The First Day of Dealing with Players, Part Two

Hill froze when he heard the familiar name. They were actually their people! He glanced guiltily at the bald man. Falan would not show himself, and Adrian had seen it long ago, so it should be fine.

Still, he hurriedly picked up the materials on the table and continued his introduction, casually marking down the purchase prices for crystal cores. The people behind him stirred, and someone cursed yesterday's profiteer. It seemed they had sold their goods to someone at a low price.

Hill lowered his head and sorted through everything, explaining their uses one by one and marking their prices. He placed a golem beside him; whenever someone wanted to sell materials, the golem would calculate the purchase price.

Hill sensed the golem returning to the second-floor warehouse several times. It seemed these people were basically clearing out all their stock here.

After even Xiao Liuliu had sold off her goods, Hill found that only A Deer and Dream Awake, Don't See You remained. It seemed someone had displayed gentlemanly manners and let the girls go first.

A Deer laid out a great many ores, enough to surprise Hill. Did this girl mine them herself? No wonder she had stayed until the end. It was impressive that she had held onto so much ore until now.

Seeing the eager look on the girl's face, Hill could only sigh and sort the ores one by one. Sure enough, a group of people gathered around to take pictures.

He simply raised his hand and labeled each ore with its name and price above it.

"Don't you Undead have basic appraisal? Now that you know the ore names, you can compare them with the shop prices."

"The weapon shop won't tell us the prices, and it won't sell us refined ore either."

"Please go to the general store." Hill sighed. Had these players mistaken the general store for a supermarket?

"The weapon shop only buys metal ores. Only the general store buys everything. The same goes for Monster Cores; the weapon shop only buys those it can use itself. Generally speaking, ore and crystal core prices are fixed, and every store pays about the same. My purchase prices are higher because there's no general store taking a cut."

"No wonder we couldn't sell them. I practically gave them away! If I hadn't run out of money, why would I have sold them so casually? That damned profiteer!"

Hill thought with a headache, Was William completely leaving the Undead to fend for themselves? How did they know nothing at all?

Demon Sword suddenly said, "That bitch of a quartermaster! He's made so much money off us."

Hill looked up at him. "Do you trade with the army for all your weapons and equipment?"

"Yeah! The markup is huge!"

"That's perfectly normal. Military camps spend heavily to hire blacksmiths and alchemists. Naturally, the cost of hiring them has to be spread across the finished products. There are over a hundred thousand of you!"

"Hire my ass, they're all programs!" Demon Sword had barely finished speaking when lightning struck him.

Hill stared blankly at the bolt of heavenly lightning that had appeared from nowhere. Had their tablets summoned that?

The bald man explained skillfully, "His mouth is filthy. He said something wrong and received divine punishment. Please don't worry, Archmage."

Hill pressed a hand to his forehead. "Please call me Bolanio. Hill Bolanio. The Lord of Time and Space is very strict!"

The bald man chuckled and pushed the charred-black Demon Sword aside. "Sorry for the embarrassment, Mr. Bolanio."

Hill looked at the ore in his hand, somewhat helpless. "Where did you mine this?"

A Deer examined it carefully. "I don't remember. Let me check my records. Is it valuable? Golden Glimmerstone?"

Hill was speechless. Didn't she know it was Golden Glimmerstone? What did she think the capital city was named after?

She struggled to swipe through her tablet. "Mm, mm, mm... Perast Territory, which we passed through. A small cave on the side closer to the capital. I was AFK and casually mined a few times, then these two pieces came out."

Hill leaned back in his chair, practically about to laugh aloud. "Take those two stones to William's captain of the guard. I remember he's responsible for dealing with your affairs. Tell him where you mined the Golden Glimmerstone!"

This time, no one could save House Perast. Go open up wasteland beyond the northern border!

The bald man hesitantly asked, "Is it that valuable? Can't we mine it ourselves?"

Hill nearly suffocated. I already know about it, and you still want to mine it yourselves? Do you want money so badly you're willing to die for it?

"It's too close to the capital. You won't be able to keep it. You might as well tell William and earn some merit. You'll be granted territories too, won't you? The more merit you have, the better territory you'll receive."

Hill did not want to keep talking to the man whose face was filled with reluctance. Had he still not understood what Golden Glimmerstone was? Hill should have been speaking the local language, right? Were they hearing a direct translation? But he could sense these people looking above his head!

They were so slow-witted that Hill could not be bothered to say more. He looked at Dream Awake, Don't See You, who was standing at the end, and asked, "The clothes you're wearing look very nice. Are they casual Undead clothing? Do you have any extras? Sell me a few." He really liked Dream Awake, Don't See You's black silk shirt. It was loose and casual, and the fabric draped smoothly.

The clothes worn by the others were all too brightly colored. Hill truly could not bring himself to praise them.

"Of course, but they aren't cheap." Dream Awake, Don't See You quickly said, "They come in sets. One set costs two thousand gold coins."

Seeing him state the price without hesitation, Hill knew he had converted it directly from the gold price. Their gold market seemed quite stable.

Hill said, "I'll give you ten thousand gold. Can you sell me four sets?"

"No problem!" Dream Awake, Don't See You was overjoyed. "I'll buy them for you right away!"

Hill watched him rapidly tap on his tablet. It seemed they could directly pay cash within the game.

Dream Awake immediately changed into a white outfit from the same series and asked, "How about this set?"

Hill said in surprise, "You can change clothes directly?"

"No, this is just a trial outfit. It'll disappear in ten minutes. Once you buy it, you still have to put it on yourself."

Hill nodded. "This set is fine."

A Deer squeezed over. "Demon Sword's set is good too. He's just stupid and insisted on wearing bright red. Try on the black one from that set."

After Dream Awake opened it, he changed into a slightly shimmering black short stand-collar coat. His black trousers clung smoothly to his body, and even the heels of his black boots had small glittering accessories.

Hill nodded, then casually glanced at Demon Sword, who had recovered from his charred state. That gaudy red still made Hill unwilling to look at him even once.

Hill lowered his head and sighed. Was it because he couldn't see himself anyway, so all he wanted was to blind everyone else?

He looked at Dream Awake, Don't See You. "It seems all your clothes look quite good. Just changing the colors makes a huge difference. Bring me one set of every black and white outfit!"

Seeing Dream Awake, Don't See You hesitate, Hill asked, "Not enough money? Buy a few for me first. Once I pay you, you can continue buying the rest."

Dream Awake, Don't See You quickly said, "Can we split the purchases among ourselves? Four items per person would be easy."

Hill nodded in agreement. It seemed this guild was quite united.

Before they left, he emphasized with lingering apprehension, "Black and white only!"

In the end, Hill received more than fifty sets of clothes. He wondered whether the gaming company on the other side was quite large. Selling game cards alone probably could not support the game pods, so they also had to sell clothes. He suddenly wanted to laugh. To cover things up, It would definitely buy the most expensive servers. Those things could probably only be used to build game forums, right?

After everyone received a large sum of money, they surged off to buy more things. They seemed determined to empty Hill's shop.

Hill returned to the sofa chair by the window and quietly watched the scenery outside.

These people spent the entire morning at Hill's place. Only after they had probably spent all their money did they gradually leave.

Xiao Liuliu came last to say goodbye. "Mr. Bolanio, thank you very much for your patient explanations. We've bought what we needed. Will there be new stock tomorrow?"

Hill replied, "It was nothing. You should read more books. Once something sells out, it's gone, but there will be new products."

"We'll make sure to read more!" Xiao Liuliu almost could not stop herself from sighing. "Then we'll come again tomorrow. Thank you for your hospitality."

The bald man added, "Thank you for the reminder. We'll go find that captain of the guard this afternoon."

Hill smiled as he watched them leave. Then, to his surprise, he noticed Xiao Liuliu slap the bald man on the head before flipping the sign outside the door from Closed back to Open.

Hill gave a wry smile. No wonder Dream Awake, Don't See You had kept guarding the door after closing it. Hill had thought it was to keep hostile guilds from entering. It turned out they had flipped the sign to Closed.

No wonder no outsiders had entered. These players were quick-witted indeed! Hill had not noticed at all. Had they changed it while Xiao Liuliu was talking to him? That was why each of them casually shut the door when they came in.

Hill silently watched groups of players enter in delight. It was afternoon now, and there were more players.

Hill no longer wanted to buy goods. He sat by the window, basking in the sun and taking a rest.

He needed to properly reflect on the players' antics. They had truly caught him by surprise. Hill felt that he needed to clear his head and be more careful next time.

With his eyes closed in meditation, Hill knew that many players were taking pictures of him. His face and all sorts of stories about him would probably soon appear on the forum.

Since he could not see it anyway, Hill thought while burying his head in the sand, as long as no one says it to my face, I'm still an innocent little Sorcerer.

The players' constant arrivals saved Hill a great deal of trouble. No locals were willing to come in, so he did not have to rack his brains figuring out how to deal with them.

It was not until night fell that Hill found a break and got up to close the shop.

More than half the potions had sold out. Hill casually found some to refill the medicine cabinet. If they did not sell, so be it. Who knew what the players wanted to buy?

All the alchemical jewelry had sold out. No matter the time or place, women's spending power was unstoppable.

The alchemical tents had sold out too. Hill searched carefully through his ring. He had only put out the basic models, so since those were gone, he might as well put out the luxury models too. He also took out a few Alchemy Huts. They were expensive, but rich people could still afford them, right?

Hill thought of the things the bald man's group had bought and silently nodded. There would definitely be people willing to buy things that satisfied vanity so thoroughly.

He also needed to put out the alchemical carriages. He remembered the bald man's group mentioning that they had bought limited-time mounts. They were surely expensive goods with magical beast bloodlines—beautiful and powerful.

He had thought these few carriages would never sell. They had all been practice pieces from his younger days. When he had first started making carriages, he had always wanted them to be luxurious, eye-catching, and fully functional. In the end, even he had not dared to look at what he made.

Players would probably like these alchemical carriages that, in Hill's view, only someone having a bout of adolescent delusion would use. They glittered with pearls and jewels, inlaid with gold and silver, and some were even convertibles.

As Hill passed the miscellaneous goods cabinet, he discovered that several campfire cooking racks he had made had sold as well. Fine, there would always be players who wanted to run wild in the wilderness.

Hill took out a few more small items. He had made them in idle moments while thinking about his past life. Low-level people would not buy such expensive items made with elemental ores, while high-level people had no use for them. For example, there was the alchemical refrigerator, which could be carried in a ring. One crystal could keep it cold for a month. Hill thought it was quite cost-effective, but Adrian had mocked him mercilessly. One thousand gold coins was enough to cover a small noble family's expenses for a year. Who would buy such a thing? Wasn't it better to buy food fresh and eat it right away? If they wanted ice, hiring a water mage apprentice to make some only cost one or two gold coins.

Hill could only throw the thing into the warehouse. He had made many of them back when he had wanted to make money.

When he went out this time, he had decided to bring them along after all. It seemed players only bought what they wanted, regardless of whether it was cheap or expensive. Then this should sell too, right?

After restocking, Hill went upstairs to sleep. He had not felt this exhausted in a long time.

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