Chapter 59: Is That It?

She asked the group, "Do you offer a discount when trading internally for blank skill crystals?" She had previously asked at the exchange point, where she was only allowed to trade using her own skill crystals, with coin purchases flatly rejected.

The group made no attempt to conceal it. Official perks were designed precisely to attract more players to join the official ranks, so they voluntarily explained: "Yes, we distribute one for free every three days. If you want to use in-game currency to buy them from us, it's 60 silver per crystal. That's a hard rule; that's the price."

The exchange rate Zhao Shuying had given her back then was 1 skill crystal for 5 blank crystals. Mathematically, didn't that work out to exactly 3 gold?

And they called that a "friendly price"?!

After mentally scoffing, Yu Xunge put away her boots. The mouths of the five people opposite her dropped open, and judging by the shape of their lips, a profanity was already on the verge of spilling out. With a flick of her hand, Yu Xunge produced the [Feels Good to Be Happy Again] skill crystal she had crafted earlier that day: "Want to trade? 1 skill-bearing crystal for 7 of your blanks."

The five of them urgently clamped their mouths shut to swallow back the curse. The long-haired woman tried to bargain: "Isn't that too expensive? Even if you go to the official exchange point, you only get 5 crystals. Why is it 7 with us?"

Yu Xunge retorted, "Then how much do you have to pay at the official exchange point to get a skill crystal like mine?"

The group fell silent. Yu Xunge had an epiphany: it seemed the internal operations were quite shady as well.

Yu Xunge: "Are we trading? I have two of them here. If you take both, I'll sell you that pair of boots for 3 gold."

Long-haired woman: "Friend, that's not how business is done."

Yu Xunge immediately stood up to leave.

Long-haired woman: "Didn't you say whoever isn't sincere is a dog?"

Yu Xunge: "Woof. Are we trading or not?"

The five-person squad: "..."

A few minutes later, Yu Xunge walked away clutching 3 gold coins and 14 blank skill crystals.

......

Yu Xunge still had one more matter to verify. She sought out a staff member at the exchange point and asked directly, "Do you have a channel for acquiring gold coins from NPCs?"

The staff member at this stronghold was a cute girl with a bob haircut. She smiled and said, "Now this touches upon one of our paid services."

Yu Xunge raised a hand: "What relation are you to Zhao Shuying?"

The girl's smile became a bit more genuine: "She's my older sister. My name is Zhao Xuanyin."

Yu Xunge slumped her expression: "Mystery solved. Go on."

Zhao Xuanyin said, "There are three methods, but all of them require signing a contract. The first method is that you must give us 10% of all the gold coins you acquire. The second method requires giving us 30%. The third method requires no profit-sharing, but you must join our team for a fixed term of one year, during which you will enjoy all the benefits available to internal personnel."

Instead of reacting with outrage at their perceived extortion, Yu Xunge frowned and sank into deep thought. She knew what being able to exchange for gold coins implied. She only felt that the higher she climbed in this lifetime, the more she understood, and many mysteries from her past life were gradually finding answers in this one.

For example, why were Yu Xunhuan and Su Yitong already so exceptionally lucky and sailing so smoothly, yet still not the most powerful people in the country? Why were the Su, Han, and Liang families at the height of their power, yet still didn't dare to openly break the law, even fabricating charges against her before hunting her down? Why, in the third year of her exile, had she heard that the people of Blue Star were organizing a counteroffensive, casting anchors toward Zelan Star to strike back...

She suddenly felt that many of her previous notions were somewhat laughable—like refusing to speculate on herbs, refusing to compete with the government for profits, doing her best not to be utterly selfless while not holding Blue Star back, and so on...

After a long silence, she let out a heavy sigh. She really had been getting a bit too full of herself lately.

She said, "What if the method for exchanging gold coins that I know happens to overlap with the one you're going to tell me? Does that mean in the future, even when I use my own method to get gold coins, I'll still have to share profits with you?"

Zhao Xuanyin's eyes brightened slightly. She replied, "The contract will state clearly that if you have already used the method we disclose to you before the contract is signed, the contract becomes void regarding that method. From then on, you won't need to share profits with us for gold coins obtained that way, and you can even sell the method you know to us, you see."

After pondering for a long time, Yu Xunge decided she still needed to acquire an additional channel for exchanging gold coins. How could she, a single individual, dare to compete with a national apparatus? Thus, she chose the first option.

Zhao Xuanyin found someone to cover her shift, then led Yu Xunge to the reception room on the second floor of the stronghold. Inside, a wooden table and four tree stumps were set up, and someone was already waiting for them.

Shortly after they sat down, Yu Xunge received the contract. Reading it word for word, she found the terms genuinely fair; if she already knew and had used the method beforehand, the contract would immediately be rendered invalid in that regard.

She signed her full name, and then Zhao Xuanyin told her how to efficiently earn gold on Zelan Star.

"In the basement of the small tavern in the southeast of the city, there's a drunkard who accepts all kinds of alcohol. You can go back to the real world, buy some liquor, and bring it back to sell to him. A single jar of Erguotou can sell for 50 silver, and better liquor can fetch even more, with the record being 1 gold per jar. However, if you want to sell, you'd better act quickly; he only buys a maximum of 100 gold worth of liquor per day."

With a deadpan expression, Yu Xunge felt as though she were once again slowly floating upward: Just this?

Just? This?

Whenever I trade tens of thousands of gold coins, do I go around bragging about it?

Yu Xunge propped her elbows on the tabletop, pressing her thumbs against her temples. She was afraid that if she didn't hold herself down, she'd start floating away again.

Zhao Xuanyin and her partner exchanged glances, asking with curiosity, "Are you... too happy?"

Yu Xunge raised her head and straightened her collar. At that moment, she felt remarkably like the corporate elites she used to play in dramas: "Do you... accept gold coins? I can help you source and purchase gold coins. 200 grams of gold exchanged for one gold coin."

Zhao Xuanyin & Partner: "..."

Zhao Xuanyin: "Is this method of yours... for sale?"

Yu Xunge smiled: "Not for sale. Besides, using this method, I can only exchange a maximum of 100,000 gold coins for you."

Subtracting the 360 grams of gold consumed daily to craft 3 gold coins, she currently still had 10,778 catties of gold on her.

Since she needed 21 catties of gold every month just to craft her own gold coins, naturally she couldn't convert all ten-thousand-plus catties into currency. At most, she would convert 10,000 catties of gold, which translated to roughly 27,777 gold coins.

Recently, she had learned a great deal of information unknown to her in her past life—for instance, that Zelan Star possessed 12 races, each race featuring 3 major cities, totaling 36 major cities. She refused to believe she wouldn't be able to spend it all.

However, if she acted as an official purchasing agent for gold coins, it would be a completely different story. She would take a commission of 20 grams of gold for every single coin. Out of 100,000 gold coins, her commission would amount to 4,000 catties. Was that a lot?!

Not at all!

"Not only that, but this is just the exchange ratio. I haven't even mentioned my service fee yet. I can waive the profit-sharing percentage, but from now on, my Wheel of Destiny skill stones must be placed here with you for you to sell on my behalf. You will provide the blank crystals and charge no fees whatsoever, though outwardly you must claim that you only take a 20% cut of the profits from me. You aren't losing out on this deal, right?"

Both Zhao Xuanyin and her companion fell silent.