The Underdog 03

Little Hei's eyes widened.

"Let me make another bold guess. You said that one can only gain special abilities by receiving the favor of the gods. In reality, it's just the gods giving them power. So, a loop is formed: people's faith gives power to the gods, the gods pass their power to their proxies, and the proxies display these special abilities—which are essentially divine powers—to the world, making people believe in the gods even more."

"In other words, these so-called gods are essentially nothing more than a bunch of parasites."

"Holy crap, did you... did you peek at the script?" Little Hei asked, his face full of suspicion.

Fang Zhiyi asked, "Is there a need to? The male protagonist is hoisted high by them. As a proxy, this is essentially creating a god. But as the male protagonist loses control, they need to establish another proxy, or perhaps more... Thus, a hero capable of killing the male protagonist emerges. To analyze this sort of thing, you just need to figure out who ultimately benefits from the whole story. They are the only ones who have been running a business that never loses."

Little Hei gave a thumbs up.

"The Heavenly Dao of this world seems to have disappeared. I don't feel its existence at all. Instead, it's these things that call themselves gods..."

Fang Zhiyi nodded. "I understand."

However, Little Hei let out a sinister laugh, seemingly hiding something.

"Fang Zhiyi! What are you glaring at me for?" a shout rang out.

Fang Zhiyi looked up in confusion and saw a tall boy accompanied by three other guys, all looking at him with provocative expressions.

"Still glaring! Come out here!" They swarmed forward. Fang Zhiyi was a bit puzzled at first, but soon realized that today was the day he was supposed to become friends with the male protagonist.

He deliberately paid attention and, sure enough, the male protagonist, who had been sleeping on his desk, raised his head to look in this direction. The moment their eyes met, Mo Xuan froze for a second before standing up.

Dragged behind the small building, Fang Zhiyi looked at the brats in front of him and felt a bit excited. It had been a long, long time since he had been in a fight; in fact, the last few times he had thrown hands, he was the one who ended up getting beaten.

"My big bro is asking you a question! What is a lowly commoner without even a Divine Mark doing at school?" a short boy said, shoving Fang Zhiyi.

The next moment, he felt a sharp pain on his face. He spun around like a swatted top before crashing to the ground.

"You, you hit me?" The short boy covered his face, looking at Fang Zhiyi in disbelief. He remembered that this guy wasn't the type to fight back.

"Wrong." Fang Zhiyi rolled his wrists, a cold sneer tugging at the corner of his mouth. "I didn't hit you; I'm going to hit all of you."

Before the tall leader could react, he took a punch to the stomach. The punch didn't look heavy, but it carried a clever force that struck directly at his Qihai acupoint. He instantly felt his breath catch and doubled over, unable to straighten up for a long time.

Seeing their companion beaten, the other two boys charged forward as well. One swung a fist at Fang Zhiyi's face, while the other stuck out a foot to trip him. Fang Zhiyi dodged the fist with a sideways step and simultaneously kicked the knee of the boy trying to trip him. The boy fell to his knees with a thud, tears welling up in his eyes from the pain.

Seeing that things were going south, the boy who had thrown the punch tried to turn and run, but Fang Zhiyi grabbed him by the back of his collar, yanked him backward, and shoved him forward. The boy crashed into the wall with a dull thud.

All four of them were now lying on the ground.

Fang Zhiyi now leaned over them from above, a wicked smile on his face. "I glared at you, so what?"

"Do, do, do you know who my dad is?" the tall boy remained defiant.

Fang Zhiyi paused, and the provocation on his face instantly turned into guilt. "So you don't have a father? I'm sorry, I shouldn't have hit you."

"You..."

"What are you trying to do to my desk mate..." The belated Mo Xuan had just started speaking when he froze, staring at the scene before him in disbelief. For a moment, he didn't know what to say next.

Fang Zhiyi cast him a sideways glance. "A pretentious prick. You'll get your ass kicked sooner or later."

Mo Xuan was stunned. Was he talking about him? This guy was quite interesting. He usually looked like a quiet, boring person; who would have thought he was such a good fighter? If he could pull him to his side...

"You, Fang Zhiyi, you're dead meat. My dad is..."

Mo Xuan let out a cold snort. "Do you know who my grandpa is?"

As soon as he said this, the scene quieted down a bit. Fang Zhiyi shook his head. "First someone looking for their dad, and now someone looking for their grandpa. Are you guys playing a jigsaw puzzle here?"

It was somewhat awkward.

Fang Zhiyi continued speaking to the troublemaker: "I don't care who your dad is, but you should know that you can't keep your dad with you all the time." He waved his fist. "If you don't believe me, you can try. I can beat you up every time I see you."

Faced with his naked threat and the undisguised killing intent radiating from him, the bullies inexplicably felt a chill run down their spines.

Fang Zhiyi turned and walked away. He was very cautious; although he kind of wanted to beat up the male protagonist too, the original owner's parents were still around. It wouldn't be good to actually draw retaliation. There would be plenty of opportunities in the future.

But Mo Xuan followed him like a sticky piece of nougat. "You're so good at fighting. I used to think you were just a bookworm, the kind who couldn't even tie up a chicken..."

Seeing that Fang Zhiyi ignored him, Mo Xuan acted overly familiar and leaned in closer. "We're desk mates after all, so we're bros from now on. I'll cover you!"

Fang Zhiyi still ignored him.

But next, Fang Zhiyi experienced what it meant to be relentlessly pestered. It wasn't that he hadn't been pursued by girls before, but being badgered by a guy was a first.

If he didn't know the plot, he would have even suspected that Mo Xuan had fallen in love with him.

As Mo Xuan kept hovering around, Fang Zhiyi grew endlessly annoyed. Mo Xuan's identity was also gradually revealed: a genius, God's Favored, the grandson of an Imperial Commander, and so on... Along with the emergence of Mo Xuan's information, Fang Zhiyi became the target of everyone's mockery, just like in the original plot.

"What's he so arrogant about? To actually have Mo Xuan running after him every day?"

"A commoner... pretending to be aloof and noble."

"Could it be that Mo Xuan likes men?"

"Ew!"

Of course, some people thought Fang Zhiyi had used some sort of trick. After all, no one could figure out why someone of Mo Xuan's status would hang out with a nobody every single day.

"Dumbass," someone cursed.

Fang Zhiyi, who was hurrying to the library, paused his steps. He had recently discovered some ancient texts that were quite interesting, so he went to study them every day. The main reason was that Mo Xuan couldn't sit still in the library, which finally gave Fang Zhiyi a moment of peace and quiet.

Mo Xuan also stopped in his tracks and turned to look in the direction of the voice. It was a boy wearing a short gray jacket, standing with several companions, looking over with a contemptuous gaze.

"Are you cursing at me?" Mo Xuan pointed a finger at himself.