The Favored Son of Heaven

“Are you going to pay me or not?” Qin Fen asked once more. This period of time could be spent on going back to the Sky Martial Battle Network. He could likewise make money there, so he didn’t want to waste time here.

Okamoto Takeshi struggled in hesitation as he looked at Qin Fen. Spending money to fight someone damaged a warrior’s honor. However, a refused challenge was an even greater harm to a warrior’s honor.

“Okay, fine! I’ll pay you!” Okamoto Takeshi stuck a hand in his pocket as he spoke, but his entire body froze in the next second.

Okamoto Takeshi was from the State of Japan. He was invited by the military region to join the military, so the military region provided for all his eating, drinking, living, and other expenses in the military camp. Why in the world would Okamoto Takeshi have money on him?

“So, there’s a problem….” Okamoto Takeshi complexion was more or less that of awkwardness as he asked, “I don’t have any money on me. Can we first say I owe you one? I’ll pay you double after the fight.”

“Apologies.” Qin Fen shook his head, “I don’t take credit.”

Qin Fen had deep grudges towards debt.

In the high school time period of his life, he had worked several jobs where he was told he would be paid at the end of the week. In the end, he received not even a penny.

Since then, the jobs Qin Fen looked for were jobs that allowed him to survive. He had to be able to get the money immediately. Regardless of the size of the company, big or small, Qin Fen always followed and acted on this principle.

Qin Fen didn’t wait for Okamoto Takeshi to speak. He already made his way around Okamoto Takeshi by going to the side. He made his way quickly back to the living quarters.

Okamoto Takeshi stood in the same spot, watching Qin Fen’s back as he left. His two enormous fists pressed against each other in hate, covered all over with large green veins. His fists were akin to two giant iron hammers. “Qin Fen. I will be here tomorrow, and I will toss two thousand dollars in your face. I will let you know what happens when you insult a warrior’s honor.”

————-

Qin Fen returned to his living quarters and saw that Du Peng’s bed was still as empty as usual. Qin Fen shook his head as he sat on his own bed.

Ever since this young man found out the whole story about how Qin Fen had defeated Park Jong-Hwan, he had become even more crazy about cultivating on the path of the martial dao. He should have returned much earlier, but now not even a shadow of him could be seen.

Qin Fen lay on his bed and finished his call with Song Jia. He got some news about Lin Liqiang and Enzo Rota from her; they were living cheerful lives at university. Qin Fen wasn’t concerned about entering the Sky Martial Battle Network tonight.

Qin Fen’s winning streak was being maintained for a long time without losses. The number of challengers were beginning to lessen quite a bit when compared to before. Most of the messages he received were requests to become his apprentice, hoping that Qin Fen would teach a few combat skills.

Qin Fen had been thinking quite a bit these days about whether or not he should take these challenges to fight and change into starting a small martial arts school on the battle network. He was seeking new avenues of economic growth.

Opening a martial arts school was different from the arena channel of the martial arts battle network.

Qin Fen made some inquiries. To start a martial arts school, he would need to enter the general network of the martial arts battle network.

This was none other than the Sky Battle Net itself. It was a super comprehensive battle network formed from the integration of science and technology, martial arts, and life.

Here lay a completely virtual society. Here, one could be anything from an Air Force pilot, to a chef, to an expert mechanic, to even a mobile armor pilot.

Of course, one could also start a school here, establish a martial artist sect, or even found a large faction.

One could even found a nation in this virtual world if one possessed the ambition!

As for a martial arts school? In the Sky Battle Net, that was starting, establishing, and founding one’s own martial arts sect.

In reality, the founders of many martial arts schools also opened online sects on the Sky Battle Net. This was to choose disciples suitable to their martial arts school.

Of course, those who used this channel found that it allowed many people to gather. Whether it was conflicting views, competition over talent, or starting one’s school of thought, everything was settled through combat.

The Sky Martial Battle Network was none other than the dueling channel of the Sky Battle Net. It was also the channel that Qin Fen visited the most. In a certain sense, this whole thing was the product of opportunity.

Of course, besides interacting with other people in this enormous world, one could also utilize the ‘people’ virtually generated by programs.

For example, Qin Fen had first learned the Dragon Elephant Prajna Art from ‘people’ virtually generated virtual programs.

Once Qin Fen had learned the Dragon Elephant Prajna Art, he rarely entered the Sky Battle Net. He had to focus all his efforts on making money instead.

With more and more people asking for his guidance, Qin Fen’s heart stirred a bit. Though his strength was far from being able to establish a large sect of his own, it wouldn’t be hard to perform some guidance for the cultivation of two-star martial artists.

He wouldn’t be able to found a large sect, but a small sect should be doable. There were as many small sects on the Sky Battle Net as there were hairs on an ox. After all, founding a sect was extremely troublesome in reality; there were many limitations.

However, there were far less restrictions on the Sky Battle Net. One just needed to pay a small sum of money, pass a test to found the sect, and the sect could be founded.

Just by moving one’s mouth and guiding others by pointing out what flaws they should pay attention to in their fights, one could earn lush green American dollars. This could be much more relaxing method to earn money over trying to find ways to win against opponents in narrow victories.

If this was merely it, Qin Fen still wouldn’t have much interest in founding a small sect. With flocks of drill instructors instilling him with combat concepts day in and day out, Qin Fen’s heart for battle, which slept deep within him, was awakening more and more.

In the Sky Battle Net, wars between small sects were extremely commonplace occurrences. The people who dared to start a small sect always possessed some skill, and it was a very pleasant thing to fight against these people.

One could both continue to make money and hone and heighten oneself through battle. This was a very good thing, and Qin Fen liked it very much.

Qin Fen logged out from the Sky Martial Battle Network after finishing up two fights with clients. He turned on his desktop computer by his bedside and started looking at web pages. He wondered how much money was required to found a sect.

The first condition in founding a sect on the Sky Battle Net was to pay a fee of a hundred dollars.

Qin Fen couldn’t stop himself from feeling physical pain when he saw the number that was a hundred dollars. The Federation really did know how to make money. With the number of small sects on the Sky Battle Net being no less than the number of hairs on an ox, a hundred dollars collected from every sect generated a considerable sum of money for the Federation.

The second condition could be fulfilled in two ways. One was that the system would randomly assign three martial artists on the same level to act as opponents. The sect was allowed be founded after each one of them is challenged and is defeated in combat. There was no refund of the hundred dollar registration fee if the challenger lost, and the registration fee had to be paid again in the next attempt to start a sect.

If one believed that this challenge is impossible to accomplish and still wanted to found a sect, one could pay an additional two hundred dollars to the system to be exempt from challenging three opponents of the same level.

“How shady!”

Someone spoke out the thought Qin Fen held in his heart from behind him.

Qin Fen didn’t even need to turn back to know that this was his squadmate Zhang Xiangyang. This recruit didn’t have a particularly great performance in training, but he wasn’t of the bottom of the barrow. His characteristic was that of neither hot nor cold. In his own words, the glasses on the bridge of his nose showed off his scholarly side.

A month ago, if Qin Fen hadn’t hurried back in time to fight Park Jong-Hwan, then the next recruit to fight Park Jong-Hwan would very likely have been Zhang Xiangyang.

“Really shady.”

Qin Fen echoed Zhang Xiangyang’s words, nodding over and over. He quickly skimmed over the posts regarding founding a sect.

“The pass rate of challenging martial artist appears to be around fifty-fifty.” Zhang Xiangyang raised a hand to push his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He clicked with his tongue as he said, “Isn’t this too uniform? Fifty-fifty? Are there some shenanigans going on?”

Qin Fen looked at this normally unremarkable squadmate with a hint of shock. Naturally he had some cursory lessons in statistics with all the time he spent learning from the drill instructors these days. Gun King especially placed special importance in statistics lessons.

Qin Fen finished skimming through the posts and found out that the passing rate of martial artist challenge for opening a sect indeed appeared to be fifty percent.

He never thought that Zhang Xiangyang was actually able to tell the hidden information contained within these posts in a single glance.

“It looks like you need to make some proper calculations.” Zhang Xiangyang had a very mysterious smile. “Calculate the exact time to start the sect-founding challenge, and the probability of passing should be higher.”

Qin Fen slowly nodded. Though he wasn’t afraid of challenging at any time, it was indeed best to make some good calculations to prevent from losing a hundred dollars.

Zhang Xiangyang already sat on Qin Fen’s bed by now. He said, “I’ve realized that you seem to like to enter this place quite a bit. Of our company, only you are guaranteed to log on to the Sky Battle Net without fail, as long as you’re in the room for the night. Why are you so captivated by it?”

Qin Fen smiled and nod; this was his answer. He couldn’t always tell others that he wasn’t going online to play. He was going online to make money and to temper himself in fights. He could make contact with a variety of different martial arts and heighten his own.

“What is it? You want to start a sect?” Zhang Xiangyang chuckled.

Qin Fen shrugged his shoulders but didn’t deny it. He wasn’t so bored to be randomly looking at web pages, and searching for information about starting sects was no different. If he was bored, he would just go sleep a bit earlier. It would be better to recover a bit more strength.

“Starting a sect is a major undertaking.” Zhang Xiangyang adopted the appearance of a much-travelled person as he said, “Old Qin, let me talk truthfully with you. If you just want to play around, you can open your sect up anywhere. If you really want to do things properly, then you can’t just randomly choose a place to open your sect.”

“What? You need to choose where to open a sect?” Qin Fen rarely touched upon this topic. This was the first time he heard the things that Zhang Xiangyang said. Qin Fen, who wanted to start a sect, was instantly interested.

“That’s for sure.” Zhang Xiangyang grabbed the mouse and quickly clicked open a web page. Then he spoke, talking idly about important matters, “This is the federal development map. It’s practically the same as our Federation’s current sphere of influence, and there are the five major planets on it. Aside from the five major planets, the Federation added several more celestial bodies on this map for an expanded map.”

Qin Fen nodded his head in praise. These additional celestial bodies originally didn’t exist in reality, but because of a large influx of people, the Federation added these celestial bodies in an update.

“Yep! That’s right. You got it.” Zhang Xiangyang pointed at the earth, humanity’s cradle. “Song Wendong is revered as the Earth’s Martial Emperor, but the number one experts of the other four major planets call him Qilin. This is also how his sect came to be called the Qilin Sect.”