There were quite a few people selling gold in Floating Ice City, but I would probably be the only person selling 150 gold all at once.
A lot of people shook their heads slowly, as if thinking that no one in their right mind would buy 150 gold all at once. This was not a small amount, even if you exchange 1 gold to 80RMB, it would total up to 12,000RMB. Even with a normal white collar employee’s salary, most people wouldn’t be able to afford it.
At this moment, a sound from the front came suddenly, “150 gold? I’ll take it!”
I lifted my head and to my surprise, I saw a high-levelled knight player amongst the crowd. He wore a heroic, elite-looking armor all over his body. Even the lowest tier equipment that he was wearing was a black-tier. He held an even more magnificent glowing Crescent Blade in his hands, and a line of words floated on top of his head — Domineering Heaven Blade LV.32 Bronze Knight!
How could it be him?!
I stared blankly for a moment. The Domineering Clan really had big ambitions. Seems like this Clan Leader had wanted the whole of Floating Ice City to know them all by heart. Even now, Domineering Heaven Blade had actually came personally to ask for the gold. Tsk tsk, this guildmaster was really taking care of everything well.
Two thoughts immediately sprung in my mind. This Domineering Heaven Blade was certainly going to be my opponent in the future. Should I sell him my gold?
After thinking for quite a while, I decided to sell in the end! What reason are there for not selling? I could use his money to expand my opportunity for growth in the future, and moreover, this person, who had more money than sense, had served himself on a silver platter for me. Why wouldn’t I take the chance to slaughter him?
Hence, I raised my brows and laughed, “This friend over here, how do you intend to pay for this gold? Right now, you cannot do a bank transfer in-game.”
Domineering Heaven Blade shrugged his shoulders and smiled, “That’s easy. Tell me your bank account number, and I will ask someone to transfer you the money immediately. It would be 5 minutes at the most. After you confirmed that you have received the money, then you can trade your gold with me. Wouldn’t the problem be solved with that?”
I nodded. This person was really liberal with money; moreover, he had a more outspoken and loyal character. He was indeed someone that had the qualities to be successful. Lin Yi Xin’s thoughts were right on the spot; in Floating Ice City, Domineering Heaven Blade and the Domineering Clan were certainly going to be our strongest enemy.
“Listen well, my account number is 662700200873******, China Construction Bank. You can transfer the money right now, I will check it online.”
“OK, no problem!”
Domineering Heaven Blade laughed cheerfully, “Please wait a moment, it will be completed immediately!”
After around 4 minutes, Domineering Heaven Blade said, “It’s done, you can now check your bank account if the money has already been transferred!”
“Ok!”
I called out the web explorer function and went to my bank’s website. After checking the balance on my bank account, I found that the account that had a balance of only 0.47RMB just a few moment ago had already magically turned into 12000.47RMB. Domineering Heaven Blade, this fellow, was indeed a really fat lamb to be slaughtered!
“Is the money transferred?” Domineering Heaven Blade asked.
I nodded, “Ok, let’s trade the gold!”
“Alright!”
Giving Domineering Heaven Blade 150 gold, I hesitated a little and asked him, “Why did you trust me so much? What happen if I simply ran away after taking your money, and did not give you even a single gold? Won’t you suffer heavy losses?”
Domineering Heaven Blade couldn’t help but laughed out loud, “What a joke, that’s a really low possibility. As for running away… I wouldn’t even care so much about this little amount of money. Furthermore, I trust you. It was not because of the amount of gold, but it’s the…”
“What is it?”
“It’s just because, you are Fallen Hero! Hahah, a reputable player on the Player Ranking Board would treasure their ID as much as they treasure their lives. Looking through the China Servers, take a look at Chaos Illumination and Fallen Dust. They are all like that, aren’t they?”
I nodded, smiling indifferently, “That makes sense. Let’s work together again in the future. I’ve got to go now!”
“Alright!”
Looking at the time, it was almost 8am in the morning. However, I wasn’t a little bit sleepy in the least. Instead, I sent a message to Du Shi San, “Shi San, log out. I want to discuss something with you for a while!”
“Oh? Ok!”
Du Shi San had almost finished his levelling and was about to sleep. He had intended to log out hurriedly and quickly go to sleep afterwards.
He came to the living room and sat on the sofa. Shi San looked at me with a tired expression and asked, “What did you want to discuss?”
“That…” I muttered to myself a little and said, “We… Should we create our own game studio?”
“What?! Game Studio?!” Shi San was astonished beyond words.
“Yeah.” I explained, “ had a large base of players. It wouldn’t be possible to be successful with just one person’s efforts himself; even killing BOSS would be extremely dangerous. That’s why, we would probably need to attract heroes from all over the place in order to establish our position in the Floating Ice City!”Shi San became even more excited at my words, his face red as he clenched his fist and smiled, “Brother, just say the word. What do you want me to do? I had always intend to be powerful and well-known in game. Say it quickly, which expert players should we attract for this game studio we are making?”
I replied solemnly, “You, me.”
“What! Only the two of us?”
“It could only be like this in the meanwhile. We can expand in the future, but right now, we would need to find a new place to live first.” Looking at my miserable one-room-flat, I could neither cry nor laugh as I said, “It’s too small here, we should look for a four-room-flat for us to live in. How’s that?”
Shi San said, “Sure, but it’s too expensive. In the city, even if it’s in the New District, a four-room-flat’s monthly rent would probably be at least 3000 RMB. With the addition of mortgage, deposit and so on, we would need at least 12000 RMB.”
I nodded and smiled, “Money is not the problem. We can earn it back if we continued to play the game. Right now, could you accompany me to find a house? Let’s take the first step of setting up our game studio together, ok?”
“Sure, no problem!
Du Shi San immediately stood up, an unyielding expression filled his face. What a hot-blooded young man… However, he immediately said something that made me almost vomit blood, “In the future when our game studio is established, can we invite a few beauties to join our guild? Then…heheh, completing quests wouldn’t be so hard when you are partnered with a girl!”
I looked down on him in disdain and glared, “And it would be best if these few beauties stayed in the same room as you, right?”
“d.a.m.n, what kind of person did you take me as? I, Du Shi San, am… am an honest and upright person! But, how about this, you and I can each take one beauty, you can even take the more beautiful one to your room…”
“Go away!”
In the morning, the crisp morning sunlight shone brightly. The two hot-blooded youth who had not slept for the whole night ran through the roads and alleys, full of energy. It was only in the afternoon before everything was finally settled.
Shi San was curious as to how I managed to get 12,000 RMB, such a large amount of money, and asked, “Brother, were you selling your body last night?”
“Of course not, I’m such a pure and innocent person, why would I be involved with such a shady business? However, if you said that you were selling your body instead, I would probably believe it. It’s just that I think your business wouldn’t be that popular,” I replied leisurely.
Du Shi San almost vomited blood.
Our game studio’s location had been fixed. It was located in Suzhou’s New District, quite a walking distance to China Resources Vanguard Supermarket. It was built in 2022, so it was still quite new. There were four rooms and 1 living room, and the unit was completely furnished. It cost RMB 2950 every month, which was also quite worth it. It would be really difficult to get such a cheap, high quality house in the current times.
Shi San said, “What are we going to do after this?”
“Let’s get our first studio member!”
“Who?” Shi San’s eyes suddenly shone, “Wind Fantasy…Lin Yi Xin is actually quite a good player. Should we invite her to our studio?”
I couldn’t help but laugh and patted his shoulder, “Save it, brother. A girl like Lin Yi Xin is beyond your reach. She would also definitely not be interested in joining our studio.”
“Really?” Shi San was a little dejected as he asked, “Then who should we get for our studio? We couldn’t be getting some random noob players… Right?”
I nodded and said, “Yeah, a game studio should only have one noob!”
“What?!” Shi San was so angry that he started to attack me, but I kicked him back. He squeaked pitifully, “So who are you getting exactly?”
“Ghost Valley!”
“Ah?!”
Shi San immediately froze, “ Ghost Valley has always been one of the top players in the Player Ranking Board, how could we even attract him to join our studio?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Don’t worry, I have confidence in it. We should move our stuff to the new studio in the late afternoon then sleep a little. We can plan and prepare for our next step later at night.”
“Okay!”
We spent the whole afternoon busily moving our stuff, and after a meal and a nap, we finally woke up again at 3am. I went out from my room which was facing the east, and went to Shi San’s room to wake him up. We ate some stuff and immediately logged online afterwards!
“Shua!”
Appearing at the graveyard in Frozen Mound, I digged out of the mud that I was buried in and crawled out. I opened my friend’s chat window and found that Ghost Valley was online.
I immediately sent him a message, “If you are not busy, can you come to Frozen Mound?”
“What’s up?”
“Something good.”
“Okay, i’ll come in a second.”
Ghost Valley was an expert player that was hard to come by. Although his fighting style was that he must win every battle and kill every opponent, he had unfortunately met an opponent like Lin Yi Xin and myself. Lin Yi Xin’s equipment and playing style were all top-notch; her skills might even be on par with Chaos Illumination. As for me, once I had gotten over my 0.5 seconds delay, my capabilities would definitely be greatly increased. I could probably defeat a player like Ghost Valley easily.
Although Ghost Valley was an expert player, Lin Yi Xin, Chaos Illumination and I belonged to the super-expert players category. Although it might be difficult for a player on Ghost Valley’s level to defeat Lin Yi Xin and I, it would be very easy for him to defeat an ordinary player like Du Shi San.
Not long afterwards, an Undead Knight wearing a black cape came out from the forest. It was Ghost Valley!
“Broken Spear, what’s up?” Ghost Valley asked.
(Shiro: MC’s full ID name is She Ji Chen Sha – 折戟沉沙, it is an idiom that meant a great defeat, but could be literally translated as broken spear buried in sands. Ghost Valley is calling him She Ji – which meant broken spear)
I replied, “Little Ghost, have you ever thought of joining a guild in the future?”
(Shiro: Little Ghost (Xiao Gui – 小鬼) can also mean imp, naughty kid)
Ghost Valley was furious, “f.u.c.k! I hate people calling me Little Ghost the most…”
I was furious too, “d.a.m.n you! I also hate people calling me Broken Spear the most…”
Broken Spear, it sounded like my little brother was broken. This name was not very auspicious.
Ghost Valley said, “So why are you asking this?”
I laughed, “I’m setting up a game studio, and I’d like to invite you to join our guild. Come and join us if you don’t mind, our studio is located at Suzhou New District. Single room, food and lodging provided,”
“Oh?”
Ghost Valley’s eyes lighted up, but his expression turned into distaste immediately, “Why would I join your studio?”
I spread my arms and smiled, “Easy. Do you want to become a top player?”
“Of course!” Ghost Valley’s gaze was full of pa.s.sion.
“Then that’s it. As long as you join our studio, I will ‘teach’ you every day..”
“Okay!” Ghost Valley cracked his knuckles and said, “I will definitely surpa.s.s you one day and trample you beneath my feet!”
“My foot! You can dream about it in your mind. Don’t say it out loud, idiot!”
The first person to join our studio was an expert player who only joined for the sole purpose of defeating me. I really didn’t know if this was a good or a bad thing.
I sighed a little as I asked Ghost Valley how would he come to Su Zhou. Ghost Valley came from Wu Xi, and the distance from there to Su Zhou was only 20 minutes by car. He said that he would be able to move tomorrow after packing up his stuff.
Very well, our studio’s line up is getting stronger now!