Chapter 25 - Spark

Su Mo stood among the crowd of onlookers, also a bit astonished.

Who was this guy?

He actually started packing up his things here.

And he seemed to be quite powerful too.

Another thing, Su Mo noticed that this guy named Ye Jing, although seemingly dissolute, had very good pricing when buying items.

Don’t look at the prices he offered, which were just tens of dollars; you should know that money was very valuable in reality.

Even in a first-tier city like Demon City, a regular employee’s monthly salary was only about 1000 dollars.

Not to mention the other second and third-tier cities outside, but fortunately, the country had a minimum wage of 500.

And don’t underestimate this 500 dollars; in a smaller city, renting a place could cost only about 50 dollars, and three meals a day with chicken and meat could be had for just 3 dollars.

Of course, natural goods were another matter altogether.

And Demon City, where Su Mo was located, was second only to Imperial City as the most prosperous city.

The cost of living and other aspects were much more expensive than elsewhere.

At that moment, a burly man approached Ye Jing.

“I want to join you.

What can you offer me in return?”

“Terms are negotiable, what skills do you have?”

Ye Jing looked at the burly man with a playful smile.

“I’m a combat player, here are my battle records.

I’ve solo-killed over ten zombies, with a highest streak of killing three consecutively, and I’ve fought hand-to-hand with two of them.”

The burly man raised his bracelet and pulled up the records.

“Good, you’ve got talent, I like that.

I’ll give you a salary of 2000 a month.

You only need to work five hours a day, but when there’s a mission, you must be ready to shift your schedule in reality and join the mission,” Ye Jing extended two fingers from his left hand and declared.

(Note: The five hours referred to time in the outside world.)

Hearing Ye Jing’s words, the burly man’s eyes widened.

“Really?

Good, no problem.”

The crowd around them became restless, that salary was seriously high, and it didn’t even conflict with their real-world jobs.

Many people looked on with immense envy.

“What Young Master Ye says, never comes with a discount.

I always use money to win people over!

Who else wants to join us?

As long as you have the skills, we welcome you!”

Ye Jing addressed everyone present.

“Am I good enough?”

A fairly attractive girl came over and looked up at Ye Jing.

“You, what can you do?”

“I can’t do anything.”

“That’s okay, chatting with people, by outside time, 20 dollars an hour,” Ye Jing responded readily.

“That’s a bit low.”

The girl seemed somewhat dissatisfied.

“There’s a higher offer, 1000 dollars a day, but it depends on whether you’re interested,” Ye Jing said with a smile, patting his thigh.

The girl looked hesitant, but her expression was one of temptation.

Ye Jing bluntly said, “If you want to make money, you have to let loose.

Besides, it’s just a game, and there’s no loss.”

The girl bit her lip and sat down without hesitation.

“Haha!

That’s more like it.”

Ye Jing pulled her over in one swift motion and kissed her face with utmost joy.

Surrounding players who were looking on were filled with envy, jealousy, or dissatisfaction.

But even more players went up to try their luck at joining, for a straightforward reason: they had money.

And whether it was the welfare benefits or the efficiency in recycling goods, the prices were not only good but the transactions were swift—they never beat around the bush.

In less than ten minutes, the money would be deposited into their bank accounts.

And among those who entered this game, ninety-nine out of a hundred came for the money.

Who would have issues with money!

“Young Master Ye, do you think we qualify?”

“Yeah, we want to join too.”

Ye Jing stood up, his smile becoming even more radiant as he said to all the players present, “As long as you’ve got the skills, I’ll take as many people as there are.”

“What if we leave our guild to join you?”

At this moment, many players from other guilds stepped forward to ask.

“Of course, why wouldn’t I take you?

As long as I’ve set my sights on someone, I’ll cover the compensation fee for leaving the guild in full.”

“Young Master Ye is awesome!”

Many players from existing guilds came forward one after another, declaring their intentions to leave their guilds to join.

Of course, where there’s happiness, there’s distress; the faces of the presidents and executives from various guilds were filled with anger.

But they controlled their emotions because it was useless to lash out.

They couldn’t afford to mess with this guy, and he was literally smashing them with money—what could they say?

Su Mo looked thoughtful; if he wasn’t mistaken, this person named Ye Jing must be from the high walls.

Don’t be fooled by his seemingly easy mark—none of the deals he made lost money.

When he was buying materials, it might seem generous, but each material had to be gambled for with players’ lives.

Moreover, there was no guide price yet, and since he was the richest there, the price he set naturally became the market rate—who would dare to offer higher than him?

As for recruiting enforcers, losing money was even less likely.

Those enforcers could generate even greater profits for him.

Of course, if they were killed in action, Ye Jing was certainly not a philanthropist—he would definitely stop paying them.

The reason was simple: if they could no longer create value, they became useless.

Capital has never been about sentimentality.

Su Mo watched for a while but lost interest.

He lifted his bracelet and tapped it a few times.

“Log out!”

Suddenly, the world in front of him started to collapse like snowflakes, and he plunged into endless darkness.

When Su Mo opened his eyes, he found himself lying in the game cabin.

Click!

The door of the game cabin popped open automatically, and Su Mo sat up.

He picked up his phone to check the time—it was just past 4 a.m., and he had only played for a little over 4 hours.

But in his subconscious, it felt like he had played in the game for more than two days.

The discrepancy in time feelings was truly astonishing, to the point where he was still struggling to adjust.

At that moment, Su Mo heard a lot of noise outside his private room: the entire Star Game Cafe seemed unusually lively.

Su Mo got out of the game cabin, took a bottle of water from the side, twisted it open, and started drinking as he went outside to stretch his limbs.

Inside the vast Star Game Cafe, hundreds of players removed their gaming helmets and were furiously ranting about the game.

“What the hell, I wasn’t even ready yet and a monster spawned right in front of me, greeting my face directly.”

“What are you complaining about, I had it worse.

I was just hiding in an alley, then BAM!

Wrapped up like a dumpling.”

“You guys got nothing on me.

Do you know how I died?

I ran into a mutant that was over ten meters tall, burning with green flames all over its body.

I didn’t even get a clear look at the monster before my bracelet showed I died from intense radiation exposure.

What a crappy game!!!”

A young man cursed, annoyed.

“Yeah, when can we log in again if we die?”

“Dream on, you can’t log back in.

It says you need a ‘spark’ to resurrect, and even then a friend has to go find your remains and ignite it with the spark to bring you back.

Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for the next version.

Don’t you guys look up the guides?

If you’re not skilled or want to be a lifestyle player, don’t log in so early.

The first batch to log in are the Pioneer Expeditionary Group; wait until the Exploration Team stabilizes the situation and establishes their base, then choose a guild to join when logging back in,” said a cheerfully outspoken girl, laughing.