After hearing the story from the woman with the mole, all the elders present looked astonished.
The old master of the facility furrowed his brow. "You’re saying some kid rented a simulator for a month and completely drained its magic energy reserves?"
"Yes," the woman with the mole nodded earnestly.
"Why didn’t you mention this sooner?" the old master demanded.
The woman with the mole said in a panic, "I wasn’t paying much attention at first, but just a moment ago, the magic energy reserves started plummeting. It was about to be completely depleted."
"What? Almost depleted?" The old master shot to his feet. After a moment of stunned disbelief, he turned to the other elders and apologized. "Please wait here for a moment, everyone. I’m going to see what’s going on."
"Let’s all go. We’re also quite interested in this youngster who can drain a simulator dry," a beautiful, gentle-looking old woman said with a soft chuckle.
The other elders nodded curiously and chimed in, "We have nothing better to do anyway. It can’t hurt to take a look."
"Very well. This way, my old friends." The master, momentarily speechless, nodded. He turned back and said, "Young lady, what are you waiting for? Lead the way for our seniors."
"Oh." The woman with the mole snapped out of her daze and said hurriedly, "Seniors, please follow me."
And so, led by the woman with the mole, the group of elders from the third floor swept down to the first floor of the facility in a grand procession.
As they arrived, the clamor in the simulator area died down instantly. The onlookers all stepped forward to greet them with a bow.
When the beautiful old woman saw Bai Yin was also there, she smiled and walked over. "Xiaoyin, you’re here too?"
Bai Yin nodded, her beautiful eyes wide with surprise. "Teacher, did this even alarm the senior master of the facility?"
"But of course. Don’t be fooled by how prim and proper that old fellow acts. He’s actually incredibly stingy. There’s no way he’d miss something like this," the old woman chuckled, covering her mouth.
Bai Yin glanced at the old master in astonishment, then couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.
Seeing the old woman, Senior Brother Bao, who was standing nearby, became utterly flustered. He bowed and stammered, "Student Bao Dafeng pays his respects to Elder Yun."
"You’re Old Qian’s disciple, aren’t you? There’s no need for such formalities," Elder Yun said, her gaze kind.
"Yes," Bao Dafeng replied, looking visibly tense.
Elder Yun glanced at simulator number twelve in surprise and asked quizzically, "You all spend a lot of time on the first floor. Do you know who’s inside?"
"This junior is not quite sure," Bao Dafeng said awkwardly.
But Bai Yin replied thoughtfully, "The person inside is named Feng Hao. He used to be a student at our Five Provinces Academy."
"Feng Hao? You mean the guy who humiliated our Power Department?" Bao Dafeng exclaimed in surprise.
"Mmm, I only found out about it later myself." Bai Yin nodded with a frown. To be honest, she rarely paid attention to academy gossip. If Houhuiyao hadn’t brought it up, she would have never known.
"A student from our academy?" Elder Yun paused, slightly taken aback. As a Supreme Elder, she rarely involved herself in the academy’s day-to-day affairs, so she was also unaware of the incident where Feng Hao had killed someone.
Seeing Elder Yun’s confused expression, Bao Dafeng hurriedly began to explain. He recounted everything he knew in great detail, from the killing of Cao Heng and Sha Mingliang to the great disturbance Feng Hao caused at the preliminary tournament.
After hearing of Feng Hao’s "illustrious" history, Elder Yun’s expression grew even more astonished. She nodded, a profound look in her eyes. "A very interesting young man."
BANG!
Just then, a loud bang echoed from simulator number twelve. Everyone stared in shock.
The magic energy reserves of simulator number twelve had been depleted. Accompanied by the loud noise, the machine, which had been running normally, shuddered to a halt.
Outside the pod, the old master’s face was livid. His heart was bleeding from the expense, but he couldn’t let it show in front of so many juniors. He could only wait for Feng Hao to emerge, the corner of his mouth twitching uncontrollably.
The other elders were equally astounded. While keeping an eye on the simulator, they also watched the old master with amusement, as if settling in for a good show.
Before long, under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the pod door slowly opened. A shout that made everyone want to tear their hair out came from within: "What’s the deal with this piece-of-junk facility? I still had three hours left! Why’d it stop?"
Feng Hao stormed out of the pod with a look of annoyance, still grumbling, "Where’s that pretty lady from the front desk? Tell her to get over here, or this young master will file a complaint against your boss!"
"I *am* the boss. And how exactly do you plan to complain?" the old master said through gritted teeth.
"Uh..." Feng Hao froze. He finally realized something was off about the situation outside. ’Why does this feel just like that time at Rongcheng Academy? Did the simulator not malfunction? Did I... drain it dry myself?’
He subconsciously scanned the crowd. Judging by the scene, it was highly likely that he had, in fact, drained it dry.
’Well, damn. This is awkward, isn’t it?’
"Ahem, well... three hours, give or take. It’s not like this young master cares about a little money." Feng Hao put on a nonchalant expression as if he had nothing to do with it and turned to slip through the crowd. "I’ve got places to be, so I’ll be on my way. Hope you all have a good time."
"You think you can cause all this trouble and just run off? Get back here!" the old master roared. With a casual flick of his wrist, he yanked Feng Hao back.
"What do you want?" Feng Hao glared at the old master, declaring with righteous indignation, "Everyone’s watching! You’re not trying to blackmail me, are you?"
The old master had no interest in his nonsense. He gritted his teeth and sneered, "Cut the crap and confess. What were you doing in there?"
"Grinding mobs to practice my skills. What else would I be doing?" Feng Hao retorted, curling his lip.
"Utter nonsense! A level-thirty pipsqueak like you can drain a triple-capacity energy reserve? This old man isn’t that gullible," the old master fumed, his beard practically bristling with rage.
The onlookers also stared at Feng Hao, all of them curious to know how he’d managed it.
Feng Hao grinned smugly, puffed out his chest, and said, "What’s so strange about it? All you need is to prepare enough Qi Recovery Pills."
"Qi Recovery Pills?" The old master paused, frowning in thought. "That’s still impossible. Mages always bring some Qi Recovery Pills into the simulators, but a situation like this has never occurred."
Feng Hao sneered contemptuously. "And you call yourself the boss? Can’t you use your head? As long as you have an unending supply of Qi Recovery Pills, it’s perfectly doable."
GASP!
A collective gasp rippled through the entire crowd at his words.
The old master’s expression flickered uncertainly. He challenged him again, "An unending supply of Qi Recovery Pills for a whole month? Where did you get that many pills?"
"Heh heh, well, you see, my alchemy skills happen to be pretty decent," Feng Hao said teasingly. "I’ve never had a shortage of pills."
The crowd was rendered speechless. The old master was trembling with rage but had no way to retort. He could only grit his teeth and roar, "Xiaozhang! Xiaowang! Get your asses over here! Send out a new directive: from this day forward, using pills inside the simulators is strictly forbidden!"
"Understood!" his two subordinates nodded hastily and scurried off to carry out the order.
"So, we’re all good now, right? I’ll be on my way," Feng Hao announced, trying to leave, only to be yanked back by the old master once again.
The old master snatched the badge from Feng Hao’s chest and barked at the woman with the mole, "You, go get a Nine-Star badge! No, that’s not enough. Make it a Silver Nine Stars!"
"Alright, I’ll go find Lao Hu right away," the woman with the mole nodded hurriedly.
Feng Hao heard this and was about to explode with rage. He had gone to great lengths to pass himself off with a five-star badge, and now this old geezer was going to force a nine-star one on him—a silver one, no less.
’Good heavens, a five-star bronze badge already costs 50,000 Magic Crystals a day to use the simulator. At this rate, wouldn’t a Silver Nine Stars cost 190,000 or even 200,000 a day?’
’Isn’t this the scam of the century?’
"No way! This young master does not accept! Once a five-star, always a five-star! You can kill me, but I’m not switching!" Feng Hao shouted, flustered and exasperated.