Three minutes earlier, Dream Island.
A Lan was checking the trade plugin in the Gold Coin Merchant Association's group chat, as he did every day.
It recorded the details of every transaction and displayed the shipping status of goods in real time.
Whenever a shipment arrived successfully, the player responsible for transporting it would click "Delivered," and the transaction would appear in the plugin.
After the Misty Abyss Clan and the Ascension Clan fell, the Gold Coin Merchant Association had lost its two biggest trade partners.
Trade revenue had dipped, but not enough to hinder the association's growth.
Although they had taken on Shuyan as a major client,
unlike the Misty Abyss Clan and the Ascension Clan, Shuyan mainly bought war supplies like props, weapons, and equipment—items that could strengthen a story system through external means.
He had no demand at all for the various "high-profit potions."
Characters in every story system could quickly recover by injecting Ink Power.
Potions did have their uses, but Shuyan had surely calculated the value of the potions against the Ink Power they saved.
His conclusion was that they weren't cost-effective.
After all, the Gold Coin Merchant Association's prices started at ten thousand times the prices in the shop.
A Lan was helpless about it, but he had never considered lowering prices.
Besides Shuyan, the association's potion customers included the many races across the sea, as well as any future clients they might acquire.
Keeping the prices as they were was the only way to bring the Gold Coin Merchant Association a steady stream of outrageous profits.
After checking the trade information, A Lan opened his friend request list.
As the head of the association, he received a flood of friend requests every day.
There were newbies looking to latch onto someone powerful, guild