My Insect Fusion System: Invincibility Begins with a Cockroach

Chapter 126: The Beast Totem Market

Fortunately, the match wasn't suspended for too long. A staff member from the tournament committee soon arrived at the competitor waiting room for Star City High.

As the homeroom teacher and team leader, Mr. Carter was even more nervous than Fly.

After all, the waiting room was equipped with screens broadcasting the matches live.

The fact that Fly had released a Spectral Roach to destroy Spencer Sinclair's Beast Totem had caused a massive uproar online.

Those demanding that Fly's results be disqualified and that he be held accountable were fiercely locking horns with his supporters, deadlocked in a heated debate.

Now that the staff member was here to announce the ruling, Mr. Carter's heart was practically pounding out of his chest in anxiety.

Fly also stood up from the sofa, his expression much calmer than Mr. Carter's. He didn't think there was anything wrong with what he had done.

At the end of the day, the rules of The Jade State League never explicitly forbade destroying another person's Beast Totem.

"The match results are valid." The staff member delivering the verdict didn't beat around the bush; taking a glance at Fly, he announced the decision straight away.

The tension visibly melted from the faces of Mr. Carter, Genevieve, Vic, and the others.

"But, starting from the next match, destroying an opponent's Beast Totem is strictly prohibited," the staff member immediately added.

"Understood." Mr. Carter hastily replied on Fly's behalf, assuring the staff member that this would not happen a second time. After expressing his gratitude, he personally walked the man out the door.

"Thank goodness you're in the clear," Vic turned around to console Fly, hoping the kid wouldn't carry any mental baggage over this.

He also felt a wave of relief that The Jade State League's tournament committee was fair. If they had engaged in some shady backroom dealings, Fly would have been in serious trouble.

"No mental pressure, just a bit of a shame," Fly shrugged, his tone even.

Bypassing the Beast Warrior's physical body to directly attack the origin of their Beast Totem could have served as his ultimate trump card. Now that it was outright banned, he felt a bit shortchanged.

Moreover, this method allowed him to interface much more thoroughly with the opponent's Beast Totem, enabling him to acquire its power in its entirety. It was vastly superior to his past struggles, where he would painstakingly obtain the genes of an Insect-type Beast Totem only to assimilate a single specific trait.

"Sigh..."

Seeing Fly lamenting the loss of this attack method, Vic instantly read his mind and let out a resigned chuckle. "Actually, this problem is very easy to solve."

"You have a solution, Vic?" Fly's eyes lit up.

"You being upset about an attack method getting banned is just an excuse. The real shame is losing the chance to comprehensively acquire the power of an opponent's Insect-type Beast Totem, isn't it?" Vic asked rhetorically.

"Yeah, that's it."

"In that case, you don't necessarily have to attack your opponent's totem origin during a match. Why not just buy someone else's Beast Totem data on the trading market?"

In Vic's eyes, Fly's line of thought wasn't wrong; his execution was just off.

Directly attacking or even destroying an opponent's Beast Totem origin in the arena might allow him to gain a more complete set of abilities, but it was hard for the public to accept.

Want data for Insect-type Beast Totems? Just buy it on the open market.

Beast Totem Cards and their corresponding data were freely circulated on the market. As long as you had the connections and the capital, you could buy anything.

For instance, wasn't that exactly how Gideon King managed it? With the financial backing of his mother, the Vice-Principal, he purchased the data for The Golden Draconian Beast Totem and grafted it onto his original Komodo Dragon totem, achieving a qualitative leap in his Beast Totem's power.

Furthermore, many powerful Beast Warriors possessed more than one Beast Totem to begin with. In fact, they deliberately acquired many of these totems simply to sell them for profit.

Naturally, they would never sell the data of their primary, most powerful Beast Totems. Instead, after making a name for themselves, they would absorb slightly inferior Beast Totems and then put the data for those totems up for sale.

Established Beast Warriors carried a lot of star power.

Take a Grandmaster-level Beast Warrior like Grandmaster Muse, for example. If he announced that he was selling his Beast Totem data, could you imagine how insane the bidding war would get? (Of course, Muse wouldn't stoop to making money this way. And even if he did, he'd never sell the data of his absolute strongest Beast Totem.)

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Moreover, this wasn't just a one-off deal; it was a sustainable source of passive income.

Much like music royalties or book copyrights, famous Beast Warriors could entrust their Beast Totem data to agency firms and just sit back to collect the royalties. They could rake in those licensing fees for however many years the law stipulated the copyright lasted.

Established Beast Warriors obviously weren't strapped for cash, but cultivating Martial Studies was a notoriously expensive endeavor. Who would turn down an extra revenue stream?

Thus, the market for trading Beast Totem data blossomed.

Of course, where there was legal trade, there was also illegal plundering.

Dean Sterling had heard a rumor that, in the past, a certain Beast Warrior desperate for power had gone so far as to murder nine Grandmasters. He seized their Beast Totem data and, using advanced technology, found a way to forcibly fuse it into his own Beast Totem. In the end, he actually managed to break through the level ten bottleneck and touch the threshold of The Apex.

This incident caused a massive shockwave at the time.

After all, murder and robbery for the sake of power was abhorrent, no matter the era.

Ultimately, that Beast Warrior was besieged by numerous top-tier experts. Driven into a corner, he had no choice but to flee alone into The Martial Sanctum, his whereabouts unknown ever since.

"But the price for buying Beast Totem data must be astronomical, right?" Fly raised an eyebrow.

It wasn't that Fly hadn't considered buying Beast Totem data before.

But he remembered Leo mentioning that Gideon King had paid an absolute fortune for The Golden Draconian totem data!

His current Martial Studies resources were barely enough as it was. Where was he supposed to find the spare cash to afford exorbitantly priced Beast Totem data?

"Gideon King's Beast Totem data was so expensive because it came from the eight elite universities of The Tulip League. Even among all Mythical Species totems, The Golden Draconian is of top-tier quality. Plus, that data was highly mature, tailor-made specifically for grafting," Vic explained.

"But you don't need to chase after those top-tier Beast Totem datasets. Many of the cheaper ones have their own unique highlights. Couldn't you just buy those and assimilate their strong points and advantages?"

"It's called adopting the best parts of what others have to offer."

"For example... in this Jade State League, there are plenty of talented students who lack proper resource backing due to their family backgrounds. Because of this, every year during The JSL, numerous agency firms approach them, trying to get them to sell the copyrights to their Beast Totem data."

"Sell their copyrights?"

"Right. A one-off buyout. They sell the copyright entirely, meaning any future profits and dividends have absolutely nothing to do with the original Beast Warrior."

"Predatory corporate scumbags," Fly scoffed.

"It's unavoidable," Vic said. "These businesses prey on your desperation for cash, using a mix of coercion and bribery. How would an outstanding Beast Warrior from a humble background understand the legal nuances? They see a pile of cash in front of them and sign the contract on the spot."

"Then, these agencies turn around and sell the Beast Totem data at exorbitant markups to kids from middle-class and wealthy families."

Middle-class families had a certain amount of resources, but their children didn't necessarily have high Martial Studies talent. Therefore, they often chose to throw money at the problem to boost their kids' strength, paving the way for a bright future.

And that went double for kids from affluent families.

"Simply put, where there's a demand, there's a market."

"Those predatory businesses recognized this perfectly, which is why they operate with such brazen audacity."

"So, if you take a liking to anyone's Beast Totem data during this tournament, you could try reaching out to them privately. If they're a kid from an ordinary family in a small town, the asking price generally won't be too steep."

"If they happen to be introverted and timid, you could even throw in a little intimidation, and the price might drop even lower. Of course... that's assuming your conscience can handle it."

Dean Sterling laid out everything he knew to Fly, holding nothing back.

He also reminded Fly that his Roach Matriarch totem was equally phenomenal. Since it was widely known that Fly's financial situation wasn't great, Vic predicted that by the end of today's group stage, agency firms would be knocking on his door, asking if he wanted to sell his Beast Totem data.

"That's actually a thing?" After listening to Vic's crash course, Fly was inwardly astonished.

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier..."

If he had known this avenue existed, he would have started buying other people's Beast Totem data ages ago.

"Well, you never asked," Vic laughed.

Right at that moment, a staff member arrived at the Star City High waiting room and said politely, "Competitor Fly, please prepare to enter the arena."

Since his match results were valid, Fly hadn't been eliminated.

Thus, he still needed to continue battling the remaining competitors from Grand River High.

"Coming." Fly nodded with equal politeness. The staff member then left the waiting room.

"Fly," Mr. Carter suddenly called out, stopping him in his tracks. "During that last match, you used the newly acquired ability I originally told you to keep hidden, didn't you?"

Fly nodded. "Yeah. Spencer Sinclair was incredibly tough to deal with, so I had to resort to that tactic. Securing the victory safely was way more important than hiding my strength."

Mr. Carter said, "I'm not blaming you. The moment I saw Spencer reveal his Beast Totem, I felt some regret over the tactical plan I'd set for you... Therefore, I've decided not to hold you back anymore. You can decide for yourself, based on the situation, whether you want to continue holding back your strength."

"Understood." Fly nodded, then left the competitor waiting room.

Watching Fly's receding figure, Mr. Carter muttered under his breath, "This Jade State League is truly packed with hidden monsters."

...

When Fly returned to the arena, the audience erupted in thunderous applause, welcoming his comeback.

At this moment, however, Fly was still thinking about what Vic had said.

Although there was a legal channel to buy Beast Totem data, it also meant taking on an extra financial burden.

No matter how he looked at it, snatching someone else's Beast Totem directly during a match was far more cost-effective.

But Vic was right; attacking another person's totem origin mid-match simply caused too much controversy. Not unless he went back to his old pattern of only assimilating a single ability.

As for the data of his own Roach Matriarch totem, there was absolutely no way in hell he'd ever sell it.

After all, this was Fly's fundamental capital for surviving and thriving in this world.

Naturally, Fly wanted it to remain entirely unique.

Nobody, no matter what methods they used, could ever force Fly to hand over the data for The Roach Matriarch totem!

"Better focus on the match first."

Fly took a deep breath and looked straight ahead. The second competitor from Grand River High had also stepped into the arena, their eyes locking onto each other.

This student was only about five-foot-nine with a rather scrawny build. Upon seeing Fly, he looked visibly nervous. Following the referee's instructions, he slowly made his way to the center of the stage.