When Ning Zheng went up the mountain, he saw them happily gathered around the Power Hammer, dancing and gesturing wildly.
Although he was a little curious, he did not interfere with the Blacksmith Shop's affairs.
Steward's Room.
He sat in a chair and checked the accounts.
The Magic Coins spent on various forging tasks.
The quantity of raw Magic Bronze forged and placed into storage.
The employee benefits spent on the cafeteria and dormitories that provided room and board.
As well as the expenses for various public facilities, such as the Power Hammer.
Hmm.
The ratio of "wage investment" to "product output" was extremely healthy. In fact, they were making quite a lot of money!
After all, Jiu Cai Rong had secretly cut the wages for various mining, smelting, and forging tasks.
Most people worked nine hours a day, yet earned only one or two Magic Coins. As for the 30% that had been deducted, it was euphemistically called the blacksmiths' shared costs for the "dormitories" and "cafeteria"!
Shared costs?
What kind of bizarre term was that? They were working, and room and board were simply normal benefits, weren't they?
Ning Zheng understood now.
Managing things was precisely where Jiu Cai Rong excelled at being "conscienceless."
He was far more ruthless than the Fat Steward, who had casually beaten and cursed people before.
The Fat Steward had beaten and exploited people, while he exploited people with a kind and amiable smile.
"Is this the cruelty of capitalists?!"
At that moment, Ning Zheng looked at the gorgeous figures in the ledger and felt somewhat shaken.
He could not help feeling a twinge of bitterness: So having no conscience really can earn this much?
After checking the accounts again and confirming that Jiu Cai Rong was indeed working diligently, he directly handed him the Shadow Wine Rice seedlings that had been urgently cultivated with Spirit Nurturing Liquid.
He also told him about their effects and left the pricing to Jiu Cai Rong.
Although their grade was not high, among low-grade Spirit Rice-type Spiritual Roots, they were considered outstanding.
In the Steward's Room, Jiu Cai Rong's eyes lit up when he heard this. "My lord, Spirit Rice carrying the aura of the Manor Lord has an idol effect. I think one plant can sell for 100 Magic Coins!"
Ning Zheng felt a little embarrassed by the talk of idols.
Especially lately, whenever he logged in with the Flower Blooming Rich account, he would always see them crazily posting things like, "I can get behind this Manor Lord," "I want to give the Manor Lord children," "I'm already using a 3D printer to make a figurine," and "This arrow pierced my heart." Having a fan club for the first time, he was a little at a loss.
He only felt that these blacksmiths who stole things everywhere sure knew how to sweet-talk people.
But the issue here was not whether the price was high or low. It was that no one currently had such a huge sum of money.
"It's fine. We can offer loans."
Jiu Cai Rong seemed quite experienced.
"After the Currency System came out, I started wondering whether we should set up loans. If they can't repay, they can sell themselves to settle the debt. I think the slave trade has a lot of potential in our Mountain Villa!"
Ning Zheng fell into thought.
This "selling themselves" was probably meant in the literal sense.
If they failed to repay, they would likely be seized and thrown before the forging furnace, where a group of people would perform an exorcism on them?
Ning Zheng could not be bothered to manage them either. It was not that his moral standards had declined; he had simply gone numb.
You thought something was utterly despicable, yet it was wildly popular! That made Ning Zheng realize completely that he had already fallen twenty years behind the times!
However, Jiu Cai Rong soon asked, "Steward, does our Mountain Villa have any special secret technique that can increase the probability of Ash appearing after death?"
The moment he asked, he realized that his behavior might seem too strange in front of the Old Steward. He hurriedly added an explanation:
"Mainly because our race has done too many rotten things in life. We don't want to die a good death!!"
Ning Zheng burst out laughing on the spot.
The last time, not only did your race love to wet the bed, you also refused to sleep on one.
This time, your race often did despicable things, yet you still did not want to die a good death?
Your lives were pretty eventful.
Of course, there was a way to increase the probability of Ash appearing.
Otherwise, how could those Demon People have transformed all the villagers at the foot of the mountain into Ash?
Ning Zheng did not know how they had done it. That was too advanced.
But he had his own method, as far as he was concerned.
All they needed was bad luck.
Once their Luck Value was deducted to 0, they would instantly become possessed by the God of Misfortune. With death coming for them, they would naturally get their wishes.
After all, when a person was unlucky, they naturally could not die a good death!
Seeing how much they liked the idea, Ning Zheng would naturally satisfy them.
As for exactly how much this would increase the probability of Ash appearing?
Ning Zheng did not know either.
Ning Zheng thought for a moment, took out several Magic Coins, and handed them to him.
"I've imbued these with magic power. As long as you hold one and channel magic power into it, it can increase the probability of Ash being produced upon death. You can decide the selling price yourself."
This was merely a pretext.
He would have Little Ai assistant watch them. Before anyone holding a Magic Coin died, it could deduct their Luck Value, while he could also make a little extra money.
Before long, Ning Zheng left.
Although he had handed the Spiritual Root to them during this trip up the mountain, he had not placed all his hopes in one basket.
He had also kept the original plant, found a patch of wasteland in the Spirit Manor, and planted it there, asking Ning Jiaojiao to take care of it.
Magic Coins, the Meat Field, and Spirit Rice—the three essentials for cultivation—had initially been gathered.
Three days passed before anyone realized it.
The Mountain Villa was bustling with activity, with everyone hammering iron, making hairpins, and reading.
They were mainly preparing all sorts of facilities for the Blacksmith Shop: Power Hammers, forging presses, and so on. The hairpin makers were also working on needles, thread, and sewing tools of all sizes.
Those who were reading were truly reading.
There were even quite a few scholars. Sword Forging Manor was practically turning into a book manor!
Furthermore, these people read online and in real life. Some of them even genuinely read until four in the morning.
Even people preparing for graduate school entrance exams were not this passionate.
Ning Zheng had also been cultivating peacefully at the foot of the mountain these past few days.
With the Meat Field's support, his quality of life was now extraordinarily high.
During that time, he also checked the forum and suddenly discovered why they had been so eager to plant Spiritual Roots.
"Su Yu Niang: Urgent, urgent, urgent! Brothers, I discovered hidden plot! If you don't start reading now, you'll all miss the planner's new main quest!"
If Ning Zheng had not opened a forum, he truly would not have known what was going on.
"So this thing is the culprit behind everyone quietly reading so much these past few days?"
Ning Zheng was bewildered on the spot. I didn't even urge you! You can work whenever you want, so why are you in such a hurry?
And what do you mean by missing the planner's main quest?
Ning Zheng, the planner himself, did not even know about it.
Curious, he opened the post.
"Everyone, I'm Su Yu Niang. Here's what happened! Using the aerial view of the Mountain Villa that I photographed earlier, I started making another telescope yesterday. I looked again, and as a result, I discovered that the festive atmosphere at the foot of the mountain was growing more and more intense."
"This must be some kind of omen! Last night, I and the other viewers analyzed things from seven all the way to ten. With everyone's help, I feel that we successfully predicted the Mountain Villa's main quest!!"
Screenshot.
Screenshot.
The comparison images were posted. Because the forest was too dense, the Mountain Villa under the telescope revealed only one corner, with most of it blocked.
"First of all, anyone who has played this kind of management game knows that in these inns, hotels, and Mountain Villa management games, the playable area is only so large. Everything outside is wallpaper—in other words, what we call an invisible wall."
"Everything outside is a virtual map. When Ash leaves, it is only pretending to leave. The moment it goes out, it becomes data. For details, refer to Travel Frog and idle games. They only bring back materials, making them text adventures."
"Then why has the dynamic wallpaper beneath the Mountain Villa been advancing this whole time? Why are the various lanterns for the festival at the foot of the mountain gradually being hung up? It must be hinting that a plot event is about to happen!"
"After the Crow Calamity, I think there are two possible directions for the main quest."
"1. Guessing optimistically: a management-style main quest—the New Year celebration. We can't go down the mountain, so we'll have the Ash go to the market. At the Yearly Market, we'll set up stalls to sell weapons and do business with the villagers at the foot of the mountain. That logic makes perfect sense, right?"
"2. Guessing pessimistically: a combat-style main quest—the Nian Beast. The Nian Beast is a frequent guest at New Year events in all sorts of games. The joyful villagers during the festival will trigger the monster Nian Beast, which will attack the village. At that point, those of us on the mountain will have to forge weapons like crazy, as well as suona horns and gongs, then set up stalls to sell them to the villagers at the foot of the mountain so they can drive away the Nian Beast!?"
"No matter what, the Mountain Villa will have to rush to forge weapons for us to participate. That's the main quest."
"Of course, the entry requirement for participating is very high: you need Ash! Whether we're selling weapons at the Yearly Market or helping drive away the Nian Beast by selling weapons, we'll need Ash to transport our goods down the mountain and sell them to the villagers."
After that Holmes-like analysis, everyone felt that it made perfect sense.
The previous main quest had been gathering materials.
This main quest would surely advance to using those materials for something useful: making weapons to sell!
This game was full of strange details. There was no way it would create wallpaper of the mountain below for no reason. It was definitely a hint.
The comments below were also quite interesting.
"This game has refreshed my understanding of the world. The place is obviously so small, yet they can come up with so many wildly imaginative new plots. The last Crow Calamity provided forging materials from the sky, while this one has 'pets' travel through the air to go to the market and set up stalls. What a novel idea!"
"Su Yu Niang's viewers are amazing! We can finally have our pet babies sell the Crow materials we've stockpiled at the market! We can even exchange them for good things! The trading system is so innovative!"
"I know about this. Recently, she just chats every night, picks her toes while awkwardly discussing the plot, and plays the day's footage for her viewers while analyzing it like crazy. I can't believe she actually got results."
"She must have guessed correctly this time."
"The production team has gone completely slack! They don't even write this stuff. Jiu Cai Rong, get out here and write the new main quest update announcement!"
Ning Zheng watched for a while and more or less understood what had happened.
It was simply because the New Year had arrived at the foot of the mountain and the Yearly Market was taking place.
What main quest? They had merely secretly caught a glimpse of it, become extremely excited, and wanted to eagerly participate in the market below by setting up stalls.
Ning Zheng had guessed what they were thinking.
Every one of them was lively and bouncy, wanting to sell weapons all day long.
He had clearly told them to wait until their skills improved before contacting the merchants in the city, but they simply could not be patient.
But now there was a serious problem.
The villagers at the foot of the mountain were not human.
The stalls were in a ghost market: the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade, with Yin Soldiers crossing the realm. The things inside were all dead, not living people.
There were fishermen and water monkeys, brides in red, pig butchers, and vendors selling candied skulls on sticks. They were sinister and irritable, strange and evil, cackling eerily, and forcing people to buy and sell. What they sold was certainly nothing legitimate.
But Ning Zheng thought about it carefully.
The blacksmiths did not seem like legitimate people either.
The things they sent out were not living people, and both sides were fellow countrymen. In the ghost market, was there really any need to fear a conflict that would result in someone dying?
Neither side consisted of proper living people. At worst, they could not cause too much trouble.
In Ning Zheng's view, the blacksmiths' level of eeriness was also astonishing. Forced buying and selling?
It was hard to say who would bully whom.
After experiencing the Crow incident, Ning Zheng had learned his lesson. "Looks like I was worrying for nothing. This place is full of Spirit Manors, and I'm the only living person here. Only I can die. I should just worry about my own safety."
Ning Zheng had already struck this group of little blacksmiths from the rolls of humanity, placing them alongside the villagers of the Spirit Manor.
Before you continue