I Became the Blacksmith NPC

Early the next morning.

The entrance to Starter Village No. 0113 was packed with people — most of them belonging to Big Dumb Duck's and Night's Gentle Chill's factions, while Liu Kongkong blended in among the free players.

Many in the crowd were greeting one another, making plans to party up and grind levels once they got out. Some invited Liu Kongkong to join, but he declined.

Finally, after a few minutes, the teleportation gate shimmered with a burst of light.

"It's open, brothers! Let's move!" Big Dumb Duck waved his hand and led the charge through the gate, with everyone else scrambling to follow. Liu Kongkong hung back, waiting for the bulk of the free players to pass through first. He turned to glance at the spawn point — with so many people leaving the Starter Village, new players were already beginning to appear there.

"Holy shit, it's Starter Village No. 0113 — the Golden Server! We're rich!!" A freshly spawned player spotted the village number and erupted in excitement.

Looks like Wang Xiuqin is going to have her hands full. Liu Kongkong smiled, then, seeing that the free players had mostly filed through the gate, stepped in himself.

The moment he entered the teleportation gate, everything went dark. When his vision returned, the group found themselves standing in the middle of a desolate wilderness.

"Holy shit, why does the exit dump us in the middle of nowhere?!" cried several people around him.

A system prompt appeared in front of Liu Kongkong:

[You have left Starter Village No. 0113. Please select a region to serve as your Home Base. Note: You may only purchase shop properties at your designated Home Base.]

Home Base? So I need a foothold somewhere on the Xingye Continent? I'd better look this over carefully. Liu Kongkong opened the map, only to find it completely black. He zoomed in many times before a single dot of light appeared — his current location.

So I have to explore it myself? He turned to look at the free players around him and noticed they were all heading in the same direction without any prior discussion.

He quickly fell in step behind them.

Unlike Liu Kongkong, regular players received a quest upon leaving the Starter Village that guided them to the next destination — which was exactly why he was following them. After all, he had no quests on him and couldn't accept any.

Following the crowd, they arrived at a small village. The players around him immediately switched into greeting mode, a whole group of them surrounding an old woman and asking if she needed any help. Liu Kongkong, however, stopped at the village entrance.

[Notice: You have arrived at Dirt Dog Village, a settlement belonging to the Great Yan Dynasty. Would you like to set this location as your Home Base? Confirm / Decline]

Liu Kongkong hit Decline without a second thought!

You've got to be kidding — this place might be called a "village," but there were barely a dozen buildings in total. And it was obviously just a waypoint; plenty of players had already asked around, found nothing of interest, and were preparing to move on.

Keep following! After passing through four or five villages of similar size, everyone finally arrived before a walled city.

"Now this is more like it." Liu Kongkong looked at the city ahead. The walls looked a bit worn, but the guards standing at the gate were clad in gleaming silver armor — nothing like the "security guards" back in the Starter Village. He casually used Sharp Eye to inspect one of them and saw nothing but question marks above their head, a clear sign their level far exceeded his.

At the same time, another system prompt appeared:

[Notice: You have arrived at Ghost Whisper City, a city belonging to the Great Yan Dynasty. Would you like to set this location as your Home Base? Confirm / Decline]

"Ghost Whisper City? What kind of name is that?" Liu Kongkong craned his neck to peer inside and saw the main street bustling with activity — vendors calling out their wares, laughter and chatter filling the air. The atmosphere was completely at odds with the city's eerie name.

This is the one! Liu Kongkong confirmed immediately.

Ghost Whisper City was probably the only city in the area. Opening a shop in a place this lively — he'd be hauling in money by the sackful every single day!

The only question was: how much would a shop here cost?

Not that he was too worried about that. Before logging off yesterday, he had sold most of his in-game currency, leaving himself with just two gold coins. But he still had a Guild Establishment Permit in his inventory — sell that, and buying a shop should be no problem.

He continued deeper into the city. After confirming his Home Base, the system marked a location on his map and directed him to go register. Along the way, plenty of NPCs greeted Liu Kongkong, and he responded warmly — after all, these would be his neighbors from now on. He hadn't gone far, however, before he heard a player cry out.

"Holy shit, why is everything here so expensive?! A Level 20 healing potion for 10 silver coins?! Are you trying to rip off a newcomer?!"

"Good traveler, these are standard prices…"

"Standard?! Back in the Starter Village this stuff only cost a few copper coins!"

"Copper coins?" The NPC paused, then seemed to recall something and said with an awkward smile, "The common currency on the Xingye Continent is currently silver coins and gold coins. Copper coins… haven't really been in use for about twenty or thirty years now…"

What? Liu Kongkong, who had been watching from the back of the crowd, felt his brain crash. What do you mean copper coins aren't in use anymore? Then another thought hit him like a thunderbolt.

Wait — does that mean Li Tiansheng brought those people into the Starter Village a very long time ago, and because there was no contact with the outside world, the Village Chief and the others have been using prices from decades ago?!

Which means my blacksmith shop is…!!

Liu Kongkong felt like the sky was falling. He finally understood why the in-game currency exchange rate had crashed so suddenly — the players who had left the Starter Village earlier were earning silver coins, and with a hundredfold gap in value, just a day or two was enough to tank the rate. He then turned to watch a player try to sell a bundle of herbs gathered along the road — the NPC handed over 10 silver…

"Hey, can I sell you some potions and materials too?" Some of the quicker-thinking players had already caught on: if the price gap between the two places was that enormous, couldn't they just run back and forth between the Starter Village and the Xingye Continent to trade?

Unfortunately, when that player pulled out their goods, the NPC took one look and shook their head — not interested. When asked why, the NPC reached out and touched the items in the player's hand — and their hand passed straight through.

"These items don't appear to be products of our Xingye Continent, so they'd be of no use to me. My apologies."

Incredible — you could write a whole novel about this. Call it "Global Prices Skyrocket a Hundredfold, But Only My Income Stays the Same." Liu Kongkong stared blankly into the distance. His blacksmith shop had just suffered an epic-level nerf.

But it's fine — as long as I open another shop here, I can still make money. And if I move fast enough, I might even be able to rake in a fortune in the early days! He checked the exchange rate: with more and more players leaving the Starter Village, just one night had been enough to push it to 1 (silver coin) : 4 (yuan).

"It'll probably keep dropping. Today alone there are likely hundreds more Starter Villages opening their teleportation arrays. I need to move fast!"

But that raised another problem — if prices outside were like this, how much would a shop even cost?!

"Looks like I'll need to sell the Guild Establishment Permit first…" Liu Kongkong's gaze drifted to a lavishly decorated shop on his right. The plaque above the door bore two large characters: Fortune Pavilion!

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!