Great Soul Arena

Spirit City, Pope Palace.

A figure shrouded in shadow stood in the middle of the hall, respectfully recounting Zhang Yang and his companions' performance in Star Dou Forest.

Pope Bibi Dong sat on her throne, listening to the report with great interest.

When the report ended, Bibi Dong praised him. "A top-tier tool Martial Soul that surpasses the Clear Sky Hammer? Interesting. Ghost Douluo, you witnessed it yourself. What do you think?"

"Your Majesty, based on his performance so far, I'd say a three-ring Clear Sky Hammer is indeed inferior to him."

Ghost Douluo Gui Mei added, "His attacks may not hit as hard individually as the Clear Sky Hammer's, but Zhang Yang's terrifying advantage is that his attacks deal considerable damage, come at extremely short intervals, and are unleashed at incredible speed."

"Zhang Yang's only weakness is that if an opponent catches him off guard, closes the distance instantly, and gets right up close, it creates an unfavorable situation he can't handle."

"However, considering that Clear Sky Hammer Soul Masters aren't known for their speed, I believe..."

Ghost Douluo paused before giving his conclusion. "When the Soul Power gap is within ten levels, Zhang Yang is faster beyond seven steps, and the Clear Sky Hammer is faster within seven steps."

Hearing Ghost Douluo's assessment, Bibi Dong nodded. "In that case, we should shore up his weaknesses. Every ruler has its length and every inch has its strength; play to your strengths and make up for your weaknesses. Isn't that the core principle of the Balanced Style Squad?"

"Your Majesty is absolutely right."

Back in his dormitory, Zhang Yang first soaked in a bath to wash away his fatigue. Then he changed into clean clothes and sat cross-legged on his bed.

After Zhang Yang successfully absorbed his third Soul Ring, [Season 3: Initial Edge] officially came to an end.

[Season 4: Emerging Talent] officially began.

Zhang Yang first used the [Current Season 3×3 Secure Box Usage Voucher] he had saved up during Season 3 to extend his secure box access through level 40.

Then Zhang Yang opened the [Season Mission] interface.

As usual, there were seven regular missions, plus one [Collector] and one [Endgame Contact].

Zhang Yang was used to it by now.

The [Collector] and [Endgame Contact] were Delta Force specialties. How could he pass them up?

"[Action Plan 1: Search and Destroy]"

"Mission Brief: The general assault has been confirmed. To ensure victory on the battlefield, intelligence gathering must come first."

"※ During Haagen-Dazs City-Classified operations, search every container in the area. (0/958)"

"※ During Haagen-Dazs City-Classified operations, kill 9,999 Haagen-Dazs City Garrison troops. (0/9999)"

"Operation Reward: Current Level 3×3 Experience Card ×1"

"Whew..." Zhang Yang drew in a sharp breath.

Search every single container? Kill ten thousand bots? Who came up with this mission? I ought to twist that designer's head right off.

Each Haagen-Dazs City-Classified operation generated five in-match missions, and each mission generated eleven bots. That made fifty-five bots.

Add the bots he ran into along the way, say ten more.

Zhang Yang counted on his fingers. He could probably kill around sixty-five to seventy bots per operation.

At that rate, he'd need around 150 operations to kill ten thousand.

Zhang Yang finally let out a breath.

Only 150 operations. That wasn't much.

He'd taken nearly a thousand operations to complete the five-hundred-million mission in Season 1.

Compared to that one, 150 operations wasn't so bad.

At the thought, Zhang Yang's spirits lifted. "Haagen-Dazs City—Classified mode, let's go!"

After sliding down the rope and landing, Zhang Yang immediately loaded Lord M14 with a full drum magazine, then loaded up on Power of Nine Dragons, painkillers, and blue meds.

He'd brought six full drum magazines into the map, for a total of 300 rounds.

In other words, his Soul Power had dropped by 300 as soon as he entered.

At level 31, Zhang Yang had only 432.19 Soul Power in his bar. The 300 rounds had drained two-thirds of it.

Once he was fully buffed, Zhang Yang raised his gun and headed straight for the richest nearby loot spot.

He couldn't spend these next few days focusing solely on missions.

The new season had just started, and the matches during this period were all high-loot runs.

Zhang Yang had to take advantage of this rare opportunity to search high-value containers and find more red collectibles.

The special effects of many red collectibles were so powerful they made Zhang Yang drool.

The Great Soul Arena in Haagen-Dazs City was one of the city's four high-tier resource points.

But Zhang Yang generally didn't like coming to the Great Soul Arena. The building was not only complicatedly designed, but also had a staggering number of rooms.

The Great Soul Arena had nine arenas. Surrounding them were fifty-four competitors' lounges, 360 VIP suites, seventy-two offices, and dozens of other functional rooms, including a cafeteria, medical room, storage room, and restrooms.

If not for the fact that Zhang Yang had upgraded his [Luxury Mechanical Watch] Collection Room to level 3, increasing his in-match time by 500%.

The 500% increase in in-match time meant Zhang Yang could stay in [Haagen-Dazs City—Classified] for three hours.

Three hours was enough for him to scour the entire Great Soul Arena from top to bottom and extract safely.

There was one other thing, too.

Of the Great Soul Arena's 360 VIP suites, ten were locked rooms. To open them, he needed a universal key called the [Great Soul Arena VIP Card].

"Gold, Great Soul Arena VIP Card"

"Value: 2,255,000"

"Durability: 40/40"

Using a key card in Classified mode consumed two durability points each time. If he opened all ten suites, the card would break after just two operations.

So unless Zhang Yang remembered to restock his card, he generally wouldn't come to the Great Soul Arena.

"Who's there? Come out!"

"Pfft!"

"Ugh..."

One of the Great Soul Arena guards took a bullet and dropped into a loot box on the spot. Zhang Yang dashed forward and vaulted onto the front desk.

His gaze swept across the desktop. Seeing that no key card had spawned, he reached over and touched a drawer cabinet edged with a golden border.

"Click!"

The drawer cabinet opened and the search window popped up. Two white collectibles and one green one appeared at once, with no search time at all.

That was the level 1 special effect of the [Powerful Vacuum Cleaner]: it eliminated search time for white and green collectibles and displayed them immediately.

With this special effect, Zhang Yang's looting efficiency had more than doubled.

He closed the search interface, and the golden border vanished from the drawer cabinet.

The golden border had appeared after Zhang Yang claimed the Season Mission.

A golden border meant a container hadn't been searched yet. Once searched, the border disappeared.

It was an excellent quality-of-life feature that saved Zhang Yang a lot of hassle.

After finishing his search at the front desk, Zhang Yang jumped down and began searching clockwise.

"Pfft! Pfft!"

Two quick shots from his silenced M14 dropped the two bots guarding the door.

He opened their Bot Loot Boxes, saw that they were full of junk, and closed them again. Then Zhang Yang pushed open the manager's office door and searched the large safe inside.

"√" "√" "√" "√" "√"

The search interface appeared. One slot, two slots, two slots—the three shadowed slots were searched in turn.

"Gold, Merit Medal, value: 80,229."

"Gold, Golden Branch Laurel, value: 85,856."

"Red, Graphics Card, value: 335,213."

"Say, say, there's no rice in the rice jar..."

Humming a little tune, Zhang Yang picked up the Graphics Card and spun one of its fans with his index finger.

What a beauty.

Zhang Yang happily tucked the Graphics Card into his crotch.

The Graphics Card was an incredibly powerful red collectible.

Its Collection Room effect was excellent.

Graphics Card Collection Room effects:

Level 1: Increases maximum viewing distance and field of view, and improves long-range observation.

Level 2: Improves close-up observation, visual reaction speed, and the brain's information-processing ability.

Level 3: Grants infrared vision and UI vision, improves penetrating vision and perception, enhances the brain's spatial modeling ability, allows the user to see through obstacles like fog, observe energy particles in the air, and sense the surrounding environment like a spiderweb.

Level 4: Enhances UI vision, greatly improves perception and the brain's spatial modeling ability, and allows the user to see through any illusion and pierce through any obstruction.

Zhang Yang loved effects this powerful.

What's more, with this Graphics Card, he could raise its Collection Room display slot to level 2 and unlock its level 2 Collection Room effect.

A longtime reader of Douluo Continent would notice that the Graphics Card's Collection Room effects, in terms of vision and perception, perfectly matched Tang San's Purple Demon Eye.

The four levels of effects also corresponded one by one to the Purple Demon Eye's four stages: Overview, Subtlety, Mustard Seed, and Vastness.

What's more, the level 3 and level 4 effects even included a UI vision function that Tang San, an ancient man, had never experienced.

UI vision meant all the information displayed in the corners of a game screen.

The map in the upper-left corner was UI, the elimination information in the upper-right corner was UI, the health bar in the lower-left corner was UI, and the ammo count in the lower-right corner was UI too.

A good UI vision function could make a Soul Master's strength soar, like a tiger with wings.

So although the Graphics Card was only a two-slot small red, Zhang Yang considered it no less valuable than a six-slot big red such as [Reis's Gramophone].

The only pity was that Zhang Yang had found three Graphics Cards before, but he'd handed every one of them over to the system for the Season 2 [Collector] mission.

He hadn't kept a single one, and he'd even had to give up the display case he'd unlocked for them.

It was infuriating.