Chapter 29 - The Sky Provisions Shop

Chapter 29: The Sky Provisions Shop
Translator: 
Atlas Studios 
 Editor: 
Atlas Studios
As known by all, when NPCs battled their nemesis, for example during catastrophes when they battled the Undead and Devils, they would seem super lousy in comparison and be wiped out effortlessly. Yet, when they fought against characters belonging to their camp, they would appear to be extremely ferocious and capable.
As the captain wielded his Crucified Longsword, the goblin’s health bar was reduced by 99%. Its dark green stubby figure rolled around on the ground and miraculously managed to escape the attacks from the group of Paladins. The goblin dodged deftly around the enclosed space and actually found a chance to release the Goblin Rocket Launcher, which was hanged around its waist. Its body shot toward the door like the trajectory of a rainbow.
Duang-
Like a baseball player going for a home-run, Lin Jie hit the goblin accurately using the Broken Blade’s hilt!
He had done so in consideration that the goblin’s health bar was now less than 1%. If he used his normal way to attack, he might just kill it accidentally.

Goddamned human! You are downright shameless and despicable!
The goblin scolded and cursed,
I curse you, you will lose money in whatever business you do, and you will never see any gold coins in your entire life!

Ding~
’You have been cursed with the Goblin’s Life Curse. In the next 48 hours, you will have a 100% reduced drop-rate when you kill monsters, a 100% increase in prices when you buy anything from shops in the game. The amount of money you have in your bag will be reduced by random amounts every minute, and you will earn nothing from any transaction you make unless that transaction is above the value of 20 gold coins.’
That was a Curse type of skill!
Lin Jie raised his brows. Life Curses were the unique abilities of certain species of creatures, normally belonging to the Devils. If players had been randomly assigned to Devil jobs, they would be able to own the talent of Life Curse. That skill could only be used when they were about to die in the game. Such players could put an extremely horrible curse on their target, which would last for prolonged periods of time.
In Lin Jie’s previous life, there had been a guild which had established an army of Devils. When they had fought with other guilds, they had focused all their attention on getting themselves killed, so as to activate their Life Curses. With that tactic, all kinds of disgusting curses had been cast on their opponents. They had almost been unstoppable until the Holy Church had released the Curse-Purifying Skill, which helped to remove curses.
However, now, where could Lin Jie go to lift the curse? Lin Jie thought hard. For things like curses, it’s one should either use skills to relieve them or find some methods to break them!
The second option was worth considering.
The Paladins surrounded the goblin and marched it off to jail.
Before that, the captain fished out Gamon’s land deed and returned it to Lin Jie.

Gamon has been dead for too long. I am afraid not even the priests can help to revive him, let’s hope he’s resting in peace. As this shop is Gamon’s only property, I hope you will be able to take care of it ‘on behalf’ of your friend.
The captain threw a knowing look at Lin Jie when he was about to leave.

Wait,
Lin Jie finally spoke. He made his title visible and commanded,
Give me its Rocket Launcher.

The goblin was letting out a loud curse again when a Paladin knocked him out and handed Lin Jie the Rocket Launcher in a respectful manner.
Here it is, Lord Viscount.

This title was useful, indeed.
Goblin Rocket Launcher: It is an Engineering Product that can be tied to the waist. When using it, a rocket will be launched from your waist, causing 10 points Fire Damage to your target and forcing it to retreat 15 yards. It has a cooldown period of 60 seconds, and a success rate of 70%.
All Engineering Products had stipulated success rates. If one was not careful when using them, the products could backfire and harm them instead. Thus, it was definitely not a wise choice to depend on Engineering-related skills or products to save one’s life when in peril.
Lin Jie looked at the land deed in his hands and squeezed it lightly.
Ding~
’You own a shop. Please select the type of shop it will be and give it a name.’
Lin Jie started looking at all the different choices. There were different types of shops, for example, Potions Shop, Blacksmith’s Shop, Curios Shop, etc. Once one chose a specific type of shop and sold that particular type of products, their taxes would be waived off. As such, Potions Shop normally sold Potions solely, Blacksmith Shops sold weapons, and so on. The taxation rate in the City of Light was fixed at 7%, which was 2% lower than the taxation rates in other cities. That was a small benefit of living in a city governed by the followers of the church.
However, all those were not what Lin Jie needed. He surfed through the pages until the last page and selected Pawnshop as the type of shops. As a pawnshop, its main function was. Of course, to allow customers to pawn their valuable belongings in exchange for money. If customers did not come to redeem their valuables when the redemption period was over, the item would be detained by the shop.
As a pawnshop, Lin Jie would need to pay 10 silver coins per month as the shop’s management fees to the Holy Church. When members of the church came to pawn their belongings, Lin Jie would not only need to give them money no matter the value of the items but also have to give them the best offer possible… After all, NPCs were also human beings who like to feel privileged. Once they were satisfied, they would waive off your transaction taxes.
Other than that, the pawnshop could also be used as a provisions shop. Lin Jie specially set up an
Exchange
counter when designing the shop. If one saw anything that they were interested in on the shop’s display panel, they would just need to make at least one transaction by pawning something to get rewards points, and then use the rewards points earned to exchange for that item. In order to prevent people from misusing the rewards points system, there would be a cooldown period of one hour to get back the items they pawned.
After he finished setting up all the rules, Lin Jie clapped his hands.

Open!

A bright light covered the shop, and the shop’s front was automatically cleaned up, so it looked more presentable. As the goblin merchant had already done up most of the renovation for the shop, Lin Jie was saved from a lot of trouble.
’Your shop ‘Sky Provisions Shop’ is officially open for business.’
Lin Jie’s mouth curved up in a smile, satisfied with his achievements.
However, it wasn’t long before Lin Jie realized the goblin’s curse came true. Three priests, one man, and two ladies came out from the Holy Church and whilst on their way to purchase bread and cheese, they chanced upon the Sky Provisions Shop. Excited, they came into the shop to see what they could get.

I want to pawn this valuable item,
said the male priest. He was in his twenties, had sky-blue eyes and donned a long white garment unique for Priests. This made him appear very saintly. However, his actions did not match up to his appearance.
Holding on to a loaf of bread which looked like it would become moldy very soon, the male priest argued vehemently,
This bread has been baptized by the Holy Light, and is great for your sleep. I want three silver coins in exchange! Not to worry, I will redeem it very soon.

Lin Jie had no choice but to give three silver coins to him. After which, the two lady priests followed suit, and each got two silver coins in exchange for glass balls before they left.
Knock-knock.
After a series of knocking sounds on the door, Seven Ears walked timidly into the shop.
Hi, Boss.

Lin Jie signaled for him to come over and smiled.
What do you think of this shop?

Seven Ears looked around. This shop had magnificent decorations and was almost similar to the Grade 3 shops opened by NPCs. The only difference lied in its scale. But the glimmering golden chandelier and fragrance given off by the birch wood cabinets all hinted at the extraordinariness of the shop.

You will be in charge of this shop from today onwards,
said Lin Jie.
We might not have a brisk business, so do make more of the low-level Poison-Antidote Potions and place it on the Exchange counter.

Other than that, Lin Jie also explained about the members of church taking advantage of the shop. They should not do so for more than two times a day. If they did so, Seven Ears must lodge a complaint to the Holy Church. This was very important and must be made clear, or else the shop would be losing money instead.

Boss…
Seven Ears bowed respectfully,
Thank you for your trust in me, but… may I ask how do we earn money from this shop?

Lin Jie chuckled.
As for this…

Ding~
World Announcement: Congratulations to Triumphant Midnight for successfully entering the Great Wood Valley! The world-class dungeon Castle Wood is now open for exploration!
Castle Wood was finally launched! As a world-class dungeon, Castle Wood would not only have one Leaderboard in the training dungeons the likes of Cat Demon Lair. Not only would conquerors of world-class dungeons receive handsome rewards, but their names would also be announced on the game’s World Channel. Other than that, the Adventurers’ Association would set up a special First-Clear Leaderboard to record which guild or team had killed which particular Boss, and hence it would be very clear which guild/team and which player was more formidable.
Following the launch of that dungeon, a lot of information about it was subsequently released on the game’s official website, including the equipment to be awarded, summaries of the different maps, etc. It was clear why the game creators did that. They were confident no one could conquer this dungeon even if all that information was revealed!
All at once, thousands of teams flooded Castle Wood. Qiu Yuan also invited Lin Jie to test waters with her, but her request was declined politely.
The werewolves in Castle Wood had venom in their claws, and each time a player came in contact with the venom, they would be dealt with 10 damage points per second. At the 15th time, the player could become paralyzed or silenced. As the priests had not learned the Dispelling Spells yet, the only way players could relieve themselves from the effects of the venom would be to consume low-level Poison-Antidote Potions.
When the guilds gave orders for their headhunters to look out for that seemingly plain potion and its recipes from the auction house, they were shocked to discover that all of the materials were unavailable for sale. Only some cunning profiteers made use of the opportunity to put them up for sale to test the market. The cheap materials and potions which were originally priced at tens of bronze coins, actually multiplied by a few times! In fact, the most recent recipe was actually auctioned off at the high price of 12 silver coins per copy!
As such, the unscrupulous traders were even less willing to put their items up for sale!
At the Triumphant Midnight Guild…
Dumb Fox and first class MT Inksnow stood in front of the Castle Wood dungeon, foreheads creased tightly.
How many potioneers do we have in our guild that know how to make the low-level Poison-Antidote Potions?

Inksnow pursed her pink lips,
One, and he did not belong to our inner circle of connections. He was just poached away recently too.


Pass me the list of awarded equipment.

As Dumb Fox looked through the list and saw all the Sets, coupled with the golden grade weapons awarded for the first kill, a look of determination crossed his face. Then, he said,
No, we cannot give up on this dungeon! Offer that potioneer three times as much salary, and poach all other available potioneers from the other guilds! Give them the best offer we can! This dungeon is of utmost importance to us!

At the Hunter’s Guild…
The chairman of the guild, Ghost Eyes was personally leading a group of his teammates to kill monsters at the Muddy Swamp. The Stinky Freshwater Crocodiles found at the Muddy Swamp was one of the monsters that had the highest drop-rate for the recipe of the low-level Poison-Antidote Potion, but the whole process was still too inefficient.
Sometimes, fate worked just like that: there would always be generous amounts of certain seemingly unimportant items around when one was not looking for them. Yet, when one set their mind to gather them deliberately, they would not be able to gather those items efficiently no matter how hard they tried.
All the other guilds and players’ teams also faced these circumstances.
At the Sky Provisions Shop…
Lin Jie and Seven Ears were both focusing on making potions in the Potions lab located within the shop. No one was minding the shop front. The recipes for the low-level Poison-Antidote Potions were hung up at the exchange counter’s window, looking super lonely. Other than that, the low-level Poison-Antidote Potions and its ingredients were also displayed on the counter.
The potions were priced at 80 bronze coins per set, its ingredients 70 bronze coins per set and 30 silver coins for a single recipe! That was definitely too expensive.
There was a notice put up on the window pane at the exchange counter – You can get a free set of the recipe if you pawn items that are of the value of at least three gold coins. You can redeem your items one hour later.
Huge sales and large amounts of money were required to upgrade a shop. To upgrade to a Grade 2 shop, one would require a total sales revenue of at least 300 gold coins, which was definitely not an easy feat.
At that stage, a set of land deed was priced at a minimum of 10 gold coins. One would require at least 20 gold coins to open a shop. It was simply too expensive, even for large guilds.
Not long later, a team of adventurers was strolling aimlessly in the city when they passed the Sky Provisions Shop.

Damn, there’s actually a player’s shop here?
The team captain commented in surprise. The group entered the shop, and the captain was immediately overwhelmed by the whole shop’s plentiful stock of low-level Poison-Antidote Potions.

What!? Is the owner of this shop driven nuts by poverty? To price a piece of a recipe at 30 silver coins?

His teammates answered bitterly,
Most probably it’s opened by some rich guy who had nothing better to do. Let’s go.

The team captain was speechless.
There were just so many of these people around…

Lin Jie chuckled softly to himself, ‘Surely this piece of news will be spread around in no time, haha!’