Soul Master Box on the Arena Stage

After leaving the manager's office, Zhang Yang passed a series of ordinary rooms and came to a VIP box. He swiped his card and opened the door.

There were three containers in the room: a large safe, a high-tier storage cabinet, and a piece of clothing.

Besides those, there were several exposed spawn points on the sofa and the coffee table.

Zhang Yang searched every container in the room in turn, getting 2 Small Gold, 1 Small Purple, and 2 Small Blue.

As for the exposed spawn points, he swept them all up.

After finishing his search, Zhang Yang went to stand in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling glass wall before leaving the room.

It was high-transparency, one-way privacy glass made specifically for watching matches. Sitting on the sofa, you could take in every battle on the arena stage.

And if you stood beside the glass, you could even see all the thousands of spectator seats below.

Zhang Yang didn't linger on the Soul Fighting stage. Instead, he looked straight down at the thousands of spectator seats.

Scattered among those thousands of seats were more than a dozen spawned collectibles.

Of course, their quality varied. The lowest were four Large Whites, and the highest were four Large Blues.

Yue!

Not tasty.

He left the room and headed straight for the second VIP box.

Key card, open!

There were four containers in the second VIP box: a high-tier storage box, two small safes, and a storage cabinet.

Likewise, there were exposed spawn points on the sofa and coffee table.

After searching every container, Zhang Yang got another 1 Small Gold and 2 Small Purples.

A loss.

At 110,000 per card swipe, the cost of one Small Gold and two Small Purples didn't come close to covering it.

But Zhang Yang didn't care. He was swiping room cards to rummage through more high-tier containers, gambling on the chance of getting a red. The cost was just a drop in the ocean.

Besides, Zhang Yang had more cash than he could ever spend.

He opened one card room after another. Before long, he reached the last one.

"Last try. Open!" Zhang Yang shouted as he swiped into the Great Soul Arena's final VIP box.

"The Great Soul Arena VIP Card key card has been used up. All available charges have been consumed."

The card was spent. Zhang Yang stepped into the VIP box.

There were three containers inside: one large safe, one high-tier storage cabinet, and one ordinary storage cabinet.

Zhang Yang first swept his eyes over the exposed spawn points in the box, then searched from nearest to farthest.

Small Blue, Small Green, Small Blue, four Large Blues.

Last came the large safe.

"√" "√" "√" "√" "√"

The large safe unlocked, and the search interface appeared.

Three items awaited searching: 1×1, 1×1, and 1×2. The first two were searched quickly.

"Ding!"

"Gold, Pearl Necklace, value 58,067."

"Ding!"

"Purple, Totem Arrow, value 15,093."

After pocketing the Small Gold Bull Horn, Zhang Yang stared intently at the shadowed 1×2 area as it was slowly searched.

Brother, it's all up to you. This is a high-explosive match, and I've already burned through the room card. You'd better give me something good.

Give me a red.

Come on, red!

"Ding!"

"Purple, Bull Horn Ornament, value 18,894."

"Damn it." Zhang Yang slapped his forehead, utterly speechless.

He put the Bull Horn Ornament in his backpack and, still fuming, went to the spectator glass.

Zhang Yang swept his gaze across the Soul Fighting Arena and was just about to look at the spectator seats when his eyes suddenly focused back on the arena.

"Wait, what's that... a box?"

Right in the center of the stage in this No. 8 Sub-Soul Arena, there was actually a box?

No, better put, something had spawned on the Soul Fighting Arena stage?

Zhang Yang had never seen anything like it.

He'd been hanging around the Haagen-Dazs City map ever since he reached level 11.

He'd entered the ordinary arena 10,000 times, the Secret Field 7,000 times, and the Great Soul Arena at least 2,800 times, if not 3,000. Yet he'd never seen anything spawn on a Soul Fighting Arena stage.

What a rarity.

Zhang Yang raised his gun and blasted through the enormous one-way window in front of him.

As the glass shards fell like raindrops, Zhang Yang leaped down onto the Sub-Soul Arena Stage.

The closer he got, the more details he noticed.

The Soul Master Box was at the very center of the stage. Its front panel faced the Card Room Box squarely, with pinpoint accuracy.

That level of precision didn't smell human to Zhang Yang at all.

Only a system spawn could give him that feeling.

He walked up to the box, bent down, and hoisted it onto his shoulder. Then Soul Power burst beneath his feet, and he leaped straight back into the box.

There was a passageway over a meter wide between the sofa's backrest and the wall. Zhang Yang set the box down there, then crouched behind the sofa.

Click. The box opened, and an interface Zhang Yang had never seen before appeared.

Usually, when searching a Soul Master Box, the search interface was divided into three columns.

On the left was Zhang Yang's three-dimensional character model.

In the middle was Zhang Yang's backpack, displaying everything he'd collected during the match.

On the right was the backpack of the dead Soul Master.

But this box's search interface had four columns instead of three.

Between the two backpacks was a three-dimensional character model of a middle-aged man.

The amount of space it took up, the prominence of its display—it was on par with Zhang Yang's own model.

Something was off. There was something seriously strange about this box.

Realizing that, Zhang Yang immediately closed the search interface and listened carefully for any sounds nearby.

The entire Great Soul Arena was silent. Not a sound out of place.

Only after confirming that it was safe did Zhang Yang reopen the suspicious Soul Master Box.

Now he could examine it properly.

First, there was the inexplicable three-dimensional Soul Master model.

Zhang Yang had a feeling that the crux of the whole matter lay in this Soul Master's model.

The middle-aged man looked to be around forty. With his Martial Soul, the Vajra Bear, possessed, his build was massive, and his huge paws were broad, their ten sharp claws gleaming.

But there was a diagonal wound on his neck.

It began on the left side of his Adam's apple and slanted down to below it.

Judging by its length and depth, that wound had almost certainly been fatal.

As Zhang Yang examined the Soul Master's model, the collectibles in the backpack space also spawned.

At the top was his Martial Soul—the Vajra Bear, a huge bear-type Soul Beast covered in gray fur.

When Zhang Yang tapped the Martial Soul, five Soul Rings appeared.

Soul Ring configuration: [Yellow][Yellow][Purple][Purple][Black][Empty][Empty][Empty][Empty][Empty]

He hadn't expected this Soul Master to be a Soul King.

Below the Martial Soul were the equipment slots. The helmet slot was empty, while the armor slot held a green level-2 piece of armor.

Excellent Warrior Outfit, green

Value: 3,456

Durability: 19/25

Protection Level: Level 2

Armor Effect: Provides some defense against Soul Power impacts of white quality.

Protection Area: Upper body (excluding the head)

Durability Loss: Medium

In-match Repair Efficiency: Medium

Equipment Weight: 1.08 kg

A fairly excellent combat outfit on the market. Lightweight and comfortable, it doesn't hinder movement. Its fabric has good elasticity, enough to accommodate the transformation of Battle Soul Masters with Beast Martial Souls of certain sizes.

There were five pocket slots and one dog tag slot, but no chest rig or backpack.

The first thing to spawn in the five pocket slots was a pocket watch.

But when Zhang Yang selected it, he discovered that the pocket watch wasn't a red collectible at all. It was gold.

"Oh? A limited item?" Zhang Yang's interest was instantly piqued. He immediately inspected the pocket watch's detailed information.

Gold, Connor's Pocket Watch

Value: 52,113

Craftwork Collectible

0.33 kg, 1×1 slot

A personal pocket watch belonging to Connor, a Soul Master from Haagen-Dazs City. Inside is a photograph of him with his wife and daughter.

"A photograph?" Zhang Yang's brows twitched.

He'd been on the Douluo Continent for more than eight years, and he'd never known it had cameras.

Still, this was inside a map. Zhang Yang had just picked up a Graphics Card, after all. A photograph wasn't all that surprising.

Zhang Yang picked up the pocket watch and opened it. The photograph was tucked inside the protective cover.

It made perfect sense—like a prop straight out of a TV drama.

Zhang Yang studied the photograph closely and noticed that there was a bear's head, more than a meter tall, behind the family.

"Is that... the head of the Rock Mountain Lord?"

The discovery left Zhang Yang puzzled.

Plenty of Soul Masters collected materials like Soul Beast fur and teeth as trophies, displaying them at home or making them into ornaments.

But this was the first time Zhang Yang had seen someone collect a material this large.