Volume One: First Signs of Brilliance Chapter Fifty-Four: Martial Association Registration

"The most reliable one would be the Martial Artists' Association website," Lan Yiyi nodded. "It's considered quite fair across all the major safe zones on Azure Star. There have hardly ever been any issues, though the service fees are high." In this, she was not deceiving Wang Jue.

Unlike those small, shady sites that often traffic in illicit goods, reputable platforms would never touch such black market items.

"How much is the fee?" Wang Jue hesitated, but still asked.

He knew all platforms made their profits from service fees—it was only natural. After all, maintaining such a large operation was no simple task. The caveat was, the fee couldn't be exorbitant. Especially in a world where strength reigned supreme, who would willingly let a platform reap huge benefits from a hard-fought mission without lifting a finger? No one would accept that.

"How should I ask Lan Yiyi for the website?" Wang Jue wondered, pondering how to broach the subject with her.

Just then, Lan Yiyi handed him something. "Here, this is for you."

It was a black wristwatch, reminiscent of the ones from science fiction movies on his previous life’s Earth—it looked extremely advanced.

"This is the Martial Artists' Association’s exclusive mission watch. Most missions are available on it. When you have time, take a look and find tasks that suit you."

Having handed over the watch, Lan Yiyi made no move to linger. "Do you have any other questions? If not, I’ll be going. I’ll deliver your Star Essence Stones as soon as possible."

"No, that's all," Wang Jue replied after a moment’s thought. He really had nothing more to ask; it was best to focus on recovery for now and deal with everything else after healing.

"Alright, then. Take care and get plenty of rest. While your internal organs are unharmed, you’ll still need time to recover. If anything comes up, contact me by phone." With these words, Lan Yiyi made it clear she wouldn’t waste any more time.

She was a busy woman, after all—her stop here was only to check on Wang Jue’s condition. Now that she was satisfied, she prepared to leave.

At the doorway, Lan Yiyi suddenly halted and turned back to remind Wang Jue, "By the way, you’ll have to explain things to your family yourself. My official report didn’t mention you at all, so you’d best tell them the truth. Otherwise, if they go to the Security Team without knowing, you could be exposed."

"Understood. Thank you, Captain Lan." Wang Jue did not refuse the mission watch. Since she intended to invest in him, he would accept—and repay her in the future, once he had the strength and means to do so.

He was not someone who only took favors without giving back. Rather, he believed in returning kindness tenfold.

As long as he was sure there was no harm to himself, Wang Jue was happy to accept whatever came his way.

However, Lan Yiyi’s final reminder left him troubled and conflicted. How should he explain things to his family?

Lan Yiyi, having said her piece, left without another word.

Soon, Wang Jue was alone in the hospital room.

"This is a real headache," he muttered, sitting on the bed and checking the time on the watch. It was already half past six in the morning—several hours had passed since he lost consciousness.

How should he tell his parents? Should he just say he was in the hospital? That would only make them worry needlessly and serve no real purpose.

While pondering this, he examined his body.

Ever since waking up, he’d felt as if countless ants were crawling over his wounds—a maddening itch, yet somehow oddly pleasant. It made him suspect his body’s healing abilities were truly extraordinary.

Running his fingers over his injuries, Wang Jue found no particular pain—just that tingling itch, which left him feeling uncomfortable all over.

Driven by curiosity, he hesitated for a moment, then simply took off his hospital gown.

"It’s not really painful, just itchy," he mused, pressing experimentally on the bandaged wounds, then on other places. It was all quite tolerable.

Earlier, with Lan Yiyi present, he hadn’t paid much attention to this. Now, with nothing else to do, he could finally check himself over.

If the injuries had been serious, they couldn’t possibly have healed so easily.

After some simple tests, he concluded his recovery seemed a bit unusual.

After all, he’d endured intense exertion and been struck by the cold man’s soft sword. The wounds and blood loss were real. There was no way he should be recovering so quickly and effortlessly, even if his organs and bones were intact—normally he’d need at least ten days to half a month of rest.

Yet as things stood, Wang Jue felt he could probably get up and run a few laps right now.

"Could I have some special constitution?" he wondered for a moment, then shook his head. "No, if that were true, it should show up on my status panel."

In the end, he chalked it up to his golden finger.

At any rate, the faster he healed, the sooner he could be discharged and spare his family further worry.

Satisfied that his recovery was better than anticipated, he found himself itching to leave immediately, were it not for the risk of being seen as a freak.

After some internal debate, Wang Jue decided to stay in the hospital one more day before going through the discharge procedure.

With that, he quickly grabbed his phone from the bedside table and sent a message to his mother, saying he was helping a classmate with revision and would be staying over for two days.

He had to inform them, after all.

Thankfully, his abnormal recovery meant he wouldn’t have to stay in the hospital for long, avoiding suspicion.

Just as he’d finished sending the message, his phone rang.

"Hello? Where are you?" His mother’s voice came through as soon as he answered.

Clearly, she was worried. If not, she wouldn’t have called immediately after receiving his message.

"I’m at a classmate’s place. Just woke up. I’ll have breakfast with him, then we’ll go to school together," Wang Jue replied, pretending to know nothing of what had happened at home. He spun a story—the best solution he could think of at the moment.

"Weren’t you home last night? Why did you suddenly go to a friend’s? Did you hear what happened at home?"

She’d just received a call from her son last night, and now, first thing in the morning, trouble had come to their door. Liu Wenjing, anxious in the hospital, feared for her son’s safety.

Though someone had since reassured them he was unharmed, their family was still deeply worried.

"I didn’t intend to go, but my classmate came looking for me. I couldn’t refuse," Wang Jue said quickly, wiping imaginary sweat from his brow. "Alright, got to go—my friend’s calling me to eat. I’ll be back tomorrow, don’t worry."

The less said, the better when lying.

That much experience Wang Jue did have.

"Wait—" his mother began.

"Got to go, bye! Tell Dad for me," Wang Jue cut her off, hanging up before she could continue, and let out a sigh of relief.

Lying to his mother like this did make him feel a little guilty.

Soon after, his phone buzzed with a new message.

"Don’t come home tomorrow. Contact me or your father directly," it read—it was from his mother.

"Got it," he replied, sensing that she thought he was still in the dark about the situation at home and had no intention of letting him come back right away.

A misunderstanding, perhaps, but it worked in his favor.

With that settled, Wang Jue, unable to sleep, opened the mission watch Lan Yiyi had given him.

To his astonishment, a virtual screen—about twenty centimeters long and ten centimeters high—appeared above the egg-sized watch.

The main interface was divided into three sections: personal account, mission list, and resource exchange.

Without hesitation, Wang Jue tapped the resource exchange panel.

A familiar yet surprising message popped up:

"Registration required to proceed. For more information, please register and read the details."

Following the instructions, Wang Jue began the registration process. It turned out, the account was tied to his personal ID number.

Not everyone could register—wanted criminals, for example, were barred from using the Martial Artists' Association watch at all. Without registering, one couldn’t access the mission or exchange panels.

After a moment’s thought, Wang Jue entered his details. It wasn’t a big deal; after all, for those with real skill, obtaining someone’s information was easy. For ordinary people, information leaks were unavoidable—if someone wanted it, even the most secretive would be exposed.

"Good morning, and welcome, Mr. Wang Jue."

"To avoid unnecessary trouble in the future, you may use your real name or choose a pseudonym as your code name."