Liu Kongkong hadn't actually prepared that many questions. The math itself wasn't hard — it was just the way the problems were presented that made them a little unusual.
"Grinding dungeons and doing quests to level up gets so boring after a while. Switching things up every now and then isn't so bad." He hoped the players would appreciate his good intentions, even if he himself had been a terrible student back in the day.
He scrolled through the forums for a bit. Progress across the various Starter Villages was all over the place — some players were celebrating the fact that someone in their village had finally hit level 10, while others were cheering about the 30-player dungeon finally unlocking. And then there were the truly absurd ones: players who had already cleared the 30-player dungeon, obtained the Transit Stone, and were preparing to head to the Xingye Continent in just a few hours.
He searched by keyword and found that in the past two days alone, at least thirty Starter Villages had already gotten their teleportation arrays ready.
"These people are playing like their lives depend on it." The players of Starter Village No. 0113 had worked hard too, but after two large-scale wars, they'd fallen too far behind. Otherwise, they'd probably be right up there with the rest.
"I just wonder if any of these people actually fought the fixed boss at the end."
It was only while finishing up the dungeon construction that Liu Kongkong had realized: even though the Void Lord had to be present in the dungeon, players could still clear it without ever fighting him. If he had to give the boss a label, it would be "optional challenge boss."
The reward was also incredibly enticing — the [Guild Establishment Permit] — and it wasn't even limited in quantity. As long as every member of the team was killing the boss for the first time, it would drop for all of them...
"Looks like this thing isn't worth much then." Once Liu Kongkong figured that out, he was deeply disappointed.
What he didn't know, however, was that the [Guild Establishment Permit] wasn't a dungeon drop at all — it was a drop specifically from the Void Lord! The fixed bosses in all the other Starter Villages had been replaced with NPCs, which meant those dungeons had no such item at all.
He shut off his computer and logged into the game early. The first thing he did was open his character panel.
"Decent gains." Looking at the 1,791 attribute points displayed, he noted that over the past seven hours, a crowd of players had died a cumulative total of nearly 18,000 times inside the Void Space! Even so, Liu Kongkong wasn't particularly satisfied. There were so many players in the Starter Village — at least two or three thousand had reached level 18. If they'd all gone in and grinded seriously, he could have gained at least 3,000 attribute points in those few hours.
"Can't be helped. Some people just don't like running dungeons — they'd rather farm materials, make money, and level up that way." Liu Kongkong understood their logic. Dungeon rewards had a high ceiling, sure — some gold-run teams had big spenders who'd auction off gear and let everyone walk away rich — but without a whale footing the bill, clearing a new dungeon was slow going, and hours of effort could amount to nothing.
He kept pouring everything into Constitution. Nothing mattered more than staying alive!
After allocating his points, his HP finally reached an entirely new level.
Name: Liu Dameng
Class: Apprentice Blacksmith (Level 14)
HP: 19,301 / 19,301
Mana: 101 / 101
Strength: 11
Constitution: 1,931
Agility: 11
Intelligence: 11
Spirit: 11
Available Points: 0
Skills:
Passive Skill: Sharp Eye (Level 1) — Inspect target's level.
Time Is Money (Level 4)
Looks Are Justice (Level 1)
Life Needs Miracles (Level 6)
Let's Upgrade (Level 2)
Good Enough to Get By (Level 1)
Nearly twenty thousand HP finally gave Liu Kongkong a faint sense of security. What he didn't know, however, was that at the very moment his Constitution stat had surpassed one thousand points, his body inside the game pod had begun undergoing a dramatic transformation...
He closed the panel and casually retrieved the mountain of equipment, items, and materials from the dungeon interface. Deaths in the Void Space carried no EXP penalty, so today's main business was still selling level-15 equipment.
With his hammer ringing out five pieces per strike, his equipment output speed had increased dramatically — and so had his leveling speed. Five times the output meant five times the EXP. By the time he hammered away until dawn, Liu Kongkong had already reached level 16.
"The skill points are about the only thing still worth something." The attribute points from leveling up were a measly 20 per level — practically negligible at this point. He put the skill points into Time Is Money.
Even with the Transit Stone, players still needed to reach level 20 before they could leave the Starter Village, so he was worried he might not be able to leave when the time came if his level wasn't high enough.
He checked the time. About right.
Open for business!
"Master Liu, you finally decided to open up! My savior! I want..."
Huh? I close the shop for just one day and everyone misses me this much? He casually handed over the pile of equipment the customer wanted. Compared to a little while ago, today's equipment was selling at several times the previous pace.
Have these people all gone crazy? They're buying everything?
He watched a Warrior run off gleefully with seven or eight staves in hand, then sit down by the roadside with an expectant look on his face, as if waiting for something. Liu Kongkong was baffled, and mechanically continued selling equipment in bulk.
The more he sold, the more people gathered by the roadside — all of them watching him with eager eyes, waiting for him to sell out.
But was he going to sell out today?
After selling 3,000 pieces of equipment, Liu Kongkong looked at his storage, which was still piled high with inventory. He had a pretty good idea what the row of players sitting outside was planning — they wanted to be scalpers.
Those folks were probably going to be disappointed today. The amount of equipment recovered from the dungeon was already absurd, and on top of that, he'd rushed out a huge batch just to level up...
Two hours later, everyone at the blacksmith shop door had gotten what they wanted and left, leaving a row of scalpers standing around staring blankly at each other.
Since when did this guy have such insane output? Did the devs push an update? If you're going to update something, at least post an announcement! What am I supposed to do with all this equipment I'm sitting on?! I spent real money on in-game currency for this, and I was counting on making a profit today!
"Master Liu, you're back."
A familiar voice rang out. Liu Kongkong knew who it was without even looking up.
Lonely as a Song jogged over to the blacksmith shop door with a big grin on his face, then looked Liu Kongkong up and down carefully, making the latter feel deeply uncomfortable.
"What are you staring at?"
"Nothing, nothing. Just noticed you've gotten even more handsome since yesterday." Lonely as a Song was actually trying to see if Liu Kongkong had undergone any changes after the latest "update."
This guy's here at my place instead of running dungeons?
Liu Kongkong was a little curious. Lonely as a Song was level 18, and had previously run Path of Samsara together with Big Dumb Duck. By all rights, someone should have invited him to the new dungeon — yet here he was.
"Master Liu, get me some equipment." Lonely as a Song had already given up on his previous quest. He urgently initiated a trade with Liu Kongkong.
Is this guy scalping too?
Looking at what he was requesting — a huge pile of all different types.
But buying and selling was a matter of mutual willingness. Even though Lonely as a Song had helped him out quite a bit over the past few days, Liu Kongkong was an NPC — what reason did he have to refuse? Take the money, deliver the goods!
Unlike the scalpers, though, Lonely as a Song didn't sit down by the roadside after getting his equipment. Instead, he made a beeline for the other shops, bought a round of things, then hurried out of the Starter Village and headed straight for the Void Space...
"Oh right — why didn't we think of that? If we can't sell here, we can go sell at the dungeon entrance!" One of the scalpers saw this and his eyes lit up. He was about to stand up—
"Save your energy. He's not selling equipment — he's running errands. That guy is on good terms with Night's Gentle Chill and Big Dumb Duck. The two big spenders paid him to do their shopping. If you go over there, you'll just be standing in the cold somewhere else."
Running errands? Personal shopper?!
Liu Kongkong watched Lonely as a Song disappear into the distance. Such a good kid — how did he end up like this!
Though, that unlimited-carry-weight backpack of his really was perfect for hauling supplies...
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