042. Buying Frenzy
If during the keyboard game era He Jin merely felt weird seeing his Tsing Yi character snuggling in another man’s arms, in this current holographic version the feeling he had as he experienced riding like that personally was... It could only be described as “extremely embarrassed”!
After the two of them finished the dungeon, they went around Demon God’s world. He Jin couldn’t make himself relax during this whole time, his ear heated up as it brushed against the other man’s breath. Fire occasionally whispered into his ear with a voice full of intimacy while still holding tightly onto his waist...
Fire: “Jin-Er, it is still early, let’s go to the Weaver Girl [1] to do hidden husband and wife quest.”
He Jin: “...okay...” Don’t stick so close to my ear! Orz...
He had thought that giving Fire what he wanted the most in the game –doing couple tasks with him, occasionally calling him husband in their ME chat; or doing something as ordinary friends like practicing, looking at the scenery, showing affection– was his way of making up for those eight years he did not come online. He thought he was already used to them...
But unexpectedly he was still too... God... Really?... (=_=)
Fire led Poor Flame to fly to the lake and tightened his arms around He Jin’s body as they landed. The sight of them coming down from their mount attracted many passers-by’s attention who were gathering there to enjoy the lake’s view.
Since today was the first day of holographic, both the new helmet-user players and the old keyboard-user players were rushing to come online. It was very lively in the game.
However, the first concern of these passers-by was not Fire and Ah Jin. Their names were hidden in holographic mode, and although Fire was famous, his image wasn’t exactly unique. Ever since the official game company used his profile as reference to design a dungeon’s Boss–as long as one has enough money, they could buy the same clothes as Fire Ruthless in the game shop! Even other features of Fire’s appearance could be imitated by those who were patient enough to analyze his live broadcast videos!
What gathered these passers-by’s attention was actually the unique Poor Flames. This flying beast whose body was full of fire was simply too dazzling!
Seeing them steadily landing on Choi Fung Island with their beast, some people came to surround and watch them.
Among these people, there were also players who had experienced the “Bloody Lakes Incident.” At that time, Fire was also riding away using Poor Flame with Ah Jin. Someone recalled that and turned their attention from the beast to the players riding on it.
Upon seeing the similar look of Fire with Ruthless, this player wondered, is this really Great God and his wife?
But why does the wife of the Great God look like a minor? So small too? OAO
Fire was the first one to get off the mount, then he also thoughtfully held onto Ah Jin’s waist and brought him down from Poor Flame. Since He Jin selected a small-statured image, it was so easy for Fire to do so!
While feeling a bit embarrassed, He Jin stood firmly on his feet with a blush on his face. He didn’t dare to look at Fire, if he knew Fire would be holding him so much like this, he would have chosen a more masculine image than Fire himself!
On the other hand, Fire just acted naturally, he looked around the curious passers-by and asked He Jin: “Do you still have those stealth coupons I gave you before?”
He Jin: “Yes, there are a few more.”
Fire: “There are quite a lot of people today, let’s hide.”
He Jin called Poor Flame then used the stealth coupons on all of them, the two players and one beast soon disappeared from the passers-by’s sight.
Passer-by: Ah, yes, it’s the Great God! I knew it was him from a photo!!! (= _ =)
...... However, they seemed to have forgotten some of the key points that had just been found ...
Fire and He Jin headed to the Weaver Girl, then said to her: “Open the hidden husband and wife task.”
Weaver: “Sorry, your husband and wife index point is not enough to open the hidden husband and wife task.”
Both players: “...”
In holographic state, they couldn’t pause the game to search on their browser, so Fire could only try asking about it: “How much index point is needed to open the hidden couple’s task?”
Weaver: “520 points.”
Fire: “Can you inquire our current husband and wife index points?”
Weaver: “Your and Ah Jin’s current index is 52 points.”
Both players: “...”
Qin Yu found out about this hidden task from a friend in the experts group chat, but that friend never mentioned anything about index requirement. Seems like when that player did this task with his partner, their husband and wife index were already up to standard, so they did not encountered this hurdle.
Fire went on to ask, “How to increase the couple index.”
Weaver: “There are a few ways to increase couple index: Husband and wife can participate in the daily love question. There are 10 questions every day, every correct answer will add 1 point to the index, while wrong answer will buckle 1-point; giving a rose can increase the index by 0.5 points; buying a high-class wedding banquet can increase the index by 100 points... In addition, one more option was added in the holographic version, players above level 80 can go to Celestial Mountain to find the mountain God and purchase land exchange coupons. Those coupons can be used to construct a home, once the home construction is completed, the husband and wife can increase their index points by 50 daily if they stayed in the same room for more than one hour a day.”
He Jin was silent... Home? Room? The integrity of this game, really! (/=_=)/~┴┴
Qin Yu was also surprised, buying land exchange coupons? Building homes? If not for Weaver here, he wouldn’t know there was a new play like this.
Fire immediately pulled He Jin to find the mountain God, and He Jin was jaw-dropped. The purpose of home ownership was to let players buy a piece of land in the game. The price of a piece of land would be 100.000 gold coins, and each player’s purchase limit was ten.
In Demon God, gold coins, game shop vouchers, and RMB (real money) could be exchanged for each other. The conversion rate of the three was 100:10:1, which meant 100,000 gold coins were equal to 1000 yuan- this is simply cheating people out of their money ah!
What He Jin did not expect was, that after listening to the mountain God’s explanation, Fire would immediately bought 10 pieces of land!
10 pieces of land, 1 million gold coins ...
All of a sudden, 10,000 yuan were gone...
He Jin had a cold sweat, sure enough the 5000 gold Fire gave him before were merely “a little money” for him... (=_=|||)
After receiving the land exchange coupons, Fire who couldn’t wait anymore directly turned He Jin into his ferret form, wrapped him around his neck, and took off flying to the Demon Area.
The Demon Area was located in the space between the ordinary realm and the celestial realm. The Demon Area overlapped the circle covered by the two other realms, however it was mainly constructed with dungeons and battlefields. For example, while the Yan Mountain dungeon was located in ordinary realm, it could also be found through the Demon Area.
He Jin stayed wrapped around Fire while flying. Fire took out a map filled with colored blocks all over it. It was the system’s building blocks, with green blocks showing available areas, and red blocks showing occupied areas.
There were still very few red-blocks on the map, while the largest green-block space was located on the outskirts of the main urban areas. There were already a few buildings in bustling areas such as the Winter Town, and Heavenly Palace City, however there were still a lot of green spots flashing as well!
Fire wrote down these green blocks’ location and took He Jin to Celestial realm without stopping. He Jin couldn’t help asking: “Big God, what are you planning to do?”
Fire smiled: “There are business opportunities.”
He Jin: “What do you mean? ”
Fire did not answer the question: “How do you feel about playing the game, now that we are in holographic state?”
He Jin hummed and answered: “Very real...” This game’s realness was so high that He Jin wanted to kneel!
Fire: “Yes, this is a real, brand new world for holographic gamers, and the creator of the game has now given some privilege to the players to become part of the power to make development for this game’s world. We got the news about houses pretty early and have also bought a few pieces of land. The Market can control prices, we don’t have to use all our land now, we just have to wait until all the available land is sold out. After that, the land’s price will certainly increase, then we can rent ours, or sell them at high prices, there will be no loss. In other words, it’s ‘first come first served’.”
He Jin: “...! ”
Once they arrived at the Winter town, Fire found out that one of the green blocks was located in a small open space in the middle of the town, right next to the system’s pawnshop.
Fire took out the land title deed and a white bearded man soon appeared.
Lord of the Land: “Who summoned the local fairy?”
Fire handed over one of the land exchange coupons to the landlord. The landlord received the coupon with a smile, then raised his hand to stroke his beard and said: “This piece of land is yours!” Then he disappeared!
Meanwhile, a news flashed on the world channel-
〖World〗: Player Fire has purchased a piece of land in Winter Town.
World Channel ‘Small Art Day’: “Land? What land?”
World Channel ‘Late at Sunset’: “Now we can buy a land in this game?”
World Channel ‘mu mu’: “Who can explain what is this land about?”
World Channel ‘Little fox’: “The world of the rich, is something we won’t understand...”
......
That news about Fire flashed too fast, so only a few people saw and started discussing about it. However, in the next 10 minutes, the world channel unexpectedly began reporting news about Fire buying a piece of land repeatedly for a number of times. Some of it was in the ordinary realm, and some others were in the celestial. This made the people in world channel curious. The players immediately launched a heated discussion about this ‘land’, until eventually someone was able to find information and explained–
World Channel ‘Xie Gong Clog’: “I just found it! In the holographic version, players above level 80 can go to buy land and build something, whether it’s houses or shops. The price for a piece of land is 100,000 gold!”
World Channel ‘West’: “100,000 gold! WTF! Tyrants!”
World Channel ‘pottery’: “I counted, Ruthless just bought a total of eight of lands...”
World Channel ‘Luo Wu’: “My husband is worthy of first place in Demon God’s Wealth list ~ So rich!”
World Channel ‘Yao’: “I just looked at the list, he has now fallen to the second place... Probably because he bought those lands!”
Just like this, in the next half an hour, the world channel was suddenly filled with news of people buying land one after another!
〖World〗: Player Ge Ben Haagen Dazs has purchased a piece of land in Heavenly Palace City.
〖World〗: Player A Thousand Sails has purchased a piece of land in the general sector of Heaven Moon City.
〖World〗: Player Demon Demon has purchased a piece of land in Initial Village.
〖World〗: Player Flower Yiyi has purchased a piece of land in Heavenly Palace City.
......
World Channel ‘泤 泤 Cang Xia’: “What the hell! 100,000 gold ah! Don’t these great gods have other use for their money?”
World Channel ‘Xia LAN’: “What’s the benefit of buying land anyway?”
World Channel ‘Little Fox’: “The World of the Great Gods... is something we won’t understand... ”
Fire and Ah Jin did not expect that their inadvertent discovery and behavior would set off a frenzy of land buying!
Meanwhile. Leisure Cloud and Wild Crane who had previously gone offline immediately went back to online after they heard this news – for them, 100,000 yuan is too cheap! There were also a few other people, including Dead Water, who did the same as Fire and bought 10 pieces of land at once, just in time to occupy the main urban areas of Demon God.
Proofread by: Eileen
T/N:
[1] Weaver Girl is a character from a folk tale in China: “The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl”
I’ll be using Ge Ben Haagen Dazs in official announcements (system’s announcements/news) from now on since that’s how his name is supposed to be read it as. However, I’ll still use Copenhagen Dazs in normal conversations.