Chapter 61: I Am a Personal Shopper in the Game World

Yu Xun'ge asked curiously, "Does the game contract even recognize official seals?"

Zhao Shuying smiled and replied, "Of course it does."

She regained her previous composure and elegance, making Yu Xun'ge suspect that her earlier banter was merely a negotiation tactic.

After signing the contract, Yu Xun'ge checked her character interface to confirm the relevant terms, only feeling completely at ease after a thorough review.

Zhao Shuying said, "We will deliver the gold within three days. No matter which stronghold you visit in the near future, just inform the staff there. We have already entered your information and level into our internal system, and your current level is the highest among external personnel."

Yu Xun'ge glanced at the time; it was already 3:00 PM. If she didn't rush out to hunt now, her revenge would have to wait until tomorrow. She said, "Alright, I won't be traveling far these next few days. I'll be off now; I still haven't gotten around to my real business this afternoon."

Zhao Shuying and Zhao Xianyin escorted her to the entrance of the stronghold on the first floor, drawing frequent glances from other players.

After leaving the treehouse, Yu Xun'ge ran into the forest. Donning a black robe to wrap herself completely, she cast the Illusion Spell and arrived at the cave she had reached earlier that morning while tailing Su Zhi. She stood quietly in the corner and waited.

Taking advantage of this time, she watched alchemy videos in her mind while pondering her upcoming plans.

With five days left until New Year's Day, she planned to spend these days leveling up. Once the gold arrived and she began converting it into gold coins, her rest periods would be used precisely for alchemy.

After all, converting the gold required her to use the God of Thieves' Disguise skill. Subtracting the reduced cooldown time, she would work for one hour every five hours. During these cooldown periods, fighting monsters wasn't very cost-effective; since the environments outside each major city varied, she might finally find monsters only to have to head back after fighting for a couple of hours. It was far better to dive into sewers or similar locations to level up her professional skills.

In any case, she could transform into animals and use Apparition, ensuring she could escape no matter the situation.

As dusk approached, Yu Xun'ge heard swearing and cursing drawing near.

It was Su Zhi and the burly man's group, totaling eight people.

Yu Xun'ge had calculated that morning that this group consisted of twenty-one people in total. She had only killed ten in the morning, so why were only eight returning now?

"Do you think she figured something out?"

"No way. Other teams invited her before and she turned them down without being suspicious either."

"She probably went to another stronghold. Didn't they say she doesn't have a fixed stronghold?"

"Probably. Let's go hunt and stake out that area again tomorrow."

"How does she even dare to venture so deep alone? We only dare to fight Level 4 ones... and several people still died today."

"Did you guys feel like today's monsters became much stronger? I really didn't guard against it properly, otherwise Little Si and the others wouldn't have died."

Yu Xun'ge couldn't be bothered to listen any longer. She pulled out a grenade, tossing one for every pull of the pin. After throwing five in succession, she used Apparition to teleport outside the cave.

The moment she materialized at the cave entrance, she heard the explosions from within.

Patiently waiting five minutes, she walked inside while maintaining the Illusion Spell. Looking from a distance at the eight bloodied "corpses" on the ground, she didn't get closer; instead, she drew her gun and fired three consecutive shots into Su Zhi's head, followed by the burly man, and then one by one, putting three shots into every single head.

After waiting quietly for a moment longer, she drew her long saber, walked over, severed each person's head, and finally poured gasoline over their bodies before setting them ablaze.

Throughout the entire process, she maintained her stealth state.

Only after watching their bodies burn to char did Yu Xun'ge use Apparition once more with satisfaction, arriving at Stronghold 0003, which was at least a two-hour journey away from the crime scene.

True to her word, Zhao Shuying delivered within three days. Before New Year's Day even arrived, Yu Xun'ge not only paid back all her owed skill crystals in full, but she also received 100 blank skill crystals and 40,000 catties of gold—an amount sufficient to exchange for 100,000 gold coins.

While such a vast amount of gold was astronomical to her, and even a huge sum for the Su, Liang, and Han families, it was nothing to the nation's reserves. She could easily imagine the internal debates they must have had regarding this transaction.

After retrieving the gold and leaving the stronghold, she plunged deep into the forest. Running into the territory of Level 8 monsters and circling around to ensure no one was following her, she transformed into the appearance of a goblin and used Apparition to reach the teleportation array in Undercity. Next, she would visit her goblin friends across various major cities.

With 40,000 catties of gold, she could exchange for 111,111 gold coins. If she spent a bit more time haggling with the goblins, she might even get a lower rate, but these were merely her assumptions.

"180 grams of gold for a single coin? My friend, you can't be serious. Do you know Bill, the wealthy tycoon of Undercity? He exchanges with me at 170 grams."

"Then go find him."

"But I want to make a friend out of you. Fine, 180 grams it is."

Walking out of the goblin district, Yu Xun'ge felt it necessary to take some lessons in conversation skills from Zhao Shuying.

"200 grams for a single gold coin?! Why don't you just go rob someone?"

"I didn't want to exchange in the first place; you're the one begging me. Do you know Bill, the wealthy tycoon of Undercity?"

"…I know him. What about it?"

"I heard he spent all his savings buying gold. For a while, he couldn't even afford a meal."

"…Well, I heard that too, but every gold coin he crafts earns him 60 grams of gold, which is equivalent to making a free gold coin every two days. Over a year, that's 182 gold coins."

"Add 50 silver coins."

"…Right, 182 gold and 50 silver. In ten years, that's 1,825 gold. So, are you exchanging or not? 180 grams per gold coin, not a gram less. No one else is willing to give you a discount this big besides me."

"Fine, I only have 1,000 coins here."

Some city goblins were poor, while others were wealthy, but their bottom line was rigidly fixed at 180 grams per gold coin. Bargaining any further risked angering them. Moreover, after running around, she realized that Bill truly was the richest; she never encountered another goblin willing to exchange 20,000 gold coins in one go, which greatly reduced her efficiency.

She could only disguise herself twice a day, for one hour each time. Her original plan was that one hour would be just enough to finish exchanging the gold coins and stroll around the alien races' major cities in Zelan Star, but she found it was far from enough. Goblins like Bill who could exchange 20,000 gold coins at once were rare. She had no choice but to chat with every goblin she met, trading eight hundred or a thousand at a time. With hundreds of goblins in a single major city, she had talked to them one by one.

She could only visit one major city per day, split into two sessions. The remaining time was barely enough to visit the city's restaurants and find local chefs to learn local specialty recipes.

Yu Xun'ge pushed herself into overdrive: she slept while her skills were on cooldown, and the moment the 5-hour cooldown ended, she disguised herself, entered the city, and chatted with goblins to exchange gold coins. Fortunately, due to the time differences between the major cities, she could always find one where it was currently daytime. With nearly four hours of daily work, Yu Xun'ge managed to exchange 30,000 to 40,000 gold coins every day.

After several days of this, Yu Xun'ge felt like she knew more goblins than peers in the entertainment industry.

Returning to Undercity, Yu Xun'ge transformed into a tuxedo cat she had encountered in the dwarf stronghold of Ironforge—virtually identical to the tuxedo cat she had turned into when she first arrived in Zelan Star. She ran to Stronghold 0003, jumped onto a table, stated her name, and requested to see Zhao Shuying.

Zhao Shuying arrived promptly, as if she had been waiting for her all along.

Upon seeing the 100,000 gold coins transferred over, Zhao Shuying finally let out a sigh of relief. Internally, there had indeed been voices doubting whether Yu Xun'ge would take the gold and stay in Zelan Star.

Yu Xun'ge knew nothing of this—or rather, she had considered it but didn't care. After collecting another 40,000 catties of gold from Zhao Shuying, she resumed her role as a professional gold purchasing agent.