Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 656 - 639: The Only Exquisite Tao Companions in the Entire Server

Chapter 656: Chapter 639: The Only Exquisite Tao Companions in the Entire Server

This sentence is a bit ambiguous. The term "eat" could refer to physical consumption or buying this batch at cost price.

The dialogue options on the screen also indicate this point.

[How much? I’m not sure I can take that much.]

[You want me to buy it?]

Instructor Ding thought for a moment and chose the second option.

"Hehehe, young friend, you are indeed very intelligent and have a keen business mind.

"Indeed, the method of refining Nine Dragon Elixirs in our Wuxiang Pill Alliance is unparalleled, and it has always been the most important source of Nine Dragon Elixirs for cultivators.

"But you also know, on the surface, Nine Dragon Elixirs don’t meet the legal requirements, so they can only be distributed through private channels.

"As for such private channels, the more, the better.

"We’ve gone through a lot of trouble just to ensure all the cultivators out there can have Nine Dragon Elixirs to consume."

After hearing this white-bearded old man’s words, Instructor Ding couldn’t help but twitch the corners of his mouth.

So that’s what this is about, developing new recruits, huh?

I’ll take it!

Sorry, but I’m not rich enough.

I’ve never used Nine Dragon Elixirs, not even Foundation Establishment Pills. I cultivate purely naturally. At most, I’ll take a Foundation Establishment Pill.

Why choose me?

Several dialogue options appeared on the screen again, each in a different color, indicating that the ones in the front are key options. Selecting one would lead to follow-up dialogues.

The ones in the back are non-key options, meant for inquiries and understanding, with little impact on the storyline.

Instructor Ding thought for a bit and went ahead with the "Why choose me?" option first.

The Natural True Man stroked his white beard: "Hehe, of course, it’s because you, young friend, have used the most Nine Dragon Elixirs among the younger generation, and your cultivation results are the most remarkable.

"Even though you have been reborn once, your foundation is still there. I believe with your strength, it won’t be long before you can challenge the Heavenly Pride assessment again."

Hearing this, Instructor Ding suddenly realized it.

So that’s it! This is a special side quest triggered by consuming a lot of Nine Dragon Elixirs!

Why didn’t others trigger it? Obviously, it’s because they didn’t take enough Nine Dragon Elixirs.

From a storyline perspective, this is also reasonable.

Although this Natural True Man belongs to the Wuxiang Pill Alliance, openly selling Nine Dragon Elixirs doesn’t comply with legal requirements, so they can only sell them secretly.

Given this, it would be hard to establish a large-scale formal distribution channel, so they can only keep developing new recruits in this primitive way.

This way, any problematic line can be quickly disconnected by the Wuxiang Pill Alliance.

And these informal distribution channels, although they’ve already reached various great sects and connected with disciples managing the elixir rooms, are still not enough.

Because the market potential for Nine Dragon Elixirs is still very huge.

From a game mechanic perspective, Reverse Heaven allows players to distribute Nine Dragon Elixirs.

Just like Reverse Heaven allows players from the Time Wheel Zen Sect to distribute Time Loans.

Most NPC functionalities in the game will be open to players. As for how much commission players can earn, it all depends on their own eloquence and business acumen.

Instructor Ding looked again at the options on the screen.

Originally, he wanted to choose "Sorry, but I’m not rich enough," but on second thought, he decided not to.

He wasn’t sure what would happen if he chose this option. What if the white-bearded old man left directly, forever closing this side quest? That would be a big loss, wouldn’t it?

Besides, he’d consumed so many Nine Dragon Elixirs, so clearly, he wasn’t someone short on funds.

As for the third option.

I’ve never used Nine Dragon Elixirs, not even Foundation Establishment Pills. I cultivate purely naturally. At most, I’ll take a Foundation Establishment Pill.

This obviously seemed like it was making a joke.

So, after a brief consideration, Instructor Ding decided to accept the task.

Since he already needed to consume a large number of Nine Dragon Elixirs, why let the middleman make the profit?

Wouldn’t it be more cost-effective to get them directly from the Wuxiang Pill Alliance?

He could even figure out a way to sell some and make extra money to compensate for the losses from exploding bodies.

"Alright, young friend, you truly are a wise and sensible person. The cultivation world needs emerging talents like you.

"Since that’s the case, here’s the first batch of Nine Dragon Elixirs. Figure out a way to distribute them all, and then come to see me again. The quantity of the second batch will be increased."

After the Natural True Man finished speaking, a dialogue box popped up on Instructor Ding’s screen.

It detailed the quantity, total price, and unit price of the first batch of elixirs, and compared their price with the prices from other channels for Nine Dragon Elixirs.

The so-called "other channels" were actually the disciples from the elixir rooms of various great sects, which were the prices at which players had previously bought Nine Dragon Elixirs.

Instructor Ding took a careful look and was quite shocked.

"The first batch costs 10 x 648!

"And the price is 5% more expensive than what I was buying before?

"Seriously, what happened to no middleman making a profit?"

To take on this side quest, he had to buy the entire batch of elixirs at once; splitting the purchase was not an option.

The price was 6480 middle-grade spirit stones.

Even in other pay-to-win games, this would count as a huge sum of money.

Of course, the good news was that the money was not directly wasted but converted into Nine Dragon Elixirs.

These Nine Dragon Elixirs could be traded with other players or auctioned and sold.

But their selling price was 5% higher than that from the sect’s elixir room NPCs, meaning this price had no competitive edge for other players.

[Excuse me, Senior, why is the bulk purchase price higher than the retail price from the elixir rooms in the major sects?]

The dialogue option timely gave a query.

The Natural True Man seemed a bit displeased and said logically, "Young friend, that question is quite unreasonable. This is perfectly normal.

"The elixir rooms of various great sects are our long-established channels and naturally have special channel prices.

"You are selling elixirs for the first day, so how can you expect to get the same price as those established channels?

"Only if you can sell the elixirs at this price can you prove your ability and sincerity.

"As you procure more batches in the future and develop into a bigger channel, the bulk purchase price will naturally decrease, even lower than those established channels."

Instructor Ding was momentarily speechless.

You have a point, I had no retort.

But this is way too cunning!

Clearly, there were only two paths ahead of Instructor Ding: the first was to give up, avoid being this foolish person, and continue buying Nine Dragon Elixirs from the original channels for personal use;

The second was to buy this batch at a higher price, find ways to sell them off, even if it meant incurring a loss or convincing unaware newbies to buy them for a higher price, and then continuously procure more batches to eventually drive the price down.

After some consideration, Instructor Ding chose the latter option.

"Alright, I’ll buy it!"

Instructor Ding had plenty of spirit stones left in this account, so he purchased them with 6480 middle-grade spirit stones directly.

Just when he was wondering at what price to sell these 5% mark-up elixirs, he was surprised to discover a new feature had been unlocked.

It was a special distribution channel interface, accessible from the recharge interface, with its own separate tab.

In this distribution channel interface, there were discount prices and other benefits for different levels of dealers.

The most shocking part for Instructor Ding was the Level A dealer benefits.

From the interface, it showed there were four different levels of recognized dealers by the Natural True Man: Level A, B, C, and D. Currently, Instructor Ding was at Level D with a 105% price when buying elixirs from the elixir rooms.

After reaching Level C, the purchase price would be 95% of the retail price.

Level B would be 80%, and Level A would just be 60% of the retail price!

Of course, each level upgrade required purchasing large amounts of Nine Dragon Elixirs from the Natural True Man, increasing exponentially at later stages.

This meant that currently, the elixir room NPCs in various great sects were equivalent to Level C dealers, slightly making a profit.

As long as he could reach Level C dealer status, there would be a profit margin, allowing Instructor Ding to make a small profit.

If he could reach Level B or even Level A dealer, the profit potential would be huge, easily making continuous money with a reasonable price!

Then there would be no concerns about running out of Nine Dragon Elixirs.

Using the money earned alongside the 40% discount when buying Nine Dragon Elixirs, he could even reach a non-paying self-sufficient cycle.

Each dealer level also came with different benefits, with Level A dealer’s first benefit being particularly enticing.

It displayed a female NPC avatar that looked extraordinarily beautiful, with a simple and straightforward description: ’Server-wide Exclusive Beautiful Tao Companion’!

Even from the avatar alone, it was clear this NPC was special and likely unique in the game.

Reverse Heaven had a very powerful character customization system, allowing players to create various face shapes. However, body customization was tied to their cultivation level.

Most NPCs in the game were also generated using this character customization system, with important NPCs being officially created, and less important ones being randomly generated within a range.

But this server-wide exclusive beautiful Tao companion was definitely meticulously created by the officials, looking significantly better than all other female NPCs or player-created avatars.

It was the kind that left a profound impression at first glance.

Actually, Reverse Heaven did have a Tao companion system, which was similar to marriage systems in many online games.

But so far, no player had actually used this system for a simple reason: it wasn’t open yet.

Players could not access the Tao companion system until their cultivation reached Nascent Soul, while currently, even with maxed out Time Loan, players could at best reach a weak Core Formation.

In Reverse Heaven’s world, this was a reasonable setting.

Without reaching Nascent Soul, how could you qualify to find a Tao companion?

It’s like saying you can’t date if you haven’t even graduated high school.

Once the Tao companion system opened, male and female characters could freely become Tao companions, with few restrictions.

Though Tao companions were not rare, this server-wide exclusive beautiful Tao companion was different.

She was not a player but a specific NPC with a unique appearance, likely using details not available in the character customization system.

Having a player Tao companion might not show status, but having a server-wide unique NPC Tao companion would be very impressive!

Of course, Reverse Heaven’s servers were dynamically allocated, each server only accommodating a few hundred active players, so the chance of getting this NPC as a Tao companion was one in several hundred.

Yet even at such rarity, it was still very unique.

"No more talking, I have to become a Level A dealer!

"My Blue and Green Modifier can hardly wait!"