Chapter 230: The Curator’s Big Sausage
City of Light Chasing, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
The midday sun shone high as another batch of newbies, summoned by Yi Ye Fu Yun, walked one after another into the rented large transport vehicle.
“The vehicle is about to depart. If you want to earn points and contribution, don’t miss it.” Yi Ye Fu Yun held a loudspeaker and shouted nonstop on the training ground. “A professional team leading the way, safety guaranteed. As long as you are professional enough at mining, this is definitely the fastest option below quasi-martial artist level to earn points and contribution right now!”
Yi Ye Fu Yun shouted again and again, while the players on the training ground, some envious, some cursing the black-hearted factory, felt that Yi Ye Fu Yun and the others were treating people like tools and were not even afraid of being exposed.
Ever since several teams discovered there was an energy vein at the White Feather Gang stronghold, Yi Ye Fu Yun came up with an idea. Although they were not yet core disciples, could not establish a stronghold, and were not recognized by the martial arts hall, that did not stop them from mining the energy vein.
So the first thing Yi Ye Fu Yun did after his resurrection was to recruit players in the martial arts hall and hire them to mine the energy vein.
As for the hiring fee, it was 5% of the energy ore mined. That is, if one mined one hundred kilograms, one could receive five kilograms of energy ore.
Now the price for redeeming energy ore at the martial arts hall had already risen to two hundred points per kilogram, while selling one kilogram of energy ore to the martial arts hall only had a purchase price of forty points, with an extra reward of twenty contribution for every ten kilograms.
If players mined and sold directly to the martial arts hall, it was of course a huge profit, far more than mining energy ore for the hall. Not to mention that Crimson Moon Mountain no longer allowed players to mine, and they could only cultivate in designated rooms inside.
The only decent task in Chiyue Town was to take some garrison missions and guard Chiyue Town together with NPCs.
Moreover, these missions required considerable strength from players; they had to be at least limit apprentices to take them. The good old days were gone for good.
Now Yi Ye Fu Yun only gave players 5% of the energy ore. If they sold it to the martial arts hall, the profit was very average. After all, for new players, even if they mined for a whole day, being able to mine one ton of energy ore would already be good. Five percent of that was only fifty kilograms of energy ore, which, when sold to the hall, would give 2000 points and one hundred contribution. That was utterly black-hearted.
Of course, if they kept it for their own use, they definitely profited. Energy ore was excellent stuff. After becoming a martial artist, cultivation always required consuming energy ore, even for super rich players.
Yi Ye Fu Yun, however, felt that players nowadays were too greedy, actually thinking that 5% was too low. Where else could you find such a generous capitalist, giving 5% of the profit from an item?
Especially since the energy ore could be used personally. Earning at least fifty kilograms of energy ore a day was something normally impossible for anyone below quasi-martial artist level.
Only after Yi Ye Fu Yun shouted for half an hour and another dozen apprentice-level veteran players boarded the vehicle did he reluctantly get on himself.
“With so few people, renting this large transport vehicle this time is really a bit of a loss. If only this game allowed us to hire those NPCs.” Looking at all the empty seats, Yi Ye Fu Yun felt that this trip to the White Feather Gang stronghold was really not worth it.
The rental fee for a large transport vehicle was not low. Even renting it for only seven days cost thirty thousand points. Although thirty thousand points was not much for him now, even a mosquito’s leg is still meat.
As the large transport vehicle drove out of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, many vagrants on the street outside looked on with envy.
The disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall who were recruiting for energy ore mining could directly receive 5% of what they mined. That was something the vagrants did not even dare dream of. Energy ore was expensive. Randomly selling dozens of kilograms would be enough for them to live in comfort for a month.
Unfortunately, the disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall only recruited those Obsidian Martial Arts Hall disciples wearing silver-gray clothing. They did not even take those who had merely joined the hall. If they could recruit outside workers, such jobs would absolutely be fought over like crazy.
“This Obsidian Martial Arts Hall is getting more and more formidable. They actually took another energy vein. I wonder when they will start recruiting outsiders. I don’t even need energy ore. If they can give me one thousand bits a month, I’ll be satisfied.”
“Stop dreaming. Right now the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall doesn’t even have enough for its own disciples. How could they give work to outsiders? I heard those disciples going to Chiyue Town fight every day for the chance to mine energy ore. Even so, if a dozen out of a hundred people get that job, it’s already good. Most of them are just there building houses and city walls.”
“I’d be willing even to just build houses and walls. I heard the disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall can earn at least two hundred points a day there. Those points are worth a lot in Chiyue Town. One point equals one bit, which means they can earn two hundred bits a day.”
“I heard that too. The merchants in Chiyue Town are all willing to accept points and are not very interested in bits, because only with points can they buy monster meat from those martial arts hall disciples wearing silver-gray clothing. If they use bits, some disciples might not even accept them.”
“Disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, huh? I wonder if my child can pass the hall’s assessment today. If they can, our whole family can move to live in Chiyue Town.”
The vagrants on the street chatted back and forth as they looked at the long line for the assessment outside the hall, filled with indescribable envy and longing.
The Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was no longer an ordinary faction. Rumor had it that even many captains of the city’s garrison were no match for the disciples of the hall. Combined with a hall master in the Bone Forging Realm, in the entire City of Light Chasing it ranked as a major power.
Anyone who could join would have both safety and income guaranteed.
“Yet another energy vein. How about in the next update we simply unlock the hiring gameplay, letting players hire vagrants to mine?” Standing at the third-floor window of the hall, Lin Qi watched Yi Ye Fu Yun and the others leave, and became convinced that in the next version, it was very necessary to enable NPC hiring gameplay.
As for the players capturing the White Feather Gang stronghold, he knew it was because the White Feather Gang people followed them, and the players fought back, even killing quite a few from the garrison, which now had many factions in the City of Light Chasing talking.
Many factions even felt the Three-eyed Tribe, Crystal Race, and Half-Scale Race would definitely bear a grudge against the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, and that the human race was now weak, having lost a top bone forging realm expert, so the hall was doomed in the future.
He did not care at all. If the three races bore a grudge, so be it. They could not really do anything to him. As for what might happen to the players, he did not mind in the slightest. Only through hardship could they grow.
Instead, the fact that there was an energy vein at the White Feather Gang stronghold was an unexpected pleasant surprise.
He was now in dire shortage of energy ore. Setting aside the huge energy ore consumption required to build the Cultivation Tower, the new martial arts hall he was establishing in Chiyue Town also consumed a massive amount of energy ore.
To raise system administrator permissions from level two to level three, he needed a special grade martial arts hall.
Although a special grade martial arts hall covered the same area as an advanced martial arts hall, it was required to have ten intermediate training rooms and five beginner meditation rooms.
The rewards for completing a special grade martial arts hall were also quite generous, unlocking the construction permission for intermediate gravity chambers.
The twentyfold gravity of the beginner gravity rooms now had little effect on the second level of his Body Strengthening Secret Technique. He was stuck at entry-level 20%, with no further increase in body strength, while the actual level of his second level Body Strengthening Secret Technique was at entry-level 28%.
Such a result could only mean he needed higher gravitational force. Only that might allow his body to progress. It was like making an item: after learning the blueprint with difficulty, if he lacked sufficient materials, he could only produce so much.
He now urgently needed a higher gravity environment to break through his current bottleneck.
But ten intermediate training rooms and three beginner meditation rooms were not so easy to complete. Beginner meditation rooms were manageable. After he added Molten Crystal to the 200 reputation reward in Chiyue Town, many people in Lu Fanchen’s team finally began moving Molten Crystals to the warehouse.
In just over a day, Lu Fanchen had completed two rounds of the ten-thousand-unit Molten Crystal collection task. Gathering sixty thousand units of Molten Crystal to build four beginner meditation rooms would take about three days.
The ten intermediate training rooms, however, were not so easy. Building an intermediate training room required fifty thousand units of energy and ten energy crystals. He had enough energy crystals, and the previously modified intermediate training room was almost complete, but the energy ore from Crimson Moon Mountain had all been used to build the Cultivation Tower. The martial arts hall no longer had any energy ore coming in, and the ore that had been delivered earlier was spent on renovating lounges to continuously bring in new players.
At present, the system’s energy balance was only 18,247 units, far from enough to create the remaining nine intermediate training rooms.
If only players mined the miniature energy vein at the White Feather Gang stronghold, who knew how long it would take to mine enough energy ore to both transform intermediate training rooms and meet the daily needs of lounge renovations? But if he hired a large number of vagrants, efficiency would undoubtedly rise significantly.
Just as Lin Qi was pondering how to put some constraints on the players’ hiring mechanism, the system prompt suddenly sounded in his ears.
System: Congratulations to the host, the beginner gravity room modification is complete.
“Finally, another one is done. Now I don’t have to fight others for a gravity room anymore.” Looking at the system prompt, Lin Qi could not help but sigh with relief.
The gravity rooms were too popular now.
Not only did players need them, but martial artists like Qin Mu also needed them.
Considering the strength improvement of Qin Mu and the others, he had no choice but to allocate the newly modified gravity room to them, which greatly reduced his own available time.
Although the beginner gravity room no longer had much effect on the second level of his Body Strengthening Secret Technique, its stimulating effect on the cells’ energy was quite good. It could greatly speed up the strengthening of the internal organs, so his daily cultivation was also done in the gravity room.
Letting Qin Mu and the others use the gravity room during this period had significantly slowed the strengthening of his internal organs.
As Lin Qi happily walked toward the newly modified beginner gravity room, a graceful figure blocked his path first, drawing envious and jealous looks from many players on the training ground.
“Have you noticed that lately Dona keeps looking for the hall master, and more and more often? Could there be something going on between them?”
“I think so too. Yaklo hardly even comes out of the studio these days.”
“It’s really possible. I passed by Dona recently and felt her qi and blood had become overwhelming, almost suffocating. I guess the master of the pavilion is giving her special treatment, which is why she improved so fast.”
The players looked at Dona, who proactively stepped in front of him, and whispered among themselves.
Dona was now a beautiful sight within the martial arts hall. There were not many important NPCs in the hall to begin with, and suddenly there was a beast-eared girl. Many players were curious whether the hall would now gain another important NPC and further develop.
After all, given how far the hall had developed, having only Hall Master Lin Qi as a noteworthy NPC seemed rather lacking.
“Hall Master Lin, do you still have any pears?” Dona, with a pair of snow-white beast ears, looked at Lin Qi with expectation.
“Well… they are still being procured.” Faced with Dona asking for the third time that day, Lin Qi did not know whether to laugh or cry.
All the Vitality Fragrant Pears he obtained from the lottery had been bought up by Dona, netting him twenty-six energy crystals, which was quite a profit.
He had thought thirteen Vitality Fragrant Pears would last her for a while, but unexpectedly Dona could eat so much, finishing them all in just two days.
Today, the hall had already taken in nearly two thousand more people. Although he had accumulated enough pulls for three more draws, even if all of them were Vitality Fragrant Pears, it might not be enough for Dona for half a day.
Dona’s beast ears twitched as she asked anxiously, “Then how long until the next batch?”
“I’m not exactly sure. You know that cultivating the fragrant pears isn’t easy.” Lin Qi briefly explained, then took out a large sausage and recommended, “Why don’t you try this sausage instead? This is also one of our hall’s specialties, the Magical Large Sausage. Its effect is much stronger than the pears and lasts longer, up to twelve hours.”
“Large sausage?” Dona curiously looked at the large sausage Lin Qi produced from who-knew-where and asked seriously, “Is this really better than the pears?”
“Of course. Only stronger, not weaker. Fair to all, young or old.” Lin Qi nodded.
He had originally planned to give the large sausage to Luo Qi to help her take her technical skills to the next level, but she was currently busy repairing another batch of B6-grade battle armor sent by Luo Wu Shang and the others, so that plan had to wait.
He was severely short on energy crystals now, so he would earn as many as he could from Dona. Among the people he knew, no one spent energy crystals as lavishly as she did, not even blinking.
“Alright, I’ll take one first.” Dona thought for a moment and decided to try one. “How much is it?”
“Forty energy crystals. Fixed price.” Lin Qi raised two fingers.
The Magical Large Sausage was a green-quality two-star reward, not easy to pull, especially if specifically aiming for it. Selling it at twenty times the price of a Vitality Fragrant Pear was already very fair.
“Here, forty energy crystals.” Dona did not haggle or doubt him. She directly handed over the crystals and happily took the Magical Large Sausage back to the beginner gravity room.
The players present were dumbfounded by this scene.
“Damn! The hall master is amazing! He sold one sausage for forty energy crystals! That’s faster than robbery!”
“Oh my god! The hall master’s sausage sold for forty energy crystals! Spread the word!”
“Are sausages worth that much in this world? Is it too late for me to become a chef?”
…
Watching Dona happily leave with the sausage in hand, everyone suddenly felt that Hall Master Lin Qi truly deserved to be the hall master; he was their role model.
Unaware of this, Lin Qi took the forty energy crystals to the newly built beginner gravity room and began today’s cultivation.
“For now, there’s no need to extract more from the Body Strengthening Secret Technique before we have intermediate gravity rooms. Aside from the three cultivation methods, the six martial skills have reached a bottleneck in extraction too. But my mental secret techniques and the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique are close to 100% proficiency. This time I can push them further.” Lin Qi checked his attribute panel and directly selected some players whose mental secret techniques and Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique had the highest proficiency.
After his administrator permissions reached level two, his extraction permissions also reached level three, and the number of extractions increased directly to ten. This allowed him to make significant progress in all aspects in recent days, instead of, as before, only focusing on cultivation methods, martial skills, and the Body Strengthening Secret Technique, with no extraction left over to improve anything else.
Now the first level of his mental secret technique had reached 83% proficient, and the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique had reached 91% proficient. These two were also the most widely studied by players, many of whom had high proficiency, not a few exceeding 60%, making them ideal for impacting the perfection realm.
“Let’s start with the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique.” Looking at Ye Qinglu and the others whose Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique proficiency was above 70%, Lin Qi selected extraction.
System: Congratulations to the host, the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique has increased to 95% proficient.
System: Congratulations to the host, the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique has increased to 97% proficient.
System: Congratulations to the host, the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique has increased to 99% proficient.
System: Congratulations to the host, the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique has increased to 100% proficient.
…
System: Congratulations to the host, the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique has increased to 100% proficient.
“Is it really this hard to raise the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique to perfection?” Lin Qi was very surprised to see five consecutive extractions all stuck at 100% proficient.
The players he extracted from all had proficiency above 70%. Under normal circumstances, two or three extractions were enough to go from 100% proficient to perfection. But after five extractions in a row, it was still 100% proficient, which was unbelievable.
“The last time.” Lin Qi thought for a moment and decided to try one final extraction.
If it still did not work, he would have to wait until players’ proficiency improved further before extracting the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique again.
He then chose Ye Qinglu, who had stayed from the beginning and had the highest proficiency in cultivating the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique among all players.
Her current proficiency had reached 81% proficient, almost catching up to him.
“Extract!”
Lin Qi clicked on Ye Qinglu’s name.
System: Congratulations to the host, the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique has broken through to the perfection realm.
