Leon couldn’t help but let out another massive yawn.
Looking at Leon’s exhausted, sleep-deprived state, Zachary remembered the text message he had sent him the previous evening.
When questioned about why he hadn’t waited after school, Leon had simply replied that he went to buy a combat pet.
As childhood best friends who frequently scraped by working part-time jobs together, Zachary knew for a fact that Leon didn’t possess the kind of liquid capital required to purchase a monster.
So where did the money come from?
To Zachary, the answer was glaringly obvious.
Zachary patted Leon on the shoulder with profound sympathy.
“I still have half a bag of dried goji berries left at home.
I’ll bring them over for you later tonight.” “Huh?” Leon was taken aback.
When his brain finally processed the implication, his face darkened instantly, and he roughly shoved Zachary’s hand off his shoulder.
“Get lost!
What kind of garbage are you talking about?” “Hey, look at you, still playing tough!” Zachary lowered his voice and winked suggestively.
“We’ve been brothers for how many years?
You think I don’t know your exact financial baseline?
Buying a pet?
Could you even afford the packaging?” “Just admit it, man.
If you didn’t go sell your body to a wealthy benefactor at that high-end women’s club, where else would you get the cash to buy a monster?” “I borrowed it, alright?
It’s a loan,” Leon muttered, a slight flicker of guilt crossing his face.
“So this is where you were hiding, Zachary.” A deep, boisterous voice suddenly cut into their conversation.
Leon’s frame stiffened almost imperceptibly as he looked up.
A massive, heavily muscled teenager was walking toward them.
The guy stood half a head taller than Zachary, with exceptionally broad shoulders and a thick torso.
He wore a tight black T-shirt that accentuated his bulging chest and massive biceps.
The newcomer was none other than Garrick.
“The principal is looking for you,” Garrick said as he walked up, slapping Zachary’s broad back with casual familiarity.
“There are tons of students entering their trial instances today.
If any unlucky bastards get injured on the field, the faculty will be counting on you, our top Holy Priest.
The main support line shouldn’t be slacking off out here.” “Got it, I’m on my way,” Zachary said listlessly, looking completely defeated.
Because he was a support-type healer rather than a direct combatant, he wasn’t permitted to enter the solo initiation trial instances.
Instead, the principal had drafted him into mandatory medical service for the day.
“By the way, Leon, let me introduce you guys.
This is Garrick.
We just met yesterday, but he’s an awesome guy and loves fitness just like me.
We hit it off immediately and even went to the gym together last night.” Zachary grinned, slapping Garrick’s shoulder as he spoke.
“Hey there.
I’m Garrick.” Garrick looked down at Leon, flashing a knowing smile.
Watching the display, a cold shiver ran up Leon’s spine from the soles of his feet.
Zachary threw his arm around Garrick’s shoulder.
One was loud and honest, the other enthusiastic and buff; they looked exactly like long-lost brothers who had finally reunited.
What an incredible tactic.
In just a single day, Garrick had completely won over Zachary to the point of brotherhood.
It looked like the day Garrick got on top of his friend wasn’t far off.
Cough, cough.
Leon cleared his throat, feeling a heavy wave of internal guilt.
“Uh…
Zachary, my countdown to enter the trial instance is almost up, so I need to go prepare.
You guys go handle your duties, don’t let me keep you from important business.” “You’re a Beast Tamer with no high-tier backing.
Aren’t you just going to get instantly flattened the moment you spawn into a high-difficulty map?
What is there to prepare?” Zachary gave him a bizarre look.
“Can you say literally anything encouraging for once?
Get lost.” After waving Zachary off, Leon pulled up his internal system interface to check the countdown.
Personal Trial Instance Teleportation Window: [Status: Accessible].
He would be automatically pulled into the dungeon once the timer hit zero, but candidates could choose to deploy up to thirty minutes early.
Seeing that he still had a few minutes to spare, Leon pulled out his smartphone and launched a global livestreaming application.
Humanity currently possessed three dominant streaming platforms: Starry Sky, Prodigy, and Peerless.
Leon had registered an account and a broadcast room on the Prodigy platform the night before.
Launching the app, he was stunned to see millions of active streams listed, whereas the baseline average usually hovered around a hundred thousand.
He swiped his thumb across the screen, scrolling through the directories.
His eyes swept over the thumbnail images and titles.
Each listing clearly displayed the streamer’s name and class tier.
[Zhao Wuji – Berserker (Purple Rare, Medium Grade)] [Su Xiaonuan – Pyromancer (Blue Elite, High Grade)] [Wang Tiechui – Shield Guardian (Blue Elite, High Grade)] Beneath the class rankings were the custom stream titles: If you don’t grind while you’re young, you’ll end up on the wrong end of a Sword Qi strike.
Watch me cleave the heavens with a single blade.
Dear Mom, come in and check out your boy.
Five consecutive A-tier combos, watch me sweep the instance!
I’ve spent half my life wandering; anyone who enters this stream is my godfather.
Shocking!
What this innocent Archer did to a wild Goblin will blow your mind!
To maximize their exposure on this high-traffic day, the streamers were throwing out all their unique talents and cooking up the most sensationalist titles possible.
After all, the initiation trial instance served as a mini college entrance examination.
If an applicant performed exceptionally well, they could bypass standard examinations entirely and be directly recruited by major mercenary guilds, massive corporations, or top-tier universities.
You had to hand it to them; these people were absolute marketing geniuses.
Leon himself couldn’t resist clicking into the clickbait Archer stream to see what it was about.
The loading icon spun briefly before a sharp whistling sound and an agonizing, blood-curdling screech blasted out of his phone’s speaker simultaneously.
Leon instinctively clamped his thighs together, a faint phantom ache radiating through his lower body.
On the screen, a sweet-looking girl with a round, chubby face was pulling back a delicate shortbow.
She was laser-focused, firing arrows in rapid succession—and every single missile was homing straight into a wild goblin’s groin.
The goblin was clutching its lower half, its eyes bulging out of its head as it foamed at the mouth.
It curled into a ball like a boiled shrimp while thrashing wildly on the dirt.
The chat box was moving at lightspeed with comments: Holy crap!
Who is this girl?!
Three shots, three direct nutcrackers!
That’s horrific!
I just opened the stream and my legs instantly locked together.
The phantom pain is real!
My mom just walked into my room and asked why I was kneeling in front of my phone while grabbing my crotch…
Brutal!
Those goblins are structurally ruined!
This isn’t an innocent Archer, this is the Testicle Terminator!
Please, sis, just give them a quick death!
My own junk hurts just watching this!
Instant follow!
This girl is savage, I love the gap moe!
Leon’s eyelids twitched violently.
The visual input was far too graphic, so he quickly exited the room before his head started throbbing.
Then, checking the clock again, he navigated to his personal broadcaster settings and clicked the button to apply for streaming authorization.
As an extremely rare Legendary-tier class, the platform’s terms guaranteed that once his credentials passed official system verification, he would receive prime homepage promotion slots and a massive initial injection of traffic.
Generally speaking, when a Legendary professional launched their first stream, the platform would route at least several hundred thousand viewers to their channel to brag to the public: Look, we have a top-tier Legendary talent on our platform.
He tapped the screen to submit his verification files.
Meanwhile, inside the content review department at the Prodigy platform’s corporate headquarters.
Across a massive open-plan office, hundreds of monitors displayed live feeds from various dungeon instances.
The ambient noise was a steady hum of rapid mechanical typing and hushed discussions.
A junior reviewer wearing black-rimmed glasses stared intently at his console.
Suddenly, he let out a sharp gasp.
He quickly moved his mouse, clicking open a backend application file that had just hit the queue.
“Supervisor Zhang!” He spun around, calling out to a bald, middle-aged man standing a few desks away.
The supervisor was currently clutching a thermos, completely hypnotized by a beautiful female streamer dancing on his own monitor.
“We just received a priority streaming application from a verified Legendary class!”