Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

Li Weide offered a gentle smile and gave a polite bow.

Xie Ning returned his smile with a faint, equally gentle one of her own. ”If you want to call this an exchange, then let’s have one—the traditional way.”

”Beat us, and we’ll have our exchange.”

Li Weide’s smile froze on his face.

At the same time, a foreigner in his forties emerged from behind Wang Gangfei.

He had thick, dark brows, slightly receding temples, and deep-set eyes brimming with a sinister gloom.

”Jeri,” Wang Gangfei called out.

The man ignored him and walked straight to Li Weide’s side. ”Mr. Li Weide, since they’ve repeatedly invited us to settle this with force, we might as well accept.”

Li Weide flinched internally. ”Jeri, don’t be ridiculous.”

”I, for one, am very curious to see for myself just how aggressive the legendary Sixth-rank Gold Ability User really is.” Jeri clenched his fists and tapped them together lightly, a trace of faint arrogance flashing across his face.

His command of the C-country language was far more fluent than Wang Gangfei’s.

The moment he finished speaking, a layer of metal instantly coated Jeri’s fists.

”Jeri, don’t do anything rash,” Li Weide urged frantically.

’What a joke. At first, they had indeed planned to use a combat exchange to knock the arrogance out of Jiuzhou. But now... It was obvious that their opponent was already a Sixth-rank Superpower User. If they had an ’exchange’ now, they would just get beaten one-sidedly. This wasn’t a scenario that Country A wanted to see. He had already warned Jeri and the other high-level superpower users repeatedly not to provoke their opponents so easily. But clearly, the man couldn’t hold it in and was about to do something stupid!’

”Jeri!” Li Weide’s face turned cold as he waved a hand dismissively. ”Back off! Stand down!”

Jeri craned his neck, his face a mask of rage. ”Mr. Li Weide, they’re practically walking all over us! You can tolerate this?”

”Well, I can’t!” Jeri slammed his metal fists together with a CLANG, glaring coldly at Xie Ning. ”Little girl, apologize to Mr. Li Weide right now, and we might still forgive you.”

’Just a slip of a girl. She looks so fragile, like a gust of wind could knock her over. This is it? And she dares to get in our faces and challenge the A Country Branch? If he didn’t beat her until she was on her knees begging for mercy, then he, Jeri, would have wasted the last two years in the world of superpowers.’

Xie Ning narrowed her eyes, smiled faintly, and crooked a finger at him. ”Whoever’s too scared to fight is a little bitch.”

Jeri’s command of the C-country language was good enough that he understood perfectly. A fire of rage ignited within him, and he charged toward Xie Ning like a wolf, moving with explosive speed.

”Jeri!” A look of pure exasperation flashed in Li Weide’s eyes.

’This guy is really doing it. He’s completely ignoring orders and just charging in to start trouble. So what kind of end is he heading for?’

Before Li Weide’s mind could even finish racing through a thousand scenarios, Jeri’s fist had already slammed into the Metal Shield Xie Ning raised, creating a thunderous BOOM.

Everyone stared, dumbfounded, at the scene unfolding before them.

’Do all Gold Ability Users have such explosive tempers? They couldn’t even be bothered to go to the training room next door and just started fighting right here in the lobby.’

”Let’s get one thing straight. You threw the first punch,” Xie Ning said, blocking him with her shield. She waggled her fingers at him. ”The A Country Branch of the Global Superpower Academy will be held fully responsible for any and all damages. Don’t even think about welshing on the bill! There are cameras everywhere.”

Jeri sneered. ”The Global Superpower Academy isn’t hurting for cash!”

The implication being that he looked down on Ningning for being so stingy.

Xie Ning pursed her lips, instantly swapping her shield for a pair of knives, and exploded into action, relentlessly attacking Jeri’s head.

”So your Global Superpower Academy is so amazing, huh? Coming here to act all high and mighty,” Xie Ning taunted. Her twin knives slashed horizontally seven or eight times in a row, forcing a pale-faced Jeri to fall back step by step.

He desperately used his fists to block Xie Ning’s Metal Knives.

The SCREEECH of metal on metal made everyone’s teeth ache and their heads throb.

Xie Ning switched moves at a dazzling speed. One moment she was slashing with her dual knives, the next she was throwing punches.

With a BAM! BAM! she sent two punches straight into a stunned Jeri, knocking him to the ground.

”You son of a...” Jeri didn’t even get to finish the curse he was blurting out before he felt a heavy blow to his stomach.

His entire body shot away like a leaf in an autumn gust, flying with a WHOOSH toward a standing display case.

”Hey! Watch the display case!” The director of Zone A, who had rushed over upon hearing the commotion, started hopping anxiously from a short distance away.

A Metal Wire from Xie Ning pierced through Jeri’s thigh, and she dragged him right back in front of her.

Before Jeri could even get his bearings, the young woman brought a vicious fist down on his head. ”The A Country Branch of the Superpower Academy? Looks more like a gathering place for a bunch of rejects to me.”

With every few words, Xie Ning punctuated her sentence by slamming her fist into Jeri’s skull.

Even though Jeri had already channeled all his superpower energy to his head to form a metal helmet for protection, it couldn’t stand up to the relentless pummeling...

’He was finally starting to understand why Mr. Li Weide had told him not to be impulsive. Because the price of impulsiveness was right here! If you can’t hold back, you get beaten.’

”Miss Xie, Miss Xie!” Li Weide hurried forward, wringing his hands and trying desperately to stop her. ”Miss Xie, Mr. Jeri concedes! He concedes, he’s conceded!”

”Concede? What concede? He hasn’t said a thing!” Cres shouted from the sidelines, rubbing his hands together in glee. ”The rule in our Country C is that if you lose a fight, you have to call the winner ’Dad’!”

”Hurry up and do it! And you, stop your whining. Conceding for him? That’s useless! The martial spirit of our Country C dictates that once you enter the ring, you don’t stop halfway! It’s against the rules!”

Everyone: ...

’You’re a blond, brown-eyed punk from Country Y. Don’t you feel the least bit ashamed chanting ’our Country C’ over and over again?’

Li Weide was running around in anxious circles, periodically shooting pleading looks at Gu Chen and Lu Wei. ”Captain Lu, Captain Gu, don’t just stand there and watch the show! Say something!”

Lu Wei, who had just brought a few of his men over to watch the spectacle, was suddenly dragged into it after less than three minutes. He was not pleased.

Gu Chen cleared his throat. ”It’s a tradition in our Country C to see things through to the very end.”

”That’s right, to the very end!” Cres hopped up and down, waving his hands. ”Getting your ass kicked is also part of the tradition! Like I said, you can’t just quit halfway through!”

Gu Chen nodded with grave sincerity. ”That is the principle of the matter. We in Country C place the utmost importance on traditional martial virtue. Since the match has begun, it must be seen through to the end. Unless, of course, the person in the ring themselves begs for mercy and concedes. That would be a different story.”

The bearded man, who struggled with the C-country language, anxiously followed Li Weide, asking repeatedly, ”Mr. Li Weide, what are they saying?”

’What do they mean? What do they mean? They mean they have no intention of helping! They just want to watch the show and don’t care how big a mess it gets!’

Li Weide snapped in exasperation, ”Stop following me around! Go find a Healing Ability User, now!”