Novice Village No. 999, Trading Plaza.
Compared to the congestion and chaos of a few hours ago, the plaza now had a hint of order, but the noise level had only increased.
As the first tier of players reached around level 5, a large amount of low-level equipment and materials began to circulate.
"Buying wolf pelts! Buying wolf pelts at a high price! Only quality 5 or higher!"
"Selling white-tier iron sword, +2 attack, only 50 copper coins, limited supply!"
"Carrying girls to level up, any class, as long as you're obedient!"
Ye Yi lowered the brim of his hat, pushed through the noisy crowd, and walked straight toward the "Temporary Auction House" NPC located in the center of the plaza.
This was the only NPC in the Novice Village with a server-wide consignment function. Although the service fee was as high as 15%, before the main city opened, this was the only traffic entrance.
He opened the auction panel and glanced at the [Troll Bracers] he had casually listed earlier.
[Current Bid: 3 Gold Coins 50 Silver Coins]
[Bidder: Holy Light · Dawn]
Ye Yi raised an eyebrow.
It had been less than twenty minutes since he listed it, and the price had already been bid up to over 3 gold coins. One had to know, at this stage, an ordinary player with 10 silver coins on them was considered wealthy (1 gold coin = 100 silver coins = 10,000 copper coins).
The only ones capable of paying this price were the large guilds supported by financial groups behind the scenes.
"Holy Light · Dawn..." Ye Yi searched his memory for this ID. "The second squad leader of the Angel Guild, a loyal lackey of Lin Tianyu."
Since the people from the Angel Guild wanted it, he couldn't let them win too easily.
A cold sneer curled the corner of Ye Yi's mouth. He didn't rush to accept the buyout price; instead, he used the auction house's "anonymous message" function to add a line of text below the item:
"Only accepting gold coin transactions, no credit point transfers. Also, there is a warrior's "Powerful Strike" skill book, which will be listed in ten minutes."
This skill book was actually dropped by a mob in the mine. It was useless to him, but for a warrior, it was a god-tier skill in the early game.
After doing all this, he opened the game's built-in "Currency Exchange Platform."
This was one of the core systems of the era of apocalypse, directly connected to real-world bank accounts.
[Current Exchange Rate: 1 Gold Coin = 1200 Federal Credit Points]
The exchange rate was 20% higher than the launch price in his memory! Clearly, the first-kill announcement had stimulated a crazy influx of capital, and all the big shots wanted to get their hands on gold coins as soon as possible to buy top-tier equipment.
Ye Yi glanced at his inventory.
Excluding the equipment he had just listed, he had solo-farmed in the mine for several hours. Just from picking up drops and system rewards, he already had 18 gold coins on him. This was a huge sum of money.
Without any hesitation, Ye Yi directly transferred 5 gold coins and listed them on the trading platform.
"Ding!"
Almost the moment it was listed, the system notification sound rang out.
[Transaction successful! 5 gold coins have been sold. After deducting the service fee, you have received 5880 credit points. The funds have been transferred to your linked real-world account.]
In less than a second, it was bought out.
In the real world, inside a cheap apartment.
The screen of Ye Yi's old phone lit up with a text message notification. Watching the account balance instantly jump from a pathetic "350" to "6230", Ye Yi, who was currently in the game, could feel his heart beating with a long-lost sense of stability, even across the virtual network.
Six thousand credit points.
In this era of skyrocketing prices, it was enough for him to pay off half a year's rent for this dilapidated apartment and buy a whole case of high-grade nutrient solution.
"Survived."
Ye Yi let out a long sigh of relief.
In his past life, for these few thousand dollars, he had to grovel and work as a laborer for large guilds, signing unfair contracts and missing the optimal development period. But in this life, it only took him four hours to resolve his survival crisis.
But this wasn't enough.
Ye Yi's gaze became deep. This money could only guarantee survival; to have a say in the catastrophe of the future, he needed astronomical amounts of resources.
"Beep, beep, beep."
The private chat channel suddenly flashed frantically. Although he had hidden his ID, the items he listed in the auction house were real. Countless merchants and guild headhunters who had caught the scent were trying to leave messages for the seller through the auction house NPC.
[Batu Guild: Friend, we want the bracers. Offline transfer, price is negotiable!]
[Rose Knights: Big brother, can you sell the equipment to our guild leader? We can pull you into the core group, okay~]
[Holy Light · Dawn: I am from the Angel Guild, I have my eye on this item. If you're sensible, don't drive up the price, otherwise, you'll be wanted server-wide.]
Ye Yi scanned them and ignored all the threats and enticements, only pausing for a second on the last one.
"Wanted me?"
Ye Yi sneered.
He directly canceled the auction for the bracers and re-listed them.
[Troll Bracers (Blue Rare)]
[Starting Bid: 5 Gold Coins]
[Buyout Price: 10 Gold Coins]
[Note: Members of the Angel Guild and dogs are not allowed to bid.]
Once this note appeared, the entire trading channel of the Novice Village exploded instantly.
"Holy crap! Who is this legend? So tough?"
"Members of the Angel Guild and dogs are not allowed to bid? Hahahaha, this guy is too brave!"
"The stats on these bracers are insane! If I could buy them, my leveling speed would be at least twice as fast!"
Ye Yi ignored the uproar in the channel and turned to leave the auction house.
He had more important things to do.
He arrived at the blacksmith shop in the village.
"Boss, repair equipment."
The blacksmith was a bare-chested big man. Seeing the "Rusty Iron Sword" with a rolled edge that Ye Yi handed over (he didn't have the heaven-swallowing demon sword in his hand at the moment to keep a low profile), he curled his lip in disdain.
"Why repair this piece of junk? Just buy a new one."
"No need, just fix it."
Ye Yi paid a few copper coins.
In this gap, he opened the panel for the [heaven-swallowing demon sword].
Although he had fed it a bunch of white-tier equipment earlier and the demon sword had upgraded to "Black Iron Rank", he knew this was far from enough. The next stage for the demon sword was "Bronze Rank", which required not just quantity, but quality.
He glanced at the [Troll Heart] in his inventory.
This purple epic material emitted an alluring luster. If sold to a large guild, it could fetch at least hundreds of thousands of credit points. But Ye Yi didn't hesitate at all.
"Eat it."
He commanded in his heart.
Inside the inventory space, the heaven-swallowing demon sword seemed to sense its master's will, and the blade suddenly generated a suction force. The large Troll Heart instantly turned into a stream of pure blood-red energy, which was swallowed by the demon sword in one gulp.
"Hum—!"
Even in the noisy blacksmith shop, this sword hum was clearly audible.
[heaven-swallowing demon sword absorption successful!]
[Gained a large amount of evolution energy!]
[Current progress: Black Iron Rank (98%)]
[Unlocked hidden attribute: Strength +5, Attack Speed +5%.]
"Still a little short."
Ye Yi felt a bit regretful. Epic materials were indeed highly nutritious, almost filling the progress bar completely. It was just one step away from breaking through to the Bronze Rank.
Once it reached the Bronze Rank, the demon sword would unlock that most critical special effect—an increase in the [Life Steal] ratio, as well as the preliminary [Sword Qi] projection.
"Looks like I need to go get some more good stuff to feed it."
Ye Yi took the broken sword repaired by the blacksmith, hung it casually at his waist, and was just about to leave.
Just then, several players wearing uniform white light armor with angel wing emblems printed on their chests blocked the gate of the blacksmith shop.
The person leading them had the ID "Holy Light · Judgment", level 6, a priest, but his eyes were more arrogant than a warrior's.
"Friend, let's talk?"
Judgment looked Ye Yi up and down, his gaze finally resting on the seemingly unremarkable novice cloth robe behind his goggles.
"That bracer in the auction house, you listed it, right?"
Ye Yi stopped in his tracks, the look behind his goggles calm as water.
"Move aside."