When Su Fan opened his eyes again, he found himself in the game.
Su Fan was overjoyed. It was just as he had expected!
Now that he had found a way to enter and exit the game, Su Fan had no more worries.
He needed to think about how to use the game as a resource to make money. Su Fan had quit his job, and his remaining savings wouldn't last long.
There were many ways to make money, such as selling elixirs. He could buy elixirs in the game and sell them in reality. However, this wouldn't be sustainable. Su Fan didn't have enough capital, and if he could only bring one item out at a time, how many trips would it take for him to sell enough?
Besides, Su Fan had no money at all right now. In the game, he had only ten copper coins from yesterday and had already booked a room. He was completely broke.
Su Fan pondered what items in the game would be most valuable in reality. As he thought, his eyes suddenly lit up. He thought of something that would definitely be worth a lot of money!
But he needed in-game currency to buy it. Su Fan had ten pieces of chicken meat in his inventory. He sold them directly to the inn for ten copper coins each, totaling one hundred copper coins. However, it was still not enough. Su Fan had to continue killing chickens. To buy that item, he needed to kill at least one hundred wild chickens, which meant accumulating one thousand copper coins.
This was a long and arduous journey. Su Fan used the one hundred copper coins he had to buy a few more wound-healing potions and then headed to Wolong Slope.
Su Fan spent most of the day there. He didn't kill enough wild chickens, but he did level up.
Su Fan
Level: 2
Strength: 7 (Determines physical damage)
Agility: 7 (Determines evasion and attack speed)
Constitution: 6 (Determines HP and defense)
Intelligence: 6 (Determines mana and spell damage)
Free Attribute Points: 4
Su Fan naturally put all his points into Strength. Only with high Strength could he deal high damage, and with high damage, he could level up faster.
-6
With a single sword strike from Su Fan, a yellow number appeared, indicating a defense break. Su Fan's level advantage over the wild chickens allowed his damage to penetrate their defenses, dealing critical damage. He could defeat a wild chicken with two strikes.
After another half-day, Su Fan finally gathered one hundred pieces of chicken meat. He sold them all to the inn, earning one thousand copper coins.
With this thousand copper coins, Su Fan went to the general store.
He found the item he wanted from the general store merchant.
In the game "Martial World Hegemony," the general store sold gems of various colors used for crafting equipment. They were not expensive, merely auxiliary materials, and were sold for only one thousand copper coins each.
These gems would undoubtedly be extremely rare in reality.
Su Fan chose one of the gems.
Emerald
A material for forging accessories.
Su Fan chose it because it resembled jade. He remembered that there was a grade of jade called emerald. If these two were the same, Su Fan would be rich!
Excitedly, Su Fan used his remaining money to book a room at the inn and then fell asleep.
In the game, Su Fan slept very quickly, almost falling asleep the moment he lay down, likely due to the game's mechanics.
Su Fan woke up in reality again and the first thing he did was open his inventory and click to retrieve the emerald.
The icon in his inventory immediately disappeared, and the emerald appeared in Su Fan's hand. Trying to retrieve other items yielded no response. It was indeed as Su Fan had suspected: he could only retrieve one item at a time in reality.
However, this did not dampen Su Fan's excitement. Gems! From now on, he could finally say goodbye to being a wage slave and achieve financial freedom.
Su Fan put on his jacket and headed towards the city's antique street.
Su Fan discovered that the time he spent in the game was the same as the time that passed in the real world. He had spent over ten hours in the game, and over ten hours had passed outside. The sky was just beginning to lighten.
Su Fan figured the antique street wouldn't be open yet, so he went to a breakfast shop next to it for a meal.
"This is authentic! After I finish this breakfast, I'll head to the antique street next door to take a look!" a Beijing accent reached Su Fan's ears.
Su Fan glanced over. It was a streamer. Su Fan remembered him, something like "Dao," but with so many "Dao"s, Su Fan couldn't quite recall the name.
After finishing his breakfast, Su Fan walked into the antique street.
Stalls lined both sides of the street, selling porcelain, jade, bracelets, and second-hand items. There was everything imaginable. Su Fan even saw someone selling spicy strips, but the packaging was covered in dust, suggesting they were likely eight hundred years past their expiration date.
Su Fan knew he couldn't sell his emerald at these street stalls. Ninety-nine percent of the items sold here were fakes; touching them too much would stunt your growth.
"Brothers, look at this small stall. Don't be fooled by its size; it's full of treasures. If you have a good eye, there's money to be made everywhere!" Su Fan encountered the streamer again, standing at a stall in front of him, boasting.
"Boss, what dynasty is this from?" the streamer asked the stall owner, picking up a dao coin.
"Shang Zhou dynasty, a dao coin. Look at this patina; it's impossible to fake," the boss said, pointing to the green patina on the coin with a professional air.
"Wow, Shang Zhou dynasty, impressive! How much is this?" the streamer asked in surprise.
The boss held up eight fingers.
"Eight hundred?"
"Eight thousand!"
Su Fan couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head. Shang Zhou dynasty? I think it's from last week. And eight thousand? You can buy a whole pile wholesale for eight dollars.
Su Fan ignored them and walked past the streamer, heading into a shop called "Yu Bao Xuan." Su Fan browsed around. This jade shop was the largest, so he came here.
"Young man, do you buy jade?" Su Fan asked the young man behind the counter.
"We do! What's the quality?" The young man's eyes lit up. This was a significant opportunity to appraise jade, a test of an apprentice's discernment. If they were sharp, they could find a bargain.
"Take a look," Su Fan said, taking out the emerald and placing it on the counter.
It was an egg-sized jade stone, emerald green and translucent, with no impurities.
Upon seeing the quality, the salesperson lost all interest.
This thing was clearly fake. A gem of this quality, deserving of the name emerald, and without a single impurity, could be auctioned at a prestigious event. How could it possibly appear on a small antique street?
"Sir, please don't joke. You should take this back and play with it yourself," the salesperson said, dismissing Su Fan without even bothering to examine it.
"You haven't even looked yet. Say that after you've seen it. This is a very rare gem," Su Fan urged. He couldn't have gone through all this trouble to get a gem only for it to be labeled a fake without even being properly inspected.
The salesperson reluctantly picked up the emerald and pretended to examine it before impatiently tossing it back to Su Fan.
Su Fan fumbled to catch it, almost dropping it on the ground.
"Fake," the salesperson directly told Su Fan that it was fake.