Show Me the Money

"Competition?" Fatty was stunned a little. Then, his face abruptly changed.

Yesterday, he had even reminded himself to remember the competition today. However, after going numb from all the monster fighting today, he actually forgot about it.

"What? You forgot?" Liu Lan was between laughter and tears. "You… Aiii!"

It was too late to say anything now. At 10 AM this morning, when the grand opening ceremony for the First Under Heaven Tournament ended, the Individual category officially began.

The competition was single-elimination. Winning two out of three matches qualified the participants for the next round. Before their matches, the participants must wait at the square in front of the city lord manor, and they would be automatically teleported into the field when their turns came. Fatty, who had been staying in the faraway Cloud Ocean, naturally had no way to participate. After missing two matches in a row, he was straight out declared forfeit.

"It's all gone… My gold coins, my Celestial gear, my special reward!!!" Fatty wept miserably and whined to Liu Lan at how badly wronged he felt.

"I'm to blame as well. I've been busy with my guild matters. Only when I finally managed to make time to watch your matches did I find out that you didn't come. If I had remembered to remind you early, you wouldn't have missed it." Liu Lan actually felt guilty.

"No biggie! It's nothing! Ignoring the fact that I myself forgot about it, even if I didn't forget, I might still be unable to go. I'm currently in the middle of a super good mission. Even if I had come to the competition and won, I wouldn't be sure if I have time for the next round."

Surprisingly, Fatty became the one to console Liu Lan. The two chatted on until it was time for Liu Lan's matches.

After Fatty hung up, East Gate BlowingWind and the others' calls began to flood in. One by one, Fatty explained his situation to them before closing the communicator with a sigh.

"Damn you all! It's all your fault! You make Lord Fatty miss out on my special reward!" Fatty jabbed his finger at a monster and shouted angrily.

Dark Unicorn

Level: 50

Attack: 105 - 115

Defense: 110

HP: 5800

Notes: After the Holy Unicorn died, its soul became depraved and evolved into a Dark Unicorn.

The past Holy Unicorn clan was several thousand in number while the mission only gave Fatty one month. With his speed, it took him six to seven minutes to kill one. Fatty was pressed for time right now and simply couldn't make room for the tournament.

One couldn't have his cake and eat it too. Fatty refused to believe that the special rewards for the top 3 could be better than this mission's reward: the Holy Spirit Island that used to be the homeland of the Holy Unicorn clan, and a Holy Horn that allowed the user to command Holy Unicorns. Thinking of the connection between the two, Fatty had a vague idea that made him very excited.

Despite being unable to partake in the competition due to the distance, Fatty could still watch it live. Ever since the enrollment, advertisement of First Under Heaven had been overwhelming, making it the hottest topic at the moment in the real world. All major TV stations, as well as websites, were streaming the tournament.

Fatty opened the Star Fantasia official website and found several thousand matches in the four main cities being live streamed, all at once. He clicked the panel for Black Tortoise City, searched for Liu Lan's match and watched it while he fought the monsters.

Liu Lan's opponent was a mage. Both players' levels were in the 30s so there wasn't a big power gap. The mage's attacks were sharp and powerful, but the other aspects of that class were pitifully weak. As a knight, Liu Lan had high defense and health, but her damage definitely fell short compared to a mage. Therefore, the two began an, 'I run and you chase' warfare.

While the mage possessed a decent sense for fighting, Liu Lan was the one to emerge victorious in the end. She actually didn't break a sweat at all. She only had to ride the Fire Cloud Panther around, take on several attacks from the mage, and commanded her pet, the Lightning Bird, to launch a few lightning bolts, piercing several bloody holes through the mage's body. Then, she spurred her mount over and finished the opponent with a spear jab.

"Objection! I object! The competition doesn't allow mounts!"

Exiting the stage, the mage shouted their objection in a loud voice, insisting that they couldn't kill Liu Lan because she shared HP with her mount. However, Star Fantasia totally didn't bother and simply dismissed the complaint with an explanation: Riding a mount was a knight's prestige, otherwise, why would they be called 'Knight'?

After growing bored from watching several matches, Fatty turned his focus to the mission ahead. While the unicorns' power had diminished after their souls were turned depraved, they were still level 50 monsters, and their attack hurt when it landed on him.

There were too many Dark Unicorns, so Fatty chose the entrance of the temple as his execution ground and had Wheat and the Dark Sacrificer take turns to pull the monsters over. At level 40, Wheat gained a new skill-

Mire Trap: Set up a marsh in a limited area to slow the opponents' movement.

As for Inky (the Dark Sacrificer), it also gained a new skill upon reaching level 40 and currently had a total of five innate skills: Electric Bolt, Healing, Float, Shield of Protection, and Mental Breakdown. All of these skills were extremely overpowered, and the only imperfection about Inky was that it wasn't as smart as Wheat. However, on second thought, this made sense. After all, the Diggy Rat being able to steal from the Imperial Palace despite its low level already hinted at how high its AI was.

The two pets could take on a monster as a team while Fatty himself handled another, so their speed was quite promising.

Ba-thud! Another Dark Unicorn fell. At the same time, one of those several thousand heads at the God Light statue's feet exploded into a cloud of ashes.

Whoosh. A white light rose, and a white soul gradually emerged above the Dark Unicorn's corpse. The soul nodded toward Fatty and streaked towards the Holy Horn.

Every time they killed a Dark Unicorn, Fatty took out the Holy Horn so that the rescued Holy Unicorn soul would attach itself to the item.

The Holy Horn was a much smaller version of a Holy Unicorn horn, but jade-white in color. When a unicorn's soul was attached to it, the soul would transform into a tiny illusion that lay there, as if paying respect on a pilgrimage.

At the moment, several tens of Holy Unicorn illusions were lying on the Holy Horn's surface. Cloaked in a thick halo, the horn would emit a series of faint sounds from time to time, making it seem all the more mysterious.

After losing his qualification for the tournament, Fatty wholeheartedly focused on the mission. According to his rough estimate, each unicorn took six minutes, so that made ten unicorns an hour. Even if the team went on 24 hours a day without doing anything else, they could only kill 240 Dark Unicorns each day. The total amount of Dark Unicorns was between three and four thousand, so it'd take at least half a month to complete the mission. Counting in the time to take care of his daily needs, the one-month limit was really tight and did not give Fatty any time to relax at all.

"Attack! Beat them as hard as you can!" shouted Fatty.

……

After the Individual category was the Guild category. Hearing that Fatty was in the middle of a mission with a super huge reward, HeadofGod and the rest unanimously expressed their hope that Fatty should complete the mission first then come to the competition because the twelve of them were enough to handle the matches. And that was the truth; God Famila ended up with three perfect wins in a row while going 12:100.

"Fatty, hurry with your mission. We'll be waiting for you to compete alongside us," TheFugitive said with a laugh.

Fatty smiled and nodded. The first round had eliminated nearly 90% of the participants. Next would be the round-robin to decide the top 25 of each main city to come to the Imperial for the top 100 rankings.

The first round went on for three days. The second round would be longer, lasting for a week. As for the third round, the top 100 deciders, it was without doubt that it'd take much more time than the previous two. If Fatty wanted to participate, he'd still have no time unless he gave up on his mission.

"Want Lord Fatty to quit this mission? No way!" Fatty shrieked and commanded Wheat and Inky to each pull a Dark Unicorn. The master and his two pets then went all out on two unicorns at once.

As the tournament was carried out as scheduled, Fatty's mission progressed very quickly. Barring the time he logged off to take care of his daily needs, Fatty spent all his time on the Dark Unicorns. With the pets' assistance, he could slay roughly three hundred a day.

"This mission is pretty easy actually, only a little tedious." After a long time of fighting, Fatty checked the number of remaining Dark Unicorns and saw that it wasn't too many. He ordered the two pets to continue fighting, while he sat down, deciding to watch the competition to catch his breath.

The second round of the Individual category had ended, and the top 100 players of Black Tortoise City had been decided. Each was rewarded a Violet equipment plus 50,000 gold coins. Also, the top 25 were representing Black Tortoise City to partake in the competition taking place at the Imperial Capital.

East Gate BlowingWind, TheFugitive and those who Fatty was acquainted with all easily made it to the top 100. However, during the competition to decide the top 25, some were happy and some sad. Liu Lan was the first to be eliminated and barely managed to make the tail of the top 100. Some guilds only had one player who made it to the first 25 like West Gate BlowingSnow of the Great Four Gates, Jiangdong's LittleOverlord of the Overlord League, Ice Witch of the Ice Rose Alliance, and as for the Wind God Guild, without a doubt, it was Purple Bell.

Also, HeadofGod, TheFugitive, and BigPillarofGod all made the top 25, causing quite an uproar as God Familia hogged three seats to themselves. Invincible East was able to advance as well and didn't let down the reputation of the Sun Moon Cult.

In the Guild category, God Familia was undoubtedly the MVP. Hot on God Familia's heels was the Wind God Guild; it was the first guild established, after all. Next were the Great Four Gates, the Ice Rose Alliance, the Sun Moon Cult, and other guilds that Fatty wasn't familiar with.

"In truth, the rounds taking place in the four main cities are but small fries. The real contest only starts in the Imperial City. Fatty, hurry and complete your mission. The next round of the Guild's Group definitely won't be so pleasant for our guild. Some are already gunning to eliminate us," HeadofGod said through the communicator.

"By the way, according to the latest news, Star Fantasia's decided to give those who failed a chance. After the top 100 decider ends, there will be an opportunity to challenge the rankers for anyone who meets the qualifications. You must pay attention to the news; don't miss out again," Liu Lan notified Fatty.

"The top 10 individuals and top 10 guilds will be representing our Xuanhuang Ancient Country's Central Dynasty to participate in the Worldwide top 100. Bro, you mustn't miss it again. I believe in you!" Qian Xiaoqian tried to cheer Fatty into it.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's finish this mission fast. Stop being lazy or Lord Fatty will skin you alive!" Fatty sprang up and shouted to the pets.

Inky didn't react and kept attacking with due diligence. Wheat rolled its eyes at Fatty's word. Just who has been sitting around doing nothing? And yet you call us lazy?!

Closing up all his communication panels, Fatty swept through the rest of the monsters with an insane burst of might. After nearly half a month of killing, Fatty leveled up twice and was currently level 43. The Dark Unicorns were pretty much cleaned out by now. There were only a few boss monsters left.