Demon King: Hero, don’t run away!

Chapter 500: Chapter 500: The Pitfall-Ridden Competition System

”Yang Yu, brother, the autumn festival is about to begin.”

Sitting on a wooden stump, Yang Yu heard the childish voice beside him.

He turned around, and a little girl poked his cheek vigorously before quickly and playfully retreating.

This little girl was a child Yang Yu had met during his stay with a farming family.

She had come to convey William Pumpkin’s instructions for Yang Yu to hurry to the Tree Mother for a meeting.

”I understand.”

Standing up, Yang Yu intended to gently pat the small sapling on the girl’s head. Instinctively, the girl rushed to cover her sapling with her hands and stuck out her tongue as she left.

Yang Yu had no idea when Lotcar and the others would arrive, and waiting by the village entrance was futile.

All Yang Yu could do now was to do his best to come out on top at the Plant Clan’s autumn festival.

Stepping over to the Tree Mother, the opening ceremony of the autumn festival had already begun, and Yang Yu found himself nonchalantly standing behind the gathered crowd.

After listening to Quan Xiangguo’s greeting speech, the surrounding Plant Clan members quickly became busy. They used the decorations they brought to adorn the forest around the Tree Mother. Then, they began taking out the crops harvested in autumn and, in groups of several or more, started to prepare offerings and food for others to enjoy.

In some ways, the Plant Clan’s autumn festival greatly resembled Japan’s summer festival.

However, here the local customs were simple, and anyone from the clan could enjoy the food for free, eat to their heart’s content, and experience the most earnest and unadorned atmosphere of the harvest.

It’s just a pity that there were no fireworks here, unable to witness the resplendent sights that matched the festival.

Nonetheless, it was fine. When the night’s Bright Moon surveyed the land, an untimely explosion of fireworks would disrupt the quiet, losing some of its charm.

Many people were already making arrangements for the night’s performances, but the best daytime performance was the competition for the right to use the Racial Essence.

Those vying for the Racial Essence gathered below the Tree Mother, crossing the circular river that surrounded her, to listen to Cuiyu. Jiucai explain the precautions.

Yang Yu looked around and saw that not many people had come to compete for the Racial Essence, just thirty-two.

Most ordinary members of the Plant Clan did not have the power to claim the right to use the Racial Essence, and naturally, they would not embarrass themselves. Those who could compete for the right were the elites of the clan.

Some leads were innate.

When the Clan’s children reached the age of ten, the sprout on their head would wither and fall off. Then, within three to four days, they would awaken an ability linked to a certain plant, and their bodies would undergo changes accordingly.

The abilities they gained largely determined their future paths in life.

If it were the ancient past when there was enough Racial Essence, it would not matter what Plant Ability one awakened early.

There were even cases where someone awakened a seemingly useless ability early on, only to grow tremendously powerful later in life.

Unfortunately, nowadays, the Plant Clan had only enough Racial Essence for one person per year, preferring to choose someone who could steadily improve from the start over someone who might have explosive power later on.

If one had to put it bluntly, this was also a kind of internal competition, an extremely helpless competition.

Yang Yu had been quite confident, but after looking around, he suddenly noticed many unfamiliar faces he hadn’t seen before, all with formidable strengths, hardly seeming like young people.

For instance, not far from Yang Yu, there was a man of Level Seventy-Six with decent attributes across the board. He sported a thick green beard in which a small bird was hiding, chirping away.

It was hard for Yang Yu to believe that this uncle was also one of the many competitors.

Before Yang Yu could strike up a conversation, the uncle leaned over, emitting a hearty laugh.

”Roar, roar, roar! Hello, stranger, I have heard all about it, my name is Gyroscope Song Bai, and this is the first time I’m seeing a human. You don’t seem much different from us!

Keep up the good work. I won’t hold back just because you’re a stranger. In fact, because you are one, I will put in extra effort to take you down.”

”Well, you’ll need to put in that effort, because I absolutely will not lose to you. By the way, how old are you?”

Yang Yu asked with a smile, then immediately regretted asking that question.

A few smile lines creased Gyroscope Song Bai’s face: ”I’ll be fifty in a few days, just in time to participate in the last competition. If I don’t get the Racial Essence this time, I won’t be able to compete in this event ever again.”

”Fifty?” Yang Yu cocked his head, ”Can fifty still be considered young?”

Yang Yu heard that only young people participated in the competition, so he had screened through all the youngsters under thirty in advance.

Seeing their attributes weren’t high, Yang Yu thought he could rest easy.

Who knew the Plant Clan’s definition of young was so broad, and suddenly, so many skilled competitors Yang Yu didn’t recognize appeared.

Yang Yu was speechless. Weren’t they saying that the average lifespan of the Plant Clan wasn’t much longer than that of a human?

If the average lifespan was a hundred years, could fifty still be considered young?

Seeing the puzzled look on Yang Yu’s face, Gyroscope Song Bai also tilted his head and crossed his arms, ”Buddy, don’t you know our competition rules?”

”Isn’t it a regular elimination match?”

Yang Yu had confirmed with Lilith. Lily that it was indeed just a one-on-one elimination match, which is why he confidently gathered intelligence.

”A regular elimination match... you could say that, but it’s also a bit different. The secret is in the grouping.”

Gyroscope Song Bai pointed to the scoreboard that had just been brought out by Nai Xu Mushroom,

”Look, the scoreboard lists all the competitors’ names, divided into left and right halves. Every Council bases the grouping on the order of ages of those participating, from top to bottom, from left to right.

It’s also to give the younger ones more opportunities.

Though strength doesn’t necessarily correlate with age, generally speaking, the older you get, the more your strength tends to grow.

After every match, the next one starts immediately, with no time to rest.

This means that the contestants who compete later have less rest time. By the time the semi-finals come around, those on the right half have to jump right into the finals after winning a semi-final, with no time to catch their breath.

But, there’s an upside. The younger ones get to have an even match with us old young ones.

Oh, oh, oh, look there, the name Yang Yu, that must be you, right?

Hahahaha, I’m really lucky this time; your first opponent is me.”

Now, all Yang Yu could think was MMP, not sure whether to speak up or not.

Despite being among the youngest, he was placed in the right half, filled with seasoned competitors.

The motives of the Plant Race Council were clear as day.

That group in the Council plainly wanted to make sure he couldn’t win.

Setting aside the continuous battles for now, Yang Yu, with his high endurance, could barely hold up. The problem was the uncle by his side, raring to go, couldn’t wait to knock Yang Yu down like a little lamb.

Let’s not talk about defense and evasion; with Yang Yu’s measly attack, knocking them all down till they admitted defeat seemed like it would take forever.

By that time, it wouldn’t just be about helping Lotcar. It would be like the proverbial Yellow Flower—it would’ve long since faded away.