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Ye Wen immediately recognized the crawling figure as Oscar.
But why was he doing this? Ye Wen couldn't quite understand.
Though Shrek Academy was indeed subpar, it wasn't so humiliating as to force students into such a state.
Suddenly, Ye Wen seemed to recall something. In the manga's storyline, Oscar and Dai Mubai had mocked each other during their partnership, vowing not to hold the team back.
Oscar, though an auxiliary soul master, still possessed considerable pride. He had made a bet—if anyone dragged the team down, they would crawl three laps around the Grand Spirit Arena.
So, was this his self-inflicted punishment?
The more Ye Wen reflected on it, the more memories of his past life surfaced. After all, the Douluo manga had been what initially drew him into the world of Douluo .
"What happens next? Ah yes, Yu Xiaogang makes an appearance, and Oscar says, 'Coach, I want—'
Oh wait, no—it's 'Master, I don't want to remain an auxiliary soul master who relies solely on others for protection anymore.' Then Yu Xiaogang happily agrees and offers Oscar training and support."
However, thinking about the results of that training, a strange expression flickered in Ye Wen's eyes.
"In the end, Oscar does indeed no longer need others to protect him—but that's only because he becomes better at running away.
But the problem is, Oscar didn't want to be a runner—he wanted to become a battle-oriented soul master."
For a moment, Ye Wen couldn't help but chuckle. But in terms of the outcome, did Yu Xiaogang truly help Oscar?
The manga version of Douluo was one thing, but the novel version of Douluo was another entirely. Ye Wen had once viewed Yu Xiaogang as a true master due to the rose-tinted glasses of the manga.
But after revisiting the novel, Ye Wen realized it was far from the truth.
No matter how he looked at it, between the lines of the novel, Yu Xiaogang came across as nothing more than a fame-chasing fraud.
Returning to the present, Ye Wen wiped away his amused smile and carefully observed Oscar, who was still crawling on the ground.
Compared to Tang San's icy purity, Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun's unrestrained personalities, and Ning Rongrong's princess-like attitude, Oscar was one of the few members of the original Shrek Seven Monsters with relatively normal values, much like Zhu Zhuqing.
Setting aside personal character, Oscar was also the first food-system soul master in the history of the Douluo continent to possess innate full soul power. At Shrek, this was undoubtedly a waste of talent.
In the story's setup, Oscar was an orphan adopted by Flender, and studying under him was a reasonable and humane arrangement.
Oscar's teacher was Shao Xin, a Soul Emperor with a candy bean martial soul, one of the early teachers at Shrek. While it might seem inadequate for a Soul Emperor to teach someone like Oscar, whose minimum future achievement would be a Soul Douluo, it made sense given the rarity of food-system soul masters and the bonds involved. There were no glaring issues here.
Still, this left Oscar in a somewhat pitiful situation. He had been persuaded by Tang San to absorb the soul ring of a thousand-year Phoenix Crested Chicken Snake, granting him a flight-based third soul skill.
While soul masters could only freely fly after reaching the Title Douluo level, flight-based skills were indeed rare in the early stages.
If this were just any ordinary food-system soul master, it wouldn't have been a big deal. But Oscar's potential was too high—so high that a flight skill simply didn't match his caliber.
Unlike combat-oriented soul masters, auxiliary soul masters like Oscar relied heavily on their early soul rings. The lower the soul ring's age, the less energy it consumed, meaning the more advanced Oscar became, the more soul masters he could assist.
There were prodigies among soul masters capable of fighting above their level, but most were mediocre. Simply avoiding being crushed by higher-level soul masters was already an accomplishment.
Imagine this: Oscar's third soul skill grants low-level soul masters flight, and then they rush to face a high-level soul master. Wouldn't that just be handing them over to be slaughtered?
Of course, Oscar's third soul skill wasn't limited to low-level soul masters—it could also be used on high-level ones.
But the effect of his third soul skill was to grant the flight speed of a thousand-year Phoenix Crested Chicken Snake. However, by the time soul masters reached advanced stages, which one of them didn't possess astonishing speed?
Thus, in the future, Oscar's third soul skill became useless, whether in small groups or large ones.
Auxiliary soul masters already had limited access to soul skills, and this move effectively wasted an entire soul ring slot for Oscar.
Its only real use was probably giving Tang San an unfair advantage during his matches.
And Tang San likely thought the same way back then. Under Yu Xiaogang's guidance, Tang San naturally focused on team arrangements as the captain.
Of course, if battlefield tactics were executed properly, Oscar's third soul skill could still have some utility.
But everyone knew the command abilities in the Douluo world left much to be desired~
Though Oscar's group combat capabilities were somewhat diminished, his future potential couldn't be denied.
Thus, Ye Wen began to consider whether he should try to recruit Oscar.
After all, talent was hard to come by.
At that moment, Oscar's self-deprecating laughter echoed from nearby.
"It's just three laps of crawling—it's like playing a game. Ouch, I found another copper soul coin!
Hahaha, if Fatty knew crawling could earn money, he'd definitely—"
Mid-sentence, Oscar suddenly sensed a gaze upon him. Instinctively, his eyes met Ye Wen's.
Silence fell over the scene.
Though the Spirit Arena was bustling during business hours, by this time, even the cleaning staff had disappeared.
This allowed Oscar to crawl freely without worry. However, being caught in such a state by an outsider caused his face to flush red with embarrassment. Quickly scrambling to his feet, he fled from Ye Wen's sight.
Ye Wen shrugged helplessly and walked toward the distance.
Not only had Ye Wen seen everything, but Huo Yu'er and Xiao Wu, hidden in the shadows, had also witnessed Oscar's humiliation.
Though Ye Wen understood Oscar's pride—Dai Mubai wouldn't have dwelled on such matters, yet Oscar still honored his bet—he himself would never have made such a thankless wager from the start.
"Big Brother Wen, that guy just now was so funny," Xiao Wu said cheerfully, sharing Oscar's embarrassing moment.
Huo Yu'er calmly asked, "Ah Wen, did you find that snail?"
Ye Wen nodded serenely, indicating he had gathered all the necessary intelligence.
However, Suotuo City was no ordinary small town. Taking action here, especially against a high-level Soul Elder, would surely attract the city's law enforcement team. Ye Wen didn't want to rely on the Huo family's connections to bail him out later.
Since these individuals were insignificant, he could slowly dismantle them step by step.
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