Chapter 15: Everyone's a Money-Grubber - I Became the Blacksmith NPC

Hearing what sounded like a compliment from Liu Kongkong, Lonely as a Song happily put his backpack away. The EXP from completing the quest had already been credited — he hadn't leveled up yet, but he was close to level 8.

This guy was probably the highest-leveled player in the Starter Village right now. Outside, players were still locked in a brutal free-for-all, hemorrhaging EXP left and right, and Lonely as a Song had already pulled three full levels ahead of the first-tier pack.

"Oh right, Master Liu, is there anything else you need help with?" Having tasted the rewards several times now, Lonely as a Song had fully committed to this blacksmith. He'd even stopped bothering with the main quest — sure, the main quest gave more EXP, but could it bring in income like this? Could it hand out miraculous items? Put simply, in his eyes, Liu Kongkong's quests were the main quest.

"Ah, you came at just the right time. As a reward for completing the task so brilliantly..." Liu Kongkong reached into the shop's storage and pulled out his proudest creation: a stone longsword — but unlike any other longsword, its name was displayed in green.

This was the premium piece of equipment that only appeared after I crafted a hundred weapons! I even went ahead and enhanced it all the way to +5.

Another weapon? Lonely as a Song felt a surge of excitement this time. After all, it was thanks to Master Liu's weapon that he'd made 80 silver coins last time. He tapped to open the weapon's stats, and instantly sucked in a sharp breath!

What terrifying attack power! And a longsword with an attack speed of 1.5?! And that +5 — was that the legendary enhancement system? On top of all that, the price was only 50 silver coins. Seems like I can actually afford it right now.

"So... is there a discount coupon?" Lonely as a Song asked carefully. Fifty silver wasn't expensive, but cheaper was always better.

Are you out of your mind? I'm selling you a weapon with those stats for 50 silver and you're asking me for a coupon?

Liu Kongkong shook his head, face cold.

"Haha, sorry about that, Master Liu. I'll take it!"

Money exchanged, goods delivered. Longsword in hand, Lonely as a Song bowed his head in thought for a moment — and decided to sell it. He was competitive when it came to gaming, sure, but compared to money, he liked money more.

When he'd sold the discount coupon earlier, Night's Gentle Chill and Big Dumb Duck had both added him as a friend with uncanny timing, so he immediately sent them the weapon's stats, tacking on a single line at the end: "Want it?"

One second later, both replied almost simultaneously: "Yes!"

The two of them were in the middle of an intense fight when the weapon suddenly appeared. Neither was going to pass it up. The attack was nice, but the real draw was the attack speed — while your opponent got in two hits, you could land three. With this thing, winning a one-on-one against someone your level in the early game was practically guaranteed!

Both of them also noticed the enhancement level on the weapon.

Was it a special weapon, or had the blacksmith been updated to a new version?

Standing at the respawn point, both players glanced over at the blacksmith shop at the same time, spotting Liu Kongkong watching the chaos with a leisurely expression.

Seeing that both wanted it, Lonely as a Song quickly pulled them into a group chat.

"Since you both want it, let's do this the usual way — highest bidder wins..."

Here we go again!

Night's Gentle Chill turned to look at Big Dumb Duck, only to find the other player already looking back.

"Fighting is one thing, but we can't keep letting this guy take advantage of us every time. Don't you think?" Night's Gentle Chill was visibly annoyed by Lonely as a Song's tactics. Big Dumb Duck gave a cold grunt of agreement.

Then he typed a bid in the group chat: 60 silver.

"You're really something else." Night's Gentle Chill was so furious his teeth itched. "80."

Here we go, here we go.

Lonely as a Song crouched in the corner, rubbing his hands together — but soon noticed that Big Dumb Duck had stopped bidding...

"That's it? I was at least hoping to sell it for 1 gold!"

Lonely as a Song was deeply disappointed. He'd been thinking that if the bidding got heated enough, he'd throw in that backpack too — but clearly these two had limited funds. Oh well. Still, making another 40 silver wasn't bad. He opened his mailbox, put the weapon inside, set it to cash-on-delivery, and sent it off to Night's Gentle Chill.

"You Bastard — if you're broke, just say so! What do you mean by squeezing me out?!" Big Dumb Duck had a death grip on the pillar at the respawn point while Night's Gentle Chill was desperately trying to shove him out of it.

You couldn't deal damage at the respawn point, but physical collision was still active — and to stop this guy from bidding any further, Night's Gentle Chill had resorted to this desperate measure!

"You started it by being underhanded, so don't blame me for fighting dirty! I told you not to bid!"

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Liu Kongkong watched the two of them scuffling at the respawn point, then glanced over at Lonely as a Song.

This guy was a money-grubber too. The moment Night's Gentle Chill and Big Dumb Duck had both looked over at him, Liu Kongkong had already guessed — this little schemer had probably sold the weapon again.

Truly a man with no higher aspirations.

Liu Kongkong gave Lonely as a Song one final look of contempt, casually listed one gold coin on the trading exchange, and closed up the shop.

"Clocking out, clocking out. Almost forgot — time to allocate some points."

Ever since becoming an NPC, he hadn't had much interest in the attribute points gained from leveling up. After all, even if he allocated them, what was the point? He was an NPC — it wasn't like he could go around fighting other players the way those people outside did.

He continued distributing points evenly, then checked his character panel.

Name: Liu Dameng

Class: Apprentice Blacksmith (Level 5)

HP: 101/101

Mana: 71/71

Strength: 9

Constitution: 11

Agility: 8

Intelligence: 9

Spirit: 8

Available Points: 0

Then he put his skill points into [Time is Money].

"That fills out all four skills. Makes sense — the shop's been doing solid business lately, and crafting one piece at a time really does eat up a lot of time." Liu Kongkong was satisfied with his choices, then pulled the shop manager out of storage.

Since it looked exactly like him, he hadn't dared bring it out during the day. If any players spotted two identical Liu Damengs in the shop, they'd probably think the game had a bug.

He read through the manager's feature description.

Item Name: Shop Manager (Level 1)

1. Basic Operations: Stands at the shop entrance on your behalf to handle simple payment and delivery tasks.

2. Restocking Expert: Simply prepare sufficient materials, and it will automatically craft a set quantity of finished goods for you.

Geneva! I want to respec!

The moment he saw the second feature, Liu Kongkong completely lost it. If you had this function, why the hell didn't you say so earlier?! I wouldn't have wasted points on that garbage "Time is Money" skill!

But the points were already spent. Still, what really caught Liu Kongkong's attention was the fact that the shop manager apparently had levels too.

He opened the level details.

"It takes ten thousand EXP just to reach level 2?!" Liu Kongkong pursed his lips, then handed the manager some materials and had it try crafting a stone longsword. It took a full 30 seconds to finish, and only awarded 1 EXP point...

"A bit underwhelming, but better than nothing."

He hauled a large batch of materials out of storage, set the crafting quantity, and left the manager inside to automatically produce stone weapons on its own. He carefully shut the door behind him and hurried off — because today's Starter Village meeting was about to begin again.

Compared to yesterday, today's meeting was considerably more concise. The Village Chief and the other NPCs paid no mind to the players brawling outside.

"Let's go ahead and report today's income and expenses. Same as yesterday — Ajuan, you go first."

The seating arrangement hadn't changed either. Widow Wang was still sitting beside the Village Chief, which Liu Kongkong found oddly strange. From the mail he'd received yesterday, he'd learned that Widow Wang's real name was Wang Xiuqin, and that she and Liu Dameng had been Childhood Sweethearts. But later, her mother had decided that Liu Dameng was too quiet and didn't know how to make himself agreeable — so she'd married her daughter off to the son of the village chief from the neighboring village.

But on the very day of their wedding, the groom had been kicked to death by a wild rabbit out in the fields — which was how she'd become a widow.

When Liu Kongkong had read that part, he'd been absolutely stunned. He'd made up a random excuse to brush off Lonely as a Song, and yet those wild rabbits actually had a role in the lore!

No wonder she'd been talking so strangely yesterday.

Recalling Widow Wang's bashful expression from the day before, Liu Kongkong pursed his lips, at a complete loss for words.