Chapter 609: Playing the Bad Guy for a good reason
*Bing-Bong*
It has come to the writer’s attention that not many people are familiar with the term, “heel”, so we will be interrupting the normal flow of the chapter to explain.
…
In the world of professional wrestling, the fighters normally fall into one of two roles: the babyface and the heel.
The babyface is the term to for the protagonists in wrestling.
They’re the “good guys”, the honorable heroes, the one who makes the audience loves them, the person everyone roots for because they’re the underdog or fighting for a cause, that kind of thing.
The heel on the other hand are the antagonists of wrestling.
They mock people, they fight dirty, they actively piss off the audience, they try invoke boos instead of applause, for all intents and purposes, they are the “bad guys”.
Of course, it should ben noted that these roles are never set in stone, and that fighters will regularly switch between the two roles depending on the storyline.
…
We now return to your regularly scheduled chapter, thank you.
…
Couldn’t help but notice you’ve been using this little blurb thing less frequently as of late.
|I like to think I’ve been more organized with my plot.|
S-sure.
|…|
…
|Stop judging me.|
Never.
*Bing-Bong*
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[Milord…I’m confused. Why did you choose to antagonize everybody in this arena and your opponents all in the same breath?,] Nepherage asked.
As a kaijin with a core literally dedicated around [Heroism], she was a touch concerned about how Zhen Liu was acting more or less like an arrogant villain. Granted, she was used to him acting like a weird evil mastermind, but that was usually in the private chambers of the library and involved elaborate disguises aimed at one person in particular, maybe two if he was feeling up to it.
This time he was doing it in broad daylight, while an entire arena’s worth of people was watching.
All in all, it didn’t look good.
‘Well, Nepherage, I actually have a-‘
[Isn’t obvious mi amiga?,] Hurricroak interjected with a dramatic tone[our lord is finally hitting is villain arc!]
‘I…what?’
[What…?]
[Excuse me?]
Seeing how she had grabbed everyone’s attention with her unusual statement, Hurricroak proceeded to ham it up a bit more.
[First, it starts with out lord being disrespectful to his opponents. Next, he’ll start to liter and be rude to his parents.]
[That’s…fairly mild…]
[Then he’ll start eating babies,] Hurricroak continued,
[Okay, nope, that is a…massive leap in logic,] Spring Brawler pointed out.
[Finally, he will conquer the world and then he will fulfill his mater plan and HE WILL CUCK EVERYONE, INCLUDING THEIR PETS!]
[…]
‘What the fuck?’
[Or he’ll do none of that and he’s just doing this because it’s funny.]
[What…just…what?]
[That…that went from zero…to sixty….to a like a billion…real fast,] Razorstella pointed out.
‘A-anyways…,’ Zhen Liu said in an attempt to move the conversation along, ‘I actually have two good reasons to play the bad guy. The first of which is to become the center of attention, but not in a gloating way. The way I see it, if I act like a massive tool, that means I’m a massive target. Even if my cousins do absolutely amazing in the tournament, people are more likely to cheer for them and redirect any sabotage or cheating attempts towards me specifically. My cousins are damn good warriors and could probably handle that shit just fine, but I’m the one with the indestructible(?) body here that’s…probably immune to poison, I still need to test that later. Either way, it’s better for people to gun for my head than theirs.’
[Huh. That is actually very noble of you milord. I apologize for not noticing this sooner.]
‘It’s cool Nepherage, it’s cool.’
[Wait…what was the second reason, maestro?]
‘What…what are you talking about?’
[You always have two reasons whenever you do stuff. One that is actually justifiable and sounds somewhat sensible, and one that is either out of left field or…mildly petty,] Razorstella elaborated.
‘No, I…don’t…’
[…]
<=...=>
‘Okay…I got caught up in the moment of the slap and rode that high into making some questionable decisions in a moment.’
[There it is.]
[Is…is it good thing or a bad thing that you can always seem to find a justifiable reason behind dumb decisions.]
‘Yes.’
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To say Zhen Liu’s statement was antagonistic would be putting it mildly, at best.
Trash talk was normal, almost expected in a tournament setting such as this, but it was another thing entirely for someone to say that they’re going to defeat their next seven opponents with a literal slap to the face.
It should go without saying that the reactions to this declaration, combined with the manner in which Zhen Liu left the arena floor in order to go to the lounge area was rather…mixed. Although, it was leaning heavily on the reactions being mostly negative.
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However, surprisingly, there were a couple positive reactions scattered about.
“On the one hand, that was unnecessarily arrogant…on the other, I kind of want to see him do it.”
<
{Oh, I just know this year’s fights are going to be great!}
Of course, the people who had the biggest reaction to this declaration were the ones who were closest to him, aka, his family and lovers.
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In the lounge area…
“Did…did Zhen Liu seriously just do that?!,” Zhen Feng asked in disbelief.
“I mean, I knew he was strong but damn that was…brutal.”
“Yeah,” Zhen Tai agreed, “I mean…he can’t use a single art without his puppets, but damn that tradeoff.”
“A part of me feels annoyed that I wasn’t the one to make a big ass challenging declaration like that…but at the same time, I’m kind of glad he did it first.”
“Uh…why’s that, Zhen Hai?”
“Because now I got reference material for my own declaration.”
“Aight.”
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Inside the fighting arena where Zhen Xing was fighting…
“HAHAHAHAHA!”
“Huh? What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, nothing,” Zhen Xing replied as he wiped a laughing tear from his eyes, “it’s just that…that’s my cousin down there who made that declaration.”
“Okay…”
“And now I feel like I need to up my own game here!”
“What are you-what the fuck?”
Before his very eyes, Zhen Xing’s form began to turn hazy and smoky, as clones of him appeared on the battlefield, accompanied by a strange dance-like movement.
“I don’t know why, but I have been feeling more…dance focused as of late. Try not to get to lost into the rhythm, otherwise, this is gonna hurt!”
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“I know Zhen Liu directed his challenge towards those in his round robin portion, but why did it feel like he just challenged the entire arena with that statement?,” Rianna asked.
“Because, my buff and buggy friend, Xiao Liu definitely did just that,” Jin Fang answered with a complicated expression.
As an unofficial member and servant of the Zhen Clan, respectively, Rianna and Jin Fang didn’t get a chance to go up into the skybox alongside the elders and their immediate family.
They were however allowed to watch the fighting from the lounge areas since one of them was technically a personal servant, and the other just use the lie she was a bodyguard.
A lot of people took just one look at Rianna and believed that lie almost immediately.
‘I feel like I should be more annoyed at Zhen Liu’s act,’ Jin Fang thought to herself, ‘but…’
Jin Fang felt conflicted as on the one hand, she found Zhen Liu’s borderline arrogant confidence absolutely annoying and couldn’t help but wish for someone to smack some sense to him…on the other, she found it unusually endearing and wanted to be the smack him…before tying him to the bed.
Jin Fang wasn’t sure why, but Zhen Liu’s “evil” performances had a tendency to wake something in her…it may have had something to do with those “otome games” Pathos let her play sometimes…
“Okay, I think I need to stop hanging around-wait, Rianna, where are you going?”
“I’m going to go mark his stuff before any other females try to take him.”
“That…that’s not how humans work!”
“Then why have I seen many a woman spray perfume on an item of clothes before giving it to their mates?”
“That…I’m just gonna go with you.”
“That’s what I thought.”
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Up in the skybox…
“Xiao Yan…”
“Seventh brother…”
“Honey…”
“I…have no idea where he got that from.”
Patriarch Zhen Shi. six of the seven elders of the Zhen Clan, and the Seventh Mother were staring directly at the Seventh Elder, Zhen Yan, because since he was the father of Zhen Liu, he was technically responsible for the sheer amount of arrogance the young man had displayed on the field.
In fact, they all believed that Zhen Yan should directly apologize to the matriarch of the main clan for this disrespect…however…
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The matriarch of the Zhen Clan seemed to love it.
For some reason.
<
“Uh…”
Evidently, this was a question that would be addressed during their fights.
