Chapter 11: Business is Booming

Liu Kongkong had changed the price of the [Skull-Cracker Hammer] to 30 silver coins each. He had wanted to list it higher, but honestly, it was still a starter weapon at the end of the day — something players would only use for leveling up. At 30 silver coins, the price already filtered out the vast majority of players.

"This game has gone absolutely insane. 4,800 yuan for a starter weapon? That's more than my whole month's salary..."

"You're looking at it wrong. NPCs don't convert in-game currency to real money. For them, 30 silver might actually be considered cheap."

"Fair point. And there are only six of them anyway. Those stone weapons over there are the real option for regular players like us."

When Liu Kongkong had opened the shop today, he'd noticed the storage had been restocked with some level-5 stone weapons, so he'd put those out on display as well. Their stats were perfectly ordinary — 4 Attack, which was already a decent weapon for a typical level-5 player — and they were priced at 50 copper coins, very wallet-friendly.

"Hey, friend — I already let you have those weapons earlier. Shouldn't these hammers be my turn now?" Night's Gentle Chill's tone was less than pleasant. After killing the Stone Wolf King yesterday, a piece of equipment had indeed dropped, but it was a dagger, which naturally went to Heart and Soul. The first-kill reward chest had contained a bracer, so he currently had no decent weapon in hand.

As for Big Dumb Duck — just as Night's Gentle Chill had suspected — he'd had something come up yesterday and had only logged in this morning, putting him at level 2. But like Night's Gentle Chill, he had his own team, and a bigger one at that: a full thirty people. So these weapons were being bought for his team members.

"Brother Night, I'm really sorry about this. I've got a lot of guys under me and they all need decent weapons. You know how slow leveling is in this game — with these hammers, the efficiency goes way up." Big Dumb Duck spread his hands helplessly.

So there was no room for negotiation? Night's Gentle Chill's expression darkened, and he was just about to open his mouth to make an offer when the system chimed: transaction complete.

What are you two performing in front of me? This is a proper blacksmith shop, not an auction house! Liu Kongkong hadn't given either of them a chance to play their little game. He hadn't been able to tell who had initiated the trade first, so he'd simply given three to each of them and called it done.

"Hahaha, a pair of idiots! Trying to haggle in front of an NPC when the prices are clearly listed!" The crowd of onlookers behind them burst into laughter.

Well... fair enough. Night's Gentle Chill and Big Dumb Duck exchanged a glance. They'd been so caught up competing with each other that they'd nearly forgotten that little detail.

Liu Kongkong didn't have time to keep dealing with those two. Lonely as a Song's forum post had drawn a lot of curious onlookers, and among them were quite a few who had grinded through the night to reach level 5. Seeing the 50-copper weapons, their fingers itched — and the hundred weapons in the shop sold out in no time at all.

Another fifty silver coins into his pocket. Gazing at the three gleaming gold coins and the pile of silver and copper in his inventory, Liu Kongkong struggled to keep the corners of his mouth from curling up.

Hold it together. If you laugh out loud, you'll blow your cover completely!

And today's stock wasn't even sold out yet. Liu Kongkong glanced at the hundred-plus [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick] weapons sitting in storage and was just about to put them out — when he turned and caught Night's Gentle Chill giving him a pleading look.

What's this guy trying to say? He doesn't want me to put them out? Heh. Too bad for him.

Without a word, he listed them all immediately.

The crowd, who had been about to leave now that the weapons were sold out, suddenly heard a commotion behind them.

"New stock?!"

"This starter village blacksmith has a lot of inventory, huh?"

"There you go being dense again — it's all just data. The backend refreshes and poof, more stock appears!"

Unlike the others, Night's Gentle Chill felt a chill run through his entire body at the sight. A quick scan told him there were at least one hundred and forty or fifty [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick] weapons laid out on the table.

This stuff was the real deal! If he could get his hands on all of them, the level-5 boss was as good as dead.

"I'll take them all!"

That was Night's Gentle Chill and Big Dumb Duck shouting simultaneously — the latter had taken one look at the stats and immediately grasped just how terrifying these sticks were.

"Give me one!"

That was the nearly thousand-strong crowd shouting all at once.

Everyone... everyone wants one? Liu Kongkong stared blankly at his trade panel, which was practically overflowing — requests for one, requests for two.

Whatever. If you want to buy, I'll sell!

He furiously confirmed transaction after transaction. The [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick] weapons on the table dwindled at a rapid pace, and the expressions on Night's Gentle Chill's and Big Dumb Duck's faces grew increasingly ugly...

These spectators have such fast hands?! And what are you even going to do with one or two of them? It's obviously only effective when you use them in bundles!

But they soon understood exactly what these people planned to do with one or two sticks.

"Fresh off the press — top-tier divine weapon [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick], only one available, selling at cost for 2 silver coins, first come first served!"

These damn scalpers!

Night's Gentle Chill and Big Dumb Duck stood to the side, grinding their teeth in fury — but the items really were useful. Night's Gentle Chill recalled yesterday's fight against the Stone Wolf King: their five-man party had all attacked together, and forty [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick] weapons had shaved off a quarter of the Stone Wolf King's HP in just a few seconds...

"Damn this blacksmith." Night's Gentle Chill cursed under his breath as he bought a [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick] from a player for 2 silver and 50 copper. As he kept buying, the scalpers even raised their prices on the fly.

Pfft. What's that got to do with me? I run a shop and sell weapons — is that not allowed? Liu Kongkong snorted dismissively and turned to walk back into the blacksmith shop. Now that the stock was sold out, he naturally had to make more, and the pile of in-game currency in his inventory needed to be converted in batches as well.

* * *

Thirty minutes later.

"We were still too slow collecting them. Getting the first kill on the level-5 boss is going to be tough." Ye Weinuan tallied up their haul — they'd spent over one gold coin and only managed to collect 47 sticks...

"It's fine. Weapons matter for fighting a boss, but coordination matters just as much. Once you aggro a boss in the starter village, only five players can participate at most — everyone else just has to stand on the sidelines and watch. Big Dumb Duck's group may have the numbers, but that doesn't mean they can necessarily take down the level-5 boss, the Ten-Eyed Spider." Night's Gentle Chill spoke calmly, though his body was already very honestly making its way at a brisk pace toward the boss's location.

After tasting the sweetness of a first kill, the group had been hunting for the next boss ever since. They'd wiped a few more times feeling out the boss's abilities, and had originally planned to lock down this batch of [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick] weapons to secure the kill — only for Big Dumb Duck to suddenly appear out of nowhere and throw their entire plan into chaos.

Big Dumb Duck, meanwhile, had already started contacting his crew. Before logging in, his team had actually been far more than thirty people — the others were just scattered across different starter villages.

"The following numbers, get to the starter village entrance ASAP. Number 1, Number 4..." Big Dumb Duck rattled off orders quickly, and before long, five people came running over from a distance.

"Take these. We're getting the first kill on the Ten-Eyed Spider today, no matter what." Big Dumb Duck distributed all 72 [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick] weapons he was carrying, and handed one [Skull-Cracker Hammer] to one of the Warriors in the group.

"Boss, the max party size in this game is five. You called five of us over, which means..." One of them looked at the four brothers beside him, confused.

Big Dumb Duck's face darkened. "Obviously, you idiot — I'm only level 2! If I tag along, how the hell are we supposed to get a first kill?! You five have been grinding together for a day already, your coordination should be solid. Take the gear and get moving. Keep an eye on Night's Gentle Chill's group — if necessary, you can just kill them outright."

In Hunt Heaven, there was no level-based protection. If you wanted, you could start killing players the moment you created your character, right there in the Starter Village! The only catch was that you had to be able to survive the attacks from the Starter Village guards...

"Got it, Boss. Leave it to us." Number 1 gave a solemn nod. He was the team's full-Strength-invested Warrior, and judging by his EXP bar, he was nearly at level 6. The [Skull-Cracker Hammer] and 32 [Deadly Strike of a Single Stick] weapons were all on him — and with the [Skull-Cracker Hammer] equipped, he was almost certainly the player with the highest Attack in Starter Village No. 0113!

As for why "almost."

Because Lonely as a Song, the Warrior who was already level 7, still hadn't allocated his stat points...