Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 858: Chapter 816: So…… What Is The Cost?_1

The plotline [Telling stories to Second Miss Chen] is not meaningless.

Because it leads to the [Literary Gathering] gameplay. At the same time, Second Lady Chen will show you the “Martial Arts Secrets” she collects due to her personal liking.

However, most of them aren’t real, to be precise: they’re basically all fakes.

A bookshelf is filled mainly with Wuxia novel storybooks and counterfeit martial arts secrets.

But if you’re patient enough to touch every single book on the shelf, the system will prompt you that three of them are indeed genuine “Martial Arts Secrets”.

They include the beginner’s knife technique [Eight Gates Golden Lock Knife], the lightness skill secret book [Flying on the Grass] with a speed effect and the beginner’s weapon skill for [Iron Fan], [Shaolin Iron Fan Skill].

However, players can only choose one out of the three.

Unless they someday cheered up Second Miss again – or when their intimacy level is enough, she would allow players to choose once more and obtain the second book.

The wonderful thing is: Second Miss, because of her love for Wuxia and Jianghu, will continue to purchase similar books. Thus, there is still a chance for this bookshelf to have new Martial Arts Secrets.

In other words, as long as you maintain a good relationship with Second Miss, you have access to a constant supply of Martial Arts Secrets.

So as with [Teaching Workshop Case].

Meeting with more NPCs, triggering more side quests aside,

Just the case itself provides entry-level martial arts for both [stick] and [gun] weapons, and a special jade pendant that can predict luck and danger.

This jade pendant will vibrate on its own to remind players when there are treasures around, or when the strength of the enemies is too high.

By the way, there’s also a hidden character of Easter egg nature in the Teaching Workshop, waiting for the player to discover.

It’s the same with the side tasks of [Huji Tavern].

Players need to go to the Wine-Brewing Workshop in the eastern suburbs of Chang’an City to solve all sorts of problems they encounter.

After coming back, they not only can get the information about the sister, but also the key item given by Huji – [Liquor gourd].

Drinking alcohol will restore health instantaneously!

No doubt it’s a godsend.

The higher the grade of the Liquor gourd, the better wine you have, the better the health restoration effect is.

The one the tavern owner gives to the player is just the most basic Liquor gourd; there are two ways to get a better Liquor gourd –

One: rent or purchase a piece of land at the Wine-Brewing Workshop to grow gourds yourself.

One gourd plant can yield seven gourds. The quality of the seven gourds is random. After several rounds of harvesting, you should be able to get high-quality gourds.

Two: there’s an NPC in the follow-up plot who can help players upgrade Liquor gourd.

Of course, this will be after players have completed the side quest.

…

Most of the side tasks players encounter on the road of finding the sister are like this.

If one wishes to skip, about 80% of them can be skipped directly.

But the price of skipping is that they’ll miss out on all kinds of items, and will not receive relevant combat experience and skill enhancements.

When facing challenges later on, this will lead to a serious lack of combat power, making them completely unable to confront the enemies!

If Roger keeps skipping like this, when he reaches the point where he cannot skip anymore, his opponents will immediately teach him a lesson!

His beginner-level novice sword will probably break after a single clash!

His physical condition, which has not been enhanced, can’t keep up with the speed of his opponent.

This gap cannot be made up for by skills alone.

But Roger doesn’t know anything about this now. He is running fast towards Chunming Gate.

The liquor industry thrives around Chang’an City’s East Three Gates – Breakthrough Gate, Chunming Gate, Extension Gate.

In addition to the most common Chang’an Rice Wine, there are many taverns run by foreigners. They hire Huji beauties to serve customers in their taverns, which are popular among the public.

The one the player is looking for is among the most distinctive ones: the tavern owner is a Barbaric person.

Hence, it is the extremely authentic [Huji Tavern].

The Huji tavern owner, naturally carefully designed, has stunning looks: fair-skinned and beautiful, with turned-up noses and blue eyes, long white legs were appearing and disappearing under the long skirt. Exotic charm is full on.

If Shuihua saw this, she would definitely comment: “Special quirk +1”.

But Roger is different. In the eyes of a hardcore speedrunner like him, all beauties are skeletons!

Facing the Huji beauty’s request, Roger again refuses with a straight face and directly asks for information about his sister without any consideration for interpersonal relationships.

Although the Huji beauty is unhappy, she does not give him a hard time out of consideration for him being Shirley’s real brother.

It can be seen how lovable this sister Shirley is, even after six years, this Huji big sister still remembers her kindness.

However, the information Roger got made him somewhat speechless: this Huji didn’t know where his sister had gone either.

Because his improvised sister went to learn how to brew alcohol at the age of 10 and, astonishingly, ran off to learn alchemy when she was 11!

At that time, Huji was 13 years old, two years older than Shirley, but it was Shirley who took care of her instead.

The key point is: according to this Huji, Shirley came up with the idea all on her own. She somehow convinced her mother, agreed to send 10-year-old Shirley to the Wine-Brewing Workshop as an apprentice!

A year later, she took initiative again and found a way, going to a Daoist temple and found a master to learn alchemy.

— She originally wanted to learn horseback riding and sword casting, but she was refused due to her young age. So she settled for alchemy instead.

“Is she going to learn a new craft every year…” Roger speculated in his heart.

But he doesn’t betray anything on his face. He again rushes towards Puning Square, Dongming Temple to find his sister’s alchemy master.

In this way, the plotline [Huji Tavern] — skipped once again!

Roger is progressing through the plot at a rapid pace.

But some viewers in the live streaming room are not very happy – just running back and forth on the streets of Chang’an City really can’t be said to make good streaming content:

“skip! skip! skip! All skips!”

“I spent 500 dollars, just to watch him jog around Chang’an City?”

“”Are you rushing to clear the game so you can process your refund promptly?”

“Skipping so much storyline, won’t that cause issues?”

“Does playing this way even have a purpose?”

…

However, Roger was stubborn: “Don’t talk to me about purpose, clearing the game at the fastest speed is my purpose! Being the global number one is my purpose!”

*

Compared to the radical pursuit of speedrun players, ordinary players found their joy in a much easier manner.

At the gate of Chen Mansion, the Second Miss said: “Are you in a hurry to defect to your relatives? Can we wait a few days and let me offer you some hospitality?”

Queenie: “Sure, sounds good.”

…

In the pavilion of Chen Mansion, Second Miss said: “Amazing! You know so much! I can’t bear to see you leave. I’ll send a message to your relatives, could you stay and play with me for a few more days?”

Queenie: “Sure, sounds good! The message can wait.”

Queenie was super happy.

‘Female NPCs are more intimate with female players’, this setting was truly amazing!

“I have a lot of stories to tell you, let’s sleep together tonight? I’ll tell you stories all night!” Queenie looked at the young girl across with eyes like a wolf eyeing a rabbit.

Unfortunately, Little White Rabbit was unaware, still very excited: “Sounds awesome!”

‘Cloud Dream, I love you to death!’ Queenie cheered in her heart.

Of course, she didn’t forget to feel sorry for her little sister in a dire situation for a second: “Good sister, please wait a few more days for your sister, I’ll come to rescue you as soon as I have time!”

*

While the players were having a blast in the game, the Wilderness Island outside the game was once again in a difficult situation.

Wilderness Island Company, Boss’s office.

Tiffany: “Boss, 15 qualifying contestants have messaged saying they have to forfeit the [VR Boxing King Global Championship] due to special circumstances.”

“What special circumstances?” Bob didn’t reveal any emotion in his voice.

Tiffany lowered her head to look at the tablet in her hand—not because she couldn’t remember, it was just that she didn’t feel like meeting her boss’s gaze.

“One of the contestants said he suddenly caught a cold and had a fever yesterday, now he’s very weak and can’t do strenuous exercise, two said they had food poisoning, three others said they had to return to their hometown with their parents and the equipment was too bulky to take home, so they regretfully withdrew…”

…

Each player forfeiting the contest gave their reasons, which all seemed plausible and reasonable.

However, Bob didn’t believe it.

On the screen in front of him was the Spiritual Rhinoceros homepage of one of the players who had withdrawn from the competition. His latest post read prominently-–

[Brothers, meet me in Chang’an City!]

The post was made half an hour before “Chang’an” was launched.

And the matches for the 128 to 64 contestants in the [VR Boxing King Global Championship], 32 matches in the morning and another 32 in the afternoon.

Therefore…

These bastards are probably all hiding inside “Chang’an”!

From 128 to 64, a total of 15 people were absent…

Moreover, they were not just any 15 contestants, 6 of them were very promising, advancing with victories all the way. Many players had high hopes for them.

But now, for an extra moment in “Chang’an”, they straight-up gave up the competition?

That’s a cash prize of a million! Just giving up like that?

Bob couldn’t understand.

And with their actions, how is Wilderness Island going to explain this to the outside world?

They are going to lose face!

“Buzz~ buzz~ buzz~”

Tiffany’s mobile phone suddenly vibrated. She pulled it out and took a look, her face turning even more awkward: “Boss…”

“What happened?” Bob asked expressionlessly.

Tiffany had a hard time saying: “The number of players withdrawing from the race is now…16.”

Bob’s eyelids twitched fiercely several times.

Seeing the displeasure on his boss’s face, Tiffany couldn’t help but suggest: “Should we declare a ban on them? Or take some other punitive measures?”

“Absolutely not!” Bob’s voice rose sharply.

He was indeed very angry!

But being angry didn’t mean that things could be done impulsively.

“At the moment, Wilderness Island must not stand against the players! We cannot make the players choose between Wilderness Island and Cloud Dream!”

Bob couldn’t help clenching his fists, saying:

“Reply to them, saying we are very regretful about this, and looking forward to seeing them again in the Second Championship.”

“Understood.” Tiffany turned and left the office.

The moment the door closed, she seemed to hear the sound of a table being slammed.

But the sound was not very loud.

It seemed that the boss was so angry that he wanted to slam the table, but he restrained himself at the last moment, so only a very soft sound of the table being hit was heard.

Thinking of this, she suddenly felt a little sympathetic towards her boss.