Chapter 132
Chapter 132: I Wanna Wait for Them on My Throne
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After selecting the mysterious valley as the farm for growing Vitality Crops and arranging the family of rats to take care of the technical things, Fang Ning left the developing of the business to President Zhao and the others.
That was a long-term investment, after all. It would not have yielded any fruit from short-term work, he did not have the patience for it.
He continued following the System to reveal the map daily. Of course, the System did all the work, he only popped out occasionally…
This was also a long-term job. It was easy to want to reveal the map of the whole nation, but it was difficult to realize. If it were not for the System’s unlimited patience, Fang Ning would have stopped after three days.
And isn’t it so? After spending weeks on the Tao City map, it had finally achieved the “Confidence” status, becoming the third map that was completely open to the System and connected with Qi City.
Fang Ning was brainstorming to speed up that process when, that day, he received an e-mail forwarded by Zheng Dao titled, ‘Invitation to Challenge the Dark Tournament’.
Fang Ning clicked on the email, it reads:
“Dear Venerable Dragon God,
We are happy to hear about your victory against the champion of last year’s Dark Tournament. The qualifiers match for this year will soon be started. As you have been recommended by an important person to our cause, you will automatically enter the ranks of Supreme Challengers, so this is a letter of invitation to request your participation in the Dark Tournament.
Once you have made your decision, kindly reply to this e-mail, and we will send you the dates and location of this year’s tournament.
P/S: Champions of each year will receive US$ 100,000,000 (one hundred million USD), access to the Paradise Island for a year, and other supplies as listed below, … The reward for Runner-up to 9th-in-place include… Reward per battles won include…”
The System said, “Let’s enter the tournament.”
Fang Ning said incredulously, “Are you crazy? They chose to send this to us only after we had killed Anderson, not sooner, not later, this is definitely a scam. Let me check it out before making any decision.”
Fang Ning had already found out from the forums he browsed that there were many commercial matches for Extraordinaires outside of China, but none of them had been public so far. At least, they would not be able to hire celebrities to help with their promotion. Their influence was not wide enough to compare with common athletic competitions such as boxing and soccer. However, due to the novelty and excitement, many rich people and celebrities had been attending these events in private.
China had been really strict about the administration of such events, until now, there had been no one who could organize a commercial tournament such as this.
The sudden invitation might be caused by Vigilante A’s rising reputation that was attracting eyeballs everywhere, or it could be caused by the organizer’s desire to pierce the Chinese market. Either way, Fang Ning kept feeling it was a plot to bring down Vigilante A, all because the invitation was too sudden.
Since it was an international tournament, Anderson who had been out of China must have known something about it, so Fang Ning wanted to check with Anderson first.
Fang Ning arrived at the System Prison area 1 with his human form. He still felt the most comfortable in this form.
The System Prison had undergone a huge change after his last visit. From the few cells it used to have, it now started to look a lot more like a prison, living up to its name of Draconic Penitentiary…
Solid volcanic rocks formed the walls. They were tall and thick, separating each cell and the internal and external sections of the Prison area.
A wooden, ocher-colored door opened for Fang Ning, the sole person having its access. It looked fragile, as if it could be destroyed with a punch. Fang Ning tried, but it just would not budge.
After the wooden door, a brightly-lit walkway stretched deep into the Prison area.
On both sides of the walkway, there were nine dark cells each for a total of eighteen.
Branching out of the walkway, there were smaller paths leading to other rooms.
Other facilities include prison officer’s office, trial room, isolation cells, education facilities, cafeteria, and others. However, the cafeteria had nothing to eat, so the locked-up spirits could only suffer in silence…
Among the facilities, the most complete was the trial room and the education facilities. Both the facilities were each equipped with the eighteen soul-torturing devices created by Anderson, in correspondence to the eighteen spiritual tortures 2 . According to Fang Ning’s instruction, the torture devices were not designed to induce pain or fear in the inmates but instead designed to induce fury and anger without an outlet.
Specifically, Fang Ning’s instruction was to let the inmates feel the anger their victims’ loved ones have felt. This way, they would understand the sins they had committed. To that, Anderson praised Fang Ning’s wisdom…
Fang Ning arrived at the prison officer’s office, but he did not enter.
Having done some good work, Anderson had been arranged to stay in this larger room with its own bookshelves. In reality, it was only a larger version of a single-inmate prison cell.
Even though Anderson had already sworn their loyalty and triggered the system notification, Fang Ning was not completely at ease with the evil genius. Before he had become strong enough to handle Anderson, Fang Ning would not let them out or to meet him alone.
After all, Anderson’s spirit was not restricted by Sir System, they could work remotely using their spirit in the same way they use the Spiritual Slash.
As for other facilities, they were still a normal prison cell, but different pieces of equipment were installed in each room to provide for different functions.
Anderson, the prison officer, said, “Oh, Mr. Warden, would you like to hear today’s report?”
Fang Ning said, “Tell me.”
Anderson reported, “There are currently eighteen prisoners in the Draconic Penitentiary, including one Pond-level powerhouse, two Bucket-level inmates, eight Cutlery-level inmates, and seven Mug-level inmates. All the prisoners were in good mental and emotional health. That’s all I have.”
Fang Ning nodded in appreciation, Anderson was honest in including themselves in the prisoner headcount despite having been promoted. The number of inmates was due to Sir System working extra hard.
Fang Ning said, “Not bad, they will soon be of use.”
That’s right, all the inmates were still idling in their rooms because the cheap Vitality ingredients had not been introduced. If he used these spirits to perform mentally intense activities like farming for gold in his game, it would deplete their spirits too quickly, and it could not justify the consumption of Vitality Pills, so Fang Ning had yet to turn all these people into gold farmers.
Of course, that was not the only thing they could be used in. Whenever the System was low of Aggro, Fang Ning would ask Anderson to find an excuse to use the soul-torturing devices on the inmates, immediately refilling the Aggro Bar…
Anderson said, “Thank you for the compliment.”
Fang Ning continued, “Oh, right, Anderson, lemme ask you something. Do you know anything about the Dark Tournament?”
Anderson replied nonchalantly, “Of course I do. Last year, when I was lack funding for my experiments, I had just displeased the president of the Power Balance Association, so he never agreed to the additional funds I’ve applied for. So I went ahead and entered the tournament. The cash reward was a healthy sum, but I auctioned off the access to Paradise Island and earned eight hundred million US dollars, so much more than the cash reward itself.”
Fang Ning was shocked to hear the numbers. Anderson really was the champion of the previous year’s Dark Tournament. Apparently, being at the top of any industry would mean one would gain the power to attract a large amount of gold.
Fang Ning asked, “Is it risky? What is its background?”
Anderson answered, “Not much of a risk. Its background was the Dark Extraordinaire Arena jointly formed by the six international organizations. The tournament would be held once every year for a whole year. Their participants were sourced all over the world, and the governmental bodies of each country would send their people to attend the event in order to broaden their worldview.”
“In terms of entertainment value, it was definitely much more entertaining than your average sports events. However, due to being secretly restricted by the Global Special Affairs Joint Office, they were not able to publicize it, so only the rich and the influential were invited to watch the event.”
“If it weren’t for that, it was said that it would lord over all the athletic events. Fortunately the GASATO had been slowly opening it up to other millionaires, I believe it will be bigger in the future.”
Fang Ning sank into deep thought, “So it is. How did you get your championship last year?”
Anderson answered, “Something like this is not comparable to Mr. True Dragon like you. So far, the opponents were only a bunch of kids. None of them had any idea on how to block or avoid my Spiritual Slash, unlike you. So all of them only endured it until they lost.”
“The one who lasted the longest had endured eighteen slashes. If it weren’t for the host announcing that it admitted defeat, my last slash would have sliced it in two halves. I was going to attend this year to earn more money, but see, I got into trouble and was locked up in here.”
Fang Ning said, “Oh, so be nice in here, I have to go.”
Anderson called out, “Sir, Sir! Wait a minute. If you’re interested in the tournament, I can help you win it, we’ll do a nine-one split, you can take the bigger portion. Hold on, Sir Warden, please wait, I don’t want any part of it, just let me go have a look outside…”
Fang Ning left with swagger, ‘Don’t steal my experience points…’
As soon as Fang Ning left the Prison area, Sir System was impatient.
“Let’s go, come on. Even Anderson could beat them easily, they definitely can’t beat me. I want to wait for them on my throne every year.”
Fang Ning did his best not to slap his hand on his face, “Don’t be so cocky. Are you sure you would never lose? Anderson won the tournament with their Spiritual Slash. In that situation, it was easy to win against most opponents anyway.”
“But your attacks are not as quick as his, what if you were paired with difficult characters? We won’t be able to run even if we can’t win.”
The System said, “Hahaha, Host, you’re an idiot… If I met someone I couldn’t win against, I definitely have a way to escape easily.”
Fang Ning gave it a thought and immediately found the answer, “You really are a tactical genius! No wonder you focused on that legendary skill Thousand-mile Assistance so much and keep stressing its advantages.”
“That skill can be used as a trump card, it could easily be used as ‘Thousand-mile Retreat’, as long as Brett was ready to summon the Dragon God before every battle…”
The System said, “Hey, Host, you’re almost as good as I am in terms of combat awareness…”
Fang Ning replied, “Hahaha, as long as I wanted to, there’s nothing I can’t learn.”
The System taunted, “Since that’s the case, go and master the Atmospheric Morality Technique. Xue Ba had already mastered it, and Zheng Dao almost mastered the beginner-level too. Only Brett and you were always dilly-dallying about it. Go and master it now, after having Thousand-mile Assistance, I need Morality Bars more than ever.”
Fang Ning took the bait, “…I’ll master it. How would I lose to a dog?”
***************
At the Sky Gardens of Ji City after the new year’s celebration, the Institute for Special Training by the Truth Department was having matches. It signified the first test of the new year, as well as a conclusion for the previous year.
The Qiao sibling, Hai Lan, and Hai Cheng were all sitting in the audience as they watched the matches by their recruits.
The recruits were youthful and energetic, their age around early twenties.
After being through systemic training, their cooperation and formations were clear and composed, no one was randomly throwing punches at each other.
Some of the matches were boring but effective, and some others were entertaining and focused, but all of them were able to hold their own against most of the untrained mercenaries out there bar some powerhouses.
These youths represented the future of the Truth Department. They were the core of what the Truth Department was, and they were given the best treatments in the institute in exchange for their loyalty and heaviest workload in the future.
They were bound not only by the military laws but also a spiritual agreement they voluntarily entered. Naturally, the ones who did not agree to the agreement could only be one of the lowest-ranking teams.
Qiao Zishan was satisfied with most of the recruits. These youths were talented and hardworking. With the scientific method the institute employed, their progress was rapid. In his eyes, some of the top students could even rival his own strength.
He turned to Hai Cheng and asked, “Uncle, what do you think?”
Hai Cheng scanned through the arena and nodded, saying, “These people were the cream of the crop, selected from all over China. The lowest of their Vitality cultivation affinity was at least a double-Grade-C. Many of them are already at Grade C for their true power, and there are three who are not weaker than you. If I ignore my Celestial Gaze powers, there are more people who are stronger than I am.”