Chapter 21
Chapter 21: Sorting
Back in the rental room, Long Ming finished the last bites of his noodles, then checked his phone balance. He had only 5,710 Mountain Coin left. [This isn’t enough.] His medicine alone cost 12,000 Mountain Coin each month.
He sighed and headed to the bedroom. At the bedside he put on his helmet, lay back, took a deep breath, pressed the start switch, and closed his eyes. [To be honest, this game is giving me a shadow in my heart.]
When he opened his eyes again, he was already in Starlight City. He raised his Wristband interface and saw a red dot on the quest log icon. He tapped it open and read the prompt: “Survival (Novice Quest) completed, reward: 500 1D Coins.”
He looked over his haul from the run: Gold Nugget (White Tier), Rough Necklace (White Tier), Unknown Ring (Blue Tier), Golden Short Staff (Purple Tier), Golden Double-barrel Short Shotgun, M24 Sniper Rifle, Perception Serum x1, Invitation Letter x1, and 500 1D Coins.
Satisfied, he nodded. He had tossed a lot of things, but what remained was still a decent pile. The question was how much money it could bring in. He was very short on cash.
Nearby, grumbling voices rose.
“What the heck, what a broken game, why is it so real?” someone complained.
“Boo-hoo, it was so scary, it hurt so much,” another sobbed.
“We demand the pain be reduced, or we’ll file complaints,” others shouted.
A few Players from Sin City passed by, heard the complaints, and sneered back: “Bunch of idiots, if you can’t handle it, don’t play.”
One protester snapped: “Who are you calling names? We’re defending our rights. This game is clearly a problem. I thought I was actually dying.”
A Sin City Player shot back: “Defend your rights? Your brain’s busted. It’s written very clearly that this game is made to let you experience the thrill of death. If you don’t want to die, then extract alive.”
“We’re not Aces, we don’t have that kind of skill. And where is that written?” the protester argued.
“It’s on the Civilization Experience Voucher. You didn’t read,” the Sin City Player said.
“Argh!” someone yelped.
The protesters stared in shock. Long Ming watched, thoughtful. [They do have a point. Because it is so real, failing to extract means the feeling of dying can leave scars on your mind, and not everyone can take that.] [But that has nothing to do with me. Others can quit after a setback. I have no choice. If I can’t make money in this game, I won’t be able to keep living.]
He let out a deep breath, adjusted his mood, and looked around. [I need to turn these into game coins or Mountain Coin.] He saw no stalls buying and selling, but many people were heading toward the Mechanical Obelisk in the center of Starlight City, so he followed.
Under the towering machine pillar, many Players stood with heads down, tapping at their Wristbands. His own Wristband popped a prompt: “Open the market?”
He understood why the crowd had gathered, but he did not open it yet. Instead, he opened his friends list and tried adding Gu Yi. The items were carried out by him, yes, but without Gu Yi’s team helping, he would not have escaped. In a way they were teammates, and keeping everything felt wrong.
The add request succeeded, and a chat window popped up. Gu Yi spammed excited messages: “Whoa, Ace! You actually added me. I wanted to add you earlier, but your name is so long I couldn’t remember it.”
Long Ming typed slowly: “Um, about the stuff…”
Gu Yi replied at once: “No need to say it, I get it. The gear’s gone, right?”
Gu Yi knew at a glance that Long Ming had likely failed to extract and died in the end. That would be normal, since Zheng Bin’s crew was nasty.
Long Ming wrote: “No, I brought it out.”
Gu Yi froze: “You did? You extracted successfully?”
Long Ming answered: “Yes.”
Gu Yi burst with laughter: “Awesome, worthy of an Ace! Haha!” He could already picture Zheng Bin’s group fuming.
Long Ming explained: “I added you to talk about the items. You said I could have them, but they’re also partly yours.”
Gu Yi waved it off: “We don’t want them. They’re all yours.”
Long Ming hesitated: “That doesn’t feel right.”
Gu Yi joked: “What’s not right? Next time we meet in a run, carry Bro once.”
Long Ming fell silent. He wanted to refuse on instinct, but he really needed money, so he replied: “Alright.”
Gu Yi sent: “Deal. I’ve got things to do, logging off first.”
Long Ming typed: “Okay.”
He closed the chat and opened the market. The consignment interface popped up, full of items.
He scrolled through listings like: “Smooth Pearl Necklace (White Tier), price: 500 1D Coins,” and “Gargoyle Bronze Statue (White Tier), price: 800 1D Coins,” and more. He was surprised that so many things had appeared in just two days.
He kept scrolling, trying to find items like his to gauge current prices, but no luck. Every listing looked like a one-of-a-kind oddity, the variety dizzying.
Just then, he heard a Player grumble to a friend: “What the heck, my consigned item has been up all day and still hasn’t sold. Are there no Tycoons in this game?”
The friend asked: “Bro, what are you selling?”
The first said: “Jewelry.”
The friend sighed: “Are you dumb? Jewelry is art. Who’s going to buy that here? Players?”
The seller protested: “But I worked hard to bring it out. Isn’t it worth money?”
The friend nodded: “It is, but it’s not useful to Players. Would you buy it?”
The seller admitted: “No. Then what am I supposed to do?”