"-And from now on, the final match of the first round between Servant Lin Fan vs Servant Xiong Ji begins!"

*PWWWWWHTTT!*

As the referee's whistle shrieked, the bustle of the entire area came to a halt as almost every person shifted their attention towards the two men on stage- Who were standing on opposite sides to one another.

On one side was a lean and fair young man who gave off an air of valiance and arrogance to the spectators, because he fearlessly stood straight like a sword and stared head-on towards his monster of a foe without flinching once.

This very young man was Lin Fan.

The opponent of Lin Fan on the other side, Xiong Ji, was a total behemoth of a man.

He was almost inhumane with the fact that he stood at a menacing seven-foot tall. If that wasn't intimidating enough already, he had an incredibly bulky figure going for him as well, making him look like a hairless grizzly bear.

With these completely contrasting descriptions in mind, it wasn't hard for the crowd to put two and two together, and come to the conclusion that this was going to be nothing short of a thrashing!

And... this was exactly what they came here to see!

Since this world was one where fighting and killing were commonplace, it made sense that its inhabitants would relish watching brutal and gory fights.

As the crowd waited in anticipation for the brawl to begin, Xiong Ji shouted to his opponent with clear disdain in his voice, as if was talking to a dirty rat that was running around the house, and said,

"So you're the puny sh*t everyone in their mother has been yapping on about recently!

"Supposedly, you're some chivalrous and heroic guy that uses his mighty powers to destroy any injustice he sees.

"Bullshit!

"I don't buy it one bit!

"From what I see, you've just been spreading this nonsense around shamelessly in order to get others to toot your horn and make you feel better about yourself!"

Xiong Ji's chubby face then morphed from his previous disdainful expression into a sinister one, as he finished off his speech by saying,

"So, in order to open everyone's eyes and let them see how much of an impudent and disrespectful nobody you are...

...I'll personally beat you until you learn your place and beg for mercy!"

Then without even giving Lin Fan any time to refute, he swung into motion and charged at Lin Fan with his mountainous body- Like a bull who had just spotted something red.

The speed at which he travelled was slow for the first few seconds, but once the momentum kicked in, he gained enough pace to even put some athletes back on earth to shame!

*BAM*

The distance between both competitors was not too far, so Xiong Ji's rash strategy of heading straight at Lin Fan at top speed and shoulder-barging him was plausible!

YES!

SHOULDER BARGING!

Everyone in the crowd was gob-smacked by this move, as this meant one thing.

Xiong Ji was showing blatant disregard towards Lin Fan!

Instead of making a proper move using the Black Bear Fist Arts that he was known to use, he went ahead and simply tried slamming into him!

But this unexpected move was not at all the most shocking thing.

Instead, it was the bizarre scene that presented itself after the collision occurred.

On stage, the whole crowd witnessed as Lin Fan stretched out one arm and smoothly grabbed a hold of the hastily approaching Xiong Ji by the shoulder, causing him to come to a complete halt- It was as if Xiong Ji had just collided with an immovable wall!

Silence filled the entire arena.

How was this possible?!

Wasn't this the part where Lin Fan is flattened and becomes a human pancake?

As the audience got swept up in their own stupor, Lin Fan began squeezing firmly on his opponent's shoulder, causing a resounding crunch sound to echo out.

Then the subsequent image of Xiong Ji squirming to escape Lin Fan's grasp whilst donning an expression of panicked terror was presented to the viewers.

"AHHHHHHHH! YOU B*STARDDDDDD!"

Xiong Ji screeched at the top of his lungs, and then out of sheer panic punched towards Lin Fan's face with his free arm in utmost desperation.

Wrong move.

Before the punch could get anywhere close enough, Lin Fan used his other arm to grab his wrist and then started crushing both his shoulder and wrist simultaneously.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Xiong Ji, again, gave out a howl of pure agony for a few breaths of time before...

*THUD*

...he collapsed onto the solid ground and fainted.

"..."

No one said anything.

No one could say anything.

The thing that broke this prolonged silence was Lin Fan's finishing words which responded throughout the arena for everyone to hear.

"I, Lin Fan, have won this round.

"And it's a certainty I will win the next one!

"And then I will continue to win, until I win this entire tournament!"

Lin Fan then took a short pause before saying,

"But...that's not all I will do.

"I will also free everyone from all the oppression caused by this corrupt system in the servant quarters!

"But to do this, I need your help!

"To all those that want to escape from this place, trust in me and bet your money on me for these upcoming rounds. Like that, we will be able to strike back at those filthy oppressors who keep us captive in this place!

"Don't you all know those greedy old bastards who run the betting ring are the ones who steal all the top positions and prevent others from returning home to see their loved ones?!

"Don't you all know that they are the scums that are forcing you to continue your lives as slaves?

"But with just a tiny bit of trust in me, I can help you all with gaining the freedom you all desire!"

After giving that speech, he walked off stage without even sparing a glance at his unconscious opponent or the audience.

After the crowd took in all the shock and regained their bearing, they went into a complete uproar!

"Wow! Is what he said really true?! Can he really free me?!"

"Of course, he can! After seeing his miraculous strength in person, I'm sure he can do it!"

"Yeah, Yeah! I'm totally in!"

It was so rowdy, that when the referee went up to do his job and officially announce the results, his voice was buried by the bustle of the audience and no one could hear him.

Throughout this entire ordeal, there was only one person who hadn't shown a major reaction from start to finish.

Zhang Wei.

From the very beginning, he was sure that Lin Fan would not lose to Xiong Ji.

As for the whole plan to 'destroy the corrupt system'?

It didn't make much of a difference to him as he had already bet every penny he had on Lin Fan.

Although that was boring and cringey, at least I can now say I've contributed to a righteous cause!

I mean I know having good publicity isn't worth much here, but if I make my bets public I'm sure I'll be seen as a saint!

...Or maybe just a lunatic fanboy.

"Y000000! Didn't he look totally badass down there!?

"Why did I not think about doing something like this after winning my match?!

"The guy literally claimed his own victory in this match, and the whole tournament, then straight up declared war on all the higher-ups in here!

"After seeing him I've come to realise that although being me is good and all, I wouldn't mind being him either!"

"Mhm, I agree with you, Tan Lin.

"Plus, although not as good-looking as me, he still has some good features here and there!

"I'm sure we'd get along well with each other!"

"I can already see it.

"A man like that must have a good appetite!

"Otherwise, how else would he be able to stop that beast with one hand?

"I'm sure we'd be great friends, and maybe we could even share a bowl of spirit pork together!"

"..."

After looking over at his supposed friends' fanatic expressions, Zhang Wei frowned and immediately knew that he wasn't an obsessed fanboy!

Except for Zi Hua, who was clenching his fists and silently muttering to himself that the heavens were unfair, by now the rest had gone on about how epic Lin Fan was for a solid fifteen minutes!

Zhang Wei was getting sick of it!

"Can't you all just shut your mouths, damn it?!

"I've been here the entire time and saw the fight as well, so there is no need to recount every single millisecond!

"And yes, I do agree with you guys to some degree.

"He's cool and awesome and charismatic and handsome and- *Cough* *Cough*...Yeah.

"But you've been parading on about him for ages!

"So let's just calm dow-"

[Congratulations Host, you've successfully spread your positive opinion on Lin Fan!]

[Remember, words can be worth a thousand gold and can make sure things don't go untold!]

[Words can also influence or assist certain outcomes!]

[An essential part of an 'ultimate background character' is their ability to use words effectively to shift or propel a narrative!]

[Sometimes, for a background character, their words mean thousands of times more than any of their actions!]

{You receive four days worth of cultivation using [Choose cultivation method]}

Seeing this appear, my eyes suddenly widened and I thought exasperatedly,

T-That works?!

Holy sh*t!

Doesn't that mean if I follow him around and spread the word about all his good deeds, wouldn't that mean I'll easily rise in cultivation?

Hehehe, is it really that easy?

But wait... wouldn't I count as a stalker or something by doing that?

...Surely not.

Looking at Zhang Wei's sudden pause mid-sentence, and then the rapid changes in his facial expression over a short span of time, the group became concerned.

"Hey, Zhang Wei, we'll stop!"

"Indeed Brother Zhang, the heavens are truly unfair."

"I'll shut up about him if you're that jealous of him, but there's no need to go and malfunction on us here!"

"Yeah...maybe we were going a little overboard-"

"LIN FAN NO.1, TILL THE DAY I DIE!

"If Lin Fan has a thousand fans, I'm one of them!

"If Lin Fan has a hundred fans, I'm one of them!

"If Lin Fan has ten fans, then I'm one of them!

"If Lin Fan has one fan, then that is me!

"And if he has no fans, then that means I'm no longer alive!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...Since when can you become a given name?"

...

Whilst everyone had their own reaction to this whole ordeal.

One person, who had been watching the fight from a quiet area with a relatively poor view, felt their whole world collapse.

It was a young boy, who looked no older than nineteen, he was quite attractive with his black hair and blue eyes- To some degree, he looked a bit like Lin Fan.

The boy abruptly fell to his knees and then just lifelessly stared down at the ground, and after a few moments, teardrops began falling from his cheeks to the ground.

He laughed to himself and said as if he were reprimanding himself for his behaviour,

"Hahaha!

"I get it now, everything makes sense now!

"'That book' never lied to me, it's just that I was an overly optimistic clown!

"Just how crazy and disrespectful must I have seemed back then, when I shouted at my own parents about my name being the other way around!

"How much had my own loving family had to sacrifice to fulfil my dumb desire of getting to this sh*tty sect's servant area?!"

He proceeded to clench his fists and punch the ground a few times out of fury, and then continued,

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!

"I have been acting like a complete madman ever since I read 'that book' as a kid.

"And in the end, it turns out that..."

He paused mid-sentence, took a deep breath and looked up at the sky, then said disappointedly,

"...I, Fan Lin, was never the protagonist."

...