his actual strength.

Except for Fang Mingquan who predicted Dollar would get a total victory, almost all TV personnel believed Dollar would either quit or die.

On the day of the match, the martial rings in all shelters were packed with people who were waiting to watch the match through the sacred stele.

This was absolutely the most controversial fight in the entire contest this year, and people called it the fight between the king and the imposter. Almost everyone in First God's Sanctuary was watching and the number of viewers was even bigger than that of the final last year.

The popularity of this match was in part due to Contest Center and Fang Mingquan. Or else there wouldn't be so many people who were paying attention to Dollar and the media would not have cooked up such a hype.

The field reporters all wished to interview Yi Dongmu and Dollar before they started. Although there was no way to record it, it was enough that everyone in the First God's Sanctuary could see it at such a crucial moment.

Unfortunately, neither Yi nor Dollar had appeared, but they saw Tang Zhenliu and Lin Feng. It was hours until their own matches so they must be here to watch the fight between Yi and Dollar.

The clever reporters quickly squeezed over and circled Tang Zhenliu and Lin Feng. They loudly asked,

"Lin Feng, I'm from Contest Front. Who do you think will win this fight?"

"Lin Feng, I am from Contest Corner. You said you would see Dollar in the final. Do you still believe that?"

"I'm from Contest Center. Lin Feng, do you and Dollar know each other? Why did you ask him to see you in the final?"

...

Lin Feng quietly smiled. "Haven't I already said that I will see him in the final?"

Lin then walked toward his seat and sat down.

Those journalists quickly circled Tang Zhenliu who was behind Lin and bombarded him with all sorts of questions.

Tang gracefully tossed his hair back and said with pride, "No matter who wins, it will be the same for me, as I will get the first place."

He paused, and before the reporters reacted to his comment, he continued, "If you are asking which of the two will win, then of course it's Dollar. Isn't that obvious?"

The reporters were shocked. Not only Lin Feng, but also Tang Zhenliu said Dollar would win, which was the opposite what they had thought.

But when they were trying to ask again, Tang Zhenliu had gone away as well.

Only the reporter from Contest Center was overjoyed, who quickly teleported out of God's Sanctuary and reported what Lin and Tang had said.

When Yi Dongmu and Han Sen both showed up, First God's Sanctuary went buzzing. The cheers for Yi overwhelmed those for Dollar.

In the martial ring of Steel Armor Shelter.

"Stationmaster, do you think Dollar will win?" Yang Manli asked Qin Xuan sitting next to her nervously.

"He robbed my quota to go so I will not forgive him if he's not even in top 10." Qin Xuan said fiercely, while knowing that it would be difficult to beat Yi Dongmu who had shown incredible skills in previous matches.

"He will lose for sure. He was simply not on the same level as Yi Dongmu." Son of Heaven said in a cold voice.

"I do not want to listen to these words. My Dollar is the best," displeased, Qing gave his mouth a downward twist and said. He and Yuan had been going to all Dollar's matches.

"Whether you like it or not, it is the fact," Son of Heaven said casually.

"Didn't you say the same thing last time? Well?" Qing grinned and asked, leaving Son of Heaven's face darkened.