Chapter 349: Timely Rain (1/2)
The next day, I woke up at 6:30 in the morning. It was way earlier than I expected myself to wake, but I didn’t feel like sleeping anymore, so I washed myself and went downstairs to buy three sets of breakfast. After eating breakfast, I immediately went online.
Swhoosh!
Sky City inn, 7 am. I took a look at my friend list and found no one online. There was over 2.5 million gold in my backpack, so I logged onto the trading platform and converted them into 2.5 million yuan. Next, I transferred 500k, or 20% of the Purple Thunder War Axe’s sale price, to Murong Mingyue as contributions to the workshop. 20% was pretty fair all things considered; it was more or less the same percentage as what an individual would pay for their income taxes. Of course, you didn’t actually get taxed inside the game, or no one would use the official trading platform. After all, why should we allow ourselves to be exploited by them?
……
I repaired my equipment before walking toward the plaza. There should be a lot of foragers selling ingredients at the plaza right now; a bunch of men and women shouting on top of their lungs to get rid of their Chicken Meat for 50 silver per stack, Fish Meat for 2 gold per stack, Turtle Meat for 5 gold per stack, and so on. With high level came higher mana expenditure, and some of my newer skills such as Dragon Slaying Slash and Thunderous Charge consumed a lot of MP, so it was time I made some high-rank Magic Consumables. Right now I had almost 700 MP, meaning that only Rank 8 Magic Consumables could restore my MP to full.
I hid my ID and walked into the plaza. It was as busy as I expected it to be. Since most of the foragers I saw were above Level 70, it meant that there should be high-rank food ingredients such as Turtle Meat for sale.
I spotted a Level 84 Warrior called “Timely Rain” beneath the city wall. It was a middle-aged man who seemed to sell Turtle Meat and Turtle Meat only. It just so happened that I needed a large amount of Turtle Meat to make my Rank 7 Magic Consumables, so his presence really was as timely as his ID would suggest.
I walked up to him and asked with a smile, “How much for your Turtle Meat, uncle?”
“4.8 gold per set, no haggling.” Timely Rain shot me a glance and noticed that my ID and level weren’t visible to him. “You’re above Level 84? Not bad. Is Cooking your profession skill?”
I nodded. “How many sets of Turtle Meat do you have?”
“120 sets including the ones in the warehouse. You want them all?”
“Yeah. Can you lower the price to 4.5 gold since I’m buying everything you have?”
“Sure, no problem!”
Timely Rain looked astonished. “How big is your inventory, brother?”
I smiled. “It’s okay. Do you want to add each other as friends? I may purchase more food ingredients from you in the future.”
“Okay!”
I started cooking after adding Timely Rain to my friend list. While I was working, I asked, “Why are you still selling Turtle Meat, brother? They’re already starting to fall behind the curve. Why didn’t you try hunting the Snow Rabbits? A stack of their meat could sell for 20 gold or more. It’s worth far more than Turtle Meat!”
Timely Rain smiled helplessly before shaking his head. “That’s a tall order you’re asking. Snow Rabbits are Level 115 elites, and they can only be found at certain areas at the center of Dragonbone Mountain Range. I tried going there a couple of days ago, but two Snow Rabbits attacked me and one-shot me with ease. I highly doubt that I’ll be able to hunt down any Snow Rabbit unless I reach Level 100 at minimum.”
I checked out his equipment for a bit and noted one Dark Gold–grade item coupled with several Gold-grade ones. “Are you a solo player?”
“Yep. You noticed?”
Timely Rain chuckled. “I’m a full-time solo player right now. There was a layoff at my factory some time ago, and I was one of the unfortunate ones. I have a family to raise, and none of the interviews I went to were successful, so I bought a low-quality helmet and gave Heavenblessed a try. And now I’m here. My plan is to farm high-rank ingredients and use half of my income to get better gear. Then, once I’m strong enough, I would move on to more difficult zones to farm even better food ingredients.”
I smiled understandingly. It was the same story for many other full-time players. Still, he did well to earn enough money to feed his family. Not everyone could stand at the top of the pyramid after all.
I was thinking of recruiting Timely Rain to the guild, but in the end I decided against it. One, it would require him to give up his current lifestyle. Two, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was neither a refuge nor the government; we didn’t provide our players with relief payment. Finally, Timely Rain simply wasn’t strong enough to join us, so it would be better for both of us if we stuck to our separate ways.
……
Almost 10 minutes of cooking later, over 140 stacks of Rank 7 Turtle Soup that restored 800 MP in one go appeared in my bag. This should be enough to last me a month at least.
It was at this moment a beep entered my ears. System Notice: Your friend “Wind Fantasy” has come online!
Very good, it looked like Beauty Lin was early as well!
“Hi, Little Cheat~” Lin Yixin messaged me.
I replied with a smile, “Hi, pretty pretty…”
“Fuck!”
Lin Yixin stepped out of the inn and partied me immediately. She said, “We’re heading out in 5 minutes!”
“Give me the party leader.”