Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1479: Chapter 206: I’m Just an Entry Level Guy

When Da Zhe stepped out of the Light Gate, the first thing he saw was Musashi swinging the sword in his hand—shirtless.

The strength of some people isn’t inherent—Da Zhe couldn’t help but think of this phrase the moment he saw Musashi… He stayed silent, simply observing Musashi’s sword movements, and compared them with his own daily training.

Long ago, Da Zhe was just an ordinary person who didn’t know the first thing about swordsmanship—in fact, when he initially obtained the Zhanlu Sword, Da Zhe even felt that it wasn’t as handy as a watermelon knife.

Yes, just an ordinary watermelon knife, held tight in hand, with the handle wrapped securely with bandages, making it extremely satisfying to wield when cutting things, without any worry of it slipping away… so he really didn’t understand swordsmanship at all.

Now he could use a sword mostly because, after grasping the Zhanlu Sword, he naturally knew how to—seemingly the knowledge was transmitted through the Zhanlu Sword itself.

Musashi’s sword moves and the feeling they invoked were quite different from the way Da Zhe had been using the Zhanlu Sword in recent days—the details were beyond his comprehension, yet many parts felt suddenly clear… but the odd thing was, Musashi was merely performing the most ordinary sword swings.

Even after thinking carefully, Da Zhe couldn’t figure out how this sudden realization came about. In the end, he could only attribute it to the light beam that Black Soul Fuxi had beamed onto his head.

Emmm… Actually, did it just grant me an ‘Intelligence UP’ buff?

“Oh… Da Zhe.” Musashi, after all, was a powerful being crossing over from a sub-world, and no matter how restrained Da Zhe was, being too close still triggered Musashi’s combat instincts… After slowly sheathing his Bizen Kunai Ankoru, he wiped his sweat and smiled: “You’ve finally come out, so you got a result.”

In fact, Musashi himself felt it was needless to ask… since Da Zhe could safely come out from between the Thrones, it already said it all.

“The Throne gave me this thing.” At this moment, Da Zhe directly took out the emblem given by Black Soul Fuxi, “He said once you see it, you’d understand… So, this is the proof of my successful joining, right? Do I have to carry it all the time or only take it out when needed? I don’t see you carrying any on you though?”

Unexpectedly, after a slight pause in his expression, Master Musashi looked at Da Zhe strangely for a moment before smiling bitterly and said, “No need, you’d better put away this Throne Emblem… in fact, I don’t have one.”

“Eh?”

Seeing Da Zhe’s current bewildered look, Musashi frowned and said, “Didn’t the Throne explain its purpose after giving you this emblem?”

Da Zhe shook his head, “He said just let you see it. So… am I officially a member or not?”

“Actually, you being able to leave the Thrones already counts as officially joining, as it proves you’ve gained the Throne’s recognition. As for this emblem…” Master Musashi pondered for a moment before saying seriously, “This emblem is actually called the Throne Emblem. Every Throne has its exclusive Throne Emblem, and getting a Throne Emblem brings a slight change in status within the organization.”

“…Continue,” Da Zhe opened his mouth… he vaguely guessed that what Black Soul Fuxi gave him was more than just a membership certificate.

“Owning the Throne Emblem proves you have the true recognition of the Throne… consider this as an ordinary member taking a step towards becoming a Throne.” Musashi smiled and said, “Congratulations, you’re now a Quasi-Throne… I didn’t expect even someone as unlucky as me could recruit a new member who becomes a Quasi-Throne right off the bat.”

Da Zhe looked at the emblem in his hand with surprise… That Ninth Originator, Black Soul Senior, really knew how to play games—are the high-ranks in the organization just this capricious?

Seeing Da Zhe’s so silent at this moment, Musashi couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Why, even having become a Quasi-Throne, are you not happy?”

Da Zhe shook his head and casually said, “I was just thinking whether I must wait for a Throne to retire or something to continue advancing… it’s usually like this, right? The ones above get off, and those below have the chance—or in extreme cases, wait till the one above dies, and then advance automatically.”

“It’s not that troublesome.” Musashi shook his head and said, “In fact, there’s a simple way for Quasi-Thrones to become Throne. Now that you have one Throne Emblem, all you need to do next is collect another seven different Throne Emblems, gather eight in total, and you can participate in the Throne Battle. If you win in the end, you’ll automatically rise to become a Throne.”

——isn’t that even more troublesome…

“Speaking of… has anyone really gathered eight?” Da Zhe couldn’t help but ask curiously.

Musashi said, “A Throne Battle can only be activated if at least two members gather the emblems—of course, the tradition indicates such battles have been held before, and indeed some have become Thrones through the Throne Battle. For example, last time, a Beast Tamer, after a series of challenges, finally gathered the emblem, participated in the Throne Battle, and ultimately defeated another opponent to ascend to Thronedom… the Pikachu Throne!”

Da Zhe couldn’t help but open his mouth, feeling the rules of this Throne Battle sounded familiar for some reason, and as for the Pikachu Throne… “Master Musashi, if I may ask, is the Pikachu Throne that yellow, self-sparking cute-as-ever mouse?”

Master Musashi said in surprise, “Didn’t I tell you, the Pikachu Throne is a Beast Tamer, how could it be a mouse? However, there is indeed a quite cute yellow mouse next to the Pikachu Throne… Hmm, have you met the Pikachu Throne?”

“Never seen it in person!” Da Zhe shook his head directly—watching it on TV doesn’t count, I suspect… but isn’t that a fictional creation?

He suddenly thought of a question—concerning sub-worlds.

The current world he resided in was very normal—so normal that Da Zhe couldn’t find words to describe it, so he called it the normal present world for the time being.

But through the Main God Project’s knowledge, he knew other sub-worlds followed routes of high-tech civilizations—and the strong in the dimensional gap came from different sub-worlds, so are the structures of these sub-worlds varied?

“Master Musashi, may I ask how many sub-worlds does the dimensional gap connect to… exactly how many are there?”

Musashi said, “If you ask me how many I have traveled, I can tell you it’s three hundred and seventy-nine. But if you ask me exactly how many there are, I can’t answer you… if I must say, it’s infinite.”

“Infinite…” Da Zhe couldn’t help but be secretly amazed.

Musashi said, “In fact, every moment, sub-worlds are being destroyed, new sub-worlds are being generated… Sub-worlds we’ve visited before could already be destroyed and rebooted, becoming unfamiliar new sub-worlds when we revisit. So no one can ever count exactly how many sub-worlds there are, not even the Thrones themselves. However, though it’s impossible to exhaustively count the sub-worlds, over long exploration, we have classified sub-worlds into different categories.”

“What are they?”

Musashi thought for a moment and said, “Generally, they are divided into the Fantasy Series, Magic Series, Science Series, and Mythology Series… By the way, the Leather God Throne seems to have originated from a certain sub-world within the Fantasy Series, but which sub-world exactly is unknown. As for me, I’m probably from a sub-world of the Mythology Series.”

The sub-worlds are divided into four major series, Transcender Organization, Throne… The Ninth of Origin, Heihun Fuxi, although there is no concept of time within the crevice, Da Zhe intuitively feels that within this short moment, the matters he’s encountered have already exceeded expectations… He can’t help but feel a headache.

There are indeed too many unclear aspects here, so maybe he should ask the boss or Ms. Ren when he returns?

“I… I guess I also come from the Mythology Series.” Da Zhe thought and said — since Musashi himself has introduced his origin, he doesn’t need to hide entirely… In the real world he occupies, with Godly Land true dragons and China monsters, it likely falls under the Mythology Series?

Musashi just smiled slightly and then said, “Alright, since you’ve joined us, and even possess the Throne Emblem, the first thing you need to do is to choose a residence in the Void’s Garden of the Fallen… Take a look at this star map, the red marks are already chosen, while the blue and green marks are available.”

“Why are there two types that are available?”

Before him was a large star map-like 3D map… Dazzling.

“Because you hold the Throne Emblem, your treatment is naturally better than ordinary members…” Musashi explained with a smile, “Like me, initially I could only choose from green marks — however, this isn’t much, as ordinary members can later exchange through Contribution Points for blue-marked locations.”

“Emmm… Alright, then I’ll go with this one.” Da Zhe thought for a moment, randomly picked a spot that seemed pleasing to the eye — a seemingly inconspicuous place at the bottom left of the star map.

“Okay, this will be your residence from now on… Be careful from now on.”

Musashi didn’t mind Da Zhe’s casual choice, he merely changed the chosen spot to red on the map… After changing to red, Da Zhe noticed beneath it appeared a Throne Emblem — it was exactly the emblem presented to him by Heihun Fuxi.

Listening to Musashi’s subsequent reminder, Da Zhe’s heart stiffened, he then took a closer look, finding that beneath some of the red marks, there were similar emblem signs, and under some marks, there was more than one emblem…

“Won’t… people come to challenge me?”

“They will, and often too.” Musashi squinted his eyes with a smile and said, “Especially newcomers like you who get the Throne Emblem right off the bat, you’re truly hot property!”

“… What’s this third-rate pandering storyline?” Da Zhe murmured bitterly.

Musashi burst into laughter and said, “Third-rate stories are enjoyable because you don’t need to use your brain much; we don’t need to either, for many things naturally revert to their primitive methods… a fist, so theoretically it’s similar.”

“Master Musashi, do you… read novels too?”

“Didn’t I say I’ve traveled through more than three hundred sub-worlds?” Musashi shrugged and said, “There are sub-worlds from each series as well. But you don’t need to be too tense, if you were the only outstanding new recruit in your batch, you might feel a lot of pressure, especially since there are quite a few who are just one emblem short of collecting eight to qualify to compete… However, recently there’ve been two other outstanding new recruits who arrived at the same time as you, and they are apprentices under the same Throne… So, they may share some of the challenges with you.”

“You should really be digging for more outstanding recruits like them!”

Da Zhe was somewhat exasperated — never expecting the thing Heihun Fuxi gave him would bring such trouble… It really doesn’t work, even if your Core Eyes are crafty, there are times where something slips through.

“Not only outstanding recruits, but even qualifying line recruits aren’t easy to find.” Musashi shook his head and said, “Currently, those able to break the sub-world limit and enter the inter-dimensional crevice by themselves are becoming fewer and fewer, sometimes we have to go directly into sub-worlds to scout those with potential — but you know, in their world, these outstanding ones often have ambitions high as the sky… Having not experienced the crevice, how can you convince them — alright, let me take you to your residence. After that, your place can only be entered by those allowed by you. Rest assured, we have strong privacy protection, no one will spy on what you’re doing inside.”

Da Zhe smiled a bit, didn’t say much… He probably won’t be spending much time at the residence anyway.

Yet before heading to his residence, Da Zhe quickly found Musashi’s name on the residence star map… Now under the name Musashi, the Throne Emblem shimmered… In total, six Throne Emblems!

That guy Musashi…

“Speaking of, before going to your place, do you want to have a fight here with me?” Musashi suddenly rubbed his chin and looked at Da Zhe, asking cheerfully.

“Go find those two fellow newcomers to fight!” Da Zhe said indignantly.

Master Musashi laughed heartily, didn’t insist, and directly opened the Light Gate leading to the residence… He suddenly said at this moment, “By the way, since your residence is quite spacious, if you frequently run out on your own, I’d suggest hiring a worker or two to manage the place, you’ll be much relieved.”

Da Zhe couldn’t help but look back at Master Musashi, then said meaningfully, “I think the one living in the stone hut outside the Plaza at the Palace of Eternal Night might be pretty good… Master Musashi, what do you think?”

“Ah, with that, I’d really feel bad about taking you down… newcomer.”

Da Zhe shrugged and said, “Master, please spare me, I’m just a newcomer.”

“Newcomers are monsters… I understand.” Master Musashi’s squinted eyes slowly opened, revealing the sharpness within.

Da Zhe was slightly moved — might not be able to cut through Musashi without Zhan Lu Sword!

He even intuited that this guy is much stronger than Nero… Hmm, Nero?

Nero… Who is this again?