19: Chapter 19 The Inside Story of the Tournament

Yang Bai patted Gu Sichao on the back and laughed.

He wasn't exaggerating at all; after all, Wu Youfang had some connections with the principal of No. 4 Middle School.

If Young Master Gu hadn't stepped in this time, he would have been in a difficult situation.

Although Yang Bai had a few backup plans of his own, he really didn't want to use them unless it was an absolute last resort.

Gu Sichao let go of Yang Bai and waved his hand, signaling everyone to leave. "Come, let's go into the office and talk."

Upon entering the office, Gu Sichao sat on the sofa, his expression turning serious. "Class Leader Yang, I'll get straight to the point. How much do you know about the God War Rookie Tournament?"

Recalling the God War tournaments of previous years, Yang Bai thought for a dozen seconds before saying, "It's a tournament organized by the Longyan Xia Kingdom authorities to select powerful Divine Lords. The Rookie Tournament is the most important and fiercely competitive event among them."

Seeing that Yang Bai stopped speaking, Gu Sichao sighed and said, "That's true. You aren't in our circle, so naturally, you wouldn't know the unspoken rules of the Rookie Tournament."

"Let me briefly explain the real situation of the Rookie Tournament to you."

Gu Sichao opened his divine power chip, transmitted a stack of compressed and encrypted data to Yang Bai, and then said, "The God War tournament is indeed an official event organized by the Longyan Xia Kingdom, but the authorities only lead the organization. All the tournament's promotion, online platforms, merchandise sales, online and offline betting, and everything else you can think of that requires money, is funded by local financial conglomerates."

"The authorities are playing a 'white wolf with empty hands' game. By just providing the name and not spending a single cent, they manage to recruit all the outstanding Divine Lords in a city."

Hearing this, Yang Bai was thoughtful and then replied, "That might not be entirely fair to say. Since the money is put up by the big families and big bosses, compared to those 'outstanding' Divine Lords, they should have some say, right?"

Gu Sichao nodded, sneered, and said, "Yang Bai, you're an experienced person. Why don't you try to guess what kind of say these bosses fought for?"

The meaning of 'outstanding' as used by Yang Bai and Gu Sichao was simply having power, influence, and strength. Back when Yang Bai was running for class monitor in his second year of high school, he had truly felt the reality of society.

Therefore, Yang Bai didn't feel too surprised by this development.

"I can't guess. Just tell me directly."

Yang Bai shook his head. In his view, there were far too many shady dealings possible in a tournament, and the people doing these things were all old hands; who would know exactly where the problems were?

"It's the roster. That's right, what those old geezers fought for was the most basic and important list of match arrangements for the God War tournament."

"They can make anyone fight anyone else without any issues."

Gu Sichao leaned forward, his expression solemn. "The God War Rookie Tournament has four stages. In the first stage, the officials will separate all participants into groups of twenty Divine Lords. They will fight in a public Divine Domain, and only the five with the highest scores will advance to the next stage."

"This first stage is also known as the 'cannon fodder elimination round.' Among those twenty Divine Lords, five are pre-determined official participants, while the rest are cannon fodder participants."

"All the official participants of the tournament are the top-tier existences from various family factions. Their participant badges are different from those of the ordinary cannon fodder, so before entering the arena, the official participants all know each other's situations."

"After entering the arena, those official participants will immediately form an alliance and join forces to slaughter the remaining cannon fodder participants, eliminating all the cannon fodder from the tournament."

Gu Sichao's words enlightened Yang Bai. Yang Bai finally understood why the first match of the God War Rookie Tournament every year was always such a one-sided, crushing battle.

So, at the very start of the match, the five strongest Divine Lords in the arena had already joined forces.

"That's truly surprising. I thought those bosses would manipulate the wins and losses to make huge profits from betting odds," Yang Bai remarked with a sigh.

Gu Sichao sneered and said, "Money is just money, no matter how much you have. Those old geezers wouldn't resort to such a foolish method as using money to make more money."

"Class Leader Gu, you don't need to tell me all this. Just tell me directly what I need to do."

In truth, Yang Bai was also a bit puzzled. There was no need for Gu Sichao to tell him the inside story of the Rookie Tournament; it held no benefit for him.

"I'm telling you this so you can be mentally prepared in advance. I hope you'll actually be able to use this preparation."

Gu Sichao said this nonsensically, then pointed out the main point: "Class Leader Yang, you are a cannon fodder participant. I need you to hold out against the official participants in the first stage. Even if your familiars are all killed and your true body is shattered, you must hold on."

"You represent the Black and White Bear Divine Realm Network Company. I need you to help me secure my company's market share in the Divine Domain live streaming network for the next few years."

"Yang Bai, I can help you, or I can ruin you. Don't let me down, understand?"

Facing Gu Sichao's threatening question, Yang Bai appeared relatively relaxed. "Understood. I'll do what I'm capable of. Since you trust me, I will naturally give it my all."

Not to mention the bill from the Lantian Law Firm, just consider the entry ticket for the Rookie Tournament. You have to know that only three people from the entire No. 4 Middle School were participating.

Adding someone to the Rookie Tournament at the last minute—just thinking about it, one knew that Gu Sichao must have invested a significant amount of capital into Yang Bai.

That's just how capitalists are. If you can make money for them, they'll hold you in high regard, but if you cause them to lose money, they will definitely make sure you have a miserable end.

But he really does pay a lot.

Gu Sichao nodded in satisfaction, glanced at his watch, and said, "Very good. The Rookie Tournament starts promptly at 7 PM tonight. You have four hours of rest time. You can use the standard battle pods outside as you please. Do you have any other requests?"

"Give me a room. I want to take a shower and then rest. By the way, help me order a table of luxury mountain delicacies."

Yang Bai didn't stand on ceremony and directly asked for the most expensive set meal available there.

"Hmm, small matter. Do you need me to arrange a female masseuse to give you a massage?" Gu Sichao asked with a mischievous grin.

"Forget about that." Yang Bai waved his hand, declining Gu Sichao's kind offer.

After leaving the office, led by a secretary, Yang Bai arrived at the company's high-level employee dormitory.

After having a refreshing shower and filling his stomach with a big meal, Yang Bai sat cross-legged on the bed and entered a state of meditative contemplation.

Time passed bit by bit, the sun slanted to the west, and the sky gradually darkened.

Yang Bai opened his eyes, a flash of spiritual light passing through them, like lightning in the pitch-black suite.