There’s a saying that when one person ascends to Heaven, even their chickens and dogs ascend too.
Galen used to be a sea corpse collector in a remote town of Aran, hanging out with a bunch of thugs, dreaming every day of hauling in a Great Noble with hundreds of Golden Dragons, ensuring a carefree life thereafter.
He never caught a noble.
But he did reel in a top-tier Nether Star Plague Person.
With Nishi’s battle achievements, it’s a given she could be a branch manager in Duguli, otherwise, even if the sales route through the Great Wetland was open, the Heavenly Eye Society would mess things up, and the merchandise wouldn’t sell.
With so much invested initially, if the debts couldn’t be collected at Heaven Port, the mad woman would go berserk, and no one could handle her outburst.
Rough words but true, living and dying for B, cycling endlessly, working hard for B all life, but that’s just so fucking coarse!
Learning to grab opportunities, turning from a humble guy to the nouveau riche’s kid in a claw machine, Nishi’s moves could be recorded and sold in the Main God Space as S-level sub-plot "man-controlling technique", completely nailed it.
Nishi is now a branch manager, seemingly of the same level as Ben and Violet, but actually, her authority is slightly bigger, knowing Galen has strong ties with Liszt, she assigned Galen an easy job, no need to run everywhere, still getting a high fixed salary.
The classic saying of Western Continent’s underworld is, stop when you’ve earned a hundred Golden Dragons.
In a well-secured big city, buying a decent house costs thirty Golden Dragons, and if you don’t indulge in gambling and women, and go for high-end ones counted in silver coins, fooling around two or three times a week, the rest spent on clothes, food, and shelter, then a hundred Golden Dragons certainly ensures a worry-free life with strong risk resistance as well.
Galen is now considered a trade representative of the Duguli branch of Black Sail Trading Company, mainly responsible for expanding markets outside, which, frankly, is tourism, with a monthly salary of five Golden Dragons, a terrifying concept, equivalent to the income of a high-ranking Holy Professor in the Eternal Sect for over half a year.
Also, Galen brought his old mother to Duguli for a peaceful life, and other siblings could be arranged for easy positions for some support.
As for the former Wind Radiance Adventure Team brothers, they were dragged in, just run errands in Duguli, earning ten to twenty silver coins a month, with a four percent order bonus.
But Galen knew his capabilities, relying on the relationship he’d caught with Liszt in the Narrow Sea, leading such a large group, scraping by for a year or two might still be okay, but over time, there would definitely be gossip.
Liszt has so much on his plate, he might never come to Duguli again, and Galen isn’t planning to freeload; since the duty is to expand outside markets, he must achieve something.
Catching the heat of the Continent Martial Arts Competition, he also came to Aran Imperial City for a look-see; with such a high salary of five Golden Dragons a month, even if he supplements the work himself, it’s fine. The rightful source is novel[f]ire.net
Knowing his own level, those like Nishi are either heroic-level adventurers or double-flower red sticks of the former Thief Guild; he thinks that being given such a high salary and then applying for a business trip on public funds would be too ungrateful.
So Galen brought only the former vice-leader of the adventure team, to the Imperial City for a business trip, to expand the business.
But Galen’s nature was still of a deceitful buddy type of low-level adventurer, anyway, he was already there, might as well enjoy for a few days, since a big deal won’t be missed by these couple of days.
First, let’s see what the Continent Martial Arts Competition is all about.
"From the west gate’s adventurer’s guild to the Imperial Arena, it’s a total of 106 copper coins, round it down, I’ll just charge you two silver coins."
The Land Bird taxi driver flatly told Galen.
"Goddamn it! So fucking expensive, careful, I’ll complain about you. Are you looking to die?"
Galen thought he got ripped off, ruminating on saving money, he had walked part of the way before flagging a cab, although it was the Imperial City, the taxi prices were too outrageous, actually walking would’ve taken only half an hour, mainly not wanting to miss the drawing lots, first chance to see contestants live, that’s why he took a cab.
"Look at the time today, if you don’t take it, others will, I went through so many shortcuts to get you here, let me tell you, without ten years of driving experience, everyone’s fucking stuck now."
The driver had him look around, with a sea of people outside the majestic Imperial Arena, the entire plaza was packed tight, even the Royal City Army responsible for security regulation and traffic control were overwhelmed, let alone the spectators, now mid-summer in September, even some bulky alien races faint from heat in the early morning.
This was also Galen’s first time seeing the colossal Imperial Arena, far more magnificent than in the newspapers; it’s a circular, stepped, sunken structure, but from the outside, only hundreds of meters of massive walls can be seen, with engravings on the walls carved by masters each year for the champion.
The most conspicuous being the engraving of the Aran Sword King, but artistically processed, quite different from the real person, looking like some Immortal King suppressing dark chaos.
Possibly not anticipating such an immense flow of people at the Continent Martial Arts Competition during its initial architectural design; every September, ninety-five percent of the audience could only watch the crystal-projected live images outside the plaza, while tickets inside were hard to come by, only awarded to wealthy merchants and nobles or valiantly clad heroic customers.
The scalpers’ tickets on the finals’ day get marked up to dozens, even hundreds of Golden Dragons a ticket; wanting to enter the arena required not only money but also recognition if you belong to the central or local faction, and what level you are.