Chapter 275: Games and Reality, Otherworld and Blue Star
When Maria and Little Moon returned to the Adventurers’ Guild, the entrance was practically deserted.
It wasn’t that everyone had formed their teams and picked up their quests.
Nope! Yuliya just decided to move the quest board out to the square.
You all going around picking quests? You’re interrupting my fish-tapping business!
Even if there were a line, and it seemed quiet on the surface, having so many people standing around was just annoying to look at.
So, off to the square you go! Out of sight, out of mind. You can line up however you want.
Now the question is, what on earth is that big Adventurers’ Guild for?
Nothing, just for show!
Move the quest board out, move the level board out, the submission board, the exchange board… wait a second! Not this one!
Hmm, decision made: the guild will be just for counting money.
Somebody’s probably going, “Wait, if you give out quests, shouldn’t you be paying for them?”
Oh no, my friend!
The quests are all about exchange points, and the rewards are for trading.
Sure, there’s a gold coin option, but who in their right mind would stare at a screen filled with skills, consumables, and equipment, not to mention get-out-of-jail-free items, and only swap for gold coins at the bottom?
Swapping for gold coins isn’t a loss either; it’s been evaluated. An average Joe can grind quests for about four days to earn one gold coin, which translates to about ten thousand RMDB.
But the folks here? Come on, every one of them has a gold mine in their backyard! Money’s not the issue; they scoff at gold coins.
As for the latecomers? The longer they wait, the more likely they are broke, but if they lack the strength, grinding quests takes ages and converting them into gold coins? Who knows how profitable that really is.
So if no one’s trading gold coins, what’s the financials?
Naturally, flipping goods!
Let me ask you, what’s the hottest item in Golden City?
The answer: recovery items.
Regular recovery items? Good luck finding those here! What’s left is either expired or too precious and in the vault—rich folks can’t even afford to use them!
But for players, they are essential and in high demand.
They can’t just waltz back to the main city for replenishments because the teleportation arrays charge a fee.
These ultra-long-distance cross-realm teleporters? The charges are absolutely insane! Even after leveling up, players have to save up for travel expenses to Golden City.
And someone might say, “But why charge for a teleportation array built by the players themselves?”
Sister Tong just smiles and says nothing.
Who built it? Who’s providing the teleportation costs?
Even after emptying their bags to refill on potions and returning, players still end up poorer than a broke mule.
Except for one person.
That person is “Wind.”
She has her own teleportation array leading to the North Fortress of the Jade Emperor Kingdom, which is funded by the kingdom and is significantly closer.
Plus, her magical little basket is bottomless. After she nabs potions from Isaac, she just turns around and sells them in Golden City.
Zero costs, pure profit.
Selling at twice the price of regular potions? Snatched up within seconds.
And even at that price, some resellers pop up occasionally.
Scarcity equals value—it’s expensive, but not just any expensive; it’s ridiculously expensive!
Of course, after raking in the cash, she still has to share some profits with Big Brother.
Yuliya has everything organized perfectly, occasionally checking stocks, and the rest of the time she just lounges around counting money.
So, Maria and Little Moon simply traipsed into the Adventurers’ Guild and spotted Yuliya sprawled over the front desk.
“President, the items you requested are here. Also, this adventurer has something to discuss with you.”
Yuliya looked up, “Oh, great.”
She took the item Maria handed her.
It was a book, or rather a dictionary.
This was something Yuliya thought up after observing the interactions between other players and NPCs.
Why do so many NPCs understand “Eagle Language”?
After asking Maria, she found out that this Eagle Language actually existed before.
It was once used as some sort of coded language, and Yuliya shockingly realized she knew the language before it was scrambled!
Back during the Ruinous Country dungeon, she’d seen that language.
Maria informed her it was “Senra Language.”
So doesn’t that mean, as long as she figures out the correspondence between “Senra Language” and “Eagle Language,” she can instantly become an Eagle Language expert?
From then on, she’d bid farewell to her construction site Eagle Language and become an ace with a pure accent of… human.
With so many identities, she wasn’t sure which descriptor to use.
Now that the dictionary’s here, with her memory, just a quick read-through and she’d grasp it all, leaving no communication barriers.
She just gave the dictionary a glance and tucked it away.
“Okay, let’s talk about your business. Maria, this adventurer is somewhat close to me, so go easy on her and inform the others too.”
“Understood, President.”
Maria glanced at Little Moon, and some confusion in her heart seemed to lessen.
“In that case, I’ll get straight to the point—there’s no need to hide it from her.”
Maria roughly recounted the conversation between her and Little Moon.
Little Moon raised her hand to chime in: “President, I actually wanted to ask that too.”
To which Yuliya replied, “Huh? That’s a thing?”
And then there were three bewildered faces.
Oh, add another face—Luti was bewildered on the side too.
Or perhaps Luti has always been in a state of bewilderment; she really never wasn’t.
Four faces were in a confused stupor for a bit.
Then Yuliya shouted, “Andrew!”
Andrew quickly appeared in the hall.
“Regarding what Maria said, do you have that feeling too?”
“I do, President. Not just me, many people do.”
Yuliya frowned in contemplation for a moment.
Then she switched to player form: “Maria, Andrew, look at me now. Do you feel anything different?”
“Nothing.” *2.
“Well then…”
This meant it wasn’t just a simple distinction between players and NPCs.
Different servers also had their own peculiarities.
The main servers connect to different nations in the same world’s context, and these nations have alliance agreements.
But their territories don’t touch, and they’re in entirely different realms.
So why form such an alliance?
Why are they all servers for players from Blue Star?
What sort of connection exists between the server and the players? And what differences exist between players from different servers?
To solve these mysteries, there are two routes.
One is to start from Blue Star; the major servers’ surface operators surely know something.
The other is to dig in and investigate a few nations from this side.
The first route is challenging; unless they expose themselves, they’re just the lowest-tier citizens in Blue Star.
But the second route has some opportunity.
“It seems like we need to have a face-to-face exchange…”
Yuliya, the newly appointed grand princess of the Jade Emperor Kingdom, has every reason, both personally and logically, to visit other nations.
Besides, Yuliya has a hunch that the answers to these questions are crucial.
