Chapter 49: Sudden Wealth
City of Light Chasing, Crystal Race Abandoned Area.
“Brother Hou Fei, one of the White Feather Gang’s planting bases was wiped out by a mysterious faction. All five apprentice-level experts and more than forty members, not a single one escaped.” A tall Crystal Race woman with a ruby embedded in her forehead walked into the room a bit hurriedly and almost bumped into the resting Hou Fei.
Hou Fei had originally wanted to say something to the Crystal Race woman in front of him, but when he heard the news, he suddenly stood up.
“What did you say? One of the White Feather Gang’s planting bases was destroyed, and not a single person escaped?” Hou Fei was full of disbelief. “That was one of the White Feather Gang’s planting bases. How could there not be even one person who escaped?”
Hou Fei was extremely familiar with the White Feather Gang. He had the most contact with them in the wilderness, and he often clashed with them.
It was precisely because of the constant friction that Hou Fei knew very well how strong the defenses of a White Feather Gang planting base were. Under normal circumstances, there would be at least one intermediate apprentice stationed there, and that intermediate apprentice could tangle for a short time with an advanced apprentice without armor.
With such an expert guarding, once they discovered an advanced apprentice leading people in an attack, even with signal jamming, they would choose to retreat at the first moment. With more than forty people scattering and fleeing, trying to keep them all would be far too difficult.
Even a very fast advanced apprentice would be doing well to catch up to four or five people fleeing. To keep more than forty people from escaping, either the attacking side had an extremely large number of people and had already surrounded the planting base completely in advance,
or they had more than ten apprentice-level experts working with dozens of quasi-apprentices, which might barely be enough to wipe out everyone in the White Feather Gang base.
And either of these possibilities would be very shocking news.
“Mm, now people from the White Feather Gang came over to inform us that as long as someone can provide a bit of concrete information, they are willing to reward one hundred kilograms of monster meat and one million bit!” The Crystal Race woman nodded heavily, very delighted. “Brother Hou Fei, if we can find out which gang did it, then you will have hope of becoming a quasi-martial artist!”
“It’s not as simple as you think. Since the other side can silently wipe out one of the White Feather Gang’s bases, it shows that their faction is not to be underestimated. If we find out the exact information and hand it to the White Feather Gang, that means offending that faction.” Hou Fei shook his head, but still instructed, “But you should still tell everyone that when they go out, they must pay attention. Even if they learn some information, they must not rush to claim the bounty.”
“Yes.” The Crystal Race woman then walked out of the room.
“Is it another gang rising in the wilderness?” Watching the woman leave, Hou Fei’s gaze also grew solemn.
The cake in the wilderness was only so big. Every time a wilderness gang rose, it meant another wilderness gang would fall. When that time came, the other wilderness gangs would not just watch; they would definitely get involved, making the wilderness even more dangerous.
Abandoned Area, outside the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
“Lin, you all need to be careful for a while. I expect the wilderness will no longer be peaceful.” Qin Mu looked at Lin Qi and spoke with heartfelt seriousness. “This time, the White Feather Gang is likely going to get serious. One hundred kilograms of monster meat and one million bit is enough to tempt many people from those big gangs in the suburbs to investigate this matter with all their strength. I expect the faction that wiped out the White Feather Gang base will soon be found. That mysterious gang is also very powerful. There will definitely be a great battle in the wilderness then. You must not join in for no reason.”
“Brother Qin, don’t worry, we will be careful.” Lin Qi nodded and said with a smile, “We are just a small gang with a small faction. We definitely won’t get involved in the struggle between wilderness factions.”
“As long as you understand.” Qin Mu was very pleased. His gaze swept over the completely transformed Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, the medium transport vehicle and three tricycles parked in the hall, and the dozens of players continuously carrying goods, and he could not help but sigh. “I really didn’t expect that in just a few days, your base not only looks proper, but its scale has expanded so quickly. You are practically on par with some ordinary wilderness gangs now.”
Qin Mu remembered that just a few days ago, the entire Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was utterly down and out, without even a single intact wall. The hall was drafty everywhere, and there were only around ten people.
Now, not only had all the perimeter walls of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall been repaired, but even the hall’s walls had been restored by fifty to sixty percent. Placed in an Abandoned Area full of ruined buildings, this was quite luxurious. It was already comparable to the stations of some major wilderness gangs.
What was even more astonishing was the personnel and equipment of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. Now there were as many as thirty people, plus a medium transport vehicle and three tricycles. With such assets, they could already rival an ordinary wilderness gang.
“We just got lucky. We took a few big jobs, so we rented a few more vehicles.” Lin Qi replied with a smile.
The income of wilderness gangs, apart from planting Blood Essence Rice in the wilderness, also included doing transport runs. After all, many raw materials were in the wilderness, and many companies and gangs in the suburbs needed some death-defying vagrants to do these low-level jobs. So wilderness gangs became the best choice.
They had a certain level of strength and did not fear death, just right for all kinds of dirty and tiring work, and this income was a huge sum for wilderness gangs.
A limit apprentice like Qin Mu would usually also take on some transport guard work, but the level of the transported items was very high. Those were commissions from some major gangs in the suburbs, which ordinary wilderness gangs had no qualifications to accept.
“Work hard.” Qin Mu patted Lin Qi on the shoulder. “Once you have a certain level of strength, I can introduce a lot of good jobs to you.”
“Then thank you, Brother Qin.” Lin Qi was delighted when he heard this.
He had originally been worried about how the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall would increase its income. The profit from underground planting, compared to the growing number of players demanding various resources, and that bit from underground planting and ore transport, was not enough to fill the gaps between their teeth.
After Lin Qi saw Qin Mu off, he continued to have the players quickly carry down the spoils from the vehicles.
This kept Lin Qi busy until the second half of the night, before he finally finished tallying the gains from the extermination operation and the extermination rewards for all the players.
“The White Feather Gang is really rich. No wonder they can casually offer one million bit.” Looking at the item list in his notebook, Lin Qi felt all kinds of emotions.
For this haul, not to mention various items, the cash alone exceeded two hundred thousand bit. He had no idea what the White Feather Gang had been keeping that money in the safe for, but now it had all fallen into his hands.
Adding this money to the cash he already had, the total had reached six hundred thousand, which should barely be enough to repair the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
In addition, the biggest gain was the three vehicles. Among them, the medium vintage transport car was the most valuable. Second-hand goods on the market were worth more than three hundred thousand. While useless against wilderness monsters, it could block attacks from apprentice-level experts.
Luo Qi had checked all three vehicles. There were no problems with any of them; they could be used freely.
After all, there were too many such vintage cars in the wilderness. The major gangs either robbed you or you robbed them; they were practically public. There was no need to bother installing trackers. If you had the ability, you just took them.
Besides the three vehicles, the next most precious items were the twenty weapons and twenty sets of armor previously forged for the Green Sparrow Gang.
The Green Sparrow Gang had spent a large amount of money to have Luo Qi create A5-grade weapons and A4-grade armor for the gang captains, with a total value of more than three hundred thousand. Unfortunately, all of these A5-grade weapons were spears, with no other types of weapons. The A4-grade armor, however, would save Lin Qi a large amount of money.
The market price of armor of the same grade was much higher than that of weapons.
A4-grade armor could be said to be the standard armor for beginner apprentices. It could normally block attacks from beginner apprentices.
A4-grade armor might have seemed almost useless in front of the black steel arrows of Luo Wu Shang and the others, but if the White Feather Gang’s captains had not been wearing A4-grade armor, they would not have been able to suppress Luo Wu Shang and Zhang Qing Wei when working together. Many times, armor could turn a fatal wound into a serious injury or even a minor injury, allowing one to fight more freely.
In addition, counting the weapon and equipment taken from the White Feather Gang members, there were more than sixty spears, more than thirty compound bows, more than three hundred arrows, and more than thirty sets of A4-grade armor, enough to fully arm all the players.
However, compared to these vehicles and weapon and equipment, Lin Qi’s gaze fell on the food and power equipment in his notebook.
“They truly deserve to be a White Feather Gang planting base. Three large generators; as long as there is enough energy ore dug from underground, it is enough to supply the power needs of three martial arts halls. Inventory of Blood Essence Rice: 8 kilograms. Unripe Blood Essence Rice: 5 kilograms. Blood Essence Rice seeds: 23,549 plants.”
“From this haul, once the mature Blood Essence Rice is sold, the unripe Blood Essence Rice can be sold to players to eat and speed up their physical fitness improvement. Also, for a long time in the future, I will not need to buy Blood Essence Rice seeds. This really saves a lot of trouble.”
Looking at the supplies in his notebook, Lin Qi suddenly felt that not only would he no longer need to buy food for the players, he could also earn a big profit from them, and further speed up the improvement of their physical fitness. It was simply killing three birds with one stone.
In terms of providing Blood Qi, unripe Blood Essence Rice was indeed much weaker than mature Blood Essence Rice, but it was still much better than synthetic food.
Of course, the unripe Blood Essence Rice sold to players would be much cheaper than the price at which he bought from them. Every ten grams of unripe Blood Essence Rice would cost ten points.
However, considering that players would privately eat Blood Essence Rice, in future when he bought Blood Essence Rice from them, in addition to points, he would also give contribution rewards. That way, once players considered the value of contribution, they would definitely continue to sell mature Blood Essence Rice to him.
“Looks like I need to set up some contribution tiers later, so that players with high contribution have more status, like inner disciple status and elite disciple status, and can enjoy higher permissions in the martial arts hall, such as a 5 percent discount or 10 percent discount on contribution spending in the future.” Lin Qi thought about it and felt this was a good way to harvest players.
It would not only motivate players to earn contribution more actively, but also give them a greater sense of achievement. It was simply killing two birds with one stone.
Status and rank.
Which player could escape the lure of these two things?
“Hmm, a martial artist-level palm technique?”
Lin Qi looked at the thick book tightly wrapped inside the White Feather Gang’s safe. When he saw the five big characters on the cover marking it as a martial artist-level palm technique, he was completely stunned.
He had never imagined that the White Feather Gang would possess a martial artist-level martial skill, something that even many great families in the City of Light Chasing had extremely few of.
A new week has arrived! Asking for monthly tickets! Asking for follow-up reading! Asking for recommendations! /(ㄒoㄒ)/ read read read…
