Trading Zone

"I've really got that feeling!"

Wang Qianduo looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar scene before him and couldn't help but marvel.

Counting both his past and present lives, he'd lost track of how many years it had been since he'd played a game like this or seen a scene like this.

Wang Qianduo strolled through the crowded trading plaza, looking over the stalls one by one.

The stalls in the plaza mostly sold all kinds of materials. Only a few offered equipment or blueprints, and skills were even rarer.

Besides, most people displaying equipment weren't genuinely trying to sell it. They'd set an impossibly high price, basically using it to draw attention to the other items at their stalls.

And the few who did want to sell their equipment usually had low-grade gear and asked for far too much.

Even so, there was a steady stream of people haggling at their stalls.

"Brother, could you lower the price on that weapon? I'm serious about buying!"

Just then, someone in front of Wang Qianduo was asking about a Level 10 Fine-Grade longsword.

The items at the stalls were displayed as holograms. Otherwise, a longsword or dagger for a mecha might look like a forty-meter cleaver to a person.

"Fixed price: 15 Gold Crystals. No haggling, and I won't accept real-world currency." The seller glanced at him and named his price.

"Come on, brother, I'm serious about buying. At the current rate, 15 Gold Crystals is about 3,000 yuan. I'll pay double—6,000. How's that?"

The buyer immediately grew anxious at the seller's response and hurriedly offered.

The seller hesitated when he heard that, then nodded. The offer was simply too good to pass up!

Watching the two happily complete their deal, Wang Qianduo felt only one thing: he was rich.

He looked at the more than ten thousand Gold Crystals in his backpack, too excited to speak.

But his excitement didn't last long. A bolt from the blue came crashing down on him.

The Gold Crystals given by the system were bound. Only the measly amount he'd earned from killing monsters could be traded.

"One word: brutal!"

Wang Qianduo looked at the huge word "Bound" and couldn't help saying it.

It wasn't that he had no way to get the money out. The Gold Crystals the system had given him couldn't be sold directly, but he could use them to buy things.

He could first exchange them for goods that held their value, then sell those.

Or, more simply, he could find someone to list an item for 10,000 Gold Crystals, buy it from them, then have them buy it back from him afterward.

There was a slang term for that kind of thing: money laundering!

After all, money was different from other things, and it wasn't so easy to restrict.

But Wang Qianduo thought it over and gave up without hesitation.

Not because he was worried about anything. It was just too much trouble!

Right now, he wanted to turn the Sand Scorpion's Tail Blueprint into money, log off, and get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow, he'd get up and push for Level 5.

So Wang Qianduo spent one Silver Crystal to rent a stall, then listed the blueprint and the Scorpion King's Tail at a very high price.

A flash of light passed over him, and the sign above his head turned purple. That was because the highest-grade item at his stall was Rare.

That was how the game worked: items of different grades had different colors.

Normal → White, Fine Grade → Blue, Rare → Purple, Perfect → Orange, Legendary → Gold.

The location Wang Qianduo had chosen was good, too. The surrounding stalls were all blue skies and white clouds, making his purple sign stand out as especially grand.

If he could've displayed the Minghong Blade at his stall, though, the golden light would've been explosive!

At first, people paid the stall no attention. They assumed it was another "clickbait" stall using a high-level item to attract attention—or, more accurately, a high-grade sign.

There were plenty of people like that. The trick worked early on, but by now people were getting tired of it.

But one bored player opened Wang Qianduo's stall and immediately couldn't tear himself away.

What did they see? The stall had only one blueprint on display. That meant the owner was actually selling a Rare blueprint!

"A Rare equipment blueprint! And it's for Level 1 gear! It even includes the key material!"

He couldn't hold back and blurted it out.

The players around him were immediately drawn by his words, and one after another, they opened Wang Qianduo's stall.

"Holy crap, what an amazing weapon!"

"With this, could I finally solo monsters?"

"Brother, how much?"

"I'll offer 10,000! You have to sell it to me!"

"I'll offer 20,000!"

People went wild when they saw the blueprint. Wang Qianduo had thought it was just a blueprint for a Level 1 weapon, but he'd underestimated how difficult this game was.

Level 1 equipment was a disadvantage, but sometimes it was also an advantage.

With players pouring into the game on a massive scale, resources that had already been hard to obtain had become even scarcer.

This was especially true during the beginner phase, which had become much harder.

The game also placed heavy restrictions on high-level players helping low-level ones, leaving some people struggling to make any progress.

If the Scorpion King's Tail material and the blueprint hadn't been sold together, it wouldn't have been such a big deal.

Materials from creatures with special requirements were always hard to find, but the seller had already solved the hardest part for you.

The remaining materials were all common goods. Some weren't cheap, but they weren't hard to collect.

That meant there was now a weapon you could equip right away.

With it, killing monsters wouldn't be so difficult. Its excellent stats could even carry you smoothly through the entire beginner phase.

And the beginner phase in this game was a long one. How could a piece of equipment like that not cause a frenzy?

The commotion drew more and more people over, and the scene grew increasingly chaotic.

"Everyone, quiet down for a moment! Let me say something!"

The people around him saw the seller speak and gradually quieted down.

"I've set it to auction mode. Real-world currency, 10 minutes, both items as a bundle. Highest bidder wins. The auction starts now!"

As soon as Wang Qianduo finished speaking, the prices of the items at his stall began to soar. They climbed all the way to 100,000 before slowing down.

But they didn't stop. They kept rising.

Wang Qianduo's heart started pounding uncontrollably. He'd meant to use this to make back some of his losses, but this was way too much!

No, no! There was so much money, he was practically bleeding from it!

In the end, a handsome young master bought the equipment for 158,000.

But the one thing you couldn't trust in this virtual era was someone's face. Adjust the settings, and the difference could be enormous. Honest people like Wang Qianduo, who entered the game looking just as they did in real life, were truly rare.

"Boss, let's add each other as friends. If you get any more good stuff, you can contact me directly. I'll make sure you get a good price!"

After the auction ended, the young master who'd bought the dagger said this to Wang Qianduo.

He sent Wang Qianduo a friend request, but something unexpected happened.

The system told him they were already friends. Lin Hanshi was confused. When had he met this guy?

"Are you... Thousand King?" Lin Hanshi thought back over his gaming experience that day. There'd only been one person carrying such a cool-looking blade. He'd added him as a friend, but hadn't realized who he was.

"Uh... yeah. You're Shihan, right? You're the only friend in my list!" Wang Qianduo said.

"What an honor! Ah, I should've realized sooner. Who else would be willing to sell a weapon like that except you, the guy with that amazing blade?" Lin Hanshi said.

"Uh... plenty of people would. You guys were offering way too much," Wang Qianduo said after giving it some serious thought.

Lin Hanshi: "...All right, I won't keep you. Thousand King, be sure to think of me if you get anything good in the future!"

After saying that, Lin Hanshi got up and left. He still had to forge the weapon, and he couldn't wait to hold it in his hands.

"Sure. See you!"

After saying goodbye to Lin Hanshi, Wang Qianduo logged off too. So much had happened that day; he needed to go home and sort it all out.

"Wait!"

Just as Wang Qianduo's logout countdown finished, he thought he heard someone calling him.

But when he turned around, the countdown had ended, and he hadn't gotten a clear look at who it was.

Still, he didn't pay it much mind. He had to check whether his money had arrived!

A group of people rushed to the place where Wang Qianduo had logged off.

"Damn it, we were one step too late. He's already logged off!"

"We'll have to wait until he logs back in. Did any of you get a good look at him?"

They all looked at one another, unsure.

Well, this was awkward...