The Protagonist is Always Intimidating Me - Chapter 13

Bai Meng’s swift agreement left the arrogant man momentarily stunned, while the other beastmen quickly caught on, scrambling to shout over one another:

“Fight me!!”

“Me! Me! Fight me!!”

“No!! Pick me!! Fight me!!”

“Choose me!!”

Ignoring the clamor, Bai Meng calmly placed his milky white orb on a large stone platform with a deep groove, then handed over his token.

In the first round of the third-class guard selection, some participants had been eliminated, while others had entered as civilians. They all gathered, vying for the wooden tokens necessary for advancement.

The competition took place in a forest. The examiners had hidden a hundred wooden tokens there beforehand, and the participants had to rely on their skills and strategies to claim one. The objective was to secure a token and safely deliver it to a designated location, where they would register their name with an examiner and advance.

The second-class guard selection was more stringent, with only fifty advancing from the pool of a hundred newcomers and veterans seeking promotion. The victory requirements were simple: either challenge and defeat a current second-class guard to take their place, forcing the loser to be demoted, or become a “defender” in a continuous challenge, facing ten opponents. Winning would result in immediate promotion.

Bai Meng chose the second option, the defender’s route. Each participant had a similar milky white orb, and placing it on the platform signaled they were open to challenges, but challengers needed their consent. However, if Bai Meng chose to challenge someone, they could not refuse.

Traditionally, only those with great confidence in their strength chose this path. After all, failure not only meant the possibility of death but also being stuck in the third-class guard position for ten more years before getting another chance at promotion.

Seeing Bai Meng’s confident action, both the veterans and newcomers present felt a silent tension.

This rookie… Is he out of his mind?

However, this also meant the orb could be easily won, and with it, the chance to become the next defender, allowing them to pick weaker opponents to secure their advancement.

With these thoughts in mind, the beastmen, who had briefly fallen silent, erupted in even louder shouts than before, each hopeful of getting their hands on Bai Meng’s orb.

When the examiner entered with a polite smile, he was met with chaos—beastmen swarming a young boy, shouting lines that sounded strangely like marriage proposals.

The examiner’s expression briefly cracked before returning to its usual calm. He cleared his throat lightly. “Who is the defender? Are you ready for the match?”

Bai Meng raised his hand from the middle of the crowd. “Me!”

He pushed aside the other beastmen and pointed to the arrogant one who had first challenged him. “I’ll fight him.”

The scene quieted down instantly. The beastmen who had hoped to be chosen looked visibly disappointed, regretting their hesitation in trying to grab an easy win.

Bai Meng: “……”

“It seems like everyone’s pretty disappointed…” he remarked, smiling brightly at the crowd. “Examiner, please make a note of everyone who spoke up earlier. I’ll teach them a lesson afterward.”

Everyone: “……”

There won’t be an afterward, boy. Wake up.

In a corner, Mo Hua watched Bai Meng’s innocent expression and couldn’t help but shudder.

Some of the beastmen here knew that Bai Meng had used his speed to snatch a token during the previous selection round. He had been lucky to complete the task, but…

When Bai Meng’s gaze suddenly shifted towards him, Mo Hua’s large frame stiffened, and he quickly lowered his head.

Back then, Mo Hua had been fortunate enough to be present during the token challenge and wanted to re-enter the guard selection competition. He initially aimed for a quick resolution by snatching the token from the first person who got it. Thus, he had been secretly tracking that first token holder, only to unexpectedly discover that the person was a hybrid—half-demon and half-beastman.

That hybrid fought with brutal efficiency, tearing apart anyone who tried to take his token. Blood had splattered everywhere, even making the nine-foot-tall Mo Hua uneasy. He wanted to retreat but was also afraid of being discovered by the other party. Just as he was in a dilemma, another person blocked the half-breed’s path.

Mo Hua’s eyes widened—he recognized the boy from the previous night. He wanted to warn him to run, fearing that if the boy died and they were both participants in the competition, Mo Jiuge would assume Mo Hua had sought revenge.

But if he called out, he’d risk catching the attention of the vicious hybrid… What could he do? He hesitated as the hybrid, enraged, lunged forward. Mo Hua braced for the horrific sight of the boy being torn apart—

But the expected screams never came. When Mo Hua looked again, the boy still stood there, his face as calm and harmless as ever. He had no wounds on his body, only holding a dark, slightly cylindrical object in his hands, resembling a large, twisted tree with an odd shape. The only difference was that the hybrid was now hanging high in the air, impaled on a massive, twisted black staff that the boy held in his hands. Blood trickled down the staff’s uneven surface, staining the boy’s pale hands.

Bai Meng’s dark pupils were cold, empty—like a black hole, devoid of life, radiating a chilling void that made living beings feel a bone-deep cold.

Mo Hua felt a chill run through him.

The boy had then put away his weapon, taken the hybrid’s token, and ran off.

—Bai Meng had indeed only stolen one token.

—But he had killed the hybrid, all while wearing that harmless smile, and claimed his victim’s token without a second thought.