Night’s Nomenclature

Outside the locker room were cheers and shouts mixed with the unique sound of horns in the boxing ring.

There were two rows of horn players standing beside the ring, and each of them held a huge horn in front of them. When the boxing match was about to start, they would slowly blow into the horns.

The sound grew from a deep hum to a loud boom, resonating across the room. Accompanied by the excess oxygen transported in through the ventilation system, the audience’s emotions were fully stirred up to a climax.

A host in a tuxedo stood in the octagon boxing cage with a microphone in his hand and looked around with a smile, “Ladies and gentlemen!”

“After 10 days, a new boxer is here to challenge the octagonal cage of City 18 District 4. Tonight, he will go up the ladder from the bantamweight class.”

“Do you still remember that a year ago, the boxing champion Afan also started fighting in the octagonal cage on such a night?”

“Every time a newcomer appears, their performance is worth looking forward to…”

In the narrow locker room, Qing Chen looked at Li Shutong, “Master, I thought I’m here to watch, instead of getting beaten in public. Isn’t this a bit hasty?”

Ordinary boxers could only use the standard locker room, and only when one reached the tigerweight class could then get one’s own private room.

But in fact, a locker room would be quite useless to Qing Chen right now, since he didn’t even prepare a change of clothes…

Way too hasty…

Li Shutong said slowly, “When I first entered the boxing ring, I wasn’t prepared to fight either. Both your martial uncle and I were both beaten back then. Don’t worry, it’s all part of the normal process! Knights are fearless in the face of any difficulties!”

Qing Chen looked at Li Shutong suspiciously, “Master, why not just say that you want to beat me and don’t want to do it yourself?”

Li Shutong thought about it and said, “Well, nothing wrong with that either. When my martial uncle took me to the boxing ring, he must have thought the same way!”

“Ok, I see how it is… What a tradition,” said Qing Chen.

The master that Li Shutong was talking about must be the Knight who passed recently in Forbidden Land 002 and had not formed any rules yet.

Li Shutong’s master must have been annoyed by Li Shutong and Chen Jiazhang, so he sent them up to be beaten.

Qing Chen was very self-aware. Not to mention that he doesn’t have much actual combat experience, but in terms of abilities, the Knights were at a default disadvantage in the boxing ring.

He couldn’t use Autumn Leaf Blades!

Qing Chen was also told about the rules. On the first night of his qualifying matches, he would have to fight all the way from bantamweight to tigerweight, and the toughest tigerweight boxers came last. By then he still had to face the real E-level fighters.

It would almost be impossible for him to not get beaten…

Li Shutong asked, “Can you find a better place to practice combat skills in this world other than the boxing ring? Even the sparring competitions in the federal army are not as intense as here.”

One’s sense of distance and rhythm were intuitions that could only be mastered after experience.

Seeing that his disciple was being convinced, he continued, “Usually, it’s difficult even to find someone your level who’s willing to practice with. Outside, you’ll still have to spend money to hire someone, but here, you can make money while practicing. At the middleweight level and above, every fight, no matter whether you win or lose, you will get a bonus from the gambling pool plus an appearance fee!”

“How much is the appearance fee?” Qing Chen asked.

“If you can get to tigerweight, it’s a lot.”

“Fine, I’ll fight,” said Qing Chen.

Li Shutong sighed, “If I had known earlier that you just cared about the money, I wouldn’t even need to explain so much other nonsense with you.”

“By the way,” Qing Chen asked curiously, “Master, are you not going to make a bet that I’ll win?”

“No,” Li Shutong said with a smile.

Qing Chen raised an eyebrow, “Master, you must be certain that I can’t win to the end today, aren’t you? You just want to see me being beaten!”

Li Shutong said patiently, “Well, that’s not exactly what I meant, I just think gambling is bad.”

As he said that, Li Shutong took off his jacket and put it inside out. The jacket was a two-in-one, and the inside was not pure white like the outside, but gray.

“Master, why did you flip your jacket inside out?” Qing Chen was puzzled.

“You’ll find out in a bit.”

“Then master, do you think I can win tonight?” Qing Chen asked.

Li Shutong thought for a while, “In fact, when you get to the tigerweight class, your opponent will be a real E-level genetic fighter, so it is not easy to win after you’ve fought for a while. If you want to win, you still lack an opportunity.”

Qing Chen’s face darkened, another opportunity.

The last time his master mentioned an opportunity, he ended up getting chased by a C-level.

“But Master, shouldn’t I be wearing a mouthguard or something? Also, where are my boxing gloves?” Qing Chen asked.

“The rules of underground boxing have been modified a long time ago. No guards or gloves. It makes the show more exciting,” said Li Shutong.

The cheers outside the locker room grew louder, and someone knocked on the alloy gate, “Boxer, please come on stage.”

However, at this moment, Li Shutong’s cell phone buzzed, and he took a look at the screen and said, “After we left, that young girl returned to Luoshen Building. It seems like she’s moving into the apartment across the hall from us.”

“Is this ONE gossiping with you again?” Qing Chen asked suspiciously.

“Yep,” Li Shutong nodded.

Qing Chen was fascinated, so a real AI… likes to gossip just like a human…?

“Don’t think too much about it, there’s really nothing between us,” he explained calmly, “Yangyang came to Los Angeles very abruptly, and her goal is very clear, which is to approach everything related to Prison 18… To be precise, she was specifically targeting you. I think the organization behind her wanted her to do this.”

Li Shutong sighed, “Have young people nowadays gotten so complicated? Back when I was young, how could 17-year-old boys and girls fight each other like this?”

Seeing that Qing Chen hadn’t come out for a long time, the staff outside the door thought Qing Chen was scared.

He said loudly, “You have already signed the contract for tonight. If you regret it now, you will have to pay damages for the club!”

Qing Chen said with a smile, “Master, we’ll continue after I finish this fight.”

With that said, he pushed open the alloy gate of the locker room and walked outside.

Outside the door, the staff was waiting.

Li Shutong smiled behind Qing Chen. He suddenly realized how his martial uncle must have felt when he was being sent to fight.

Instead of waiting in the locker room, he quietly walked into the crowd.

I can only accompany you for a short walk in the journey of thousands of miles. From then on, whether it’s rain or shine, I will not interfere again.

But I’ll still be watching.

…

…

In the private room, Li Yinuo stood quietly in front of the glass window. She watched the teenager walking out from the aisle in white sportswear.

Compared with the bantamweight boxing champion on the opposite side of the stage, Qing Chen had no coach, no team leader, and no beautiful women surrounding him. He was all alone.

Qing Chen didn’t even prepare clothing for boxing, and his thin body didn’t make him look like a boxer either.

If Li Yinuo were to say, this teenager was more like a student who happened to pass by, possibly just another daydreamer who saw that one could become rich overnight and make easy money in the ring.

There were many who came thinking that way and have all died in the octagonal cage.

The audience in the boxing ring booed when they saw Qing Chen’s appearance.

Someone who bet on him also shouted in dismay, “Fuck! I thought there was going to be a talented boxer getting debuted, but this kid doesn’t even seem to have done proper training!”

“He’s so young… Is he still a student?”

“Hurry up and bet on the other side! Win back the money you lost on him!”

At this time, a gray figure walked among the crowd, “Purchasing tickets betting on the newcomer at a 10% rate! Purchasing tickets betting on the newcomer at a 10% rate!”

After the boxing audience bets, the boxing ring will give them a white card with the bet amount printed on it, acting as proof of purchase.

At the end of the match, the winner would exchange the cards for money, and the loser would throw the cards into the ring.

Li Shutong was walking around the arena with a bag in his hand and yelled, “Taking tickets betting on the newcomer for 10% of the purchase price, only accepting the tickets betting on passing all the way! You can still get 10% of your money back now. After he loses a round, your tickets will be penniless! It’s a good habit to have a stop-loss.”

“I’m selling it! I have a bet on him to win all the way for 2000 yuan!”

“I’ll sell too! My bet’s 800 yuan!”

Li Shutong smiled and said, “No rush, one by one!”

In just five minutes, the bag he was carrying was almost full.

For other gamblers, the odds of betting on Qing Chen to pass all the way to the end were only 10x and still decreasing.

But Li Shutong’s bet was different. He deliberately made Qing Chen look unprepared, letting everyone think that Qing Chen was just a rookie with no training once so ever.

This way, his initial bet started with a 10x leverage on his purchase price of 10%.

When Qing Chen asked Li Shutong why he didn’t bet, Li Shutong said that gambling was bad, but he knew the real reason was that the timing wasn’t right back then!

Li Shutong was not short of money. He hadn’t felt the state of being short of money for a long time, so he didn’t want to use Qing Chen to make money.

However, the same thing happened when he and his brother were fighting!

The Knight’s traditions cannot be broken!

By using this trick, his martial uncle almost got financial freedom overnight.

Li Shutong remembered very clearly that in order to increase the odds of the two of them, the uncle even asked them to wear flip-flops and patched clothes when they first fought!

Compared with what his martial uncle did to him, Li Shutong felt that he had already saved his disciple’s embarrassment quite a bit.

Thinking of this, Li Shutong showed a smile. Memories were always so fulfilling.

At this moment, Li Tongyun in the private room suddenly walked to the glass window, and the little girl grabbed Li Yinuo’s palm, “Sister, I saw you staring at the boxer in white the whole time. Do you know him?”

“I do, he’s my new friend,” Li Yinuo looked at Li Tongyun and smiled.

“Sister Yinuo, who is he?” Xiao Tongyun asked.

Li Yinuo shook her head, “Sorry, but I can’t tell you.”

A trace of worry flashed across Xiao Tongyun’s expression, but her tone still sounded like an innocent little girl, “Since he’s your friend, sister, aren’t you worried that something will happen to him in the cage? Will he get hurt?”

Li Yinuo smiled and said, “Don’t worry. Why should we be worrying if his elder isn’t even worried? He’ll be fine. The other boxer in the octagonal cage won’t stand a chance.”

Li Tongyun and Nan Gengchen both felt relieved at the same time.

The two seemed to have felt each other’s mood in the room, so they looked at each other.

Is he Brother Chen’s friend? Nan Gengchen thought.

Is he Brother Chen’s friend? Li Tongyun thought.

Li Yinuo said to them, “In the beginning, the placement match starts with only the bantamweight class. This kind of opponent will be easily crushed by the teenager. Don’t worry, I’m guessing that he can finish the fight in under a minute.”

The boxing match in the octagonal cage had already begun, but things didn’t happen as Li Yinuo predicted, and Qing Chen did not crush his opponent Wang Fu.

In the cage, Qing Chen had been defending by covering his head, and Wang Fu’s fists hit him like a rainstorm, making it seem as if he stood no chance.

The teenager’s neat white sportswear quickly became messy, with fist marks printed on it.

A minute passed and the situation did not change at all.

Seeing this, Li Tongyun got worried, “Sister Yinuo, why is this a little different from what you said?”

Li Yinuo’s mouth twitched and said, “This is his strategy.”

Outside the private room, Li Shutong glanced back at the octagonal cage, and immediately said, “Buying back tickets at 5% rate now! Starting now, tickets will be bought back at a 5% rate”

The already furious gamblers started shouting angrily, “Didn’t you just say that you’re buying at 10% rate? This is such a scam!”

“Can’t you tell that the situation is different now?” Li Shutong explained earnestly, “He’s been beaten so badly in the bantamweight class already. I’m bearing great risk here too”

In his mind though, Li Shutong was exclaiming how sensible his disciple was. Qing Chen was giving him a free boost in revenue!

In contrast, he and his martial brother did not have this awareness back then.

Chen Jiazhang beat the bantamweight champion to the ground as soon as he came on stage, which made his martial uncle earn quite a bit less than what they could’ve earned.

At this time, the security guards in the boxing ring also found Li Shutong, but they came to stop.

Usually, if a boxer’s friends or relatives were betting maliciously, the staff would quickly warn them to stop.

But if he was just purchasing bets from others, the club wouldn’t bear many losses, so the staff wouldn’t care.