Chapter 15 A New Direction

Currently, a few gold coins were a massive amount for a team, even a guild. After all, the earnings from an elite team's dungeon run were only a few dozen silver coins at most. And after dividing it among so many members, there wasn't much left. Most players weren't rich, and their money was used to buy equipment, skill books, potions, and consumables from shops, often leaving them with nothing to donate to the guild. But the guild needed funds for all sorts of things, especially building a guild warehouse, which had already drained their coffers. Occasionally, they even had to buy game currency from the black market using credits to make ends meet.

At this time, guilds needed money the most. The game currency on the black market had already been sold out and couldn't be bought. Players couldn't even support themselves, so very few had extra game currency to sell. Guilds were like massive money-swallowing machines, frustrating the guild leaders. But without continuous investment, guilds would quickly fall apart. Still, they were extremely optimistic about the future prospects of guilds, believing they would be very profitable. Once guild wars started, each city would have fortresses. Whichever guild conquered and defended a fortress would own it and collect taxes on all transactions, land, and shops within the fortress. Then, the guild's income would be terrifying.

Because of the broad prospects, the guild leaders, though pained, kept investing large amounts of money and energy into their guilds. Under such massive expenditures, they couldn't afford to buy land and open shops. They only started opening shops because they saw the popularity of Starry Night Pharmacy and followed suit. Due to insufficient funds, the land they bought was located in remote areas, and their pharmacies were only upgraded to level one. Moreover, most of their pharmacists' production had to supply the guild's needs first, and only the remainder would be sold, so their business wasn't very good.

In the future, production professions wouldn't only be pharmacists. Tailors, alchemists, blacksmiths, and other professions already existed, but they hadn't developed much in the short term. These professions were in their apprenticeship, producing almost nothing. The things they made at the beginner level were too poor, and nobody wanted them. For example, a blacksmith apprentice's weapons were only at the level of beginner equipment. The best weapons made by a beginner blacksmith were only bronze-level, and selling them on the market wouldn't earn much. So for the time being, only pharmacists were more popular. After all, even low-level potions would have some effect when used.

Nie Yan would definitely get involved in tailoring, alchemy, and blacksmithing. But he didn't have much spare money. He would invest his money into land first. In the future, once he had land and shops, there were still many free blacksmiths on the market. If that didn't work, he could just use large sums of money to poach people from other shops and guilds. This was something Cao Xu often did in his past life.

Nie Yan withdrew all the remaining money from the shop, about thirty-six gold coins, and teleported to Nisode City, the second largest city in Glimmering Land. Karol City, Nisode City, and Blackrock City of Glory were Cao Xu's main sphere of influence in his past life. Cao Xu had bought more than 50% of the land in these three cities. By buying land in these cities, Nie Yan was undermining Cao Xu's foundation.

When Nie Yan arrived in Nisode City, he discovered that the small plots of land had almost been sold out. Large plots of land worth more than 10 gold coins were still untouched.

Nie Yan set his sights on a plot of land located in the center of Nisode City, worth 28 gold coins. Even many large guilds couldn't afford such a plot of land for the time being. Nisode City had a much smaller population than Karol City, and although business was booming, there weren't many wealthy people.

This piece of land in the city center was a prime location. In the future, when commerce flourished, opening an auction house here would make it a landmark building in the city. Buying this piece of land was equivalent to buying half of Nisode City!

Nie Yan bought it without hesitation. When the price of this land appreciated in the future, the monthly property holding tax would also be a large expense. The main system was smart. The starting price of a property wasn't high, but the future property holding tax would be high, with a fixed tax every month, allowing for a steady stream of income. If some poorly managed players couldn't continue operating and couldn't afford the property holding tax, they would sell the property, thereby promoting commercial circulation.

In addition to that, he bought some cheaper land, leaving him with one gold coin. Then he teleported back to Karol City.

Nie Yan checked his status. The effect of the thirtieth-level elites reducing his infamy was significant. His red name had faded, and he was now in a yellow-name state. When a player was in a yellow-name state, the NPCs in the city would warn and be hostile towards them. Other than affecting quest acceptance, it didn't matter much at other times.

Killing thirtieth-level elite Scaled Toads in a red-name state had a chance of dropping a Mad Murderer's Badge. But Nie Yan wasn't lucky enough to get it, which was a pity. He could only try again tomorrow. If it still didn't drop, there was nothing he could do. Perhaps his infamy points weren't high enough to meet the requirements for dropping the Mad Murderer's Badge. After all, that accessory had excellent stats, and the drop rate was very low.

Looking at the skill bar, the Arbitration of the Gods on the Chapter of Courage had finally changed from dark to bright, meaning it was usable.

Nie Yan had waited a long time for this skill that took ten natural days to cool down!

Nie Yan was extremely excited. If he activated Arbitration of the Gods and Reckless Charge at the same time, with a little luck, the damage would be terrifying. These two skills, coupled with Steal, should be enough to meet the requirements for the next quest.

Arbitration of the Gods plus Reckless Charge was terrifying. Arbitration of the Gods could instantly increase Nie Yan's health by 500 points, bringing his health to nearly 900. Thirty percent of that was 270. Using Reckless Charge for a multiplier critical hit... as long as there wasn't a miss, this skill could instantly kill someone.

Nie Yan's plan was gradually coming to fruition. Perhaps he wasn't the strongest now, but when he completed all his ideas and appeared before the world, he would make everyone tremble.

That would be a brand-new Thief built on his ten years of experience and the imagination of countless geniuses!

In this life, he would no longer have any regrets. He would become a being beyond the Shadow Dancer, called a God!

He glanced at the time, hurriedly finished his tasks, instructed Bird Plume, and then Nie Yan logged out of the game.

He brushed his teeth, washed his face, drank a can of nutritional fluid, tidied up the house a little, and then the phone rang.

"Nie Yan, I'm downstairs at your place. Come down quickly."

"I'll be right there." Nie Yan put on his clothes and went downstairs. As he walked to the entrance of the residential area, he saw a black sports car. It was extremely large with a streamlined structure, like a steel beast. This was a limited-edition domestic Fierce Tiger, representing the highest level of domestic technology. Its price was more terrifying than many foreign cars. It was equipped with a miniature nuclear battery and had a top speed of 1,800 kilometers per hour, more terrifying than an airplane. The entire body was made of bulletproof materials, capable of instantly smashing through cement walls more than thirty centimeters thick.

Tang Yao got out of the car, patted the big guy next to him, and asked, "How is it, the Fierce Tiger, awesome, right?"

Nie Yan glanced at it and nodded, "It's alright. This thing isn't yours, is it?" In his previous life, Nie Yan's dad had also ordered a Fierce Tiger. It was indeed very cool.

"Why aren't you even a little surprised? What a failure. Yeah, it's not mine. It's my dad's. Rich people are different. Borrowing his car for a day still costs twenty thousand credits in rent," Tang Yao spread his hands. Tang Yao had been earning his own money since he was sixteen through working and investing in the stock market. His dad hadn't given him a single cent, so he spoke in this tone. "But driving this car is too awesome and cool. Makes you want to crash into cement walls and obstacles."

Nie Yan couldn't help but laugh and said, "If your dad knew you treated his car like this, you'd be finished."

Tang Yao spread his hands, and said helplessly, "No way, I have no status. I'm less valuable than his car at home. Alright, no more chatting, let's get in the car. They've been waiting for a long time."

Tang Yao gradually realized that when he talked to Nie Yan, he used to be the dominant one. But now, that relationship had quietly changed. However, he didn't think there was anything wrong with the current relationship. Nie Yan's position in his heart was slowly rising.

After getting into the car, there was no sound. The Fierce Tiger started, speeding away like lightning.

The place where they were gathering was a restaurant in the suburbs of the provincial capital. After switching to autopilot, the Fierce Tiger would arrive in half an hour at most.

Azure Water Cloud Pavilion Restaurant, known as the crown jewel of the provincial capital, was actually a high-end entertainment club. Covering tens of acres, it was fully equipped with various entertainment facilities, making it an ideal place for people to gather and spend money.

The Fierce Tiger stopped in the square. Looking around, the square was full of cars of all kinds parked in rows. Although the Fierce Tiger was good, it wasn't the best car. Out of the thousands of cars in the square, at least ten were more powerful than the Fierce Tiger.

"There are really a lot of rich people," Tang Yao turned to Nie Yan and said, "Let's go."

"I can't afford to spend money in a place like this, so you'll have to pay for everything," Nie Yan said.

"Just pretend to be poor. If you sold the game currency in the game, I don't know how much money you could earn, and you still have the nerve to freeload off my money."

"I will never touch the game currency. Inside, it can generate money, and every dollar can turn into more money," Nie Yan shook his head.

Tang Yao nodded thoughtfully and said, "I understand. It's like the money I have in the stock market. In general, I spend no more than thirty thousand credits a month, and that's what I earn from working. I usually don't touch the money in the stock market. Alright, I've been leeching off your equipment in the game. I'll pay for everything today."