The next day, Lu Wu was dragged awake by the little girl while still fast asleep and pulled over to the computer desk.
"What's wrong?" Lu Wu rubbed his bleary eyes and asked in confusion.
"Look at the game comments!" Bei Li said with a serious expression.
Lu Wu turned toward the computer screen. Seeing the densely packed comments, he was puzzled, but when he made out their contents, his eyes widened.
Ye_Xue'er_is_the_cutest: Buying Soul Coins at 1:500. Also, the Association of the Guardian Angels is recruiting!
Watermelon_Taro: Buying Soul Coins, urgently needed, buying unlimited amounts. Players with Soul Coins, private message me!
A Mammoth Elephant (Li Tianxia): The Association of the Guardian Angels is a trash guild that kills people indiscriminately. Strongly condemning them! Everyone is welcome to join the Avengers Alliance.
Peppa_Boar: Buying Soul Coins. I'm going to kill all those idiots from the Guardian Angels. 1:600, buying unlimited amounts!
Sword_In_Hand: Why the hell doesn't this game have a top-up channel? I want Soul Coinssssssss!
Crayon_Shinchan: Buying Soul Coins, unlimited amounts, unlimited amounts. Also looking for teammates for the growth quest. This Netherworld Warrior is way too strong. I got hammered to death three times and nearly cried.
Strike_Gold: The Great Dragon Guild has reached 100 members. The guild leader will soon reach level 20 and establish this game's first guild. Skilled players are welcome.
Invincible_Loneliness: This is ridiculous. I can't buy any Soul Coins at all. Where are the gold-farming studios? Are you hoarding Soul Coins until New Year's? Buying in large quantities!
The entire comment section beneath the game was in an uproar, and the number of comments continued to rise.
Apart from the war of words between Ye Xue'er's Guardian Angels and Wu Guoyi's Avengers Alliance, every other Player was buying Soul Coins.
Lu Wu scrolled through the comments and discovered that the initial purchase price for Soul Coins had been 100:1. Yet in just a few short hours, driven by Ye Xue'er, it had been inflated all the way to 1:700.
Even at that price, however, countless Players who wanted to spend money still had nowhere to buy them.
"We're rich!" Bei Li's eyes gleamed.
She was already imagining endless delicious food every day, and a glistening thread of drool appeared at the corner of her mouth.
Lu Wu was equally astonished. He knew Soul Coins were scarce in this game, but he had never expected the Players' enthusiasm to be so intense.
With the massive influx of Players over the past few days, aside from the Soul Coins Players spent completing quests, Lu Wu's side had accumulated nearly ten thousand Soul Coins. What did that mean? If he sold this batch of Soul Coins, he would have a huge sum of seven million.
Happiness had come too suddenly, leaving Lu Wu a little dazed.
But after calming down and giving it some thought, Lu Wu decided not to sell all the Soul Coins. While doing so could quickly increase the Players' strength, Soul Coins were also extremely useful to him.
According to Bei Li, rebuilding the Underworld of Beiqi would require at least fifty thousand soul points. The number of Soul Coins he had was still a drop in the bucket, but selling some for now to ease their tight circumstances was feasible.
After thinking it over, Lu Wu decided to take out 500 Soul Coins to exchange for money. Of course, he could not appear as an official.
But before that, Lu Wu wanted to know what exactly had happened.
"I only stopped paying attention for one night. What on earth happened in this game?" Lu Wu asked curiously.
As a GM who did not need sleep and constantly monitored the game's developments, Bei Li naturally knew. She gave a sly chuckle.
"While you were sleeping, two factions appeared in the game. One was the Guardian Angels formed by someone named Ye Xue'er, and the other was the Avengers Alliance formed by Wu Guoyi."
"The two factions got heated over stealing monsters in the early stages and spent the entire night fighting. Now they're completely at odds, locked in a Never-ending Battle. Basically, whenever members of either faction encounter Players from the other alliance in the wild, they attack without a word!"
"Because of their rivalry, Soul Coins, which could rapidly increase strength, became important strategic resources. Big spenders on both sides began buying them, and that's how things reached this point."
Lu Wu was stunned. He had not expected the Players to start a civil war before the main campaign of conquest had even begun.
However, Lu Wu had no intention of stopping it. This was entirely good for the game. It could motivate Players to become stronger and make the game more enjoyable.
"Lu Wu, Lu Wu, hurry and find a way to sell some Soul Coins!" Bei Li hugged Lu Wu's arm and began shaking it.
"Alright, but we can't show up as officials."
"Then we'll do it as Players," Bei Li quickly replied.
Bei Li's idea was exactly what Lu Wu had planned. After the two discussed it, Lu Wu put on the Virtual Helmet, selected the Battle Online game icon, and entered the game.
When choosing his class, Lu Wu selected mage.
The mage class was rather miserable in the early stages. Aside from the starting skill, Yin Energy Bomb, it had no decent damage-dealing skills at all.
But Lu Wu knew that this class had tremendous potential.
Lu Wu and Bei Li had already begun designing class skills.
The prerequisite for those skills to appear was for Lu Wu to repair the Underworld of Beiqi. According to Bei Li, the Sutra depository within the underworld housed numerous underworld spells and combat techniques.
As long as the Underworld of Beiqi was restored, all those techniques could naturally be entered into the divine artifact. Then, once a skill-purchase section was added to the shop, the Players' strength would improve by leaps and bounds once more.
Thus, although mages were currently weak, they would absolutely become the class with damage output surpassing all others in the later stages. This was also why mage equipment cost more than that of other classes.
However, collecting fifty thousand Soul Coins would take time. For now, Players could only rely on brute force for their initial battles.
After completing his class selection, Lu Wu officially logged into the game as a Player, dressed in coarse cloth and holding a pitch-black staff.
Opening his inventory, Lu Wu found that GM Bei Li had already sent 500 Soul Coins to him.
After glancing at the ruined underworld, Lu Wu started walking outside, following Bei Li's instructions to find a major customer.
Among those buying Soul Coins this time, Ye Xue'er undoubtedly had the greatest demand, so she was Lu Wu's target as well.
As an account with special permissions, Lu Wu opened the map and saw a marker flashing with a purple light.
This was the location Bei Li had indicated for Ye Xue'er's current position.
At that moment, Ye Xue'er was leading roughly a hundred people to block the entrance to the Ghost Mountains, intending to clear out the Players from the Avengers Alliance.
After leaving the novice area and confirming that no one was nearby, Lu Wu summoned a cloud of yin energy. Carrying him atop it, it swiftly flew toward Ye Xue'er's location.
When he came within a hundred meters of Ye Xue'er, Lu Wu dispersed the yin energy cloud to avoid drawing attention and continued on foot.
The moment Lu Wu arrived, hundreds of gazes turned toward him.
"Kid, are you from the Avengers Alliance?" A berserker stopped Lu Wu.
"I'm looking for Ye Xue'er. I'm selling Soul Coins!"
"You're looking for me?" Ye Xue'er's figure flashed as she leaped down from a nearby tree and landed in front of Lu Wu.
Looking at Ye Xue'er, whose equipment was already half blue-quality, Lu Wu smiled faintly. "I heard you're buying Soul Coins. I want to sell some!"
"How many do you have? I'll take them all! Name your price."
"How about 1:700? That should be the current market price, right?"
"Fine. How many do you have? I'll take them all!" Ye Xue'er agreed without the slightest hesitation.
"I have 500." Lu Wu smiled faintly.
"What!"
She had originally thought it would only be a few Soul Coins, but upon hearing 500, Ye Xue'er nearly thought she had misheard.
This book's contract status has been updated. Please read with confidence.
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