Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 243 - 9 Celebration Begins_1

Chapter 243: Chapter 9 Celebration Begins_1

(Apparently, it’s going to be launched tomorrow? I’m not sure either, maybe, I hope more people will come and support after it’s launched, thank you. ps: Thanks to the book friend ddddal for the reward of 1888 starting points.)

The central square of the business district at night has become a sea of joy. This nearly 50,000 square meter plaza has now completely changed. On normal days, there are not many tourists on the square, free white pigeons fly in the air above the square, not afraid of people at all, pigeons always coo for food from the passersby on the square, and people are happy to share the food they carry with the pigeons.

Such a large square, with only a handful of people walking on it, is as inconspicuous as a few stones on the beach, unable to attract the attention of others, so the impression of the central square always appears vacant. As far as you can see, it’s an open space.

But tonight, everything is different.

TThe stage was set up in the center of the square, with ten giant crystal lights hung on the stage. Each light consumes a thousand gold coins an hour. This means that, just for lighting, the Business Federation has to pay tens of thousands of gold coins a night. Surrounding the stage, tiered grandstands, up to ten meters high, were built in an afternoon. These bleachers, circling around the central stage in segments, ensured the order of the venue to the greatest extent.

Right above the stage hung four giant crystal screens made of polished crystal stones. A group of lower-rank mages hired from the mage guild repetitively cast the same spells, using the Eye of the Mage on the stage from a frontal perspective, while others projected the images received by the Eye of the Mage onto the crystal screens using Projection Spell. This method, originally used for surveillance and defense, was completely transformed for civilian use, allowing even those on the last seats to clearly see everything on the stage.

It’s past eight in the evening, and midnight is more than two hours away. More than half of the seats on the stands have already been occupied, and a large number of viewers are still ticking off tickets at the entrances around the stadium. Although entering the venue is by ticket, these tickets are non-sale items, meaning that they cannot be bought with money. Therefore, often thirteen or fourteen days before the New Year, people line up outside the ticket office, enduring the cold wind and snow, staying in line for several days just get a ticket.

This generated a new industry, where some people, even if they didn’t want to attend, would go through the pain to get a ticket, then sell it. On the black market, a ticket for the very last row is priced up to five hundred gold coins, enough for a modest family of three to live for over a year. As for the tickets for the front rows, they are priceless and not necessarily available for any amount of money.

The Commercial Federation’s actions seemed foolish at first, turning out to be a losing proposition. But in reality, the world-renowned New Year’s concert brought huge benefits to the city’s businesses, and the invisible returns can be several or even a dozen times the investment. The clever leaders of the Commercial Federation would never make a loss-making deal.

Although the concert, which officially began at nine o’clock, had an attendance rate of over half an hour in advance, most of the attendees were behind the tenth row. These people usually don’t enter the stadium until after half past eight, and they don’t have to queue up and check tickets like most of the audience, but enter directly from the special channel, avoiding the trouble of crowding.

At the entrance of the special corridor with few people, a silver-white long hair suddenly popped up, and a small head looked around like a thief, and then came out in a very serious posture under the push from behind, and the other three followed her helplessly, heading for their seats.

Of course, it was the four people from Nellie’s Adventure Team who came. Lina led everyone to the area reserved especially for the churches and sat down in the area allocated to the Church of the Earth Goddess. These seats, reserved by the Business Federation for the various churches based on a calculated ratio, have never been filled. The priests and bishops of many different temples in the Holy City, who are respected elders, do not wish to come to such bustling places, and the young apprentices either have no qualifications or dare not take the initiative to ask, so they haven’t been able to get these elder’s tickets, which makes the spaciousness and comfort of this area every year the envy of other viewers.

"Why do I feel that the young men of the surrounding churches are looking at you a bit strangely?" As soon as Pannis sat down, he nudged Lina with his arm and asked in a low voice, "That angry and fierce look in their eyes, tsk tsk, it looks like they want to pounce on you and strangle you."

"Who cares about them?" Lina slung the hair back with a very casual look, holding a very familiar looking book in her hand, and said dismissively: "They are just a bunch of fools, jealous that we got four tickets, just ignore them."

"Is that so?" Pannis looked at Lina with doubtful eyes and said: "I always feel that you did something inhumane to them."

"Hmph, a bunch of petty people." Lina sneered: "Isn’t it just that I grabbed a few tickets from them? They even dare to hold a grudge against me."

"Um, I guess I have to admire the self-cultivation of the clergy." Pannis noticed that the young priests nearby turned red with rage when they heard Lina’s words and some even had bruises at the corners of their eyes, he said in a low voice while covering his mouth: "Even holding it in, they didn’t pounce on you and bite you."

"If you beat up almost all the young male priests in the Temple District in your first year here, you could have had this regard too." Catherine said with a chuckle: "You have underestimated our Lina’s combat power."

"What are you looking at?" Lina snapped her book shut with a loud clap, scowling back fiercely, she brandished her fist and growled in a low voice, "Keep staring and you’re in for a beating."

"So vicious." Under the oppressive gaze, the young priests quickly looked away and resignedly sat back into their seats. Pannis could only sigh and shake his head. "However, I found this side of you seems familiar, like I’ve seen it before."

"Seen before? I don’t recall." Lina paused for a moment with her head down, then said, "Oh, oh, oh, she told me. I have seen it before."

"I remember too, it was Katerina, right?" Pannis said. "She seemed to always like to hang around near the temple."

"Exactly, it’s my special weapon to deal with those rookie priests." Lina replied with a satisfied smile.

Soon, the back seats of the venue were filled, and more and more people were gradually filling the front seats. Among the dense crowd, there were quite a few elves, beastmen, and dwarves. There were even two lizardmen who rarely appeared outside of the Whispering Swamp, seated with their long tongues hanging out in a way that made it hard not to worry about them licking the heads of the spectators in the row in front.

"If anyone here makes trouble, things will get interesting," Pannis observed, looking around the venue with a click of his tongue. "Such a dense crowd, if something really happens, it would make international news."

"Every year, more than three legendary mages preside over this event, who would find life boring enough to cause trouble here?" Lina responded, "Additionally, It’s said that the city master comes to watch the performance every year, do you think anyone would be foolish enough to test the abilities of a demigod?"

"Odin comes too?" Pannis was taken aback, "I heard he’s very busy, but he has time to sneak away and slack off here."

"No matter how busy the chairman is, he can always take an evening off," Catherine pointed out with a glance, "Look there, a few elves are seated in the front row, they must be representatives of the Elven Royal Court. I wonder if we’ll be able to see the legendary Elf Queen."

"We definitely won’t see her, the Elf Queen isn’t here," Pannis retorted casually then quickly followed up with, "I’ve seen her portrait."

"She used to be a former teammate of Lady Nellie. I really wish we could meet her in person," Catherine lamented with a look of longfulness. "It’s a shame we won’t get that opportunity."

"Hush, it’s starting, it’s starting." Lina slapped Catherine’s thigh, "Wake up Vivian, it’s time."

"I’ve tried," Catherine bemoaned, pointing to Vivian who was comfortably sleeping on her, "She said she wants to keep sleeping. I can’t do anything about it. Let her sleep. When things get heated and people start clapping, it should wake her up."

"Bang, bang, bang." Seven or eight mages sent a series of spells into the sky around the stage. Brilliant fireballs, circles of ice and lightning shot into the sky. Exploding into dazzling bursts of light, the constant flashing and intense roar signaled the beginning of the world-renowned magic show.

Just for the ten-minute opening fireworks display alone, seven to eight upper rank gold mages participate throughout. It required their full dedication to control and shape the spells, ensuring the visual effect of the magic fireworks. In the Yarran World, there are only about five to six thousand humans of Gold Rank, among which mages are even more scarce, perhaps around a hundred and fifty. Though there are more mages in the central location of the Mages Guild, having seven or eight take part in just the opening ten minutes is extravagant by any standard.

Amidst the dazzling magical fireworks, the four roommates kicked off their first New Year’s event together.