「Inside Starry City.」
Xiaopang looked at the cleared-out interface, then raised his head in alarm to look at Long Ming.
"Are you crazy? Buying so much?"
"What’s the problem?"
"You’ll be stuck with all this! You have to know, the production rate for this stuff is huge. It’s only going to get cheaper."
"What do you know? When you were buying up potions before, I felt something was off when you acquired them so quickly. The first time you bought them, the other party just thought it was for high guild consumption and didn’t think much of it. The second time, you were being watched. By the third time, you were naturally blocked. It’s obvious there’s an organization or power behind the scenes controlling the market."
"Then why are you still buying like this?"
"Someone controlling the market from behind the scenes means the production volume for these potions isn’t as large as you think," Long Ming explained to Xiaopang.
"But how are you going to sell all these potions?"
"Now that we have dominant control, isn’t selling them easy? I’ve researched the price of these potions. Their real value should be around 18,000. We’ve monopolized the entire supply now, so we can list them at 20,000, sell them for 18,000, or even higher. Potions are something people will always need, so someone will definitely buy them. As for any casual players who list them at a cheaper price, we can just buy them out after a while and then continue to list them at a high price!"
"Whoa, so does that mean we won’t need to spend any more money? We can just keep buying low and selling high, making endless profit?"
"In theory, yes. But it’s not completely safe. Breaking this setup is actually quite simple—all it takes is for someone to dump a large volume of stock to crash the market. When that happens, you’ll need to spend even more capital to protect our position. Besides, I’m gambling right now. I’m betting that the production volume for these potions is low, and that the other party is trying to control too many categories, so they won’t fight us to the death over this one small niche."
"Damn! Boss, you’re about to get rich."
"Get rich? Not necessarily!"
"Why?" Xiaopang froze for a second, asking in bewilderment.
"You forgot about the countdown timer," Long Ming reminded him coolly.
"I know about the countdown, but what does that have to do with us?" Xiaopang looked at Long Ming, completely baffled.
"That countdown... although I’m not sure what it means, it’s most likely a version update. And a version update only brings two possible outcomes: either a massive crash or a massive spike!" Long Ming explained.
"Boss, you’re playing with stakes that are way too high," Xiaopang replied, a little stunned.
"Don’t worry. If we make a profit, you’ll get your share. If we lose money, I’ll bear the loss myself."
"Boss, you’re the most reliable!"
"But there’s something I need to warn you about."
"Go on."
"If we lose money, everything will be fine. But if we make a profit, the people we scammed won’t let us go! If it’s someone from the other two cities, that’s one thing. But if it’s some big shot from Mountain City Mountain, we’ll be dead. Dead in the real sense of the word."
"No way. Our lives are in danger just from playing a game?"
"So keep your mouth shut and don’t go running your mouth!" Long Ming warned Xiaopang solemnly.
"No problem," Xiaopang nodded hurriedly.
"I won’t say any more. Log off now and come find me," Long Ming said to Xiaopang calmly.
Hearing Long Ming’s words, Xiaopang instinctively took a step back and swallowed hard.
"Boss, you’re not... planning to kill me to silence me, are you?"
"Get lost. Are you coming or not?" Long Ming cursed, exasperated.
"Okay, coming right now."
Xiaopang immediately logged out of the game.
Long Ming stood where he was, watching the spot where Xiaopang had vanished. The light in his eyes flickered. ’To be honest, if there’s anyone who could betray me right now, it really would only be Xiaopang.’
Still, he trusted Xiaopang. ’The guy has countless flaws, but he’s far more reliable than I thought.’
Long Ming sighed softly, raised his wristband, and opened his warehouse to organize the potions he had purchased.
Right now, his warehouse contained a total of 135,572 assorted quick-recovery potions. Besides the 130 million that Xiaopang had, he still had 10 million in funds left.
Long Ming thought for a moment, then opened the market to check the prices of weapons and ammunition.
5.56mm: 1,000 Wei Coins
7.62mm: 1,500 Wei Coins
40mm Grenade: 30,000
High-Explosive Grenade: 20,000
Judging by the prices, weapons and ammo had almost dropped to the level of consumables.
Long Ming immediately bought 1,000 rounds of 5.56mm bullets, 1,000 rounds of 7.62mm bullets, 100 high-explosive grenades, and 25 40mm grenades.
Of course, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to buy more 40mm grenades; there just wasn’t enough stock available.
And after his purchase, the price rose slightly.
After buying all this, Long Ming only had 4.75 million Wei Coins left in his account.
He planned to save the remaining money for emergency purchases.
Just then, a chat box suddenly popped up on his wristband.
"Boss, are you there?"
Long Ming was slightly taken aback. He hadn’t expected a message from Gu Yi. He replied.
"Yeah, what’s up?"
"I have a little something. I wanted to ask if you’re free tomorrow."
"I am!"
"Chen Wei and I were hoping to ask you... could you take us through a dungeon?" Gu Yi sent the message, full of hope.
"Run a dungeon?"
"Right."
"No problem."
"Are you in Mountain City Mountain?"
"I am!"
"Then let’s meet on Guangwei Street at 7 AM tomorrow. We can talk about the details then."
"Okay!"
Long Ming quickly agreed.
Although he wasn’t sure why Gu Yi had suddenly invited him to run a dungeon, he remembered promising to take them through one before. This was a good chance to repay that favor.
"See you tomorrow, then. I’m going to go prepare."
"Go ahead!"
Long Ming raised his wristband and logged out of the game.
「In the rented room.」
Long Ming took off the helmet, stretched, and got out of bed.
KNOCK KNOCK~
Just then, a knock came from the door.
Hearing the knock, Long Ming walked over to his computer desk.
He picked up an envelope, left the bedroom, and then opened the door to his rented room.
"Boss, I’m here!" Xiaopang walked in with a grin.
"This is for you."
Long Ming handed the envelope to Xiaopang.
"What’s this?"
Xiaopang looked quizzically at the envelope in his hand. It had already been opened.
"Your reward. Take it out and see for yourself."
Long Ming didn’t explain further.
"Oh, whoa! 100,000 Mountain Coins? Is... is this really for me?"
"Obviously."
"Boss, you’re the best! I’m sticking with you from now on. I’ll follow you to the death!"
Xiaopang looked at the check he’d pulled out, so moved that tears and snot were running down his face. He reached out to hug Long Ming.
"Get off, get off. Don’t be so gross."
Long Ming put a hand on Xiaopang’s head, rejecting his greasy hug.
"Alrighty!"
Xiaopang was practically bursting with joy.
"Go on. Take this money, rent a decent place, and buy a new helmet. Things will get better from here on out," Long Ming instructed Xiaopang.
"Mhm, so what do I do next?"
"Keep control of the market and wait for my instructions."
"Okay, I’ll get going then."
Xiaopang carefully put the check away and left, overjoyed.
After closing the door, Long Ming went back to his room to catch up on sleep.
...