Chapter 52 – Do You Know Who I Am?

Biu~

A light sound rang out as the Orange Tree Heart on Su Mo's stall disappeared and 60 gold coins appeared in his bag.

A stinking rich customer!

No matter if it was Su Mo, who had just sold the item, or the crowd, who had been hesitating as to whether or not to buy it, that was what they were all thinking.

Su Mo then put up another one, for 65 gold coins this time.

A stinking rich seller!

This time, 'stinking rich' was not used to describe that unknown buyer but Su Mo, this black-hearted and unscrupulous merchant.

He did not know if the other person was hesitating or getting enough money, the instant-buy that Su Mo had been hoping for did not happen.

"It's the last one, if you don't buy it now, it'll be gone soon. Our mercenary group suffered heavy losses to get this batch of Orange Tree Hearts and probably won't be able to make trouble for the Dryads in the future. I'm worried I'll get in trouble for secretly taking all of the Orange Tree Hearts and selling them…"

You piece of crap, after doing such an immoral thing, why do you look so proud of yourself…

Just as the ex-rich son's words fell, the Orange Tree Heart marked as 65 gold coins disappeared. These fellows had so much money, being willing to spend a few thousand dollars for 10% of their EXP bar!

Even when Su Mo's family was at its peak, they were just a rich family who had around $10 million in assets.

Whenever Su Mo did anything, he would tell himself not to be afraid of failure; worst came to worst, he would go back and inherit his family's $10 million of assets.

Su Mo did not list the other things for very high prices; those who resold them might even be able to earn a small profit. As such, in just a short amount of time, most things were sold.

After putting his stall away, Su Mo planned to leave; he had not completed his pirate-killing quest for today yet.

"I was the one who bought your two Orange Tree Hearts."

I thought you were buying anonymously to keep a low-profile, and now you've come over to talk to me. What were you acting so secretively for then?!

Standing in front of Su Mo was a soy egg…

Alright, at the very least, this dark and round thing looked like a soy egg, the type that had been cooked in soy sauce for a long time.

"I don't have any more," Su Mo said.

"I know you don't, I have something else I want to talk to you about. Can we talk as we walk? Or we can eat somewhere, my treat," the soy egg said.

"Let's talk while we walk, I still have things to do." Su Mo was not interested in eating with a soy egg.

"Have you heard of the Pantheon? I'm from the Pantheon." The soy egg hoped to see a look of respect and admiration on Su Mo's face, but he was disappointed. Let alone admiration, even the basic shock was not there.

"I've long admired you all." Seeing that person staring at him, Su Mo quickly realized that he had to say something.

He had never heard of the Pantheon because ever since he started gaming, at most, he would go on forums to look for useful information. He was not interested in these organizations and guilds at all.

Can't you look a bit more respectful? After being disappointed, the soy egg no longer beat around the bush.

"I want to know how your group farmed Orange Tree Hearts. Don't worry, we'll only use them for our own purposes and won't flood the market. I can also give you a sum of money, which you don't need to split with your group."

Based on what Su Mo had said earlier, he had stolen these Orange Tree Hearts to sell. Only an idiot would believe him.

"Can you pay now? How much? Can you pay with gold coins?" Su Mo asked.

Screw you! The soy egg felt quite unimpressed. Su Mo was not trying to hide it at all, and this was evidently the precursor to a scam. He wanted the money now as opposed to after the information was verified, and he wanted gold coins as opposed to a bank transfer so he could easily run away afterwards.

The person from the Pantheon did not know what to say. Director, someone's going off script.

"I don't think you know who you're dealing with."

It was neither a light nor a heavy threat, but players who were familiar with the Pantheon's strength would feel pressure akin to the sky falling down on them.

"I know, you're from the Pantheon. Then do you know who I am?" Su Mo asked, without giving an inch.

"You are…?"

"Then it's fine, if you don't even know who I am, why would I need to be afraid of you? See you later, brother. This is just a game, don't act as if you're living in a novel that you're reading." 

Su Mo waved his hand and strolled off, leaving behind the soy egg, feeling quite confused.

Su Mo acted as if he didn't care, but after leaving Lota City, he immediately pulled up the search function.

Soon, all of the Pantheon's information was in front of him. The specific details were quite complicated, but simply put, they were a leviathan in the game.

The Pantheon was directly owned by the Qicheng Group, and they had many smaller clubs under them focusing on different things. Putting aside VR games, they were even in mobile gaming and client-based games. Some were focused on competitions, and others were focused on gaining territory. Anything that anyone could imagine, they had a hand in it.

Luckily he had not worked with them; Su Mo did not have good feelings towards the Qicheng Group.

The Qicheng Group was focused on the gaming industry, but they were also in energy, real estate, and AI. They were extremely domineering in the business world, and the people who had conflict with his friend, Old Cat, were part of the real estate department of the Qicheng Group.

Su Mo's family's company worked on AI, and part of the reason they went bankrupt was indirectly related to the Qicheng Group.

After New World had come out, it had quickly become the leading VR game.

Rumors had it that the Qicheng Group had wanted to finance New World and take a share of the profits, but they had been rejected.

As such, the Qicheng Group decided to use their old tricks and sent their gaming factions into New World. When their players had enough influence and power, if New World still did not give in, they would ruin this game.

This was not a joke—they had ruined many games before.

The Pantheon originally dominated other games, so they entered New World a bit late, roughly the same time as Su Mo. They had a few experts at Level 27 and had recruited two people at Level 28. However, their overall strength made it so that they could not overtake other clubs and guilds.

As such, raising their level became the Pantheon's most pressing matter. They did not lack money, so the pay to win quests became their preferred way to level up.

After reading through this information, Su Mo put it aside. He was not afraid of being hunted down and killed; as a Ranger, it was not so easy to kill him.

As for things in real life, when Su Mo had entered the game, he had slightly changed his appearance, so it was somewhat different than his appearance in real life. It would not be very easy to find his identity in real life, and even if the Pantheon went crazy and found his identity in real life, who knew who would be the tiger in that scenario?

Why would someone want to investigate an ex-special forces member who had carried out many secret missions?

Did they want food delivery or to drink tea together?