Chapter 360: Chapter 360

Bounties over 2,000 Black Market Coins on the Black Market were considered average. After all, once the amount was distributed among an entire team, each member’s share was relatively small. Life-and-death battles generally offered over 6,000 coins. Only those extremely confident in their team’s killing abilities would dare to accept them.

Otherwise, who would joke with their lives when one could live quite well by doing smaller tasks?

Single combat on stage was more interesting than team combat in the Duel Arena, featuring an endless variety of competitions in marksmanship, killing techniques, poisoning, and mechanisms. A fight usually ended in a few minutes, with earnings ranging from 100 to 2,000 coins. Winning a single fight allowed you to live well in the Black Market for half a month. More crucially, unless it was a fight to the death, participants could call a halt after fulfilling the Nobles’ demands, at least sparing their own lives.

It was almost impossible to fix a fight in the Duel Arena; losers always left some part of their body behind. Jing Shu found life particularly insignificant here because, above the arena, hung row upon row of glass containers. These held the gruesome trophies—remains from past deaths in the Duel Arena. It was just like in *Lu Dingji*, where Wei Xiaobao was shown Mr. Hai’s collection housed in an exhibition hall—a whole room filled with organs, exuding an eerie atmosphere of dark decay. The Duel Arena itself was similarly adorned with a variety of hands, feet, ears, eyes, and even hearts and heads. The designer must have been a sadist. They had arranged these parts into grotesque human diagrams, making it appear as if the bodies were dismembered, though the ’sizes’ of the parts were mismatched and uncoordinated.

Jing Shu smelled the potent scent of fresh blood and sensed the pervasive rot, contrasting sharply with the extravagant lives of the Nobles. This was her first true glimpse into life in other countries after the apocalypse. She realized then how Huaxia people, even amidst the cataclysm, were like flowers protected in a greenhouse.

"Hey, if you want to upgrade your mercenary level, join the group duels. But you can only register for two team fights per day. Individuals, however, can sign up for three arena singles. After all, they need to control the death toll; if everyone dies, there’ll be no one left for them to play with." Content orıginally comes from 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭•𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢•𝓷𝓮𝓽

"As for combat pets, there are no restrictions. These damn Vampires run the house every day, always looking to suck more blood from us poor folks," Little Black grumbled, picking up a list of the Nobles’ bizarre bounty tasks and starting to choose ’missions’ for everyone.

"Hey, let’s play it safe. See those Observers in the corner? They have files on all the major Mercenary Teams. If any Mercenary Team registers for a bounty, the Observers will instantly broadcast the news. Then, more powerful teams will often come to eliminate that team. So, you can’t really find easy pickings in the Duel Arena anymore. It’s mostly evenly matched teams, which, I guess, makes the fights more exciting to watch."

"Right, shouldn’t we also buy some real-time intel? It’s only 20 Black Market Coins a copy and updated daily," Little Black asked. "After all, the first team to register for a bounty has the right to refuse a challenger, though it costs a 10% penalty fee. Knowing your opponent’s information is crucial."

When did these foreigners get so shrewd? Relying on these information brokers, they must have accumulated substantial wealth.

The key is, it’s a risk-free job with high returns. Others fight to the death while these guys just sell information...

Jing Shu looked at some people in the corner. The more she looked, the more familiar they seemed. Aren’t these all Chinese?

"Hey, these detestable Huaxia people are all cunning Vampires... Oh, you know, I don’t mean you guys, I mean those Observers! Nowadays, if you don’t buy their intel, you feel like you’re at a disadvantage," Little Black explained, somewhat incoherently.

Huaxia people are always so, um, peaceful. It’s a known fact that when wars break out worldwide, Huaxia will inevitably be the ones trafficking goods. If they’re not engaged in business, they’re accumulating wealth through agriculture. They always find a comfortable way to live well and prosper. Where there are people, there is the Jianghu; and where there is the Jianghu, there are goods sold by the Chinese.

"But since these Observers arrived, the Nobles have had an easier time. Previously, they’d often encounter teams with huge disparities in strength, which wasn’t very exciting. So, the Nobles tacitly approved of this information-selling practice. Sometimes, if the Nobles are particularly pleased with a match, they’ll even tip Black Market Coins."

The Nobles rewarding Black Market Coins when they’re happy... That’s worth remembering, Jing Shu thought.

Jing Shu and Snake Spirit exchanged glances, both seeing potential opportunities.

Tan Ke said, "Let’s not bother with the intel. We’ll just sign up directly. We’ll play it safe for the first round and get a feel for the true strength of the mercenaries in the Black Market."

"Hey, this 1,500-coin bounty seems tailor-made for us! It’s a tug-of-war, a contest of strength, just like you Huaxia people describe it. But... hey, see that? In the middle, there’s a giant pit. Inside is a huge python raised by the Noble Pei Qi. Whoever loses gets fed to the python! Of course, she also said that if anyone manages to escape from the python’s jaws, she’ll pay them an extra 500 Black Market Coins each. Now, isn’t that a thrilling and fun match?"

Tan Ke calculated on his fingers. At 1,500 Black Market Coins per match, that was 3,000 a day. It wouldn’t be enough to reach S-rank. They needed 20,000 for A-rank and 50,000 for S-rank. It seemed they needed to take on higher-quality bounties, preferably life-and-death battles that offered over 6,000 coins each.

"Alright, let’s do one round to test the waters," Tan Ke decided.

Little Black completed the registration. Afterwards, he groaned that it was done and they were now waiting for another team to challenge them. He muttered, "Why does the entire Mercenary Team have to participate? Hey, it’s too risky! I don’t want to be python food. I’m standing at the very back later!"

Soon after Jing Shu’s team registered, an announcement immediately broadcast to everyone that a team had accepted the tug-of-war bounty, and any interested challengers could now step forward.

Jing Shu’s Mercenary Team was B-rank. Just the day before, they had brought back a mysterious creature, an exploit that resulted in the annihilation of three other teams and catapulted them from unofficial mercenary status to a B-rank team. Their information was quickly compiled by the information brokers and sold for 20 Black Market Coins per copy.

From what Jing Shu could see, in just that short amount of time, these brokers had already made one or two hundred Black Market Coins. That’s even more profitable than us fighting in the matches! she thought, half-seriously considering a career change.

However, when the upcoming contest was revealed to be a tug-of-war based on strength, many of the burly mercenary teams were inexplicably confident about facing Jing Shu’s group. After all, apart from Tan Ke and Little Black who looked imposing, their team included the injured and bandaged Monkey, the slender Snake Spirit, and two women. They seemed like an easy team to bully.

It wasn’t long before three teams issued challenges. As the challenged mercenaries, Jing Shu’s group couldn’t choose their opponent. The information on the three challenging teams was delivered to the Noble Pei Qi.

At that moment, Pei Qi was trying on a cute pink dress. Hearing that so many teams were interested in her bounty, she happily selected an opponent for Jing Shu’s group.