Chapter 7: First Pot of Gold

Wu Shaochen was currently harvesting wild boars at a rate of one every two minutes. Each boar dropped at least two copper coins and one tusk—not bad at all.

“That’s the thirteenth one.” After poisoning another wild boar to death, Wu Shaochen casually strolled over to the corpse to collect his loot.

“Huh? Another equipment drop?” Wu Shaochen smiled as he picked up the gear lying beside the corpse to inspect it.

[Pig-Slaughtering Knife]
Quality: Common
Physical Attack +12
Equipment Requirement: None

Eh, that’s it? Doesn’t seem very useful to me. A few points more or less in attack power makes no difference—I can’t break their defense anyway.

Looking at the Pig-Slaughtering Knife in his hand—it was ugly, even worse than the beginner’s wooden sword. Wu Shaochen couldn’t even be bothered to equip it. Maybe I’ll just throw it up on the auction house and see if anyone wants it?

The Oracle Auction System was designed to be very convenient. Players could summon the auction interface anytime to browse listings, filter by categories, and purchase directly. No need to return to town. Items you don’t need could also be listed for sale right there. You could choose either cash transactions or in-game currency. If cash was used, the money would automatically be transferred to your linked bank account after the transaction. Players couldn’t top-up directly; they could only spend real money to buy gold or equipment from others, which greatly limited how quickly whales could dominate the game.

Wu Shaochen opened the auction interface. The empty screen made him freeze for a second. No one’s selling anything yet? Then how much should I list this Pig-Slaughtering Knife for? There’s not even a baseline price to go off of.

“How about… 500 bucks? It’s the only item in the auction house right now. Should sell for that much, right? Especially with the game’s horrible drop rates.” Wu Shaochen muttered. He was in dire need of cash, so in-game currency wasn’t even an option. He listed the knife, chose cash as the payment method, and then selected the auction mode:

“Huh, there’s a fixed-price and a bidding mode. Since I don’t know the market price, I’ll just go with the bidding option. That’s smart.” For once, Wu Shaochen gave some praise.

“Wait a sec—fixed price has a 10% fee, but bidding has a 15% fee? That’s robbery!” Right after praising it, Wu Shaochen couldn’t help complaining again.

“Sigh, oh well. Robbery or not, they’re the devs. What can you do.”

He listed it anonymously, selected the bidding mode, set the timer to 10 minutes, confirmed the listing—and went right back to boar hunting.

At the entrance of the newbie village, on Rabbit Grassland…

“Huang Shao! Huang Shao! Someone just listed a weapon in the auction house! +12 physical attack!” a young man excitedly ran over and shouted to Huang Shao.

“What are you waiting for then? Snap it up! Is it listed with in-game currency?” Huang Shao asked anxiously.

“Nope, it’s a cash transaction, but it’s in bidding mode—10 minutes,” the young man said.

“If it’s cash, then no problem. Just make sure to win the bid.” Huang Shao remained calm. If money could solve the problem, then it wasn’t a problem at all.

“Understood.”

Elsewhere, five young players were efficiently farming rabbits when one of them frowned.

“Junlin, there’s an equipment listing on the auction house.”

“Oh? Based on our analysis so far, rabbits in the newbie village shouldn’t drop equipment. Could someone have killed a level 0 mountain goat?” asked the handsome man named Junlin.

“Unlikely. Even with our current strength, we can’t take on those goats yet. We’ll have to wait until we all hit level 1. Maybe someone just got super lucky with a rabbit drop,” another youth guessed.

“Can we contact the seller? Maybe we can pay extra for info,” Junlin said.

“No can do. The item was listed anonymously,” the young man replied.

“Well, nothing we can do then. Still, make sure to win that gear if necessary. It’s just a white-tier item, but +12 attack is a big deal early on,” Junlin said seriously.

“Got it.”

At the same time, a middle-aged man approached a tall woman wearing a white veil. She had an elegant aura that was absolutely captivating.

“Miss, there’s an equipment item in the auction house.”

“Finally, someone’s selling gear?” Her eyes lit up as she opened the auction interface and checked the only item available. She nodded, “A white-tier item with +12 attack. Looks like gear stats in this game are pretty impactful. Let’s try to win the bid.”

“Understood.”

Across every corner of Newbie Village 8365, discussions were raging over the auction house’s first listed item. Though it was only a common item, it caused an uproar. Auction listings were only visible to players within the same region—for now, that meant the same newbie village, and later, the same main city.

“Holy crap, someone actually listed gear!”

“Finally! I’ve been farming for over an hour without a single drop. I was starting to think this game doesn’t drop gear at all.”

“Even the lowest-tier white item gives +12 attack! That’s basically doubling your damage!”

“Wake up, man. Look at the current price—it’s already over ten grand. Just a white-tier item! These rich players really treat money like garbage.”

“Damn, seriously? I better grind hard. Maybe the next rabbit will drop gear for me too. Over ten thousand for one item—that’s a few months’ expenses right there.”

“Miss, the bid’s up to fifteen thousand. Should we keep going?” the middle-aged man asked in a low voice.

“Bid fifteen-five. No more than that. It’s just a white-tier item. Everyone will be able to get one soon enough,” the woman replied.

“Understood.”

“Junlin, lots of people are eyeing this item. It’s already gone up to fifteen grand—way over what it’s worth,” one of the youths said.

“Expected. It’s the first piece of gear, and it’s a weapon. For the early game, it’s still valuable. Mainly, the drop rate in this game is insane. Otherwise, no way a white-tier would be selling for this much,” Junlin replied.

“Add 2000 more. If it goes above that, forget it. We’ll be farming goats once Xiaobei and Linzi hit level 1. We’ll get gear ourselves soon enough.”

Elsewhere…

“Huang Shao, do we keep bidding?” the young man asked.

“Of course! I’ve got nothing but money. And these nobodies think they can compete with me?” Huang Shao scoffed. He didn’t care if it was worth it or not—if money could solve it, it wasn’t a real issue. What he wanted was the satisfaction of being better than everyone else.

Meanwhile, Wu Shaochen, the one who unknowingly triggered this whole storm, kept casually grinding wild boars.

“Sigh, if only my poison damage could be a bit higher—then it’d only take two hits instead of three. So annoying. It’s all that stupid spider’s fault. What kind of garbage skill is that? Now I can’t even roll for talents.” Wu Shaochen complained.

“That’s the 18th one. One more and I’ll level up.” As he kited another wild boar, he watched its HP slowly tick down. With 18 movement speed, killing wild boars was a breeze now. Before long, the boar collapsed unwillingly.

Ding! Congratulations, you’ve leveled up. HP +20, MP +10, gained 5 free attribute points. Please allocate wisely.

He’d reached level 3. He dumped all five points into Agility again. Agility: 20, Movement Speed: 23, HP: 150, MP: 80. No other changes. EXP: 14/1000.

“Level 4 requires 1000 EXP. At 26 EXP per boar, I’ll need to kill 38 of them…” Wu Shaochen muttered. Just then—

Ding! The item you listed in the auction house has been sold. Transaction amount: ¥20,000. After deducting a ¥3,000 service fee, ¥17,000 has been transferred to your linked bank account.

“…What?! 20k?!” Wu Shaochen was stunned. He frantically opened the transaction history—confirmed it was ¥20,000. Then checked his bank account—balance: ¥17,700. He swallowed hard and pinched himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. A goofy smile crept across his face. For a piece of junk like that? It nearly covered half his college tuition. Who would believe that?

“Damn, rich people in this game are insane.” Wu Shaochen was in a great mood. He looked at the wild boars ahead and suddenly found them kind of adorable. With that one equipment sale, the cost of his gaming headset was covered—and he still profited ¥7,000. No more worrying about sleeping under bridges.

Back to farming wild boars—these guys were basically made of money!