"What is it? Open it and see," Xiaoqi and the others asked Long Ming curiously.
"I’ll open it when I get back."
Luoxue instructed calmly, then turned and left.
Xiaoqi and the others immediately looked at Long Ming, disappointed.
"There’s nothing I can do. The guild leader said not to open it. I’m heading out!"
Long Ming smiled and turned to leave.
...
「Several hours later.」
Back at his rented apartment, Long Ming tore open the envelope and pulled out a cashier’s check for one million.
He stared at the check, stunned for a moment, before a faint smile spread across his face.
’If I’m not mistaken, this must be my reward. The amount is probably too large, so they didn’t announce it publicly. It helps avoid any resentment from the others.’
He immediately put the check away and left the apartment.
「A little over an hour later.」
After depositing the check into his account, Long Ming returned to his apartment.
He walked into his bedroom, picked up the helmet, and put it on to log into the game.
WHOOSH!
When he opened his eyes again, he was in Starry City.
BUZZ~
His wristband vibrated, and a notification popped up.
"Notification: Your consigned Extreme Ice Blood Crystal has been sold at auction. After deducting the transaction fee, you have received 20.6 million Game Coins."
’Long Ming was stunned by the notification. He never expected a single material to sell for such a high price.’
He didn’t dwell on it for long, however, and headed toward the area where players were selling Game Coins.
A short while later, Long Ming exchanged one million Mountain Coins for 150 million Game Coins at the current market rate of 1 to 150.
He then sent a message to Xiaopang.
"Come find me."
"You got it!"
After replying, Xiaopang came running over excitedly.
Long Ming transferred the entire 170 million Game Coins to Xiaopang, saying,
"Buy up everything you can."
"No problem,"
Xiaopang replied with a cheerful laugh.
"I’m leaving it to you. I’m logging off."
Without another word, Long Ming logged out of the game.
...
「The next morning.」
Long Ming finished his workout and wiped the sweat from his forehead with a towel.
BUZZ BUZZ.
Just then, his phone began to vibrate.
Long Ming glanced down. Seeing it was a call from Xiaopang, his eyelid twitched, and he answered.
"Hello."
"Boss, I bought everything," Xiaopang said with a cheerful grin.
"You bought them all already?"
"Yep! Get online and I’ll give you everything!"
"Alright!"
Long Ming hung up and rubbed his temples, a headache already forming. ’I can’t believe I burned through my entire fortune so quickly.’
Sigh...
Long Ming let out a soft sigh, walked over to his bed, and put on the helmet.
WHOOSH~
Long Ming materialized in Starry City and immediately saw Xiaopang waiting for him nearby.
Xiaopang ambled over with a grin and sent Long Ming a trade request, transferring all the potions to him.
"Count them if you want. If you need a detailed transaction list, I can send it to you offline later."
"I don’t need the transaction list."
Long Ming trusted Xiaopang completely, so he simply deposited all the fast-acting recovery potions into his warehouse to get a total count.
The total came out quickly: he now had 31,020 potions.
Gazing at the warehouse overflowing with potions, Long Ming turned to Xiaopang and said,
"Good work."
"It was nothing. Got any more cash? I can keep buying!"
"What’s the market like now? Did the price crash?"
"Crash? How could it? If you want to monopolize the market, that little bit of money isn’t nearly enough. Hurry up and wire me more funds."
"..."
Long Ming fell silent.
"Why aren’t you talking? Don’t tell me you’re out of money?"
Xiaopang gloated, pressing Long Ming for more money.
"We’ll stop here for now. I’ll figure something out about the money."
Long Ming’s gaze grew increasingly determined.
’He knew perfectly well how hard it was for an ordinary person to succeed without someone backing them up. Accumulating the initial capital was the hardest step. If he wanted to succeed, he had no choice but to work hard and risk it all! That’s why he had to find a way to get more money and continue buying up potions.’
"Wait, you’re really going to keep buying? Look, the only reason the price of potions is stable at over 8,500 is because of you. Otherwise, it would’ve plummeted by now."
Xiaopang was taken aback by Long Ming’s words and quickly tried to warn him.
Although he’d just been teasing Long Ming about being out of money, he was actually trying to convince him to stop.
"You don’t need to worry about that. Go get some rest."
’Long Ming had no intention of explaining, nor did he know how. In short, this was just one big gamble.’
"Alright, you’re the boss. You call the shots."
Xiaopang knew Long Ming’s personality; once he made up his mind, he couldn’t be persuaded.
"I’m logging off."
Long Ming immediately logged out of the game.
「Inside the rented apartment.」
Long Ming took off the helmet, got out of bed, and walked over to his computer desk.
He turned on his computer, planning to check the forums for lucrative dungeons to run.
But when he opened the forums, he was greeted by post after post with bounties on his head.
Long Ming glanced at the posts and ignored them, but a second later, he noticed many recruitment posts looking for him.
"Sky-High Price to Hire Red Ghost for Escort Duty!"
"10 Million Game Coins - Begging Red Ghost to Escort Through the Observatory."
...
Long Ming clicked on the most popular recruitment post.
Young Master Fedya of the Holy Sound Group is offering 100 million Game Coins for Red Ghost to escort him through the Observatory. Price is negotiable.
The comment section below the post was flooded with replies.
"Whale, look over here! Our Black Flag squad can take the job, and for a lot less money!"
"The Goliath Guild will take the escort job! Only 50 million, and we guarantee you’ll clear the Observatory."
....
"Bunch of idiots. You really think a whale is a sucker? First off, it’s doubtful you even have the skill for the escort. And even if you did, can you be trusted? The Observatory quests are basically locked down by the three major guilds, who’ve jacked up the difficulty. Even if by some fluke you manage to clear it, your hired guns might just betray you and take the reward for themselves!"
"Exactly! He specifically asked for Red Ghost because Red Ghost has proven skill and, more importantly, he’s trustworthy!"
"When it comes to escort jobs, reputation is everything."
...
Long Ming read through the comments with a strange look on his face. ’I guess being infamous is still a kind of fame,’ he thought. He had become a hot commodity.
’He had no intention of taking any escort jobs, though. It wasn’t that he didn’t want the money; he genuinely didn’t think he could pull it off.’
Just then, he noticed a post that had been bumped to the top of the forum.
"Headline! Battle Reignites at the Observatory Dungeon."
Long Ming paused when he saw the post, then clicked on it.
Inside, the post said:
"According to a reliable source, Lord Qian Wei of the All Stars Guild will be leading another attempt on the Observatory tomorrow. He has reportedly invited several vassal guilds to join him, dead set on conquering the dungeon this time."
Comments immediately began flooding in below.
"What’s going on? Is Lord Qian Wei trying to redeem himself?"
"Makes sense! Both Lord Qiansha and Lord Qian Hai have already succeeded. Lord Qian Wei must be getting antsy."
"Damn, if Lord Qian Wei pulls it off, won’t that be a triple crown for them?"
"Yep!"
....
Reading this, Long Ming’s eyes suddenly lit up.