Dealing with Players, Day One (Part 1)

The third floor was a typical two-bedroom, one-living-room, one-kitchen, one-bathroom apartment, more than enough for Hill. It had probably once housed several Mage Apprentices and was somewhat cluttered. Hill put away everything in the rooms and set out the furniture from his Alchemy Hut.

Hill's life now consisted of reading more and meditating less. So Falan wholeheartedly approved of him doing miscellaneous work. At this stage, a Sorcerer was supposed to interact more with people and things, strengthening the human side of himself and never letting his beastly nature drag him away.

Hill clapped his hands and decided to open for business the next day. As long as someone discovered the shop, the player horde would come swarming in.

The next morning, when Hill got up and opened the window, groups of female players had already gathered on Maple Leaf Street.

Looking down, Hill saw them dressed in all kinds of outfits, striking various poses amid the drifting maple leaves.

Hill shook his head. So fashion outfits had indeed been released: backless evening gowns and strapless cocktail dresses had all appeared. To show off the beautiful high-heeled sandals on their feet, every one of them wore a short skirt.

No wonder several neighboring shops did not dare open their doors.

Hill took a closer look. There were still some male players beside them, their faces full of helplessness and absurdity. Hill was quite pleased by their assorted shirts, trousers, and leather shoes.

He was sick to death of those noble shirts with layers upon layers of collars. They could not even be worn on their own. Whenever he put a Mage robe straight over one, he always felt as if he were not wearing anything.

Hill went downstairs and opened the shop. He pushed open the front doors, lit up the sign, and waited for customers.

By the floor-to-ceiling window on the first floor, Hill had placed a small round table piled high with food. He sat in an armchair and enjoyed his meal.

Before long, passing players noticed the only open shop on the street.

Hill recognized someone: A Deer, the one who used a Priest's hammer to smash people over the head. Two of the people beside her looked familiar, but most were newcomers. It seemed their guild really had entered as a group.

She wore a white mermaid-style evening gown, and the jewelry visible on her hands glimmered faintly. It was probably her class accessory.

This sort of alchemical jewelry was expensive. It seemed wealthy players had already caught up with the mainstream equipment of this world.

The girls started looking around the shop, occasionally sneaking glances at Hill.

Hill wore a dark blue Mage robe, doing his utmost to appear mature, stern, and serious.

It was useless.

A Deer was very clearly saying, "Look at that pretty little bottom."

Hill looked up at her. Someone tugged on her clothes. "He's looking at you. Did he hear that?"

A Deer said unconcernedly, "He probably sensed that I was talking about him. But I wasn't saying anything bad about him. I was praising how pretty he is! Other NPCs can't understand us; it gets filtered out."

Hill thought blankly, Filter me out! I don't want to hear this.

Sure enough, the girls began pairing Hill up with people. Hill hurriedly got up and walked over. "Is there anything you need? You can use mana points to tap the crystals on the trays. Product descriptions will appear."

He turned toward the alchemical jewelry. "These are very suitable for magic users."

The extravagant jewelry made from large gemstones immediately caught their attention, and they rushed over in a swarm to look.

Hill tried hard to ignore their chirping discussions. He noticed A Deer looking at the alchemical medicines. She was a smart girl; what a guild needed most was still medicine. Sure enough, she picked up her tablet and started contacting people.

Before long, the bald man ran in with Xiao Liuliu. It looked like the guild leader's wife was still in charge of the finances.

In a booming voice, he shouted, "Oh, disciple, good thing you spotted it. Otherwise, by the time I woke up, there'd be nothing left."

Xiao Liuliu quickly walked to the medicine cabinet. "The guild territory is about to open. We need to calculate the accounts properly."

"It's fine. We're only level fifty. We're still a long way from changing classes at level one hundred!"

Xiao Liuliu ignored him. "Lulu, thank goodness you got up early."

The bald man asked, "What are that bunch looking at?"

"Jewelry. It's really pretty! Master, I'm going to take a look too. You and Mistress can shop slowly!"

The bald man nudged Xiao Liuliu. "You should go look too! If it's pretty, buy more."

Xiao Liuliu rolled her eyes at him. "Didn't you spend all our money on horses?"

The bald man grinned. "Weren't those top-grade limited purchases? Good thing I grabbed them fast. I bought gold from Little Bug. Go take a look too!"

Xiao Liuliu said, "There seems to be quite a lot. I'd better buy the medicine first. Our guild stockpile is too low."

The bald man nodded repeatedly. Then he spotted Hill drinking morning tea, moved closer, and asked softly, "Good morning, Archmage. This is my first time seeing you. Wasn't this place open yesterday?"

Hill tilted his head and glanced at him. "I came to attend the new king's coronation and opened this place for a few days while I was here. I'll leave once the ceremony ends."

The bald man froze for a moment, then suddenly jumped up and rushed toward Xiao Liuliu. "Wife, wife, hurry and tell people to log in. This is a fucking limited-time sale."

Xiao Liuliu hurriedly said, "I'll call them. Stop swearing! Do you want another seven-day ban?"

The bald man opened his mouth, then painfully swallowed the words that had reached his lips. "Sigh, they won't even let me use interjections."

Hill stubbornly kept himself from smiling.

The bald man added, "Hurry and get them online. See if we can buy everything out. Tell them not to tell outsiders. If Doomsday's Tingfeng comes over, I'll cry."

Hill looked at the ponytailed little girl in a black cocktail dress, utterly puzzled. Playing a female character in a keyboard game was one thing, but what kind of obsession made someone do it even in a full-dive game? Did he think that since he could not see it, only everyone else would be disgusted?

Xiao Liuliu suddenly approached with a smile. "Archmage, is there a discount for buying more?"

Hill shook his head. "Everything is at base price, little girl. There are no discounts. Once they're sold out, they're gone."

She asked gently again, "Your alchemical items are very good, sir. Will you sell them again in the future?"

"We have our own Mage Tower. Unless something important happens, we won't come to the capital."

"That's such a pity! I really hope I can always buy such good things."

Hill smiled without answering, and Xiao Liuliu had no choice but to return.

Seeing that people were preparing to buy things, Hill took out several Alchemical Golems and handed them over to the shop's control core.

The golems quickly lifted several trays and walked over to the girls, waiting for them to confirm their selections.

The bald man wandered over again. "Sir, may I ask what controls these golems?"

Hill glanced at him. "This is the lowest-grade Mage Tower Core. Long ago, Mages at the Mage rank were already able to build Mage Towers, and they developed this kind of core. It can only control alchemical items and magic arrays across three floors. It can perform simple calculations and recordkeeping.

"But Mage Apprentices can do all those things, and hiring them is much cheaper. So these gradually fell out of use. Nowadays, only Alchemists too lazy to hire people use them to run shops."

"Is this thing expensive, sir?"

"The core isn't expensive. You can buy one for twenty thousand gold coins. But it needs one Elemental Crystal per day to operate, and each one costs a thousand gold coins."

The bald man muttered, "Fuck, sell me instead!"

Xiao Liuliu suddenly said angrily, "Why did you get warned again? If you get banned one more time, I'm not helping you command anymore!"

The bald man hurried back to placate his wife, looking thoroughly chastened.

Hill watched the two of them tugging at each other with a smile, his heart full of nostalgia. This was what normal love looked like.

In this world filled with scheming and deception, Hill did not think he would ever fall in love with anyone. A Mage's overly sensitive nerves left most of them single. For a Sorcerer like Hill, surrounded by Nature Consciousness, it was even less likely.

Although Hill had once been able to sense when someone before him was lying, he had not been nearly this sensitive. Whenever someone wanted to deceive him now, Nature's Voice would surround him and warn him: "He's lying to you! He wants to hurt you! He has malicious intent!"

Nature loved him, Hill knew that. But he truly did not want to distinguish things so clearly. He missed those days when it was better not to know too much.

Suddenly, dozens of people poured in through the entrance. Hill was delighted to see that most of them were men. Sure enough, they were all dressed in stylish fashion outfits.

Hill walked to the wide workbench in the center of the shop, sat down, and called out, "Appraisals and miscellaneous item purchases!"

The bald man charged over. "You can appraise items too, sir? This is our first time seeing that!"

Hill tilted his head. "You've always been fighting alongside Prince William. Naturally, you wouldn't see Alchemists."

Demon Sword, who stood behind the bald man in line, asked, "Are Alchemists the only ones who can appraise items?"

"Others may know an item's name and roughly what it does, but they may also remember incorrectly. Alchemists have to analyze all things in the world, so they generally know what materials can specifically be used for."

"So that's what basic appraisal means? What's the point of telling me an item's name?" Luo Sanquan, third in line, muttered.

Hill noticed that people from the same guild even competed for positions in line. These few were all Sky Knights, so they were the fastest.

The bald man carelessly dumped a pile of things onto the table. "Can you appraise their value, sir?"

Hill looked up at him. "If you want me to give you the material price, it's one gold coin per item. For more detailed and specific uses, it's ten gold coins per item."

The bald man swallowed. "The ten-gold option."

Hill saw everyone behind him craning their necks to look at the things on the table, so he put away the duplicates.

Dream Awake, Don't See You, who stood at the very end, simply walked over to guard the entrance.

Their coordination was very practiced. It seemed competition among players was quite fierce, Hill thought as he examined the items one by one.

He first took out the Monster Cores. "I'll arrange these for you by core grade, from low to high. These are all used for making medicine, and ordinary potion shops will buy them."

Xiao Liuliu quickly ran over to take pictures. She even called over the few people who were paying.

Hill paused for several minutes to give them time, then continued, "Cores can also assist meditation. You need to test your body's elemental affinity at a temple or Mage Tower. While the easiest element to absorb during meditation is your own affinity, those with multiple affinities may advance slowly at higher levels due to a shortage of elements."

Xiao Liuliu hurriedly asked, "Is it the same for Priests?"

Hill looked at her. "Priests don't need cores. Go meditate in church more often and receive divine grace."

"So churches have that use too!" A Deer muttered. "I was wondering why William didn't just build schools instead."

Hill looked at this Archbishop-level Priest and did not even want to speak. He could only pretend he had not heard.

The bald man turned around and shouted, "Where's Jijiyaya? Didn't he come? Can't he wake up earlier?"

The one called Old Man answered from the back, "He didn't come. I recorded it. I'll send it to him when he gets here."