Pretending To Be A Boss

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The Hunting Festival takes place every four years, and Tang Xian had never participated. During the last Festival, he had bet with the temporary miners on which team would win.

Since he couldn't enter the Competitive Jungle of the mining area, he could only judge who had the winning odds by observing those who knew the insider information.

Some people compare the Hunting Festival to the ancient Olympic Games, but Tang Xian thought that was nonsense.

Indeed, the Festival also occurs every four years and is an important event for humanity in the new era of civilization. But, ultimately, it's the same as the ancient slaves who fought in the Colosseum, pleasing the audience and slaveowners with their lives.

Two hundred of the world's best hunting teams enter the Competitive Jungle in the blue zone, where there are plenty of enhanced creatures, various dangerous plants, and some terrifying elite creatures.

Compared to the ancient Olympics, the Hunting Festival has no sense of fairness. Out of the two hundred teams, the survival of a thousand people ultimately comes down to which team obtains the most Soul Crystals.

The process is very brutal, with at least half of the teams never making it out of the Competitive Jungle from all the Festivals in history.

As for those teams that die, whether killed by the beasts of the mining area or by other humans, no one knows.

Because live broadcast equipment can't operate in there, no one knows what happens inside.

"What's your take on the Hunting Festival?" Tang Xian rarely asked questions.

"It's a stage for competing for honor!" Dong Ran didn't even have to think about it.

"What honor?"

"The ranking of the hunting teams. Many of the teams now in the top twenty didn't climb up by slowly hunting creatures in the mining area. They made their kills in the Hunting Festival. Teams like that get recognized by all of humanity, and the rewards of the Hunting Festival are very rich."

Tang Xian nodded.

He understood Dong Ran's point and knew why it was so.

"Because the education from childhood teaches that such internal strife is an honor, I can understand why ancient gladiators would become addicted to the battles in the Colosseum."

"As for rankings, they're even more insignificant. Sometimes I wonder what exactly happened during the great calamity hundreds of years ago and how much of human civilization we lost. Many of the systems known as postmodern culture weren't passed down either."

Tang Xian's tone was somewhat cold. Dong Ran was taken aback by his words and didn't know what to say.

"Have you ever been outside the Pyramid?" Tang Xian asked a question.

"Big Brother Tang, what's gotten into you? I can't understand a word you're saying... The outside of the Pyramid is a place of certain death, I heard many death row inmates are directly exiled there. Of course I would never go!"

"I've heard as well, but I haven't seen it. I've seen that one can't survive seven days in the mining area, but the world beyond the Pyramid where humans absolutely can't survive, I have no proof of that."

Dong Ran looked at Tang's calm expression.

She had no idea how Tang could associate the Hunting Festival with such a distant place.

Tang Xian didn't explain.

He also experienced times when intuition was quicker than reasoning, a phenomenon that happens much more frequently with smart people.

After the great calamity, many systems increasingly resembled those of the slave era. Technology was advancing, but civilization was regressing.

Tang Xian, in fact, had asked many people how many levels there were at the top of the Pyramid. No one had the answer.

Even Li Xiaoyu, who was born on the sixth level, didn't know what was at the peak of the Pyramid or what kind of beings lived there.

The Hunting Festival seemed like a rational plan to eliminate human talents. Yet, through centuries of education, this event turned into a matter of honor and tradition.

It isn't that the people around are foolish, Tang Xian was well aware of how biased people's subjective impressions can become once an activity turns into a tradition.

Nobody denies how inhumane were the slave-owners who arranged for beasts to fight slaves in the Roman Colosseum.

But in that era itself, those slaves believed that it was their honor. They were not less intelligent than modern people, it's just that the word "tradition" holds great power.

The Hunting Festival is now today's tradition.

Tang Xian shook his head and said, "Let's go, it's time to catch the ox."

"Really, Big Brother Tang, you're truly not going to participate? If you get a good ranking in the Hunting Festival, you could certainly clear your name of the cheater label," Dong Ran still wanted to persist in persuading him.

"If you rack your brain and can't figure out that the Hunting Festival is not a fair competition, then from now on you'd better think with the parts of your body you can't describe with your neck. In the Competitive Jungle, where no one can make a ruling, and there are no laws or fairness, those more powerful than you might consider sparing you because of it."

Dong Ran's face turned red—was she not also looking out for his best interest? Why did he suddenly get so angry? And why did he speak so rudely?

Naive people always hold beautiful illusions about the unknown. If Dong Ran really saw what the Competitive Jungle was like, she might have nightmares for a month. Tang Xian didn't pay her any more mind, took Tang Xiaojiu by the hand, and walked towards the wasteland.

He loathed the Hunting Festival, but whether or not to participate was a separate issue. Dong Ran said so much, but actually, only one thing she mentioned seemed somewhat persuasive to Tang Xian.

That was the rich rewards of the Hunting Festival.

As for honor, clearing the cheater's name, he truly didn't care about those.

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