Chapter 128: The Last Day, The King Watches The Battle
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The 1,000-feet-long thunder dragon crashed downward with a great boom. Amid earth-shattering sounds of explosion, raging lightning instantly covered the whole fighting ring.
Electric currents wreaked havoc as smoke billowed and rose.
All the spectators in the venue felt a violent tremor go through the entire arena. There was ringing in their ears, and they experienced temporary deafness.
Crackle, crackle!
The electric currents running rampant gradually dispersed and revealed the covered fighting ring, rendering everyone flabbergasted at once.
The fighting ring that reached several meters tall had disappeared. What replaced it was a black, charred chasm, and Meng Lei was standing right at the edge.
Team Fighting Dragon and everyone else in the fighting ring had disappeared, whereas over ten black, charred “wooden blocks” laid quietly at the bottom of the chasm.
Well, they could just be called wooden blocks for now—because they were pitch-black all over and bore a striking resemblance to charred wooden blocks.
“H-how did this happen?”
“Where did the ring go?”
“Where’s Team Fighting Dragon?”
“What grade of magic was that thunder dragon just now? Why is it so terrifying that even the fighting ring has been blasted into oblivion?”
“That’s the Ninth-Grade Spell... Raging Thunder Dragon!”
“What!?”
“A ninth-grade spell!?”
“Hiss!”
The spectators involuntarily sucked in breaths of chilly air. “No wonder it was so terrifying... To think it’s actually a ninth-grade spell!”
“That teenager is a Ninth-Grade Great Magician?”
“A great Ninth-Grade Magician? How can that be?”
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The audience’s eyes landed on Meng Lei in tandem, astoundment, incredulity, and disbelief within them.
There were quite a fair number of Ninth-Grade Great Magicians in the kingdom, but most of the ninth-grade experts were already very advanced in age.
A Ninth-Grade Great Magician as young as Meng Lei was practically unheard of... No, it wasn’t unheard of! In fact, they had heard of one recently!
“Meng Lei?”
“Could he be Meng Lei?”
Someone among the audience let out a shout. The whole place went into a great furor in an instant, and everyone’s eyes widened and bore into the teenager standing at the edge of the chasm, their eyes full of fervent passion and astoundment.
“16 years old!”
“A Ninth-Grade Great Magician!”
“The number one genius in all of Fire Dragon Kingdom’s history!”
“Meng Lei!”
“That’s Meng Lei!”
“Meng Lei!”
“Meng Lei!”
“Meng Lei!”
The whole venue broke into massive cheers, and innumerable people shouted Meng Lei’s name loudly.
Fervency!
Idolization!
Excitement!
In particular, the look in some noblewomen, debutantes, and wealthy young ladies’ eyes were overt and openly ravenous, as if wishing that they could devour Meng Lei.
As for the ten-odd wooden blocks lying at the bottom of the chasm, no one cared about them at all.
“Am I that famous now?” Meng Lei wondered as he took a look at the fervent audience.
Then, inspiration suddenly struck him. “Those celebrities in my past life earned money like they were just picking cash off the ground. I wonder if I can emulate them?”
No matter how famous he was or how many worshippers he had, if they couldn’t be turned into actual, practical gold coins, then all of it was nothing but empty titles.
“This is a pretty good money-making idea. I can discuss this a little with Fatty and see whether or not I can earn some endorsement fees or something...”
Just as Meng Lei was silently making plans mentally, Jim, the host, hurried over and looked at him with a complex look on his face.
“Mr. Host, have I passed the test?” asked Meng Lei passively.
“Of course! It’s just that...”
Jim pointed at the ten-odd wooden blocks at the bottom of the chasm with a wry smile. Ten people were supposed to remain in the 100-man free-for-all, but Meng Lei was the only one standing now.
Well, alright, it wasn’t as if a situation like this hadn’t occurred in the past, right? But the problem now was that there were ten Dragon People among the ten-odd people that Meng Lei had finished off.
One must understand that these ten Dragon People came from eminent backgrounds. Although there was a liability waiver on fatalities in the qualifying round, now that they had died here today, the people backing them up would never let the matter rest.
“Don’t worry, they are still alive.”
However, what the host didn’t expect was Meng Lei shaking his head and saying with a smile, “They’ve just passed out, that’s all. You can wake them up just by pissing on them.”
“Really?”
“Of course!”
...
After the battle ended, Meng Lei left the arena directly. Only arena free-for-alls were scheduled for the next two days.
One could only advance to the next round after the arena free-for-alls.
In other words, Meng Lei had the following two days to rest. He was thinking of using these couple of days to get his hands on some endorsement fees and whatnot.
Thus, Meng Lei contacted Fatty Hart and told him about his idea of making money through endorsements. Fatty Hart was utterly stupefied by what he said.
“Endorsements? What are endorsements? Food?”
Meng Lei hung up on him right away. Then, he returned to the library like the good boy he was and buried himself in his study of wood-elemental Dragon-Language Magic again, never to mention the matter of making money through endorsements ever again.
F*ck!
To think there actually isn’t the idea of celebrity endorsements in Heaven’s Vault Continent! Well, that’s so goddamn awkward!
...
Meng Lei stayed in the library, closing himself off to everything happening in the outside world, but the qualifying round blazed on, nonetheless.
After two days of intense competition, the first elimination round and arena free-for-all had finally ended. A total of 412 people had successfully advanced to the next round.
As such, the second selection round began.
Compared to the deeply flawed arena free-for-all, the second round was much fairer because this particular round featured showdowns between random pairs of opponents—two-man showdowns among 412 contestants where the victor would advance to the next round while the loser would be eliminated.
Two days later, 206 contestants were left.
Another day later, 103 remained.
They had finally reached the last day of the qualifying round.
On this day, Meng Lei woke up early in the morning and rode Fatty Hart’s luxurious vehicle to Douglas Magic Academy.
Fatty Hart was very excited today, and he chattered non-stop.
“Old bro, let me tell you a piece of good news. His Majesty, the king, and Her Majesty, the queen, as well as all the adult princes and princesses, will be here to watch the battle today.
“Apart from that, innumerable royalty, nobles, officials, and the wealthy, as well as the presidents of all the major academies, will also be there.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that today is definitely the most ceremonious day ever since the start of the qualifying round. You’d better perform well. If any of the princesses fancies you, you’ll be able to kick back and relax for the rest of your life.
“Hehe! Never mind about the other princesses, but if you can gain the fancy of the Ninth Princess, you’ll strike gold...”
“Are you in heat right now?” Meng Lei rolled his eyes and asked dryly, “Do you think there’s a need for me to be a social climber and attain the peak of my life by conquering a princess?”
“Uh...”
Fatty Hart was stupefied for a moment before he replied sheepishly, “That’s true! Old bro has already become a Ninth-Grade Great Magician before he’s even 16 years old. You’ll definitely attain Saint Domain realm in the future, and your future is limitless...”
As they engaged in idle and nonsensical chat the whole way, they finally reached Douglas Magic Academy. The academy today was completely different from what it was like in the past.
Security within 1,000 meters of the academy was tight and brisk.
Teams of palace guards wearing golden armor were stationed every three to five steps, sealing off all the routes leading in and out of Douglas Magic Academy.
In the sky were even several handsome, magnificent-looking Dragon-Falcon Knights suspended in the air and circling around as they sealed off the air space above Douglas Magic Academy.
Douglas Magic Academy could be said to be completely surrounded on all sides at the moment—not even a fly could get past the guards!
Fatty Hart landed one kilometer away from the academy. Then, he pointed at the palace guards in front and said, “Douglas Magic Academy has been cordoned off, so I can only send you this far, old bro.”
“Thanks!”
After expressing his thanks, Meng Lei asked, “Are you going to watch the battle in the academy today, Fatty?”
At his question, Fatty Hart’s face fell at once, and he replied, “I would like to, but the spectator fee goes as high as 100,000 gold coins. I can’t fork out that much money!”
It was already the seventh day of the qualifying round today. Even though the number of contestants was falling day by day, not only did the people’s enthusiasm not wane but on the contrary, it was even rising further and further.
As a result, the spectator fee also rose higher and higher day by day.
,000 gold coins, 8,000 gold coins, 16,000 gold coins...
By today, it had finally broken the 100,000 gold coins mark!
To be honest, 100,000 gold coins weren’t actually a lot. However, Fatty Hart had already spent all his savings on the luxurious vehicle, so how could he possibly still be able to fork out the huge sum of 100,000 gold coins?
“Let’s go. On account of you sending me back and forth to the academy every day, I’ll cover the 100,000 gold coins spectator fee.”
“Really!?”
“If you’re not going, then forget it!”
“I’ll go! Of course I’ll go! I love you, old bro!”
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