Age of Evolution

Upon hearing Lin Zhen’s agreement, Yan Qiyue excitedly said, “That’s great! You should go to the arena right away. Remember, I’m in the 68th battle zone, 68399 sub-battle zone. Once you’re there, practice on your own, and when you accumulate 1,000 points, you can choose to join a team. I’ll contact you then.”

Lin Zhen nodded, bid farewell to Yan Qiyue, and left. After going out the door, he teleported back to the South Gate District and checked into a hotel.

In order to enter the Dimensional Arena, Lin Zhen needed to first unlock the qualifications. This was simple; given Lin Zhen’s current status, all he needed was verification.

With a flash before his eyes, Lin Zhen found himself in a spatial domain.

This was a high-tech space, surrounded by flowing images and numbers.

“Hello! Welcome to the Dimensional Arena. Here, you can fight against experts from all races in the universe. You can choose to be randomly assigned to a battle zone, or enter a designated battle zone.”

“I will enter the designated battle zone: Battle Zone 68, Sub-Battle Zone 68399.”

Lin Zhen’s data was quickly generated—Dimensional Arena, Battle Zone 68, Sub-Battle Zone 68399.

There are a total of one hundred major battle zones in the Dimensional Arena, and each battle zone has as many as 100,000 sub-battle zones. This is mainly because there are simply too many martial artists in the arena—so many that they can’t be counted. If they were all together, even the intelligent light brain of the Dimensional Arena couldn’t handle it, so they had to be divided.

Despite this, the number of martial artists in these small zones is still innumerable. The number of martial artists in any sub-battle zone cannot be estimated, as it encompasses the entire universe!

Materialism believes that the universe is infinitely large. The Tianhe Empire alone covers a territory of 100,000 light-years, while the Sanjiang Star Domain Federation has 8,000 such primary cosmic countries, and the Fire Kirin has over 10,000 intermediate civilization cosmic countries.

Fire Kirin can be described as boundless, and here, there are over 30,000 boundless cosmic nations martial artists. How many is that exactly? It may be beyond the scope of any measurement unit.

After Lin Zhen’s data was completed, he immediately entered the Dimensional Arena.

There are two parts to the Dimensional Arena: one is the personal space where various battle information and rankings can be seen.

The other is the public area, where any information can be accessed without having to look it up, and communication is more convenient. Here, martial artists can participate in team battles and various other fights, which is when the real money-making begins.

Lin Zhen was currently in the personal area. Once here, there were no staff to guide him, and everything could be queried through intelligent life forms.

“Chris, check my current situation, and what should I do next?”

“Master, you can now participate in the newcomer points challenge. Here, you get three points for winning, one point for a draw, and you lose one point for losing. You can only participate in team battles when you have 1,000 points.”

“So, can’t I participate in battles with bets right now?”

“There’s one way: individual arena battles, either as the challenger or the defender.”

“How does that work?”

“A martial artist sets up an individual arena, and the arena owner sets up a prize pool. The challenger can choose to bet the entire prize pool amount or part of it.”

“Can the arena go on indefinitely?”

“No, the individual arena has a limit of one hundred games, and most individual arenas here also have this limit.”

Lin Zhen nodded, indicating that he understood. He first checked how many cosmic crystals he currently had at his disposal.

Lin Zhen was really broke. With the 50 billion out of reach, he only had a mere 30 cosmic crystals left in his possession!

He then checked the minimum setting for individual arenas. The lowest limit for Black Hole stage martial artists was 100 cosmic crystals; anything below that amount could not be set up.

“It seems I can only choose to challenge. Chris, help me find an arena I can challenge.”

“Master, you can currently only challenge Black Hole stage arenas, but 30 cosmic crystals is not enough. I suggest you borrow some money. The minimum one-time challenge requires 100 cosmic crystals.”

Lin Zhen’s first instinct was to turn to his family. Yue’er and An Ning should have some assets, and the income from the solar domain should be with them. Although he wasn’t sure about the exact amount, several tens of millions of cosmic crystals seemed doable.

Just as he was about to make contact, Lin Zhen stopped. He didn’t want to worry his family. They might think he was poor and desperate outside, so he didn’t want to make them worry.

As for borrowing money from others, Lin Zhen didn’t want to do that either. Instead, he temporarily left the personal area and entered the public area.

The public area was packed with people—or rather, not just people.

Some martial artists looked more like a pile of rocks piled up, only revealing their figure when they stood up.

Others appeared to be a mass of metal, or even a small car or an airplane—these were metal life forms.

Some looked like wild beasts, bugs, mermaids, undead, angels, and so on—there were strange creatures of all kinds!

Glancing around, Lin Zhen suddenly saw a high platform with the words “Loan Office” clearly written on it.

A thought struck Lin Zhen, so he immediately went over.

“Can I borrow money here? What procedures do I need to go through?”

“Yes, the maximum loan amount is 10 million Cosmic Crystals. All you need to do is leave your identity. With the Dimensional Universe in place, no one can cheat on their debts. The interest rate is 10% of the principal per day, at the earliest repayment is the next day, with a settlement period of every ten days. How much would you like to borrow?”

Lin Zhen couldn’t help but be amazed. This was practically high-interest lending – a loan of 10 million doubled to 20 million after ten days, and then to 40 million after another ten days. If there were any issues with repaying the loan, it would certainly become a nightmare.

But Lin Zhen didn’t need that much money right now. He only needed 100 Cosmic Crystals for the Black Hole Period arena match – a match he felt confident he would win.

Moreover, Lin Zhen didn’t like waste, so he didn’t need to borrow too much.

“What’s the minimum amount I can borrow? Can I borrow 70 Cosmic Crystals?” Lin Zhen calculated that he had 30 in his possession and figured that borrowing another 70 would be enough – any more would be wasteful.

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a burst of laughter from behind him. “Hahaha! Are you kidding? This place has a minimum loan of 10,000. What are you going to do with 70 Cosmic Crystals? Buy candy? Play house?”

Lin Zhen turned around and saw a tall, imposing Demon Clan member standing behind him.

This person had green skin and two sharp horns on his head. He was at the Black Hole Peak level and looked powerful.

Seeing Lin Zhen look back at him, the Demon Clan member sneered, “What are you looking at? I am Chamos from the Tiannan Cosmic Nation. If you don’t like it, you can challenge me in my personal arena. But I must tell you that you need to bet at least 10,000 Cosmic Crystals to qualify for a challenge in my arena. Don’t let a rookie like you lose so badly that you wet your pants, haha!”

Lin Zhen’s eyebrows twitched, displeased with the Demon Clan member. In truth, Lin Zhen’s current strength made him look down on others at the Black Hole Period.

“Leave me your arena number, I’ll be there.”

The Demon Clan member readily gave Lin Zhen his number and left with a triumphant laugh.

“I’ll borrow 10,000!”

If the minimum loan amount was 10,000, Lin Zhen would choose to borrow that much.

After leaving his identity information, he received 10,000 Cosmic Crystals.

“Repay 11,000 by tomorrow at the latest.”

Lin Zhen nodded and left.

“Chris, look up Chamos’ arena information.”

Chris quickly found the information: “Master, Chamos’ arena has had 75 matches, and he currently has a record of 73 wins and 2 losses. In those two losses, the challengers did not take his entire bet, so he is still the reigning champion. The total prize money in the pot is… 4.2 million Cosmic Crystals.”

“Can I challenge him repeatedly?”

“No, each person can only challenge an arena once. So, I suggest that you accumulate wealth first. The more capital you have in these arena matches, the more money you can make. It’s like rolling a snowball – the more money you have, the more you can earn.”

“I understand. Find me all the arenas that I can challenge right now, starting with the Black Hole Period. I’m going to show the entire Universe Country who the top person in the Black Hole Period is!”

“I’ll find them for you right away.”

Chris quickly pulled up a list on the virtual screen, displaying tens of thousands of Black Hole Period personal arenas within the 68399 Small Battle Zone.

Some arenas had accumulated billions of Cosmic Crystals, while others had only tens of thousands.

Challengers could choose to challenge a portion of the prize money or the entire amount, but they needed to have that money first; otherwise, they would be unqualified.

“I’ll choose Xue Du from the Colorful Cloud Empire. He has 15 consecutive wins and is in the Late Black Hole Stage. I will challenge him for 10,000 Cosmic Crystals.”

The challenge was quickly sent and accepted within 20 seconds.

Personal arenas could not refuse challenges, unless you continuously declined them – in which case, you couldn’t withdraw your pots and wouldn’t be able to participate in other battles.

If you put up an arena, you should be brave enough to accept challenges from across the universe!

The scene flashed, and Lin Zhen found himself on a circular arena.

There were no spectators around. A challenge involving only 10,000 Cosmic Crystals had little attention value. People were more interested in high-stakes, peak showdowns.

A man with green, flowing hair and a gloomy face appeared across from Lin Zhen.

Glancing at Lin Zhen with a disdainful expression, the man named Xue Du snorted, “What a waste of my time. I hate rookies like you who only bet 10,000 just to spar with experts and learn their techniques. Don’t you know that if the skill gap between us is too large, you won’t learn anything?”

“Of course, I know. That’s why I don’t plan on wasting my time talking to you. You’re just the first step in my accumulation of wealth!”

Lin Zhen’s eyes hardened, and he unleashed Mental Shock!

Without even needing his Spiritual Evil Spirit Cone, the direct Mental Shock was enough for an instant kill.

Xue Du failed to react at all, collapsing backward and dying on the spot.

“Ding~! Congratulations, Master, on winning the challenge. After deductions, your total Cosmic Crystals amount is 19,930!”

Lin Zhen rejoiced inwardly. With this method of doubling his wealth, he knew he would become rich as long as he continued!