Chapter 44

"Master Nosen, do you really think that 'Big Brother' those kids mentioned can place?"

"Heh, how could that be? I just figured our tournament entry slots weren't good for anything, so I handed them off to those kids as a casual gesture."

"The Isker Chamber of Commerce is utterly inhuman. We supplied them with so many provisions, and in return they gave us a single Martial Arts Tournament entry qualification that's practically useless."

"Our Jitu Chamber of Commerce coming to the Western Region to develop the market — encountering resistance is normal. They likely caught wind of it, pressured the Isker Chamber of Commerce, and in the end only granted us qualification to participate in the Martial Arts Tournament they host."

"Had we known it would turn out like this, we should have summoned experts from the Southern Territory."

"Martial Arts Experts are still more plentiful in the Western Territory. This time we weren't prepared; we can only wait until next time to make our Chamber of Commerce's name known at this Martial Arts Tournament."

Manager Nosen chatted a couple of sentences with the old servant beside him and then left, not caring in the least about the entry slot his Chamber of Commerce had given away.

Even the Western Merchant Group spies tasked with tailing their movements, upon learning that the group of children the other side sponsored were merely securing sponsorship for a certain child's big brother who was also a child, likewise didn't care and just chuckled — kids entering an all-ages Martial Arts Tournament is nothing but a first-round exit, after all.

"Excuse me, is this the registration place for the Western Martial Arts Tournament?"

"Yes, little girl, what can I do for you?"

The Registrar young lady at the work station, upon seeing that the person coming to inquire was a not-too-big girl, asked.

"I'm here to register as a participant."

"Alright, please pay the ten thousand registration fee first."

"I don't have any money."

"Then do you have a Chamber of Commerce recommendation for participation qualification?"

The Registrar young lady, who had just received a group of children, asked next.

"I don't have that either, but I have this."

"Ah!"

The Registrar young lady let out a cry of surprise, startled by the leather hide with some flesh still on it that was placed on the counter.

"This is Earth Dragon hide. I sold a roll of the exact same hide for over eleven thousand in the previous city. This is a freshly hunted Earth Dragon, skinned less than an hour ago. Can I use this to settle the account?"

Esdeath asked. She had arrived at Daxi City yesterday, but the tournament had not yet started and was still in the registration phase.

Upon learning that registration required money and that she didn't have enough, Esdeath went back outside the city to search for Danger Beast traces, and only today hunted down an Earth Dragon and returned.

She was just worried she'd miss the registration deadline, and since she hadn't found a place to sell it, she came straight to the registration office wanting to barter.

"Let me ask."

The Registrar young lady went to inquire, and before long a Chamber of Commerce that had caught wind of the news came over, asking about the ice-blue-long-haired girl's situation.

Upon learning that Esdeath was from the Northern Region's 【Partes Tribe】, a Chamber of Commerce specializing in Danger Beast Material business purchased the Danger Beast Materials she had hunted, and at the same time gave her a substitute-fighter contract for the Martial Arts Tournament.

"As long as you enter the Top Sixteen, and are willing to endorse our Chamber of Commerce, we'll pay three hundred thousand. And for each further tier you advance, the reward doubles."

"Fine."

Esdeath agreed. Since this didn't conflict with her purpose and could earn her more money, she had no reason to refuse.

"Miss Merlade, your disguise identity is the Single Lineage Inheritor of the Southern martial arts clan's Soft Fist, alias Mermaid..."

On the other side, the Leader of the future Assassin Guild Alberg, his subordinates also helped her register a disguised identity name......

"Broly-san, registration's done. This is your first opponent's number."

"Eh? The opponent is arranged directly like this at registration?"

"Don't know, but after registration, this opponent number was indeed told to us directly by the Registrar young lady at the registration office."

This is actually a convention of the Western Martial Arts Tournament. They try their best during the Sea Selection to place strong contestants into different Promotion Groups.

To avoid powerful contestants being eliminated early by running into each other before the Top Sixteen Qualifying Round begins.

In other words, Broly was treated as a weakling and tossed into a Promotion Group that already had a Seed Player, which is why an opponent could be arranged for him immediately.

However, the kids on Broly's side don't care who their big brother's opponent is; right now they're more focused on the betting aspect.

The Western Martial Arts Competition's betting is divided into Banker and Mutual Betting. Banker means some Merchant Groups set odds to attract bettors to buy, but this only gets set up for famous contestants — for rookie contestants they basically never open a betting pool.

Mutual Betting is different. During the Sea Selection, every single match, regardless of whether both sides are new participants or experienced participants, will have a corresponding betting pool opened.

There just aren't fixed odds; it only looks at the amount of money bettors on both sides wager, and calculates odds according to the final bets when betting closes.

"Before the Qualifying Round, this is the only kind we can bet on. And there are three gambling houses running this kind of pool.

Broly-san, as a contestant who isn't favored, there definitely won't be many people betting on him to win. Even those wanting to bet on a dark horse probably won't bet on him in the first match.

So we need to place bets first. Before the match starts, we'll split into three groups, take money to the three gambling houses run by those Merchant Groups, and place bets.

As long as we raise the odds on the opponent winning, we can attract other bettors to bet on the other side, forming a mutual bet with us!"

Nahashu didn't understand gambling before this, but that doesn't stop him from being able to read the rules here. This isn't anything difficult.

Of course, except for the idiots and gluttons who don't want to use their brains. Akame, Kurome, Pony, Luosang, and Broly — these few standing together are exactly that combination.

"After we put the money down, if no one bets, we'll go spread rumors saying some rich idiot wants to bet on a dark horse and put a ton of money on a newly registered kid."

This is Nahashu's simple plan.

Time quickly arrived at the next day. The Western Martial Arts Tournament Sea Selection officially began. A crowd of ticket-buying audience members entered the cordoned-off small venue.

The Qualifying Round is the Top Sixteen, so there are sixteen Promotion Groups. Every group has formidable experts, and besides that, they're paired with a bunch of weaklings as cannon fodder.

"Hah, my opponent is actually a kid. This is truly good luck."

Broly's opponent was a tall, thin youth. Upon seeing Broly step onto the stage, he seemed to feel his luck was extremely good.

"Hey, kid across from me. Once the match starts, just concede. I don't want to bully the small with the big, make a child cry."

At this, Broly felt he was a good person. So when the match started, he used Clever Strength to toss the man out of the arena.

"Group 7, Sea Selection Match 24, Contestant Number 48, Broly wins."

The Referee froze for a moment before announcing it, mainly because the battle ended too fast and he hadn't quite reacted.

"What the hell, is Number 47 a bamboo pole? Thrown down so fast?"

"Damn, can't even match a child's strength—why don't you just die?!"

"With this strength you come to the Martial Arts Tournament? No mistake, watching weaklings make fools of themselves is why I come to see the Sea Selection every year, and your failure indeed exceeded my expectations—I'm amused, but this time I bet on you to win, and you made me lose so miserably, RNM, refund me!"

Obviously, the audience members cursing were those who had placed bets, hoping to win a little drinking money, but in less than a second, the ones they backed were thrown out of the ring and eliminated directly, the tickets in their hands turned into white paper, and an unspeakable anger filled their hearts! (Chapter End)