I Became the Blacksmith NPC

Unlike last time, Liu Kongkong had thoughtfully handwritten a discount voucher.

The name alone sounded impressive, but it seemed to be a sword of some kind.

Ye Weinuan glanced at Night's Gentle Chill. She had no use for a sword herself — normally she might pass it along to Night's Gentle Chill, but the attitude he'd shown earlier had left her a little annoyed.

Another discount voucher?! Big Dumb Duck's ears perked up immediately.

As a reward, [Dawn Verdict] had been upgraded to Level 2, expanding its member capacity from 10 to 500, and he had been in the middle of adding members one by one. But the moment he heard Liu Kongkong mention a discount voucher, he instantly thought of [A Lifelong Promise] and the enormous favor it had done him. Then he saw that the voucher had gone to Ye Weinuan, and his heart sank. That woman was not short on money — getting anything out of her hands would be no easy feat.

"That's right — this is our shop's current crown jewel! The Cerulean Sword — behold!"

With that, a blinding flash of light erupted! The people standing at the front immediately shielded their eyes. It was dazzling — anyone who didn't know better would have thought someone had thrown a flashbang. Only after a few seconds did Ye Weinuan and the others dare to open their eyes.

Cerulean Sword — Defense 30, Intelligence 5, Durability 2000, Equipment Level 18, Class Requirement: Sorcerer. (Equipment Skill: Shattered Starfall.)

Shattered Starfall: Consumes 50 Mana to release 1,998 star fragments, dealing 1,998 fixed damage to the target. Note: Each activation consumes 500 durability from the equipment.

"The Cerulean Sword — and this name belongs to a pair of bracers? And the item name is in blue?!" Night's Gentle Chill stared at the equipment panel. Fixed damage of 1,998 points?! At this stage of the game, this thing could one-shot people. If they'd had this equipment earlier, even the Void Lord would have been far easier to deal with!

The Cerulean Sword was the highest-quality piece of equipment Liu Kongkong had been able to craft so far. The 1,998 star fragments were derived from 1,998 Water Drops — the Curse God Ring Mold had previously absorbed over 8,200 of them. The bracers came as a pair, one for each wrist, with 999 star fragments embedded in each. To round out that satisfying number, Liu Kongkong had spent a bit of extra time crafting a few more. The radiant glow naturally came from the Sword of Radiance.

When the equipment was first completed, the Shattered Starfall attack dealt far more than 1,998 damage — it reached a terrifying 3,996 points. But the durability cost was equally terrifying: 1,998 points per use, meaning activating the skill would essentially destroy the equipment outright. After careful deliberation, Liu Kongkong chose to reduce the attack power in order to preserve the durability.

"The original price of this item is 999 gold, but… wait, were you just about to reach for your wallet…?"

Liu Kongkong had only gotten halfway through his sentence when he noticed that Ye Weinuan had already started moving her hand the moment she heard "999 gold." She quickly shook her head, gesturing for him to continue.

Did I price this too low?

Without the paper voucher, he could still change the price on the spot. But the voucher had already been written — a flat 800 gold discount — and even though she hadn't unfolded it yet, changing the price right in front of everyone would be a bit much.

"So then — can I take a look at the voucher?" Ye Weinuan reached out and tugged the paper from Liu Kongkong's hand.

Fine. Liu Kongkong let go with a tearful sigh.

Ye Weinuan opened the voucher, took one look, and gasped: "Only 199 gold! What a deal!"

Hearing that, Night's Gentle Chill's mouth twitched. Nearly 200,000 yuan for a pair of bracers — and Level 18 equipment at that. Before they'd cleared the Void Space, he might have bought it on the spot. But now… before he could finish the thought, his eyes went wide in the very next second.

The moment Ye Weinuan paid and received the equipment, she put it on without a word. Instantly, the Cerulean Sword sent shards of starlight flying outward, flickering with a faint halo that swirled around her.

"Is… is this what it looks like all the time once you equip it?"

A voice came from behind Night's Gentle Chill. He turned around to find Big Dumb Duck staring with his jaw on the floor. At that moment, Big Dumb Duck was wearing the [Pioneer] title above his head — a rare title that caused a faint golden glow to shimmer at his wrists. But compared to Ye Weinuan standing before him, he looked like a random passerby.

"It really is worth it!"

Night's Gentle Chill glanced at Big Dumb Duck and immediately called out loudly: "Just 200,000 yuan, and this effect absolutely destroys certain rare titles of a certain type!"

"Right?! I think it's totally worth it!" Ye Weinuan had expected it to just glow — she hadn't anticipated there'd be a special visual effect on top of that.

"Heh. Sure, 200,000 isn't much — after all, some people spent over 900,000 hiring fighters-for-hire and still couldn't pull it off themselves." Big Dumb Duck said with a smile.

"How do you know about that?!"

Night's Gentle Chill looked completely stunned. Not many people knew about this — had Big Dumb Duck planted a spy inside his guild?

Big Dumb Duck didn't care what Night's Gentle Chill thought. He turned to leave — then noticed Liu Kongkong hauling out a series of uniquely designed pieces of equipment.

"Parting Armor? Level 15 equipment, selling for just 50 silver?!"

Fifty silver wasn't cheap — not for ordinary equipment, anyway. But the gear Liu Kongkong was bringing out wasn't just stylish; every piece had better stats than standard Level 15 equipment.

"Is this guy out of his mind? Back in the day, a Level 5 Thorn Visor sold for 1 gold!"

In Big Dumb Duck's memory, anything the blacksmith shop sold with even a hint of uniqueness came with an astronomical price tag. He looked up at Liu Kongkong and found the man staring back at him with a dark expression.

Those ears are sharp! Big Dumb Duck quickly flashed a warm smile.

"Hmph." Liu Kongkong let out a cold snort. If he didn't have something important to take care of, he'd make this guy bleed a little today. He then turned to face the crowd of onlooking players: "Greetings, everyone!"

His voice was loud — practically shouted at the top of his lungs. The crowd that had been watching Ye Weinuan all turned to look at Liu Kongkong, curious about what the blacksmith had to say.

"Today is a special day. All of you are about to leave Starter Village No. 0113. I want to thank everyone for the help you've given me and this village over this time. So before we part ways, I'd like to give you all a gift — these pieces of equipment that I'm not too embarrassed to show off. I originally wanted to give them away for free, but unfortunately, I'm a little short on funds…"

You're short on funds? The crowd looked skeptical. You run the most profitable shop in the entire Starter Village!

"So I'm selling this batch at cost — consider it a souvenir. In the future, if you run into hardships or troubles out there, I hope seeing these will remind you of Starter Village No. 0113. This place will always be home, and you're always welcome to come back~" He finished by squeezing out two teardrops.

Is this right?

The Village Chief stood at his doorway with a blank stare. What are you, a blacksmith, doing saying all that? And "you're always welcome to come back"? What gives you the right to say that?!

But the players didn't care about any of that. At the current exchange rate, 50 silver per piece was barely acceptable — and more importantly, the gear was still useful at this stage.

"Give me five — wait, there's a purchase limit?" Someone tried to buy several sets at once, only to find there was a one-set-per-person limit.

"I'm truly sorry — my abilities are limited. Even working through the night, I only managed to make 2,000 sets, so…" Liu Kongkong hurried to explain, but no one was listening. The moment people heard "purchase limit," many immediately turned and ran to fetch their friends. Half an hour later, a long queue had formed outside the blacksmith shop — even Night's Gentle Chill and Big Dumb Duck were standing in line.

"Are you planning to leave the Starter Village tomorrow?"

With everything settled, Night's Gentle Chill had calmed down. He turned to look at Big Dumb Duck behind him. The matter of the spy had already been traced — it was a so-called "friend" who went by the name Little Trumpet who had posted about it on the forums.

"Some of us will leave. We still need to recruit people out there — it's only just beginning, isn't it?"

"I heard Divine Twilight is planning to move against you." Night's Gentle Chill couldn't hide the schadenfreude in his voice.

Big Dumb Duck chuckled. "So what? If we really can't handle it, we can always come back to the Starter Village, haha." He said it lightly, but his eyes were full of fighting spirit.

"You should still have a copy of the Guild Establishment Permit, right?"

"I've got 1 left." Big Dumb Duck didn't hide it. He had arranged 30 teams to enter the Void Space — so far, one more team had successfully cleared it. "What about you?"

"Same." Night's Gentle Chill shook his head helplessly. That team had been made up of elites; the rest were still stuck on the second stage.

"Hey, you two up front — stop chatting! It's your turn! Have some decency — there are people waiting in line behind you. If you want to flirt, go do it somewhere else!"

* * *

Before long, a full day had passed.

Liu Kongkong had originally expected the 2,000 sets to sell out in an hour or two. Whether it was because of his earlier speech or not, some players lingered after receiving their equipment to say a few words, which ended up taking considerably more of his time.

Amid the farewells, Liu Kongkong closed the shop door, released the shop manager to handle things, and put on his face guard, bracers, and other equipment.

"From here on, I'll leave this side to the shop manager. Once the teleportation array opens tomorrow, I'll head out with the other players."

But before leaving, he still had two things to do. The first was to allocate his stat points — he had earned another 472 attribute points over the course of the day. After a moment's thought, he put them all in.

Name: Liu Dameng (Hundredfold Attribute Suppression Active)

Class: Apprentice Blacksmith (Level 20, Max Level Reached)

HP: 1000.01 / 1000.01

Mana: 1000.01 / 1000.01

Strength: 500.00

Constitution: 100.01

Agility: 47.00

Intelligence: 10.00

Spirit: 100.01

Available Points: 0

The second thing — before leaving the Starter Village, he planned to make one last trip to the Void Space…

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