High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2022: Chapter 243: Lottery Draw

Everyone likes Su Shijun.

Zheng Qing knew.

Many people come to the Absolution’s hunting ground just to see Su Shijun.

Zheng Qing also knew.

But no matter what, treating the owner’s house as the guest’s, using Su Shijun’s name to replace Absolution, seems a bit excessive from any angle!

The young cost student was lost in thought, sometimes imagining Absolution getting eliminated in the first round of selection, followed by rotten eggs and banana peels raining down from the stands; other times, he seemed to hear the mockery from Andrew or Matthew, mocking the fake audience in Absolution’s hunting ground.

He tried hard to dismiss those noisy thoughts and focus on the tactical preparations for later. But the more he tried, the easier his attention was sidetracked—for some reason, he easily spotted a waving red banner in the stands, with shiny letters that read ’Su Su, Su Su, I love you, love you to the bones of raccoons’.

Terrible rhymes, terrible wording, terrible puns.

The warlock commented in his heart, getting distracted when suddenly someone tugged on his sleeve, and he turned around to see Jiang Yu giving him a look.

”What?”

”Pre-game arrangements,” the witch quickly reminded in a low voice: ”The Hunting Team Leader needs to follow the staff to meet the mentor and referee... including explaining the schedule, pre-game oath, and stuff.”

There’s even an oath?

Zheng Qing was stunned for a second, then followed Jiang Yu’s direction and saw a staff member standing at the corner below the stands, waving at him, and hurried along.

Turning the corner, there was a small room.

Su Shijun was sitting on a sofa on one side of the room, holding a book, and casually flipping through it, exuding a lazy atmosphere. Li Meng and Lin Guo, the managers of Absolution, stood on either side, Li Meng holding a plate of strawberries, Lin Guo holding a plate of snacks.

Clack, clack.

The stiff sound of footsteps interrupted the boy’s gaze, and Zheng Qing looked towards the sound to see the puppet man leaning on its slender cane hurrying into the room.

”Zheng Qing? The leader of Absolution?”

The puppet man took off its head and held it in its arms, while pulling a flannel out of its pocket to wipe the sweat on its slender nose and wooden face, talking cheerfully: ”Very good, a very good hunting team, I remember you, the champion of last year’s freshman competition... how did you feel about my hosting last year?”

Terrible, Zheng Qing recalled the fright he received during the preliminary competition last year and complained in his heart.

”Fantastic!”

The young cost student stared at the puppet man’s head in its arms, managing to squeeze out a look of surprise and admiration, while racking his brain for highlights of the puppet man’s hosting: ”Especially the wonderful opening speech... and Big Mouth Gulu’s unexpected performance, it was impressive!”

”Ha! I knew it!”

The puppet man cheerfully tapped its head with its fingers, spinning around: ”Just like today’s opening speech, which I honed meticulously for three months. How could it not be brilliant?”

Snap!

Su Shijun put away the book in his hand and stood up.

Zheng Qing immediately felt the whole room brighten up, Li Meng’s eyes sparkled, and she stuffed the fruit plate in her hand into Lin Guo’s arms, while reaching out to quickly take the book from Su Shijun’s hand—Zheng Qing suspected that if she had a tail like Su Ya, it would surely have started spinning like a windmill.

”Ah... oh!”

The puppet man noticed the big wizard standing up, and immediately stifled its smile, stopped rotating its head, and cleared its throat: ”Alright, since everyone is here... let me briefly introduce the rules of today’s hunting competition. First, you need to put your hand into my hat—”

It placed its head back onto its neck, then took off the black top hat from its head—unlike last year, this year there wasn’t a wrinkled, ugly elf sitting on its head, only a series of bald rings like mosquito coils—held the hat upright, and stuffed it under the young cost student’s nose.

Zheng Qing craned his neck to look inside, seeing only pitch black, unable to see anything.

”—There are many magical creatures unique to Dreamland in the hat. Whatever animal you draw out, you’ll face that kind of opponent in the hunting ground later.”

The puppet man said, vigorously shaking the top hat in its hand, seemingly trying to make the ’choice’ inside more even: ”As for the winner... as I said at the start, the longer you last in the hunting ground, the greater your chances of victory!”

Zheng Qing wasn’t hearing this kind of saying for the first time, but always felt it was too vague.

He turned to look at Su Shijun.

The witch nodded slightly, speaking with a light tone: ”As far as I know, they’re just some ordinary little guys, like demons, Shatak Birds, Moon Beasts... If you’re lucky, you might draw a Zu Ge, then Absolution’s task tonight is playing whack-a-mole; if you’re unlucky and draw an Ancient Leather Giant, then you’ll have a tough time handling it.”

The creatures Su Shijun mentioned were all ones Zheng Qing had encountered in Dreamland: Zu Ge are furry, mouse-like creatures about a foot tall, timid and afraid of cats; while Ancient Leather Giants are subspecies of giants ranging from several meters to tens of meters in height, with multiple arms, ugly appearances, and violent temperaments.

He completely couldn’t understand why the school would let people choose between these two kinds of creatures.

Moreover, the ’little guys’ in the big wizard’s eyes were vastly different from the ’little guys’ in the eyes of an average wizard.

”Luck!”

The puppet man snapped its fingers, reminding the boy to hurry up: ”As the saying goes, luck is also a part of strength, and a hunting team with good luck will always be popular with everyone!”

The brisk rhythm of drums echoed from the ceiling above, where the audience on the stands above the room were cheering and jubilant. They were probably enthusiastically discussing with their companions whether Su Shijun would make an appearance tonight or what the theme of the hunting competition would be, completely unaware that not far below their feet, the representatives of the hunters were nervously reaching their hands into the puppet man’s top hat with pale faces.

The hat was very deep.

Zheng Qing felt as if his hand had plunged into ice water or another world, with a very clear sense of ’crossing over’. He moved his fingers around, groping everywhere, but his fingertips didn’t touch the wings of a Shatak Bird or the arm of an Ancient Leather Giant as he imagined.

Instead, he felt something smooth and warm, like an egg.

”All the creatures in the hat have been magically disguised to feel exactly the same.” The puppet man seemed to see through the boy’s mind, its mouth grinning to its ears: ”...so if you plan to keep feeling around, you’re just wasting your own time.”

Zheng Qing sighed, his fingers twitching, randomly picking up the nearest ’egg’.

Lifting it out of the hat, he realized the thing did resemble an egg, about fist-sized, with a red shell covered in delicate and tiny runes.

”Then, in the presence of a third party, I will open this egg!” Saying so, the puppet man grabbed its nose, wielding its head like a hammer, and swung it around.

Bam!

The egg shattered, and inside, a pitch-black, furry Ghoul started growling fiercely at Zheng Qing.