He sprinted all the way home, bursting through the door of his small apartment in the blink of an eye.
The second he was inside, he pulled out the invisibility cloak and examined it eagerly, only to slump back in disappointment. It was merely a Tier 1 Tech Equipment, capable of hiding him only from those at the Martial Apprentice realm. It was all but useless against a Martial Master.
As for the dagger, it was a Low-Grade Alloy Weapon, with a maximum damage output of Tier 1, effective only against Martial Apprentices.
"Oh well, it's better than nothing. No use complaining about what I've got." Wang Hao muttered to himself, slipping the thin invisibility cloak vest on beneath his clothes.
"Wait, I earned Villain Points for killing that assassin, didn't I?" Wang Hao called up the System interface, and his eyes lit up when he saw he still had 11,400 Villain Points remaining.
"What should I spend them on?" Wang Hao scratched his chin, scrolling through the System's exchange menu, only to frown at the exorbitant prices of nearly every item.
"System Recommendation: As the Host acquires more and more equipment, it is recommended to unlock the System Inventory."
"System Inventory?" Wang Hao asked, confused.
The next second, a detailed description of the System Inventory appeared before his eyes.
System Inventory: A built-in storage space bound to the System.
Advantages: Any item, regardless of size, can be stored within.
Disadvantages: Each storage slot can only hold one type of item (Note: Identical items can be stacked).
Exchange Price: 10,000 Villain Points per storage slot.
"This is just like an inventory in a video game!" Wang Hao chuckled. This System was really stingy, not even giving a free inventory slot to start with.
Still, Wang Hao exchanged his points for a single storage slot without hesitation, and slipped the assassin's dagger into the System Inventory.
"Well, that's my points gone. Time for bed." Wang Hao glanced at his remaining 1,400 Villain Points, stretched lazily, and climbed into bed. Early to bed, early to rise—he had a tournament to win tomorrow.
…
The next day at Number Eleven High School.
The semi-final arena matches had yet to begin, but the sports field was already packed shoulder to shoulder with students.
"Who would have thought this semi-final line-up would turn out like this?"
"Tell me about it! Wang Hao actually made it to the final four, and he was only Level 6 Martial Apprentice when he started!"
"No one could have imagined Lin Tingbai and Zhao Xunwen would lose to Wang Hao in such humiliating fashion."
"Poor Zhao Xunwen didn't even get to start the match before Wang Hao took him down with that cheap shot."
"The worst part is the end result—Wang Hao's in the semi-finals! This is a blatant rigging of the matches!"
"Zhao Xunwen isn't the unluckiest one, though. Lin Tingbai has it way worse. I heard the Gao family's been pressuring the Lin family, and they've already agreed to the marriage."
"No way! Why would the Lin family ever agree to that?"
"Lin Tingbai's father, Lin Yang, is an ambitious man. He might have refused if this never happened, but now that it has, he gets to tie himself to the Gao family. Why on earth would he say no?"
"But even a vicious tiger won't eat its own cubs! How could he do this to his son?"
"To men like him, consumed by ambition, only profit is eternal. Do you think he's short of women?"
"Sigh, poor Lin Tingbai."
"Whether he's pitiful or not, this whole mess is all that degenerate bastard Wang Hao's fault."
"That's right! Everyone, chant with me! Beat the degenerate Wang Hao! Dethrone the lecherous principal! Give us back our pure and honorable Number Eleven High School!"
"Beat the degenerate Wang Hao! Dethrone the lecherous principal! Give us back our pure and honorable Number Eleven High School!"
"Beat the degenerate Wang Hao! Dethrone the lecherous principal! Give us back our pure and honorable Number Eleven High School!"
In the VIP viewing area, Principal Zhongli's face had turned thunderous black. He swore to himself that he would make sure the student leading this chant never graduated.
At the same time, he was dying to throttle that little bastard Wang Hao. The boy was unbelievably shameless! His combat power was terrifying—he could leapfrog cultivation realms to defeat opponents as easily as drinking water. Yet instead of fighting properly in the arena, he insisted on using cheap tricks, turning himself into a pariah and dragging Zhongli's name through the mud right along with him.
"Hahaha!"
Su Mu stroked his beard and laughed heartily, thoroughly pleased with Wang Hao's performance. The boy deliberately played the fool and held back his full strength, hiding his claws until the perfect moment. He knew how to bide his time and endure—he was destined for greatness.
What's more, when faced with the temptations of the DY Terror Organization, he'd not only refused them flat out, he'd turned them into his personal ATM.
He was shameless, but never stupid. Pragmatic, but never arrogant. He struck when the time was right. He was perfect! Far better than his rigid, overly upright father. If he had to score him out of a hundred, Wang Hao would earn a 99. He held back the last point only to keep the boy from growing too arrogant.
…
On the arena stage.
Wang Hao's eyes blazed with sharp focus, raking over his opponent from head to toe like an X-ray scanner.
His opponent was Le Xuan, the sultry campus belle of Number Eleven High School. She wore a pair of tight, alluring shorts that left her long, pale legs on full display, a revolver strapped to her thigh. Over a simple white t-shirt, she wore a fitted blue waistcoat, her curves so striking they were impossible to ignore—she looked nothing like a typical high school student. With her long raven hair, exquisite features, and a gaze that was both seductive and icy cold, Wang Hao felt his breath catch in his throat.
"Goddess Le Xuan! Beat that degenerate Wang Hao!!"
"Goddess Le Xuan! We're with you!"
"Goddess Le Xuan! I love you!"
The second Le Xuan stepped onto the stage, the male students below erupted into a frenzy, their deafening cheers echoing across the entire school.
"Had your fill of staring?" Le Xuan asked coldly.
Wang Hao nodded, then shook his head, a lazy grin on his face. "I've had my fill of looking, sure. But I can't help but wonder what it'd feel like to touch."
"Hmph!"
Le Xuan let out a cold snort, then turned to the referee. "Are we going to start or not!?"
The referee didn't dare let Wang Hao get another word in edgewise. He raised his hand and dropped it sharply. "Begin!"
The second the words left his mouth, Le Xuan drew the revolver from her thigh and fired a single shot straight at Wang Hao.
"Tier 2 Firearm Weapon!!"
Wang Hao's pupils constricted violently. He twisted on his heel, dodging the bullet by a hair's breadth, but the shockwave from the round still sliced a shallow gash into his shoulder.
"He actually dodged it!?" Le Xuan stared at Wang Hao in stunned disbelief. The revolver in her hand was a Tier 2 Firearm Weapon, powerful enough to grievously wound even a Martial Master. For a mere Martial Apprentice to dodge it was unthinkable.
The students below were equally frozen in shock. The speed Wang Hao had displayed to dodge the shot was far beyond what a Level 7 Martial Apprentice should be capable of.
Wait a minute!
Hadn't Wang Hao only just broken through to Level 6 Martial Apprentice yesterday? How was he already Level 7 today!?
Had he taken some forbidden drug to force a breakthrough? But that couldn't be right! The steady, grounded way he moved showed no signs of an unstable cultivation foundation at all!
At the same time, the principals of the other high schools in the VIP area all shot to their feet, staring at Wang Hao in disbelief. At last, they understood why the esteemed principal of Tianbei University, Su Mu, had come to Earth in person.
Wang Hao didn't just possess extraordinary talent—his cultivation speed was utterly staggering. He was a super prodigy, many times more gifted than even Wang Tianyi himself…