Chapter 521: Is the Teacher Watching?

This should be Ji Ming's first encounter with an unexpected situation after accidentally starting this round's peak tournament.

It's like thin ice meeting the sun, like a dog meeting Pan Hong; he is surprised to find the shadow wrapped around his body trembling ever so slightly.

So much so that if he didn't truly possess divine‑selection‑level control over the shadow, this shell would probably melt on the spot.

Wait, could it be…

"Huh, youngman!!!"

One can only say that strongmen in any universe are like this: they always appear carrying a speaker.

In that classic song that can make any real man feel scorching hot, the man who is an unofficial member of the Seven Heroes and whose combat power is unfathomable has arrived!

Ji Ming: "Wow."

Although he already knew that this person had entered the game, and as the world's strongest internet celebrity, possesses a talent that is practically god‑defying and unmatched in strength.

But now they truly collide, and he must act as the enemy's big boss, striking at that comically expressive face that seems perpetually flushed.

Hold it in, can't laugh!

After making an extravagantly spectacular entrance, the man, without a word, raised his finger at Ji Ming and produced a double‑barreled shotgun.

"You! Unjustly trespassing into another's territory, extremely rude!"

Countless nouns flashed through Ji Ming's mind in an instant; after scanning almost every member of the Adhesive Nation, they condensed into a single sentence.

"So you knew, huh."

"Yes, of course I know, otherwise why have I never done it?"

Speaking, the man flashed a sharp smile and loosened the red tie fluttering on his chest.

"Ok, further words are useless; in the name of Maga! Fool, pay the price for the public safety and losses you caused!"

As soon as the words fell, his figure surged, and amid a golden trail, he struck the Shadow Divine Selection with a red‑blue Justice Iron Fist.

Ji Ming naturally wouldn't sit and wait for death; he let the celestial horse under him bolt away, while his true form turned into a black shadow that slammed into the golden light spanning the sky.

Unbiased and unflinching, a 'bang' rang out, chaotic energy burst forth, swirling visibly to the naked eye.

But it's not over! Collision, separation, collision again; the two exchanged over ten rounds in midair in an instant.

Although in terms of level Ji Ming is certainly higher than his opponent, this apocalyptic‑like energy naturally suppresses the shadow, making the fight extremely painful for him.

Precisely because of that, after dozens of rounds and another fierce elemental explosion, when they finally separated they were neck‑and‑neck.

"Hiss, this weird old man has something to him."

Moreover, Ji Ming calculated that if he only used the abilities of his Shadow Divine Selection alias, he might actually be unable to beat him.

—damn! Is this the god‑like power protected by the heavens?

But he was merely acting on a whim, wanting to see what level the players' current combat power was, not truly intending to destroy the main universe.

So after a few more exchanges with that man, he staged a mutually damaging but slight victory for our side.

"Heh, don't be smug; today's affair is merely interest. King of the humble humans, enjoy these final days, I will return!"

After delivering the most classic villainous closing line, he then rode the celestial horse and fled on the spot.

But he knew he was just here to have some fun, with no malice or ulterior motive, and nobody else knew!

Moreover, for the vast majority of netizens, the Super‑Power Special Forces clown troupe really offers nothing to look forward to; they just rush in to mock and that's that.

It's normal that the Seven Heroes got unlucky; after all, they were just beaten spectacularly by A Xi Bao, and with one, two, then three, four, this wave was just another routine group wipe.

But that man's identity is extremely special, extremely special!

Although it might not count as a one‑on‑one, bathed in warm starlight, last time after his heavenly deity descent he at least managed to chase A Xi Bao for a couple of strikes.

This time he actually fell a bit short, and without even reclaiming the arena, he let the unforgivable evil big boss of the White Eagle, riding a white eagle, depart peacefully?

What a disgraceful humiliation, this is a disgraceful humiliation!

Thus the Blue side's mouthpiece immediately began typing articles, wielding all its public opinion power, invoking the two great secret techniques "Infinite Ascending Height" and "Infinite Sliding Decline", vowing to crush this "shaming the White Eagle" presidential candidate in one wave.

Yet at this suffocating moment, where a single misstep could cost the whole game, a tall, upright figure slowly emerged from the drifting smoke.

It was that man.

Although his face was still streaked with fresh blood, his gaze was steadier than his steps, sharp as Moses parting the Red Sea.

"Sir..."

"No."

He gently declined the instinctive offers of aid from a few nearby soldiers, and naturally joined among them, affable as a father.

"Don't worry about me, children; rather, I must worry about you, because I see the fear in your eyes."

"You worry whether such a thing will happen again, whether we will ever taste such humiliation again."

"But what I tell you is, no! never!"

"You can go back and ask your fathers, ask your grandfathers, ask them, dad, would a brave White Eagle People surrender like this?"

"They would definitely tell you, no, child! We've seen this many times; such things only make us more—more—united!"

Whether it's the Red side's arrangement or he truly has die‑hard fans here, in any case, after emotions were quickly stirred, a young man with a reddened neck raised his fist.

"fight! sir?"

The arena fell silent for a moment until that man raised his own fist and shouted amid the soldiers' crowd.

"yep! fight! soldier!"

The simplest vocabulary, the ultimate incitement.

Now the whole venue boiled over, everyone around shouting the same slogan, excited as if attending an idol's signing event.

And after all, this is just a game; losing doesn't count as loss, dying doesn't count as death, while victory and boiling passion are the real deal.

Thus in under an hour, this short video went viral across the entire internet, easily surpassing a hundred million total views.

And its abbreviation "fs? yfs!" quickly spread as the Red side's new campaign slogan across the promotion chain.

Now it's truly like a whirligig snapping loudly; the early hype the Blue side just stirred up has become the Red side's wedding dress—a pure clown act.

Then that evening, after distributing today's voting million-dollar prize, Thunderbolt Hero posted another picture on his black X account.

Caption: 【Oh, how terrifying!】——It turned out that in just an afternoon, White Eagle's polls in two swing states had become solid red!

However, these things would only happen after some time, and Ji Ming naturally couldn't have known that his casual little task could cause such a large-scale impact.

At this moment, having restored his classic skin, he had completely concealed his figure, summoned the Pegasus, and continued flying toward the Foreign Affairs Bureau.

Of course, the Foreign Affairs Bureau's headquarters isn't a vegetable market; it's not possible for him to just come and go as he pleases.

So Ji Ming had already contacted Cang Lang in advance, obtained today's entry permission, and also knew Aurora's current position.

"Er, let me take another look; today's password is... uh?"

Ji Ming hummed doubtfully, because he suddenly noticed that Aurora Dance seemed to have a few unread messages.

Oh, it turns out that was just the message he sent while chatting friendly with the players earlier, no wonder he didn't see the notification...

But it's fine; they have fathers and mothers, what big deal could there be?

But when he opened it without a care, what met his eyes was actually...

【Teacher, are you watching?】

【Picture】

【Oh dear, I'm really sorry, I couldn't help but make a move on your student, there's nothing I can do, who told you to always neglect them?】

"Er-er."

As a pure-love war god, Ji Ming showed no reaction upon seeing it; there's no way, that picture supposedly of the blond's victory settlement has too many flaws to ignore.

First, let's not talk about how sneaky the slanted shooting angle feels, nor how much Aurora's victory gesture toward the camera resembles a chicken claw.

Just talking about what AdaiEr is doing now, Ji Ming has lived this long and seen nothing in both worlds, but he's only ever heard of someone being forced to work in a factory.

Like this, abandoning a good doctor job to run off to the deep mountains and become a factory girl—he's indeed never seen such a thing before!

That's right; although Aurora feels great, in fact AdaiEr in the camera only shows a side profile, clutching an engraving knife, sweating profusely as she carves the seal.

Crooked-neck Tree: 【You're done!】

Aurora Dance: 【Goo-goo, it's already too late, Teacher; AdaiEr has been remodeled into a physique that can't survive leaving my assembly line, becoming a little ox-horse that only thinks about tightening screws every day!】

Crooked-neck Tree: 【Don't rush, there's a twist—I've already arrived at your doorstep.】

Not bothering to see what Aurora Dance had posted, Ji Ming walked empty-handed to the headquarters gate, preparing to complete entry procedures.

Who would have thought it would be such a coincidence today; as soon as he entered the guardroom, he found an acquaintance—Chief Zhang Hai himself had come personally to pick him up.

"Haha, today just happens to be my day off, no problem."

As fellow enthusiasts of mechanical creations, they had hit it off the last time they met, and later they would occasionally exchange preferences about mechs on Feixin; now meeting again naturally made them overjoyed.

To the point that Zhang Hai opened his mouth with just one sentence.

"Younger brother! Did you come over today for nothing important?"

"Well, actually the important part is just this 'come' character; I can't help it, work's been busy, I haven't come in ages, I wanted to drop by and see an old friend."

"Alright, then I also have something nice to show you."

So Zhang Hai took him to tour the factory producing magic-driven tanks, and got a feel for how magic-driven technology combines with Earth science.

Ji Ming, however, noticed that the 59m was different from its previous appearance before the public; besides the demon-shattering shells powerful enough to wipe out a knight squad, it seemed to have other magical components as well.

"Instant-cast magic shield IS5 is the new equipment we obtained after technical cooperation with the White Eagle; of course, the cost is the demon-shattering shells."

Although such an offense-defense integrated tank had already appeared in the Battle of Silla, due to the small number of participants it remains a military secret to this day.

So Ji Ming was dazed after hearing that.

"Wait a minute, we and the White Eagle..."

Zhang Hai merely shook his head upon hearing that, then countered with a question.

"Younger brother, have you seen today's big news?"

Ji Ming would definitely pretend to be clueless.

"Oh dear, I came in a rush, I didn't have time to look at anything—what's up?"

"Then look at mine."

"What else could it be? Of course it's the highlight reel of 'Shadow Divine Selection descends upon the White Eagle military base airspace, multiple superhero teams brutally slaughtered.'"

"Take a look, how terrifying—although I also think those so-called superheroes are just carnival clowns, but no matter what, they're still part of the military establishment, so their basic combat ability is definitely there."

"The result is, just like the Wolf Prince Ahixi before, facing the truly powerful natives of Yangyue Star, they can only be frenziedly slaughtered."

Saying this, Zhang Hai turned his head to look at the production line, where the magic-version Type 59 modified already far outperformed Earth's same-model counterparts.

As its creator, he could only sigh helplessly.

"Those few tanks in the footage may belong to the White Eagle, but their performance isn't much different from this one; the result is they don't even deserve a frontal shot!"

"It's utterly useless; they just pinch it a couple of times as a after-meal snack, and it turns into a pile of scrap copper and iron."

"With this situation, if we still think about internal conflict, we might not even have managed to produce nuclear weapons before being driven back underground by the natives of Yangyue Star."

Ji Ming wasn't surprised by Zhang Hai's exposition, because that's exactly what he had hoped to hear from players since the public test launched.

"Those who lack foresight will have near-term worries; it's unfortunate, but sentient beings cannot escape contradiction, and only the strongest can leisurely sit and watch the clouds roll."

But history repeatedly tells us this is a long run where not advancing means retreating; as soon as you entertain the thought of resting, the peak can absolutely not be retained.

However, the current situation is that since producing the tank and obtaining the Sun King's assent, players have recently been acting as if they're on a collective vacation.

Moreover, lacking any outward ambition is forgivable, but circling those few dungeons piled with broken magic dragons has spawned plenty of internal contradictions.

Although it hasn't yet risen to the level of a glorious brawl of the United Nations, where domino-like chains pull many contradictions from all sides, triggering something like 'Correct Captain 2: Civil War'.

But Ji Ming believes that once that rift becomes substantive, from popular tremors to officialdom, and then forming a sky‑high wave sweeping Yangyue and even Earth, it's merely a matter of time.

"By then… world war? Nuclear winter? Doomsday plague? Global famine?"

Gee, I don't know what will happen between Yangyue and Earth, but Ji Ming knows he'll definitely be double-teamed by the little boss and the mother of Earth.