Chapter 44: Trade (Up)

After bringing Money Lover into a corner, Jiang Ming said with a smile on his face, "To be honest, 10 silver coins is already an extremely high price for the bone fragment. If you kill any BOSS yourself, you might only get one or two silver coins at most. Actually, the bone fragments are not what I really wanted, I'll pay you five gold coins if you can tell me the exact location of where you found it. What do you think?"

In fact, the Demon Saint's bone fragment would most probably be useless to most players in the game and 10 silver coins was more than it's worth. Plus, this really wasn't what he wanted in the first place. The thing that he wanted most was the location where the bone fragments were found as they might contain information that were useful for his mission. Jiang Ming was willing to pay up to ten times the amount just to get this information, because he would lose everything if he didn't complete the mission.

"5 gold coins?!"

Money Lover said in surprise.

Now that the Marketplace had been opened, there were a lot of merchants who were saving up gold coins in order to buy shops before the trading system got activated. There were also some players who were planning to get married in the game and buy houses in the game since they were still cheaper at this point. Therefore, the value of the gold coin was now 1:80 in the black market. This meant that 1 gold coin was about 80 dragon coins; so 5 gold coins would mean a total of 400 dragon coins. This amount was about the same as Money Lover's living expenses for a week.

A piece of information that he thought was worthless suddenly cost so much, and it was expected that Money Lover would be shocked by it.

However, Money Lover wasn't stupid either. As he noticed that Jiang Ming really wanted the information, it clearly meant that either Jiang Ming had a mission or there was a hidden treasure in the cave near the cliff.

As he thought about the cave, he finally figured out why he suddenly died in the cave. There must be some sort of monster that guarded the treasure in the cave, who killed him when he wasn't aware.

"I wasn't paying much attention when I was there and I don't really remember much about the location." Money Lover thought to himself as he stared at Jiang Ming, 'Is he asking it for the mission or the treasure inside? If there really is a treasure inside that cave, wouldn't it be really stupid of me to tell him where it is? But what if he's only asking it for a mission? Will he withdraw the deal if I try to further bargain?' 

"Spending 6 gold coins for a mission is the maximum that I can offer. Well, from the look on your face, it looks like you want a higher price than this. If that's the case, then goodbye."

They initially already agreed to a deal and he was still fine with it when Money Lover wanted a little more the first time. But, when Jiang Ming saw that he was still trying to bargain, he got a little annoyed. Plus, he knew that Money Lover urgently wanted to sell the bone fragment. So, he baited Money Lover by saying that this was his last offer and started to walk away without any hesitation.

He began to walk away without looking back, but in his mind, he was anxiously waiting for the voice to call him back.

When Money Lover saw that Jiang Ming was really leaving, he got worried.

"Wait a minute!" Money Lover shouted when he noticed that Jiang Ming was already getting out of his sight. In the end, he decided to just sell off the bone fragment and the information about the cave since he had a bet with his team. Plus, he knew that if he missed this chance, he would not be able to sell it to anyone else.

When he heard Money Lover's voice from behind, Jiang Ming smiled. Then, he turned around and walked towards him.

　　... 

After completing the trade, Jiang Ming looked at the bone fragment that he got from Money Lover.

The Demon Saint's bone fragment was the size of his palm and it was black in colour. It felt a little cold in his palm and there was also black gas leaking out of it.

"The Hidden Summit Cliff of 00981 Novice Village. I'll take a look at that place after finishing the Customised Reaper's Mission."

Jiang Ming kept the bone fragment into his inventory and muttered to himself. He opened his chat channel and sent a message to Mu Baiting, Jin Tian and Situ Shenzhe. Then, he walked towards the ordinary store that he just bought.

The ordinary stores were periphery of the Marketplace, and the one that he bought was actually quite conspicuous as it was at an intersection leading to the periphery of the Marketplace.

There weren't many players in the periphery of the Marketplace. As soon as he reached his store, he pushed the doors open and walked in.

As he entered the store, he took a look around it and smiled.

Although it was just an ordinary store, it still had two floors and was quite spacious. It was much bigger than his house in reality.

He opened the management interface of the store. Then, he bought 4 stools that cost him 40 silver coins and placed them in the middle of the store. 

"Knock knock~"

As he was arranging the stools, he heard a knock from outside. 

Jiang Ming opened the door and saw Mu Baiting, who was smiling without his mask on, and his bodyguard Mo Yi who was standing right behind him.

Then, Jiang Ming also removed his mask. Since they had already met, there was no need for him to conceal his appearance.

"I was right. You really are something different. How long has it been since the game started and you already own a store now?" Mu Baiting asked as he was slightly surprised when he walked into the store.

Jiang Ming shook his head and answered, "Nah, I was just lucky. I recently sold something that was quite valuable and got a few gold coins from it. So I just thought of buying a store so that I could sell my equipment. Once the trading system was activated, I wouldn't have enough money to buy one."

"Humble as usual." Mu Baiting sat down on one of the stools that Jiang Ming prepared. However, when he saw that there were two other empty stools, he frowned and asked, "Is there anyone else coming as well?" 

"Oh, yes. Just a few partners that I met along the way. Plus, I have already rejected them multiple times. Since I have the equipment now, I thought I should just inform them as well," Jiang Ming replied while smiling.

Mu Baiting looked at Jiang Ming and nodded his head as he thought to himself, 'This guy is actually quite smart. He called along two other people here which means that there would be a competition and the prices of the items would be elevated.'

Just as Jiang Ming was casually chatting with Mu Baiting, there was another knock on the door.

When Jiang Ming opened the door, both Jin Tian and Situ Zhenzhe were standing outside the store. Both of them had already removed their masks and were fiercely staring at each other. He wouldn't be surprised to find them fighting if he opened the door one minute later.

"Don't stand just there. Come in," Jiang Ming said to the both of them who were still staring at each other.

"Hmph!"

Situ Shenzhe walked past Jiang Ming with an arrogant look on his face and into the store.

When Jiang Ming saw Situ Shenzhe's face, murderous intent flared in his eyes. If it wasn't because he had other plans for the future, he would have chopped Situ Shenzhe into pieces right now.

"Hmph, just wait and see. One day, I'll return all the pain that you've caused in the past." Jiang Ming thought to himself.

"Looks like this is quite a party," Jin Tian said as he walked into the store. When he saw Mu Baiting, he turned around and gave Jiang Ming a thumbs up. It was obvious that he also figured out why Jiang Ming invited all three of them together.

"Well, since all of you are here for equipment, there's no point for me to keep any of them from you. All the equipment that I have is on the shelf over there. Take a look and if there's anything that catches your eye, feel free to offer a price for it."

As he spoke, Jiang Ming opened the management interface and activated the display shelf in the store. Then, he placed all the equipment in his inventory onto the shelf.

"This..."

All three of them walked towards the shelf. As soon as they saw that there were about fifty items displayed on the shelf, they were all stunned!