My Apocalypse Territory

Two people walked over, one of them carrying a child, led by their cousin, they arrived at the Zhentian Martial Arts Hall.

The child was carried the entire way, being too young to walk this far, and their cousin was a third layer Awakener, powerful enough that carrying one child—and even a dozen more—would not tire him out.

Including their cousin, and him.

All three siblings were Awakeners, meaning the Awakening rate in their family was quite high. This spoke volumes about their family's excellent genes…

Suddenly, Tang Yu stopped in his tracks.

His cousin and the girl were indeed Awakeners, but he… he originally was not!

He suddenly realized the truth that he was a fake Awakener.

Ashamed, he covered his face.

He felt like he was dragging his family down.

…

Zhentian Martial Arts Hall was located in the bustling area of Luoxia Sanctuary, where neon lights sparkled all around, and the attire of the survivors strolling by was mostly decent; one could not see any ragged survivors.

They reached a majestic building with the powerful and vigorous characters "Zhentian Martial Arts Hall" hanging over it. The gate was wide open, and a steady stream of people was entering, Tang Yu noted that there were both ordinary people and Awakeners among them.

There were also some dressed quite splendidly, more like they were attending some high-class gathering than coming to learn at the hall.

His cousin whispered on the side, "Those are mostly the children of powerful figures within the Sanctuary. Many are just ordinary people and not very hardworking, they hardly learn anything. But they are pretty much just bringing money to the hall, which welcomes them."

She frowned disapprovingly at them.

Their cousin found a moderately upscale coffee shop nearby, where they waited with the child cousin. The coffee shop had a pleasant environment with soothing music, making it popular among middle-tier Awakeners. It was said that just spending half a Source Crystal allowed you to stay for a full two hours inside.

The value was exceptionally high.

Inside the Martial Arts Hall, numerous chairs were already set up, reminiscent of his college days when they would listen to lectures from school leaders. The crowd was beyond Tang Yu's expectations.

Those who were here were all members. Although like him, some were brought in, but as high-tier members paid even higher fees, free members like his cousin were extremely rare… His fingers already busy calculating the hall's income.

Luoxia really had a lot of rich people.

In comparison, the fee structure of the Territory training camps was still quite simplistic.

At that moment, Tang Yu felt that he had learned a lot, especially according to his cousin's words. Although Zhentian Martial Arts Hall was not the strongest and ranked among the top five, it still had numerous members.

If the top five had this many members, what about the first?

This was a huge market. Awakeners in Lindong were not as enthusiastic about martial arts halls, perhaps because Lindong had more so-called masters, and the halls' reputations were snuffed out before they even emerged.

But in Luoxia, the martial arts hall system was well-established. Tang Yu deeply considered the teachings and environment the hall could offer to its students—all of which he could provide.

Even better!

To leave it be would be almost a disservice to himself.

After all, he was Tang, "addicted to making money," Great Lord Yu.

Soon, the Master of Zhentian Martial Arts Hall, striding mightily, stepped onto the stage.

The man was around thirty-four, with a handsome face only slightly less attractive than his, exuding a masterly aura as he walked.

It seemed the uncle-face was quite popular. As soon as the Master stepped up, chants and cheers erupted from the students, with his cousin among those excitedly cheering.

Tang Yu merely pursed his lips.

The Master on the stage cleared his throat and began to speak.

"Many people think martial arts is all about techniques, but that's not the case. Techniques are just one aspect. The power of a Martial Artist is a reflection of integrated qualities, such as physical build, the positioning and force of body attacking moves, movement power… changes in technique speed, force quality, pace speed, force sensation, handling incoming force, conversion, responsive capacity, attacking speed, defensive capability… switching between offense and defense, responsiveness, innate performance, emergency response, fighting against multiple opponents, mixed weapon combats, and so on. All these aspects are manifestations of a Martial Artist's power."

"Power involves many facets, among which physical strength is foundational, yet physical strength is only the foundation. Whether an Awakener can fully utilize their strength, and to what extent, this is what really reflects power. That's also why, even among Awakeners of the same layer, there are still great disparities in power…"

It was a basic lecture, yet the Master made it profound yet simple, demonstrating in methods most relatable to the students.

Those students, especially those who had just become members, were still somewhat bewildered or even skeptical about martial arts; all were wide-eyed and clearly found it tremendously beneficial.

However, Tang Yu's interest was lacking.

He was here mainly out of curiosity, to scout out the details of the martial arts hall.

In the domain of his expanded perception, the breath of the Master was indeed very faint, almost like Luo Zhe and others when they concealed their breaths.

"Unfortunately, although he is quite strong, he has figured out too many things on his own..."

Now, though his combat skills were still not up to par with Luo Zhe and other followers of the Warrior profession, his vision was by no means lacking, able to glean plenty of valuable information from the content of the lecture.

For example, although the Master's breath was weak, it was not stable, like a small flame flickering intermittently, while Luo Zhe and others who had concealed their breaths were as steady as a calm lake surface.

This was the gap.

Tang Yu, his mind wandering, felt it inappropriate to leave in such a manner and simply engaged in a video chat with his followers through a contract to pass the time.

Soon the lecture approached its conclusion.

On stage, the Master elaborated on the key points, paused, and continued, "A true Martial Artist needs to experience real combat. Luckily, tomorrow the Martial Arts Hall will have a major training event with six hundred training slots available. Advanced members get one free training opportunity per period, and regular members who want to join must pay a fee of ten Source Crystals..."

Tang Yu was already selectively ignoring the rest of the speech.

A single training session costing ten Source Crystals, not to mention the membership fee itself... Indeed, poverty limits my ability to make money.

Lord Tang was already envious, even though he currently lacked no Source Crystals, but he anticipated another era of Source Crystal scarcity in the future.

One of the conditions for upgrading his territory from Fourth Layer to Fifth Layer was five hundred thousand units of Source Crystals. With the support of a Source Crystal Mine, he could manage that amount; but what about from Fifth Layer to Sixth Layer? How much would that require?

Tang Yu dared not even imagine it, let alone the fact that he still had no clue about the other condition for upgrading from Four to Five.

[Upgrade Requirement: Territory Fitting Degree above 20%]

Current Fitting Degree: 8%.

The system offered no explanation, everything had to be guessed.

Even from the data alone, he understood that the current fitting degree was far from sufficient. To meet the upgrade requirements, there was a long road ahead.

Unable to upgrade yet, he could only think of ways to make money first.

So planned the Great Lord.

...

...

Mercenary Union.

Every major Sanctuary had such a place, not only allowing Awakeners to earn extra income but also enabling the authorities to indirectly control the unstable force represented by Freelance Awakeners.

The Luoxia Mercenary Guild was just as bustling.

Shay walked in, immediately smelling the familiar scent of tobacco—indeed he was well accustomed to such places!

Clutching a cigarette and swiftly snapping his fingers to light it, he approached the front desk to register a new Mercenary Corps.

In a place as large as Luoxia, with hundreds of thousands of Awakeners, new Mercenary Corps were formed daily, and some also disbanded.

After the Awakener before him finished his business, it was Shay's turn. The front desk staff explained, "Our Mercenary Union has recently introduced a grading system to ensure the completion rate of missions and the safety of the mercenaries themselves. We will assign a rating to the Mercenary Corps based on the strength of the mercenaries, with higher-rated corps able to take on more tasks and access more mission information."

This had similarities to the adventurer guild system in the territory, where high-level missions required high-level teams. In Luoxia, one merely needed to demonstrate their strength to instantly join a higher-level Mercenary Corps, whereas in the territory, high-ranking Awakeners only needed to submit a sufficient number of Source Crystals and complete the promotion missions to quickly ascend.

For those Awakeners lacking in strength, even with ample Source Crystals, they would be stymied by the promotion missions, effectively preventing the occurrence of low-level members in high-level teams.

Although the system of the territory's adventurer guild seemed more cumbersome, the benefits were greater. Awakeners would convert Source Crystals into points which they were reluctant to leave unused, and once they spent Source Crystals on equipment or props, they could tangibly feel the benefits, along with a continuous influx of new products... This firmly tied Awakeners from other places to Green Shadow.

Those who came from Lindong mostly couldn't bear to go back.

Having understood the system of the Luoxia Mercenary Guild and the recent condition of the territory through the contract, Tang Yu silently congratulated himself.

Then the staff said, "Based on your Fourth Layer Awakening strength, your Mercenary Corps will be classified as a Second Level category, with the entitled benefits being…"

The front desk person, also an Awakener, albeit not very strong, was essentially a human detector, used to sense the aura of every Awakener.

Shay thought to himself, 'Fourth Layer Awakening and only a Second Level Corps? That seems a bit low if it means missing out on a lot of information.'

He reacted quickly, stretching out his hand to stop the staff member, "Wait a minute, who said I'm only at the Fourth Layer Awakening, how did you sense that!"

The staff member, confused, focused intensely, placing their perception on Shay.

The next second, their mouth dropped open in astonishment and they exclaimed, "Six…six…six, Sixth Layer Awakening!"