A bounty over 2,000 black market coins was considered mid-range. After all, when a whole team took the job, everyone's share would shrink fast. The real life-and-death missions usually paid at least 6,000, and only those who were confident in their own killing skills dared to take them.
Otherwise, who'd gamble their life for a few extra coins? Small missions were safer, and you could still live pretty well.
Compared to mercenary team fights, the single-player arena battles were way more exciting. There were matches for gunfighting, assassination, poison use, traps—every kind of combat skill imaginable. Each fight wrapped up in a few minutes, with rewards ranging anywhere from 100 to 2,000. Win once, and you could mess around in the black market for half a month. More importantly, unless the client specifically demanded a deathmatch, you could call it quits once their condition was met. The loser could at least walk away with their life intact.
Fake matches were almost impossible in the arena. Losers usually had to leave something behind, like a piece of their body. The reason Jing Shu felt life was so fragile was because, above the arena, rows of glass jars hung on display—each containing a macabre "trophy" from past matches.
It was just like when Wei Xiaobao visited Eunuch Hai's gruesome collection in The Deer and the Cauldron—organs and limbs arranged like an exhibit. The air here carried the same dark, decaying chill. The arena's designer must've been a total freak. Hands, feet, ears, eyes, even hearts and heads were stitched into twisted human forms, though the sizes didn't even match.
Jing Shu could smell real blood. She could feel the rot in the air and the nobles' obscene luxury. For the first time, she truly saw how people in other countries lived after the apocalypse. Back in China, even during the end times, people were still like greenhouse flowers, sheltered and tame.
"Hey, if you wanna raise your mercenary rank, sign up for the group arena. You can only join two a day though. For solo matches, everyone can enter up to three times a day. They need to control the death count, you know. If everyone dies, who'll keep entertaining the nobles?
As for battle pets, no limits. Those damn vampires running the gambling houses always wanna squeeze more blood out of us commoners." Xiao Hei flipped through the nobles' bizarre bounty tasks, helping everyone pick one.
"Let's play it safe," he said. "See those observers in the corner? They've got info on every mercenary team here. The second a team signs up for something, they'll send word out, and a stronger team will rush in to wipe them out. So yeah, there's no such thing as an easy win here. But that also makes the matches way more fun to watch."
"Oh right, should we buy a live update feed too? It's only twenty black market coins, and it refreshes daily," Xiao Hei added. "Teams that sign up first can refuse a match if they want, but they'll have to pay ten percent of the reward as a penalty. Knowing your opponent's info is worth it."
Since when did foreigners get so damn smart? With all these middlemen flipping intel, they were probably making a killing.
And the best part? It was totally safe. Other people bled for money while they sold reports and got rich.
As Jing Shu glanced around, she realized a lot of those middlemen looked familiar. Wait a second, weren't they all Chinese?
"Hey, those damn Chinese are all sly bloodsuckers—oh, I mean, not you guys, I mean those observers!" Xiao Hei stammered, scrambling to explain himself. "Now everyone feels like an idiot if they don't buy their intel."
The Chinese were always like that, peaceful on the surface but sharp underneath. When the whole world went to war, they'd still be trading and farming their way to wealth. Wherever there were people, there was a marketplace, and wherever there was a marketplace, there were Chinese goods for sale.
"Still," Xiao Hei went on, "since they came along, the nobles have had an easier time. Before, matches were often one-sided and boring. Now, every fight's evenly matched, and when the nobles are entertained, they even tip extra black market coins."
When nobles are entertained, they tip black market coins.
Jing Shu mentally circled that line. That might be worth remembering.
She exchanged a look with Snake Spirit, and both saw the same thought in each other's eyes—there was potential here.
Tank grinned. "Forget buying data. Let's just sign up and see what we're dealing with. First round, play it safe. Let's see how strong the real mercs here are."
"Hey, there's a 1,500-coin bounty that's perfect for you guys," Xiao Hei said, pointing at a listing. "It's what you Chinese call a test of strength, like tug-of-war. Except, uh, see that pit in the middle? There's a giant python down there. Losers get fed to it. But the noble, Peggy, said anyone who escapes from the python's mouth will get an extra 500 coins each. Fun, huh?"
Tank did the math. "If it's 1,500 per match, we could make 3,000 a day. But we need 20,000 to hit A-rank and 50,000 for S-rank. Guess we'll need higher-quality missions—those life-and-death fights pay 6,000 or more each."
"Alright, one round first. Let's get a feel for it."
Xiao Hei registered their team and sighed. "Done. Now we wait for challengers. But seriously, why do all mercs have to enter the match? Too damn risky! I'm staying at the back, no way I'm getting eaten."
The moment Jing Shu's team finished signing up, an announcement echoed through the arena. The tug-of-war event had a taker, and any team could challenge them.
Her squad was listed as a B-rank mercenary team—the same group that had captured a mysterious creature yesterday, wiping out three other teams and jumping from unranked straight to B. Within minutes, resellers organized their data and started selling copies for twenty black market coins each.
From what she saw, they'd already made a hundred or two in the time it took her to blink. Damn, they were making more than the fighters themselves. She almost wanted to switch jobs.
Still, with a strength-based event like tug-of-war, the muscleheads were always overconfident. Especially looking at Jing Shu's team: aside from Tank and Xiao Hei, the others were all slim or injured—a bandaged Monkey, the thin Snake Spirit, and two women. They looked way too easy to bully.
Within minutes, three teams had already signed up to challenge them. As mercs, Jing Shu's group couldn't choose their opponents. The data for all three teams was sent to Noble Peggy for review.
At that moment, Peggy was happily trying on a pink frilly dress. When she heard so many teams wanted to join her game, she clapped her hands with delight and personally picked Jing Shu's first opponent.
===
Jin Yong's (Louis Cha) classic novel, The Deer and the Cauldron (The Duke of Mount Deer)
The novel follows the adventures of Wei Xiaobao, a cunning, uneducated, and utterly irreverent street urchin who, through a series of lies, tricks, and sheer audacity, rises to incredible power within the Qing Dynasty court and the martial arts world.
The Scene: Eunuch Hai's "Collection Chamber"
The specific reference is to a scene where Wei Xiaobao is given a tour of the palace by a powerful, sinister eunuch named Hai Dafu (Eunuch Hai). To intimidate Wei Xiaobao and showcase his own ruthlessness, Hai Dafu shows him a secret room—his personal "collection."
This is not a collection of art or antiques. It is a trophy room of his murdered victims.
The "Exhibits": The room contains jars and containers holding the pickled organs, severed limbs, and body parts of the people Hai Dafu has killed or had killed. They are not just stored; they are arranged meticulously, almost like a museum of anatomy designed to terrify.
The Purpose: This is a psychological weapon. Hai Dafu is demonstrating that he is not just a killer; he is a connoisseur of death. He takes a perverse pride in his work and keeps mementos of his power over life and death. The orderly, almost clinical presentation makes it even more horrifying than a simple blood-soaked room—it shows premeditation and a twisted sense of aesthetics.
Wei Xiaobao's Reaction: True to his character, Wei Xiaobao is initially terrified, but he quickly masks it with bravado and false admiration. He pretends to be impressed, which actually earns him some respect from the psychopathic Hai Dafu. This moment is a brilliant example of Wei Xiaobao's survival instincts: when faced with a monster, he pretends to be a fellow monster.