Changes in Bekeland
By May 2012, nearly four months after Feng Xue's arrival in this country, Bekeland had undergone tremendous changes.
By this time, no building in Bekeland openly displayed a cross could be found. The streetwalkers along the Tassok River and in the Elizabeth district had long since moved elsewhere, and many companies had completely abolished overtime work under pressure from human rights organizations...
In contrast to these changes, there was a significant shift in Bekeland's dietary habits.
The changes started with Housewife who had some assets, and with the occasional appearance of "Youth Cooking" (an online term) and "rejuvenation phenomena," they gradually spread to the upper echelons, eventually becoming a trend.
What added a significant element to this frenzy was a wealthy woman who purchased a "Demon Coin" at a high price and made a wish. "To have Demon Chef prepare a beauty treatment for me."
Thus, this wealthy woman, nearing sixty, successfully enjoyed thirteen days of youthful vitality, and the resulting improved health.
Yes, thirteen days. Although that Demon Chef doesn't often create "Youth Cooking," there have been six publicly Lucky Person cases over the past few months, and based on the changes in their (and their families') bodies, a summary of related patterns has appeared online.
People who consume the "Youth Cooking" will maintain a physical state of around twenty years old for three days, and then gradually return to their original age over the next ten days. However, according to the medical examination report issued by the hospital, even after returning to their original state, the diners' physical fitness and health have significantly improved, and some chronic diseases caused by aging will even disappear completely.
After this incident was exposed, the value of the Demon Coin was driven to an extremely exaggerated level. Not only wealthy women, but also many middle-aged and elderly wealthy people started to take action. There were even rumors that a Victoria tycoon in his seventies added several heirs to his family in just thirteen days after eating the "Youth Cooking".
Since then, the Demon Chef and the Demon Coin have become almost an Urban Legend in Bekeland, and have even begun to spread throughout Victoria via the internet. Many wealthy people who had settled in other cities have returned to Bekeland because of this.
As these events unfolded and spread, the treatment of Chinese people living in Bekeland also saw a terrifying improvement. Initially, it was only young Chinese Descendant men, but later, anyone of Chinese Descendant, regardless of age or gender, was included in the "Coin Demon reserve" circle.
Even those guys who wouldn't even bother to help their own parents across the street will eagerly step forward to help a Chinese Descendant woman cross the road. However, when they don't get the coins they want, some malicious individuals resort to violence—though they are usually stopped by others who also want coins.
All sorts of chaos unfolded in Bekeland, while the culprit behind it all remained oblivious, going about his daily routine.
At night, she melts gold and casts coins; in the morning, she practices martial arts and internal energy cultivation; in the Phantom Object, Smelt money and scatters coins; at noon, she melts magical objects; in the afternoon, she fulfills her wishes; and then she chooses a lucky Housewife to cook a dish for her. Although the routine is somewhat monotonous, the feeling of the elements becoming more active each day and the Tag becoming more solid each day is something that Feng Xue finds irresistible.
Many anonymous lockers exist in Europe and America, and applying for, using, and canceling them is quite convenient. The original reasons for the emergence of such institutions are now hard to say, but it is undeniable that they have provided considerable convenience for various underground transactions. Many criminals even leave varying amounts of assets in different lockers so that they can use these lockers to conduct transactions and improve their quality of life in prison after they are unfortunately arrested and imprisoned.
The Supernatural Tale Itself of the Demon Coin is also based on this system. Through the lockers scattered throughout Bekeland, Feng Xue can easily disrupt the investigators' pace. After all, behind each locker, there are basically forces from both the underworld and the legitimate world involved. Even the Xivilas Field wouldn't dare to issue an order to thoroughly investigate all the lockers in Bekeland.
"There's only one left to collect. I hope it wasn't collected by some bored bastards..." Feng Xue no longer needed a map to easily navigate Bekeland, followed the path to the locker located on the east side of Queen's Road in the Qiaowude District. She muttered to herself, checking the surroundings for hooks carrying Phantom Object.
As the Demon Coin's popularity increased, his chances of creating a coin Phantom Object also increased significantly. Previously, he might not get one even after making dozens of coins, but now he can get a Phantom Coin with the [trading] element after making three or four.
His "[Money Printer]" Tag also saw a huge boost during this process. Originally, making coins required carving them bit by bit, but now, he can directly transform raw materials into coins of his own design by simply rubbing two fingers together (whether they are Phantom Object or not depends on probability).
However, these are secondary. The most important thing is that as the "Demon Coin" is being sold at exorbitant prices in Bekeland's high society, the "hidden value" of the Phantom Coin in Feng Xue's possession is also increasing.
Although the description of each Phantom Coin simply states "You can ask someone to do something within their capabilities," the coin actually has a hidden value.
In other words, if you use this coin to ask someone to do something, and the amount exceeds the "implicit face value," the other party may "refuse the transaction." Even if you force it into their hand, they can simply throw it back at you.
But now, Feng Xue could clearly feel that the coin in her hand had considerable "weight." If measured in pure money, one Phantom Coin could buy goods worth "80,000 pounds" (approximately 100,000 US dollars or 650,000 RMB).
It sounds like a lot, but compared to the prices offered by wealthy people for the Demon Coin, it's just a drop in the ocean. This made Feng Xue realize that the value of this coin is probably not just a simple price tag like "how much others are willing to pay".
As for what other conditions there are, without more reference points, Feng Xue can only make a general guess that they should be related to factors that determine the value of currency, such as "issue volume," "circulation," and "acceptance."
Therefore, Feng Xue had a bold idea—
Scatter the Phantom Coin in your hand.
After all, currency only has value when it circulates, but all of this is predicated on the need to retrieve those coins he had previously given away that lacked "Magic Power."
However, the coin that hasn't been returned was issued ten days ago, and no one has made a wish yet. Feng Xue couldn't help but wonder if some rich man had taken it as a collectible. Of course, this didn't really matter, since once the coins with "Magic Power" were released, those without Magic Power would naturally be considered "fakes."
However, just as he was confirming that there were no surveillance cameras around and opened the locker without much hope, he found an exquisite envelope inside. Judging from the marks on the corner of the envelope, it should contain the coins he had handed out.
"It actually appeared?!"
To reiterate, I generally don't delete posts. However, if I encounter something I find disgusting, inciting trouble, or that's just a bunch of swear-mongers, I'll delete the post along with a permanent ban. The only exceptions are advertisements (I only delete the post, not ban the chat) and my own posts (one exception is "Dream Broken Stars," because it shares the same profile picture as mine, so it's sometimes mistakenly deleted). So, if your post was deleted even though it wasn't an advertisement, but you can still post, it means I didn't delete it. Whether it's Dian Niang or something else, that's none of my business. (By the way, if someone uses a sensitive name, don't blame the Dian Niang for deleting their post...)
Secondly, if you feel you can't understand it, don't force yourself to read it. Every book has its suitable and unsuitable readers; isn't it better to part ways amicably? Is it really necessary to go on and on with a long list of reasons to prove the book is bad and not that you have a comprehension problem? And then there are those who claim "subscription rates are dropping," good grief, my system shows they're all increasing! Are you really more accurate than the system itself?
My book is far from being a masterpiece, but it's still a top-rated book with over Ten Thousand Orders, okay? How come it's considered a flop by some people?