Chapter 189 : Chapter 189
Chapter : 189
Was it because information about Return couldn't be blocked?
...It didn't seem that surprising.
Yan Yunqing thought to himself, he had long been prepared to contend with higher-level existences. However, the fact that the existence behind this game could influence Blue Star across a world...
This sounded really bad.
Taking the list, Yan Yunqing decided to find time to use his player alt to scout the way.
Yan Yunqing pulled his hood back up, hiding Nolan's face well, and nodded to Merlin. "I'll be going now."
"Don't forget to take your trouble with you," Merlin said unceremoniously.
Yan Yunqing shrugged. "Got it."
He casually confirmed the completion of the [Help [Mysterious Traveling Merchant] Complete His Order] quest. The system prompted him to select a completing player, and a quest contribution ranking popped up.
Yan Yunqing couldn't help raising an eyebrow. Quest contribution ranking?
He wasn't in a hurry to leave anymore. Standing in place, he opened the quest contribution ranking and studied the system description above it.
This must be one of the contents of the game system 2.0 update while he was in the dream.
For multiplayer quests like public quests and shared quests, the game would automatically calculate contribution based on players' efforts, and NPCs could distribute rewards based on contribution.
Huh—quite interesting. Just don't know if other NPCs have this function.
Yan Yunqing glanced at Merlin and found that Merlin showed no abnormalities about him delaying his departure, and had even started processing documents on his own.
Hm... seems like he's unaware of the game panel?
Could this NPC function be updated specifically for him?
Yan Yunqing hesitated.
Forget it, thinking too much would only make him suffer. Sometimes it's better to be a bit obtuse.
Yan Yunqing scanned the quest contribution ranking, selected all the top ten, and added [Mount Emei Monkey], then confirmed.
There were many choices for quest rewards. The affection system from 1.0, as well as the gold coins and experience columns. Gold coins were set by him, while experience was automatically estimated by the system.
This quest itself wasn't difficult, and the experience calculated by the system wasn't much. Yan Yunqing prepared eleven portions of the ten copper coins originally promised and distributed them to the eleven players who completed the quest.
At the same time, in the quest rewards, he could also check items in his backpack, and—skill books?
Even skill books could be used as quest rewards?
Yan Yunqing thought for a moment and very generously selected a skill book as an extra quest reward.
Why only one? Because eleven players would require eleven skill books. He wasn't sure if the skill book for this quest reward would be deducted from his own stock or provided by the game.
If it was deducted from his skill points, then he could permanently close this option in the future.
Even landlords don't have surplus grain!
He also manually increased the affection points for these eleven players a bit, incidentally testing the use of this affection system.
After selecting everything, Yan Yunqing clicked confirm. After waiting for a while, Yan Yunqing found that the skill points in his panel hadn't decreased. Instead, a number appeared in the reward column of the 'Publish Quest' section again.
(89/100) [Estimated refill countdown: One month]
Yan Yunqing's eyes lit up. It seemed the skill points he gave out as quest rewards wouldn't be deducted from his own but provided by the system. It's just that only a maximum of 100 skill points could be given out per month.
This data was already quite impressive. There weren't many ways to obtain skill points. Besides getting five skill points every level up, only certain hidden quests had skill point rewards, and weekly dungeons had a certain probability of dropping skill point rewards.
Now, even the ordinary quests he issued could use skill points as rewards. He didn't have to worry about players slacking on his quests at all.
Eh, then could he use the NPC panel to issue quests to his player identity...
Yan Yunqing fell into deep thought.
...
【You have completed the quest 'Help [Mysterious Traveling Merchant] Complete His Order', obtained: Copper Coin x10, Experience x100, [Mysterious Traveling Merchant] Affection +1, Skill Book x1.】
【Congratulations to players in Rock Town (Romunik Novice Village) for completing the [Mysterious Traveling Merchant] hidden quest. All players in the Rock Town area will unlock [Traveling Merchant's Collection] (Special Mobile Trading Box) and gain purchase eligibility.】
Two system notifications appeared in front of those eleven players and all players in Rock Town respectively.
The players waiting outside all received at least one of these two notifications and instantly got excited.
"Is it completed?"
"Seems so, but who got the quest settlement?"
Only [Mount Emei Monkey] stared at the two notification boxes in front of her, almost jumping up. It really settled to her!
With a click, the wooden door in front opened, and the very mysterious Traveling Merchant came out.
Before the players guarding outside could react, [Mount Emei Monkey] had already rushed up first, shouting very excitedly: "Mr. Traveling Merchant, I want to buy your items!"
The mysterious Traveling Merchant, or rather Yan Yunqing, paused. He had already anticipated this situation and very generously opened another function of the NPC system—[Trade].
"Of course, my dear friend. I am very willing to do business with friends."
Saying this, Yan Yunqing looked through his backpack and unhesitatingly put some useless recipes he got from loot boxes, junk props, and some monster drops into the trading column, setting suitable prices along the way.
Of course, as a qualified profiteer, no, a traveling merchant, the prices Yan Yunqing set were relatively expensive. After all, there were some very rare materials among them.
He opened the trading column to [Mount Emei Monkey]. A semi-transparent panel appeared in front of [Mount Emei Monkey]. She looked over with anticipation, and the very first item made her involuntarily let out an 'Ah'.
『Traveling Merchant's Collection』
[Devil Lizard's Feces (Price: 15 Gold)]
[Mount Emei Monkey] leaned back tactically. "Is feces also a sellable commodity?"
Yan Yunqing's voice remained unchanged. "Of course, my dear friend. This is no ordinary feces—in alchemy, this is a very precious and useful material!"
[Mount Emei Monkey] looked at her backpack, then at the trading column opened by the Traveling Merchant. She had worked hard on quests for a month and only saved up a few gold coins.
Yet a piece of feces of unknown origin sold by the Traveling Merchant was something she couldn't afford even if she paid her entire fortune?!
Is this reasonable?
This is unreasonable!
[Mount Emei Monkey] wanted to speak but stopped, stopped then wanted to speak again. But the Traveling Merchant was wearing a hood; she couldn't even see his face clearly, let alone judge his expression at this moment... But she inexplicably felt that if she complained about the profiteer, something bad might happen.
She could only swallow the words 'What a profiteer' and continue looking down.
[Recipe·Roasted Gugu Chicken (Price: 5 Silver)], [Recipe·Berry Jam (Price: 5 Silver)], [Bottle of Emotion (Price: 200 Gold)], [Merlin's Leg Hair (Price: 10k Gold)], [...]
As [Mount Emei Monkey] looked, the expression on her face stiffened. What are these?! Never mind the others, what exactly is Merlin's leg hair?
Is it the Merlin she's thinking of?
And why does a single leg hair sell for so much! Ten thousand gold coins, you might as well go rob someone!
If Yan Yunqing knew what [Mount Emei Monkey] was thinking, he would definitely spread his hands innocently and express that ten thousand gold coins was already a rock-bottom price. After all, this is the Greatest Mage on the Ailman Continent!
If this leg hair could be proven genuine, put on auction, there would always be a few who wouldn't mind, and it might even fetch a high price.
Yan Yunqing watched [Mount Emei Monkey]'s expression change from red to green, holding back his laughter. While she was repeatedly looking at the trading column doubting life, Yan Yunqing spoke up at the right time.
"My dear friend, if you are not interested in these goods, perhaps you would like to learn a skill?"
Yan Yunqing's voice was gentle, and upon careful listening, even carried a hint of temptation. "You are my loyal friend. I don't mind teaching you some techniques to make you stronger. Perhaps you can use these skills to earn more gold coins and then trade with me."
Yan Yunqing knew that to catch players, he still had to paint a pie. So besides those weird things in his trading column, he also stuffed some equipment and weapons that could be considered treasures at this level, guaranteeing that these players wouldn't be able to move their feet upon seeing them.
[Mount Emei Monkey] didn't realize there was anything wrong with Yan Yunqing's words for a moment and followed his lead, asking, "What skills?"
Under the hood, the corner of Yan Yunqing's mouth raised a tiny arc. He said in a very exaggerated tone: "Oh, my dear friend, those are skills you will definitely be satisfied with."
In "Demon King", NPCs could teach skills to players. It could be triggered actively or passively after players met certain conditions. The most typical way was players paying NPCs gold coins, and NPCs teaching skills to players. "Return" also inherited this function.
It was just that the players' current levels weren't high. Although they could already change classes to mage and swordsman, their sources of skills were still very scarce. Most were taught by some 'guides' Yan Yunqing arranged in the novice village.
Now that players hadn't discovered they could actively learn skills from NPCs, Yan Yunqing could take this opportunity to swindle some players' gold coins.
He selected some skills that would only be encountered after level twenty but were very common, displaying all of them to [Mount Emei Monkey]. Of course, he didn't forget his setting as a mage. Most of the skills displayed were mage skills; only a small portion were swordsman skills, and they were the most basic ones.
[Mount Emei Monkey]: ?
[Mount Emei Monkey]: !!!
Combat skills!!! And they look like very powerful combat skills at a glance!!!
Yan Yunqing asked with a smile: "My dear friend, do you have any thoughts of learning? You can learn them with just a little bit of gold coins~"
A little bit of gold coins = each skill priced no less than 10 gold coins.
And these skills could basically be learned at any basic magic academy without paying much—at most a semester's tuition.
But Yan Yunqing didn't feel guilty selling these skills. After all, studying in an academy also took time, and time is money—
Besides, could players realize they could also enter a magic academy to study?
[Mount Emei Monkey]: "Learn!! I want to learn!! I want to learn them all!!!"
Then she saw the extremely piercing price tag after each skill. Looking at her own backpack again, even if she gritted her teeth to pieces, she only had enough to buy one of the cheapest skills.
And the kind Mr. Traveling Merchant seemed to have anticipated her embarrassment. Before she could say her gold coins weren't enough, Mr. Traveling Merchant took out a piece of parchment and suggested very kindly: "If your gold coins are not enough, friend, I can also lend you enough gold coins—to buy these skills. It just requires a tiny bit of interest."
[Mount Emei Monkey]: ...
Oh god, it's bad enough having mortgage and car loans in the real world, why do I have to bear a skill loan in the game world too?!
But she looked at Mr. Traveling Merchant's skill list, then at his item trading column. Drool flowed from the corner of her eyes. She closed her eyes and asked weakly: "...How much interest."
"Not much, it's a price you can afford."
Mr. Profiteer whispered like a devil.