Popularity is everything; I play a super genius

……

On the large screen above the arena, the avatars of Saki, Ruri, and Hōki kept rotating.

Final frame —

A pure white mask.

Quiet.

"Saki-san..."

At that moment, several people looked at him simultaneously.

Saki had somewhat anticipated this outcome.

Because the ritual within his body was trembling.

He could feel it; it was getting closer and closer.

More than nine years of planning, more than nine years of waiting—

Is this moment finally here?

Even though he was used to always pretending to be nonchalant, at this moment, his eyes showed a rare, genuine, and undisguised expectation.

Saki looked at Hiki and Ruri, and said with a light laugh:

"Alright, you probably won't get a chance to play in this round."

Upon hearing what Qi Ji said, the four children exchanged glances, and a thought simultaneously arose in their minds—

Sure enough, it's very much in Saki's style.

The four of them pushed the wheelchair together, helping Saki to the stage.

On the other side of the ring, Pierce looked at the guy in the wheelchair, wearing a mask and coughing up blood, who was coming towards him. His calm face suddenly crumpled into a frown.

I felt a sense of unease in my heart.

After unexpectedly losing two games in a row, he had hoped to sweep aside all opposition and reaffirm Karentia's dominance to the world.

So Pierce was thinking that it would be best to face that guy named Ruri.

He came in third in the preliminary rounds; his talent is definitely worth considering.

The best way to quickly regain momentum is undoubtedly to decisively defeat the opponent's strongest player!

Unexpectedly, it turned out to be this kind of patient.

Winning feels like bullying someone...

Forget it, let's just get rid of this small fry quickly.

"I said, can the patient's family leave the ward... Pfft, can they leave the ring now?"

Pierce felt that the opposing force was truly outrageous.

"For such a short distance to get on stage, he actually needed four relatives and friends to accompany him?"

How much do your teammates worry about you?

In that case, it would be easier to just admit defeat offstage.

Upon hearing Pierce's incredibly irritating words, he glared at him angrily for a moment.

Is this what you call providing care?

This is clearly a crowd!

Do they distrust Saki-chan?

They're just too clingy to him!

Setsuna was already furious with this guy and was about to retort, but Saki stopped her by raising her hand.

"It's okay, I can do it myself."

To dare to criticize him in front of the whole city, Qi Ji naturally had to personally settle this score to vent his anger.

The four boys glared at Pierce before stepping off the stage at Qi Ji's signal.

……

Outside the stadium.

Xi Wang was sitting in a wheelchair, with a little girl with pigtails sitting on her lap.

She was exquisitely beautiful, looking about eight or nine years old. She held a bucket of popcorn in her hands, stuffed two kernels into her own mouth, and then fed one to Xiwang.

She is Xi Wang's only friend over the years, the daughter of Dr. Yin, and Lingxing.

Seeing Qi Ji take the stage, Ling Xing also nudged Xi Wang to remind him:

"Xiao Xi, Xiao Ji is on stage! Where are you looking? Come on, cheer for Xiao Ji!"

"Hey, has my brother gone on stage yet?"

Xi Wang quickly turned his gaze away from Su Shi.

Although I also care a little about that guy from the Thousand Faces family, my brother is more important than me.

"Go for it, brother!"

He clenched his fist and whispered something, then suddenly realized something was wrong.

"Sister Xiaoxing, don't stuff popcorn up my nostrils!"

……

Arena.

Light barriers slowly rose around the arena.

Battle begins!

The opening move of the Qiji Formula is still [Mirror Sword] as the starting move.

The Thousand Faces Card spun out, shattered and reformed in mid-air, transforming into a sword blade, radiating light.

Go straight for Pierce's face!

However, Pierce is clearly much more difficult to deal with than Whitestone.

With a soft hum, he flicked his wrist and unleashed a massive fireball!

Third-order Echo, [Super Giant Fireball], instant cast!

The fireball collided head-on with the Mirror Sword. The sword trembled in the high temperature and shattered instantly, exploding into countless fragments.

Thousands of fragments deflected and tumbled, repeatedly refracting the light on the arena, causing blinding flashes!

"Oh?"

Pierce raised an eyebrow slightly, showing a hint of surprise.

Although Saki had already used this move in the previous match against Shiraishi, the members of Kalentia obviously hadn't studied the replay.

For them, there's no need for that.

Therefore, when Saki used it again, it still achieved an unexpected effect.

Pierce's response was far superior to Whitestone's.

As he squinted, he instinctively conjured several smaller fireballs and sent them hurtling toward the pile of exploding fragments in front of him!

Some of the fragments were knocked off, but the rest, through the flames, reformed into a longsword and slashed straight at Pierce's face.

Seeing this, Pierce did not hesitate and instantly cast a third-order Echo!

[Flame Shield]

This is his talent in the Fire system.

His Echo Core allows him to pre-store two ordinary loops with no more than three nodes, which is the secret to his ability to instantly generate third-order Echoes.

However, after using up this third-tier Echo, which combines offense and defense, you'll have to rebuild the circuit completely if you want to unleash a second Giant Fireball or Fire Shield.

The Mirror Sword struck the Fire Shield, sending sparks flying.

Saki's attack was easily neutralized.

"Is that all the tricks you have?"

Ultimately, he looked down on the country bumpkins from Xinzhi City from the bottom of his heart. Pierce curled his lip in disdain.

"Alright, your attack is over. Now it's my turn—no objections, right?"

Pierce uttered these words and then prepared to finish off Saki in one move.

However, the next second, he suddenly realized—

wrong!

Behind you!

The blade whistled as it came!

Pierce turned around abruptly, only to discover that there was a Mirror Sword behind him.

No...when?!

In a moment of shock, Pierce suddenly realized—

It was that flashbang from just now!

The real purpose was not to blind him, but to use that moment of intense light as cover to silently move the other half of the mirror shard behind him...

"I really underestimated you!"

At this moment, even someone as arrogant as him had to admit that this year's students from the City of Salvation were indeed a little stronger than those of previous years.

But it was only a tiny bit.

Did you think you could win against him with such a trivial trick?

It's still a long way off!

Having narrowly avoided the sword strike, Pierce was about to unleash his Echo and launch a powerful counterattack.

however--

With a soft "hum", a third sword appeared!

The mirror shards that had been knocked to the ground by his fireballs had somehow secretly coalesced into a miniature sword!

It stabbed upwards, straight at his lower body!

"???"

Where the hell are you stabbing?!

How utterly vicious!

At this moment, Pierce was genuinely starting to panic.

He never expected that the bastard in the wheelchair would actually want to make him childless!

At this moment, his pre-stored flame shield had already been used to defend against the frontal sword attack, and there was no time to build the circuit to release a second flame shield in a short period of time.

So Pierce made a quick decision!

The flames on the fire shield instantly flowed back to his body, and his armor was instantly unfurled!

Genealogy attached.

Armed manifestation.

The outer garment of the heart.

—【The Undying Guardian】.

His ability is to instantly form an automatic defensive "Lava Shield" on his body when he senses an attack.

The Lava Shield instantly ignited on his lower body.

With a crisp "ding," Pierce instinctively protected little Pierce.

We managed to save it...