The various towns received the news immediately and were instructed to quickly organize a participating team.
They were to head to White Night City for a 7-day training period.
After 7 days, the competition would officially begin.
Upon hearing about the competition, the various towns naturally took it very seriously, arranging for their strategy groups to organize personnel overnight, first conducting a round of selections within their own towns.
Then, on the morning of the second day, the participating teams from the various towns had already arrived at White Night City via the system's temporary extradition regulations.
However, on the very first day of arriving, Xu Gaoyuan discovered that the sky had fallen...
That damned Tide Town claimed to provide training grounds for the representative teams from various regions.
But it turned out that their "provision" simply meant that the 100-person capacity wouldn't be accessible to other non-participants, not that it was free for participants.
In short, the advantage participants had over regular adventurer transactions was that they didn't need to queue!
That was all.
In other words, these venues still charged a fee.
Damn it.
Each entry consumed one usage count.
Xu Gaoyuan was furious on the spot and messaged Li Yunque to question him.
"Every professional player needs long hours of training to reach their optimal state. How can five daily uses possibly be enough?"
Regarding Xu Gaoyuan's question, Li Yunque relayed it, and Chen Yu admitted that he had indeed been negligent.
Thus, Chen Yu offered a solution.
That is: if one runs out of the five daily uses but still wants to enter and continue intensive training, others can consume their uses on their behalf to exchange for admission tickets.
As long as one possesses enough admission tickets, there are no restrictions on unlimited entries per day.
As for the method of exchange...
First, one must enter the Dungeon, then select the admission ticket exchange option, and proceed into a special map.
By dying five consecutive times, one can consume five uses and exchange for one admission ticket.
Yes, that's right.
One admission ticket required five uses, which meant five soul crystals.
Xu Gaoyuan woke up to find that the sky had truly fallen.
Private messages flooded in.
The Tide Town Leaders of various towns angrily stated that they hadn't slept a wink the previous night, staying up to select seeded players for the pre-competition training, and this was how White Night City treated them?
They accepted that the players consumed their uses!
At least when uses were consumed, they still received some rewards upon settlement, just like entering a Dungeon normally.
But was it not utterly absurd for accompanying personnel to consume five uses to exchange for one ticket?
Was White Night City's conduct not a bit too unsightly?
The most infuriating part was that there was absolutely no gameplay involved when exchanging for tickets; it was purely for dying upon entry.
This made the Tide Town Leaders of the various towns incredibly angry.
They all questioned Xu Gaoyuan, who was the director of the event organizing committee.
Similarly, Ma Lingzhi also questioned him, "What in the world is going on with you? I didn't even hold it against you when you accepted bribes from Li Yunque before, and now you're pulling another stunt like this. What benefits did you receive from him?"
Looking at these private messages, Xu Gaoyuan nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood.
Benefits?
What benefits did I receive? Before this started, I never imagined that the training grounds he mentioned only meant no queuing!
I also never imagined that an admission ticket would be priced at five uses!
That's five uses!
And five uses with no rewards whatsoever...
Xu Gaoyuan couldn't even imagine how there could be someone in this world more black-hearted than him; in his entire life, the most black-hearted Dungeon Lord he had ever seen didn't even come close to a ten-thousandth of this!
Normally, a professional player training 20 times a day is basic.
But with this arrangement, even training 10 times a day would mean strangling their Adventurer's Guild.
How could they train under such circumstances?
No wonder the Tide Town Leaders below were protesting so strongly.
Yet, Xu Gaoyuan couldn't explain.
Explain what?
Explain that this competition was not actually hosted by White Night City, but that they were hosting it on behalf of Tide Town, and that all their hard work for so many days was actually for Tide Town, with White Night City receiving no benefits whatsoever?
Explain that all of this was Tide Town's doing, and White Night City was completely unaware?
Explain that White Night City also had no way to solve this problem, and that they were now completely at the mercy of Tide Town?
Who would believe that if it were said out loud?
Moreover, if it were indeed said out loud, White Night City would lose all face.
Although, the price increase for training grounds also caused a loss of face.
But it didn't have to be White Night City's face that was lost; as long as Xu Gaoyuan, as the director of the organizing committee, took responsibility, then only his own face would be lost.
After clarifying these relationships, Xu Gaoyuan's face was as dark as anything.
Especially when, among these private messages, the Tide Town Leader was the most vociferous, Xu Gaoyuan was so angry he nearly choked again.
Damn it.
What kind of people are these from Tide Town?!
They're infuriating this old man to death...
But despite his anger, Xu Gaoyuan had no other choice but to grit his teeth and remain silent.
White Night City.
In a particular isolated training base, all participating members from every town were arranged.
They were all from various towns, and they often communicated and discussed matters.
At this moment, the Tide Town Leaders of a dozen towns were gathered in a circle, their expressions filled with indignation.
"I'm furious! This Xu Gaoyuan is truly going too far. Providing the venue was something White Night City should have done, yet he did this," said the Jinshan Town Leader, slamming the table.
The Tide Town Leader chimed in, "Isn't that right? It's simply too much, absolutely unreasonable!"
A middle-aged woman with a worried expression interjected; she was the Tide Town Leader of Creek Valley Town.
"Our town is small, and resources are already tight. Our players' uses are precious, but are the uses of other personnel just blown in by the wind? They need to live too! Now, for sparring, they're all being used up to 'buy tickets' to their deaths... What kind of situation is this? How do we explain this to our townspeople when we go back? Tell them White Night City made our people queue up to die?"
The Tide Town Leader said, "Exactly, it's just too much."
"The most infuriating thing is the efficiency!" another white-haired but sharp-eyed Tide Town Leader hammered the table.
"Training! What we want is training effectiveness! Now, we can barely buy a few admission tickets a day. How can the players get enough opportunities for full training? If this continues, what's the point of this competition?!"