Chapter 104 - Preparing for the Future

Nie Yan forced out a smile.「

Oh, then you’re telling me you’re not being foolish right now...?

」

Moon Child and Feiyun were shocked beyond belief when they saw Yao Yao had actually accepted the gift. They both understood Yao Yao’s disposition as she generally never took gifts from others, especially from males. Even on her birthday, she would only accept simple things like birthday cards. Today though, she actually accepted a gift, and from a male no less! There was definitely a hidden story behind this!

「

Yao Yao, what’s your relationship with this person?

」Moon Child whispered.

「

He’s a good friend of mine,

」Yao Yao replied with a somewhat guilty conscience.

「

Really? Just a good friend eh~?

」Moon Child asked in a mischievous tone. The expression on her face showed that she didn’t believe her friend in the slightest.

「

Really! He’s just a friend!

」Afraid Moon Child would continue down this line of questioning, Yao Yao decided to put up a bold front and expressed herself clearly. While her impression of Nie Yan was undeniably favourable, it certainly wasn’t to the extent of love or anything deep like that.

What Yao Yao was unaware of, however, was the special place she held in Nie Yan’s heart. Although he buried the events of his past life deep within the recesses of his mind, memories and emotions like those weren’t so easily erased.

「

Alright, if you say he’s only a good friend, then that’s fine too,

」Moon Child giggled. She seemed to have caught on to something.

“Moon Child, Yao Yao, I have some business to take care of, so I’ll be taking my leave now.” Feiyun was feeling quite bored since she was being ignored by Nie Yan, and Yao Yao and Moon Child were chatting in private, so she decided to get up and say goodbye.

“Feiyun, take care.” Moon Child waved her farewell.

Yao Yao acted a bit cold and detached, simply acknowledging that she was leaving.

Meanwhile, Nie Yan completely disregarded her existence. This cold-shoulder treatment only served to infuriate Feiyun even more, and by the time she left, she was seething with venomous hatred.

Following Feiyun’s departure, the group continued to chat for a brief while, during which even the girls sold a few items of their own as well.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

“Nie Yan, we’re going to head off here. Big Sis Yu Lan (Blue Feather) is trying to get some last minute levelling in, and she wants us to hurry over,” Yao Yao said after checking the new messages in her chat.

“No problem. Let’s chat some other time then,” Nie Yan replied before waving them goodbye.

Afterwards, he checked his system notifications.

「

System: Your Flash Powder x1 has sold for 2 silver, 10 copper.

」

「

System: Your Flash Powder x1 has sold for 2 silver, 5 copper.

」

「

System: Your Sheep Transformation Scroll x1 has sold for 5 silver, 20 copper.

」

The money in Nie Yan’s bag rapidly piled up. Only by limiting the Flash Powder, Web Scrolls, and Sheep Transformations Scrolls he placed on the auction house, would he able to sell them for a sufficiently high price. Although unique items appeared in the auction house all the time, they were often so expensive that only a few players would be willing to buy them. On the other hand, if he sold too many of them, it would gradually lead to oversaturation.

Several minutes prior to the servers shutting down, Nie Yan had sold eight pouches of Flash Powder, six Web Scrolls, and five Sheep Transformation Scrolls, earning him around fifty silver. During this time, he also visited several small towns to purchase Bat Teeth, only to discover that not many players were willing to sell to him. It appeared the information about Blacksmith Kade purchasing Bat Teeth had somehow been leaked, so all the players were selling their Bat Teeth to Kade instead.

Since there’s no more money to be made, so be it... I’ve found two other ways to earn money anyway.

For the time being, he could earn money by selling Flash Powder, Web Scrolls, and Sheep Transformation Scrolls. Then, when the price and demand for Black Phenol soared, he would gradually distribute his supply of that into the marketplace as well.

Before Nie Yan went offline, he once again emptied the marketplace of all Black Phenol, Black Phenol Recipes, and the alchemy ingredients required to craft Black Phenol. After taking note of his stock, he counted eight hundred bottles of Black Phenol or so, three thousand and two hundred Black Phenol alchemy ingredients, and over two hundred and twenty Black Phenol Recipes. Due to his crazy purchasing, the marketplace was nearly devoid of Black Phenol, which resulted in their price increasing. However, since there was no one competing with him to purchase these items, the price didn’t rise by much. Therefore, he was still able to purchase everything relatively cheap.

These Black Phenol Recipes were the most crucial part of his plans. The amount in his possession was already enough to influence the market for Black Phenol for some time to come. In his past life, before Sosil Valley opened, the price of these recipes weren’t expensive at all. However, after the dungeon was released, many Alchemists started to notice the growing demand for Black Phenol and rushed to purchase the recipes in order to enter that market. Even then, the quantity of Black Phenol produced was far from meeting the demand of the countless teams running the dungeon. As a consequence, the price of Black Phenol and its recipes clambered up accordingly.

Yet, at present, all of the recipes on the market had unexpectedly disappeared. In other words, the market suddenly lost over two hundred and twenty Alchemists who could produce a steady supply of Black Phenol. With such a sudden shortage in supply during a time of high demand, the price of Black Phenol was certain to soar much higher than it did in his past life.

In this fashion, Nie Yan was almost guaranteed to make a killing off the monopoly he would hold on the Black Phenol market.

Plus, two weeks after the game’s releases, a new Level 5 dungeon called Medusa’s Lair would be released. The guilds who wanted to get an advantage over others would definitely seize the opportunity to enter the dungeon and get a head start. In this instance, the monsters possessed attacks that could petrify their enemies, so when the dungeon was added in, the demand for consumables and equipment that could prevent or resist petrification would definitely increase. From this point forward, he would slowly stockpile items and equipment with such properties.

Nie Yan glanced at his inventory. He currently had sixty-three silvers to his name. In the early stages of the game, this was already quite terrific, especially considering he was only Level 7. In the game’s present state, a single silver could buy a lot. Even the most expensive Gold-grade equipment was no more than thirty to forty silvers.

Having obtained so many items, Nie Yan tidied up his bag and personal storage, which currently contained rows upon rows of Black Phenol, recipes, and ingredients. After neatly organizing them, it was a rather spectacular sight to behold. The personal storage offered two hundred slots of space for free. Any additional space would require the player to pay rent, one copper a day for every two hundred slots. Nie Yan had rented over five thousand additional slots to store all his items, which amounted to twenty-five coppers a day. However, by now, he had already accumulated so much wealth that this little amount of money was practically negligible to him.

After finishing all his business in game, Nie Yan finally logged off, just as the servers were about to shut down.

When he took off the game helmet, he left his room and headed to his kitchen. There, he took a tube of nutrition tonic out of the fridge and sat near the dinner table. As he drank the tube, he let his eyes wander over his shabby room. From the aged walls to the old chandelier that had collected dust and grease, they all gave him a sense of familiarity and comfort.

He hadn’t received any news from his parents in quite a while now. Thankfully, he already knew the truth and the reason for their disappearance, so he no longer blamed them. For the sake of securing a better life for their family, they were braving great dangers and risking their lives. What right did he have to criticize or fault them?

If his parents took the risk of contacting him, what would certainly await them was death. Thus, he could only suppress his emotions and patiently wait for news of their return.

After finishing the nutrition tonic, Nie Yan proceeded with his daily training, improving his strength, agility, and reaction speed.

Wearing the helmets also had another beneficial effect. During the night, they would send electrical signals through the body, stimulating the nerves, nurturing cells, and allowing the muscles to always be in an active growing state, and the results of a day’s training wouldn’t disappear even after a night’s rest. In other words, one day of exercise in the present was the equivalent to ten days of exercise for a person in the past.

More recently, his training method was efficient, and his body’s nutritional needs were taken care of as well. So in these past few days, he had experienced a substantial growth in muscle. His stature was rapidly growing as well, becoming robust and tall. Eighteen years old was a time of growth for a person’s body, and at present, his body was transforming by the day!

「

Bam! Bam! Bam!

」

Ahard knocking sound came from the front door.

Nie Yan listened carefully. The soundproofing on the house door wasn’t great, so from the messy sound of footsteps, he determined there were at least five or six people outside the door.