Chapter 58: Fiery Conflict Across the Sky’s Ambition
Fiery Conflict Across the Sky returned to Emerald City just like that.
His mind was completely blank during the whole trip.
Strange, too strange!
Ever since receiving the mission, everything had felt odd; it was even weirder while carrying out the task!
Could it be that the game glitched?
But thankfully, those two sisters seemed fine, so the mission should also be alright, right?
With a mix of anxiety, he arrived at the teleportation point he had visited before.
Almost an hour and a half had passed since he had set off for the mission, yet there was still no other player arriving in the main city. So, Xu Xiaofeng was still in the same spot.
Fiery Conflict Across the Sky walked up, suppressing his doubts and flashing a friendly smile. “Little Sister, is this your sister’s thing?”
He handed over a handkerchief, the very token he got from Joyce.
Xu Xiaofeng took the handkerchief, took a glance, and exclaimed, “No doubt, this is my sister’s thing!”
“Great! She’s asked me to tell you she’s fine.”
“That’s good! Thanks, Big Brother.”
Ding! Congratulations! You completed the daily mission: Rescue Joyce. NPC Little Girl’s affection for you increased by 10 points.
Awesome!
Fiery Conflict Across the Sky felt a surge of excitement, and his previous doubts vanished in an instant.
Who cares if things were weird? The mission reward showing up was more real than anything!
As for the Bandit Group? He was keeping his hands off that entirely! Not only that, but with more members from his guild coming in later, he had to find ways to protect them too.
This was a daily mission! If the Bandit Group got wiped out, who was he going to find to replace his mission?
With limitless expectations for tomorrow and the future, Fiery Conflict Across the Sky left the teleportation plaza.
He still needed to level up, complete missions, and race for progress!
He had read the posts on the forum; given his status, he couldn’t gather resources himself, so he headed to the Qingfeng Chamber of Commerce.
Then he took a look at the pricing.
“What the heck? Five gold coins each?”
Originally, he had intended to buy a bulk of ten thousand, enough materials to help all his guild members break through.
He had friends from previous games who followed him, but in “Otherworld,” they were scattered across different villages.
While the total wouldn’t hit ten thousand, he still had around fifty to sixty thousand players, and when every player from the Huaxia server arrived, he could recruit a few more to keep the total around ten thousand.
But right now, ten thousand pieces would cost fifty thousand gold coins!
It wasn’t that he couldn’t afford that money, but spending so much on a small benefit—was it really worth it?
In “Otherworld,” joining a guild provided huge benefits; naturally, joining a powerful guild was everyone’s goal.
Even if Fiery Conflict Across the Sky offered no extra perks, tons of players would still scramble to join.
He should have nothing to worry about.
However, there was still a problem.
If he didn’t take the opportunity to offer enough benefits upfront to attract players before the other top players—his old rivals—showed up…
What if they got in first? It would be a total disaster for him!
He started to agonize over it.
Fifty thousand gold coins—that’s five hundred million RMDB!
If he spent it, he felt like he’d be throwing money at freeloaders for nothing.
But if he didn’t spend it, it could be worse—what if all the freeloaders ran off, leaving him without enough players?
Plus, the earlier players arrived, the stronger they’d be, meaning delayed welfare would attract weaker players.
The benefits either need to be offered or not—if they are, best to give them early!
Noticing him frowning in distress, the shopkeeper urged, “You buying or what? If not, don’t block the way.”
“Sorry.” Fiery Conflict Across the Sky snapped back to reality. “I wanted to ask, has this always been this expensive?”
Five hundred RMDB was nothing to him, but for regular players, that was a pretty hefty price.
Sure, he could gather the resources himself, but the quality of player-gathered items wouldn’t compare to what the shop sold.
If even a simple breakthrough could cost so much, it was safe to say the game developers were greedier than ever.
Hmm? Wait a second, haven’t the game developers always been like that?
“Our Qingfeng Chamber of Commerce offers top-notch goods. Especially this Sunfruit—we sell only the perfect grade, which enhances effects by a whole ten percent compared to the regular quality!”
He said that, but the shopkeeper knew, no matter how perfect it was, one gold coin was still a fortune. Who knew why they were allowed to sell it so high?
He’s just a little shop clerk, trying to push products at the right moments—he couldn’t question it.
“Oh? Is that so?”
Fiery Conflict Across the Sky’s eyes brightened.
A ten percent increase means an extra boost to attribute points during a breakthrough. He had never heard of that before.
Looking at it now, there was indeed a reason for the high price! This stuff was clearly meant for the wealthy!
No money? Well, then you risk losing out on basic attributes.
If that’s the case, then there’s a strategy to pursue.
A smile crept across Fiery Conflict Across the Sky’s face.
“How many Sunfruits do you have in stock?”
“Huh? What?” The shopkeeper paused for a second, blinked, and then realized what he meant. “You mean, you want to buy a lot?”
“Yes, in bulk, depends on your stock.”
“Our headquarters is rumored to have a million in stock.”
“A million…”
Fiery Conflict Across the Sky stroked his chin, deep in thought.
According to the current data released for the Huaxia server, the first batch of players in “Otherworld” was roughly around one hundred million, scattered across near a thousand beginner villages.
Excluding the relatively unique 66th village, the other beginner villages were all about the same.
Currently, less than 1% of players have reached level 9, while about 5% were level 8—let’s not worry about the rest for now.
That leaves six million players relatively higher level, with truly high-level players under a million.
And out of this fewer-than-a-million lot, he really needs to fight for their allegiance.
“Can’t catch a wolf without first letting go of the kid. Going for it!”
Fiery Conflict Across the Sky gritted his teeth. “I’m buying all one million!”
He needed to shrink the operational space of the competition, ideally leaving nothing left!
If all the high-level players were on his side, who else could contest with him?
Even if opponents later digged under him in various ways, it didn’t matter; digging would come at a cost.
Today, he Fiery Conflict Across the Sky spent however much to win over these players—tomorrow, others would have to shell out tenfold or a hundredfold to grab them.
And if things didn’t go as planned and the first batch was tough, or if there really weren’t that many high-level players?
That was okay; the earlier players always had better skills, so he could just plan accordingly.
If all else failed, the last resort would be to sell the Sunfruits to those friendly rivals.
But about that price? Heh…
Fiery Conflict Across the Sky acknowledged he might be a bit rushed this time, but the throne of the first player was essential for him.
As long as his power was large enough, no one would be able to surpass him by sheer luck!
