4: Chapter 4 Martial Arts Agency

What can a Martial Arts Technical College graduate do?

Give massages, work as a bodyguard, work as security in a factory, or go to the Martial Arts Association.

The Martial Arts Association is an intermediary platform for martial artists to accept missions.

It is a nationwide chain with branches in every city.

What they do is simple: post missions, match martial artists, and take a commission upon settlement.

The missions are varied, but the most common ones are exterminating magical beasts.

A hundred years ago, spiritual energy recovered in this world, and a bunch of mutated creatures emerged in the mountains and wilds, collectively known as magical beasts.

Low-level magical beasts are like wild dogs, while high-level ones can topple buildings.

The government military handles the big ones, while the small ones are outsourced to civilian martial artists.

Payment is per piece; the more you work, the more you earn.

Li Zhengyang arrived at the East City branch of the Association at 10:30 in the morning.

The storefront was more formal than he had imagined—a three-story commercial building with glass curtain walls. A sign hanging at the entrance read "Daxia Martial Arts Association · East City Branch." Many people were coming and going, dressed in all sorts of ways, but most of them carried a rugged air about them.

The first floor was a lobby with a layout similar to a bank: a row of ticket dispensers on the left and an electronic screen on the right, scrolling through various mission information.

Li Zhengyang stood in front of the electronic screen and scanned it.

Missions were categorized by the rank of the magical beasts, listed from low to high.

At the very bottom were missions to clear out First-rank magical beasts, with rewards ranging from a few thousand to ten or twenty thousand.

Moving up, the rewards for Second and Third-rank missions doubled, but the indicated risk levels also shot up accordingly.

His gaze stopped on one mission.

[Mission ID: E001] [Target: Kill 5 First-rank Earth-Tooth Rats, equivalent to human martial artists] [Location: Abandoned Mining Area in the East Suburbs] [Reward: ¥10,000] [Risk Level: E] [Note: Earth-Tooth Rats are burrowing creatures that excel at underground sneak attacks; teaming up is recommended.]

Ten thousand.

100 points of vitality—not much, but every little bit helps.

It was his first time taking a mission to kill magical beasts, and he didn't dare take anything too high-level; he would test the waters first.

The key was that this could be farmed repeatedly.

Earth-Tooth Rats were the lowest level of First-rank magical beasts; for a First-rank Martial Master, it was no different from stepping on ants.

Farming three or four orders a day meant forty or fifty thousand.

It was more respectable than taking out usurious loans.

Li Zhengyang took a number and waited in line for ten minutes before his turn came.

The receptionist was a girl of twenty-five or twenty-six, with a ponytail, wearing a uniform shirt and a name tag on her chest that read "Liu Ting."

She looked decent enough, though she didn't seem very eager to look up.

"Hello. To accept a mission, please present your martial artist qualification certificate and strength certification."

Li Zhengyang handed over his ID card.

Liu Ting glanced at it: "Where is your martial artist qualification certificate?"

"I don't have one."

"Strength certification?"

"I don't have that either."

Liu Ting's hand stopped.

She looked up at him. He wasn't old; he was likely just out of school.

"Sir, you cannot accept missions without strength certification. That is the rule."

"I know there's such a rule. Where do I get certified?"

"Right here, at the testing center on the second floor." Liu Ting pointed to the stairs nearby. "Just take your ID card and go up. The testing fee is five thousand."

"How much?"

"Five thousand."

Li Zhengyang fell silent.

He felt his pants pocket; inside was a crumpled fifty-yuan bill and a few coins.

He had bought a bottle of water on the way here, spending two yuan.

Five thousand. He was short by over four thousand nine hundred and forty.

"Can I pay on credit?"

"No."

"Installments? Or pay with my face?"

"This is the Association, not a mortgage company." Liu Ting's tone was strictly professional. "The testing fee is five thousand, payable on-site. We do not accept any form of deferred payment."

Li Zhengyang leaned on the counter, his mind racing.

This was the vicious cycle of the poor: to earn money, you need to take missions; to take missions, you need certification; to get certified, you need money; and you have no money, which is why you want to earn money.

"Is there any other way?"

Liu Ting had been about to call the next person, but seeing him still standing there, she thought for a moment and said, "There is one. You can join someone else's team and participate in the mission as a team member. As long as the team leader has certification, you can just follow along; you don't need individual certification."

"What about the reward?"

"The team allocates it internally; the Association does not intervene. It's usually split equally per head or based on contribution."

Li Zhengyang nodded; this path was viable.

"In the area to the right of the mission hall," Liu Ting pointed to her right, "some teams are recruiting there. Go ask them yourself."

"Thanks."

To the right of the lobby was an open area with a dozen tables, with people sitting in small groups.

Some were looking at their phones, some were chatting, and some tables had cardboard signs standing on them, written with things like "Recruiting."

Li Zhengyang walked up to the first table.

Three people—two men and one woman—fully equipped with bulging backpacks.

A cardboard sign stood on the table: [Clearing First-rank magical beast Iron-Back Centipede, one person short, requires Martial Master or above, must have certification].

"Buddy, are you short a person?"

The leader looked up at him: "Did you bring your certification?"

"No certification, but I have the strength."

"No certification won't work. If something happens, who takes responsibility? You should go."

At the second table, a thin man wearing sunglasses sat alone. On the table was written: [Hunting First-rank magical beast Sand Scorpion, four waiting for one].

"Big brother, take me with you."

The man in sunglasses pulled his glasses down and sized him up.

"Certification?"

"None."

He pushed his glasses back up, lowered his head, and continued scrolling on his phone, too lazy to say another word.

The third, fourth, and fifth tables.

The result was the same: no certification, no deal.

The rules of this trade were more rigid than Li Zhengyang had thought.

Certification was like a pass; without it, you couldn't even get in the door.

The logic was easy to understand: hunting magical beasts in the wild was life-threatening work. Who would want to team up with a stranger who didn't even have official certification? You say you're strong, but anyone can say that.

After being rejected five times in a row, Li Zhengyang stood in the middle of the lobby, wondering if he should take that fifty yuan and buy a lottery ticket to try his luck.

"Hey! You!"

A voice came from the corner.

Li Zhengyang turned his head and saw two people sitting at the table in the very back.

One man and one woman.

The one who called him was the man, in his thirties, with a square face, a thick beard, wearing a camouflage vest, and with a scar on his arm.

He was very muscular, looking like the type who had been running missions outside for a long time.

The girl next to him was younger, in her early twenties, with short hair, wearing neat sportswear, and a short blade tucked at her waist.

"Are you looking for a team?" the bearded man asked.

"Yes."

"Do you have certification?"

"No."

The bearded man frowned, but didn't chase him away immediately.

He looked at the girl next to him, and she shrugged.

"What is your strength?" the bearded man asked.

"Enough to be useful."

"I'm asking what your strength is, not whether it's useful."

"Eighth-rank Martial Artist," Li Zhengyang said.

He didn't plan to reveal his strength as a First-rank Martial Master.

Showing your trump cards in a place like this, filled with all sorts of people, was something only a fool would do, especially since he was penniless. If he ran into someone with devious thoughts, it would be endless trouble.

The bearded man looked at the girl again.

The girl spoke, her voice crisp: "Old Zhao, time waits for no one. That bastard we agreed on stood us up. If we wait any longer, it'll be dark."

The bearded man rubbed his face, as if making an unwilling decision.

"What's your name?"

"Li Zhengyang."

"My name is Zhao Hu." He pointed to the side. "She is Shen Wei. We accepted an order for a First-rank magical beast, an Earth-Tooth Rat, in the East Suburbs mining area. There were supposed to be three of us, but the third one bailed at the last minute."

Earth-Tooth Rat.

It was the order Li Zhengyang had set his sights on.

"How is the reward split?" Li Zhengyang asked.

Zhao Hu held up three fingers: "I take four, she takes three, you take three."

Thirty percent of ten thousand—three thousand.

Shen Wei added from the side: "You don't have certification; letting you follow us is already doing you a favor, so don't haggle."

A drop in the bucket.

But Li Zhengyang didn't haggle. It wasn't that three thousand satisfied him; it was that he was already thinking about something else.

"Fine, when do we leave?"

Zhao Hu stood up and patted the dust off his pants: "Now."

The three of them registered their team information at the front desk.

Because Zhao Hu had First-rank Martial Master certification and Shen Wei had Ninth-rank Martial Artist certification, and both were veterans with good credit records, the process of bringing along an uncertified team member didn't take too long.

Liu Ting took an extra look at Li Zhengyang while entering his information, probably remembering this penniless guy who had just tried to pay on credit.

Leaving the Association, Zhao Hu drove a beat-up pickup truck, and the three of them squeezed into the front row.

"The East Suburbs mining area is a forty-minute drive." Zhao Hu started the car. "Listen to my commands after we arrive. Earth-Tooth Rats aren't hard to deal with, but they like to sneak attack from underground. Keep an eye on your feet."

"Got it."

"Did you bring a weapon?"

"No."

Zhao Hu glanced at him through the rearview mirror. Shen Wei also turned to look at him.

"My fists," Li Zhengyang said.

The car was quiet for two seconds.

Zhao Hu shook his head, pulled a machete from under the seat, and tossed it into his arms: "Use this, don't try to be a hero."

Li Zhengyang took the blade and weighed it.

Quite heavy, at least ten pounds or so.

He gripped the blade and looked at the city buildings rapidly receding outside the window; what he was calculating in his mind wasn't what the Earth-Tooth Rats looked like.

It was how to get that entire ten thousand yuan into his own pocket.