The Small Town Sensation

Red Leaf Town, Fountain Square.

As the sun set, a pale red hue stained the entire square. Many lifestyle players set up snack stalls by the pool, selling delicacies unique to God's Domain.

These snacks tasted delicious, far better than gourmet food in reality, and cost only two or three coppers—truly a bargain.

After a hard day of fighting, many players would come here to rest and sample the food of God's Domain. After all, they could earn dozens of coppers a day, and after deducting expenses, they still had over ten coppers left; enjoying themselves a little was no problem at all.

Many couples sat on stone benches, chatting while eating their snacks and enjoying the beautiful time.

Suddenly, every player in Red Leaf Town received a system notification.

System: A player has triggered a special plot, unlocking the "Murloc Riot" storyline. Red Leaf Town has opened a subjugation quest. Players may go to the Adventurer's Guild to accept the quest. Completing it will grant generous rewards and Guild Honor.

All the players were instantly stirred. In Red Leaf Town, where quests were scarce, the existence of a subjugation quest with such generous rewards was simply unimaginable.

"Who is so capable that they could trigger a special plot?"

This player drew the attention of everyone in Red Leaf Town. Everyone could imagine the massive gains this player must have made; after all, triggering a plot was an incredibly rare event, so the rewards were bound to be substantial.

Many players grew covetous, wanting to take down the player who had triggered the quest, but unfortunately, the system announcement did not reveal the player's name.

Compared to ordinary players, the major guilds were already in an uproar. At this stage, aside from clearing dungeons, there was no other way to earn Guild Honor.

Guild Honor was a necessary requirement for upgrading a guild. As long as they could be the first to reach Level 2, the guild would gain corresponding benefits, allowing them to take a massive lead over other guilds.

At this moment, not only Red Leaf Town but several other towns around Red Water Lake had received the system notification, and the major guilds began planning their strategies to suppress the Murloc Riot.

Meanwhile, the culprit who had triggered the plot, Shi Feng, was sitting in the auction house.

The auction house was a very convenient place. Items listed there could be seen and purchased not only by everyone in Red Leaf Town but also by those in the hundreds of towns and small cities under the jurisdiction of White River City. However, the auction house was also quite ruthless, charging a 5% service fee, which generally drove prices higher.

But for selling items one didn't want to be seen with, the auction house was undoubtedly a great choice. Furthermore, God's Domain had been open for quite some time, and players had saved up a fair amount of money; the major guilds should have also collected significant funds. If he just set up a stall in Red Leaf Town, it would not only be too eye-catching—like when he was targeted by Flame Tiger last time—

The main issue was that there were too few players in Red Leaf Town who could afford his items, so the selling price wouldn't be very high, but competition across hundreds of towns would be a different story.

Thus, Shi Feng listed one Mystic Iron Grade plate armor piece with a starting bid of 25 silver coins, and five Bronze Grade pieces—the plate armor starting at 3 silver coins and the others at 2 silver coins each. These were items his team didn't need. As for the Level 10 Adamantite Grade greatsword, listing it would be too terrifying, as the weapon was worth at least two gold coins, or 200 silver coins. At a time when even 1 silver coin was extremely valuable, who could afford it?

Afterward, Shi Feng searched his backpack on his translucent screen. The starting backpack only had 100 slots, which was far from enough for him. Each player could equip a maximum of 7, so he bought 6 of the largest backpacks currently available. Each had 25 slots and cost 40 coppers; 6 of them cost 240 coppers. Ordinary players definitely couldn't afford this, but for Shi Feng, it was pocket change.

After equipping the 6 backpacks, his storage space increased significantly.

Shi Feng then walked out of the auction house and set up a stall not far from the entrance. He had no interest in the triggered plot quest.

He was already full and satisfied; he had to let others have a taste of the soup, so he wouldn't fight them for it.

"Buying large quantities of Magic Essence and Stone Material! One set of Magic Essence for 6 coppers, one set of Stone Material for 10 coppers!" Shi Feng shouted.

At this stage, Magic Essence was a material for Enchanting, and Stone Material was a crafting material for Engineering. However, these items dropped from many monsters between levels 0 and 3 and were considered worthless. Guild players could supply their own lifestyle players with materials they farmed, so they never bought these, and ordinary players only bought them occasionally.

But there was a massive amount of Magic Essence and Stone Material that players couldn't process. They usually chose to sell them cheaply to NPCs—a set of 20 Magic Essence for only 5 coppers, and a set of 100 Stone Material for only 9 coppers. Shi Feng offered a price 1 copper higher, and needless to say, many players were happy to sell to him. After all, an extra copper per set was a decent income.

Magic Essence was an essential material for crafting Guardian Armor, along with large amounts of copper ore and Bronze Ore. These ores were scarce, and major guilds were buying them up in bulk, though they were hard to come by.

Shi Feng had originally planned to farm the ore himself, but with the Philosopher's Stone, ore was no longer a problem. The Philosopher's Stone possessed the ability of elemental refinement, meaning it could refine Stone Material with a high chance of obtaining ore, or even rare ore. He didn't need to farm it personally at all. Stone Material was dirt cheap, and nearly ten thousand players had become Shi Feng's laborers.

Soon, a large crowd of players gathered in front of Shi Feng.

"Big brother, I have 6 sets of Magic Essence, are you buying?"

"I have 3 sets of Stone Material, do you want them?"

Many players began to ask, worried that Shi Feng would be full. After all, there was too much Magic Essence and Stone Material; it was a pity to sell to NPCs, but no one else was buying, so players just kept them in their bags.

"I'll take them all, just trade directly," Shi Feng said.

Having accumulated a fair amount of wealth previously, and combined with his trade with Bai Qingxue, he had enough capital to purchase large quantities of Magic Essence and Stone Material.

Before long, with one player selling 3 sets of Magic Essence and another selling 5 sets of Stone Material, Shi Feng quickly acquired 60 sets of Magic Essence and 85 sets of Stone Material, with less than ten coppers left.

"Sorry, I'm full," Shi Feng said as he packed up his stall.

Many players who had come to sell their materials looked disappointed.

"Big brother, will you be buying again in the future?" one player asked.

"Yes, but it will be a while. You can save them for now," Shi Feng confirmed. Based on the Magic Essence and Stone Material he had just acquired, it still wasn't enough for him to push toward becoming a Senior Blacksmith Apprentice.

Leaving the commercial street, Shi Feng arrived at the Blacksmith Association and spent 5 coppers to rent an ordinary smithy for one hour.

In an ordinary smithy, all the necessary tools were provided, so he didn't need to buy his own. Intermediate smithies were better, increasing success rates by 3%, but they cost 1 silver coin per hour. Advanced smithies weren't available in towns, only in cities, and their prices were shockingly high.