Everybody was taken aback when they saw someone as tough as Gunner suddenly announcing his surrender.
Gunner felt his face burn in shame as he could feel the gazes of ridicule from the people around him for surrendering without even a fight. Of course, he knew surrendering in the middle of a fight wouldn't feel this bad.
But only he knew that he was standing before, not some weak beauty but most probably a monster. He had fought various types of ghouls, especially Daemons, and since these Daemons mostly fight in their beast form, he could feel the feral and wild side of them by just taking a good look at their eyes.
And strangely enough, for some reason, when her gaze drilled into his soul, he felt his nerves shudder.
He didn't consider himself a cowardly person, but to feel such intimidation from the gaze of a woman could only mean that his instincts were crying to him to back off before he ended up in a regretful situation.
Even if his cultivation was higher, he wasn't feeling so confident, especially after seeing how his friends got defeated by three women with weaker cultivations. No…one of them even had their cultivation shoot up to the fourth level of the Profound Ethereal Realm.
This made him realize it was not worth it to duel with her just to keep up his ego. What if she had more tricks up her sleeves just like the others and her confident and cool demeanor was enough to make him confirm that she wasn't the least bit worried about fighting him.
There was no faking that.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Farah chuckled in amusement and, in fact, was surprised that someone like Gunner knew when to back out, "Valentina wins the duel due to voluntary defeat from Gunner!"
Lily patted Valentina's back with a smile, feeling that she was awesome enough to make someone like Gunner surrender without even raising a finger.
Yuria and Reva weren't surprised since they knew Valentina was the strongest among them.
As the four stood together, the people no longer felt as if they were looking at spoiled beauties from a weaker world but formidable women who possessed not only beauty but enough strength to keep up with this harsh world.
If they could defeat Gunner's team, surely they might actually stand a chance when dealing with some of the powerful ghouls.
They no longer felt that these four were freeloaders but could actually turn out to be their strongest soldiers in the future.
Valentina stepped forward and asked with crossed arms, "Since you all lost, your room will be ours. So move out quickly since we don't want to waste our time any longer."
Lily awkwardly smiled, seeing Valentina being so straightforward and curt to those who had just lost.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})She knew Valentina really wanted to get this done with, but she must have had no idea that she was indirectly rubbing salt into their wounds.
Gunner regretted putting up airs before these women. Even his three friends stood behind him with pale expressions. They never thought they would be losing their room for real.
"Yes…We will evacuate within an hour," Gunner said as his expression became glum.
But his brows raised when he looked to the side as everyone else was also surprised and quickly placed one of their hands on their chest while maintaining expressions of respect.
Yuria and her sisters were also surprised to see Kena suddenly descending down along with Alex behind her.
"There is no need for any of you to lose out on anything for a simple matter," Kena said with a subtle smile and then looked at Valentina and the other three women, "You four will be staying in my building," She then looked at Gunner and continued, "So you and your team can continue to stay in your quarters."
Everybody was surprised and felt envy upon hearing that Kena was letting these four get the best place to stay. All of them knew only the best among the best get to stay in the same large building as Kena.
However, Gunner and his team were glad that their leader was kind enough to give them a way out, and all four of them immediately placed their hands on their chests as Gunner shouted out earnestly, "Thank you so much, leader. We know we are incompetent, but we will work harder to not bring shame to our station."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Kena looked at him before sweeping her gaze over the people crowded around, "Do you all think it's shameful that Gunner surrendered without a fight?"
Gunner felt his face tighten hearing her, but he knew anybody would think it was shameful for him to surrender like that.
The people didn't expect their leader to suddenly ask a question like that. But since she asked, they all slowly nodded since they felt bad Gunner and his team lost to newcomers who had weaker cultivations and were coming from a place that was not as cruel as their world.
"Wrong! What Gunner did was wise and something you should all take note of," Kena's words made Gunner look up with an expression of disbelief just like the others.
Kena added to dispel their confusion, "When we are out there, it isn't rare that we might come upon ghouls that are stronger than us. And like I always say, don't try to take on opponents you can't defeat. Your life and limbs remaining intact matter more than foolishly fighting a stronger ghoul. This instinct you all have to drill into your bones just like Gunner. Even though he wasn't fighting a ghoul here, he knew that it was wiser to surrender than to get defeated with a broken body. Only when you all practice this instinct here will then this instinct warn you in a real situation. We came all this way because our predecessors knew that surviving no matter what was the key. Our ego doesn't matter to the ghouls. They will devour us anyway if we are not smart. Let this duel be a reminder to you of all of our most important values and also an official introduction to our new recruits."
Everyone shook their heads slowly, feeling wiser and no longer felt ashamed of Gunner. They only felt even more respect for him for being smart, while Lily and her sisters were surprised to learn this side of their mentality.
Back in the Rising Sun Continent, it was shameful for anyone to surrender to the point even a weakling would rather get beaten up than come back without even giving a fight.
This made them realize even more that life in the Old World was nothing like life in the Rising Sun Continent.
