Chapter 193 Money Makes the World Go Round

Gu Fei was fast, but his blade was even faster. Each strike was more pressing than the last, hacking at the red-faced figure struggling against the current. The fact that Against the Current hadn’t died after taking so many blows was due to two reasons. First, Gu Fei's luck with attached magic wasn't great that day. Second, Against the Current had equipped a significant amount of gear to absorb magical damage, since he was facing a mage, which reduced the attached magic damage considerably.

Even so, enduring such a barrage of attacks meant it was only a matter of time before he fell. Against the Current’s guildmates had initially thought that Against the Current would easily handle Gu Fei at close range, but the situation had turned out quite differently. Against the Current was entirely on the defensive. He tried to chant spells, but Gu Fei repeatedly interrupted him, making it a futile effort.

The others exchanged glances, unsure whether to help. It was a real dilemma!

Against the Current had proposed the duel himself. If they intervened now that he was in trouble, it would be a slap in his face. After a moment of hesitation, they merely sighed and refrained from interfering.

Gu Fei's swordsmanship was fluid and seamless, utterly immersive, and he was hacking away with great enthusiasm. When Against the Current finally turned into a beam of white light, Gu Fei's eyes still held a hint of regret: just two more strikes, and he would have completed all three variations of each form of the Tang Blade's Nine Interrupted Waves technique. What a pity! Gu Fei shook his head.

He sheathed his blade and glanced at his own health bar, which was flashing red with only single-digit hit points remaining. Against the Current could have killed him just by hitting him with his staff, let alone casting spells.

"That was close!" Gu Fei exclaimed repeatedly. Fortunately, he was on a wanted mission and wearing the Chasing Wind Badge instead of Eddie's Badge. Otherwise, the extra six points of Intelligence from Eddie's Badge would have slightly increased his spell attack power, causing the Flames of a Thousand Trees to burn him for a few more hit points, and Gu Fei would never have had the chance to escape the flames.

As Gu Fei reviewed the duel, summarizing his experiences and lessons, he pulled a loaf of bread from his pocket and munched on it to replenish his health.

Then he glanced at the onlookers by the side of the street, who were drinking and singing. Although they looked somewhat dazed, they clearly had no intention of attacking him.

"What good character!" Gu Fei said in disappointment. He had hoped that they would be of poor character and jump out to avenge Against the Current as soon as they saw him defeated.

"Are you all alright? If not, I'll be leaving." Gu Fei was unwilling to leave.

They shook their heads.

"Then I'm off," Gu Fei said, bidding them farewell.

"Wait, brother, what's your name?" one of them asked.

"Qian Li Zui," Gu Fei replied.

The man nodded, and then the group watched Gu Fei head toward the Mage Academy.

The academy was quiet early in the morning. Gu Fei went straight to the NPC instructor who usually taught spells to the mages. The NPC instructor, seeing that Gu Fei was already level 40, proactively asked if Gu Fei wanted to change classes, and Gu Fei naturally said yes. The instructor quickly explained the class change quest, which left Gu Fei, the undefeated duelist, completely stunned.

The quest was simple but fully exposed the game company's inner world. The quest was just one word: Money.

Changing classes required no action, only the payment of a 200-gold coin class change fee.

This sum wasn't necessarily large, but it wasn't small either. The main problem was that Gu Fei didn't have it.

Gu Fei was broke, or rather, he didn't have 200 gold coins.

He had a total of 37 gold coins, 21 silver coins, and 78 copper coins in his pocket.

His first two mercenary jobs had made Gu Fei briefly wealthy. Because of those two jobs, Gu Fei hadn't realized the importance of money. Otherwise, with his extravagant consumption of an apple for every four spells, he wouldn't have been able to make it this far without carefully managing his finances.

Now, facing the system's exorbitant demands for the class change quest, Gu Fei realized the insignificance of his wallet.

Dejectedly, Gu Fei left the Mage Academy. Remembering that he still had a wanted mission, he activated the Chasing Wind Badge to teleport himself back to the Wanted Missions Hall.

He completed the mission and claimed the reward. There was experience, and there was money.

Normally, Gu Fei would have been satisfied with this small amount of money, but with the mountain of 200 gold coins weighing on his shoulders, he realized how stingy the system was.

"Spending so much time killing someone, almost losing my life, and only getting this little money...it's inhuman!" Gu Fei complained to another player who was selecting a mission.

The player turned his head, glanced at Gu Fei, and said, "Yeah, this mission is extremely risky, but the reward is terrible. The cost-effectiveness is really low."

"No wonder it's so deserted; no one does this mission." Gu Fei looked around. The entire Wanted Missions Hall was empty except for him and the person in front of him.

"That's not entirely true," the player said. "Did you know that there's someone in our city who loves to do these trash missions and comes to grind them every day?"

"Oh? Have you seen him?"

"No, I heard it from someone. They say he's a mage, wears a black mage robe, and his weapon is a sword. He seems to be pretty strong. Why would such a strong person be so stupid as to grind these trash missions?" As he spoke, he finished accepting his mission and turned to look at Gu Fei. Noticing him now, he realized that the person in front of him was a mage, wearing a black mage robe. He fumbled in his pocket for a long time, pulled out a purple longsword, and held it in front of him, asking, "Are you talking about this sword?"

"No, of course not!" the other person said decisively. "Actually, wanted missions are very meaningful. Look, I'm doing one now, aren't I? Okay, I've accepted my mission, I'm leaving." With that, he disappeared like the wind, leaving Gu Fei alone in the empty hall, feeling depressed.

"Money! Where am I going to get money!" Gu Fei was still troubled by this question after leaving the hall. And money was indeed affecting his mood. At this moment, Gu Fei even felt a sense of resentment toward Han Jia Gongzi: The mercenary group hadn't been managed well, and they had only done those two jobs!

Thinking of business, Gu Fei suddenly had an idea. Since he had been grinding and leveling up, Gu Fei had obtained quite a few items. Since it was very easy to lose money by consigning these ordinary items at the auction house (as explained in Chapter 100, which won’t be repeated here), he had to set up a stall and sell them himself if he wanted to exchange them for money. Gu Fei was short of money at this time, so he had no choice but to become a merchant for a while.

Thinking this, he went to the warehouse near the city gate, opened his storage chest, and saw that he had accumulated quite a lot of items over time. Fortunately, he had been mainly doing wanted missions recently, and his time grinding and leveling up had decreased; otherwise, the storage chest would have run out of space long ago.

Gu Fei took out a sack and started stuffing the items from the storage chest into it. This sack had a history. When Gu Fei was ranked second on the efficiency榜 (bǎng: list), the items he obtained every day were counted by the sackful. Later, due to a misunderstanding, the sack was given to Yue Xia Yu. Yue Xia Yu then used it to carry food and drinks to Yueye City. It wasn't until the recent对抗赛 (duìkàng sài: competition) began that Yue Xia Yu returned from Yueye City and solemnly returned the sack to its original owner.

From this sack, Gu Fei vaguely saw the years of his diligent monster grinding, and he was filled with emotion.

He quickly packed a sack, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and staggered toward Trading Street. Along the way, he enthusiastically calculated: One piece of equipment for 10 gold coins, two pieces for 20 gold coins, twenty pieces...that's 200 gold coins!

Early in the morning, any place in the game was deserted, but one place was an exception: Trading Street Two.

This street was formed after the official operation of the game. At that time, the entire Trading Street One was occupied by old players from the public beta. The goods in their hands were of relatively high quality, and most new players could only sigh at the prices. Therefore, new players could only gradually form a market suitable for them according to their own needs, which was the prototype of Trading Street Two.

Trading Street Two developed rapidly because new players were always enthusiastic, spent a lot of time online every day, and outnumbered the public beta players by far. This led to people selling their goods at any time on Street Two. Even if Streets Three and Four were born later, only Street Two continued this enthusiasm.

The players in Yunduan City all knew that if you wanted to do business late at night or early in the morning when there were fewer people online, Street Two was the best choice. Only here was full of vitality at all times.

Gu Fei had long admired Street Two, but this was his first time setting foot there. As rumored, at this time when everywhere else was deserted, Street Two hadn't changed at all. And because of this special time, the players on Street Two had a special spirit: everyone had a sleepy face.

However, upon closer inspection, it could be found that these sleepy faces were also different. They were mainly divided into two factions. One faction, although sleepy-eyed, had a lot of energy. These were the ones who had just gotten up and were playing the game. The other faction had obvious fatigue on their faces, and they didn't even have the strength to speak. These were obviously the ones who hadn't slept after being online all night.

Gu Fei walked on the street, looking for a suitable place to set up his stall. Compared to ordinary players, Gu Fei's sack of goods was really too much, and a normal space couldn't accommodate him at all.

Just as he had walked past a quarter of the street, Gu Fei finally saw a larger open space. He quickly stepped forward to occupy it, put down the sack, and with a crash, Gu Fei's goods were all scattered across the open space, and a few even bounced and rolled into the middle of the road.

"Wow!!!" Countless players' eyes were drawn over, especially the two on Gu Fei's left and right, whose eyeballs were about to pop out.

Gu Fei's things were piled up like a small mountain, while their stalls only had a few scattered items. Compared to that, they were too small.

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While writing this chapter, I was very sleepy, super sleepy, extremely sleepy… I am that persistent player who stays up all night and doesn’t sleep in the morning!!