Chapter 170 Have These People Been Eating Mushrooms?

In the end, the assistant opened the third video, which showed Wei Zijun practicing boxing and footwork on the plum blossom stakes at Xuanwu Mountain. His posture was agile, his steps steady, and his punches and kicks were firm and powerful. At a glance, it was obvious he had solid close-combat fundamentals—this clip had spread widely.

“Coach, the truth is crystal clear!” the assistant slammed the table hard, his face filled with smugness and anger as if he had “seen through the conspiracy.” He drew a firm conclusion without hesitation—

“Wei Zijun is the Chinese team’s only close-combat expert. He’s the strongest among the three of them! Shen Yan is a sports archer who specializes in long-range attacks. He knows nothing about close combat with bare hands—he’s completely an amateur! Luo Xinglan is nothing more than a pretty face. She’s just a vase—she doesn’t even know basic martial arts moves!”

The more he spoke, the more excited and certain he became—

“Miao Yunyou is just playing psychological warfare! At the end of the day, she’s just a rich second-generation heir and the owner of a resort. How many real experts could she possibly find? Having even one is already impressive! She deliberately portrayed the strongest, Wei Zijun, as the weakest in order to intimidate us and break our psychological defenses. She wants us to believe that everyone on the Chinese team is a top-tier expert, causing us to lose confidence before the match even begins and collapse mentally!

So what if Shen Yan is good at archery? This competition is a bare-hand close-combat match—no equipment of any kind is allowed! A long-range specialist in a close-range arena is worse than an ordinary person and simply cannot be a match for professional martial artists like us!

As for Luo Xinglan, there’s no need to even mention her. She might not even be able to outrun our team members. Sending her onto the stage would just be sending her to her death!

All this supposed strength is just a disguise! It’s all a scam! Only Wei Zijun has real combat ability—the other two are completely there just to make up the numbers!”

This line of reasoning, supported by video evidence and aligned with the rules, formed a perfectly self-consistent logical loop. It instantly awakened all the Korean team members who had been trapped in despair.

The head coach stared fixedly at the video on the screen. His tense expression relaxed in an instant. The fear and rage in his eyes vanished without a trace, replaced by overwhelming anger at being deceived and a restored, absolute confidence.

“Despicable! Utterly shameless!” the coach slammed the table and growled, his eyes filled with contempt and resentment. “They keep claiming that true strength should be proven openly, that they don’t rely on schemes—yet they used such underhanded tactics to deceive the entire world!”

“They disguised their strongest close-combat fighter as the weakest, trying to use psychological warfare to make us lose without fighting. It’s vile to the extreme!”

The team members finally saw the “truth.” The humiliation, fear, and despair they had felt earlier vanished in an instant. One by one, they straightened their backs, their eyes regaining arrogance and confidence—more intense than before the match.

They finally “understood”!

It wasn’t that the Chinese team was overwhelmingly strong—it was that they had been misled by an illusion!

Their first crushing defeat was simply because they had encountered the Chinese team’s only ace. As for the second and third matches—they were certain to win!

As long as they won the next two matches, they could completely reverse the score, erase the shame of the first defeat, and狠狠 strike the Chinese team back.

“Great! Our chance to turn the tables is here!”

“I’ll go in the next match. I’ll crush them easily and show them the true power of close-combat martial arts!”

“We’ve exposed their scam. From here on, the control of the arena belongs to us!”

In just a few minutes, the Korean team climbed straight from the depths of despair back to peak confidence. Everyone became completely convinced by their “perfect reasoning,” fully immersed in the satisfaction of self-deception, unable to pull themselves out.

A few lurking domestic and foreign journalists happened to come over for interviews. The Korean coach, who had just moments ago been dejected and unwilling to face the cameras, immediately put on an arrogant, dismissive expression. Facing the microphones, he brazenly declared:

“The first match was simply us falling into the Chinese team’s despicable psychological trap—it wasn’t a difference in actual strength! In the next match, we will easily crush them and win, completely turning the situation around with an undefeated streak!”

This extremely arrogant remark, amplified through speakers, spread across the entire venue, reaching every spectator’s ears—and clearly made its way to the Chinese team’s resting area as well.

Miao Yunyou was curled up comfortably in a resting chair, hugging a fluffy electric hot-water bag, already playing a game, looking completely relaxed as if she were just there to watch the excitement.

Luo Xinglan sat beside her, helping her peel hot roasted chestnuts. Each time she finished peeling one, she would directly feed it into Miao Yunyou’s mouth. She really did look like a considerate assistant to her boss.

Hua Ying, the substitute, was truly just there to fill numbers. Since she most likely wouldn’t get a chance to play at all, she had already gotten bored and started scrolling on her phone, browsing shopping apps, and even helping Hua Yue Zhan pick out a few pretty dresses.

Only Shen Yan and Wei Zijun were analyzing together whether there was still room to optimize the knockout strike from earlier.

After all, the leader had said they needed to create even greater glory!

They had been enjoying their leisurely rest when they suddenly heard the Korean team once again spouting arrogant remarks without restraint. Their tone was domineering and full of confidence, completely different from the earlier embarrassment, dejection, and despair—it was as if they had become entirely different people in just a few minutes.

Miao Yunyou suddenly raised her head, looking in the direction of the Korean team with a blank expression. She blinked her clear eyes, her gaze full of confusion.

“What’s going on… have these people been eating mushrooms?”

She was genuinely bewildered and completely unable to understand.

They had clearly lost so badly—knocked out in a single second and thoroughly humiliated. Yet in just a few minutes, they had become full of confidence again, even more arrogant than before?

With her normal human level of intelligence, she truly couldn’t comprehend such a psychological shift.

Koreans are really hard to understand!

The others were also filled with confusion.

Wow, are people here all this mentally resilient? They lost so badly, yet recovered so quickly—impressive, impressive.

At that moment, Shen Yan spoke up:

“Leader, who should we send out for the second match?”

Miao Yunyou snapped back to attention, raised her hand, and pointed at Shen Yan casually.

“Since you asked, then you go.”

After all, it didn’t matter who went.

Besides, Luo Xinglan still needed to peel chestnuts for her.

After speaking, Miao Yunyou seemed to suddenly remember something. She leaned closer and lowered her voice to give a reminder:

“But this time, don’t go for an instant kill again. That last scene was too decisive—it didn’t leave them any face at all and made us, as the hosts, seem too domineering and unkind. Let’s hold back a bit and control the pace… just fight for about ten seconds.”

Otherwise, knocking out every opponent as soon as they stepped up would be too unfriendly to international harmony.

Upon hearing this, a faint, barely perceptible smile flashed across Shen Yan’s warm and gentle eyes. His expression remained calm and composed, without the slightest hesitation or any further questions. He simply replied with a single, decisive word:

“Alright.”