abcnovels
Chapter 56: Just This?
Chapter 56: Just This?
Rita asked the group, "You guys get a discount when exchanging for empty skill crystals, don't you?" She had previously visited the exchange point and found that they only accepted her skill crystals for trade, with no option to purchase them with regular currency.
The group didn't hide the truth, explaining, "Yes, every three days, we get one free skill crystal. If you want to buy from us with in-game currency, it's 60 silver per crystal. That's a fixed price—no negotiation."
Back when Shadow.Q had offered her a trade of 1 skill crystal for 5 empty ones, the math worked out to exactly 3 gold.
"Friendship price, huh?" Rita thought sarcastically. She put away her boots just as the group prepared to haggle. But before they could utter a word, Rita flipped her hand, revealing one of her freshly crafted **Another Happy Day** skill crystals. "Want to trade? One skill crystal for seven empty ones."
The five players were taken aback, and the long-haired woman immediately tried to negotiate. "That's too much. You can only get five empty crystals for one at the exchange point. Why should we give you seven?"
Rita countered, "How many of my skill crystals would you need to get from the exchange?"
The group fell silent, and Rita realized what was going on—it seemed even the officials had some internal bureaucracy.
"So, do we have a deal? I've got two crystals, and if you take both, I'll sell you those boots for 3 gold."
The long-haired woman smiled wryly. "That's not how you do business, my friend."
Rita immediately stood up to leave.
"Didn't you say earlier that whoever isn't serious is a dog?" the long-haired woman teased.
Rita sighed and replied, "Woof. Now, are we trading or not?"
The group relented, and a few minutes later, Rita left with 3 gold and 14 empty skill crystals in hand.
---
Rita had one more thing to confirm. She approached one of the exchange point staff and asked, "Do you have a method for exchanging in-game gold with NPCs?"
The staff member was a cheerful girl with a bob haircut who smiled and said, "That's one of our paid services."
Rita raised a hand, cutting her off. "Is Shadow.Q your sister?"
The girl's smile became more genuine. "Yes, I'm Meow.Q."
Rita's face fell. "Case solved. Go on."
Meow.Q explained, "There are three ways to do it, but all of them require signing a contract. The first method requires you to give us 10% of all the gold you earn through this channel. The second method requires you to give us 30%. The third method requires no cuts, but you'll have to join our team for a year, during which time you'll receive all the benefits of being an official member."
Rita didn't get upset at the high commission rates. Instead, she frowned in thought. She understood what being able to exchange gold with NPCs really meant. As she progressed further in this life, answers to many of the questions that had puzzled her in the past were slowly being revealed.
For example, why, despite Rick and Zoey's good fortune and smooth sailing, they still weren't the most powerful in the country. Or why the Lopez, White, and Taylor families, though dominant, never blatantly broke the law—they even needed to justify their attempts to hunt her down with fabricated charges.
Or why, in the third year of her previous life on the run, she had heard that the people of Earth were planning a counterattack against Lania Kaya, preparing to drop anchor points for an assault.
Many of her old ideas now seemed laughable. She had once thought that by not competing with the officials or hoarding herbs for herself, she was doing her part to avoid dragging Earth down. She was trying to maintain a moral high ground without being entirely selfless.
She sighed deeply, realizing she had let her success get to her head.
"If I happen to already know a method to exchange gold, does that mean I still have to give you a cut when I use it?"
Meow.Q's eyes gleamed with interest. "The contract will specify that if you've already been using a method before signing with us, the agreement becomes void. Afterward, you won't have to give us a cut. You can even sell your methods to us, if you like."
Rita considered this for a long time. In the end, she decided it wouldn't hurt to gain another method for exchanging gold. There was no way she could compete with the might of a nation alone. So, she chose the first option.
Meow.Q called over a colleague to take her place and led Rita upstairs to a meeting room, where a contract was promptly brought out. After thoroughly reading it and confirming it was fair, Rita signed her name.
Once everything was in order, Meow.Q shared the secret to exchanging gold efficiently on Lania Kaya: "There's a drunkard in the southeast corner of the city's tavern basement who will buy any kind of alcohol. If you bring him Earth-made alcohol, like a cask of *Erguotou* (Chinese liquor), you can sell it for 50 silver. Finer liquors fetch even more—some can go for as much as a full gold piece.
But be quick about it, because he caps his purchases at 100 gold per day."
Rita's face remained expressionless, but internally, she was disappointed. *This is it?*
*This?* she thought.
*Every time I sell tens of thousands of gold coins, and this is what I get?*
Rita pressed her thumbs to her temples. If she didn't, she feared her ego might inflate again.
Meow.Q and her partner exchanged a curious glance. "Is she... too happy?"
Rita looked up, straightening her jacket. In that moment, she felt like the corporate elite she had once portrayed in her dramas. "Do you guys accept gold coins? I can help you exchange them—200 grams of gold for one gold coin."
Meow.Q and her colleague were stunned.
Meow.Q finally asked, "Are you selling that method?"
Rita smiled. "No. I'm only willing to exchange up to 100,000 gold coins."
After factoring in the 360 grams of gold she needed for daily coin production, Rita still had 10,778 kilograms of gold. Each month, she'd use about 21 kilograms of gold for coins, so she couldn't afford to exchange all of it. But she could certainly exchange a substantial portion—about 10,000 kilograms, or approximately 27,777 coins.
With 36 cities spread across 12 races on Lania Kaya, she was confident she could manage that volume.
But acting as the middleman for the officials was a different story. She would charge a 20-gram gold commission per coin. For 100,000 coins, that would amount to 4,000 kilograms of gold in fees. Was that excessive?
No.
"Not only that," Rita continued, "but in exchange, I won't charge a commission. However, I expect you to sell my **Wheel of Fate** skill crystals and provide me with empty crystals in return—at no cost. But publicly, I want you to claim that you're only giving me a 20% profit margin. It's a win-win for both of us, don't you think?"
Meow.Q and her partner were silent.