Take a Gamble

By the end of August, Yu Xunge had watched the beginner and intermediate alchemy videos for the seventh time. That day, she discovered that even though she had done nothing but watch alchemy videos for several hours, her alchemy experience had increased. It was only one point after several hours, but an increase was still an increase.

Yu Xunge began personally brewing Minor Potions again.

Then she discovered that it truly felt different. Unlike before, when she rigidly followed the videos step by step, she now had far more freedom while brewing. Yes, freedom. Sometimes, she could even deviate from the steps shown in the videos.

Although the potions she made were no different from the original versions, she had a feeling that only now had she truly stepped through the gates of alchemy.

In the early hours, Yu Xunge turned into a goblin, made three gold coins, and went to sleep. Recently, she had stopped mooching off Su Yitong and Liang Yuchuan. Perhaps because her attributes were getting lower and lower, even after a month of trying, she had not gotten anything. She could not possibly crouch under someone's bed all night every day, drinking potions while stealing. Even if she was not short on potions, that was no way to waste them. Minor Healing Potions were extremely valuable in the early stages of the game.

Yu Xunge simply stopped mooching, got proper sleep, recovered her energy, and continued studying efficiently the next day.

But Yu Xunge's good mood came to an abrupt end at the start of September.

Because Yu Xunhuan moved into the same villa complex, only two kilometers away from her villa.

Yu Qingshan and Yi Qiuguo even invited her over for a housewarming meal at the new villa. Good grief, even their security booth was much bigger than hers.

The house itself was bare, though. There were not even any appliances, and the food had been ordered from a restaurant and delivered.

With the expression of a sister delighted for her dear younger brother, Yu Xunge spoke before Yi Qiuguo and Yu Qingshan could say anything. "I'll take care of the appliances!"

Was it not just giving them a little sweetness?

If they wanted things from her in the game, she would not be willing to hand them over early—not even Su Jinxuan's white-tier cloth belt. But a few million? By next year, that money would not even buy a single low-grade blue item. Sooner or later, she would get it back from Yu Xunhuan several times over.

She assessed Yu Xunhuan's condition and found nothing unusual. For the moment, she could not tell whether Yu Xunhuan had been affected or not.

Still, Yu Xunge did not deliberately avoid dishes Yu Xunhuan had picked from. She avoided him whenever she could, but when they had to share a dish, she would never expose herself over such a trivial matter.

Many things failed because of tiny details.

Less than a week later, Yu Xunge hired a professional team to measure Yu Xunhuan's villa and fit it out with appliances.

She did not show up in person. She was worried that the people in the house would coordinate with each other and make her buy everything at the most expensive, highest-end level.

Did your villa deserve the best and most expensive things?!

Yu Xunge upgraded her own villa with the best items, then sent the usable appliances and furniture she had replaced to the small apartment. Whatever would not fit, she resold.

She had spent nearly all her RMB, leaving herself just under a million, enough to last until the game officially invaded.

She still had eight hundred million in her Harbor City account.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. Yu Qingshan was so rich! Yet he had fooled her so thoroughly with five million!

After realizing that there was no way she could max out her advanced alchemy experience before the third closed beta, Yu Xunge decided to stop pushing herself so hard.

She planned to spend as much of the eight hundred million Hong Kong dollars as possible soon. There was no need to spend it on food, clothing, housing, or transportation, and she did not need to think about houses with dungeon entrances for now. Two entrances were already the limit of what she could protect.

Dungeons could refresh at any time, but the rules faced by the alien races inside varied according to their size. In smaller, low-level dungeons, low-level alien races could leave the dungeon and enter Blue Star as long as they survived for more than twenty-four hours. In more complex dungeons, the survival requirement was longer—three days, seven days, thirty days, or even years before they could enter reality. The more powerful the alien race, the harsher the requirements for entering Blue Star.

Many dungeon entrances were only exposed because no one discovered them for a long time, allowing alien races to enter Blue Star.

Gold? She still had 1,473 gold bricks, more than ten thousand jin of gold. She could only wait for the next closed beta to look for goblins in Bloodmoon City again. If that failed, she would have to wait for goblin merchants.

So having too much money was this troublesome too.

There was not much profit in stockpiling various potions or raw materials for special items, either. She did not intend to profiteer from a national disaster. This was a war for all of Blue Star. She could not selflessly devote everything she had, but she also could not do something as immoral as dragging everyone else down.

And since she could not stockpile goods and sell them later at inflated prices, there was no point earning that money. She might as well visit a few more cities and find goblins to sell her gold bricks to.

After thinking it over, Yu Xunge decided to make another trip to Harbor City. She wanted to buy weapons—well-preserved antique bows and crossbows, or the best firearms available on the market. Once the game invaded, she would profit as long as even one of them mutated.

Eight hundred million Hong Kong dollars would not even buy three thousand jin of gold. Even at an exchange rate of 180 grams for one gold coin, three thousand jin of gold would only amount to a little over eight thousand gold coins. That could buy at least dozens of famous bows and guns.

In her previous life, a legendary weapon had come from a weapons collector. After the game invaded, a blade he wiped down every day mutated into an exceptional weapon with three affixes. Its equipment requirements were also rare—it required only attributes. As long as one's attributes met the standard, it could be equipped, with no level requirement.

A guild offered three thousand gold coins for it, but he refused to sell. Even for a level twenty legendary weapon, that was already an astronomical price.

The Su Family had also tried to buy it, but they were turned down. Yet not long afterward, Yu Xunge saw that blade in Su Baige's hands.

After telling the Yu Family that she was going to Harbor City to look for players—a universally useful excuse—Yu Xunge flew there that night. She found a Broker and asked him to keep an eye out for famous blades, bows, crossbows, and top-tier firearms for her.

She even specifically used her pocket watch to inspect him, confirming that this Broker was an ordinary broker rather than one with a heaven-gifted talent.

If she used eight hundred million to buy raw materials like herbs, cloth, and furs, she would need to buy a warehouse just to store them all. But when it came to historically significant weapons with antique value or compelling stories behind them, as well as top-tier firearms—

Spending eight hundred million felt like spending eight thousand.

She spent one hundred million Hong Kong dollars on just three famous bows and five crossbows.

After word spread that a major collector of bows and crossbows had arrived in Harbor City, Yu Xunge stayed another week and gradually acquired another fifteen bows and twenty-one crossbows.

In the end, she spent a total of five hundred million Hong Kong dollars on twenty-one bows and twenty-seven crossbows.

Perhaps because her luck was maxed out, she even bought two Meteorite Pistols. These were the weapons she had looked forward to most. Though she had never heard of a pistol mutating into an exceptional weapon in her previous life, she could not possibly have known everything, and smart people always kept their good things hidden.

Besides, many weapons had level requirements after mutating, and leveling in this game was slow. Even if a weapon mutated, it might not be immediately usable. It was entirely possible that no one had discovered it.