Chapter 717: Chapter 480: Settling Down
Everyone must understand that catching a fist coming straight at you is much more difficult than grabbing the wrist of the person throwing the punch from the side.
Upon seeing Dong Tianyu’s arrogant move, Gary’s anger surged, and realizing he was outmatched in strength, he used the hand that Dong had grabbed as a pivot to twist his body and launch a side kick.
The three onlookers, witnessing Gary’s punch being caught by Dong, immediately displayed expressions of disbelief.
Since they were all Martial Artists, even though Chester and Linda Lilith didn’t have much practical fighting experience, they understood that unless one’s combat power was far superior to the other’s, it was nearly impossible for such a maneuver of single-handedly catching a punch to occur.
However, due to the presence of relics, some Awakeners could also possess abilities akin to inborn Herculean strength, so while the scene that unfolded was surprising, they didn’t pay it too much mind after realizing what had happened.
When they saw Gary respond to his hand being caught by immediately using it to leverage a spinning side kick at Dong,
Dong didn’t let go of the hand with which he had caught Gary’s fist; instead, he used his other hand to not only block Gary’s attack but also grab the leg that Gary was using to attack him, leaving Gary controlled by Dong with just one hand and one leg, making a "K" shape.
The fight having reached this point, although Gary had more moves up his sleeve, this was, after all, just a test, not a fight to the death, so he conceded very straightforwardly, "Stop, you’re strong. Although I still have a few tricks I didn’t use, I believe you have moves in reserve as well, so I admit defeat in this battle."
Upon hearing Gary’s sportsmanlike concession, Dong immediately let go and humbly responded, "You flatter me. You were just careless at the beginning and ended up at a disadvantage. Had you been serious from the start, the outcome of the match would have been quite uncertain."
"That’s enough, losing is losing. There’s no need for excuses. Besides, you slippery youngster just admitted that even if I took it seriously, the result of the fight would still be uncertain, isn’t that implying that I could still lose if I were serious? It’s just a match; I’m not someone who can’t accept defeat. As the old saying goes, ’Victory and defeat are common in war.’ Whether it’s a match or not, losing means losing.
Linda, you know me; I didn’t hold back in this match, even if the fight was simple. But I can assure you, whether it’s battle experience or actual combat ability, he’s no less capable than I am.
You’re aware that I wouldn’t stake my reputation for someone I’ve never even met before. Bring me the registration form; I need to sign it and then head over to Broken Head Bridge to find Old Zhao. Let’s wrap this up quickly so I don’t keep him waiting."
Hearing Gary’s prompt, Linda immediately brought out the registration form. After Gary signed the power assessment section, he said his goodbyes to the group and left promptly.
Then Linda handed the form to Chester, who signed the witness section before returning the registration form to Linda for filing.
Seeing Dong approaching, Charles immediately smiled and said, "Brother, you’ve made a fortune this time. Before the catastrophe, if you wanted to settle in Magic City, there were a myriad of complex conditions; now, in less than half a day, you’re all set. You’ve really hit the jackpot, haven’t you?"
Upon hearing this, Dong was slow to grasp the implications, as he had simply come to look around for anything worthwhile to trade.
All he had done was fill out a form, then someone challenged him to a match, and all of a sudden that meant he was settling here.
Even though household registration was virtually meaningless now, he did not want to change his registration in such a confused manner.
Seeing the change in Dong’s face, Chester, who was standing by, began to explain, "Charles didn’t tell you about this?"
"It doesn’t matter, Linda hasn’t filed it yet. Let me introduce you to the process first and then you decide if you’d like to register here with us. If you’re willing, we’ll ask Linda to file it, and if not, that’s fine too. You can just consider it a visit to a friend’s place. How does that sound?"
After Chester’s explanation, Dong didn’t say much, but he nodded in agreement.
Seeing that Dong had no objections, Chester personally introduced him, "You must be aware, ever since the catastrophe occurred, although the Imperial Court came up with the most suitable countermeasures,
the continuous emergence of various natural disasters has led to the gradual collapse of society. Despite our united front, it was inevitable that there were casualties when the catastrophe first struck.
The electromagnetic pulse rendered most electronic equipment useless, and the last flood destroyed almost all paper documents.
Therefore, the existing household registration documents have essentially vanished, plus with the constant rise in the death toll and many people not living in the official Refuge Centers, the original household registration system has all but ceased to exist."
If it wasn’t for the flood that confined everyone to the large ships, after which the research institute came up with some black-tech gadgets, the specifics of which I am not clear on, we’ve received notebooks from them that have restored internet connectivity.
Although those notebooks have only a few different functions, those functions are quite practical. I won’t go into the rest; let me just introduce you to the household registration feature."
