MMORPG: Crowd Control

Having enough money in hand, Lei Zhen headed toward the exit to search for carriages. Carriages are another type of occupation in Magnolia. They are similar to modern transportation such as an uber or subway.

'Hmm, how come there are so few carriages available?' Lei Zhen was confused.

Even though there are teleportation channels in the town, he was unable to use them because it only works if the player had been there before. Therefore, unless he had been to Yors Castle before, he could not teleport there directly.

Of course, he could also try to teleport to Lux Forest instead, but because Lux Forest is not a city, there is no teleportation channel.

Hence, a carriage is his best option to be safe on the road.

However, Lei Zhen didn't expect that the carriage business had been going downhill ever since the construction of a teleportation channel.

Scratching his head, Lei Zhen was placed in a difficult spot. He was beginning to regret a bit not receiving some extra benefit from Thalia Frost but taught her a lesson for the future.

Alas, in this cruel world, regret is not something one could regain.

What's done is done, and his only hope is to improvise.

When a path is closed for you, there will always be another path opened for you. One could say it's the same as Newton's third law in which the force always occupies in pairs.

With the carriage option canceled, Lei Zhen began to search for information from the NPC.

"Hi, do you know anyone that is going to Yors Castle?" Lei Zhen asked one of the NPCs that was operating a small stall. The small stall was selling some vegetables, and for the players themselves, it's an item to restore satiety.

The NPC had no intention of answering his question, so Lei Zhen decided to purchase a few vegetables.

After purchasing a few vegetables, the NPC's attitude changed completely, and was all friendly.

"Haha, is anyone going to Yors Castle? You've asked the correct person then. Right now, there's a merchant that is from Yors Castle and is hiring a few people as protection for his return." The NPC said and gave him the location of the merchant.

"Thank you for your information." Lei Zhen thanked him and left. He wasn't surprised by the attitude change of the NPC since Magnolia is a realistic game.

What they just did was an equivalent exchange.

He wanted information and the NPC wanted to sell his vegetables. So at the end of the day, it was a win-win situation for both of them.

Sometime later, Lei Zhen arrived at the location where the NPC pointed for him.

And indeed, the NPC did not lie to him as he could see a merchant-looking guy shouting and recruiting people.

It was easy to tell the person was a merchant based on the dress he was wearing. Pieces of jewelry on his hand and neck, plus the glamorous clothes that seemed to be shining in public. Besides the accessories he was wearing, he had a nice-looking beard as well.

Not to mention, the stingy price he was calling out in recruiting people. He was offering below-average payment in exchange for protection and only greedy merchants would do such a thing.

Profits are their greatest boss and losing even a tiny bit would hurt their soul more than anything else.

"Offering 3 copper coins in exchange for protection for my merchandise to Yors Castle." The merchant continuously called out. His height was not too tall nor too short, but his yelling was indeed top-notch.

"Aish, just shut the hell up and place a signboard instead. No one would be willing to escort you for a measly 3 copper coins."

"I know right, how can one be so shameless like you? If you want protection for your merchandise, then you should offer at least a gold coin."

As the passing players walked by, some were irritated by his shouting and couldn't help but scold the merchant for ruining their mood.

However, the merchant seemed to turn a deaf ear to such scoldings and continued to shout out his pricing for recruitment. Shamelessness was definitely the trait of a merchant like him.

If it wasn't because he had no other choice and did not want to rely on Tang Qiaolian, then he would really want to be like the other passing players.

"Sigh, the difference between a weak person and a strong person." Lei Zhen shook his head and calmly walked toward the merchant.

And when the merchant saw Lei Zhen walking over, his face was filled with a smile until he noticed something. Although he could not see how powerful or how weak Lei Zhen was, the clothes that he wore were a good enough indication for him.

As a merchant, keen eyesight is a must to survive in the industry and with a single glance, he could tell Lei Zhen was a weakling.

"Go away, my merchandise is all high-quality materials and expensive. I'm not going to hire a weakling that probably can't even kill a mere goblin for protection." The merchant said, not even giving Lei Zhen a chance to speak.

Just because he was stingy in his recruiting price does not mean he was willing to hire any Tom, Dick, and Harry for the job.

"You're a merchant, so you should have heard the saying 'Never Judge a Book by its Appearance', right?" Lei Zhen didn't give up and began to convince the merchant.

"I'm sure you must have been standing here for a long time, and not a single person had answered your recruitment, right? The problem with that is self-explanatory, so I won't bother going over that. However, your merchandise is expensive like you've said, then wouldn't that mean it would soon go bad if you can't deliver it in time?"

"Hmph, don't sound too smart, brat. My merchandise isn't even a consumption type, so how can it go bad?" The merchant snorted coldly.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, what I mean by going bad does not mean the quality will decrease." Lei Zhen snickered.

"What I mean by going bad is the timing of your return to Yors Castle. Since you're a merchant and decided to go your way out to come to the Town of Wales for items, then isn't it obvious that there are other merchants that know what kind of profit they are getting as well?"

Essentially, Lei Zhen was reminding the merchant that the profits he could smell, other merchants could also smell the same and would be doing the same thing as him.

'Heh, checkmate!' Lei Zhen laughed inwardly when he saw the merchant showed a sign of hesitation on his face.