LWGP - Chapter 64
Chapter 64: Unboxing!
Meanwhile, in a villa somewhere in the capital, Miss Jian Ling, who aspired to be a homewrecker for the sake of true love, was explaining for the Nth time that she was not the person in the news. She had not participated in the great manure battle, she hadn't!
"Ah Ling, why are you being so modest? They all said that beauty was a beast in battle, overflowing with dominance!"
"Exactly, everyone knows how incredible you are now, you even overshadowed President Xiao and the others."
"…"
Jian Ling felt like she was about to vomit blood. She couldn't very well admit that she hadn't even passed her second tutorial instance yet, could she? Overflowing with P, my ass. Right now, her family was tutoring her on strategies to pass the instance as if she were cramming for the college entrance exams.
Who the hell did this?!
Who did she offend?!
Wang Jiu and Wang Shu continued to sort through their haul. Of course, Wang Shu was doing the sorting while she watched him, an American TV show playing in the background, constantly flashing images and sounds of victims being tortured and dismembered.
Wang Shu was forced to focus all his attention on counting their treasures, lest he be scared to death.
After a while, the tally was complete.
"200 bricks, 25 bags of rice, 40 sausages, 50 bundles of cotton thread, 3 boxes of condoms, 5 packs of sanitary pads, an iron pot, a large pack of tissues… and 4 shields, 4 long knives."
After Wang Shu finished counting, he reported to Wang Jiu. She gave him a 5% share. Her tone was commanding, a simple notification that required no response from Wang Shu.
In any case, Wang Shu accepted it gleefully. He had been prepared to get nothing at all—he had only looted corpses and hadn't fought a single monster. To get four grey-grade items out of it, what more could he ask for?
"Thank you, Master! You're too good to me, Master. But I don't need the equipment, I already took four pieces."
Wang Jiu said nothing, simply tossing him a shield. "Go list it on the exchange. You can trade it or sell it. Complete a full set as soon as you can."
She said this to Wang Shu, and she was doing the same herself.
"A full set is too difficult, Master. I'm still missing three pieces for the ten-piece set."
"Weapon, off-hand, hat, clothes, 2 bracers, belt, pants, 2 shoes, a total of ten pieces of equipment. Below that are the jewelry slots. Besides the necklace, there are three sealed spots. I predict they're for a jade pendant or a ring, and I have no idea what the last one is. It's not unlocked. If it unlocks, there will be even more."
Wang Jiu glanced at her equipment panel. "It's a jade pendant, a ring, and a talisman. I'm level 5, they're all unlocked already."
It was useless even if they were unlocked. She hadn't even collected half of the 10-piece set.
Of the four major jewelry pieces, she only had a necklace.
For the rest, she had a weapon, clothes, one bracer (the vambrace dropped by Zheng Yu), one shoe (the leg guard dropped by Zheng Yu), and a shield.
"I bet those two, Xie Lu and Xie Jiang, are so strong because they've completed their ten-piece sets, and some of it is probably bronze-grade gear."
Wang Jiu agreed with Wang Shu's speculation.
"And they have more than one skill. They must have passive skills too. The gap is pretty big," Wang Jiu sighed. She prepared to sell her unused grey-grade gear, like the shield and the machete. She even unequipped the long knife she was wearing, since she had the Tang knife but hadn't equipped it yet. While doing so, she browsed the equipment others had listed for sale.
The system's functions were comprehensive. You could filter by item grade. She pulled up the bronze page, saw that everything was listed in double-digit silver coin units, and immediately closed it. Then she switched to the grey-grade page.
The grey-grade items were much more modest, mostly priced between 20 and 100 copper coins. Based on the stats of the listed equipment, she gauged their prices and set a slightly higher price for her own grey gear—a neat 100 copper coins.
Why so high? Because she had a feeling the prices of these items would soon skyrocket—after the game fully launched.
In any case, she had enough funds for her current expenses and didn't mind if her items sold a little later.
Besides, she was listing weapons and shields. The former were inherently valuable, while the latter were rare drops. After all, monsters like the Blade Shieldbearer that came with their own shields were uncommon, and this one had high stats.
With her sales handled, it was time to buy.
Weapons were the most expensive, followed by clothes. She filtered for jewelry and found that none of the four types were available.
Not even grey-grade.
"They were probably bought up as soon as they were listed, or no one is selling them at all."
After all, most people weren't stupid.
Wang Jiu decisively filtered for the grey-grade equipment she was missing—a hat, a bracer, a shoe, and a belt. She bought them all, spending about 1 silver and 60 copper. Because these items dropped more frequently, there was competition in the exchange, so their prices weren't as high as others, and their stats were quite good.
In truth, with the money Wang Jiu had, she could have bought bronze-grade equipment, but she felt it was unnecessary. She had other uses for her remaining funds.
It was good to be rich. At the average level, even someone like Qing Yu couldn't afford a full set of grey gear. The reason was simple: not enough money.
After equipping all four new grey items, she also equipped her clothes and weapon. In an instant, her attributes changed dramatically again.
HP: 19
Strength: 68
Agility: 58
Stamina: 45.
It was obvious. A unique sense of control over her body, as if her physique had advanced to a certain point and broken through some kind of bottleneck.
This was especially true for her Strength and Agility. She went back to the gym to test them.
"The increase is a notch higher than what normal attribute points provide, both in strength and speed. Is it because there's a sense of realm progression?"
System: "Explore it yourself."
So mysterious. That meant it was related to a factor for getting stronger.
Wang Jiu felt that this sense of realm progression was still missing a little something. After some thought, she dumped all eight of her attribute points into Stamina.
The moment it hit 50, a notification popped up from the system: "Congratulations, you have successfully raised your three basic attributes to 50 points, activating the attribute title—Tri-Stat 50. The Honor Title system has been unlocked."
Wang Jiu opened her attribute panel. Sure enough, a brilliantly shining title was now in her Hall of Honor.
Title: Tri-Stat 50. (Low-grade title.)
Attribute: Spirituality +10 (Spirituality can promote the growth rate of manor crops.)
Hmm, did I just stumble upon some incredible information?
Spirit Energy? It seems very important.
"Just as I thought. The supplies were already a hint. A manor? I thought that was just an unrealistic guess." Wang Jiu smiled and equipped the title. In the mirror, she saw a line of brilliantly shining words floating above her head…
The main thing was, it was a green light.
Ugh, never mind.
She hid it.
With her remaining three attribute points, Wang Jiu dumped them into HP. After the game launched, there would surely be many dungeons. Exploring unknown dungeons required a lot of HP. If her bad luck led her to a Bloodthirsty Beast, a little more health could mean a higher chance of survival.
HP: 22
Strength: 68
Agility: 58
Stamina: 50.
Next up were the card, the skill book, and the three treasure chests.
"Puppet Card: Blade Minion BOSS, duration ten minutes. Not bad." Although it was a one-time use item, it was definitely a major trump card.
Wang Jiu touched the card, her mind already figuring out how to use it.
To farm a boss, of course.
Putting the card away, she looked at the skill book. Charge?
Why is it Charge?
Getting a skill book was supposed to be a good thing, but Wang Jiu frowned at its name. She had a plan for her five basic skill slots, and Charge was not part of it.
Her ideal basic skills were the four Masteries, and either Heavy Strike or Heal.
Charge was not included.
The initial setup of basic skills should be very important, and she didn't intend to change her plan.
"Guess I'll have to sell it?" Wang Jiu thought for a moment, opened the system, and looked at the skill book sales page. When she saw the prices, she frowned.
Most were between 10 and 20 silver coins.
But she noticed something.
The prices for Mastery skill books seemed to be lower than those for active skills.
Notably, she didn't see any skill books for Charge or Heavy Strike.
They had probably all been bought.
It made sense. In the early game, most people valued active skills more. After all, Masteries were passive, and their effects were limited when one's base stats weren't high enough. They were far less useful than active skill books.
And skills like Charge were indeed powerful, as she had seen from Xie Lu's performance.
Only a few people, like Wang Jiu, who were extremely confident in their ability to grow strong quickly and had planned their build from the very beginning, would favor passive Masteries.
In that case…
Just because she was poor didn't mean others were. This system was for the entire world; there had to be plenty of buyers.
Wang Jiu decisively listed Charge for 30 silver coins.
She thought she would have to wait a while, but the moment she listed it… it was gone in a second.
In that instant, a thought crossed Wang Jiu's mind—Did I price it too low? I missed out on a fortune! (A sentiment every person who has ever played a game has definitely had.)
When the 30 silver coins arrived, Wang Jiu was silent for a long time before muttering, "The world is full of powerful people."
To have that much money to spend right now, it had to be the leader of a major power, consolidating their subordinates' funds to strengthen themselves.
She had heard that when many virtual games launched, many guilds would raise a few powerful players like they were raising a gu—a venomous creature in a jar—to establish the guild's status and attract more experts to join.
This was a basic strategy for any power.
Even for her own ventures, Wang Jiu had first secured a large amount of capital and social status before attracting elites like Qi Jun.
If she operated this way, what about the real tycoons? Compared to them, Xiao Jue and his group were just children. Those people might have already filled all their jewelry and skill slots, making their strength absolutely formidable.
Xie Jiang and his ilk belonged to that circle, which was why they could negotiate with the government as equals.
Returning to her thoughts, Wang Jiu had been left with 4 silver coins and was planning to be frugal. Now, with so much capital, she could make a big move—especially if things like manors and spirit energy existed.
She was already guessing at the basic framework of the system's gameplay.
System: "Of course. Someone has already gotten the title for having three stats over a hundred, what do you think? But you're very impressive too. Those people mostly got there by grinding dungeons, since they have money and power. You… you gave your time and energy to the old lady."
She had entered the tutorial instance late to begin with, and then she was busy avenging the old lady, which put her at an early disadvantage compared to the world's top powers who used immense manpower and national resources to grind dungeons.
In terms of value per dungeon run, she was actually very strong. She just had terrible luck with drops.
But the system didn't say much more. In any case, a person like Wang Jiu didn't need comforting, because she was already happily placing a purchase order on the exchange.
The exchange had three basic functions: buy, sell, and purchase order.
Wang Jiu was placing a purchase order for—bricks.
She was actually buying bricks!
But it was strange. First, she opened a purchase order: 20 bricks for one copper coin. No one sold.
Then, ten minutes later, she opened another purchase order, listing it at 15 bricks for one copper coin (1 silver coin = 100 copper coins).
But this time, someone sold. She sold to herself!
Buying with her left hand, selling with her right, she slowly fulfilled this purchase order herself. Then… she opened another purchase order, and sold to herself again. After doing this three times, on the third wave, she didn't sell, but someone else did, and they were scrambling to sell.
So she opened several purchase orders… and the bricks delivered by mail increased at a terrifying rate.
Someone probably thought she was a lunatic.
But the system remained silent, not interfering, letting her do as she pleased.
An hour later, even her first purchase order had been completely filled by other sellers.
Wang Jiu had spent all her silver and copper coins, acquiring 52,000 bricks.
Everything else was sorted. Only the three treasure chests remained.
For something like unboxing, she put on her LV gloves and went downstairs to find Wang Shu, who was still watching a variety show while hugging a bag of potato chips.
The fatty was quite relaxed.
"Not sleeping yet?"
It's only seven o'clock!
Master, are you drunk?
"Nope, Master. I plan to stay up until midnight to see how the system updates and launches. It's still early, anyway."
"Oh. Help me open two chests."
Wang Jiu tossed two chests to Wang Shu. He immediately put down his chips. When he saw Wang Jiu's red gloves, his expression became complicated—Did my master have such a hard life before she found me?
She's even using such ugly red mechanic's gloves. If I left her, would she have to celebrate her zodiac birth year every single day?
For a moment, Wang Shu looked at Wang Jiu with a particularly loving and pitying gaze, as if she were a poor little thing fighting a stray dog on the street for a steamed bun.
"That look in your eyes, are you implying you don't need your eyeballs to stay up all night? If you go blind, you can stay up for a lifetime."
Wang Shu was terrified and immediately lowered his head to open the chest. But Wang Jiu suddenly told him to stop.
"I'll go first."
"Why?"
"If I get something bad, that's bad news. If you get something good, that's good news. It can improve my mood."
Wang Shu thought that made sense, but then he blurted out, "What if I get something bad?"
Wang Jiu glanced at him. "Why would you ask such a suicidal question?"
Wang Shu: "…"
Wang Jiu put on her gloves, touching the treasure chest. She turned it over, examining it from several angles, and finally chose a side. It was the first time Wang Shu realized that unboxing required so much ritual.
She gripped it tightly and opened it.
A brilliant light shone.
A shimmering silver light.
"Wow! It's actually…" Wang Shu had his rainbow-fart compliments ready, but when he saw that it was just a single silver coin inside, his body trembled, and he quickly changed the content of his praise. "God must be jealous of your unparalleled talent and boundless beauty, Master, so he specially sent down a single silver coin to provoke you, trying to drive you mad. So Master, you must remain calm. Don't reach for any knives or guns."
As he spoke, he quickly hugged his treasure chest and scooted to the other end of the sofa.
At this moment, he was the most agile fatty alive.
Wang Jiu's face was expressionless. She touched the silver coin and said faintly, "Your turn."
Wang Shu was under immense pressure. He could only bite the bullet and open it. Damn it, it was another shimmering silver light!!
But it seemed ten times brighter than his master's. Could it be, could it be…
Wang Jiu took a look. "Ten silver coins."
Wang Shu was a little happy. "Wow, that's a lot of money! Ten times more than yours, Master."
He deliberately emphasized "ten times," hoping Wang Jiu wouldn't go on a killing spree.
Ten silver coins was a huge amount. His entire fortune was only 60 copper coins.
Wang Jiu frowned. "I sold a skill book for 30 silver. Couldn't you have opened a skill book for me? Has your RNG luck been downgraded? Didn't you eat enough?"
It's over. Master's standards have been raised. She's looking down on everything.
Wang Shu felt wronged. "Master, you can't calculate it like that. Look, one boss dropped one skill book and three chests. You sold one skill book for 30 silver, and I opened a chest for 10 silver. The value is about the same, so my luck hasn't been downgraded."
Holy crap, that logic was surprisingly sound.
Wang Jiu pondered for a moment. "One must strive for progress. For this last treasure chest, can you open three skill books for me?"
MD, you might as well go rob someone!
Wang Shu made an excuse that he stank and needed to take a shower, but Wang Jiu held him down. In the end, they decided to open the last treasure chest together.
Cut to the chase, forget the ritual.
Wang Jiu threw her gloves aside and opened it directly.
With a click, the chest opened.
This time, the light was particularly faint. Inside was just a dull, earthy-looking object.
Probably influenced by the day's events, their first reaction was that it was a pile of shit.
System: "One Garden Field. Use currently unknown."
They looked at each other.
What the hell?
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