Chapter 175 - Gu Fei, the Merchant
Accumulating a large amount of products and selling them in one shot was actually something that the 'merchants' or business-minded players would only do during special occasions. A good example was when Parallel World transitioned from an open beta game to a full-fledged game, where a large influx of players entering the game had increased the demand for certain goods and subsequently caused the prices of items to inflate. Recognizing it as a great opportunity to earn a handsome profit, the business-minded players seized the chance to hoard all the low-cost items during the open beta period, only to sell them at high prices after the game was officially released.
But since the players themselves were the number one consumers and farmers1 of items in Parallel World, the prices of in-game goods had only spiked for a short duration. The top-level veteran players were able to exploit this special situation first, while low-level veteran players were behind by quite a bit. Top-grade equipment was of course more expensive, so not many players could hoard a lot in bulk. Therefore, many merchants had chosen to accumulate mid-level equipment, instead.
Logically speaking, once the newbie players reached a higher level, they could of course farm for better equipment by themselves instead of buying from merchants. The same equipment could be acquired by either looting from the higher level monsters or obtaining rewards from the harder quests, so the price increase for mid-level equipment only saw a temporary spike of a few days.
When these new players were capable of farming better items for themselves and increased the availability of these items, the prices of goods naturally deflated. Even if the prices did not fall in response to the increase in the supply of in-game goods, increasing the item prices would be hard pressed anyhow.
'Buying low, selling high' might seem like a simple concept, yet a lot of knowledge was actually attached to it.
In fact, few players could make use of this concept properly, as seen by how the poor greatly outnumbered the rich inside the game.
Not everyone had a full grasp on the 'buying low, selling high' concept, thus their incapability to apply the proper business strategies to actually profit from it, and a sizeable portion of those players who had employed this concept ended up with more items than what they managed to sell off.
The rules of online games were ever-changing, especially when it came to beginner items that would lose their value once the players leveled up further. At the moment, the prices of these beginner items had already hit an all-time low, and those who tried increasing the prices for these items were bound to earn no profit at all. This was because of the existence of the official tradings managed by the system, and the competition was stiff among the system and the merchants when it came to the better market prices for items.
The players with a good eye could tell that the pile of items Gu Fei had just dumped on the ground were mostly for low-level players, causing them to immediately associate Gu Fei to those loser resale merchants that had missed to catch the wave of buyers back then. Just the fact that this person had kept all these trashy items until now was truly a failure among failures! Thus, a whole crowd of men soon gleefully regarded Gu Fei as a lousy merchant without a shred of sympathy.
The new generation of players hated those resellers who had exploited the chance to earn their money, while the veteran players were jealous that the resellers had seized the opportunity to gain some cash. But the one thing these two types of people shared in common was how they would feel a touch of schadenfreude whenever they saw a reseller failing to sell his or her products.
These two types of people were actually the representation of all in-game players, and right now, everyone in Peddlers' Street 2 was hoping to witness how the loser merchant Gu Fei would make a fool of himself by selling these trashy items.
Gu Fei who did not know about this was currently feeling quite pleased that he had received the surrounding players' undivided attention, thinking that his business would likely see a great success. With that positive thought in mind, he squatted down and began to carefully tidy up the equipment on the ground.
Although the equipment in Parallel World had no level requirement, it was pretty obvious which grade it belonged to based on the equipment's trait value. By knowing the additional traits the equipment had, its worth could be determined.
The items Gu Fei had on hand were all blue tier. There was simply no market price for white-tier equipment unless it was of a high grade.
Blue-tier equipment was the most commonly seen items, so a majority of the normal players had full blue-tier gear at the very least. Players usually began the game by equipping themselves from top to bottom with blue-tier gear, and they would slowly try replacing their blue-tier equipment with gold tier one by one by doing all sorts of tradings or quests. As for the purple-tier equipment, the current players could only fantasize about ever attaining one.
Gu Fei quickly sorted out his for-sale items into various slots according to their type. Headgear, chest pieces, weapons, body accessories, footwear - every slot possible filled up the space before Gu Fei. Nodding his head in satisfaction, he wiped the sweat off his forehead and lifted his head.
Many players were watching what Gu Fei was doing, so he quickly flashed them an amiable smile, "Are you interested in any of these pieces of equipment?"
All cheerfully shook their heads. Gu Fei's smile somewhat became stiff, which made everyone even happier.
The items Gu Fei had on display were obsolete, so none here had any need for them. And even if they did, they would not buy them from him. Peddler's Street 2 was long; what Gu Fei had were common items, and many peddlers were hawking similar wares. With the let-this-guy-suffer-this-loss-to-death mentality, everyone walked away. Nonetheless, quite a few of them stayed to soak in on the pleasurable sight of Gu Fei's frustrated look.
Gu Fei was at a loss. Are my items really that obsolete? he could not help but think of this. Most of the items he was selling were drops of level 20 to 30 monsters, which were considered to be pretty low grade as far as equipment went.
Still, he had seen that the stalls lining this very lane had similar common-grade equipment to his, which meant that the items were not completely unmarketable.
I'll just wait patiently! With such a thought in mind, Gu Fei no longer felt anxious and even found himself a comfortable sitting position to patiently wait for customers.
The common sound that could be heard in Peddlers' Street 2 was the haggling of players. As Gu Fei quietly waited for customers, he listened to the players' bartering to gain a better market insight.
Gu Fei had not done any research regarding the pricing of his equipment, as he was only planning to sell every item for 10 gold coins until he obtained the 200 gold coins he needed. But after listening to the haggling all around him, Gu Fei now more or less had an idea of how much his items on hand were currently worth and his pile of obsolete items was hardly worth 10 gold coins each. A nearby stall was selling a pair of footwear for only 8 gold coins even when it had better traits than any of the items Gu Fei had on display. Comparing the traits of his items with the other merchants' successfully sold items, Gu Fei finally realized how naive he was at item tradings.
Even if he managed to sell off his pile of items, he might not even make 50 gold coins in total. To reach that goal of 200 gold coins, he would have to make a few trips back to the warehouse.
Gu Fei treated selling items just like how he treated his stat point allocation: he only cared for speed. Gu Fei cared not even if he incurred a loss and merely wanted to quickly gather the 200 gold coins he needed for his Job Class Advancement. Fueled by this thought, he raised his voice and said, "Dollar stall here! Every item is only going for 1 gold coin; buy it if you want it!"
Low-priced goods would always be the most tempting items in a marketplace. That one shout of Gu Fei caused many players to bound toward him immediately. Even some of the players who had their stalls set up came by and had a look.
Gu Fei felt delighted as he began calculating in his mind: One piece of equipment for 1 gold coin, so 200 pieces of equipment would give me 200 gold coins! That should be about everything I have in my storage. Just a few more trips and 200 gold coins won't be an issue anymore.
Unexpectedly, he was still being too optimistic. The players who had been enticed by his 'dollar stall' call carefully examined the items in Gu Fei's stall and almost all of them quickly shook their heads and departed.
It would not matter how cheap the items were if they had no need for them. Furthermore, the items Gu Fei was selling were odds and ends that did not have any worth in 'buying low and selling high'.
Quite a few players had come with such a thought in mind, yet they could only leave dispiritedly once they realized that nothing was of value in Gu Fei's stall.
Some players remained, yet they were all beginners. Since equipment in Parallel World had no level requirement, outfitting themselves with above level 20 gear was very tempting to these beginners. Nonetheless, such fresh players would not be that rich and would have silver and copper coins at most. As such, they resolutely haggled with Gu Fei for that 1 gold coin.
Gu Fei stiffly said, "It's already cheap enough as it is, it can't be any cheaper!" This caused three potential customers to leave.
The remaining two patiently attempted to wear down Gu Fei. Just the term 'big bro' had been tossed about so frivolously by these two customers. In the end, Gu Fei finally came up with a 'buy three, get one free' sales pitch, allowing them to only spend 3 gold coins and obtain four items from Gu Fei. The two customers happily left with their successful transactions.
All that just to earn 6 gold coins... Gu Fei emotionally took out his money pouch and placed the 6 gold coins inside it, lowering his head to count his money again. Regrettably, Gu Fei did not miscount earlier. He only had 43 gold coins on him right now, 157 gold coins away from his target of 200 gold coins.
"Are you selling any of these items for 1 gold coin?" A voice suddenly asked Gu Fei as he was counting his money.
"Ah, yes!" Gu Fei hurriedly replied as he raised his head to face the customer.
"It's you!" The two said the same thing simultaneously.
The person who was asking about the price was actually Vast Lushness. Gu Fei felt surprised to meet someone he was familiar with in Peddlers' Street 2 of all places, while Vast Lushness felt puzzled that the man who had previously helped her out of a difficult situation on the outskirt of Yunduan City was actually poor. He was an expert who had easily sliced up six players, after all. In online MMOs, most experts were wealthy. Although this was not an absolute fact, they at least would not be this poor.
Vast Lushness was truly surprised to find Gu Fei in such a destitute state that he had to sell a whole pile of trashy items for 1 gold coin each. Why is he here selling these trinkets? With how powerful he is, wouldn't it be faster for him to earn money by farming for high-grade items from high-level monsters?
The method that Vast Lushness had come up with was truly the most appropriate path to riches that Gu Fei should have taken. Everything in MMOs was dependent on level. As long as a player was at a high level, he or she would have first-rate farming capabilities when it came to making money.
This was especially true if a player was able to farm the highest grade equipment. Player who could do this would be able to conquer the peak of the market. In fact, quite a lot of gaming experts made it rich through this method.
Equipment in Parallel World had no level requirement; this design made such a path to riches all the more attractive to everyone.
Unfortunately, the players were unable to pull ahead too drastically because leveling was also extremely difficult. Thus, not many people could easily walk this path toward prosperity. As for Gu Fei, he indeed have the ability to do so and was also capable of beating monsters twenty levels above his.
Chapter 176 - A Unique and Outstanding Player
Vast Lushness did not express her puzzlement. The online gaming community was full of outstandingly unique individuals, after all. Compared to Ray who had used real-world currency to open a bar in Parallel World, Gu Fei's action was still considered as normal.
After feeling surprised at this chance meeting, Gu Fei quickly recovered his business-like attitude and warmly greeted the customer before him, "Take a look and see if you have anything you want!"
Vast Lushness squatted down and carefully inspected each of the items on display.
Gu Fei felt bored as she inspected his wares, so he used his Appraisal skill on Vast Lushness. She was currently at level 31 with common-grade equipment and empty accessory slots. Even an average level 31 player would not be in such a state. Since he knew Vast Lushness had once been a level 30 illustrious figure, Gu Fei found this strange, "Why are your equipment slots empty?"
Vast Lushness, who continued to inspect the items in his stall, lifted her head and looked at him, "I lost it all when I got slain."
"How many times have you gotten slain?" Gu Fei curiously asked. A player would drop a whole level every time he or she died in this game. Killing people until they lost all their equipment was not easy, as they could no longer be bullied into a PvP once they reached level 10.
"I've been getting hunted for over a month, so I've already lost count," Vast Lushness was truly a tenacious person; she did not count death by the number of times she died but by the number of times she had been hunted to death.
"Shouldn't you be at level 10?" Gu Fei asked, perplexed.
Vast Lushness glanced at Gu Fei in surprise, "Levels can be grinded again!"
"So you grinded your way up, only to be killed by them again?" Gu Fei pressed on.
"Should I be afraid of them, instead?" Vast Lushness answered him with a question.
For a Priest to stubbornly struggle under such a situation, Gu Fei could tell how strong-willed she was! Sighing in admiration, he asked her another question, "Are they not chasing you now?"
"Not after that time outside Yunduan City. Maybe they've gotten lazy, or they are busy with the game's PvP event," Vast Lushness replied.
"Oh…" Gu Fei merely nodded his head.
Vast Lushness continued to rummage through the equipment as she said, "I've yet to properly thank you for last time."
"You've already thanked me," Gu Fei reminded her. Vast Lushness had humbly said, "Thank you... Thank you..." over and over again last time when Gu Fei told her where Silver Moon was, which was a far cry from her tyrannical personality in Yueye City.
"I mean that time by the prison entrance. I'm grateful that you told me what you had heard," Vast Lushness clarified.
"It's nothing," Gu Fei said, asking, "Did you manage to meet him?"
"No."
"No?" Gu Fei was mildly surprised. He did not remember hearing any other ways in and out of the prison besides the main entrance.
"I left not too long later after you did," Vast Lushness explained.
"Oh?"
"The truth is I had a hunch on exactly why he had been avoiding me… and yet I still tried chasing after him just so I could hear it from himself… But then I thought, why should I continue fooling myself if even an outsider like you could tell the truth?" Vast Lushness said numbly.
Gu Fei did not comment. Out of courtesy to a fellow human being, he told Vast Lushness what he had found out inside the prison. As for what she would do next, Gu Fei knew that he had no say in it.
While Vast Lushness had clearly put all her heart into her and Silver Moon's relationship despite it being just a game, Silver Moon had always carried the mentality that everything here was but a game!
"That's why I ought to thank you properly," Vast Lushness said. Evidently, her gratefulness to Gu Fei toward this matter was even more sincere than when he had saved her from being killed before. With her not fearing death or getting hunted by men, Vast Lushness had only felt superficial gratitude toward Gu Fei for saving her life before, so her thanking him for that was actually just a polite gesture and nothing more. As for the matter with Silver Moon, Vast Lushness had truly felt genuine thankfulness for his kind gesture toward her.
Gu Fei of course did not feel that his action was very amazing to be worthy of someone's deep gratitude, so he simply said, "Don't worry about that."
"Let's add each other as friends!" Vast Lushness suggested.
Gu Fei was not bothered by her request in the least. Nodding his head in agreement, he opened up his friends list and allowed her to add him. The system then notified him: [Player Vast Lushness has added you as a friend.]
"Once I make it rich, I'll treat you to a round of drinks. From your IGN, I'm sure you love to drink," Vast Lushness said to Gu Fei while smiling wryly.
Even Gu Fei was getting tired of telling others about the origin of his IGN, so he merely said, "No need for that."
"You said you had seen me in Yueye City; when was that?" Vast Lushness asked.
"I used to be Fugitive 27149," Gu Fei honestly replied.
Clank! The emblem that Vast Lushness had just picked up loudly clattered to the ground. She raised her head and fixed Gu Fei a fierce stare. She had been conversing with him all this while with her eyes on the items he had on display.
Before either of them could say another word, a stifled laughter was heard from the player beside them.
"Sorry! I didn't mean to eavesdrop on you two," the person hurriedly apologized, adding mischievously, "Pretty lady from Yueye City, you should know that Yunduan City's Mages like to fashion themselves as Fugitive 27149 whenever they are chasing skirts…."
Gu Fei felt amused by this as he had never heard of it before, "And? What's the result of their attempts?"
The person sighed deeply, "None has actually succeeded in scoring with ladies. In fact, they all got killed just for claiming that they were that guy!"
"Why's that?" Gu Fei asked.
"Fugitive 27149 is an expert! All the pretty ladies want to see what he's made up of. You have to get close to a lady to flirt, right? If someone wants to test your skill as a Mage at close range, it's almost the same as you signing up for your own death!" The person explained while laughing.
"Ha ha ha ha! How pitiful of them!" Gu Fei laughed as well.
Vast Lushness did not join this exchange. She could tell that Gu Fei was not trying to flirt with her using that silly method and was telling the truth. This meant that he truly was once Fugitive 27149.
"So how is it? Do you still wanna treat me to a drink?" Gu Fei addressed Vast Lushness once he had his laugh.
"I've already said it, so it counts," Vast Lushness replied evenly.
Gu Fei merely smiled.
"But! I originally wanted to treat you to some high quality liquor till you have your fill; now, I'll only buy you one glass of the most common alcoholic drink available. We'll then consider the matter between us as settled; what do you think?" Vast Lushness asked.
"Forget about the drink; just buy one of my items now!" Gu Fei bargained.
"Are you really in need of money?" Vast Lushness asked, surprised. The cheapest glass of liquor was only at 10 copper coins. She had initially thought that Gu Fei had set up this stall as a hobby, yet he was actually attempting to earn some money from it.
Gu Fei glumly nodded his head.
"Why aren't you farming for high-grade equipment, then? Won't it take much longer for you to sell all these junks?" Vast Lushness asked.
"I'm in a hurry and I thought that selling equipment here would be quick!" As Gu Fei said that, he suddenly jumped up and shouted, "Oh, crap!"
"What's the matter?" Vast Lushness asked. Gu Fei's shout made the surrounding players jump in fright as well.
"Help me look after this stall; I'll be right back," Gu Fei quickly hopped out from behind the stall as Vast Lushness received a system message: [Thousand Miles Drunk has set you as the stall owner.]
While any players could set up a stall whenever they pleased in all the Peddlers' Streets, the merchants were still under the system's protection. If not, all the Peddlers' Streets could easily turn into Robbers' Streets.
"Where are you off to?" Vast Lushness was at a loss.
"The P.E. session is about to start; I'll be back soon!" Gu Fei said as he sprinted off.
"What?" Vast Lushness became even more clueless.
Gu Fei hurriedly ran to a safe zone and went offline. He then rushed out of his house and arrived at the school's field.
Music played on speaker as the students made their way toward the field. Gu Fei sighed in relief; at least, he was not late for work.
That was right. Although physical education teachers did not have classes in the morning, supervising the students' morning and assembly exercises was still part of their job. Gu Fei rushed between the two worlds precisely because of the assembly exercise....
He entered the game once more after he was done with his duty at school. When he got to Peddlers' Street 2, he spotted someone arguing with Vast Lushness by his stall.
"Why are you selling all these for 1 gold coin? That's quite the loss. Babe, you could sell this ring here for 2 or 3 gold coins! This dagger has decent traits to it, so 5 gold coins should be the right price for it. As for these…" The person pointed to a few other items and said, "They're not even worth 1 gold coin each! Sigh… Must be tough for you to sell things here… Actually, I happen to need a Priest for my level grinding. Babe, how's your skill? Why don't you join me on my level grinding? We can sell some high-grade equipment together after we farm them. I'm now at level 40. With you aiding me as a Priest, we shan't have problems fighting monsters five levels higher. Since the monsters are ten levels higher than yours, you'll get lots of experience as well as high-grade equipment. What a great deal, it is! So are you in?"
The person chattered incessantly, looking as if he was trying to abduct a naive and unworldly teenage girl. Vast Lushness was only at level 31 with trashy equipment. Given how she was also currently selling a pile of trashy items at a low price, she completely fit the above descriptions.
Unfortunately, the man was dead wrong. After saying so many flowery words, Vast Lushness simply rolled her eyes, "Your tricks won't work on me."
The man felt stunned as he realized that his intentions had been seen through. Unexpectedly, he sulkily said, "Looks like babe isn't a newbie, after all!"
As Vast Lushness flashed him a cold smile, the man continued, "Then, you should know better that there's no future selling these items, right? Come and grind with me! Seeing how low your level is, you must be lacking the help of an expert during level grinding, right?" He suddenly felt a presence behind him as he was trying to convince Vast Lushness. Turning his head backward, he saw Gu Fei standing behind him, "It's you!"
Before Gu Fei could reply, the man was already patting him on the shoulder and saying, "Bro, I saw her first so I got the dibs on her. Don't mess things up for me! Besides, you already have the entire Amethyst Rebirth to yourself; is there a need to busy yourself with more? Anyway, it's first come, first served basis here!"
Deplorable! He is too d*mn deplorable! Gu Fei cried inside him.