rother calling out to her.

"What's up?"

"We need to take a picture together for the advertis.e.m.e.nt of the tournament."

Li Ruoer nodded. All the while, Li s.h.i.+ming didn't even spare w.a.n.g Tong a glance, as if the thorn by his side had never existed. Li s.h.i.+ming knew that his real threat was not this annoying clown, but Patroclus. He had been preparing for that day for years; he wouldn't let w.a.n.g Tong spoil the mood.

"Congratulations w.a.n.g Tong! After winning the champions.h.i.+p at the fleet battle, you have successfully entered the finals of the METAL tournament. " A reporter finally spoke to w.a.n.g Tong after she had interviewed all the hotshots.

"Thank you!"

"What is your goal in this year's tournament? Final thirty-two perhaps?" The reporter asked.

"Oh... I don't know. But I will try my best."

"Haha, you are very humble! We look forward to seeing your excellent performance." The reporter wrapped up the interview quickly with a perfunctory statement. Airtime was precious, so she would have to leave more frames for the brother and sister pair of House of Li.

"What an idiot! You are not humble." Zhou Sisi said as she laughed in her mind.

"Well, I am trying to be." Becoming a champion was the only way w.a.n.g Tong would continue the relations.h.i.+p with Ma Xiaoru, as his victory over the "Fantastic Five" would lend credence to House of Ma's rejection of Li's marriage proposal.

Although w.a.n.g Tong didn't tell Zhou Sisi about his grand ambition, Zhou Sisi had already guessed that much. However, she reckoned that it would be too early to say if w.a.n.g Tong's goal was realistic before he had fought with Li s.h.i.+ming.

In truth, even Li s.h.i.+ming was not sure if he would prevail in this year's tournament, due to the presence of a large number of high-level fighters.

The public's opinion seemed to favor Patroclus than Li s.h.i.+ming, since much hype had been generated after the elusive fighter, the so-called "Perfect Human", had announced his partic.i.p.ation in the tournament.

The poll for the support rating of each player was conducted throughout the entire Confederation. When the public was asked who they thought would become this year's champion, over forty-three percent of the public favored Patroclus, and thirty-seven percent favored Li s.h.i.+ming. Only twenty percent favored Lie Jian, whose support rating had dropped drastically after his defeat by Li s.h.i.+ming.

Li Ruoer seemed to be distracted while talking to the camera, but her beauty and charm still seized the public. Although Li Ruoer and Ma Xiaoru were equally beautiful, Li Ruoer was the more popular one of the two due to her bond with General Li Feng. Her appearance also struck a resemblance with General Zhou Zhi, who were considered having the most elegant oriental features.

While chatting with Zhou Sisi, w.a.n.g Tong had registered Li Ruoer's searing glare. However, he never looked towards the enchantress, as he knew that would only mean trouble.

Although w.a.n.g Tong wanted to ask Li Ruoer about how Ma Xiaoru was doing, he managed to hold back his urge. Winning the match was his priority, and his only hope to be reunited with Ma Xiaoru. The least he wanted right now was to have Li Ruoer causing him any trouble

After an hour, the second group of qualified contestants also appeared out of the maze exit. There were about fifty of them, and w.a.n.g Ben, Apache, and Cisco were among them.

Out of the fifty people, twenty of them were from S-Cla.s.s academies. It was a testament to their overall power.

w.a.n.g Tong watched as Apache walked out of the exit. He had become a brawny and swarthy fellow, and his eyes glinted like obsidian in the shadows.

"Not bad!" Apache grunted at w.a.n.g Tong. When Apache first heard the news of w.a.n.g Tong's victory at the Fleet Combat Tournament, he was afraid that w.a.n.g Tong had forgotten what was more important to a real man. To Apache, Fleet Battles were merely games.

After Apache walked out of the exit, Cao Yi also followed suit.

Soon, w.a.n.g Tong found himself surrounded by friends from the S Club, since many of the contestants in the second group were members of the club.

Zhang Mi was an intern at ETV. She wanted to interview the Li siblings, but she had to wait until the senior reporters were done with their questions. While waiting for her turn, she scanned the room and noticed w.a.n.g Tong and the throng of students surrounding him—she smelled an opportunity.

She turned on the database and went over the background of w.a.n.g Tong, as well as his success at the Fleet Battle Tournament. Zhang Mi's brow furrowed; it would be hard to sell the interview to the chief editor (who was grumpy 90% of the time), if the main focus was the fleet battle. She conceded that the public was only interested in the prince and princesses from Great Houses, and therefore, w.a.n.g Tong's story had practically no value to a journalist.