Chapter 322: Group Stage

The next day.

November 3rd.

Saint Water Middle School.

As soon as Qiao Sang stepped into Training Field No. 1, she saw Wang Yao, Shi Gaofeng, Xu Yixuan, He Datao, and others gathered around Zhang Dezhou, seemingly in a heated debate about something, while Zhang Dezhou wore a wronged expression.

“What are you all talking about?” Qiao Sang walked over and asked.

Zhang Dezhou looked over, and seeing it was Qiao Sang, his eyes instantly reddened.

Like a bullied female protagonist in a melodramatic school drama, enduring grievances but holding back tears, he shouted, “It wasn’t me!”

Qiao Sang was bewildered.

What happened?

“What wasn’t you?” Qiao Sang asked, confused.

“The one who posted and sold your information wasn’t me!” Zhang Dezhou said, indignant.

He recalled what had happened yesterday evening and early this morning, and the more he thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt.

Being a substitute was one thing, but when he returned for evening self-study yesterday, as soon as he entered the classroom, several groups of people successively asked him the same question: if his ID was Genius You You You Mu.

At first, he didn’t understand, but later he learned that this ID belonged to the Saint Water traitor who had been selling Qiao Sang’s information on a forum post a while ago.

The moment he realized that the internet was spreading rumors that he was the owner of this ID, Zhang Dezhou felt like his face was covered in question marks.

What the heck?

Who the hell spread that rumor?!

Was he, Zhang Dezhou, the kind of person who would betray a teammate?!

He explained for a long time last night, but some people still gave him a look that implied “I understand,” almost making him break down.

He finally got some sleep and felt much better, only to be questioned by the School Team members as soon as he arrived at the training field this morning!

The only thing that comforted him was that Xu Yixuan and He Datao, those two guys, were still clear-headed and believed him.

However, Zhang Dezhou still felt very wronged. He had been holding it in, but as soon as he saw Qiao Sang, his emotions became a bit uncontrollable.

Seriously, although he had been relegated to a substitute, he genuinely admired Qiao Sang’s strength and didn’t want her, the person involved, to misunderstand him.

“I know it wasn’t you,” Qiao Sang said.

This sentence instantly stunned Zhang Dezhou.

She believes me?

She actually believes me?!

Wang Yao frowned and said, “Qiao Sang, but based on our analysis, he’s the most likely person in our school to have sold your information.”

“That’s because you don’t understand Zhang Dezhou,” Xu Yixuan said. “Although his strength isn’t great, his character is good. His academic performance has always been consistently in the bottom few in the class, but even so, he has never copied anyone else’s work.”

“And also, also,” He Datao added from the side, “Analyzing those Li Tan Royal Pet High School posts isn’t something Zhang Dezhou would do. He always goes to other schools’ posts and directly curses them out. He couldn’t be that smart!”

Zhang Dezhou’s mouth twitched, and his earlier gratitude towards those two disappeared, leaving only a desire to scoff.

Shi Gaofeng spoke up, displeased, “What’s wrong with being in the bottom few of the class? Who among those who can get into Saint Water Middle School is brainless?”

At these words, Zhang Dezhou looked over, both surprised and somewhat moved.

Their eyes met, and with just a glance, they understood each other’s meaning.

Brother, I didn’t expect you to be a bad student too!

The training field fell into silence for a moment. At this point, Qiao Sang cleared her throat and suddenly said, “Actually, the person who sold my information on that post was me.”

After speaking, she couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. Her alternate identity was exposed, but there was no other way. She couldn’t let Zhang Dezhou take the blame. Look at that guy, he looked like he was about to cry.

Zhang Dezhou: “!!!”

Everyone collectively froze in place, completely stunned.

“You sold yourself?!” After a long while, Wang Yao was the first to recover, her face full of shock.

“It was me.” Qiao Sang scratched her head, embarrassed. “If you think about that ID, doesn’t it combine to be my name?”

Everyone: “!!!”

Actually, in the forum posts discussing the ID “Genius You You You Mu,” it wasn’t that no one had brought up the question of whether You You You Mu combined to form the character “Sang,” and they even speculated if it could be Qiao Sang herself.

But they were all mercilessly mocked by other netizens.

After all, who would be so crazy as to sell their own information?

This was the National Campus Pet Beast League!

Once a year!

A total of only three times in an entire high school career!

Even someone with a hole in their brain might not do this, let alone someone like Qiao Sang, who gives people the immediate impression of not being an ordinary person.

“Ahem, it’s like this. It was a day near dusk…” Qiao Sang recounted the beginning and end of the matter.

A few minutes later, Wang Yao was silent for a moment, then asked, “So someone in our school really was selling your information, but others mistook the person, and you intercepted it.”

“Yes,” Qiao Sang nodded.

“Then why did you later open a special post online to sell your own information?” Shi Gaofeng asked, bewildered.

Qiao Sang said seriously, “Because I found it incredibly profitable.”

Everyone fell into a brief silence again.

Suddenly, Xu Yixuan spoke up, “Can I get my 1000 back from buying the information?”

Qiao Sang: “!!!”

Oh, I forgot about that!

The atmosphere in the training field returned to its usual normalcy, and Zhang Dezhou, whose injustice had been cleared, was laughing and talking with everyone.

“Hahaha, I told you you weren’t that smart!” He Datao patted Zhang Dezhou’s shoulder, laughing.

“Get lost!”

After about twenty minutes of free training, Sun Boyi and Zheng Guoping walked in.

“Everyone, stop for a moment. I have something to say,” Sun Boyi said. “After training ends this morning, we’ll have lunch and then depart for Hong Rao Town in Shanglong County.”

“The sophomores will come with me to the Pet training base in Jiudu District,” Zheng Guoping interjected.

Upon hearing this, Qiao Sang was not surprised in the slightest.

She had already checked the competition location yesterday when she found out about it: Huicheng Beast High School was in Hong Rao Town, Shanglong County.

This competition location was considered relatively close.

After the preliminary rounds, it would be the main competition stage, which was divided into group stages and knockout rounds.

The group stage adopted a single-round robin system, where the 576 contestants who advanced from each grade level in the preliminary rounds would be divided into 16 groups, with a total of 36 people competing in each group.

During the group stage, only 18 advancement spots were available in each group.

According to points, those with similar strength levels would be staggered in their allocation, meaning a group would have people with the top few points as well as those with the bottom few points.

At this stage, the competition venues for the contestants would be dispersed to various locations within the province.

Hong Rao Town was at least still within Hanggang City, while some distant competition venues were in other cities.

Furthermore, the venues and competition times for the first, second, and third-year high school sections were generally staggered. For example, the main competition for first-year high school had already begun today.

“Hong Rao Town, huh? I heard there’s a remarkable person there who won big prizes in the lottery three times,” Xu Yixuan suddenly recalled a news item she had recently seen, sighing.

“How big were the prizes?” He Datao asked curiously.

Qiao Sang was indifferent on the side.

There were simply too many lottery news stories like this, whose purpose was to stimulate people’s gambling psychology, making them think they could also win big and then go buy tickets.

“One time it was ten boxes of A-grade Energy Recovery Liquid, one time it was an item appraised as S-grade, and another time it was a Great-Mouth Dragon egg.”

Qiao Sang: “!!!”