Jett’s phantom dinosaur head clamped its jaws firmly onto Hank’s shoulder.

  Then, with a violent fling, he hurled Hank dozens of meters across the stage.

  "Get off the stage," Jett’s voice was low and icy.

  "You... "

  Hank struggled to hold his head up, the veins on his forehead bulging. He glared at Jett with a look of pure malice.

  If looks could kill, he would have hacked Jett into a thousand pieces right then and there!

  But the blood constantly coughing from his mouth betrayed his weakness. Severely injured, he was completely spent, like a lamp running out of oil.

  "Star City High versus Ironpeak Academy, Round One: Jett wins!"

  Referee Carlos strode forward quickly. After confirming that Hank had lost the ability to fight, he announced the result.

  In the Star City High competitor's rest area.

  "That Jett, he's actually pretty capable."

  'Emperor' Valerius had never really looked highly upon people like Jett who relied on connections.

  But after watching that performance, he had to admit that Jett's strength was indeed not as weak as he had imagined.

  "Jett is representing Star City High in this Freshman Invitational. While his family's maneuvering played a part, his own strength isn't terrible," Dean Sterling said with a hint of pride, standing behind Valerius.

  After all, back in middle school, he had been Jett's private tutor.

  As a teacher, seeing a student he had taught perform so well naturally filled him with pride.

  Although Jett's talent wasn't as outstanding as Fly or Valerius, he possessed a heart that desired to become stronger, and he was willing to pay the price for it.

  Coupled with the substantial help provided by his wealthy family, he had achieved his current strength.

  Dean Sterling believed that among the freshmen, even looking at the entirety of Star City, Jett ranked within the top ten in terms of raw power.

  "Mm."

  'Emperor' Valerius gave a soft grunt, tacitly agreeing with the Dean's assessment.

  Soon, the second contestant from Ironpeak Academy walked out of the preparation tunnel.

  He wore the creamy white team uniform of Ironpeak Academy.

  He had long, purple hair that draped over his shoulders. His appearance wasn't particularly striking, but his frame was slender, and his every movement carried an air of feminine grace.

  As he walked onto the stage, he clapped his hands lightly.

  "Tsk, tsk. Truly an impressive performance, Jett."

  Jett narrowed his eyes, sizing up the newcomer. "You are... Gareth?"

  Usually, Jett rarely remembered the names of classmates ranked below him, but this Gareth was an exception.

  Gareth came from a Beast Warrior family. Growing up, his grades were mediocre—not outstanding, but passable.

  His father had been a Tier "Civilian Warrior."

  So-called Civilian Warriors were those Beast Warriors who had successfully absorbed the power of a Beast Totem card but lacked the momentum to improve further.

  They failed to get into The Tulip League's Eight Elite Universities, or even ordinary Martial Academies. They could only work ordinary jobs in society, just like regular people.

  Years ago, Gareth's father had also been a high school student with dreams of martial glory.

  However, due to average talent and limited family support, his strength never improved.

  Watching those rich kids rely on popping pills and supplements to constantly level up and break through, he felt a deep sense of imbalance and pain, yet he was powerless to change it.

  After high school graduation, because his strength was too weak, no Martial Academy university was willing to accept him. Entering The Martial Sanctum became nothing more than a pipe dream.

  Around that time, he got married. His wife gave birth to Gareth.

  To support his family, he had to set aside his pride as a Beast Warrior. Like an ordinary person, he went to work in a factory, or served as a security guard protecting others' homes, earning a meager salary to subsidize the household.

  However, the flame of a Beast Warrior in his heart never extinguished.

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  He pinned all his hopes on Gareth.

  From the time Gareth was learning to speak, he never lacked nutrition. His father often taught him knowledge regarding Martial Studies cultivation.

  One could say that although Gareth wasn't born into the best martial family, his Beast Warrior father gave him all his love and knowledge.

  If the story had continued like that, Gareth might have entered a decent Martial Academy high school and become a disciplined, law-abiding freshman Beast Warrior.

  But fate had other plans. When Gareth was in middle school, his father fell critically ill due to an accident at the factory.

  Gareth plunged into immense grief.

  He would never forget his father on his deathbed in the hospital, holding his hand, eyes filled with tears, saying those words:

  "Son, just becoming a Beast Warrior isn't enough... To become strong, a man needs money, resources, and his own faction... Power! Power is the most precious thing in this world..."

  Shortly after, his father passed away in tears.

  His accidental death left the family with a substantial compensation payout.

  Gareth had seen his father's years of toil and hardship with his own eyes; his father's dying words touched him deeply.

  From then on, Gareth's temperament changed drastically. Or perhaps, something deep inside him began to awaken.

  Relying on that money, he quickly built up a faction within the school.

  At that time, Jett was in the same class as him. Initially, Jett hadn't paid him much attention.

  However, after tasting the sweetness of power, Gareth became increasingly insatiable.

  Not only did he bully students everywhere and collect "protection fees," but he would also lead his gang to harass female classmates, groping them inappropriately.

  He even led people to beat up students who dared to offend or resist him on their way home from school.

  Gareth's actions disgusted Jett.

  And so, the two of them clashed.

  Gareth had originally thought that the student gang he had bought with money could easily defeat Jett.

  But the result was unexpected. Faced with a second-generation rich kid like Jett, who had true, deep background connections, not a single one of his lackeys dared to lift a finger.

  In the end, Gareth had to step in personally and fight Jett.

  The matter eventually escalated until it alerted the school administration.

  The result, naturally, was that Jett, a person with connections, received a criticism and a lecture.

  Gareth, on the other hand, was expelled.

  "The school didn't dare to provoke your family, so they only expelled me. How should we settle this debt?"

  When enemies cross paths, they are out for blood. On the stage, Gareth pointed at Jett, veins bulging on his forehead.

  "Heh," Jett couldn't help but sneer. "Settle what?"

  "What about the debts of those students you bullied?"

  "What about the protection fees you extorted from them? How should we settle that?"

  "Your father worked conscientiously and died in the line of duty; he could be considered a good man. Yet he raised a disappointing son like you."

  "When you bullied others, did you ever stop to think about how they felt? Did you think they were just asking for it?"

  Jett spoke with righteous conviction.

  He didn't feel he had done anything wrong.

  While his family's connections had indeed intervened in the final handling of that incident, if Gareth hadn't formed a gang to bully people first, Jett never would have conflicted with him.

  In his view, Gareth had brought it all on himself.

  "Good! Good! Good!"

  Gareth said the word "Good" three times in a row, his gaze becoming even more vicious than before. "I hope you don't regret what you just said."

  "For the humiliation I've suffered all these years, for the hardships I've endured, I will make you pay it back tenfold!"

  Gareth roared and manifested his Beast Totem.

  Jett's gaze narrowed slightly as he looked toward the light erupting behind Gareth.

  However, what Jett never dreamed of was that the mirage appearing behind Gareth was distinctly... a human!

  The "human" figure was similar in height to Gareth, with similar features. Even its build and style were almost identical.

  "A human?" Jett froze.

  "No, that's not a human!"

  Jett reacted quickly.

  The "person's" eyes weren't like those of a normal human. They were pitch black, as if the pupils covered the entire eyeballs!

  Jett sucked in a cold breath, his pupils trembling violently.

  Although the Beast Totem mirage Gareth revealed was incredibly eerie, Jett, having received Martial Studies education since childhood, quickly spotted the clues.

  An appearance identical to the Beast Warrior, but with pitch-black eyes...

  This characteristic, clearly, was...

  "A Doppelg?nger?"

  "Your Beast Totem is a Doppelg?nger?"

  Jett almost screamed the words.

  The Doppelg?nger. A creature of urban legend.

  The origins of this species were unknown. It was said they would mimic a person's appearance, then kill the original and replace them, living out their lives.

  But urban legends were just urban legends...

  Jett had never dreamed that someone would actually have a Doppelg?nger as their Beast Totem.

  This Gareth guy was truly vile!

  "Hahahaha..." Seeing the shock in Jett's eyes, Gareth couldn't help but laugh maniacally.

  "Ever since I was expelled from school, I haven't stopped thinking about taking you down for a single moment."

  "However, I also have you to thank. If not for you, I wouldn't have met Gideon King's mother while working part-time, nor would I have turned my misfortune into a blessing and entered Ironpeak Academy."

  "And I wouldn't have obtained the supreme power to defeat you... and to defeat Star City High!"

  The compensation money left by Gareth's father, though a decent sum, was far from enough to support his martial career.

  Even if he hadn't been expelled and had successfully entered a Martial Academy high school the normal way, he would have struggled to go far on the path of Martial Studies. At most, he would have gone a step further than his father.

  But as a student hand-picked by Gideon King's mother—the Vice-Principal of Ironpeak Academy—everything changed.

  He received massive support in resources.

  The reason he could successfully absorb and cultivate such an eerie Beast Totem like the Doppelg?nger was entirely due to the full assistance of Gideon King's mother.

  "Oh, so you're just a lackey," Jett said with disdain.

  He had thought Gareth might have learned his lesson from that incident and turned over a new leaf. But now it seemed he hadn't changed at all.

  "Cut the crap!" Gareth shouted. "Let's see which is stronger, your Spinosaurus or my Doppelg?nger!"

  Gareth clenched his fist and rushed toward Jett with incredible speed.

  Although Jett despised Gareth's character from the bottom of his heart, faced with this bizarre Doppelg?nger totem, he didn't dare to be careless.

  "Skill—Tailbone Hammer!"

  He spun rapidly. A thick, phantom tail armed with massive bone spikes materialized behind his spine, sweeping powerfully toward Gareth's path.

  But faced with Jett's imposing attack, there was no fear on Gareth's face.

  He executed a sliding tackle, ducking directly under the Tailbone Hammer's sweep, gliding close to the ground.

  Seeing this, Jett cried out inwardly: Not good!

  But Gareth had already driven straight in, sliding right up to his feet.

  Gareth grabbed Jett's ankle and clenched his right fist.

  His fist turned black.

  "Skill—Iron Fist!"

  He hammered down hard onto Jett's knee!

  Gareth's fist was encased in black metal. The force of this punch was immense.

  BAM!

  With a loud crack, Jett's knee gave two sickening clicks and twisted at a grotesque angle!

  Jett's body instantly lost its balance, and he crashed heavily to the side.

  Gareth stood up, his eyes turning a fanatical red.

  "Die!"