Chapter 9 The Celebration Begins
(It is said that it will be released tomorrow? I don’t know. Maybe, I hope everyone can support it after it is released. Thank you.ps: Thank you book friend ddddal for giving 1888 Qidian coins)
At night, the central square of the commercial area has become a sea of joy. This square with an area of nearly 50,000 square meters has now completely changed. In the usual days, there were not many tourists coming and going on the square. The white pigeons were leisurely flying over the square. The pigeons, who were not afraid of people, always cooing and asking for food from the tourists passing by the square. People are also happy to take out the food they deliberately carry with them and share it with the pigeons.
In such a large square, there are only a few dozen people walking on the square, as inconspicuous as a few stones on the beach, and it cannot attract others' attention at all. Therefore, the central square always gives people the impression that it is empty, and looking around, it is open.
But tonight, everything was different.
A two-meter-high stage was set up in the center of the square, and ten giant crystal lamps were hung on the stage. This large lighting facility that required two thousand terrestrial capacity crystals to be activated. One thousand gold coins per hour is burned. In other words, the Commercial Federation will have to pay tens of thousands of gold coins in one night. Around the stage, a stepped stand was set up in the afternoon. The highest point of the stand was as high as ten meters, all of which were spliced with detachable metal parts, made by skilled dwarf craftsmen, and thousands of manpower was spent this afternoon to build it within a few hours. These stands circled around the central stage, set in sections, and each section was independent and independent. Members of the city guards were responsible for guiding them to the maximum extent, ensuring the order of the venue.
Right above the stage, four giant crystal screens were hung with splicing of crystal stones. A group of low-level mages hired from the Magister Guild kept monotonously performing the same spells. Some magisters released the magi's eye from a frontal angle on the stage, and another group of magisters used projection techniques to cast the image received by the magi's eye on the crystal screen. This spell, which was originally used for surveillance and defense, was completely transformed into civil use. Using this method, even those on the stands at the end could clearly see everything on the stage.
Time has passed by 8 o'clock in the evening, and more than two hours left, midnight is coming. More than half of the seats in the stands have people sitting, and a large number of spectators checked tickets in the several passages around the stands. Although they entered the venue with tickets, the tickets here are not sold, which means that they may not be able to buy them if they have money. All tickets are issued by the Federation of Commerce, and some of them were made for appointments for all countries, ethnic groups and places half a year ago.
Of course, the two overlap in many cases. The other part is done by the city guards and set up a separate institution, which will be distributed to the public for free from the first ten days of the New Year, and each person will receive one. Therefore, often in the thirteen or fourteen days before the New Year, there are long queues outside the door of the invoice point. People who want to participate carry coats and quilts, and hold in the team in the cold wind and heavy snow, waiting for a few days just to get a ticket.
This move has driven an industry without any intention. Some people will work hard to get a ticket even if they don’t want to participate and then sell it. On the black market, the last ticket was sold for 500 gold coins, which is enough for a family of three to live a simple life for more than a year. As for the tickets in the front row, it can be said that there is a price but no market, and it may not be possible to buy it no matter how much it costs.
The behavior of the Federation of Commerce looks stupid, and it invests a lot of money. A performance show includes the labor costs of equipment resources, plus the fees paid to the invited artists, it may cost millions of gold coins in advance and after, but there is no income, which is obviously a loss-making business. But in fact, the world-famous New Year's Show Show show has huge benefits for the business of the entire city, and the invisible returns may be several times or even dozens of times the investment. With the wiseness of the leaders of the Federation of Commerce, it is impossible to do business at a loss no matter what.
Although the attendance rate of the performing arts fair officially started at 9 o'clock has exceeded half of the attendance rate one hour in advance, most of the people who came here are from ten rows. Before the ten rows, they were specially reserved for key figures, and now there are not many people. These people often enter the venue one after another after eight o'clock. There is no need to queue up to check tickets like most audiences, but enter the venue directly from the special passage, saving the trouble of crowding.
At the entrance of the special passage with few crowds, a long silver-white hair suddenly appeared. A small head leaned out like a thief and looked around for a while before he pushed him out in a very serious manner. The other three followed her helplessly and walked towards her seat.
Of course, the four people from Neri's adventure group came. Lina took everyone to the area reserved for each church and sat down in the area allocated to the Goddess of the Earth. Over the years, the tickets assigned by the Federation of Commerce to each church were reserved according to the calculated proportion, but this area has never been seated. Many priests and bishops of the Temple of the Saint Capital are respected elderly people and are unwilling to come to too busy places. Young apprentices are either ineligible or staring at each other and dare not ask for tickets to these elders, which has caused the looseness and comfort of this area to be full of envy for other audiences every year.
"Why do I think the young people from the sects around me look at you in a bad way?" Panis sat down and hit Lina with his arm, asking in a low voice: "That fierce look full of anger, tsk, it looks like he is about to pounce on you and strangle you to death."
"Who cares about them?" Lina held a familiar book in her hand, shook her long hair very freely, and said indifferently: "It's just a bunch of idiots. Just be jealous of us who can get four tickets, just ignore them."
"Is that true?" Panis looked at Lina with squintessential eyes: "I always feel that you have done some inhumane atrocities to them."
"Tsk, a bunch of stingy guys." Lina curled her lips disdainfully: "Didn't she just rob them of a few tickets? She dares to hold a grudge against me."
"Well, it seems that I have to admire the clergy's self-cultivation." Panis saw the young pastors nearby who were angry when they heard Lina's words, and some of them had bruises on their eyes. They covered their mouths and whispered: "I can even hold back this and didn't rush over and bite you."
"If you beat up all the young male priests in the first year of your visit, you can get this kind of treatment," Katherine said with a smirk: "You underestimate our Lina's combat effectiveness."
"What do you think?" Lina closed the book with a snap, glared back with a fierce look, waved her fist and roared in a low voice: "Look at it again, be careful to get beaten again."
"It's really cruel." After discovering the oppression, the young pastors immediately withdrew their gaze and sat down with a grievance. Panis could only sigh and shook his head: "But I find that you look familiar with this now, as if you have seen it before."
"Have you seen it? Why don't I remember it?" Lina lowered her head and was silent for a while: "Oh oh oh, she told me that she had seen it."
"I remembered it too, Katerina, right?" Panis said: "It seems that when I'm in the area near the temple, I always like to come out."
"Yes, this is a special weapon to deal with those little priests." Lina smiled proudly.
Soon, the back row of the venue was full, and there were more and more people in the front row. In the dense crowd, there were a large number of elves orcs dwarves. There were even two lizard men who rarely appeared outside the whispering swamp, and they also sat on the chair with their tongues sticking out. When their long tongues were stretched out, they couldn't help but worry that they would lick the heads of the audience in front.
"If someone makes trouble, it will be lively." Panis looked around the venue and said, "With such a dense crowd, it's world news that something really happens."
"Any three legendary masters are invited here every year. Who would come here to make trouble if life is boring?" Lina said: "What's more, it is said that the city lord will come to show every year. Do you think someone is bored to come to test the power of the demigod?"
"Odin will come too." Panis was stunned: "It is said that he is very busy and he actually has time to come here."
"No matter how busy the president is, he can always take a night out." Catherine suddenly signaled with her eyes: "Look at the other side, several elves are sitting in the front row, and it seems that they are representatives of the elves' court. I wonder if I can see the legendary elves queen."
"I definitely won't see it, the Elf Queen didn't come." Panis said casually, and immediately added: "I've seen the portrait."
"That's Lord Neri's teammate from the past. I really want to admire him in person." Catherine sighed with a fascination: "It's such a pity, there's no such opportunity."
"Shhh, it's starting." Lina slapped Catherine's thigh: "Wake Vivian, it's time."
"I'm calling." Catherine smiled bitterly and pointed at Vivian who was sleeping soundly on her body: "She said she wanted to continue sleeping, and I had no choice. Forget it, let her sleep. When people applauded in the heat, they would wake her up."
"Bang bang bang." Seven or eight mages released magic in the sky around the stage. The gorgeous fire balls and ice rings rushed into the sky, exploded in the air and turned into a brilliant ball of light. The continuous flashing light and violent explosions for ten minutes were herald the official start of the world-famous performing arts fair.
The ten-minute magic fireworks performance at the opening of the show was participated by seven or eight high-level golden rank mages. Even if the magic was released, they had to be fully guided and shaped to ensure the visual effect of the magic fireworks. There are only five or six thousand gold-level professions in the entire Yara world, among which there are even fewer mages, with a maximum of about one hundred and fifty. Although there are many mages located at the headquarters of the Mage Guild, seven or eight were invited at a time just for the opening ten, which is a big deal from any angle.
Chapter completed!