Chapter 90

Old Wang's packages are all high-value Ancient Wilderness artifacts, or urgent secret intelligence, military support, and so on.

Rather than calling it express delivery, it could be called... clandestine smuggling.

Rapid interstellar travel is secondary; the priority is safety and secrecy.

"However, to accept delivery orders, you need to upgrade the algorithm in the Integral mall and purchase orbital permissions for various planets."

Listening to Old Wang's explanation and connecting it with the knowledge he had learned in class, Wen Jing quickly understood the principle.

Currently, in its early stages, the application of Ancient Wilderness Traversal and algorithms is based on a fixed coordinate mode of teleporting and returning in place.

This is the most basic application of the algorithm, but even so, coordinate deviations still occur during regression due to accuracy issues.

To traverse the material universe via the Ancient Wilderness, it is necessary to upgrade the algorithm and obtain permission for planetary orbits.

For example, if you enter the Ancient Wilderness from planet A and then return to planet B, you not only need to know the specific coordinates on planet B, but the algorithm also needs to support the orbital permissions of planet B; otherwise, it will be impossible to reach planet B.

The academy algorithm that Wen Jing learned after entering the Red Earth Academy directly granted him orbital access to the Red Earth Star.

In other words, she can use the coordinates provided by Old Wang to travel directly to the meeting place in White Rock City upon her return.

Wen Jing didn't do that; it was simply because he was reluctant to give up the 1 Integral he would have earned from registering at the academy for the shuttle reward. Taking a plane would have been significantly cheaper.

Old Wang concluded that she was still a student because of this.

"Furthermore, due to the time interval issue, only fully Awakened can take on truly profitable large orders. It's not worthwhile for those who aren't fully awakened to take them on, is it?"

Wen Jing is like my current situation; the interval between trips through the Ancient Wilderness is more than a day, and the return trip is too time-consuming and carries the risk of revealing my whereabouts.

A fully Awakened can only travel between times of several hours, and even a super-powerful being might only travel between times of several minutes, making this kind of work suitable for them.

"So what path did you find for me?"

As they were talking, Wen Jing noticed that Old Wang had driven the car into an unfamiliar park. With her superhuman senses, she could detect energy fluctuations coming from the surrounding area, all of which were the auras of Awakened.

Welcome to the underground world!

Old Wang gave Wen Jing a rather ceremonial introduction before parking the car at an intersection.

Two tall, burly guards armed with guns approached from the street ahead. Upon recognizing him, they quickly and courteously let him pass.

Wen Jing followed behind, his gaze fixed on a guard post not far away, noticing an Awakened being inside.

Once inside the neighborhood, it didn't seem particularly lively or bustling, with many shops having their doors half-rolled up in a lazy manner.

"There are many ways to do this. You can sell Ancient Wilderness resources, but if they're not valuable enough, you can only collect credits, not Integral..."

Old Wang told Wen Jing a lot about ways to make money in the underworld along the way. After listening, Wen Jing frowned slightly and asked:

"Is there a faster way? Ideally, we could get it done in one trip."

"So soon?" Old Wang turned to Wen Jing: "But I see you have a lot of ability. If you're confident enough in your abilities, you can participate in the betting war."

"A betting war?"

"That's right. The arena here allows for one-on-one betting battles. The intermediary here guarantees the outcome. Both sides wager credits, Integral, or rare items. Once the agreement is reached, the two battle it out, and the winner takes the other's bet."

As they were talking, Old Wang led Wen Jing to a large, technologically advanced building.

"However, let me make this clear: life and death are preordained. There are no stronger individuals here to guarantee the safety of the bettors, and this is not a virtual reality. If you lose, you could be seriously injured or even killed. If you find yourself outmatched, you must surrender quickly."

"Can."

Seeing Wen Jing nod readily, Old Wang couldn't help but take another look at Wen Jing. His feeling was indeed correct; although this person was still a student, his strength was definitely extraordinary.

Wen Jing asked, "Do I need to pay you a cut in the betting battle?"

Old Wang shook his head and smiled, "No need. If you have a courier business in the future, or want to run a courier service, just contact me."

The two entered the building and were greeted by a huge stadium that could hold tens of thousands of people. Accompanied by the deafening noise from the stands, it felt like a completely different world from the outside.

Wen Jing was taken aback. "This is... such a large audience for a gambling match?"

"Of course not. This is a real underground arena. The participants are all professional players, and their competition is based on individual rankings to determine prize money. The spectators are all gamblers. If you think you have good judgment, you can place a couple of bets, but it's a very murky business here. I suggest you don't go into this if you want to make money in the short term."

Upon hearing about the prize money, Wen Jing asked, "What if I participate myself?"

Old Wang was taken aback, looking at her with a strange expression, unsure whether to call her confident or arrogant. He then laughed and said, "This competition has a threshold. If you want to participate, you need to fight ten betting battles here first, or you need to find a player of Gold rank or above to introduce you."

Listening to Old Wang's introduction, Wen Jing's gaze casually swept over the bustling arena.

Suddenly, she stopped moving and saw a familiar figure in the waiting area of the stadium.

Chapter 90

"Ordinary gambling matches simply prohibit the bringing of any weapons, but arena matches are different; the rules there are much stricter."

"An energy sealing field has been set up in the arena, capable of isolating all ranged combat techniques and energy-emitting combat techniques, meaning that only the purest physical abilities and close combat skills can be used for fighting..."

As Old Wang introduced the scene, Wen Jing's gaze fell upon a familiar figure in the waiting area.

The tall woman wore a simple vest and trousers, and her buzz cut was shaved with a unique and intricate pattern, which, combined with her wild features, gave her a strange charm.

Her already distinctive appearance was further revealed through her uninhibited and unashamed approach.

Wen Jing immediately recognized her Energy Amplification Method course instructor, Louisa, from the crowd.

At this moment, Louisa was standing with her arms crossed, watching the contestants competing below with great interest.

"What's wrong? Should I find a place to wait for you for a while?"

Old Wang, being a seasoned veteran, quickly noticed Wen Jing's unusual behavior but tactfully refrained from asking further questions.

Wen Jing snapped out of his reverie, "No need, let's go have our betting match first."

Old Wang laughed, "No, it's not like you can just start a betting war whenever you want. You have to ask the manager first. You need to play at least one or two low-value bets first. They don't want to accept newbies who haven't played a single bet before."

"This is so troublesome..." Wen Jing frowned, thought for a moment, and said to Old Wang, "Then why don't you wait for me for a while?"

"Okay, let's keep in touch if anything comes up." Old Wang readily agreed and even transferred an electronic pass to her, "This is a stadium pass. Ordinary people need to buy tickets, but Awakened don't need to pay. There's a procedure involved, which I've already taken care of for you."

"Thank you." Wen Jing waved and walked towards the stadium gate.

*

As soon as Wen Jing passed through the heavy alloy gate, he felt a sense of oppression from the environment.

"Um?"

She tried to condense Energy-Shaping Weapon; a faint glimmer of light flashed in her hand before quickly disappearing.

Under the special energy sealing field of this place, Wen Jing's energy circulates normally in his body, but to release the energy out of his body, he needs more than a hundred or a thousand times the power he used to have.

Under the restrictions of the seal, all the contestants in the arena used close-range attacks, with each punch landing hard, which was actually quite violent and entertaining, making the audience in the stands cheer excitedly.

"No wonder the arena here is such a perfect circle; it must be the effective range of the seal..."

Wen Jing felt that this must also be a kind of cutting-edge technology.

She glided through the stands as lightly as a fish, making her way to the vicinity of the waiting area of the stadium.

The waiting area and the audience seats were separated by a fence, and the contestants were all Awakened, while the audience members who placed bets were mostly ordinary people, so no one dared to go up and interfere with the contestants.

Wen Jing had been completely unnoticed the whole way here, and it wasn't until she arrived that someone finally noticed her.

Who are you?

Several Awakened in the waiting area looked over, including Louisa.

She sat alone on a long sofa, and no one dared to approach her, which speaks volumes about her status.

Ignoring everyone else, Wen Jing met Louisa's gaze through the fence.

"What?" The other person frowned slightly and asked in a cold tone.

Louisa didn't recognize Wen Jing in disguise at first, but she hesitated, feeling that the person in front of her was inexplicably familiar. If it weren't for that, she wouldn't have spoken at all.

"It's me," Wen Jing quickly said.

Upon recognizing her voice, Louisa's expression changed; her eyebrows rose sharply, and she stood up abruptly.

Awakened's memory is naturally excellent; she can recognize even ordinary students, let alone Wen Jing, whom she has been paying attention to for a long time.

Louisa climbed over the fence and pulled Wen Jing to a secluded corner.

How did you get here?

How did you get here?

The same opening remarks came from both Wen Jing and Louisa at the same time.

The two of them paused simultaneously, looking at each other in bewilderment.

The next moment, Wen Jing couldn't hold back any longer and winked, saying:

"Mentor, you wouldn't want others to know you're fighting in underground boxing matches, would you...?"

Louisa blinked.

Wen Jing also blinked.

Then Louisa punched Wen Jing on the head. "Don't give me that weird look, just tell me, what do you want?"

Louisa isn't from this planet, and given her status as a D-level Awakened and a specially appointed mentor of Ocher Soil, she really doesn't care whether anyone knows she's fighting in underground boxing matches.

In terms of the academic advisors' circle, she was much more relaxed and free than Dean Bai and Xie Ming.

In addition, with the league approaching, many students are working hard to improve their skills. However, because the Energy Amplification Method is difficult to learn, the number of students signing up has not increased compared to usual.