The referee's verdict struck like a thunderclap, jolting the petrified audience awake.
The dead silence erupted into a tsunami of noise.
Discussions, gasps of astonishment, and countless suppressed, distorted bursts of laughter instantly engulfed the entire arena.
Lin Qingyue stood frozen in the center of the ring, feeling like a newly discovered species being dissected by countless gazes from every conceivable angle.
The ten-second transformation timer ended precisely.
Her civil servant uniform and glasses faded away in a faint shimmer of light, replaced by her familiar combat suit.
She practically stumbled off the stage, her limbs moving in awkward unison, as countless gazes clung to her like glue.
But the aftershocks of her social death were just beginning to ferment.
"Holy shit! She changed back! What was that just now? Some new kind of optical camouflage?"
"Optical camouflage my ass! Didn't you see the sheer power behind that staff strike that shattered the Ice Armor? That was real!"
"So... that uniform is her combat form? What a bizarre Awakening ability!"
"Forget whether it's bizarre or not... Did anyone record that? I need it in HD! Senior Lin with glasses, that restrained yet intellectual vibe... AWSL! Isn't this way better than some hot-blooded battle?!"
Countless gazes burned like molten glue, sticking relentlessly to her back.
Some were probing, others filled with shock, but most were suppressed, face-reddening bursts of laughter.
A few gazes were so scorching they nearly seared her skin—those from student reporters holding up their Central Computers, their eyes gleaming with the fire of gossip.
"Student! Lin Qingyue, please wait!"
A boy with thick-rimmed glasses charged through the crowd like a small armored vehicle, clutching a sketchbook tightly in his hand. His cheeks were flushed crimson with excitement.
"That uniform you wore was incredible! Which civil servant corps from the Lost Era did it belong to? Were those glasses a special Magic Artifact for enhancing mental focus? Could you describe the sensation of transforming? This is crucial for my thesis!"
Lin Qingyue froze.
Right now, she wanted nothing more than to find a hole to crawl into—or simply drop dead on the spot.
"Yes, yes!" Another girl from the History Club squeezed through, her voice trembling with barely contained excitement. "And that gesture of pushing up your glasses! It exuded an oppressive aura of calm and strategic brilliance! Our club is reconstructing ancient military etiquette, and this is an absolute breakthrough!"
Before she could finish, a staff member in an official uniform, wearing an Organizing Committee badge on his chest, parted the crowd and strode toward them.
He deliberately put on a stern face, trying to maintain his official authority, but the fire of inquiry in his eyes burned brighter than anyone's.
"Student Lin Qingyue, I am a Special Observer from the Competition Organizing Committee."
"Regarding the transformation ability you displayed during the match, we've reviewed all records and found no mention of it. This does not comply with regulations. Could you please explain what exactly this is?"
Lin Qingyue stared at the three pairs of eyes practically exploding with curiosity before her. In her peripheral vision, she caught sight of her own sister, Lin Xiyue, clutching her stomach and shaking with laughter, her phone's camera still aimed unwaveringly at her...
Her chest heaved violently as she forced a smile uglier than tears onto her lips.
In a subconscious gesture, she raised her hand and pushed at the non-existent air glasses on the bridge of her nose.
In that moment, she summoned every ounce of acting skill she possessed, imitating a professional tone so calm it was almost inhuman, and spoke, enunciating each word carefully:
"An... unstable Heroic Spirit Summoning Possession Art."
"The trigger conditions are random."
She deliberately stressed the words "unstable" and "random," hoping to extinguish all their curiosity.
"Like just now, it granted me the trait 'Insight into Weaknesses.'"
"Heroic Spirit!" The glasses-wearing boy instantly became ecstatic, the tip of his pen scraping across his sketchbook with a harsh screech. "I knew it! That gesture of pushing up his glasses and those lines... they must be the combat habits of that civilian Heroic Spirit! This is priceless! It's living historical data!"
The Organizing Committee observer, meanwhile, had a sudden realization and began rapidly typing on his terminal. "Insight into Weaknesses... No wonder she could pierce the Ice Armor in one strike. 'Unstable' and 'random'... We'll mark this as a top-priority note. Thank you for your cooperation."
[Ding! Passive social death has triggered intense elation in specific groups (lore enthusiasts/history buffs/official observers). Elation Value +88! Host, you see? As long as you find the right audience, even social death can blossom into joy!]
Lin Qingyue's eye twitched violently.
I'll thank your whole family's blossoms!
She couldn't hold it together any longer. Grabbing the still-laughing Lin Xiyue, she fled with all the desperation of someone escaping for their life. Behind her, a chorus of shouts—"Student, don't run!", "We mean no harm!", "Just tell us a little more!"—faded as she sprinted away from the chaotic scene.
Only after diving into the levitating bus home and being shielded from all outside gazes did she finally collapse into her seat, feeling her soul return to her body.
Lin Xiyue, having laughed her fill, wiped tears from the corners of her eyes and carefully stored her Central Computer as if it were a priceless treasure.
"Sis, that look on your face just now—the one where you wanted to murder someone but had to keep smiling... Hahahaha... It's absolutely the best footage I've shot all year! Don't worry, I'll treasure it forever, encrypted and everything!"
She paused, then added with genuine sincerity, "But seriously, your outfit just now, combined with that gesture of pushing up your glasses... it was so badass. You gave off this stoic battlefield commander vibe."
Lin Qingyue weakly rolled her eyes at her. "You really are the best sister ever."
"No joke," Lin Xiyue leaned closer, her voice dropping to a whisper, her eyes sparkling like stars. "What you told the officials... was it true? Was it really a Heroic Spirit possession? You weren't just making it up?"
Lin Qingyue rubbed her temples. Knowing she couldn't hide it completely, she explained with a mix of truth and lies, "It's a kind of... unstable special ability. The trigger conditions are ridiculous, and the effects... well, you saw them."
Lin Xiyue was successfully diverted. She patted her sister's shoulder sympathetically.
"Got it. Passive skill, unknown cooldown, random effects, and you can't even turn it off manually. Sis, you've had it rough."
But then her eyes lit up again. "But the effect is seriously powerful! You pierced right through Xu Bingbing's turtle shell! That's practically an armor-piercing Archon Skill!"
At the mention of this, Lin Qingyue calmed down.
The process had been agonizing, but the "Insight into Weaknesses" and "Defense Ignore" effects provided by the System were undeniably formidable.
This made her view the System's seemingly unreliable abilities with a mix of resentful dread and helpless anticipation.
However, the moment she thought of the [Venti Trial Card] lying quietly in her System Inventory, her mood plummeted.
Venti's outfit...
It was a hundred times more mortifying than Pela's uniform!
Transforming into a bard wearing white stockings and a green beret on a stage watched by thousands, strumming a lyre while reciting poetry...
That wasn't just social suicide.
That was social extinction!
She secretly resolved that she would rather die than use this Trial Card in the Arena Tournament.
Even if I'm forced to use it someday, I have to save it for the Dungeon Score Competition...
At least the livestream cameras in the Dungeons might not follow me the whole time. And social suicide through a camera is better than social suicide in front of tens of thousands of people in person!
"Right, it's settled!"
With this resolve, Lin Qingyue surprisingly found herself completely at ease.
Anyway, everyone has already seen me at my most embarrassing. As for the upcoming matches, I'll just leave it to fate!
As long as she didn't trigger any more bizarre transformations, she'd be fine.
She even began to seriously consider how to manage her stamina and mana in the quarterfinals against Gao Shen, the Warrior-class student known for his defense. She needed to wear him down as much as possible without revealing her trump cards.
After all, a Support-class student reaching the quarterfinals was an unprecedented achievement in Yicheng City's history.
Her name, Lin Qingyue, was destined to be recorded in the school's annals.
And her fleeting "Heroic Spirit Summoning Art" would surely become the greatest legend and mystery of this year's Martial Arts Exam.