"Kate has already agreed..."
"Good. That way, nothing can go wrong..."
"...Of course, she won't mention a word of this to Qi Li."
Inside the president's office, Shetty was rinsing out a teapot with her phone wedged between her ear and shoulder, speaking to Professor Brink on the other end of the line.
Brink's voice held its usual philosophical weight. "Children tend to see only the glorious, radiant face of a hero. Only adults can grasp the tangled shadows lingering behind them. I hope she understands that."
Shetty smiled as she set down the teapot and picked up the phone properly. "Don't worry. That girl learned long ago from the parents who should have loved her most that this world was never that kind. She knows what needs to be done, and she has the courage to act on it."
Professor Brink gave an affirmative hum. "Then I shall look forward to this magnificent and foreordained showdown."
Deciding the score of a match before it even began applied not only to athletics, but to superhumans as well.
Such was the adult world.
For Godkin University, on one side stood a washed-up senior nearing graduation, whose potential was dismal and whose ceiling was in plain sight; on the other stood a rising star bound by deep agreements, boasting widespread fame and limitless possibilities.
Who to choose was glaringly obvious.
Having placed their bets on Qi Li and poured massive resources into promoting him for *Campus Showdown*, the school naturally had to back him to the hilt, ensuring the outcome left zero room for surprise.
Even though Qi Li held vastly superior odds, an airtight layer of insurance was still necessary to eliminate any freak chance that Derek's camp—whom they had already abandoned—might steal the fruits of their labor.
From the perspective of abilities, identity, and risk control, Kate was undeniably the ideal candidate.
Hence the heart-to-heart Shetty had just held.
"By the way," Professor Brink added toward the end of their conversation, laughing in the warm tone of an old friend, "when are Paul and little Lily coming over to visit again? She must be four by now, right? So the clever little rascal won't call me a cheapskate anymore, I went out of my way to get a limited-edition Queen Maeve figure signed by Maeve herself."
The corners of Shetty's mouth curved upward. "Lily will jump for joy when she hears. Though that joy will have to wait until next month."
Brink sighed nostalgically. "Such are the woes of being separated by long distances... or rather, separated by an entire ocean. Still, the job these days isn't too bad, is it?"
Shetty chuckled. "Of course. I absolutely love it."
Brink joined in her laughter from across the line. "Likewise."...
After parting ways with Shetty, Kate seemed lost in thought on her way back to the studio.
She was so distracted that she only snapped back to reality when someone closed in beside her.
"Your name is Kate, right? I was wondering just how blind a white woman had to be to fall for some Chinese country bumpkin. And here you are..."
A young white man in a silver battle suit blocked Kate's path, a smirk on his lips that he clearly believed looked charming, but was entirely grating. It was Derek Fowler.
He brazenly looked Kate up and down. Seeing her expression turn instantly frosty, he gave a casually theatrical shrug and continued:
"Don't let that pretty fair skin and blonde hair go to waste. It's not too late to turn back now. I'm a very generous man; I won't hold your sordid dating history against you."
Kate recognized Derek.
Hearing foul nonsense that sounded as though he had just rinsed his mouth in a toilet, and seeing his ridiculously conceited posture, she crossed her arms and pressed her lips together in disbelief. Looking at him as if he were a pile of filth, she let out an irritated scoff.
"Sure enough, you're an absolute bastard through and through!"
Derek had fully expected Kate to see the error of her ways and throw herself back into the arms of high-caliber white elite like him. Instead...
His eyelid twitched violently. Overwhelmed by fury, he leaned right into Kate's face, his voice dropping to a harsh, deliberate growl.
"Fuck you! It's white trash like you—depraved, ignorant, loose, mingling with lower-class degenerates—that's made America lose the traditional values it once took pride in..."
Kate listened impassively to his barking, one hand already slipping off her glove.
Derek only worked himself into more of a frenzy. "Especially you! An idiot who completely discarded honor and faith! Not only did you collude with our enemies, you tainted the purity of bloodlines—"
"Hey!"
A voice suddenly chimed in from behind, cutting Derek's grand lecture short.
Instinctively, Derek looked over his shoulder.
The next thing he saw was a brutal, lightning-fast fist slamming squarely into his jaw.
In an instant, the flesh of his face rippled violently from the impact, and with a heavy thud, he hit the dirt.
Qi Li was just about to follow up with a stomp when he glanced down.
As luck would have it, the back of Derek's head had struck an outcrop on the ground upon landing. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he was knocked out cold on the spot.
"Who is this guy?" Qi Li asked, nudging Derek with his foot, utterly baffled.
He had just wrapped up his shoot, and when he walked outside, he happened to catch someone harassing Kate. Delivering that punch had felt completely natural.
Kate stared at Derek, who had been lording himself over her just a second ago and was now sleeping like a baby. Hearing the question, she looked back at Qi Li with an odd expression.
"That's Derek Fowler."
"Derek Fowler... Oh, him."
Qi Li took a full two seconds to remember that his upcoming opponent happened to be this sleeping beauty on the ground.
He threw his hands out in confusion. "Is this guy really that weak? Where did he get the nerve to challenge me?"
Kate pulled her glove back on. Recalling the intelligence Shetty had shared about Derek, she didn't want Qi Li to underestimate him. "Maybe he didn't have time to use his superpower."
Qi Li thought back to the moniker "Iron Unsullied."
Fair enough. The guy hadn't had a chance to morph into his dickless form yet.
Still, Qi Li had assumed their first real face-to-face meeting would take place on the grand stage six days from now.
He hadn't expected to bump into him so soon.
And he had flattened the guy in one hit, treating him like an ordinary passerby.
What a mess...
Qi Li had no desire to put on a one-man show six days later.
He shot down Kate's implied suggestion to finish off his opponent right then and there.
Noticing the lingering anger furrowing Kate's brow, Qi Li asked, "Did he say some nasty things to you just now?"
Kate nodded in silence.
"About me?"
Kate pressed her lips together.
"All right then."
Qi Li decided to teach Derek a proper lesson, taking a little interest up front.
Five minutes later.
While Kate clamped a hand over her mouth and gasped, "Oh my God!" Derek lay sprawled face-down, motionless and disheveled, upon a neatly manicured patch of campus lawn.
Beside him stood an escapee from the university cafeteria—a red-eyed boar whose skin tone bore an uncanny resemblance to his own.
The atmosphere was thoroughly harmonious.
Chapter 24