My starting summon is a small skeleton

Lu Wu's smartphone crashed to the ground, stunning the surrounding Secret Realm Managers as well as Little Skeleton.

Lu Wu was stunned himself.

Turning his head stiffly, he looked at the adorable Little Skeleton beside him, which seemed neither angry nor ready to explode, and asked, "What's going on here? I threw the phone and it's busted, so why aren't you mad?

Why don't you release your Big Move and smash it?"

As he spoke, Lu Wu reached out and touched Little Skeleton.

Upon touching, Lu Wu's face flushed with embarrassment.

Little Skeleton [Confused (Why get angry? The broken smartphone is Lu Wu's!

Poor Lu Wu, his smartphone is broken, but Little Skeleton isn't pitiful. Little Skeleton has been protecting the phone very well!)]

"Embarrassing!"

He had just been bragging about how clever he was, only to immediately make such a foolish mistake.

Backstage, on their side.

Watching the surveillance footage of Lu Wu covering his face, appearing so mortified he wanted to crawl into a hole.

The managers were thoroughly enjoying themselves, not quite clear on what was wrong with Lu Wu, but could definitely tell that he must be feeling really awkward.

Lu Wu had been confident and in control since entering the Secret Realm today; this was the first time he had found himself in such an embarrassment.

The managers were quite pleased watching him.

"It looks like the strategy he prepared for the boss has failed, and now it's going to be tough for him to take down this BOSS."

"That's good, he's only been in our Secret Realm for half a month, right?

If he were to defeat the boss, he'd end up at the top of the points leaderboard.

Our Summoners' Secret Realm points leaderboard, topped by a Cultivation Master in just half a month, would be quite a face-loss for us!"

"Hmph, I have no respect for these Cultivation Masters who only know how to play tricks, damn it, I've been saving points for years, and one plan has cleaned me out!"

Well, the last one carried a hint of envy, jealousy, and resentment.

While this group was having their fun, Lu Wu at the monitors had also lowered his hand from his face and was directing Little Skeleton to enter Little Rock's battle ring.

"Hey, he's not planning to give up, is he?"

"Normal, having come this far, I wouldn't give up either; got to at least give it a try, no danger anyway!"

"Let him try then, what do you think, how long can his Little Skeleton last?"

"Well, it looks like it's three stars now, surviving a minute or two shouldn't be a problem?"

"Shall we make a bet?"

"I'm in! I bet two minutes, 200 Internal Network points, anyone want to take that bet?"

"I bet one minute, 200 Internal Network points!"

The atmosphere backstage instantly heated up again, and just as the mood was peaking, that young kid raised his hand again.

"Um, can I bet on Little Skeleton winning?"

As soon as these words came out, the group went silent.

Hmm, this young kid seemed to have a Talent for killing the mood; every time he spoke it guaranteed a silence.

But soon, someone backstage snapped back to reality.

"Sure, now we've got one betting on Little Skeleton winning. If you win, it's a clean sweep for you, and each of us will give you 200 Internal Network points..."

"Snap!"

Just as the voice faded, a deafening explosion sounded. The backstage team was stunned and turned their heads to look at the surveillance screen, only to find that the surveillance feed had failed, clearly indicating that the camera had been damaged.

"What's going on here?"

While the backstage team was dumbfounded, they received a message from their system.

[Ding, contestant Lu Wu has defeated the third floor's boss Little Rock, increasing his score by 100. His total score is now 300, currently ranked 10th on the scoreboard!]

Upon seeing this system notification, the backstage team was totally flummoxed.

And at the same time, the one feeling stupefied outside the Secret Realm was Hengheng Monster.

She had felt tense ever since Lu Wu appeared on the scoreboard.

Her nerves stemmed from her knowledge of Lu Wu's Talent as a Cultivation Master, and from their interactions over the past half-month.

She had actually been secretly observing Lu Wu during that time.

After observing him, she found herself filled with defeat, realizing not only was his mind sharp, he was immensely Talented in cultivation, and also incredibly diligent.

Studying for 18 hours a day, aside from entering the Secret Realm, he would spend over a dozen hours focusing on cultivation knowledge.

Having studied it herself, she knew better than anyone how difficult it is to learn cultivation knowledge. She couldn't stand reading the material, falling asleep after half an hour, whereas Lu Wu could manage over a dozen hours.

Compared to him, she truly felt defeated in Lu Wu's presence.

It's normal to feel overshadowed by Talent, and it wasn't the first time she had experienced this, but what made it worse was that Lu Wu was a hard-working genius.

Lacking both his brains and his effort.

What was scarier, she had even poked fun at him with an inexplicable sense of superiority.

That made Hengheng Monster feel particularly special emotions toward Lu Wu, an unexplained sense of shame, wishing she could just crawl into a hole and hide.

The only thing that gave Hengheng Monster some comfort, some solace, was her Talent as a Summoner.

Her Summoned Beasts were stronger than Lu Wu's no matter what, and she was much better than him when it came to challenges in the Secret Realm.

This was her last fortress, and she did not want her final stronghold to be breached by Lu Wu.

But now, it seemed her fortress might not hold!

It took her one or two months to claw her way to the top; she had barely warmed her seat at number one, and Lu Wu had soared up like a rocket to number 10 in the blink of an eye.

You can imagine what Hengheng Monster's mood was like.

She could only keep reassuring herself.

"It's okay, it's all good, he's just tenth, he hasn't passed me, there's no way he'll surpass me! I'm still better than him!

Ye Ruhuo, you can do this, you are still the best!"

Hengheng Monster finally calmed her emotions and mustered the courage to look up at the scoreboard again, trying to convince herself to accept the reality that she would soon be receiving an award alongside Lu Wu.

But as soon as she looked up, she was stunned.

Lu Wu, who had just been tenth, instantly gained another 100 points with a 'whoosh', propelling him straight from tenth to first in one go. And she, who had fought so hard to reach first place over two months, had barely held onto it for less than two hours before being pushed down to second.

Hengheng Monster, unable to bear the shock, fought back tears, but they flowed nonetheless.

Meanwhile, the Secret Realm administrators felt like crying too.

Especially after Lu Wu took the top spot, they were moved by a young voice's weak question, "Does this mean I've won?"

A few Secret Realm administrators nearly cried on the spot. 200 Internal Network Points, that was a fortune for them. Not being Cultivation Masters themselves, they didn't have such wealth and had to nurture their Summoned Beasts. It would take months to save up those 200 points.

And Little Skeleton felt like crying too,

Because its phone was broken, and its Lu Wu had gone bad!