82: Chapter 82: The Exhibition Begins!

Su Bai was woken up by his phone vibrating. The message from Li Qingyue, sent at four in the morning, was as concise as ever.

"The Abyss has been showing unusual activity recently. Truth Sanctuary has detected that the energy peaks of at least six rifts are rising simultaneously, and we expect a major move today. I am leading a team to Canglan Strait to seal the main rift, so I may be unreachable for the entire day. Take care of yourself. If anything happens, find Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen; I won't be attending your launch conference."

There was another message below, added twenty minutes later.

"By the way. Regarding the Gate of the Underworld, Qi Yuan found that they have recently had secret magical communication with the Abyss. The frequency is very low, but it is confirmed. That competitor of yours, Beast God Armament—the fact that its core circuit could be reverse-engineered so quickly is likely due to derivation support provided by the Abyss. If they pull off some grand spectacle at the exhibition today, don't believe it. The Abyss never helps for free."

Su Bai stared at this message for several seconds. Then he yawned, crawled out of bed, washed up, and went out to buy milk tea.

In this world, there are only two ways for a Card Creator to launch a new card. Either list it on the Truth Sanctuary store page and wait for customers to find it themselves—a path Su Bai had already tried; eight cards, and one of them was only sold after Sword Saint Lu Changsheng repeatedly cancelled the order four times. Or, rent a booth at the Convention Center in downtown Jinghai.

The Convention Center is essentially a massive card trading market. Major guilds, independent Card Creators, material suppliers, and mercenary group procurement officers are all squeezed under the same dome. Buyers can touch the card surfaces, and sellers can demonstrate real-world combat effects on the spot. The four major annual exhibitions—Spring Auction, Summer Auction, Autumn Auction, and Winter Auction—are the stepping stones for Card Creators to leap from nobodies to nouveau riche. Of course, they are also the graveyards where the nouveau riche fall back into being nobodies.

This year's Summer Auction was pushed to an unprecedented scale by the heat of the Monthly Exam. Twelve holographic projection towers rose from the square in front of the hall, and the magic arrays at the top of the towers played dynamic displays of the cards promoted by various guilds—silver-white armor, beast bone shoulder armor, sword intent masks. It was all Beast God Armament.

Su Bai stood in front of his booth.

Calling it a "booth" wasn't quite accurate. It was originally a utility room next to the side door of the Convention Center. Last night, Lin Xiao led people overnight to clear out mops and buckets, set up a folding table, and hung a handwritten banner—[Conceptual Armament · Magical Girl Series — SSS Rainbow Card · Probability to obtain Law of Time · Indestructible soul gem trait!]. The words were written by Zhao Dahai. They were crooked, and the final stroke of the character " Extinction" (indestructible) even split.

Chairman Lin had arrived even earlier than Su Bai. The helmsman of Lins Chamber of Commerce was wearing a brand-new dark blue suit, his hair combed until it reflected light, and he was currently standing at the door of the utility room, looking up at the banner, silent for a full ten seconds.

"...Xiao Xiao. Can the design department make a more professional display board?"

"There's no time." Lin Xiao didn't even look up, her fingers swiping rapidly across the holographic screen, "It took three hours to clear out this utility room last night. The mops were covered in spiderwebs. There were mushrooms growing in the buckets."

"Mushrooms?"

"Purple ones. I don't know if they were poisonous. Zhao Dahai threw them away."

Chairman Lin's lips twitched a few times. The Lin family owned three advertising companies and could call in a full set of holographic projection display stands at any time—he swallowed those words back. Because he saw his daughter's expression. There was no frustration on her face; it was more like the calmness of someone who had given up after preparing for the worst-case scenario.

"Where is student Su Bai?"

"Buying milk tea. He said he wants to drink three cups today."

"...He certainly isn't nervous."

"He has never been nervous," Lin Xiao said in the tone of someone who had seen it all, "You'll get used to it."

Lin Weiwei leaned against the wall on the other side of the utility room, holding a cup of coffee that had already gone cold.

She had specifically taken leave today to help. Although she said she was helping, from morning until now she had only done one thing: move the mass-produced Kyubey Cards from the warehouse to the display table.

One hundred cards were neatly stacked on the folding table, each one having passed her quality control. The dark pink card surfaces shimmered with iridescent colors in the morning light.

"The conductivity is fine," she said, as if talking to herself, "The Spatial Circuit is a direct copy of Su Bai's template; the precision is even 0.3 percentage points higher than the first edition. It can be used as soon as it's bought."

Several passing procurement officers glanced at the handwritten banner, then looked at the pile of pink cards on the folding table. They didn't stop. One of them muttered, "Magical Girl? Who uses that stuff?" and quickened their pace toward the main hall.

Lin Weiwei took a vigorous sip of her coffee. What kind of taste was that? Magical Girls are so cute!

"...I'll go rearrange the display stand."

The four sample cards on the display stand were in transparent dust-proof boxes. She had bought the dust-proof boxes herself on Taobao last night—nineteen yuan and nine jiao for four, free shipping. One of the lids was already a bit loose and wouldn't close tightly.

Chairman Lin unbuttoned his suit jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and crouched down to start organizing the stack of handwritten price tags that Zhao Dahai had written crookedly.

"Uncle Lin—"

"Don't worry about me," Chairman Lin's voice was muffled from under the folding table, "Student Su Bai made an SSS Rainbow Card. Even if no one buys it, the booth must still look like an SSS booth."

He took a fountain pen out of his inner suit pocket and rewrote the price tags. The handwriting was very beautiful. Just as beautiful as it was when he knelt before Su Bai to hand over the contract.

This was the scene Su Bai saw when he returned with three cups of milk tea. At the door of the utility room, Chairman Lin was crouching on the ground writing price tags. Lin Weiwei was adjusting the angle of the display stand with the nineteen-ninety-nine dust-proof boxes. Lin Xiao was leaning against the wall scrolling through her phone, the pre-order numbers for Beast God Armament on the screen jumping up at a speed visible to the naked eye.

He distributed the milk tea.

Then he sat on the folding chair, watching the stream of people coming and going, all surging toward the main hall. A ceremonial cannon blast came from the main hall, and golden-red fireworks spelled out the words [Sold Out on First Day] in the sky. The handwritten banner shook three times from the blast. The strawberry candies placed on the table hadn't even had their packaging touched.

Zhao Dahai raised his head from the corner and reported in the tone of a goose whose neck had been stepped on: "The Vice Chairman of the War God Temple is endorsing it personally. The entire Frost Throne team took a group photo wearing silver-white armor and made it to the front page. The Blade of the Polar Night has limited pre-sales, with the first one hundred people receiving a custom shoulder armor pendant—"

"What kind of pendant?" Su Bai became a little interested.

"Miniature beast bone shoulder armor. Magnetic. You can stick it on the fridge."

"...That is indeed better than us."

Su Bai looked down at the free gift on his table. A small bag of strawberry-flavored candies that Lin Xiao bought at the supermarket last night; the tag hadn't even been torn off yet. Buy a card, get candy. He felt this combination was quite reasonable. Magical Girls paired with strawberry flavor, it matched well.

The problem was that there wasn't even anyone coming to take the free candy.

Lin Xiao leaned against the other side of the folding table, her fingers swiping rapidly across the holographic screen. Her expression hadn't been good since the morning. "Beast God Armament launched a seventh-tier custom version today. The price is thirty percent lower than ours. Free shipping. They even include a free appraisal service."

"Oh."

"They also booked the largest central booth in the main hall. Stage lighting, holographic projections, and live transformation demonstrations. They are holding a raffle over there right now, and the first prize is an eighth-tier Beast God Armament."

"They're spending big."

"Su Bai, can you have even a little sense of crisis!"

Lin Xiao slammed her phone onto the table, "That cat card of yours hasn't even sold ten copies yet! One hundred mass-produced copies are piling up in the warehouse! Lin Weiwei called yesterday saying her dad is already seriously considering whether he should transform into a Magical Girl himself—he's not joking! He is really, very seriously considering what type of loli he should turn into!"

"This... I'm afraid this is because the uncle himself wants to turn into a cute girl..."

Su Bai took a sip of his milk tea, retorted, and then explained: "Being anxious won't help. Our target customers aren't the people rushing for limited shoulder armor pendants."

"Then who are your target customers?"

"People who want to stay alive."

Lin Xiao opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. Then she gave up on arguing, flipped her phone over, and placed it face-down on the table. "Where on earth does this mysterious confidence of yours come from?"

"Anime."

"...I knew it."

Just at this moment—

Boom!

A deafening explosion sounded from the direction of the main hall.

It wasn't magic-driven, it was a ceremonial cannon. Golden-red fireworks exploded from the dome of the main hall, spelling out the words [Beast God Armament · Sold Out on First Day] in the sky. Then came a wave of overwhelming cheers. The holographic projection towers switched screens simultaneously—

It was no longer a promotional video. It was a real battlefield.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the exclusive presentation by the Gate of the Underworld—the live broadcast of front-line combat testing!"