"Gu Mingxuan is no good. I saw him stealing women's underwear just last week, completely wasting that SS-grade talent."
Ling Chen's expression was deadpan and utterly serious.
It was impossible to tell whether he was joking or speaking the absolute truth.
"Slander! That bastard is spreading rumors!"
"Ling Chen, you turtle-spawned bastard, I'm going to kill you!"
Gu Mingxuan's face turned beet red, and he stamped his feet in panic. If not for the staff holding him back, he would have already rushed up to hack Ling Chen to pieces.
The venue fell silent. Everyone cast strange, sidelong glances at Gu Mingxuan.
The male attendees felt a pang of sympathy and embarrassment on his behalf—how was this any different from dropping your trousers and taking a shit in the middle of the street?
The female attendees frowned, unable to help but wonder if Gu Mingxuan really had stolen them, since several of them had indeed gone missing.
Nearby, the members of the Gu family wore grim expressions. Quite a few of them quietly slipped away, having lost all face to stay any longer.
Although they knew it was all nonsense and that Ling Chen was just talking bullsh*t, it was undeniably a sticky situation.
The head of the Gu family shook his head and sighed, "Sigh, I told you not to provoke Ling Chen. Why did you have to go and poke the hornet's nest..."
The reporter from the Haicheng Daily stood frozen in awkward embarrassment.
He had originally wanted to suck up to Gu Mingxuan, but he never expected his flattery to backfire so disastrously, sending a shiver of dread down his spine.
After a moment of thought, he quickly changed the subject.
He pressed on, "Ling Chen, in past provincial competitions, Shaohua University has always taken the championship, while your Haicheng University comes in dead last every single time."
"Do you have anything to say about that?"
Upon hearing this, Qin Muwan turned pale with fright.
She hurriedly beckoned to the staff member beside her, "Go stop that brat right now! Don't let him run his mouth!"
"We can't afford to offend Shaohua University right now, or people will laugh us out of existence!"
The staff member nodded and was just about to charge toward the stage when it was already too late.
"Don't, you little ancestor!" Qin Muwan shrieked.
Ling Chen cleared his throat and declared in an utterly arrogant, swaggering tone:
"What kind of trash is Shaohua University? Are they even worthy of comparing to my Haicheng University?"
"Just wait until the competition, I'll beat them so hard they'll be crying for their daddy!"
The entire venue instantly went dead silent.
The students of Haicheng University stared up at the stage in sheer disbelief.
He actually dared to say that!
Was he arrogant or just plain reckless? Being from Haicheng University, they felt their faces burning hot at that moment.
"Well, holy cow, isn't Little Dust a bit too fierce?" Sun Shuaishuai's expression froze as he gave him a thumbs-up.
Meanwhile.
The members of Shaohua University watching the live stream behind their screens were gnashing their teeth in fury and frantically typing barrage comments.
"Grandson, your daddy is waiting for you at the provincial competition!"
"Looks like Haicheng University got too big for its britches. Haven't you been beaten enough in the past? Well, we'll make sure to hit you even harder this time!"
"Competitors from Haicheng University, I await your arrival. I hope you won't be cowards like last time."
...
Unfortunately, Ling Chen couldn't see any of these comments—commonly known as impotent rage.
All he heard was the mechanical voice ringing in his head.
[Rage value +850]
[Rage value +1800]
[Rage value...]
Beneath the banner.
An elder from a prominent family asked with mild curiosity, "Principal Cheng, has this student of yours always been this ferocious? Why hasn't anyone put him in his place?"
"Uh... this..." Cheng Boyuan stammered, unsure of how to answer.
An official heavyweight sitting right in the center shook his head and took over the conversation, "We can't afford to mess with him. He's connected..."
"Connected?"
Those three words filled the high-ranking figures present with astonishment.
Wasn't Ling Chen said to be an orphan? Where did these connections come from?
"Can't say," the official heavyweight replied.
Hearing this, the group all fell silent, a trace of wary dread flashing in their eyes.
Anyone whose name couldn't be spoken aloud was bound to be a taboo figure of untouchable status...
On the stage.
Qin Muwan rushed over and snatched the microphone from Ling Chen's hand.
With an apologetic smile, she said, "Apologies, everyone. We failed to discipline him properly. Please ask questions related to the topic!"
With that, she shot Ling Chen a fierce glare before storming off the stage.
Soon, the venue quieted down again.
The flat-topped, glasses-wearing reporter from the Haicheng Daily asked, "Student Ling Chen, there are rumors that you deliberately killed that woman in the Border Wilderness. How do you respond to this?"
Ling Chen was slightly dazed, then pulled a script out of his trouser pocket and flipped through it up and down.
"Holy cow, bro! Can you at least try to be subtle? You're checking the answers right here on the spot?"
Everyone was dumbfounded. What kind of operation was this?
Seeing Ling Chen flip from front to back, unable to utter a single word for the longest time, the crowd couldn't help bursting into laughter.
"What, haven't you found the corresponding script yet?"
"Stop flipping, bro. Just make up a random excuse, we'll forgive you."
"Exactly, since your skin is already this thick, do you really care about one more question?"
Down below, Qin Muwan was burning up with anxiety like an ant on a hot pan.
She muttered under her breath, "It's right there on the second line! Isn't it written right at the top?!"
"The situation was critical at the time, and the woman was so fiercely protective of the cat demon that she accidentally threw herself onto the blade—just read that part!"
"Such a fool!"
At the back of the crowd, Bai Youxia shook her head.
She said thoughtfully, "Knowing this asshole, he's definitely doing it on purpose. He's charging up a big move."
"Huh?" Jin Moyan's jaw dropped. "A big move?"
Ling Chen put away the script and said with a dead-serious face, "Pass. Next question."
What the hell.
He could actually just pass?!
Then what the hell was the point of calling this an apology and clarification press conference!
Everyone was utterly speechless. Why did this brat have to be so infuriatingly cheeky?
The reporters were utterly shocked. How could he not play by the rules? After all the trouble they had gone through to discuss the answers with Qin Muwan just last night!
Yet since Ling Chen refused to talk, there was nothing they could do. They had no choice but to move on.
At that moment.
The female reporter from the Daxia Evening News asked, "Student Ling Chen, may I ask if Haicheng University has provided any compensation to the victim's family?"
"Pass," Ling Chen replied flatly.
Jinghai News snatched the microphone and asked, "Ling Chen, did you feel any sense of guilt over this?"
"Pass."
"Student Ling Chen, have you faced any punishment?"
"Pass."
"Student Ling Chen, is there anything you'd like to say to the victim?"
"Pass."
"Student Ling Chen, are you even human, dammit?"
"Pass."
Everyone: "???"
"Pass your sister! At least use your brain to think for a second! You even said 'pass' to an insult—did you even listen at all?"
"Big brother, I'm begging you, if all else fails, just read off the script! The answers are right there!"
"Drag him down! Drag him down! I can't take it anymore!"
By this point, it wasn't just the people at the venue who were being driven insane.
The audience watching the live stream behind their screens also felt like speechlessness had just opened the door for speechlessness—they had reached the absolute peak of speechlessness.