Show Me the Money

Chapter 217 - The Store

Fatty had a few items left, but they were all the cream of the crop and quite rare, such as the Shadow Wheel Axe skill book, Heart of the Bat King mask (a superb gear for Knight), and the skill book dropped by the Stone Puppet King.

It would make a loss to sell these things at a set price at the stall. Fatty planned to auction them at the Auction Hall and set a starting bid without limit to how high one could bid, the bidding time being seven days, and just let the players compete amongst themselves.

Ice Witch spotted Fatty when she came to enroll for the competition. The girl had been quiet until now, but when she heard Fatty say 'auction,' she asked, "You want to auction them?"

"That's right. Selling them here is too inefficient." Fatty let Ice Witch check out the items. The girl's ever expressionless face surprisingly revealed a hint of shock.

"There are actually so many good items. What a pity."

"A pity, what?" asked Fatty, dubious.

"After the tournament ends, Star Fantasia will begin to sell stores to players. You can buy a store and make it an auction house then, and conveniently auction these items to boost your store's reputation. However, the price definitely can't compare to now after the tournament's over," Ice Witch explained.

"Star Fantasia is going to let players buy stores?" Fatty was stunned. Now this is a big move from the developer. Who doesn't know that estate brings the quickest bucks?

"That's right." Ice Witch nodded slightly. "So you didn't see the official announcement. It's all written there."

Fatty immediately opened the virtual forum and visited Star Fantasia's official website. Sure enough, aside from the eye-catching big "First Under Heaven Tournament" at the top, there were several other news, one of them saying that after the tournament, the system would unlock the sale of estates for stores and residences to players.

Stores were, without a doubt, for doing business, and residences were a place the players could use for temporary rest. The game would surely push out a marriage system in the future. If one wanted to get married, they would definitely need to have a residence first.

Reading to this point, Fatty sweated. In reality, people are already being under heavy pressure to buy a house. Now, even the game is doing it too. No wonder it's all screams and curses in the comment section.

Fortunately enough, residences can be bought with money, unlike stores that require players to have enough Reputation points to qualify for the purchase.

"Are we starting or not? Didn't you say there is more good stuff to come?" asked an impatient player.

"My apologies, everyone. This one has an emergency. Friends with interest to buy stuff, please visit the Auction Hall," Fatty apologized and excused himself. Then, he ran off after saying a quick goodbye to Ice Witch.

Looking at his departing form, a gleam flashed through Ice Witch's eyes. She appeared to be musing about something.

"Please make way, please make way!" Running all the way to the city lord manor in a frenzy, Fatty stopped to fix his appearance a little before entering.

"Completed your mission already?" Lin Xi's eyelids fluttered, refusing to spare Fatty a glance.

"You think?" Fatty strode over with an amiable laugh. "My Lord, can we negotiate about something?"

"About what?"

"I heard that the government is going to sell stores?" Fatty asked with a sly laugh.

"Oh, that? There has indeed been an order from the Imperial Capital, but the sale only opens after the First Under Heaven Tournament ends. It's useless to come to me now," Lin Xi replied outright with a shrug.

"As the saying goes, the higher-ups announce the policies, and the lower-downs have their leeways. How about this, you see, I won't buy it now, but I can still rent one, right?" That "order from the Imperial Capital" must have come from the system, and Lin Xi simply can't contravene it. However, every rule which cannot be broken can still be bent, just like in the real world.

Fatty knew he should have thought of this sooner, but he was too befogged by the fact that the system had never put stores on sale before. He never thought of renting one using his connections.

"Rent? Indeed, that isn't prohibited." Lin Xi was a little stunned at this, but he quickly regained his composure. "However, if I allow this and news of it spreads, there'll be a negative impact on my reputation. Don't even think about it."

"If it's not prohibited, then what negative impact could there possibly be?" Fatty kept laughing that crafty laugh of his. It made all of Lin Xi's hair stand on end.

"My Lord, I have this equipment, perhaps you'll have some use for it?"

An armor appeared in Fatty's hand, emitting a gentle green light and occasionally a flash of violet gold mix.

"Dryad Plate?" Lin Xi's face abruptly changed. He received the item from Fatty's hand.

Dryad Plate

Violet Armor

Level Requirement: 50

Defense: 90

Strength: +27

Endurance: +30

Active - Seasonal Sacrifice: Sacrifice one rank to leave your main body behind and escape with your soul.

Fatty got this Dryad Plate right from Dragonslayer Saber's hand when he was fighting to steal the Wood Walk Book. The dryad boss monster had relied on exactly this Seasonal Sacrifice skill to escape with its life, just to be chanced upon by Fatty.

"Seasonal Sacrifice! Seasonal Sacrifice!" Lin Xi repeatedly mumbled to himself, before suddenly lifting his head. "Only this one Dryad Plate isn't enough to let you rent a store."

Gotcha! I'm not scared that you demand more, I'm scared if you don't.

Fatty carefully considered. He still had some items in his storage, but they certainly wouldn't be able to catch Lin Xi's eye.

"How about Holy Unicorn Pelt? You can use it to craft gears that can resist dark magic," Fatty tried to sound Lin Xi out.

"One thousand Holy Unicorn Pelts, plus a thousand of its horns." Lin Xi put up a finger.

"That many?!" blurted Fatty, startled. Then, he gritted his teeth and nodded. "Deal."

"Very well. I'll have Drucker take you to look at the stores. This is a map of Black Tortoise City stores' distribution that is about to be on sale. You can only rent one. The rent for one month is 100,000 gold coins." Lin Xi took out a map and tossed it to Fatty. At the same time, he gave the Dryad Plate to Drucker.

"My Lord, this…?" Cradling the Dryad Plate, Drucker didn't know what to say. The armor stats were only so-so and weren't very enticing. However, just its additional skill, Seasonal Sacrifice, that allowed the wearer to escape with their life in the middle of a crisis, was enough to make it invaluable.

Players could still respawn after death, and at worst they would only be killed back to level 0. However, there was no such thing when it came to NPCs, because to them, death simply meant death.

"Go." Lin Xi waved his hand in dismissal, indicating for the two to leave.

"Please follow me." Drucker stowed the Dryad Plate and led Fatty out of the city lord manor.

"Which one should I choose?" Fatty scanned the map left and right, wanting to pick out the best location.

"This one isn't bad." Drucker tapped his finger at a spot on the map.

The store that Drucker pointed at had an NPC Alchemy Store situated at its left, an NPC Weapon Store at its right, and a tailor's shop not very far from it. Moreover, this store was extremely close to the city gate, so the players entering the city could spot it right away.

"Hmm? You don't look it, but you really have a talent for business." Fatty looked at Drucker with surprised eyes.

Drucker revealed a slight smile. After walking for a few steps, he said, "A third of the business in Black Tortoise City belongs to my family clan.

What the heck! Fatty was speechless.

Very quickly, they completed the procedure for rental. After he had helped Fatty with the preparation, Drucker commented, "You actually came at the right time. The order from the Imperial Capital to lift the restriction on the stores have only come in today. If you were to come yesterday, you wouldn't have been able to rent one."

"So that's how it is!" Fatty suddenly understood.

After seeing Drucker off, Fatty stepped toward the entrance of the empty store. Pondering for a bit, he waved his hands, and a line appeared above the gate.

Treasures Galore Auction House!

Despite the poor naming sense, the name hinted that the store had more treasures than others. It was a lucky name to begin a never-ending profit making.

Inside the store, there were only a bunch of shelves, a counter, and a free shopkeeper called A Da from the system. Aside from those, the store was devoid of everything else.

"Welcome back, Master." When Fatty entered, A Da hurriedly came over to greet him.

"What a name to take, you're so unlucky1." Fatty pouted. However, he had no way to change the name because the system wouldn't allow it.

"Master, may I ask what kind of business are we doing?" As Fatty walked around the interior, A Da asked as he followed behind.

"We are not doing normal business, we'll make this an auction house with a fixed schedule. On any other day, just do some 'buy low and sell high' deals," Fatty replied casually.

Fatty then carefully analyzed the contract. The system's tax income was automatic. Every day at 12 AM, it would deduct 5% of the store's income of the previous day as tax.

"5%?! F*ck this!"

Fatty cursed angrily. This is highway robbery!

After taking a walk around the store, there was nothing that needed moving or changing. The interior was so spotless that even a rat would starve here.

Taking out several items to be displayed, Fatty settled them at the most eye-catching positions.

The items were the Shadow Wheel Axe skill book, the Heart of the Bat King mask, another skill book that was dropped by the Stone Puppet King, the level 50 Violet Sacrificer's Staff that currently no player was able to use yet, the fake Misfortune gears, the Damaged Heavy Tower Shield, and some other decent equipment with level requirements that the players hadn't reached for the time being.

Before, inside the Door of Misfortune Map, the Fat Squad had acquired two full sets of Misfortune equipment. When the gains were distributed, the group felt that the Misfortune gears would have no use separated, so they all left them with Fatty and split up the other decent gears.

"Mhm, not too shabby." Fatty clapped his hands and took two steps back, getting a good overall view of the shelves. Hesitating for a bit, he took out the Royal Winged Ant Poison, plus several scrolls and placed them on the shelves as well. Then, he set the prices.

What made the Royal Winged Ant valuable was that its paralysis couldn't be broken by attacks. As for the scrolls, aside from the remaining fire skill scrolls from West the Flame Ruler that he all displayed here, there was also the Summon Scroll - Ant Clan dropped by the Queen Ant.

Once everything was done, Fatty immediately spent 5,000 gold coins to broadcast an advertisement via the system.

Ding.

System Notification: Congratulations on the opening of Treasures Galore Auction House. Many skill books and superb gears await. Friends who are interested, come quick. Our house is scheduled for a weekly public auction every Friday. The service charge is only 5%, half that of the system's Auction Hall. Friends who are interested, come quick!

The effectiveness of an advertisement did not come from its quantity, but its quality. With just one announcement, Black Tortoise City instantly broke into a hubbub.

"What is this? Didn't they say that stores are only on sale after the First Under Heaven Tournament ends?"

"BUG, definitely a BUG! Report!"

"Who cares about why? Let's hurry and check it out. Skill books aren't easy to get; we can't let others get them."

……

Some were jealous, some were surprised, and even more were attracted to the Treasures Galore Auction House by the skill books and superb gears. If this auction house is established, then there naturally is a good reason for its existence. Don't we all know to treat the game as equal to reality? If you have time to complain, might as well quickly run over to see what skill books are there.

1. A Da -阿大: Very unrefined as a name. It's a common address to call the first born child in a family. In some regions, it's used to address shopkeepers or the director of a business.↩