149: Chapter 149 A Frenzied Influence! Behind-the-Scenes Espionage! Preparing for War!

A corner of the coffee shop.

Zhang Wei had a bitter face, spreading his hands wide.

"Brother Qi, I'm really out of money."

Zhang Wei lowered his voice, his fat face wrinkling into a ball.

"Even our underwear is put up as collateral; I didn't even leave enough for next month's meal money."

"I also secretly diverted a portion of the liquid capital from Huichun Hall's accounts."

"If I take any more, my father will definitely break my legs."

Lin Qi took a sip of coffee and set down the cup.

He reached into his robe, fished out a pitch-black ring, and tossed it onto the table.

The ring's surface was rough and completely lusterless.

This was the spoils of war he obtained after taking down that assassin called Ghost Hand.

"See what's inside," Lin Qi said.

Zhang Wei picked up the ring and probed it with his Mental Energy.

Zhang Wei sucked in a breath of cold air, his eyes widening into perfect circles as the fat on his face trembled.

The ring's space was enormous.

Inside were mountains of rare Ore and high-level monster Materials.

There were also over a dozen pieces of top-tier equipment shimmering with light.

"Holy crap!" Zhang Wei blurted out a curse, quickly covering his mouth.

[Did Brother Qi rob a large guild's vault?]

[With so many high-level Materials and that equipment, any single item could sell for an astronomical price on the black market!]

[Just how many people did that Ghost Hand kill to amass such a thick family fortune?]

Zhang Wei swallowed hard, his gaze toward Lin Qi completely transformed.

[Following Brother Qi is absolutely the most correct decision I've made in my life.]

[This thigh is too thick; I must cling to it tightly!]

"Brother Qi, sell all of these?" Zhang Wei asked, his voice trembling.

"Sell it all, convert it to cash, and keep betting." Lin Qi's tone was flat, as if he were speaking of a trivial matter.

Zhang Wei nodded heavily.

"Leave it to me. Huichun Hall has plenty of channels; I guarantee it'll be done without anyone knowing."

Zhang Wei immediately took out his communicator and dialed an encrypted channel.

"Old Wang, I have a batch of hard currency on hand. Can you handle it?" Zhang Wei whispered.

A raspy voice came from the other end of the communicator.

"Young Master Zhang, you're the young boss of Huichun Hall, what hard currency could you possibly have? Just more low-level medicinal herbs?"

"Stop the nonsense, start the video." Zhang Wei pointed the camera directly at the pile of Materials on the table.

The sound of a sharp intake of breath came from the other side of the video.

"The poison glands of an Earth Demon Spider? And the bone spurs of a Thunder Tyrant? These are all high-level monster Materials!" Old Wang's voice changed pitch.

"At least you know your stuff," Zhang Wei huffed smugly.

"Where did you get these things?" Old Wang asked.

"Don't ask what shouldn't be asked; you know the black market rules." Zhang Wei put on a stern face.

"I'll take it all, one price, three hundred million." Old Wang quoted a price.

"Three hundred million? Are you treating me like a beggar!" Zhang Wei sneered.

"Just that Thunder Tyrant bone spur alone could fetch two hundred million at an auction house."

"I need money urgently, so I'll give you a friend's price: five hundred million, not a cent less."

Old Wang was silent for a moment.

"Fine, five hundred million. I'll transfer the funds immediately."

Hanging up the communication, Zhang Wei immediately dialed another number.

"Boss Liu, busy?" Zhang Wei spoke with a smile.

"Young Master Zhang, what can I do for you?" On the video was a pot-bellied middle-aged man.

"I have a few pieces of top-tier equipment here for assassins, with stealth bonuses." Zhang Wei pointed the camera at a dagger emitting a faint, eerie light.

Boss Liu's eyes lit up.

"This quality is at least Silver-grade Peak! Name your price."

"Two hundred and fifty million, no haggling." Zhang Wei held up two fingers.

"Too expensive. I'll take it for two hundred million," Boss Liu bargained.

"Boss Liu, this is top-tier stuff with stealth bonuses. If you don't want it, I can turn around and sell it to the Shadow Blade Alliance; they'll offer much more than you." Zhang Wei brought up the assassin organization to intimidate him.

Boss Liu gritted his teeth.

"Fine, two hundred and fifty million, deal!"

Zhang Wei followed the same pattern, selling piece after piece of equipment at extremely high prices.

Relying on his 'Money Can Communicate with Gods' talent, Zhang Wei took full advantage in every negotiation.

In less than half an hour, more than half of the items in the ring were cleared out.

Looking at the extra billions of funds in his account, Zhang Wei's hands were shaking.

"Brother Qi, it's done." Zhang Wei wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Lin Qi watched Zhang Wei's busy figure and tapped the table.

"Fatty, your head for business is much stronger than your talent for refining medicine," Lin Qi evaluated.

Zhang Wei gave a 'hehe' laugh and scratched his head.

"Brother Qi praises me too much; I call this making the best use of everything. Keeping these things is just letting them gather dust; better to turn them into money and do something big with you."

"Aren't you afraid that if I lose, you'll lose everything?" Lin Qi looked at him.

"I am, how could I not be?" Zhang Wei nodded honestly.

"But I'm more afraid of missing this opportunity. Brother Qi, you could even one-punch kill that freakish wild boar; that Xiao Kuangyun is nothing!"

Zhang Wei had a blind trust in Lin Qi.

"How should we invest?" Lin Qi asked.

Zhang Wei chuckled, revealing the shrewdness of a merchant.

"Smashing it all in directly will definitely attract the attention of the bookmakers."

"The people at Tianji Pavilion are very sharp. Once they detect an abnormal inflow of large capital, they will definitely close the betting or adjust the odds."

Zhang Wei's fingers turned into afterimages on the virtual keyboard.

"Brother Qi, Tianji Pavilion's monitoring System is very tight."

"They have specialized algorithms to track abnormal capital flows."

"I must disguise these funds as normal transaction flows."

As Zhang Wei spoke, he pulled up over a dozen virtual interfaces.

"First, run it through overseas underground banks to wash it once."

"Then transfer it through the accounts of dozens of shell guilds."

"Finally, disperse it into tens of thousands of temporarily registered retail accounts."

"Using virtual IPs and proxy networks, buy in in batches and at different time intervals."

"This way, even if Tianji Pavilion investigates, they'll only find a bunch of unrelated retail investors."

Zhang Wei looked at the numbers jumping on the screen, his fat face full of pride.

"Brother Qi, my 'Money Can Communicate with Gods' talent usually doesn't seem to have much combat power."

"But at a time like this, it's a divine skill!"

"As long as there's money, I can even bypass Tianji Pavilion's firewall."

Zhang Wei's operations were smooth and fluid, showcasing his commercial talent as an alchemist.

Lin Qi looked at him and nodded slightly.

[Although this fatty is cowardly, he is indeed a Genius when it comes to making money.]

[With him here, I only need to focus on fighting.]

Following Zhang Wei's operations, the data on various betting platforms began to jump.

The odds for Lin Qi winning the championship, pushed by public opinion, had already risen from 1:600 to 1:700.

Zhang Wei controlled hundreds of accounts, crazily buying up chips at every price point.

1:750.

1:800.

The higher the odds, the more joyfully Zhang Wei bought.

[This isn't gambling at all; this is clearly stocking up inventory!]

[Once Brother Qi takes the championship and this money multiplies hundreds of times, I, Zhang Wei, will be the richest man in Tianhai City!]

Zhang Wei laughed wildly in his heart while operating.

Lin Qi leaned back in his chair, watching the bustling crowd outside the window.

Lin Qi closed his eyes, and scenes from the game in his previous life emerged in his mind.

[The realm of a Martial Saint focuses on sanctifying the Physical Body.]

[It doesn't rely on any external objects or any System panels.]

[My current body, although still mortal, has already initially formed the prototype of a Dao Body after being tempered by the earthly demon yin fire.]

[The Silver Bone has already reached Major Achievement.]

[I have also preliminarily mastered the improved version of Heavenly Demon Disintegration.]

[Xiao Kuangyun?]

[Just in time to test my current physical limits.]

[No matter how fast his sword technique is, can it be faster than my Ghost Shadow Yu Step?]

[No matter how sharp his Sword Qi is, can it sever my Silver Bone?]

[The skills in this world are indeed flashy, but as long as the speed is fast enough and the power is great enough, one punch to explode their heads makes any skill useless.]

[Health Bar Protection?]

[That's because your power is not concentrated enough.]

[When power reaches the extreme, even space can be shattered; what does a mere data panel count for?]

The Kyoto University rest room.

Li Pojun's aide walked in, drenched in sweat.

"Brother Li, I've checked," the aide reported, his tone somewhat weak.

"And the result?" Li Pojun asked.

"I can't find the source of the large capital," the aide wiped his sweat.

"The funds buying into Lin Qi's championship are extremely dispersed."

"They are all small bets of a few thousand or tens of thousands, with the number of accounts reaching tens of thousands."

"The IP addresses are spread across every city in the entire Federation."

The aide handed the data report to Li Pojun.

"It looks entirely like the trend-following behavior of retail investors."

"Many people are treating this like buying a lottery ticket, thinking the odds are high and spending a little money to try their luck."

Li Pojun looked at the report, his brows knitting together.

[Tens of thousands of retail investors?]

[Are there really so many people willing to throw money into the water?]

[This doesn't match common sense.]

Li Pojun threw the report onto the table.

The doubt in his heart grew even heavier.

He opened the holographic screen in front of him and pulled up the battle recordings of Lin Qi in the Five-Academy League.

In the footage, Lin Qi carried that broken heavy sword and sent his opponent flying with one strike.

Li Pojun slowed down the playback speed, watching frame by frame.

No skill light effects.

No energy fluctuations.

He was swinging the sword entirely by relying on muscle power.

"This force exertion method is as crude as a primitive man's," Li Pojun muttered to himself.

He switched to the footage of Lin Qi fighting Li Shaobai.

Li Shaobai's Sword Kinesis was incomparably gorgeous, with Sword Qi crisscrossing everywhere.

Lin Qi, however, simply leaned sideways and swung his fist.

One punch shattered the Flying Sword.

Li Pojun enlarged the movement of Lin Qi dodging Li Shaobai's Flying Sword.

In the image, the range of Lin Qi's footwork movement was extremely small.

Every time, he dodged just barely grazing the edge of the Flying Sword.

"This kind of footwork..." Li Pojun narrowed his eyes.

"It looks like some kind of ancient footwork, but without any skill light effect bonuses."

"Without the support of Agility attributes, how could he possibly dodge a Flying Sword with tracking lock-on?"

Li Pojun was completely baffled.

In this world, once a skill is locked on, it must hit unless it is dodged using a movement skill or an invincibility skill.

But Lin Qi had dodged it using the most ordinary positioning.

"Could it be that his panel data is fake?" This thought flashed through Li Pojun's mind.

But he quickly dismissed it.

"Impossible, the Federation's top-tier testing equipment cannot be wrong."

"The only explanation is that Li Shaobai's skill Proficiency was too low, and the lock-on was forcibly broken."

Li Pojun found a reasonable explanation for himself.

He continued to watch Lin Qi's punching movements.

No charge-up wind-up.

No skill channeling bar.

It was just a simple straight punch.

"No energy fluctuations, just pure physical power."

"This kind of attack might be effective on someone who is unprepared."

"But if he encounters a monster with Damage Reflection skills or Physical Immunity, he's looking for death."

Li Pojun snorted coldly.

"Stupid."

"That waste Li Shaobai, relying on being a Hidden Class, didn't even open the most basic Psionic Shield."

"If he had opened a shield, Lin Qi's simple physical attacks wouldn't even be able to deplete the shield's durability."

In this digitized world, rules are everything.

Without skill determinations or Armor Penetration attributes,

Pure physical power, when facing high-defense skills, is like an egg hitting a rock.

Li Pojun pulled up Lin Qi's panel data.

[Strength: 5]

"5 points of Strength; even if he is born with divine strength and can burst with a few hundred pounds of force, so what?"

"My Thunder Shield can absorb over ten thousand points of damage."

"If he hits me with a punch, it won't even trigger the determination for forced health reduction."

The more Li Pojun analyzed, the less irritability he felt in his heart.

He felt that his intuition had been wrong.

How could a Blank Slate who couldn't even break the System rules pose a threat to him?

"Those old-timers probably took a fancy to some kind of unknown mutation in him."

"But no matter how strong a mutation is, it cannot withstand absolute data suppression."

Li Pojun looked at his own hands; tiny electrical arcs were jumping in his palms.

"I am an S-grade talent Thunder Controller."

"My strength attribute is as high as over fifty thousand."

"A casual strike from me can trigger a thunderstorm."

"What does Lin Qi have to fight me with?"

"He can't even break my defense."

Li Pojun stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the city below.

"This year's champion can only be me, Li Pojun."

"Anyone who stands before me will be shattered by thunder."

"Lin Qi is nothing more than a small pebble on my path to the championship."

"He doesn't even count as a stumbling block."

Li Pojun turned off the holographic screen.

The aide stood to the side, looking at him cautiously.

"Brother Li, the first match is about to begin," the aide reminded.

The eyes of the entire Federation were now focused on the Central Stadium.

Countless media outlets and viewers were waiting to see Lin Qi made a fool of.

Li Pojun straightened his uniform.

"Just a jumping clown. Perhaps I'm overthinking it. Pass down the word, prepare to watch the match."