Chapter 114: The Empress Plays the Pig to Eat the Tiger
Opening a free fighting arena here was nothing unusual.
What was strange, however, was the prize money for first place. For people living in what was essentially a slum, the amount was truly astronomical.
almost instantly, Shen Zhuo realized there had to be someone operating behind the scenes—using free fighting to reap massive profits.
“Spectator seats. The VIP area is 5,000. Ordinary people can’t afford that price.”
For Du Xun and Shen Zhuo, that amount of money was negligible. But judging by the living conditions of the people in the West District, it was likely several months’ worth of living expenses.
“Let’s go take a look,” Shen Zhuo said.
The West District covered a vast area. By the time the two arrived at the entrance of the Free Fighting Arena, two hours had passed.
The venue appeared to be a dilapidated factory.
The interior facilities had been completely cleared out, leaving only a few fighting rings and chairs scattered in chaotic disarray around the perimeter.
Hardly anyone was sitting.
Everyone was standing, crowding and shoving against the iron fences surrounding the rings.
This was just the view from the half-open main gate. Before they even entered, the heavy metal music and roar of the crowd were already making their eardrums ache.
There was a simple ticket booth outside the door. The ticket seller was a male Beta in his twenties or thirties. He was smoking a cigarette and playing a single-player game on his phone.
Seeing someone approach, he didn’t even lift his head.
“Ten bucks a ticket. Betting is next door.”
Du Xun looked at Shen Zhuo. His monthly “allowance” was quite limited.
Shen Zhuo had already taken out a card, clamping it between two fingers and extending it in front of the ticket seller.
The man saw the card out of the corner of his eye, paused, and finally put down his phone to look at Shen Zhuo and Du Xun.
Even though the two were wearing the most ordinary clothes from home, the quality was not something commonly seen in the West District slums.
The man’s face immediately shifted to a fawning, ingratiating smile. He quickly stubbed out his cigarette and stood up.
“Gentlemen, are you buying for the VIP area?”
Shen Zhuo nodded.
The West District was too backward; the people here wouldn’t recognize him or Du Xun, so neither of them had bothered with much of a disguise.
“Yes, yes, please go this way.”
The ticket seller pointed to a small door next to the old factory building. It was half-open, revealing a staircase inside.
“This is the backstage area. If you go up the stairs, there are private boxes. You two can watch from the best vantage point.”
The ticket seller rubbed his hands together, looking left and right with anticipation. “Today is the match between our undefeated general, Black Eagle, and the up-and-coming contender, Paimi. Take a look, would you like to place a bet?”
Shen Zhuo glanced down at the flyer he was handed.
Black Eagle was an extraordinarily tall and sturdy Alpha, standing just over two meters. The newcomer also looked quite formidable.
Shen Zhuo didn’t immediately ask to see the owner of the fighting arena. To avoid alerting the enemy, he placed a fifty-thousand bet on Black Eagle.
As they walked up to the second floor, Du Xun whispered softly in Shen Zhuo’s ear, “Something is wrong here.”
Shen Zhuo turned his head, standing on the stairs to look at the backstage preparation area.
Many people were exhibiting a state of extreme agitation.
Especially that Black Eagle.
Before even entering the ring, his muscles were fully engorged, his entire frame hulking like a mountain, and the whites of his eyes were tinged with blood.
This was not a state achieved through ordinary warm-ups.
As the door to the preparation room opened, Black Eagle raised both arms high.
Thunderous applause and cheers erupted from the audience, a hundred times more intense than before.
The entire venue boiled over in an instant.
Shen Zhuo lowered his eyes, watching Black Eagle walk out of the preparation room in infinite glory.
“If I spend ten million, do you think I can fish out his boss?”
Currently, both he and Du Xun had chosen to resolve anything that could be solved with money without resorting to violence.
After all—the highest rank here was only S1.
In the West District, S1 was already the ceiling. Since the founding of the nation, the average rank in the West District had been the lowest in the entire Empire. In a city where most people were B or C rank, an S-rank was an existence that surpassed everyone, akin to a king.
Class conflict existed even in such a backward place.
Black Eagle was an S1.
His rank and excessively massive physique gave him incomparable confidence and honor. It also gave him absolute dominance in the fighting ring.
“If that doesn’t work, add a little more,” Du Xun agreed. “It is entirely up to you, my wife.”
Shen Zhuo looked at the arrogant, showy expression on Black Eagle’s face.
He suddenly remembered that out of the hundreds of millions of people in the country, those who reached S-rank numbered fewer than one hundred thousand. And most of them were fighting on the front lines.
In reality, S-rank personnel were already cutting-edge talents cultivated by the Empire. But in the East District capital, and in the Ares class, there were so many high-ranking individuals around him that he had completely forgotten that an S1 was enough to rule the roost in a backward region.
Shen Zhuo shook his head; he had been too arrogant.
The two went upstairs. The second floor was completely different from the filthy mess of the first floor.
It could even match the standards of the auction specifically held for nobles.
Animal skin rugs, red velvet sofas, expensive crystal chandeliers, and various gilded utensils—everything was available. It didn’t look like a standard that should exist in this place at all.
But when Shen Zhuo and Du Xun took their seats and the room lights turned on, the fighters in the ring all looked toward the second floor.
From their angle, they couldn’t see the VIPs’ faces. They could only see that someone was about to spend a fortune.
Consequently, everyone’s morale soared, and the waves of cheering grew louder and louder.
Two minutes later, Black Eagle entered the ring for the first match.
His opponent was a thin but stubborn-eyed male Beta.
Black Eagle fought with incredible speed.
Violent, ruthless, and extremely brutal.
The Beta’s face was covered in blood early on, but his hand was pinned down, preventing him from surrendering. He was beaten until he was nearly crippled before Black Eagle finally stood up, spread his hands, and roared at the crowd.
But no one cared about the Beta’s condition; they were only screaming for Black Eagle.
Shen Zhuo pressed his hands to his ears.
Immediately, a warmth enveloped them.
Du Xun covered Shen Zhuo’s ears with his hands and frowned. “If you’re uncomfortable, we can leave.”
Shen Zhuo patted his hand, chiding lightly, “I’m not that delicate.”
“My wife isn’t delicate, but I feel distressed for you.”
Du Xun’s voice was very soft, right against his ear, and was quickly drowned out by the roar from below.
Aside from the fighters and the audience, they were the only ones on the second floor.
And no one came in to look for them.
“I think we should be a bit more flashy.”
Shen Zhuo thought for a moment. To actively attract the attention of the fighting arena’s owner so that he would come to them, they couldn’t just continue as they were.
Shen Zhuo rang the bell for the attendant and handed him the card.
“Withdraw cash.”
The attendant on the second floor was dressed quite decently. He bowed and took Shen Zhuo’s card with both hands. “How much would you like to withdraw?”
Shen Zhuo didn’t even pause to think.
“Ten million.”
The exorbitant figure made the attendant’s eyes widen in shock.
“Ten… ten million?”
These two were definitely young masters from the big city!
The attendant was even more certain now. Perhaps for the boss, these were two more fat sheep to be slaughtered.
A strange smile flashed across the attendant’s face, and he immediately took Shen Zhuo’s card to get the money.
Within twenty minutes, the attendant pushed a cart into the room.
The cart was stacked with bundles of cash.
Shen Zhuo and Du Xun exchanged a glance; this was also suspicious.
In such an impoverished place, being able to withdraw ten million in cash instantly was telling.
Perhaps all the wealth here was controlled by a specific person. Someone squeezing the people of the West District dry, hindering the district’s development…
It was possible that the funds allocated by the Imperial Court and the Military to the West District every year also ended up in this person’s pocket.
Shen Zhuo waved his hand to dismiss the attendant.
Just then, Black Eagle was preparing for the third match—the one advertised on the flyer.
Shen Zhuo casually picked up a few stacks of money with both hands.
He walked to the railing of the viewing platform.
His fingers slowly undid the paper bands binding each stack of money.
Then, he tossed them down—
His voice, cold and noble, rang out amidst the chaotic rain of falling money. His dark pupils were obscured by his lowered eyelashes.
“Whoever fights in a way that pleases me… I can give you more.”
The crowd rushed forward to snatch the money, and the scene became extremely chaotic for a moment.
But everyone—including a certain someone secretly observing the match—noticed the person in the VIP box.
Smoke rings were exhaled, the mist curling up to obscure the corners of a slightly upturned mouth.
The eyes of the two men in the ring turned even redder.
Ten minutes later, the winner was decided.
It was Black Eagle.
Shen Zhuo tossed a few more bundles of cash directly to him from the cart.
The other man, named Paimi, lay on the ground, unwillingly clutching the banknotes that had fallen into the cracks of the floor, his fingers tightening violently.
But helplessly, he was carried away.
Following this were matches with other people, and Shen Zhuo repeated the same exaggerated actions several times.
Then, he deposited the remaining money with the fighting arena, stating that he might come back over the next few days.
This move convinced everyone that the two on the second floor were wealthy idiots with more money than sense.
Sure enough, as Shen Zhuo and Du Xun prepared to leave, someone blocked their path.
But unexpectedly, it wasn’t the fighting arena staff.
It was the newcomer who had lost the fight against Black Eagle.
Paimi.
The man wasn’t as muscular as Black Eagle, but he was still 1.9 meters tall. He glanced at Du Xun, then looked at Shen Zhuo.
Then, he took a step back, bent his knees, and knelt directly on the ground.
“Please, you two…” Paimi’s voice was very hoarse, likely due to vocal cord damage. “Could you… give me some money as charity…”
It was the first time Shen Zhuo had seen someone begging for money so openly.
He looked uninterested. “Why?”
Du Xun took a step to the side, standing behind Shen Zhuo.
Although Du Xun’s physique behind him wasn’t as terrifyingly burly as Black Eagle’s, his years on the battlefield gave him a chilling aura precipitated by blood and storms when facing outsiders.
Invisibly, it formed a pressure that made it hard to breathe.
The young man in front of the man looked indifferent, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a phone. He was currently sparing a glance for Paimi, who was kneeling on the ground.
His pitch-black pupils seemed capable of pulling a person into the abyss.
Paimi shuddered involuntarily, trembling as he looked up again at the two people before him.
He suddenly felt that these two didn’t seem like the foolish rich kids they appeared to be on the surface.
Years of hand-to-hand combat in the ring allowed his body to sense dangerous auras instantly.
It wasn’t the kind of feeling akin to Black Eagle taking pleasure in abuse and beatings.
It was a kind of… aura that truly killed people.
But.
But…
“I, Paimi, will definitely not let you down!”
“Black Eagle and the others are professional fighters under the boss.”
“They are injected with drugs that make the body stronger before the match.”
“That’s why they win again and again.”
Paimi hurriedly slammed his head against the ground.
“As long as you can give me a little money to buy that drug, I will definitely earn back ten times the amount for you!”
The man’s voice rose several octaves:
“I beg you!”
When Shen Zhuo heard the word “drug,” he knew his earlier deduction was correct.
However, since this person knew a lot, he wouldn’t let him leave just like that.
So, the young man put on the full act of a spoiled second-generation heir. He raised his foot and stepped on Paimi’s shoulder.
Neither lightly nor heavily, he wiped the dirt from his shoe sole onto the man’s jacket.
“I spend money because I enjoy it.”
“But I don’t feel like giving you money would make me happy.”
Shen Zhuo took two banknotes from his pocket and threw them in Paimi’s face.
“If you can make me happy, you can come and try.”
Shen Zhuo lifted his foot and walked away. Behind him, Du Xun immediately followed, putting his arm around the young man’s waist without sparing Paimi a single glance.
As Paimi picked up the money on the ground and prepared to leave in disappointment, he suddenly saw a line of words written on the bill.
It was written by the Alpha who had been behind the young man just now—
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