As soon as the Human Emperor Banner came out, I became the Lord of the Old Ones

Chapter 179 The Lush Prey

As Xu Yan was weaving through the crowd, he heard many new members say that they had transferred from the "Glory" and "Ben Teng" clubs.

Because after discounts of 30% and 40%, the Star Shatter Club offers far better value for money than the other two high-end clubs.

It seems that the management of Shattered Star Club has also realized that Dawn City's economy is deteriorating and cannot maintain the coexistence of the three major clubs in the long term.

In the future, it is very likely that only one high-end spirit card club will be able to survive in Dawn City.

That's why they acted first, even at a temporary loss, to steal the customers of the other two companies.

As for profits, we can slowly raise prices to recover after the "Glory" and "Bestune" clubs are both defeated.

As long as we keep high-end users in our grasp, there will always be ways to make money.

Of course, this approach of killing a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred of your own requires extremely substantial funds and involves enormous risks.

A slight misstep could result in a lose-lose situation.

Considering that this year, the Shattered Star Club has obtained exclusive distribution rights for several new products from major card manufacturers, including annual new products such as "Silver Moon Meteor," only the Shattered Star Club can obtain the goods.

It seems they've managed to latch onto a powerful figure.

However, Xu Yan estimated that a card dealer like the Shattered Star Club, located in a border city, probably didn't have much leverage to compete with the four major card manufacturing companies.

There are only two reasons why they were able to obtain exclusive distribution rights.

First, the sales commission is reduced to a level where there is almost no profit or even a loss, which is equivalent to helping the card manufacturing company sell sealed cards for free.

Or they signed a betting agreement, stipulating that the Spirit Masters of the Shattered Stars team would use new cards like "Silver Moon Meteor" to achieve unexpectedly good results in large-scale Spirit Master competitions such as the Dawn Cup.

"It seems that the financial pressure faced by Shattered Star Club is even greater than that of Crazy Iron Club."

"They are determined to break through the encirclement and take the lead in the Dawn Cup at all costs."

"So that's why the management resorted to any means necessary to poach Chu Zhifeng and secretly gave him an overly potent enhancement drug in order to perfectly drive 'Silver Moon Meteor'?"

Xu Yan was thinking.

A sudden commotion broke out at the front of the crowd.

It turns out that the Shattered Star team finished their match today and returned to the club.

They are indeed a long-established and powerful team with a deep foundation.

It has many loyal supporters.

Many people waited for several hours just to catch a glimpse of the Shattered Star team.

If I could train with the Shattered Star team, even for just half a minute, it would be worth the high membership fee.

Shattered Star team performed well today.

All the contestants advanced, and there were no more unexpected setbacks.

The athletes were in high spirits. Despite being exhausted and with bruises still visible on many of them, they maintained basic politeness and smiles in front of their enthusiastic supporters.

Their smiles greatly encouraged their supporters.

Members pushed and shoved, the crowd surged and gradually became uncontrollable, rushing towards the Shattered Star team's players.

The other contestants reacted quickly and dodged.

Chu Zhifeng, with a cold expression, seemed to be immersed in his own world, pondering the gains and losses of the battle just now, when he was accidentally bumped into by several members.

He still bore the crisscrossing wounds inflicted by the "Phantom Willow" on his body.

Although the wound was extremely fine and shallow, it had already healed to a great extent after applying the hemostatic gel.

The impact eventually caused some stinging.

Chu Zhifeng's thoughts were disturbed. He narrowed his eyes, and a red light uncontrollably flowed from the depths of his eyes as he glanced at the person who had caused the collision.

The member who bumped into him instinctively shuddered. Despite being surrounded by a large, bustling crowd, he felt an inexplicable chill and fear.

The next second, Chu Zhifeng also realized that his emotions were not quite right.

He shook his head, forcing a stiff smile. This scene was witnessed by Xu Yan, who was secretly observing.

Xu Yan felt more confident.

He had contact with Chu Zhifeng when he was at the Kuangtie Club.

I know that although the other person is cold, they are definitely not someone who can't control their emotions.

Besides, his opponent today was very strong, and he won quite well, so there's nothing to be upset about.

That's a side effect of taking banned drugs that stimulate the nerves.

As for the ingredients of this banned drug...

Xu Yan's little finger trembled slightly.

He vaguely sensed that within his body, the Human Emperor Banner was like a ravenous man-eating flower, eager to open its blood-red maw to devour souls.

It is an aura of malevolence.

Not only was Chu Zhifeng surrounded by a faint but malevolent aura.

Several players from the Shattered Star team exuded an aura that made the Emperor Banner drool.

Moreover, the smell was very familiar, as if I had smelled it somewhere before.

Xu Yan quickly found the source of the similar aura in his memory bank.

It's Rolling Stone Castle, the big boss's underground laboratory.

There are many enhancement drugs stored there, enough to transform the wilderness refugees suffering from the Spirit Corruption Disease into bloodthirsty and ferocious killing machines.

This is very interesting.

Xu Yan obtained classified information about the underground laboratory from Lelena.

I know that the big boss provides data testing services for new drugs and new cards to the major pharmaceutical and card manufacturing companies of the Heroic Spirit Alliance.

However, such data tests are often rather crude and rudimentary.

The problem lies with the experimental subjects.

Using refugees in the wilderness as test subjects has two drawbacks.

If the wilderness refugees are weak, they are often unable to test powerful potions and high-level spirit cards.

The consequences of forced injection and connection are instantaneous convulsions or even brain death.

If the wilderness refugees are strong and mostly suffer from severe spiritual erosion, with countless conflicting remnant soul ripples lurking within their bodies, the stability and purity of the experimental data cannot be guaranteed.

Therefore, the test data leaked from Rolling Stones is often sent to more advanced laboratories and testing facilities within the alliance for deeper calculations, screening, and retesting.

These "more advanced laboratories" are the boss's most direct customers.

The confidential documents contained a lot of customer information.

But the big boss used all sorts of codes, code names, and cryptic symbols that only he could understand.

Xu Yan couldn't be sure who his clients were.

Based on a few relatively clear pieces of information, it can be inferred that some members of the management team at Liming Heavy Industry definitely have close ties with the big boss.

Dawn Heavy Industry is a powerful company, not a target that Xu Yan can hunt down at present.

The Shattered Star Club before him reminded Xu Yan of several vague transaction records in Lelena's data card, all pointing to a major client located in Dawn City.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt that all the features matched up.

Xu Yan's eyes shone brightly.

It was as if he had locked onto a plump prey within his firing range.

(End of this chapter)