Chapter 1 The Transformation of Carol City

The current city center of Carol City was located near the Mercenary Union in the south, where a large number of NPC shops gathered, as well as a large auction house, making it the most popular place. Since the goods sold by NPC shops only met the needs of players at low levels, later, as the life skill players improved their life skills, they gradually replaced the NPCs. The high-level items they produced and sold would become the main consumer goods, which would inevitably lead to changes in the business landscape. In addition, the central processor later placed the credit point trading center in the east of the city, and the city center of Carol City gradually shifted to the east, while the south gradually became desolate, with only the Mercenary Union still attracting a lot of popularity.

Now, the shops in the south of Carol City are selling for more than ten gold coins, and some even for thirty or forty gold coins. However, the shops in the east of Carol City are worth one or two gold coins, and some are even less than one gold coin. In the next two months, the prices of these shops would skyrocket by dozens of times, and the prices of some golden shops would skyrocket by hundreds of times. The rise in the next ten years would be even more terrifying.

But now, these places were still slums that no one cared about, and there was not even a single high-end building.

Nie Yan walked towards the administrative hall in the center of Carol City. After a while, a towering white building appeared in front of him, a typical Greenland-style building, full of exquisite carvings. All the buildings were completely built of stone and blessed with magic, shimmering with a light blue light. Several hanging orchids dangled from the top of the building, swaying with a fragrant aroma.

Nie Yan walked into the administrative hall. The ground was so clean that it could reflect people's shadows. The ceiling was more than ten yards high, giving people an incomparably open feeling. The ceiling was covered with various colorful paintings.

An elderly man walked towards Nie Yan. He was wearing a dark black uniform and a golden epaulet, giving people a majestic sense of oppression. Because he was wearing a neat uniform, the old man looked very energetic.

"Respected Governor Trus, I am here to purchase land."

"Welcome to settle in Carol City. Carol City welcomes every businessman to open shops here. We will give the greatest discounts to businessmen who abide by the law. Please come with me," Governor Trus said, leading Nie Yan inside.

Nie Yan had also been here in his previous life, but it was too late when he came here. Even the most remote shop in Carol City cost thousands or even tens of thousands of gold coins. At that time, Carol City was known as the City of Gold, flowing with gold everywhere. Any ordinary shop could make a lot of money by tinkering with things. In *Faith*, the wealth of businessmen was no less than that of top players, and even surpassed them. At that time, Nie Yan could only sigh in vain and walked out of the administrative hall regretfully.

But now, Nie Yan could snatch a large number of shops at extremely low prices before many players began to pay attention to real estate.

"What location are you looking for?" Governor Trus asked, pointing to a city model. All the shops that were currently for sale were marked out one by one, and even the prices were clearly written.

Nie Yan looked at the eastern area of the city model. Currently, there were more than twenty shops for sale here, with the most expensive costing two gold coins and the cheapest costing fifty silver coins.

There were a few golden shops that Nie Yan had seen in his previous life. One of them, near the credit point trading center, was sold for tens of thousands of gold coins when it was resold in his previous life, and it was even priceless in the real world. But now, they were just placed in front of Nie Yan, with a selling price of: two gold coins.

Nothing could be more exciting and crazy than this.

"I want this shop," Nie Yan said, pointing to the location of the shop. When he said this, his heart skipped a beat, and a feeling of excitement that was difficult to suppress almost made him shout.

These two gold coins would create infinite possibilities in the future!

Nie Yan traded the money to Governor Trus and smoothly obtained the property certificate for that location.

This thin, somewhat old scroll was a legally binding document in the virtual world. All of its terms were the same as the contract terms in reality and were protected by law.

Nie Yan bought a total of twelve golden shops for the future. Two of the plots were extremely large and could even be used to upgrade the auction house. In the future, the most prosperous place in the east of the city would be Nie Yan's own auction house.

Nie Yan looked at his backpack. After buying so many plots, he only had two gold coins left in his backpack.

The most profitable thing in the world was not to engage in real industry, but to invest with a forward-looking vision and use money to make money to achieve capital expansion. Rebirth gave Nie Yan many opportunities that he had lost in his previous life.

Carol City would be the most prosperous capital of the Greenland Empire in the future, and these twelve golden shops would become the most profitable shops in Carol City in the future. Even if he just built shops and collected rent, it would be a huge income.

System: Because you have purchased more than five shops in Carol City, Carol City reputation +5.

Increasing Carol City's reputation would help Nie Yan in various activities in Carol City. When Carol City's reputation reached 30, he could even openly appear on the street when his name was red, and still enjoy the protection of the guards. When buying medicines and other things from NPCs, the NPCs would not arbitrarily increase the price. Because resident reputation represented your status in Carol City.

How cool it would be to swagger on the street with a red name! However, with Nie Yan's low-key personality, he would never be so ostentatious.

"In the future, when you upgrade your shop, we will extract 1% of the tax from your profit income. Every month, you must upgrade your shop within two months and pay 0.05% of the shop's estimated value as the shop's holding tax. The maximum overdue period is three months. If you cannot pay the overdue taxes within three months, we will forcibly confiscate your shop in accordance with Greenland's laws. Do you have any questions?" Governor Trus asked.

"No questions," Nie Yan said. These taxes were completely negligible compared to the generous benefits the shops would bring him.

After paying the money and receiving the property certificates for all the shops, Nie Yan seemed to see countless shops flowing with gold, standing in the east of Carol City.

Because the prosperity there was predictable!

Nie Yan came out of the administrative hall. Even if he started doing nothing now and slowly waited for the land to appreciate, the money earned from the appreciation of these shops in the future would be enough for his expenses. Of course, Nie Yan would never be satisfied with this. The sea was wide enough for fish to leap, and the sky was high enough for birds to fly. He had more things to do.

In addition to selling things like Black Phenol Potions, Nie Yan continued to sell some Spider Web Technique scrolls, Sheep Transformation Technique scrolls, and Flash Dust. However, most of the money he earned was used to buy things that might appreciate in value in the future, such as anti-petrification potions and mental equipment to be used when going to the Medusa's Nest.

In addition, Nie Yan also bought a few Lucky Gems. He already had fifteen Lucky Gems in his hand. For Nie Yan, it was not cost-effective to wait for these Lucky Gems to appreciate in value or sell them. The best thing to do was to use them to strengthen his equipment so that they could reflect their greatest value.

Nie Yan thought of the Dark Gold Dagger Blood Oath Dagger in his hand. It seemed that the best thing he had on hand was this piece of equipment. Although this piece of equipment was a level 0 piece of equipment, it was a Dark Gold grade after all. The attack was not bad. The most important thing was that it had a relatively rare attribute, 3% blood drain. If the attack could be improved, it would be even more perfect.

It was too wasteful to upgrade level 0 equipment with Lucky Gems. A Lucky Gem was worth 5 silver coins. Such an expensive thing should at least be used when you were dozens of levels higher and the upgrade was too slow. However, Nie Yan had no worries. There would be plenty of opportunities to make money in the future. He could just buy Lucky Gems again at that time. Elite and Lord-level creatures above level 5 had a certain probability of dropping Lucky Gems. Ordinary players who dropped Lucky Gems were generally reluctant to use them and threw them in the auction house to sell them, so there would be no shortage of Lucky Gems on the market.

A Lucky Gem could add 10 points of attack to a weapon and 15 points of defense to a piece of equipment. At the same time, the equipment requirement level was +1. 10 points of attack and 15 points of defense were enough to make many players go crazy. However, there was a success rate for smashing Lucky Gems. For a piece of equipment from Tier 1 to Tier 5, the success rate of using Lucky Gems was 60%. If it was successful, the equipment would be promoted to one tier, and if it failed, it would be reduced by one tier. From Tier 6 to Tier 10, the success rate was 50%. If it was successful, it would be promoted to one tier, and if it failed, it would return to Tier 5. From Tier 11 to Tier 15, the success rate was still 50%. If the synthesis failed, the equipment would be completely destroyed. Equipment from Tier 16 to Tier 20 could be attached with powerful skill attributes for each tier increased. At Tier 20, it was almost equivalent to a Legendary equipment.

When synthesizing equipment, the more Lucky Gems you placed, the higher the success rate of synthesis would be.

The result of using Lucky Gems to synthesize equipment was often very tragic. People with good luck could use a few Lucky Gems to smash the equipment to a higher tier and smash out a priceless piece of equipment. Some people, however, made a mistake that would last forever and blew up equipment above Tier 10.

In any case, smashing Lucky Gems was a game that only the rich could afford to play. Ordinary players would never dare to play it. They simply couldn't afford it.

With fifteen Lucky Gems, plus the Pandora's Box having a success rate bonus for synthesis in even rounds, Nie Yan felt that it was worth a try. After all, synthesizing equipment at Tier 10 and below would not explode.

After making a decision, Nie Yan put the Blood Oath Dagger and a Lucky Gem into the Pandora's Box. A red halo flowed on the Blood Oath Dagger, next to the dazzling Lucky Gem.

System: Are you sure you want to advance this equipment?

Nie Yan stared at the time in *Faith*, calculating whether the time was in an even or odd round. Looking at the rapidly jumping second hand, his pupils reflected a series of numbers.

Yes!

Nie Yan clicked synthesize.

System: Synthesis successful, equipment tier +1. The current equipment tier is 1.

Luck seemed to be good. Nie Yan looked at the current attributes of the Blood Oath Dagger.

Blood Oath Dagger (+1 Dark Gold): Requirement level 1.

Attributes: Attack 33-36, Agility +11, Critical Hit +12, Blood Drain 3%.

Attack Speed: 2.3

Weight: 3 pounds.

Restrictions: All factions can use.

The synthesis was successful. The Blood Oath Dagger had an additional 10 points of attack, and the requirement level had been increased by 1 level. In this way, this Blood Oath Dagger already had a higher attack than some gold-grade level 5 weapons.