Trading Equipment

The human race was downtrodden and there was no fancy place such as an auction house in the three main cities. However, in the north of Shadow City was an area which players used to set up stalls and sell their wares. Players just have to spend one silver coin there to set up a stall for one hour.

The trading area was full of players and very lively. Equipment was rare in the game, so there were more people looking to buy than selling.

The trading area had regular players selling their own things but there were also quite a few merchants.

A popular game was never without merchants, much less an advanced one like GENESIS. The game was still in the testing stage so game equipment and game gold values were not stable but if you manage to grasp the right opportunity, this was the best time to make money. If you were lucky you could buy a piece of equipment for a low price and sell for a few times higher.

There were quite a few merchants in the trading area and one of them was Red Jade Cultivator. She was average-looking but she stood out in the sea of male merchant faces.

"Big sister Phoenix, here are the Black Iron Arrows you wanted. 20 copper coins each, as agreed."

After Golden Phoenix was kicked out of the Hell Trial map, she had been sent to Shadow City with Little Demon. Red Jade Cultivator had a good eye and she knew that the two of them could be big clients as soon as she saw them appear in the trading area. She had gone up to them to chat and found that Golden Phoenix was looking to buy Black Iron Arrows.

Black Iron Arrows were currently considered a luxury item. It could only be made after one has raised his Casting skill to Novice level, and obtained Black Iron Ore from digging in the wilderness outside Shadow City. Only a few people had raised their Casting skill to Novice level and one could only have a small chance of obtaining Black Iron Ore while digging if you had Novice level in Mining. There were severe limits on production. Though many Black Iron Arrows could be produced from one chunk of Black Iron Ore, production was still low. This item was also perishable so one arrow used was one arrow gone. Regular people would not be able to afford this sort of usage.

From the very first day when Red Jade Cultivator decided to be a merchant in the game, she decided that she would have good relations with her business contacts even at the cost of higher profits. She earned less than other merchants but she had already built solid product sources and clientele.

She had one person in her friend list who had a Novice level in Casting. Golden Phoenix could not get her arrows right away but she trusted Red Jade Cultivator's words and asked for her help.

"Not bad. I'll look for you again when I need to buy something. Please give me a good price." Golden Phoenix and Little Demon had only taken a short tour of the trading place before Red Jade Cultivator brought the Black Iron Arrows to them. The speed and attitude with which Red Jade Cultivator operated was very satisfactory to Golden Phoenix.

"Of course! If you need anything, just let me know, Big Sister Phoenix. I'll definitely give you a lower price than others!" said Red Jade Cultivator happily. A customer who bought 500 Black Iron Arrows in one go was not easy to find. Even if she charged less per arrow, she still earned a tidy sum.

Just then, Red Jade Cultivator's eyes lit up as she spotted a male player walking into the trading area.

She had stayed in the trading area for the past ten days and compared to the others she had seen, this player could be said to have the most pieces of equipment on him in the entire game. To her surprise, that person had not only a lot of equipment but several were pieces she had never seen before.

Several merchants had approached him, all smiles. Red Jade Cultivator wanted to go over too, but Golden Phoenix was still asking about some equipment so she pushed down her urge and concentrated on Golden Phoenix. However, she saw that person wave the merchants away and thought, 'Oh, he must be here to look around and has no real need to buy anything.' She did not bother with him.

She saw many players like that every day in the trading area. Many players were curious about what other items or equipment there were in the game and came to the trading area to satisfy their curiosity.

"This guy is actually here to sell equipment!"

Red Jade Cultivator looked up and saw her fellow merchants stare at a stall in shock. That male player had rented and set up a small stall. Once the stall was up, a big group of surrounding players went over and checked it out.

This was quite unusual and that stall had many good items on display!

"Big Sister Phoenix, it looks like someone is selling some good items over there. Do you want to go take a look too?"

Even the merchants around them were going over to browse his wares. Red Jade Cultivator knew then that that was not just a simple stall, and invited Golden Phoenix to go take a look.

"Sure." Golden Phoenix liked the hustle and bustle and was curious about the items for sale in that stall since many people were getting excited over them.

"So many pieces of equipment – and they are all either Blue Grade or Green Grade!"

Red Jade Cultivator was shocked at what she saw.

The equipment most people had right now were 60% White Grade, 30% Blue Grade and 10% Green Grade but everything this guy had was either Blue or Green Grade and not one White. It was just too strange.

Was this guy perhaps a merchant like her?

No!

Red Jade Cultivator was a good judge of people and this guy was definitely not a merchant. Judging from the prices he had set, some equipment had obviously been priced lower than market value and those were snapped up quickly. If he were a merchant who had gathered so many equipment pieces, he would not make such a mistake.

Not anyone can purchase over a hundred pieces of Blue and Green, and there were even quite a few of the most valuable Jewellery and Weapon type equipment too!

Golden Phoenix was also shocked but not at the Blue and Green equipment – at the person running the stall. It was one of the people who had participated in the Hell Trial with her!

"Bro, I want this magic staff!"

"I want that Green Grade bracelet!"

Chen Mo's prices were not very high but it seemed like he had underestimated how rare equipment was in the game. He'd tried his best to price them higher than what he thought they were worth but the speed at which they were selling exceeded his expectations.

In a short amount of time, he had sold about 90 pieces of equipment and was left with over ten pieces. They were all Blue Grade equipment with below average attributes.

Chen Mo had not sold all of his equipment but he still earned 142 gold coins, which was more than he needed to complete the quest.

Chen Mo opted to close his stall and the surrounding players dispersed. Most players did not take note of equipment sellers.

"Hi, do you remember me?" Golden Phoenix walked up and revealed her ingame name.

"Golden Phoenix?" Chen Mo was surprised. He had not expected to see her again in just a few hours.

He and she had not interacted directly before but Golden Phoenix's actions during the Hell Trial were certainly eye-catching.

"That's me. Looks like you're a pro in hiding, eh? Let's add each other as friends – we can help each other out in the future. How about it?" Golden Phoenix was decisive and cool, smiling as she spoke.

"Of course, no problem." Chen Mo agreed right away and added Golden Phoenix as a friend. He liked to deal with decisive people.

"You know each other, Big Sister Phoenix?" Red Jade Cultivator's eyes shone. This guy was definitely a big fish too!

"You can say that we just got to know each other. Hey, Silence, this is an equipment merchant I got to know today. She's cool." Golden Phoenix could tell what Red Jade Cultivator was thinking and offhandedly introduced her.

"Please take care of me, Big Brother Silence!" Red Jade Cultivator immediately used familiar terms to address Chen Mo to curry favour.

"Equipment merchant? Do you take these pieces, then?" Chen Mo nodded. Come to think of it, it was a good thing to know an equipment merchant. There was no auction function in the game so it would be inconvenient if he needed to look for something.

The remaining Blue Grade equipment could be sold to Red Jade Cultivator for cheap and he'd be rid of them.

They were all Level 10 equipment and the price would go down after a period of time so it was better to sell them at a lower price now.

"Yes, but we merchants will only offer prices which are lower than market prices so I hope that you'll be understanding, Big Brother Silence. However, I can guarantee that I give the best prices!" Red Jade Cultivator quickly nodded her agreement.

Chen Mo took out his ten-plus pieces of Blue equipment and Red Jade Cultivator offered three gold pieces for them. Chen Mo felt that this was roughly the appropriate price and he sealed the deal quickly.

Chen Mo added Red Jade Cultivator to his friend list and left the trading area, heading out of Shadow City and to Elena.

………

Under the roots of a gigantic tree not far from Elena's hut, a party watched for players heading in Elena's direction.

"Boss, that guy Brother Qi talked about really came!"

A person appeared in their field of vision and an archer in the party alerted the leader.