Buying a Tournament Slot

Early morning, Martial Arts Association Central Square.

The square seethed with voices, packed so tightly with spectators from the six surrounding cities that not a drop of water could have passed through.

Banners of the various potion-making families fluttered in the morning breeze. Everywhere, young people wearing apprentice and pharmacist badges on their chests gathered in groups of three or five, discussing the day's competition tasks.

Lin Hao stood amid the crowds in the square, paying no attention to the surrounding clamor. Only one thing occupied his mind.

Triggering the system's pharmacist quest.

He squeezed his way to the spectator ticket booth, but the moment he asked about tickets, the staff member inside waved a hand. "Sold out ages ago. Even the standing tickets were snapped up half a month ago."

Lin Hao gripped the ten thousand yuan he had left in his pocket, his brows drawing together slightly.

If he couldn't enter the venue or get close to where the potions were actually being made, how was he supposed to trigger the system quest?

He circled the square's perimeter twice, but the system in his sea of consciousness remained silent.

Just as he ran out of ideas, he caught sight of a young man squatting on the steps outside the square.

The young man wore an exclusive contestant badge on his chest and held a tournament entry certificate, yet he looked as though he had nothing left to live for, letting out long sighs every so often.

Seeing this, Lin Hao walked over. "Bro, you competing?"

The young man glanced up at him and nodded listlessly. "Yeah. Zhou Mingxuan, from Linshui City. What, you a contestant too?"

"I'm not." Lin Hao squatted down and tapped the badge on his chest with a fingertip. "Judging by the look of you, you're not planning to compete?"

Zhou Mingxuan scoffed. "Compete, my ass. Yesterday, when we were getting familiar with the venue's equipment, those contestants' techniques were downright inhuman. I can't even purify medicinal ingredients properly. Going up there would be pure humiliation. I'm withdrawing. No point getting mixed up in a competition with those monsters."

At that, Lin Hao's eyes lit up.

Suppressing his excitement, he kept his tone as steady as possible. "Then would you sell your slot? I'll give you a thousand yuan for your contestant badge and all your qualification documents."

Zhou Mingxuan froze, then looked Lin Hao up and down as though he were an idiot. "Are you nuts? The registration fee was only a hundred yuan, and you're paying a thousand for mine? If you wanted to compete, why didn't you just register yourself earlier?"

A little embarrassed, Lin Hao told him the truth. "I don't have an apprentice qualification certificate, so I couldn't register. I've just been interested in potion-making since I was little and wanted to go inside and have a look."

"Interested?" Zhou Mingxuan was amused, then spoke with a note of warning. "Bro, this is an official tournament jointly organized by six cities. Don't mess around. If you get caught competing under someone else's name, it goes into your pharmacist record, and you'll be banned for life from every official pharmacist tournament."

Lin Hao's heart lurched at those words. He hadn't expected such serious consequences and could only shake his head helplessly. "In that case, forget it."

But when Zhou Mingxuan saw him turn to leave, he panicked and sprang to his feet. "Wait, bro! Don't go yet!"

Lin Hao turned back, looking utterly baffled. "What is it? With consequences that serious for competing under someone else's name, what else am I supposed to do but leave?"

"They're serious, sure, but I never said I wouldn't sell. I just think that's too little money. You need to pay more." Zhou Mingxuan rubbed his hands together, revealing a mercenary smile. "Eight thousand yuan, and the badge and documents are all yours."

The corner of Lin Hao's mouth twitched.

So all that talk had just been to drive up the price.

He felt the ten thousand yuan in cash in his pocket and weighed it up.

Eight thousand yuan for a chance to trigger the system quest. Worth it.

He counted out eight thousand yuan from his pocket and handed it over.

Zhou Mingxuan took the money and counted it twice, smiling so broadly that his eyes narrowed to slits.

He swiftly stuffed the entry certificate and contestant badge into Lin Hao's hands. "You're a generous man, bro! Here's your stuff. Whether you can get inside is up to you."

Lin Hao froze. "What do you mean? You're not going in with me?"

"Why would I go in?" Zhou Mingxuan backed away two steps, his face wary. "I only said I'd sell you my slot. I never said I'd guarantee you entry.

"If I actually went in with you and the faces didn't match during verification, wouldn't that prove I'd found someone to compete in my place? Eight thousand yuan wouldn't cover those consequences.

"If you get caught with my documents, I'll just say I lost them and you picked them up. Nothing to do with me."

Without waiting for Lin Hao to react, he turned and hurried into the crowd, soon disappearing from sight.

Lin Hao stood there holding the entry certificate, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

He lowered his head to look at the photo on the certificate. Zhou Mingxuan was a young man with a round face and small eyes, bearing not the slightest resemblance to him.

One glance during facial verification would expose him for sure.

But he had already spent eight thousand yuan. Surely he couldn't just let it all go down the drain.

Lin Hao looked toward the venue entrance and soon noticed that quite a few of the competing pharmacists wore masks. Some wore full-face masks that left only their eyes exposed, while others wore half-face protective gear.

After asking someone nearby, he learned that the powders and liquids of many medicinal ingredients were corrosive during potion-making, while others released irritating gases. Wearing a mask was standard practice.

However, they still had to take them off for verification at the entrance.

An idea came to him. He turned and went to a nearby convenience store, spent twenty yuan on a black mask, pulled it over his face, and pinned the contestant badge to his chest.

Once all that was done, he looked up at the electronic countdown at the entrance.

There were twelve minutes and thirty-six seconds left until the contestant entrance closed.

Lin Hao simply stood at a distance, watching the countdown the whole time.

One minute, thirty seconds.

Fifty seconds.

Twenty seconds!

He took a deep breath and charged forward, heading straight for the verification desk at the entrance.

The two staff members handling verification were preparing to close the gate. Seeing someone rushing over, both shook their heads helplessly.

"Great, another royal pain cutting it down to the wire. Young pharmacists these days are more careless than the last. They even dare show up at the last second for the Six-City Tournament."

Lin Hao rushed up to the verification desk. Before either of them could speak, he placed the entry certificate on the scanner. With a beep, his information was entered.

He retrieved the certificate, turned, and dashed into the venue.

"Hey! Wait!" one of the staff members hurriedly called after him. "Take off your mask! We haven't checked your face yet!"

But Lin Hao didn't stop. He had already rushed into the passage.

The entrance gate dropped behind him, right as the countdown hit zero.

The two staff members exchanged a glance but ultimately didn't chase after him.

"Forget it. He got in right at the deadline. If we drag him back out, he'll be over the time limit and lose his eligibility to enter. His information's already in the system anyway. The judges inside will carry out another identity check later."

The other man sighed and let the matter drop.

Lin Hao rushed into the venue and followed the passage to the waiting hall before finally breathing a sigh of relief. A thin sheen of sweat had already formed on his back.

The waiting hall buzzed with voices and contained more than a dozen sections.

Every section was packed with contestants, and almost every contestant had two or three assistants accompanying them.

Some assistants held sealed cases of medicinal ingredients, while others carried timers and thermometers, quietly checking through the pre-competition preparations.

Alone, masked, and empty-handed, Lin Hao was also the last person to rush inside. He immediately became the focus of everyone's attention.

Everyone looked over, discussing him among themselves.

"Who's that? He didn't bring a single assistant? Purifying ingredients, controlling the heat, blending the medicines, testing their properties-which of those doesn't need an extra pair of hands? Can he manage all that alone?"

"Maybe he's just here to join the fun and hasn't even figured out the tournament rules?"

"..."

Still, after giving Lin Hao a few extra looks, they didn't take him too seriously and soon turned their gazes away.

Lin Hao had no attention to spare for their remarks. All his focus was on his sea of consciousness.

Yet the system remained silent, without so much as a mechanical sound.

His heart sank. That had been eight thousand yuan. Had he really spent it all for nothing?