101. Paw Patrol Achieves Great Merit

“Thank you for your help, classmate Xu Qing.”
“Master Xu, we owe everything to you this time!”
“Brother Xu, I will never forget your kindness as long as I live.”
“……”

All these times Xu Qing had played the role of a benefactor. Born into privilege and gifted in every way, he was the kind of providence-blessed heir who seemed to have come into the world with a golden spoon in his mouth. In his life, he was the one who offered help to others, and those who received it would bow in gratitude.

But what on earth just happened?

His leg wound could have been healed with a simple application of cell-growth catalyst. He could have braced himself with a quantum shield, broken through the ceiling, and escaped. He truly did not need assistance. Yet that woman, reeking of gunpowder and blood, still meddled and came to his rescue.

It was the first time he had ever been rescued, and it was a sensation he had never known before.
Though the rescuer was his enemy, and the way she did it could only be called humiliatingly messy.

Still, he found that his eyes could not leave that graceful black silhouette. A head of white, fluttering short hair and ears that fanned lightly as if in rhythm kept returning to his mind.

He had never before felt such shock, and in one minute that shock transformed into an inexpressible disgust. He had never wanted to kill so fiercely; he nearly wanted to strangle White Fox where she stood.

What he despised most in his life was being saved like some kind of useless loser.

“Calm down! It’s a match. Don’t let your thoughts wander into nonsense. Calm down!” Xu Qing slammed his fist into the wall, pulled on his opera mask again, and hurried toward the tunnel exit.

This was not the moment to kill White Fox. Xu Qing would wait until she met the Planner, then take all of them in one sweep.

……

“Oh, finally my head is clear… The side effects of that skill are terrifying.”

In the open-air inn, Chen Sheng yawned and crawled out from beneath the bar.
Two teammates had regained signal and exchanged coordinates.

“Hey? Planner, are you still alive?” White Fox’s booming voice crackled over the communicator.
“I’m alive. You’ve got energy to spare, I see,” Chen Sheng answered with a smile. “How’s Mr. Hunter?”
“Very easy warm-up. I also killed the competitor from my squad on the way.” The deep, hoarse voice belonged to Great Sword.
“Good. Looks like we’re one step closer.” Chen Sheng whistled happily and sent both of them a location.
“We’ll rendezvous there first, then move to the next stage.”

Their movement was fast; in under ten minutes they met again.

“Excellent! I knew you two would survive!” Chen Sheng embraced Great Sword with excitement.
But when he released him and stepped forward to embrace White Fox, she gently pushed him away, flicking her ears.

“Sorry! I’m not going to let you take advantage of me.”
“Fair enough,” Chen Sheng replied, stepping back with restrained courtesy. He was always careful with women, and withdrew a little more like a gentleman.

“What are we doing now?” Great Sword asked, planting his weapon in the sand.

From the way he stood, he had already taken Chen Sheng as his leader.

“We were assigned to different arenas at random by the organizers for the trials. Even if players clear their trials, they can’t reunite immediately and must act alone,” Chen Sheng explained. “So our best move is to kill every lone player who hasn’t linked up with allies yet. That greatly increases our chance of winning.”

“True enough,” Great Sword said, though doubt still clung to his tone. “Where do we find these lone players? I’ve already killed the one who was with me.”
“I did too,” Chen Sheng said with a mock-serious nod. “That was the leader of the Gun Demon Team. I almost got shot to death by him.”

“Wait—I just remembered! The blond kid from my squad is still alive!”

White Fox raised her hand and announced it with sudden excitement.

“Blond kid? Is there really such a person?” Chen Sheng frowned, trying to match the description to a contestant.

“You don’t remember?” White Fox punched her chest to emphasize. “The one in the white cloak with the opera-mask face.”

“Peking-opera style mask? You mean the silent masked man from the Kunlun Team?” Chen Sheng asked.

“That’s the one you mean. He’s got yellow hair—very noticeable,” White Fox said, her ears flicking as she laughed. “Besides, he’s smart. He solved the puzzle in that escape room.”

“Yellow hair, smart…” Chen Sheng pinched his chin and suddenly remembered something unpleasant.
No—could it really be him? Blond hairstyles were common enough in Yeshu City. Besides, how could the Xu Group’s heir himself enter the Grand Tournament?

“Hmm,” Chen Sheng muttered, then told White Fox, “Then take us to him now. We’ll deal with him.”

But White Fox simply pointed behind the dune. “He’s been right behind me the whole time.”

“Hm?”

Not only Chen Sheng and Great Sword, but Xu Qing, who had been hiding behind the dune watching, let out a sound of surprise.

“Come out!” Chen Sheng instantly drew his sidearm and dumped a full clip into the dune.

Though his shots were hardly precise, the masked man concealed there lurched out, rolling and stumbling, and drew his own pistol to return fire.

Xu Qing’s shooting was exacting. In the split second before firing, he accounted for wind speed and humidity, making sure his bullets would strike Chen Sheng’s chest and abdomen cleanly despite environmental interference.

……

Fortunately, Great Sword noticed in time. He swung his sword in front of Chen Sheng and blocked every bullet, preventing him from triggering the Crisis-Sense.

“How did you find me?” Xu Qing asked, his voice lowered through the voice-modulator at his throat.

“Ha! Ha! Ha! I stuck a little tracker on you!” White Fox planted her hands on her hips, breathless, and burst into laughter. “I told you, the moment I got out I was going to smash you good. So of course I had to track you, or someone else might get there first.”

Startled, Xu Qing searched his clothes and found, behind his back, a tiny unremarkable black sphere.

“…I never thought… the intelligence said your intelligence was low.” He crushed the tracker in his hand and whispered.

He had to admit he had been careless. If he had not felt such fierce malice toward White Fox a moment earlier, his composure would not have slipped, and he would never have made such a childish mistake of letting someone attach a locator to him.

Chen Sheng tilted his head and reached out to touch her forehead. “White Fox can’t be this clever. Who on earth are you?”

“Nonsense! I’m always this clever!” White Fox slapped his hand away and said triumphantly, “And this tracker has a listening function. I heard everything you said just now.”

“What did she say?” Chen Sheng asked curiously.
“Wait…!” Xu Qing seemed to sense something and reached out as if to stop her.

“She said things like, ‘I’ll pin down the mastermind for the Xu Conglomerate,’ and ‘Planner, get your neck cleaned for me and wait.’”
“Xu Conglomerate… blond hair… and you called him ‘kid.’ Sounds like a young man…”

A flood of clues collided in Chen Sheng’s mind and suddenly settled into one impossible conclusion.

“Good grief—the young master of the Xu Conglomerate is in the Grand Tournament?”

Chen Sheng laughed, speaking loudly on purpose. “Hey, everyone, look! The Xu Conglomerate heir is actually competing in the Grand Tournament!”

The host, Flavius, seemed to hear something extraordinary and repeated in disbelief from the booth:

“What did Planner just say? The young master of the Xu Conglomerate?”

Detecting a possible headline, drones gathered from all around and swarmed toward the group, filming them in a tight ring.