Chapter 1413: Relax and Unwind
There were at least six free fighting arenas on one floor, and Arena 25 was exceptionally lively. Even before entering, the deafening noise could be heard, mixed with shouts like "Tear her clothes off!" and "Pull her pants down!"
"The fight's getting intense!" Li Kun walked forward and pushed the door open. A wave of stale air rushed out. The wandering beams of light swept across the audience seats before quickly converging on the two people in the central ring.
The arena was surrounded by item barriers. Apart from the referee and the contestants, everyone else was blocked five meters away by an invisible item barrier. The circular audience seats surrounded the ring, allowing every angle a clear view of everything happening inside. But even so, many spectators jumped down from their seats, pressed against the barrier, and shouted and yelled at those inside.
Xu Huo glanced at the ring.
One of the fighters was a young female player with a pretty face. She was clearly not in her first match, bearing multiple injuries and panting as she took a potion.
Her opponent, a man, was even more seriously injured. A blood vessel in his thigh had burst. Even after emergency treatment, a significant amount of blood was still gushing from the wound—he should really be in the hospital.
"Can you do it or not!"
"If you can't, get down!"
"Can't even beat a woman, you're a disgrace to us men!"
"You're bleeding that much, at least tear a piece of cloth off her to stop it! Useless piece of trash!"
...
The spectators kept shouting, and many spewed obscenities at the female player, as if they could touch her body through the air and clothes.
The female player casually tossed her empty bottle out of the ring, adjusted her item gloves without changing expression, and said to the male player opposite her, "Dare to go again? After this fight, I'm taking a break!"
"This is the arena master's sixth match today. It looks like she's ready to take all the betting money. I wonder if the last challenger will give up the generous prize money in front of him or fight on despite his injuries... Our challenger is stepping forward. It seems he doesn't intend to let the arena master get off easy!"
Item use was allowed in arena matches. While this greatly increased the spectacle, it also tended to make both sides attack each other from a distance, losing the visceral thrill of close combat. Besides, the audience paid for tickets to see blood fly—watching item tricks was no better than watching videos online.
So, egged on by the crowd, the injured male player used an item to pull the female player close and punched her square in the chest!
The female player quickly retreated two steps, then kicked him in the chin, sending him to the ground. Before he could get up, she threw out a rope item that bound his hands and feet behind his back, pinning him face down on the floor.
"Nice technique, lady! Wasting it on him—come tie me up instead!" A player with a peculiar fetish pounded on the arena barrier, red-faced and shouting.
The female player coldly swept her gaze over the crowd, walked over to the kneeling male player in her high heels, stepped on his back, and kicked him off the ring.
Amid a cacophony of wails and howls, the referee declared the female player the winner.
The arena master could choose whether to accept the next challenge. The female player didn't continue, took her winnings from this match, and left. Soon, a new arena master took her place on the ring.
"We're late." Li Kun smacked his lips in lingering satisfaction, then asked Xu Huo, "Want to check out Arena 20?"
Xu Huo stared at him steadily. Li Kun quickly explained, "Hey, I'm not into men. Didn't you hear there are a lot of female players fighting over there? This place is mostly male-dominated. A lot of female players just come to watch, but few actually step into the ring. Let me tell you, when some women get fierce, there's nothing left for the men!"
Xu Huo followed him to Arena 20. Here, the number of female players clearly outnumbered the males, and they were screaming even crazier than the men.
The male player acting as arena master was indeed a handsome young man. He deliberately stirred up the atmosphere, letting a challenger tear open half his shirt. His muscular chest and arms were half-hidden, half-exposed, drawing wave after wave of screams from the audience.
"Sister! Go for his lower body! We want to see the real goods!"
The challenger lived up to expectations. From a distance, she threw an item with a "strip and disrobe" function, pulling off the arena master's pants—such a small item was actually easy to defend against, but the arena master clearly didn't want to. Not only that, he deliberately spun around to show off his physique.
"I'm going blind." Li Kun waved his hand in disgust. "Let's go, let's go. We can't handle this show!"
"Besides these free arenas, are there others?" Xu Huo asked as they left Arena 20.
"Of course. The bets in the free arenas aren't high. You can take the money after a few fights. Upstairs, there are cumulative matches with a fixed number of rounds. You only get the money if you win all the way to the end. If you forfeit or lose to an opponent midway, you get nothing. But those usually require risking your life," Li Kun said. "Only people who are really short on cash or owe the casino money would go for it."
"For people like us who aren't short on cash, there's no need. Besides, we're fighting and killing in instances all day. When we come out, we need to relax."
He pointed at the women coming and going in the hallway. "See anyone you like? As long as you're not bad-looking and spend a little money, you can usually get them... If your face is as decent as that guy in Arena 20, the female players might even want to take advantage of you!"
Li Kun sounded a bit sour, but he quickly spotted a female player, tossed Xu Huo a "see you tomorrow," and went over to chat her up.
The two clearly hit it off immediately and walked away arm in arm.
Xu Huo watched two more matches casually before leaving the Star and Moon Radiance Building. He strolled along the street, getting a quick overview of the nearby item shops.
Most shops sold finished products. Very few actually made items, and the finished products on display were of low quality.
"How could a master artificer of that level do business here? They'd have people lining up at their doorstep even if they stayed home," a shop owner pointed him in the right direction. "Go check the rankings on the Message Collection Terminal. All the notable artificers are listed there. But high-level artificers are hard to hire. You can try your luck."
Xu Huo paid for two small items and then asked, "It seems especially lively around here lately. There are a lot of people applying for jobs."
The owner smiled and said, "You're an outsider, so you wouldn't know. The city government is building a new starship and needs a lot of manpower. Recruitment notices have been sent out everywhere. There have been a lot of craftsmen coming in the past couple of days."
"I thought most of the Platinum Eye's industries were mechanized," Xu Huo said.
"Not at all," the owner replied. "No matter how advanced the machine, it needs a person to inject a soul into it. It's the same with items. Give the same materials to different artificers, and the final result will be different. Otherwise, why would there be an artificer ranking list?"
(Chapter End)