Fang Hong sat in his seat, honest and still like a child who had done something wrong.

Hudi looked him up and down curiously and asked, "That was the Four-Wing Dance, don't you know?"

Fang Hong looked at him, shook his head in confusion—what Four-Wing Dance? Hudi pushed up his glasses in a very professional manner, a glint reflecting off the lenses. "How could you not know, didn't you just use it?"

"Use, used what?"

"The skill of launching all four wings at the same time, to make the Clockwork Fairy take off."

Only then did Fang Hong realize and asked back, "Are you talking about the 'Flapping' skill?"

'Flapping' is the scientific name given to this skill by Roken J Rodlinca, which is also the name of a type of scarab in Rotao's language—by the way, Madam Rodlinca was quite a sought-after Catfolk lady in her time, and also a natural historian on insects.

Hudi lowered his voice, "Pretty much, it's a skill known only by professional combat artisans, didn't you know?"

Fang Hong blinked.

A bit innocently.

He had learned this skill from the 'King of Grey' videos; 'King of Grey' FOX said it was a basic skill for beginners—Fang Hong never questioned this.

But at that moment, he realized that he might have made a cognitive error.

As the tactical captain of North America's largest club, C—E Club, and the fifth-ranked combat artisan in the Second World, 'King of Grey' FOX's understanding of a basic entry-level skill was obviously different from the average person.

A regular person's basic entry-level skill, as described in the 'Summoners Combat Craftsman Manual', pertains to the combat artisan's entry-level skills.

However, FOX's idea of a basic entry-level skill was that of a top combat artisan from the Second World.

Upon realizing this,

Fang Hong immediately understood how 'reliable' his previous performance had been.

He only needed to imagine the scene from before, and he wanted to crawl into a hole.

Thinking he had performed well and holding back—under the watchful eyes of the crowd, he could imagine how everyone looked at him at that time.

Yes, he could fully picture it.

The feeling was all too familiar.

Because Miss Sicape often looked at him like that—it probably was what one would call embarrassing.

No wonder Hudi had such a strange look when Fang Hong stepped down.

Fang Hong felt like crying without tears.

He couldn't help but glance around, paranoid that every look from the people around him was fixated on him as they kept whispering. This made him feel even more embarrassed, his face hot. He rubbed it vigorously with his hands until he felt a bit calmer.

He asked with a trace of hope, "... Was my performance very noticeable before?"

"It was alright," Hudi replied, "You didn't see the referee's face at that time, that little dwarf almost swallowed his whistle."

He couldn't help but laugh as he spoke, patting Fang Hong's shoulder, "But you're really talented, buddy, you didn't see how awful that fatso looked, haha, he probably has never been so deflated."

"He even threatened you, did you know?" Hudi imitated the Immortal Worm's expression, saying with perfect mimicry, "Hope you don't wet your pants later—"

"Haha," he nearly doubled over in laughter: "Guess who scared whom into wetting their pants?"

Fang Hong silently observed this terrible guy.

It took a while before he asked, "Hudi, I want to ask you another question..."

"Buddy, just ask away," Hudi stated, thumping his chest, "Not just one question, even ten wouldn't be a problem."

Fang Hong didn't feel like joking with him and asked, "Do you know about the Stargate Task Force?"

"Of course, what about it?"

"Suppose, I mean just suppose, if some tourists sneak out and they find out, what would happen?"

Hudi couldn't help but touch his forehead, asking, "You don't have a fever, do you, buddy? Of course, they'd be repatriated, isn't that obvious?"

"Oh—"

Upon hearing this unsurprising reply, Fang Hong 'gulp'ed, his heartbeat skipping a beat.

He couldn't help but look around subconsciously—thankfully, there were no military personnel in sight.

Fortunately for him, Hudi didn't continue on this topic, as the Tournament Organizers had already prepared the venue for the second match. Everyone walked over, gathering around to hear the Dwarf Referee explain the rules of the second round of the competition.

The second round was an elimination match, with stricter rules than the first round and more precautions, and it also included a time limit—contestants had to finish within three minutes.

The elimination round was also held in groups, but only two groups this time. The qualifiers from groups A and B from the previous round were combined into one group, totaling nine people; those from C and D were combined into the second group, totaling eleven.

Although the number of people in each group was different, since it was not an official competition, the Tournament Organizers did not intend to balance it.

There were a total of four slots for the second-round elimination, taken by the top two from groups one and two. Due to the limited slots, the prize money was raised to five thousand Lycel.

However, this news did not cheer most people up.

Because the Dwarf Referee had finished stating the rules of the match, and the last one immediately caused a stir among the contestants.

This round required contestants to use Dual Control to complete the course with their Clockwork Fairies—

Complaints immediately arose:

"This is too outrageous..."

"Yeah, this is clearly a competition for those within the second order..."

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