Chapter 159 - 159: 158: The Preliminary Round of the Open Audition System is Announced!

Chapter 159 - 159: 158: The Preliminary Round of the Open Audition System is Announced!

Translator: 549690339

The Cultivation Sites in the virtual universe are classified into four categories: Primary Level, Intermediate Level, Advanced Level, and Top Level. These correspond to the Stellar Level, Cosmic Level, Domain Lord Level, and Sector Lord Levels.

Cultivation Sites do not teach cultivation. Instead, they replicate a virtual enemy of a specific level with the abilities you want them to possess for combat.

The Cultivation Site is a place where one needs to battle in order to achieve their cultivation goals. However, the choice of enemy is entirely controlled by the user.

The prices for the four levels are respectively one hundred White Dragon Coins, one thousand White Dragon Coins, ten thousand White Dragon Coins, and one hundred thousand White Dragon Coins.

Du Gang chose the Primary Level Cultivation Site first. When he went in, he realized that the strongest enemy in the Primary Level Site was only at the Stellar Ninth Rank which didn’t particularly bother him. However, the main issue was that the enemy could only possess abilities up to Ninth Level of Realm Sense.

“As expected, the enemies in the Cultivation Sites were designed based on the most standard and typical levels!”

With no other options, he had to kill the randomly generated enemy with one strike and left the Primary Level Cultivation Site to enter the Intermediate Level Cultivation Site.

In the Intermediate Level Cultivation Site, the maximum strength of the enemy is the Cosmic Ninth Rank, and it can possess one Mystery of Laws, with the progression of the Mystery adjustable up to ninety-nine percent.

There’s also an option to double the expense to add another Mystery of Laws to the enemy. In addition to this, there are options to choose two or more enemies at once. Just like before, adding an enemy would require an additional amount of money, doubling for each new enemy.

Without any attachments, this time, Du Gang chose an enemy of Cosmic Ninth Rank, possessing Sharp Gold Mystery at ninety-nine percent.

Then, he started to battle it with a Sharp Gold Mystery at ninety-nine percent on his side as well.

In this battle, he immediately noticed the difference.

Despite having the Sharp Gold Mystery at ninety-nine percent for the battle, he discovered that the enemy’s attack power was higher than his. Without stealthily using movement techniques, he might have been eliminated.

Du Gang was quickly interested and while battling, he started to comprehend how the enemy was using the Sharp Gold Mystery.

After contemplating for quite a while and testing a few times, he finally realized that the power of the Sharp Gold Mystery varied depending on the method of application.

When he released the same Sharp Gold Mystery, it appeared very rough, not only easy to see through, but also easy to break.

The Sharp Gold Mystery used by the enemy was different. It was released in a stable and firm manner, optimizing the use of Sharp Gold Mystery and thus making its attack more effective than Du Gang’s.

Seeing this, Du Gang quickly started learning from his enemy.

It took him a full day to learn all the methods of applying the Sharp Gold Mystery possessed by the enemy.

“Enemies in the Cultivation Sites are created based on a standard norm. This means this is merely a benchmark; actual people in reality surely possess stronger techniques.”

After understanding this, Du Gang did not rush to the next level Cultivation Site. Instead, he increased his opponents from one to two. Just like before, both were of Cosmic Ninth Rank and possessed Sharp Gold Mystery.

This time, the situation changed a bit. The two enemies applied the same techniques during the fight, but when combined, they yielded a different kind of power.

Du Gang was having a hard time dealing with them. He was on the defensive most of the time, running around. If he hadn’t frequently used his movement techniques to dodge, he would have been eliminated already.

This was not because he needed to use the movement techniques, but because he was trying to save money and fight a bit longer.

Through ceaseless combat, Du Gang gradually gained insight, reducing the intervention of the movement techniques. In the end, he managed to evenly match the two without using them.

By this point, it was clear that his progression with Sharp Gold Mystery was incredibly fast, and his understanding had deepened significantly.

“Continue!”

Feeling the benefits of the two sparring partners, Du Gang quickly increased the number of enemies. This time, he was fighting against three enemies at once.

Just like before, when he couldn’t fight them effectively, he chose to flee using his movement techniques. Then, he slowly understood their tactics. Once his understanding was nearly complete, he reduced the use of his movement techniques and finally, he engaged them purely based on Sharp Gold Mystery.

Clearly, Du Gang had found out the proper way to utilize the Cultivation Sites. That is, to continuously understand and improve oneself through the enemy’s attacks. And yes, his talent and perception skills were extraordinarily strong too.

If it were others, it would’ve taken them several decades or even hundreds of years to fight against nine enemies, all possessing the same Mystery.

But Du Gang did it!

He was now fighting against nine Cosmic Ninth Rank enemies, all possessing the Sharp Gold Mystery.

“Bam, bam, bam!”

After fighting for a month, Du Gang could not hold back any longer and successively defeated the nine enemies attacking him simultaneously.

When he killed the last enemy, he finally achieved complete mastery of the Sharp Gold Mystery, and concurrently, the Sharp Gold Domain was instantly executed.

“Finally comprehended the Sharp Gold Domain!”

Du Gang had a faint smile on his face. Clearly, he had truly mastered the Sharp Gold Mystery to perfection now.

“Next up is the War Gold Mystery!”

Without rest, he quickly selected another enemy, this time with War Gold Mystery.

Just like before, he maintained resistance, learned and understood, and finally increased enemies in a continuous cycle.

A month later, Du Gang’s body shuddered again as he completed the War Gold Mystery and the War Gold Domain appeared!

Now, he possessed two dual domains!

When overlapped, their power surged two hundred times!

After mastering the War Gold Domain, Du Gang didn’t stay in the Intermediate Level Cultivation Site any longer and proceeded to the Advanced Level Cultivation Site.

The enemies at these Cultivation Sites were merely virtual characters after all. They operate within a standard line. After learning everything, they naturally lose their usefulness.

To say, the Cultivation Sites really got the short end of the stick encountering someone like Du Gang who possessed such strong talent and comprehension skills.

You should know that ordinarily, one would need to come to the Cultivation Sites thousands of times, or spend tens to hundreds of years to reach Du Gang’s learning level.

But Du Gang went from facing one enemy to facing nine enemies and learnt everything that was along the standard line.

You should know that this standard line is set by the virtual universe according to the standards of the entire universe.

“Next, I should go to the Advanced Level Cultivation Site!”

In total, Du Gang spent less than twenty thousand White Dragon Coins at the Primary and Intermediate Level Cultivation Sites, a very economical investment. Probably, no one else could have matched his cost-effectiveness ratio.

This time, he was very restrained. Even if he very much wanted to comprehend the Hidden Mystery, Dazzling Light Mystery, and Friction Mystery as well in the Intermediate Level Cultivation Site, considering the potential wasted time, he ultimately gave up.

Focus on main Gold Element!

In the Advanced Level Cultivation Site, the enemy’s cultivation base is the Domain Lord Ninth Rank.

The upper limit of the enemy’s strength is a Nine-level Domain!

Just like before, starting from the First-level Domain, for each additional domain level, double the fee is added.

For each additional enemy, the fee also doubles likewise.

Apart from this, different domain levels come with different costs, the higher the level, the more costly it is.

This means that in an advanced cultivation site, the minimum cost could be just ten thousand White Dragon Coins, but if a powerful enemy is chosen, the cost can go up to several hundred thousand or even one million.

Though it seems not much, one must understand that this is just the physical manifestation cost. If the enemy dies and needs to be resurrected, it costs money again. Similarly, if the cultivator dies and the enemy disappears, you would need to pay again to resurrect.

Therefore, choosing a just right enemy, not too strong to kill the cultivator or too weak to render the training ineffective, is crucial.

In addition to this, the cultivator has to make sure not to completely kill the enemy lest they incur more expense.

Keeping this in mind, Du Gang, not for the sake of showing off but to save money, only selected an enemy equipped with a Rank One Sharp Gold Domain.

To keep things fair, he too only used his Rank One Domain.

As expected, the same as before, even though they had the same elementary ten-meter domain range, his enemy was much more skilled and powerful in their deployment and application techniques.

Seeing this scenario, Du Gang, of course, didn’t waste any time. While fighting, he fervently studied, absorbing all of his enemy’s experiences like a sponge.

After three days of fierce combat, Du Gang managed to steal all the enemy’s techniques and application skills. Besides that, his Sharp Gold Domain progressed smoothly, from the previous ten-meter range, it extended to eleven meters.

At this. he naturallv invested one hundred White Dragon Coins to elevate the enemy’s status from the ten-meter range to eleven meters.

The enemy at the eleven -meter level didn’t prove to be much stronger than the one at the ten-meter level. That is to say, they didn’t teach Du Gang any more techniques than before.

Thus, he maintained a schedule of increasing the enemy’s domain by one meter every six hours and started to practice diligently.

He trained non-stop for an entire month.

Du Gang’s Sharp Gold Domain reached a hundred meters, which equated to an intermediate domain level. This meant that the additional effects of the Sharp Gold Domain had become a hundred times more powerful.

Adding the War Gold Domain, the combined effect of his two domains was a thousand times more powerful.

It could be said that his combat power had increased significantly, to the extent that he could overwhelm ten of his past selves!

He glanced at the time. The Peak Genius Race organizing committee would announce the rules of the Open Audition competition in 27 days.

“I need to make good use of these 27 days. Hopefully, I can cultivate my War Gold Domain to the intermediate level during this period...”

Du Gang quickly summoned his enemy again and started his training using the same method as before.

This gesture made some of the more naive and inexperienced participants feel warmly supported, their faces brimming with heartfelt gratitude.

After ending the call, Du Gang turned to Barabra and asked, “Barabra, are there any additional rewards for the Open Audition?”

“Yes!”

Barabra pulled up the relevant information promptly.

Preliminary Open Audition: First place in each galaxy, rewarded with one Stellar Crystal.

Second and third places in each galaxy, rewarded with five thousand Source Crystals.

Fourth to tenth places in each galaxy, rewarded with one thousand Source Crystals.

Eleventh to one hundredth places in each galaxy, rewarded with one hundred Source Crystals.

Looking at the rewards, Du Gang’s jaw dropped in shock, only stammering out after a while, “They’re... stingy!”

“Add it all up, and the rewards total about forty thousand Source Crystals. You have to understand, over one billion people have signed up in the Milky Way.

That’s over one billion Source Crystals!”

Barabra chuckled, “That’s not how you calculate it. Everyone, regardless of whether they advance or not, only pays the sign-up fee once. There are no extra charges for continued participation in the competition...”

“Right now, the preliminary round is just the first competition within the galaxy, so less rewards is normal...”

“The rewards increase as the competition continues. According to the previous trend of the four major companies, most of the entry fees they receive aren’t even one-tenth of the resources they end up giving out...”

“Of course, the only ones who can really get those very valuable resources in the end, are usually the geniuses in their cosmic center...”

With that explanation, Du Gang understood. Indeed, with so many competitions still to come, the one billion Source Crystals collected would certainly be slowly rewarded.

Thinking about this, he hurriedly asked, “What about the mid-round Open

Audition? How are the rewards?”

Barabra grinned and pulled up the rewards for the mid -round Open Audition again.

Open Audition awards: First place, rewarded with one hundred Stellar Crystals.

Second and third place, rewarded with fifty Stellar Crystals.

Fourth through tenth place, rewarded with ten Stellar Crystals.

Eleventh through one hundredth place, rewarded with one Stellar Crystal.

One hundred and first through one thousandth place, rewarded with a

thousand Source Crystals.

One thousand and first through ten thousandth place, rewarded with a hundred Source Crystals.

The awards this time were a hundred times the preliminaries, but to Du Gang’s eyes, it was still too little.

After all, he needs ten thousand Nucleus Crystals to break through from the Stellar Level to the Cosmic Level!

After looking at these rewards, Du Gang laughed and said, “Those who rank between one hundred and one and one thousand and one, won’t they be infuriated when they see these rewards?”

Missing one rank, ten times the reward is lost. That’s too harsh!

Barlala laughed, “In the universe it’s this ruthless, only the best people have the right to get more!”

“Actually, these rewards are not insignificant. Normally, a Stellar Level would need only about ten Stellar Crystals to be fully energized. And the four major companies only give their outer-door disciples a quota of one Stellar Crystal every hundred years. Receiving so much from one competition is completely sufficient and can save a lot of people a lot of time...”

Du Gang shrugged and shook his head, “To be honest, those who can really get ahead, aren’t they all peak cultivators? At the top of their game? That’s why I feel like these rewards are still somewhat... underwhelming.”

Seeing him say this, Barlala chuckled and showed the rewards for the final round of the Open Audition.

Open Final rewards: First place, rewarded with ten thousand Stellar Crystals.

Second and third place, rewarded with five thousand Stellar Crystals.

Fourth through tenth place, rewarded with one thousand Stellar Crystals.

Eleventh through one hundredth place, rewarded with a hundred Stellar Crystals.

“Just Stellar Crystals as rewards? No other precious treasures?”

Barlala laughed, “Of course there are, but they should be in the later stages of the competition. The Open Audition is just the first stage. There are still four stages to go!”

“Ten thousand Stellar Crystals in the Final Open Audition is equivalent to being able to raise my height by ten thousand meters?”

Ten thousand Stellar Crystals, for anyone, is a fortune. It’s enough for a Stellar Level powerhouse to exchange for a Nucleus Crystal and then break through to the Cosmic Level.

But for Du Gang, it could only increase his height by ten thousand meters.

Suddenly, Du Gang thought of a question. If he found himself outmatched in subsequent matches, could he transform into a giant?

He couldn’t transform now when he was in the Killing Field. He didn’t know if he could in the subsequent matches.

Hesitating no longer, he quickly dialed Fan An’s number.

“Du Gang, what’s up?”

“Brother Fan, you know that I can transform, but it seems that the virtual universe can’t scan my body. Do you think, in the future, if I want to transform during a competition...”

Fan An laughed and said, “It’s not that the virtual universe can’t scan your body, it’s just that our Light Computers here are of a not high enough level to distinguish your unique constitution...”

“I haven’t missed any of the previous Cosmic Peak Talents Competitions, and there were quite a few people with special constitutions who could transform, so in the later matches, they will surely be able to scan. However, White Dragon Mountain Elementary Cosmic Nation definitely doesn’t have this kind of Light Computer...”

Fan An’s base of operations is within the territory of the White Dragon

Mountain Cosmic Nation and its tens of thousands of affiliated star systems.

After all, he himself came from one of the star areas. He didn’t have a chance to go to a higher-level universe unless he was able to break through to the

Domain Lord Level in the future.

After ending the call, Barlala pulled up the detailed rules for the preliminary round of the Open Audition.

Preliminary round rules of the Open Audition: Single Elimination, Group

Preliminary Elimination, Group Round Robin, King of the Hill Ranking Match. Single Elimination: All competitors are paired up, lose one matchup and you’re out.

Each round eliminates half of the contestants. One round is conducted each day, until the number of contestants is reduced to ten thousand. Then the Group Preliminary Elimination begins.

Group Preliminary Elimination: The remaining number of people are equally divided into a hundred groups for one-on-one random matching battles. Each victory earns one point. A total of ten battles are held. The top ten people with the most points in each group qualify for the next round.

Group Round Robin: The remaining thousand people are divided into a hundred groups to conduct a Group Round Robin. There are ten people in each group. They each fight one another, determining the final first place in each group, who will then qualify for the next stage.

“This seems complicated...”

After reading through the rules, Du Gang felt somewhat confused.

Barlala laughed and said from the side, “It’s actually not that bad. The Group

Preliminary Elimination means all the people go into random matchups. Each battle is a clear win or loss. The loser is directly eliminated, the winner moves on to the next round...’

“According to the current number of entrants in the Milky Way Galaxy, you need to compete in 21 rounds to advance to the top ten thousand!”

“Once you are in the top ten thousand, you’ll go into Group Preliminary Elimination. Each group has a hundred people and they randomly battle ten times. A win scores a point. At the end, the top ten people from each group who have the most points advance to the next round.”

“Then, the remaining one thousand people are randomly split into a hundred groups again. This time, each group has ten people. Everyone will fight the other nine people, determining the final first place in each group. They will qualify for the Middle Competition of the Open Audition!”

“The final King of the Hill Ranking Match is a competition among the top hundred to rank each other!”

Du Gang nodded, “Understood. In the first stage, I have to compete in 21 rounds and must win every time. Then in the second stage, I compete another ten times, aiming to be in the top ten and advancing to the third round. In the third round, I have to compete another nine times, with the goal of being the first in the group to move on to the next stage?!”

“Precisely! ”

Du Gang laughed, “A person only has to compete in about forty matches in total. They could be done in a day, right?”

Barlala shook his head, “No, each person is only arranged one match a day, so the Preliminary Open Audition would take about forty days!”

Du Gang frowned, “In the virtual universe, in theory, many matches could be held simultaneously. Why are they stretched out over such a long period?” “Who knows? It might be due to profit, or perhaps some other reasons...”

Barlala laughed, “Just considering the profit aspect, it’s enough. Think about it, every time a competition starts, there will be people opening markets, large and small, in countless numbers. If it’s slower, they could earn a fortune in the market, regardless of the level...”

“What about the rules for the Middle Competition of the Open Audition?”

Du Gang looked for a while but didn’t see the rules for the Middle Competition.

“Usually, they wait until the end of the Preliminary Competition to announce the rules for the Middle Competition...”

“Alright, I have half a year left. I’m going off to cultivate. Call me when the competition starts!”

Having said that, Du Gang left the private room and headed back to the

Cultivation Site..