Player Reload
Chapter 268 - 246: Sunflower

Chapter 268: Chapter 246: Sunflower

Perfect level items are sought after but not easy to come by. Just as Li Cheng input the item’s information onto the player’s forum auction page and before he could decide on the price, an auction house customer service representative proactively reached out.

Customer Service: [Hello, respected Sir/Madam/Non-binary, we’ve noticed that you’ve uploaded information about a perfect level item. The auction house suggests that you best conceal the special effects/consumption/cooling time of the item, simply marking it as a perfect level armor will suffice.]

Li Cheng: [Hm? Why?]

Customer Service: [It’s like this, for perfect level items, as per convention, the auction house will set a bidding threshold. Bidders have to deposit 10,000 game coins in advance, showing that they have the capacity to purchase, before the auction house will display the complete item information to them.]

Customer Service: [This is to protect both buyer and seller’s interests, to prevent the item’s weaknesses from becoming public knowledge.]

Li Cheng: [Are you sure? This item has some strong side effects, bidders might be deterred.]

Customer Service: [No need to worry about this point, perfect level armors are highly coveted in the auction house, so there’s definitely no worry about sales.]

To add more persuasion, the customer service recounted an old tale with a rather euphemistic tone.

Back when the Slaughter Field Game had just begun, there was a small guild that exerted a Herculean effort in the script tasks and managed to obtain a genuinely authentic Sunflower Manual.

Since ordinary people could also practice it, and the threshold was very low, this item was immediately bought by a proxy of the United States military with a one-off price of 100,000 game coins on the black market.

Afterwards, this produced the infamous comical scene—a group of elite special forces soldiers from the Seal Assault Team, Delta, Berets, Rangers, under the inspiration of the United States national anthem, walked into the operation room in a resolute line,

Collectively having vasectomies, half price for the second one.

However, after their surgeries, they found out that although the threshold of the Sunflower Manual was low, mastering it to truly possess martial arts level combat ability, placed extremely high demands on the practitioner’s talent.

Even with sports nutritionists, exercise physiologists, and 24-hour medical teams on call,

Out of a hundred elite soldiers, less than ten could actually master it,

And their final strength was probably between that of Mei Chaofeng and Zuo Lengchan from Jin Yong’s novels, with Inner Strength capable of harming even falling leaves and fluttering blossoms, Qinggong that left no trace on snow, and Qi Power that could split stones.

After being fully armed, they could be barely considered super soldiers, able to change the situation of small-scale battlefields.

The rest turned into a classic dish—white cut chicken.

This scandal was ultimately leaked by a former special forces member who failed to practice the Sunflower Manual, required long-term medication after the vasectomy, suffered from immune diseases, was abandoned by the US military, and ended up homeless on the streets.

The reason the auction house customer service went through such lengths to tell this story was to illustrate to Li Cheng that one should not overestimate the moral integrity of the player community and participants involved in the interest chain of the Slaughter Field.

A mere piece of armor underwear, that’s really nothing big.

Since the customer service said so, Li Cheng went with the flow and started the auction process according to their procedure.

The starting price of 4,000 soared, breaking 6,000, 8,000, until it finally slowed down at 14,000.

In the end, this piece of fancy underwear, ahem, I mean, [Aisloron’s Lament] was auctioned off for a whopping 17,000 plus game coins to an anonymous buyer.

What can I say, for those glass cannon Transcendents, defensive items just have to be a bit more opulent, after all, only by staying alive can you deal damage.

"[Aisloron’s Lament]’s original mall price was 10,000 game coins, got it for half off at 5,000, so that’s like a clear net profit of 12,000 with just one transaction."

Li Cheng exclaimed, "This is faster than robbing a bank."

Just this wave alone made up for the expenses of the Skull Shattering Power Hammer.

Adding to that the profits from flipping other discounted items and deducting the auction house’s middleman fees, I bagged another three thousand, which brought my personal treasury up to a whopping 20,393.

A cause for celebration, indeed, a cause for celebration.

Feeling refreshed, Li Cheng leisurely made his way to the computer and started browsing the player forum. He checked out the auction house’s item list while also looking for any recent news in the killing field.

[The United States presidential election is approaching, and suspicious forces are believed to have bribed hospitals and funeral homes to resurrect some corpses in key swing states to vote as U.S. citizens. The spokesperson for the Demon Scientist Alliance has declared that they have no connection to this incident.]

Li Cheng’s eyelid twitched, "Well, genuine votes from the dead, huh? What a ghostly troop maneuver."

[Massive kangaroo attacks have erupted in Australia, with dozens of kangaroos appearing on the streets of Melbourne assaulting humans, resulting in seven deaths and nineteen injuries. It is suspected that unknown forces are distributing kangaroo feed laced with stimulants in the wild. The Wild Laughter Troupe has taken credit for the incident and threatened that unless the Australian government pays them one billion Australian Dollars, they will teach the kangaroos Yong Chun next.]

"Why specifically Yong Chun and not another martial art, huh? Is it because kangaroos have short arms and can only engage in close combat? Why not just outright give the kangaroos guns?"

Continuing to make snarky comments, Li Cheng scrolled with his mouse.

[A player role-playing a young child in a serf family during an ancient Western/Tibetan script task was unexpectedly blessed by a high-ranking monk, who highly praised the child destined for greatness.]

That’s pretty ordinary... wait a second, ancient Western/Tibetan? Damn it, is that what they call destined for greatness?!

Li Cheng’s eye twitched uncontrollably. The news section of the player forum does have advertisements; every time a post is opened, money gets distributed to the post owner, hence there are a lot of paid posters who create catchy news headlines to draw attention.

Thump, thump, thump.

As Li Cheng was getting into his reading, there suddenly came a knocking at his door.

"Lao Cheng, open up."

Han Letian’s voice came from outside the door, and Li Cheng, initially taken aback, then remembered.

Back before he became a player, he used to hang out with Han Letian and Mu Yulu quite frequently—they’d go shopping, visit comic conventions, and occasionally watch movies at Han Letian’s place.

Now that Li Cheng had moved to a secluded apartment building, these two always found a reason to drop by his place for a meal.

"Is it today?"

He knocked his head, hurriedly shut down the computer, tucked away the three-dimensional storage in the living room,

and when he turned around, he saw Gray Rain had for some reason changed into a tight-fitting golden evening gown, wearing a diamond necklace on her chest and pearl earrings, looking refined and luxurious.

Li Cheng was bewildered, "What are you doing?"

"As the lady of the house, isn’t it my duty to help the lord prepare for a banquet? That’s what they show on TV and movies."

Gray Rain assumed an air of it being the most natural thing in the world and, while pulling open a kitchen drawer to get some stemmed glasses, added with an accent from who-knows-where, "my darling."

"Darling my foot."

Li Cheng’s face was a picture of discomfort. He produced the Electronic Pet Egg, "You can cut it out with the sorcery, okay? Shall I help clear your shopping cart in return?"

"Sigh, fine. For the electronic cigarette, I want grape-flavored, okay?"

Gray Rain hopped into the Pet Egg, still muttering under her breath, "Why do I feel like a mistress being kept in a lavish apartment by a rich sugar daddy, hidden away in luxury."