Yue stared at me for a moment before reeling over and laughing, clutching her stomach as she bent over and her shoulders shook. Grabbing a small blade from one of the goblins, she lunged forward and slashed the blade with vicious speed toward my throat.

“Peijin!” Yang shouted, rushing forward. 

The blade made contact with my throat with astounding force, but it simply clattered against my skin. Yue froze before readjusting her hand to grip the knife as an extension of her fist and drive it into my stomach. The blade snapped in half as I smirked down at Yue, my expression smug.

“What are you?” When Yue looked up to face me, her voice trembled slightly as her brown eyes shook. 

I gave a cocky shrug. “Just a pest control worker,” I replied before balling my hand and slamming my fist into her liver, watching her fly back and slam into a car. She let out a surprised yelp as she bounced off of the now totaled car and skidded on the ground. 

The freeway was filled with more and more dead bodies as people continued to fight and lose against the violent horde of goblins. Blood and grim littered the streets, painting the initially dusty gray and cracked asphalt with a deep red. I shook out my fist in the air, rubbing my knuckles, and waited for Yue’s retaliation.

 

 

 

 

Sun Wukong was here? ‘Great Sage Equaling Heaven’ was his epithet, and ‘Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven’ was the Demon Bull King, his most formidable enemy—hence their childish bickering.

My eyes glimmered with excitement when looking up at the expansive sky, and I saw the two stars angrily blinking at one another. If I got Sun Wukong as my sponsor… that was the dream.

I placed my hands on my hips and faced the wide sky. “Don’t bother bribing me with coins before the constellation sponsor selection. I already know who I plan on picking,” I shouted up at the heavens.

The Azure Dragon gasped and covered its snout with stubby hands. “Do I really have an oracle in my channel? This is so good for business!”

I glared at the Azure Dragon and looked back to the freeway, watching the horde of goblins sprint toward me, since I had attacked their “ruler.” With a simple sweep of my foot, they easily dissolved into speckled black ash that blew into the air. More and more charged and met a similar fate, and I continued to leisurely walk closer and closer to Yue. 

She coughed up blood but wiped the side of her mouth with skinned hands turned pink. 

“Yue,” I say in a firm voice, kneeling down beside her, “I want you to team up with me.”

Yue was, unfortunately, part of the main cast, but more importantly, she’d become one of the strongest of the Demon King disciples in Surviving My First Round with the Demon Bull King as her sponsor.

Wei looked over, admiration and idolism glinting in his surprised expression. He nudged Yang’s arm while Yang was trying to wipe off the bug guts from his hands. “Peijin is so generous,” Wei whispered when I extended my hand out toward Yue. He was too far to be in earshot, but he was receptive to my actions.

Yue snickered and tilted her head back, eyeing me as I stared at her busted lip. “I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

“No, not really,” I gave a toothy grin as she sat up and reached for my hand. Suddenly, her hand slammed against my gut with unexpected force, causing me to fall back onto the ground. 

“These coins do come in handy, huh?” Yue dusted herself off, readjusted her school skirt, and crossed her arms as she hovered over me.

How could she possibly have enough coins to level up her strength that much? I groaned, getting up rather quickly. She should have what, maybe 500 or 600 coins? That wasn’t enough to overpower my physique level.

Seriously? That guy gave Yue coins?

Well, shit. 

I quickly checked to see how the scenario was progressing, looking at the blue screen. 

The Azure Dragon gawked as it redirected the broadcast back toward my fight with Yue. 

[Seems like a lot is going on here, too! Feel free to donate some more coins to my broadcast, so I can bring you better content!] The Azure Dragon batted his long gold lashes at an invisible camera just above Yue and me.

Looks like the goblins had done their job at killing the majority of the population… but still, something about this was unsettling. The number shouldn’t have climbed so quickly. As per the Azure Dragon’s comment, where else would a cooler disciple interaction be taking place? I was at a better spot than Feiyu at this point of the story.

Returning my focus to Yue, she must not have invested many coins into physique given her labored breathing and the sweat on the brow.

I didn’t want to use this many coins for the prerequisite arc, but it looked like I had to. 

 

“Sorry, Yue, I don’t think you understand what’s happening,” I slowly stood up and lowered my hands to my sides, trying to avoid intimidation. “I’m an oracle.”

Yue’s fists started glowing with an ominous black and purple flame that flickered up her arm. She looked down in amazement, a chaotic grin lighting up her expression. “Did you predict this, then?” 

This time on impact, her fist threw me backward and hurdled me straight into the fence on the side of the freeway. My body splattered like a starfish as I collapsed into the ground, groaning. Wei sprinted over to me, lifting me up and slapping my face to try and keep me conscious. He stood before me, blocking Yue from me as he armed himself with metal rubble from the car accidents. 

 

[... This seems to be a very embarrassing play on behalf of our… oracle.]

I grabbed Wei’s shoulder, gently pushing him to the side. “I’m fine, Wei. I’m just really pissed off now.”

Yue faced me, angling her chin up with both of her flames now blazing with demonic fire. Admittedly, I hadn’t quite seen this coming; even though the skill was the same as in Surviving My First Run, she wouldn’t have activated it until the second arc.

“Come back for more, Peijin?” She must have picked up my name earlier from Yang’s shout.

I spit out blood onto the freeway, causing a thick splatter just a few feet away. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” My two hands are raised in front of me and gesture for her to make the first move.

Yue’s fist barely missed my right cheek as I dodged, side-stepping at the last possible moment. I let out a sigh of relief—maybe I’d be able to keep a sliver of dignity despite the Azure Dragon’s broadcasting.

A flaming fist narrowly missed the top of my head before I quickly ducked down, jumping out to the side and quickly regaining my footing. Yue’s jaw was clenched tightly, her brows furrowed in rage, but she continued to throw violent punch one after another.

“What’s wrong, Yue? Cat got your tongue?” I smirked, lightly jumping back and forth between my two feet. 

Yue let out a frustrated cry as she battered me with her fists, yet I easily blocked every single move with the side of my forearms. Each burst of flames would leave the top-most surface of my skin charred black, but thanks to my physique level, it was quickly dusted off. 

My leg made thunder as it smashed into her side, launching her into the pavement once more. Her body drooped, unconscious, as she laid on the cement with spit dripping out of her open mouth. 

My feet crunched on the broken glass that was scattered around the freeway as I picked her up, wrapping my jacket around her waist, and throwing her over my shoulder. I held onto her thighs and walked back to the pest control car, dumping her body in the back seat. Any of the goblins that trailed after Yue were quickly killed with a light kick, although countless others continued to swarm people on the streets that previously tried to attack them.

I finally made it back to the pest control van and let out a heavy sigh, sinking against the truck. This had become much more convoluted than I was hoping for. It seemed like they had already invested their coins. 

Yang moved to assist me, but Wei shot me a conflicted expression as he eyed Yue with disdain in his expression. 

“I don’t like her either,” I reassured him, “but you can’t deny how powerful she is.”

With a blue flash, the timer for the first chapter flashed, marking the end of the challenge.