Chapter 2 The [B-010-Glutton] talent of Er Jie is very compatible with this Vampire Ring. No wonder the ring fell into this guy's hands...

Suren looked at the white-faced youth with a thoughtful expression.

This was the second professional he had encountered with this talent.

The previous one was Ikshiel Peon, the Fleet Commander of the Ninth Fleet of the North Sea Fleet, "Gluttonous General," who had already died in the Yellow Springs Kingdom.

This talent was very powerful. It could devour external objects and transform them into one's own use, making the physical combat power very strong.

And the Blood Clan also had the talent to absorb the essence and blood of others to restore and strengthen themselves.

A vampire ring paired with the [Glutton] talent was a perfect match.

Although it was not difficult to find rare talent holders in top noble families, because many talents had a chance to be passed down through bloodlines, noble families usually chose to combine with some commoners with rare talents to give birth to offspring. With a large base, there were always a few offspring with B-level or A-level talents.

But a talent like Er Jie was very rare.

"Although this Augus is only at the sixth rank, his combat power should not be measured by ordinary sixth ranks. This is a bit tricky..."

Suren immediately judged that the guy in front of him was very strong.

He sighed inwardly, thinking that there were really many strange experts in Lingdun.

He had encountered a mysterious "Curator" before, and now there was such an old undead pretending to be young.

These were people he was not sure he could beat.

The Rodriguez family was a staunch supporter and promoter of the *Freedom of Faith Act*, and almost certainly a believer of that Outer God.

Naturally, they were enemies.

When Suren saw this ring, the first thing that came to his mind was how to kill this person.

But after thinking about it for a while, he still didn't feel confident.

At least he couldn't make a move here.

"Should I ask the all-powerful Lingdun King of the Underworld next time?"

Suren thought of a more secure solution.

If this ring was gone, this old thing would probably die on the spot. It was probably impossible to obtain it through normal interest exchange channels.

But that "Shadow Earl" was said to be capable of anything, what if it worked?

If he could avoid doing it himself, that would be best.

Suren thought, and wasn't in a hurry.

.......

Before long, the top ten finals of the Puppet Competition began.

The host's passionate opening remarks kicked off the prelude, and the contestants first made a unified appearance in front of the stage. Aboke and the Kama siblings were among them.

Seeing this, Suren guessed that the young master Alex was probably here to support and cheer for Kama.

Suren didn't think there was anything wrong with that.

Although Kama and her siblings were his disciples, they had their own paths to walk in the future.

The host of the Puppet Competition briefly introduced the backgrounds of these ten players who had emerged from the preliminaries, covering almost all the mainstream puppet schools.

But except for the Boyle Mechanical Puppet lineage of the Kama siblings who were outsiders, the other eight were disciples of the elders of the Lingdun Puppeteer Guild.

After all, puppeteers also rely heavily on external objects to improve their combat power. The stronger the puppet, the stronger the combat power.

Puppeteers may not be rich, but powerful puppeteers must be rich.

It was said to be a national competition, but it was actually just a group of small nobles fighting among themselves.

Aboke was only six years old, and his short stature was quite eye-catching among a row of contestants.

He was the only Tier 1 professional, the others were all Tier 2.

But Suren was still very optimistic that his disciple would win first place.

After Aboke came on stage, he was a little absent-minded, and didn't seem to be interested in this kind of competition. He probably guessed that his teacher would come to watch, and his eyes searched everywhere in the crowd, quickly landing on Suren sitting in an inconspicuous corner.

Their eyes met, and Suren smiled and nodded in encouragement.

Seeing that his teacher was also watching in person, Aboke suddenly perked up.

......

The pace of the competition was not too fast. This kind of academy-style battle stopped at the point, and the viewing was good. But in the eyes of a puppet master like Suren, it was just watching the excitement.

However, he also got to see the combat styles of several mainstream schools of puppet professionals.

The weapon school was crude, the curse school was weird, the beast puppet school had all kinds of strange magic beast puppets, and the element school had a dazzling array of puppet spells...

The cheers at the scene were also louder than the last.

It had to be said that the battle between puppeteer colleagues was more interesting than other professions.

It was clearly two people fighting, but the arena could produce the sound of a small team melee.

Various puppets collided with a crash, making the audience shout with excitement.

But in Suren's view, the control skills of these Tier 2 puppeteers were too naive. If they really faced him, those fancy puppets might not even have a chance to make a move before being paralyzed on the spot.

However, these top ten were already very excellent puppeteers among normal people.

It was not like Suren, who relied on the [Reaper] talent to harvest about one or two hundred years of manipulation experience, which was naturally difficult for others to achieve.

......

After a few rounds, it entered the semi-finals.

There were a few that were remarkable.

But to Suren's surprise, Aboke lost!

This guy relied on his excellent silk control skills, and even made it all the way to the semi-finals without using puppets much.

But in this last game, he faced Elsa Bach, the closed disciple of the most favored champion, Grandmaster Aubry. He was defeated in less than two rounds.

"Is Aboke controlling his ranking?"

Suren's eyes twitched slightly as he watched, and after a little thought, he revealed a knowing smile.

Others were watching the excitement, thinking that Aboke was really no match, but as a teacher, Suren knew his disciple too well.

After looking around, there were indeed a few good seedlings in the top ten.

But no one would be Aboke's opponent.

Although the others were Tier 2, one level higher than him, and had one more alchemical colonial outfit, the [Seven Aperture Exquisite Heart] of Er Jie was like a cheat, and they were not on the same level at all.

It was as if Aboke hadn't used the Eight-Armed Spider Lance colonial outfit all the way. Others even thought his alchemical colonial outfit was some kind of hidden colonial outfit that amplified control.

Suren smiled and thought, "This kid is probably going for the third-place prize..."

He looked at the third-place prize in the display case, which was a copy of the "Four-Color Elemental Heart Core Structure Diagram" personally annotated by Fan Helmont, the first alchemist of the Luying Court three hundred years ago. It was also the most authoritative and detailed version of the energy core structure currently on the market.

A royal collection that could not be obtained through ordinary channels.

This was also a good thing that even Suren coveted before the competition.

Although it was a third-place prize, in his eyes, its value was countless times higher than all the other top ten prizes combined.

But this kind of knowledge treasure was not as valuable to the noble contestants as a good puppet that could immediately improve their combat power. Because if they wanted to learn knowledge, the Royal Library had collections, and the nobles' private warehouses also had them. They could always buy various profound books by spending money and asking for favors.

Therefore, this knowledge was the third prize.

"You have a good heart..."

Suren smiled slightly.

Aboke's own level had not yet come into contact with the knowledge of energy cores, so this prize was obviously won for his teacher.

Suren even guessed that the reason why he was willing to participate in such a boring competition in the first place was probably for this prize.

As for the first and second place silk thread colonial outfits and puppets, they were not attractive to Aboke at all. With a puppet master like Suren as his teacher, their siblings did not lack good puppets.

......

Sure enough, Aboke lost a game in the semi-finals. In the subsequent third-place qualifying match, he solved his opponent in a few breaths and won third place without any suspense.

He didn't even bother to act.

This result made Suren laugh and cry under the stage.

The melon-eating crowd was also confused.

Was it over?

They had thought it would be a fierce battle, but they didn't expect that the Tier 1 brat only put on a show with the puppet, and then directly used a delicate silk control secret technique to deprive the opponent of the puppet's control and end the battle.

It also created the fastest competition time record in the top ten.

This was the difference between the practical school and the academy school.

How could noble students have experienced life-and-death struggles? Usually, academy-style competitions were usually about looking good, being handsome, and shouting out various big moves back and forth.

But they didn't expect that in a real battle, a little flaw would be enough to determine the outcome.

But even so, they usually had to act a little to give the opponent some face.

Aboke didn't.

Suren also felt that his disciple had been in the [Mechanical Puppet Heart] for five years and everything was good, but his personality and emotional intelligence... were indescribable.

......

"That little brat named Aboke Boyle is so arrogant, he actually defeated Roy, Grandmaster Vogt's proud disciple, like that. Oh my god, look, Grandmaster Vogt's face is so dark..."

"Just good luck. Roy's puppet is much better than that kid's, he just lost because he was careless."

"Those country bumpkins are brave and combative, and they will fight to the death for a little profit. The battle just now was obviously a sneak attack, without any gentleman's demeanor. If it was a fair fight, that kid would not be Roy's opponent at all. Humph~ If I could win like this, I wouldn't bother!"

"That's right! This is obviously a trick. For the sake of a mere competition victory, he has no gentleman's demeanor at all. He even calls himself a noble, so embarrassing."

"..."

Aboke won too easily, so the crowd under the stage had no excitement to watch, and they became lively one by one.

The nobles naturally identified with that Roy, thinking that he had won unworthily;

The commoners stood by Aboke and cheered for his victory.

But the real experts could see the difference in strength. The old guys from the Puppeteer Guild saw Aboke's exquisite control and had very strange expressions, but no one dared to speak.

They had naturally heard of the Boyle Mechanical Puppet lineage. Mechanical puppets were once one of the most glorious puppet inheritances in the empire. But in the last two hundred years, the Boyle family had declined, gradually faded into obscurity, and even withdrew from the imperial capital.

Unexpectedly, the siblings who suddenly appeared this time really stirred up the waters of the Lingdun puppet professional field.

Suren listened to the mixed comments without any change in expression.

After all, from now on, whether it was honor or slander, it was the path that the siblings had to take on their own.

......

On the other hand, Kama successfully advanced to the finals and faced Elsa Bach, who was also a female puppeteer.

This battle for first place was very lively.

Two female puppeteers again, naturally drawing cheers from the audience.

Kama was not like her brother, who had such a monstrous puppet talent. She belonged to the normal range.

But because she had been thinking about revenge for these years after the family was destroyed, she worked hard to practice puppet skills, and her combat power was naturally not bad.

And the other Elsa, who could be accepted as a closed disciple by Grandmaster Aubry, naturally had excellent talent. She was also a high-ranking noble, and did not lack money or good teachers. Therefore, whether it was puppets, job materials, or colonial outfits, she could integrate the best choices, and her strength was naturally not weak.

A collision between the strong was very lively as soon as they exchanged blows.

"Secret Technique - Strange Soldiers Ten-Man Vertical!"

"Elemental Mysteries - Storm Dance Troupe!"

"..."

On the arena, both sides used the puppeteer's signature human wave tactics.

The collision of mechanical puppets and elemental puppets was inextricably linked.

Suren watched Kama control more than a dozen puppets with ease, and it was obvious that she had not wasted her skills these days.

And under the arena, young master Alex was also clapping and supporting from the bottom of his heart. From the smile on this young master's face, it could be seen that there was indeed light in his eyes.

Suren was not only watching the competition, but also silently observing the group of high-ranking nobles who came to watch.

Especially the one with the vampire ring called Augus.

Suren listened carefully to the conversations of those people, and only then did he realize that Elsa was Augus's cousin.

What the hell, cousin!

A wolf in sheep's clothing, what was he doing mixed in with the little sheep?

This guy also occasionally verbally argued with Alex, arguing about who could win the championship. After all, their respective fathers were political enemies, and it was understandable that they had a bad relationship.

But if Suren felt that he guessed correctly, and this Augus was some old monster from the Rodriguez family, then in terms of scheming, all these young nobles combined would not be Augus's opponent.

Was he trying to disguise his identity so that he could join in the fun?

Suren was a little puzzled and silently observed everything.

......

After fighting for a long time, a bunch of puppets were scrapped, but the two women on the arena were still evenly matched.

In order to ensure relative fairness, it was not allowed to use puppets above Tier 3 in this competition.

But seeing that the fight had not been decided, the organizers temporarily changed the rules and allowed the two to use any puppets they could control.

This rule was obviously a bit biased.

If they really compared puppets, how could the Boyle lineage of a fallen small noble compare to Elsa, the disciple of the Grand Duke and the president of the Puppet Guild?

Sure enough, as soon as the rules were changed, Elsa directly took out a set of Tier 4 [Elemental Seven Dwarfs] golden puppets.

Earth, wind, water, fire, light, darkness, wood... the seven elemental puppets each had their own wonderful uses.

This was the downgraded version of Grandmaster Aubry's set of dark gold puppets.

Although this Elsa was only Tier 2 and could not completely control them, this set of puppets combined offense and defense, and could almost be invincible even against a real Tier 4 professional.

As soon as this set of puppets came out, it really showed how noble puppeteers fought.

It also allowed the audience to see the power of money.

Just when everyone thought Kama was bound to lose, this only other inheritor of the Boyle Mechanical Puppet lineage also took out the [Thousand-Hand Mechanical War Demon] passed down from her family.

Although there were only a part of them, when the mechanical puppet took over, the faces of all the audience became strange, looking forward to, moved, shocked, and confused...

Kama controlled dozens of puppet arms with various mechanisms, making a whooshing sound as she swung them around the arena. Steel cables, hinges, poison needles, poison gas... this series of methods instantly pulled the finals to another climax.

This scene also stunned the melon-eating crowd under the arena, and they shouted wonderfully.

Except for the young master Alex and the group who had seen the [Mechanical War Demon] on the cruise ship, everyone else was shocked when they saw the treasure passed down from the Boyle family.

"This... is this still a puppet?"

"Oh my god, what is this? Can puppets be made like this?"

"You don't know this! A hundred years ago, the Boyle lineage's Mechanical War Demon was already invincible in the field of puppet professionals... I heard that a part of it was lost, and now it seems that there are only a hundred arms."

"This is too rogue, right? She's hiding in the mechanical puppet and can't be hit, how can Miss Elsa win?"

"Why didn't you say it was unfair when the rules were changed just now? Tsk, since we're all comparing foundations, then let's see who has a deeper foundation."

"That's right, puppets are originally part of the puppeteer's strength, what's fair and unfair about it?"

"..."

Suren watched the fierce battle on the stage, and a ray of brilliance flashed in his eyes from time to time.

If there were no restraining methods, the complete [Mechanical War Demon] could have almost invincible absolute defense among Tier 5 and 6 professionals.

With this move, Kama was probably unbeatable.

Before taking out this family heirloom mechanical puppet, Suren also clearly noticed that Kama had seen himself under the stands.

It was like seeking permission: Teacher, can I use it?

Suren nodded.

Only then did Kama dare to go all out in actual combat.

She probably wanted to prove something in front of her teacher, and also to prove the inheritance of their Boyle mechanical puppet lineage... She showed a very serious attitude towards this competition.

She needed a victory too much to prove herself.

Suren understood Kama's mood very well.

Because it was really not easy for her.

She was clearly at an innocent and carefree age, but she carried too much.

The hatred of genocide and the burden of inheritance were all pressed on the shoulders of a little girl who was less than ten years old at the time.

In order to avenge her, she endured humiliation and carried heavy burdens for many years in the pirate circle, next to her enemies...

She silently guarded her trapped brother and worked hard to practice puppet skills.

Those kinds of grievances could not be explained clearly in a few words, and she needed an outlet for emotional catharsis.

Suren looked at the eyes that glanced over from time to time even during the battle, and showed an encouraging smile.

Kama was no longer afraid.

......

The "National Puppeteer Competition" had reached a situation that no one had expected.

The audience had a great time, seeing a truly wonderful puppeteer battle.

This competition also attracted many newspapers in Lingdun, and the reporters took a lot of photos of the two puppeteers who shone brightly in the finals.

It was conceivable that tomorrow's reports would once again set off a puppet craze in Lingdun.

But the so-called competition, in the eyes of the nobles, was actually just gilding that they had internally decided.

That noble lady who had not experienced setbacks since she was a child became more and more angry as she fought.

She had always been number one since she was a child, and she absolutely would not allow herself to be number two!

But Kama's family heirloom [Mechanical War Demon] was too strong, it was impossible to lose.

It was not easy for either side to win.

Also, because it had now been changed to an unrestricted competition, the long-unvictorious Miss Elsa became even more unwilling and took out a cursed object that cost a lot...

This frightened the watching noble lords and ladies.

Fortunately, it was stopped by the organizers, and it was finally counted as a tie, tied for first place.

A puppeteer competition with some small disturbances came to an end.

Suren was inconspicuous in the crowd. The award ceremony was continuing, and he did not stay for young master Alex to celebrate for Kama.

Instead, he left the arena with the dispersing crowd.

At the door, he met Aboke, who had slipped out with his prize.

Suren smiled and said, "Why didn't you stay to take a photo?"

Aboke spread his hands and said, "Teacher, this kind of competition is boring to death. If it wasn't for this prize, I wouldn't have come."

Suren raised his eyebrows noncommittally and said, "It's also good to see more of your peers. There are also many things to learn from other puppeteer factions."

Aboke said with a serious face, "That's because of the teacher's teachings that I came... But they are too weak, especially those nobles who only treat puppets as tools, and no one really appreciates and understands the art of puppets. Those old men from the few puppet guilds are quite good. When I can beat them in two years, I will definitely come to find them to learn from each other."

Suren smiled and listened.

He also knew that his disciple was not arrogant, but really found it uninteresting.

In the eyes of a genius, professionals of the same rank were not opponents at all.

Suren didn't say much. He just thought of some of the situations he had guessed before and warned, "Be careful, Lingdun has not been peaceful recently. Contact me immediately if you encounter a problem that you can't solve."

Aboke said, "I know, teacher."