Chapter 134 Speculation

Around thirty or forty institutions in the Greenland Empire and the Saturn Empire were engaged in predatory lending. Few institutions had more than a million gold coins in total capital; most only had around two or three hundred thousand. They profited by lending money and collecting interest.

Guo Huai contacted these people one by one. The Ni Ren Tribe was now a large and prosperous entity, and it was relatively easy to borrow money using the income from the fortress as collateral.

Guo Huai quickly contacted more than a dozen institutions and borrowed about three million gold coins, all of which were used to buy gems and magic rune stones.

Almost forty percent of the gems on the market were bought up. Nie Yan and the others were buying gems with good stats and high potential for appreciation, especially fire resistance gems. Nie Yan specifically instructed them to buy up all the fire resistance gems they could find. Several good level 60 and 70 dungeons required fire resistance gems, so they had great appreciation potential.

"What do we do now?" Guo Huai asked. "There are still so many gems on the market that we can't possibly buy them all. If so many gems are piled up there, no one will buy them, and the price of gems will definitely not go up."

"There are three things we need to do now. First, clarify that the hidden shop is just a figment of people's imagination, just a rumor. Second, sell fire resistance gems, starting with the five-quality ones, for at least 1,200 gold coins, no bargaining! Third, we wait. After a few days, everyone's panic will subside, and those who are selling gems will naturally buy them back. When gems become scarce on the market, prices will naturally rebound," Nie Yan said. He had already planned everything. All gems were dropping in price like crazy, except for fire resistance gems, which were selling at super high prices, twice their original price. People would definitely find it strange, and some with a good sense of the market would immediately see that something was wrong. If they realized what was happening and started hoarding gems like crazy, the gems on the market could be swept away. At that time, those who had goods would hoard them and wait for prices to rise, while those who had no goods could only stare blankly. The price of gems might even double again.

"I'll take care of it immediately," Guo Huai said.

"In the next few days, the income from the Xingkong Pharmacy, the Assassin Alliance, and the fortress will first be used to pay the interest on the high-interest loans. Any extra money will be used to buy gems. Tell the brothers in the guild who you trust the news and have them hoard gems as soon as possible if they have money, or they will miss the opportunity. If you can still borrow high-interest loans, keep borrowing. As long as the price of gems doesn't rebound, keep buying," Nie Yan said. Forty percent of the gems in the Greenland Empire and the Saturn Empire were in the hands of Nie Yan and the others. The profit they could generate from this was enormous. If he sold all the gems he had, Nie Yan estimated that he could earn at least twenty million, and that was the lowest estimate.

It was difficult for players to have a direct idea of what twenty million gold coins could do in the game. Twenty million gold coins could buy all the fortresses of the Mage Alliance and the Holy Guardians, and it could buy twenty large auction houses like the Carol Central Auction House, provided they were willing to sell. Twenty million gold coins could also demolish and rebuild the Cripps Fortress, and then demolish and rebuild it again, fifty times back and forth. It could upgrade all the branches of the Xingkong Pharmacy to level 16 pharmacies (currently, the main store of the Xingkong Pharmacy is only a level 10 pharmacy). With so much money, the Ni Ren Tribe could arm all 60,000 of its members to the teeth and still have plenty left over.

If he had twenty million gold coins in hand, the Mage Alliance, the Holy Guardians, and even Angel Corps would be paupers compared to the Ni Ren Tribe. All the circulating funds of these three guilds combined would be no more than seven or eight million.

The Ni Ren Tribe had always been known for its wealth, and its circulating funds had only reached three or four million gold coins at most.

What troubled Nie Yan was that he had no idea how to spend twenty million gold coins if he had it. If such a huge amount of gold coins was stored in the warehouse, it might depreciate significantly after a while.

But all this would have to wait until the money was in hand. Nothing was certain yet.

Guo Huai began to operate according to the details Nie Yan had instructed. Currently, players firmly believed that there was a hidden shop, so the price of gems had not been able to rise. After a few more days, if players did not see the price of gems drop and the gems on the market became less and less, they would definitely become suspicious. Therefore, Nie Yan and the others had to wait patiently. Once they began to doubt, they would add fuel to the fire, and the price of gems would soon return to its original level. In addition, the crazy buying by Nie Yan and the others had reduced the gems on the market by 40% out of thin air, which was enough to cause a shortage of goods. The previously suppressed demand would also explode, and the price of gems would have to rise even further.

Just as players firmly believed in the existence of the hidden shop and were frantically selling gems, another rumor quietly arose, saying that the Century Financial Group was spreading rumors about the existence of a hidden shop in order to amass wealth. When the price of gems dropped like crazy and everyone was selling gems, they would hoard them like crazy. The so-called hidden shop was just a figment of people's imagination.

Nie Yan and the others were doing it very secretly, and everyone could not find out who was doing it, so they simply dumped the blame on the Century Financial Group. Anyway, the Century Financial Group had a lot of infamy, so it would not hurt to add one more.

The two rumors formed a fierce backlash, and those who believed in the existence of the hidden shop still had the upper hand, but some players' minds were still shaken. Some players quietly took back the gems they had consigned to the auction house. It was not cost-effective to sell gems at such a low price, so they simply put them in their backpacks and waited. Only those who firmly believed in the existence of the hidden shop or were not well-informed were still consigning gems.

It was still difficult to reverse the trend in the market. But as Nie Yan said, wait a little longer, and the market trend would change after a while. Anyway, Nie Yan and the others were buying at the lowest price, so they would not lose money no matter what. Making money was only a matter of time.

Nie Yan continued to level up. With the javelin launcher, he could level up at least several times. In addition, Guo Huai had also helped him collect hundreds of sets of magic rune stones, which would allow him to level up several more times when he handed them in. He would soon break through the level 100 barrier.

Nie Yan ran at full speed using Gale Steps, quickly moving through the mountains and forests. This was already the territory of level 120 monsters, but he continued to go deeper, gradually reaching his target area. A stream flowed quickly down the mountain, with rocks standing in the stream, blocking the view. In Nie Yan's memory, there was a troll in the pile of rocks on the opposite bank, which was his target for this trip.

Trolls were a race that lived in the jungle. They were tall and known for their powerful combat skills. Their powerful melee combat skills could make the giants, who were good at melee combat, pale in comparison. However, their brains were not very developed. Their intelligence was directly proportional to their age. Ordinary trolls had extremely low intelligence. Only those who had white beards, were old and decrepit, and were over 300 years old had medium intelligence. These trolls were often the great prophets of a race.

Moreover, they were known for being nearsighted. Their field of vision was only 30 yards. They could not see anything outside of 30 yards.

The troll on the opposite side was about three yards tall, wore a tattered animal skin, and held a huge wolf fang club in his hand. He wandered aimlessly. There was only an open space of about 30 yards in front of him. Outside the open space was a circle of burning fire, about five yards high, with raging flames. In his previous life, fire resistance had to reach at least 380 to pass through here without being killed instantly. Outside the fire circle were strangely shaped rocks that blocked the players' view.

Troll Dilエンス (Elite), a very famous monster in his previous life. This closed area was like a small arena, which could only accommodate a small team of 20 people. It was such a terrifying thing to fight a troll alone within a radius of 30 yards.

Outside of 30 yards were all kinds of strange stones. It was possible to find a way to climb onto the rocks and shoot the troll with bows and crossbows, but there were not many standing positions on top, and it was easy to be discovered. If the troll Dilエンス saw him, he could forget about coming down.

In addition, this place was a mountain gully with rugged roads, so projectile weapons such as catapults could not enter at all. However, javelins could be used here. Not only Nie Yan, but also someone in his previous life had thought of using javelins to kill the troll, but the rocks around the troll blocked the view, and the javelins could not be aimed accurately. Moreover, there were only three places within 100 yards where javelins could be launched, so there was no way to cover the troll Dilエンス with a dense rain of javelins.

The troll Dilエンス had a slow health recovery, but his health was as high as 300,000. He would respawn once every two hours after being killed. Since he was an elite, the respawn frequency was quite high.

Before the players reached level 120, the troll Dilエンス was an invincible existence because his attack was too high. Later, after the shield warriors' defense increased, they defeated the troll Dilエンス. The troll Dilエンス had a wealth of experience and the quality of the items he dropped was well-known. In his previous life, countless battles occurred in this area because of the competition for Dilエンス. Later, the Triumphant Empire and the Radiant Sacred Flame occupied this place, and this chaotic situation stopped. It was said that the Triumphant Empire set a rule in order to balance the interests of all parties, and each guild took turns farming here for one day.

It was conceivable how coveted the troll Dilエンス was.

Nie Yan checked the terrain and could only vaguely see a figure shaking in the distance, but he could not determine its exact location. He remembered that it was indeed in that location. He took out the javelin launcher and the Eye of Kilrogg. He would need to use these two items to farm the elite troll Dilエンス today.

"This is the first time, I wonder if I can get the Key of Magic." Nie Yan couldn't help thinking. The Key of Magic was a very rare item, with a drop rate of only about one in a thousand on the troll Dilエンス. One could imagine how rare it was. The Key of Magic was a good item, a legendary special item. Nie Yan had only heard people talk about it and had never seen it.

(Still coughing, but much better than a few days ago. It seems that many people get sick during the Spring Festival, so everyone should pay more attention to their health.)