Chapter 58: Street Stall, Notice Board
Yue Qiang only had one objective, and that was to earn some money. On one hand he wanted to buy clothes for Yin, and on the other there were many simple equipment in the market that could only be purchased with knife coins. While the effects of these equipment might be lacking, it was still a lot better than running around naked. The first thing he needed to do was to buy a simple armor for both him and Yin. That was why he thought to earn money.
By coincidence, he saw Deng Yuan"s way of business, and when an idea flashed across his mind, Yue Qiang decided that he would undercut Deng Yuan"s business for himself.
A careful selection process happened behind the chosen location of Deng Yuan"s stall. First, he needed to put some distance between his current and his previous location to avoid running into the same customers. Moreover, he needed to wait until all the circ.u.mstances felt right before restarting his business once more.
Just like before, he put up the white cloth with the words, "The Venomous Yuchang Blade That Surpa.s.ses Zhuan Zhu"s", took out a huge fish bone, and even found a feebler old dog than the one before. However, when everything was set to commence, Yue Qiang appeared.
It must be said that Yue Qiang"s act of stealing one"s stall s.p.a.ce was very provocative.
It was obvious he was undercutting his compet.i.tor.
When the surrounding crowd saw that two weapon selling stalls were laid out at this place, they slowly gathered over and began gesticulating at them.
"Hey there, old chap. Who do you think sells the better weapon between these two?"
"Ah, brother, your observation skill still needs a little bit of training. It is obvious that that blackish iron rod is far better than the other." A scholarly looking person said while swaying his head back and forth.
"How can you be so sure?"
"You may listen closely to my words. To know if a seller"s goods are of quality, one must first observe their shop sign. Look, the sign of the left stall selling fish bone writes, "The Venomous Yuchang Blade That Surpa.s.ses Zhuan Zhu". We will ignore how much truth lies behind this claim, and observe these words alone. Just based on the fact that the words are chicken scratch, the syntax is wrong, and the comparison is biased, I will give him a solid 0 star rating. Now we look again at the right stall selling an iron rod. He writes, "Genesis of Bane, G.o.d of Spears". His syntax is fine, and his reconciliation is fair. The calligraphy of these six words are straight and parallel, mellow and full; thin but not flattering, strong but not stiff. I will go as far as to say that this is a rare top grade calligraphy. From these two advertising signs alone we can see clearly who is the better among the duo."
The scholar gesticulated and commented at the two stalls with clear and logical arguments. Setting aside whether he was actually right or wrong, his performance was enough to attract a huge crowd of ignorant people to stand and watch.
Yue Qiang was pretty amused. Now he even had someone advertising for him for free.
Seeing that his insights were agreed upon by others, the scholar grew even prouder of himself.
""Buy not, before judging the seller". This is the indisputable words of wisdom the sage of the ancient past have imparted us. Look, my friends. This fish bone seller at the left looks perverted, shifty, slumped and hunchbacked. It is obvious at first glance that he is no decent person. Moreover, he is even followed by an old dog that"s about to starve to death. The ancient sage once said, "what dog there is, what man there is". You may imagine the moral standing of this fish bone seller just from this old dog"s appearance alone."
"Now, let us look at this iron rod seller once more. His stature is lofty, and his appearance is powerful. He may be of average countenance, but he has a sweet and virtuous lady behind his back. The ancient sage once saw through the mystery known only to heaven and said before they levitated heavenwards, "A man"s worth can be measured by the beauty index of his woman". Based on this alone, it can be proven that this iron rod seller is much more reliable than the fish bone seller."
The surrounding crowd nodded their heads repeatedly. They all felt that this scholar"s words were rather sound.
One person asked, "If I may be so bold as to ask, the term "beauty index" sounds rather profound. May I ask how it should be solved?"
Another person asked, "I wonder who is this ancient sage of such ability, speaking truths and gems at every turn? Can you enlighten us on this, scholar?"
Seeing that everyone was flattering him highly, the scholar put even greater effort into making a show of himself.
He took out a a bamboo slip from his lap and said, "Do you want to know how "beauty index" is explained? Do you want to know what other words of blood, sweat and tears the ancient sage have to offer? Then hesitate not and buy my "Quotes of The Ancient Sage" right away! This book is originally priced at 500 knife coins, but now it is only sold for 198! 198! 198 knife coins is not expensive at all, and if you don"t buy it, you"re a fool and a loser who can"t become a king or marry a bride! If you buy my "Quotes of The Ancient Sage", then a meteoric rise to become scholar officials is no longer a dream!"
Ever since Yue Qiang set down his stall, he had been watching the scholar perform from the start to the end.
At the beginning, Yue Qiang could almost believe that the scholar was a helper that he hired after hearing him talk so many good things about him. But in the end, he was yet another person out to market his product. That being said, this script and method… he can"t help but feel that the style was similar to "".
Seeing that this scholar was harmless, and his own curiosity was at its peak, Yue Qiang hovered over his cursor and clicked the man"s avatar to check his stats.
Character Name: Hui Shi
Cla.s.s: Scholar
Stats: (Stats are hidden and can no longer be seen)
Skill:
?? : ??
Duel of Words Against the Group of Learned LVL 1: A silver tongue with a strong grasp of knowledge, capable of quoting cla.s.sics and articulate eloquently with no effort at all. Stats required to read book type items is decreased.
Heart of Name and Reality LVL 1:
Memory Unlock Rate: 2%
On the other side, the local trader Deng Yuan was in a rather awkward situation.
This was the place he had chosen for himself, but he was first taken advantage of by Yue Qiang, then had his popularity completed robbed away by a scholar. When he saw the current situation, he hastily shouted in a loud voice, still using the same promotion script as before.
However, the professional marketing script that was still very useful just now had lost its effectiveness. No one in the crowd were even looking at him. A small minority of the crowd were curious about the scholar"s "Quotes of The Ancient Sage", and the large majority were attracted by Yue Qiang"s Genesis Bane G.o.d Spear a.k.a blackish iron rod.
"If I may be so bold as to ask, where have you gotten this spear?"
Yue Qiang said, "A blacksmith in a small village gifted it to me."
"This blacksmith must be a mastersmith who has retired himself from the world. Young sir is truly fortunate."
Another person asked, "Since your G.o.d Spear is called the "Genesis of Bane", then it must be extremely poisonous. Is it possible to ask for an immediate demonstration?"
Yue Qiang agreed on the spot and sc.r.a.ped some dull and gray, black-and-white mix of dust from the iron rod. Then, he grabbed the old dog at the back and fed the dust down its throat. Before long, the old dog perished on the spot. (Deng Yuan: That"s my dog!)
The surrounding crowd clicked their tongues in wonder.
"There is indeed truth behind the one that dares calls itself the genesis of bane. This toxicity is oh-so-acute."
"It looks ordinary, but it hides its secrets inside. This is truly a great weapon."
Another person asked Yue Qiang, "May I know how much your Genesis Bane G.o.d Spear will fetch?"
Yue Qiang typed unhurriedly, "The poison dust is for sale. The spear, isn"t."
Hearing how imposing Yue Qiang"s words were, the surrounding crowd immediately discussed among themselves spiritedly once more.
Deng Yuan"s face was blue with anger when he noticed that all of the crowd"s attention were sucked away elsewhere. Even more infuriating was that the dog he prepared for his own demonstration was s.n.a.t.c.hed away by Yue Qiang as well. He no longer shouted, and instead took out a public notice from his lap and roared once at Yue Qiang, "Hey iron rod seller! Do you dare accept this public notice?"
Public notice?
Deng Yuan continued, "I"ll stop my business today, but would you dare agree to a gamble and see who can finish the quest listed on this public notice first? If you managed to finish the quest first, then not only would I pack and quit right away, I will gift you with 2000 extra knife coins as compensation. But if I finished the quest first by luck then, huhu, I"d like to see if you can leave this market alive!"
When Yue Qiang heard this, he clicked open the public notice curiously. The public notice was actually a quest.
Quest t.i.tle: Tiger Hunting.
Quest Background: It is said that there is a ferocious tiger doing evil in the mountains a few dozen of miles away and has heard countless villagers and hunters. Braves are hereby called to hunt down this ferocious tiger. If the hunt is a success, then a thousand knife coins and a piece of equipment will be rewarded.
The man waited until Yue Qiang was finished reading the public notice before saying, "So? Do you dare make a gamble with me? I"d like to see if your iron rod is better, or my Venomous Yuchang Blade is fiercer!"
Yue Qiang grew amused when saw the contents of this public notice. If this wasn"t what you call jumping into the line of fire, then what was? He purposely paused and put on a hesitant look before typing, "This isn"t fair, is it? If you lose, you only lose 2000 knife coins. If I lose, I have to lose my own life. Unless, you add another 2000 knife coins…"
"Why not!" Deng Yuan roared.
The man hardly finished speaking before Yue Qiang s.n.a.t.c.hed over the public notice* and accepted the quest at top speed.
*although the author didn"t write it, Yue Qiang probably returned the public notice to the guy after reading it.
System Message: You have accepted the quest: Tiger Hunting.
System Message: You have completed the quest: Tiger Hunting.
The feeling of accepting and finishing a quest instantly was the best.
He took out the tiger"s tail about the size of an arm from his backpack and said, "Tiger, you say? It just so happened I killed something like that along the way."
Chapter 59: That Old Watchman Again?
When Yue Qiang took out the tail that was as thick as an arm, everyone around him was stunned.
The people whispered among themselves, "This brightly colored tiger tail is so long and thick. It may really be the tail mentioned in the public bounty!"
Someone could not help but walk forward to ask, "If I may be so bold as to ask, where did this length of tiger tail come from?"
"It is cut off a tiger after I killed it inside a tiger"s den." Yue Qiang typed leisurely, "Even with my strength, victory did not come without much risks. In the end, it is thanks to the unique poison of my Genesis Bane G.o.d Spear that I finally killed it after much difficulty."
"Did you have another helper, young sir who has killed a tiger?"
Yue Qiang paused for a moment, and before he could reply a row of words suddenly appeared on the screen.
Yin whispered to you: "Don"t mention me."
Like I need you to tell me that… While Yue Qiang thought, he typed and answered, "Helper? Of course there was a helper."
When the person who asked the question heard that Yue Qiang had a helper, he instantly let out a sigh of relief. He obviously did not quite believe that a normal person like Yue Qiang could take out a wicked tiger with a notorious, long notorious reputation, "Where might this helper be right now?"
"There was a helper, but it was not my helper!" Yue Qiang purposely paused for a moment before saying, "What, you can"t be thinking that this delicate woman behind me is the helper, can you?"
Yue Qiang purposely kept his listeners on tenterhooks before finally saying, "The one who had a helper isn"t me. It was the tiger!"
"There was not only a male tiger inside the tiger den, but also a female tiger that was just as fierce!"
The surrounding crowd looked extremely surprised. Seeing that the mood was more or less set, he began typing slowly and describing the entire tiger hunting process in a most exaggerated fashion. The main point of the story was how ferocious the tigers were, and how effortless it was for him to take out both tigers during the process. At the end of the story, he did not forget to add, "My strength is what it is. The main reason I won is because of the powerful poison of my Genesis Bane G.o.d Spear."
The whole storytelling was at least the length equivalent of an 800 words essay.
Seeing the surrounding ma.s.ses" surprised expression and Deng Yuan"s gloomy expression, he felt that his sales pitch was very successful.
"Therefore, please feel a.s.sured and buy my poison powder."
Yue Qiang"s iron rod might look unremarkable, but it was in fact pretty peculiar in many ways. The layer of black charcoal on the iron rod could not be sc.r.a.ped clean no matter how hard one tries, and after the weapon had merged with the doctor Ming Que"s Goldmaker Pill this black color now had some gray to it. However, this characteristic still remained.
Very soon, he had sold plenty of poison powder and earned a couple hundreds of knife coins.
The people who bought the poison powder left in perfect contentment, and the surrounding crowd gradually dissipated over time.
Deng Yuan was still standing at a distance, and his face – so dirty that it was gray, undernourished and perverted-looking – had blushed into a dark red color. Suddenly, he walked over while holding a large amount of money,
"Young sir Yue, I, Deng Yuan am a man who can accept his defeat! However, I only have about 2000 knife coins with me right now, and I am unable to gather the full sum at the moment…"
"There is no need to act this way, brother Deng."
Yue Qiang walked to his side, and seeing that there was no one around to hear them, typed to Deng Yuan and said, "I am ashamed. Although you and I are here both to earn dirty money, I do in fact feel pretty bad to rob your business like this. It is just that I am seriously in need of money right now, and if you look behind me you will notice that my girl did not even have clothes to wear. This is why I have no choice but to employ such an unwise plan. Please empathise with us."
Deng Yuan was actually unable to react for a time when he heard Yue Qiang"s words. It was only after a while had pa.s.sed when he finally said, "What I earn may be dirty money, but there is nothing more important to a merchant than a promise! Since I made a bet, then I must be held responsible for it! Please wait for a moment, my brother Deng Fang still has some knife coins with him…"
"No need, no need." Yue Qiang took the 2000 knife coins off Deng Yuan"s hands without any hesitation before turning him down gracefully, "No one has an easy time in this trade. We shall part here then."
Once he finished typing, he took Yin with him, turned around and left just like that, leaving behind Deng Yuan with a complicated look on his face.
There was a reason behind Yue Qiang"s refusal of the additional 2000 knife coins. The main reason he did it was to show the other party goodwill. While his actions might not necessarily bring forth immediate benefits, it could turn out to be something during future activities. As the saying goes, don"t burn your bridges since you"ll never know when you"ll need them, and in this infinitely realistic world, there was no harm in being as careful as possible.
Moreover, he was no longer lacking in money right now. He had won 2000 knife coins from the bet, earned almost 1000 from selling the poison powder, and a 1000 knife coin quest reward which he didn"t know where to conclude and receive just yet. No matter how he looked at it, he was now a well off person with 4000 knife coins with him, so he might as well earn 2000 knife coins less in exchange for a favor.
While pulling Yin with him, Yue Qiang hurriedly walked towards the front. He was very interested in that eloquent scholar earlier since he had the "Memory Unlock Rate" that he was curious about.
While following behind Yue Qiang, Yin suddenly said, "Do you know what you did was very immoral?"
"Hmm?"
"I am talking about the way you treated Deng Yuan just now." Yin explained, "What you did was like… you went on a road to rob someone, and not only you robbed every coin off his body, you wanted to rob his underwear as well. Then, when the victim had taken off his underwear and handed it to you, you said, "I am a robber with standards, so put your underwear back on and leave"… Do you really think the victim is going to feel grateful to you for doing this? That Deng Yuan guy"s feelings are probably what I just described."
"It"s still better than running around bare-a.s.sed without an underwear, right?" Yue Qiang said.
The duo continued to chase after the scholar.
It was at this moment a small commotion happened on the streets. A number of soldiers clad in armor were searching everywhere for a beautiful woman. Their uniforms were indistinct, and it was impossible to make out the soldiers" nationality. Whenever they saw a young woman, they would approach them and examine them closely, hence causing quite a bit of confusion on the streets.
Yue Qiang turned around and stared at Yin"s beautiful face for a long while. Then, he wiped a handful of black charcoal from his clothes and wiped it on her face and stuffed all of her long hair into the oversized uniform. Finally, he grabbed a dirty rag off the streets and wrapped it around Yin"s head. After a series of messy cover ups, the girl"s beauty was finally not as obvious as it was before.
"Lower your head when you walk."
Yin lowered her head and asked softly, "Where are we heading now?"
"Let"s chat with that old man at the market entrance. He may be just a watchman, but he is pretty unusual. I"m sure that you"ve sensed it as well. Also, Deng Fang said that he can appraise the treasure in my possession, so we definitely have to visit that old man at least once." Yue Qiang said.
"Do we go now?"
"We"re not in that much of a hurry. Now that I am rich, let"s buy some clothes and equipment and get ourselves ready first. Of course, the most urgent thing right now is to catch up to that scholar." Yue Qiang walked swiftly while typing, "I can see other people"s stats, and although the system seems to be gradually blocking off this function, I can still see quite a bit of things. That scholar, you, and the other person I met earlier all had stat "Memory Unlock Rate". It is not easy to run into someone with this stat, so we must meet him and ask him about it. Moreover, don"t you think the way he speaks is a little… incompatible with this game?"
The duo spoke as they walked, and they soon caught up to that scholar. Yue Qiang patted his shoulder once, and the scholar turned around to find that it was Yue Qiang. He greeted him, "So it is the young sir Yue who had killed the tiger. What enlightenment has you come to shed, young sir?"
Yue Qiang pressed the backs.p.a.ce b.u.t.ton. He suddenly wasn"t sure what to say.
He couldn"t ask directly if the scholar had lost his memory, could he?
After thinking for a moment, he ultimately decided to ask the less significant questions first, "The reason I stopped you, brother, is to check something with you briefly. Do you know where I can receive the reward for this tiger killing public notice?"
"Ah, so you want to receive a reward. You should seek out the old man at the market entrance."