What could he say in a situation like this? He could only accept his bad luck. In fact, as long as he had patience and time, he could wait a little longer. Once the players got to grips with the newly opened super-large-scale battle, the prices of consumables would gradually return to normal.
But, well, Xiao Yang—who could only get online for one day out of every seven—was short on exactly those things: time and patience.
"What can I do? I'll just have to grit my teeth and accept it."
Time suddenly became tight, and Xiao Yang had to get moving quickly. Otherwise, even a brief delay might send the prices of these buff potions up another tier.
Without hesitation, Xiao Yang first swept up all the Light Feather and Tough Skin Potions at the Mushroom Person's stall, then hurried around the Myriad Worlds Trading Area without stopping.
The Spirit Coins in his hands vanished as fast as snowflakes. It wasn't as if the Myriad Worlds Trading Area couldn't supply all the potions Xiao Yang needed.
But his wallet couldn't afford them. His plan to pay the God Game so Little Bone could come out of the dungeon with him had fallen through. Things had gone exactly as he'd expected.
All kinds of potions, weapons, skills, and defensive equipment in the Myriad Worlds Trading Area had begun to rise sharply in price. Meanwhile, all kinds of materials and useless little trinkets were getting cheaper.
After spending two million, Xiao Yang had scraped together enough Extreme Light Feather Potions to max out his agility, but he was still a little short on Tough Skin Potions. Since it was better to master one thing than to be mediocre at everything, and he was destined to be unable to max out both agility and defense, Xiao Yang chose to max out his agility first.
High agility could also make up for some of his defense. And when facing the unknown monster he'd accidentally stirred up, as well as the new dungeon floor, maxing out his agility would let him run faster. After all, he had no resurrection scroll. If things went wrong, running for his life was far more worthwhile than standing there as a living target.
He had enough potions to max out his agility and raise his defense to fourteen without any equipment bonuses. And then—that was it for this trip to the Myriad Worlds Trading Area.
He'd used up all his Spirit Coins, so there was nothing else he could do. Rather than return immediately, Xiao Yang crouched down in a corner of the Myriad Worlds Trading Area.
It was obvious that the opening of the new super-large-scale battle had made the Myriad Worlds Trading Area much busier. Of course, that had nothing to do with him. If other God Game Players were like online gamers, then Xiao Yang was more like an offline or single-player gamer. He simply couldn't join all those random battles. All he could do was dutifully grind through dungeons.
Amid all the hustle and bustle, Little Bone suddenly emerged from the shadows. The little guy didn't understand much, but it had picked up a habit: whenever Xiao Yang set up a stall, it would quietly sit beside him and hold onto a corner of his clothes. It was basically the Mascot Skeleton of Xiao Yang's business plan.
But Xiao Yang wasn't running a stall now. He suddenly rested a hand on the little guy's head and let out a heartfelt sigh.
"Little Bone! We're still too poor!"
Meanwhile, as Xiao Yang crouched in a corner of the Myriad Worlds Trading Area and watched the other players bustle about, the center of the trading area was home to all kinds of buildings, each with its own style.
Of course, the Myriad Worlds Trading Area wasn't merely a sprawling marketplace for players. That was only one of its secondary functions. More than anything, it existed as a place for Plane Lords and large player guilds to sell their goods and specialties, as well as a vast center for consumption.
Naturally, Xiao Yang had never visited this central district, for one very practical reason: it cost extra! The God Game's greed was no joke. Besides, he had no reason to wander around the center. It was either full of extremely expensive, indescribable pleasure houses, or enormous shops where Plane Lords sold goods in bulk, with prices of tens of millions of Spirit Coins, or various kinds of custom services.
In short, if you didn't have Spirit Coins, stay away.
In a gloomy shop on the outskirts of the central district of the Myriad Worlds Trading Area, a Black Robe Taoist was reporting something to the shopkeeper in charge.
Xiao Yang had sold the purple Large Bone Club to speed up his growth, but the act had also brought him some risks. The word "Epic" was far more enticing than he'd imagined.
After listening to the Black Robe Taoist's report, the shopkeeper—a long-faced Taoist who had once tried to recruit Xiao Yang—began muttering to himself in the shop. His name was Ming Xuanzi.
"Epic Rank skeletal materials, an endless supply of skeletal materials, Zombie Viscera, and now Vampire Bat Fangs as well?"
As Ming Xuanzi murmured, each word he uttered made the greed on his face grow more intense. At last, he reached a conclusion.
"At least one medium-sized skeletal dungeon and instance?"
Ming Xuanzi's face immediately took on an even greedier look.
Dungeons and instances that constantly spawned monsters and yielded all kinds of materials and weapons were incredibly valuable, especially to large player factions.
Clearly, Xuanmingzi was completely tempted. But how could he get around the God Game's protection of players and the planes behind them?
He dismissed the Black Robe Taoist and told him to keep watching Xiao Yang. The shop fell silent. But after only a short while, Xuanmingzi grew restless. He suddenly stood up, paced back and forth for a while, then headed deeper into the shop.
Before long, Xuanmingzi arrived at a blood-red secret chamber. He knelt before a strange, twisted statue, haphazardly assembled from countless eyes.
"Great Multi-Eyed Immortal Venerable! Your gaze can cross the barriers of time and space!..."
Not long afterward, Xuanmingzi left the chamber. When he returned, he was holding a fresh pair of eyeballs.
"Just one more month. One more month is all I need!"
After washing his hands and finishing everything, Xuanmingzi said this to himself, as if he would be able to do something a month from now. Still, it would be better to act sooner.
A month might be too long to wait.
Before you continue