Great Soul Arena

Martial Soul City, Pope Palace.

A figure shrouded in shadow stands in the center of the hall, respectfully recounting the performance of Zhang Yang and his party in the Star Dou Forest.

Bibi Dong sits regally upon her throne, listening to the report from below with keen interest.

As the report concludes, Bibi Dong exclaims in admiration, "A top-tier tool spirit that surpasses the Clear Sky Hammer? Interesting. Ghost Douluo, you saw it with your own eyes; what is your assessment?"

"Your Majesty, based on his current performance, a 3-ring Clear Sky Hammer is indeed no match for him."

Gui Mei, Ghost Douluo, adds, "While his individual strikes may not match the raw power of the Clear Sky Hammer, the terrifying aspect of Zhang Yang lies in the fact that his attacks are not only devastating but also possess an incredibly short interval and lightning-fast execution speed."

"Zhang Yang's only weakness is being caught off guard, where an opponent can instantly close the distance and force him into a melee confrontation, creating a disadvantageous situation he cannot handle."

"However, considering that Clear Sky Hammer spirit masters are not known for their speed, your subordinate believes..."

At this point, Ghost Douluo pauses before delivering his conclusion: "With a soul power gap within 10 levels, beyond seven paces, Zhang Yang is faster; within seven paces, the Clear Sky Hammer is faster."

Hearing Ghost Douluo's summary, Bibi Dong nods, "In that case, we shall compensate for his shortcomings. Every tool has its strengths and weaknesses; balancing them is the core tenet of the Balanced Style Squad, is it not?"

"Your Majesty speaks the truth."

Returning to his dormitory, Zhang Yang takes a bath to wash away the exhaustion, changes into clean clothes, and sits cross-legged on his bed.

With Zhang Yang successfully absorbing his third soul ring, [Season 3: Initial Edge] has officially come to an end.

[Season 4: Emerging Talent] has officially begun.

Zhang Yang first uses the [Current Season 3*3 Secure Container Usage Voucher] saved from the third season to extend his secure container access until level 40.

Next, Zhang Yang opens the [Season Mission] interface.

It remains the usual seven standard missions, plus one [Collector] and one [Endgame Contact].

Zhang Yang is quite accustomed to this.

The [Collector] and [Endgame Contact] are signature features of Delta Force; they are not to be missed.

"[Action Plan 1: Search and Destroy]"

"Mission Briefing: The general offensive mission has been confirmed. For victory on the battlefield, intelligence work must take precedence."

"※ During the Haagen-Dazs City-Classified operation, search all containers within the map. (0/958)"

"※ During the Haagen-Dazs City-Classified operation, eliminate 9999 Haagen-Dazs City Garrison soldiers. (0/9999)"

"Mission Reward: Current Level 3*3 Experience Card *1"

"Hiss..." Zhang Yang draws a sharp breath.

Search every single container? Kill 10,000 bots? Who is the developer? Don't let me catch you, or I'll twist your head off.

Each Haagen-Dazs City-Classified operation refreshes 5 in-game missions, each with 11 bots, totaling 55 bots.

Adding the bots encountered along the way, that's about 10 more.

Zhang Yang counts on his fingers; he can farm about 65 to 70 bots per match.

To reach 10,000 kills, it will take about 150 matches.

Zhang Yang lets out a long sigh of relief.

Only 150 matches—that's not much at all.

For that 500 million mission in the first season, Zhang Yang played nearly 1,000 matches to complete it.

Compared to that, 150 matches doesn't seem so bad.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yang's spirits lift: "Haagen-Dazs City-Classified Mode, initiate!"

Rappelling to the ground, Zhang Yang immediately equips Lord M14 with a full drum magazine, then buffs himself with the Power of Nine Dragons, pops a painkiller, and downs a blue potion.

Zhang Yang brought a total of 6 full drum magazines into the map, amounting to 300 rounds of ammunition.

This means that upon entering the map, his soul power was immediately reduced by 300.

At level 31, Zhang Yang's total blue bar is only 432.19 points; deducting 300 rounds leaves him with only a third of his capacity.

Fully buffed, Zhang Yang shoulders his rifle and heads straight for the nearest high-value loot point.

He cannot afford to focus solely on missions these next few days.

The new season has just begun, and these matches are all high-intensity, high-reward encounters.

Zhang Yang intends to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to loot more high-value containers and pull more red-tier collectibles.

The special effects of many red-tier collectibles are so powerful they make Zhang Yang drool.

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

However, Zhang Yang generally dislikes coming to the Great Soul Arena because the building is not only complex in design but also filled with countless rooms.

The Great Soul Arena contains 9 arenas, surrounded by 54 athlete lounges, 360 VIP boxes, 72 offices, as well as dozens of functional rooms like cafeterias, medical rooms, utility closets, and restrooms.

If not for the fact that the collection room level of his [Luxury Mechanical Watch] has been upgraded to level 3, increasing his in-game time by 500%.

Increasing the in-game time by 500% brought Zhang Yang's activity duration in [Haagen-Dazs City-Confidential] to a total of 3 hours.

Three hours was more than enough for Zhang Yang to scour the entire Great Soul Arena and make a clean getaway.

Furthermore, there was one more thing.

Among the 360 VIP boxes in the Great Soul Arena, 10 were card-access rooms. Opening them required a universal keycard known as the [Great Soul Arena VIP Card].

"Gold, Great Soul Arena VIP Card"

"Value: 2,255,000"

"Durability: 40/40"

Running the Confidential mode consumed 2 points of durability per card swipe; if he opened all 10 boxes, the card would be completely depleted in just two raids.

Therefore, unless Zhang Yang remembered to repair the card, he generally wouldn't bother coming to the Great Soul Arena.

"Who's there? Come out!"

"Pfft!"

"Urgh..."

A Great Soul Arena guard collapsed into a Bot Loot Box the moment he took a bullet, and Zhang Yang vaulted over the front desk in a single bound.

His gaze swept across the desktop, and confirming there was no keycard, he reached out to touch a drawer cabinet rimmed with a golden border.

"Click!"

The drawer opened, the search interface popped up, and two white and one green collectible were instantly revealed without any search process.

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

It could be said that with this special effect, Zhang Yang's efficiency in looting the map had doubled.

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

This golden border appeared only after Zhang Yang accepted a Season Mission.

Containers with golden borders were unsearched; once searched, the border would disappear.

It was an excellent auxiliary feature that saved Zhang Yang a lot of trouble.

With the front desk searched, Zhang Yang jumped down and began clearing the area clockwise.

"Pfft! Pfft!"

The M14, equipped with a silencer, fired two precise shots, and the two Bot Loot Box guards fell to the ground.

He opened the Bot Loot Boxes, found nothing but trash, and closed them again before pushing open the door to the manager's office to search the large safe inside.

"√" "√" "√" "√" "√"

The search interface popped up, and three slots—one, two, and two—were searched in sequence.

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

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

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

"Simon, Simon, no rice in the pocket..."

Humming a little tune, Zhang Yang held the Graphics Card in his hand and gave the fan a flick with his index finger.

Good stuff.

Zhang Yang happily tucked the Graphics Card into his crotch.

The Graphics Card was an incredibly powerful red collectible.

In the Collection Room, the display effect of the [Graphics Card] was quite impressive.

Graphics Card Collection Room effect:

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

Level 2: Improves macro-observation, enhances optic nerve reaction speed, and boosts brain information processing capacity.

Level 3: Grants infrared vision, grants UI vision, improves visual penetration, enhances perception, boosts brain spatial modeling, allows seeing through fog and other obstacles, observes energy particles in the air, and allows sensing the surrounding environment like a spider web.

Level 4: Enhances UI vision, significantly boosts perception, significantly boosts brain spatial modeling, allows seeing through any illusion, and penetrates any obstruction.

Zhang Yang loved such powerful effects.

Moreover, having found this Graphics Card, he could upgrade its display stand in the Collection Room to level 2, unlocking its secondary effect.

Any veteran reader of Douluo Continent would realize that the [Graphics Card]'s Collection Room effects were a perfect match for Tang San's Purple Demon Eye in terms of vision and sensory perception.

These four levels of effects corresponded one-to-one with the four realms of the Purple Demon Eye: Perspective, Micro-observation, Mustard Seed, and Vastness.

Furthermore, the third and fourth-level effects possessed the UI vision function that Tang San, an ancient, had never experienced.

So-called UI vision referred to the various information displays in the corners of the game screen.

The map in the top-left corner was UI, the elimination feed in the top-right was UI, the health bar in the bottom-left was UI, and the ammo count in the bottom-right was also UI.

For a Spirit Master, an excellent UI vision function was like adding wings to a tiger.

Therefore, even though the [Graphics Card] was only a small two-slot red item, in Zhang Yang's heart, it was no less valuable than six-slot large red items like [Reis's Gramophone].

It was just a pity that Zhang Yang had once found three Graphics Cards, but he had submitted them all to the system during the [Collector] mission in the second season.

He hadn't kept a single one, and even the display cabinets he had opened were forced to be canceled.

It was truly infuriating.