Retrograde Gaming

Chapter 42: Lack Ingredients

A short while after Li Huailin sat down, he saw the three ladies come in. It seemed that they weren’t far away from the main city.

“This way.” Li Huailin raised his hand.

“Huailin, you get up pretty early in the morning? There aren’t many young people like you these days,” Red Moon smiled and said.

“Come on, leader. It sounds like you are old.” Li Huailin also smiled.

“That’s right, leader! You’re hurting my feelings, I’m only three years older than you,” Red Bloodstain said with a pained tone on the side.

“Well, well, let’s get back to the point.” Red Moon waved her hand downwards in an attempt to calm them down. She then asked Red Bloodstain, “How much did you sell the potions for yesterday?”

“I didn’t expect this amount of money at all. After the service charge, I got 13 Gold Coins and 40 Silver Coins in total.” Red Bloodstain’s face was glowing because of the great fortune she had right now.

“Misty Rain’s estimate is correct,” Li Huailin said.

“Of course! Little Misty’s estimates can never go wrong,” Red Moon proudly responded. “Bloodstain, give the money to Huailin.”

“It’s my first time having so many gold coins in my pocket. Can I keep them for a few more days?” Red Bloodstain sighed, her tone was reluctant.

“…”

“All right, here you are.” Red Bloodstain smiled and then sent Li Huailin a trade request, giving the money to him, 13 Gold Coins and 40 Silver Coins in total.

“All right, Huailin, you mentioned that you were looking for Little Misty. What for?” Red Moon asked.

“Right. Ask me anything you want.” Red Dust Misty Rain nodded.

“Well, here’s the thing…” Li Huailin quickly organized his words. “Yesterday, I browsed through the forum and saw a post mentioning that there is a place in the business district where players can open their own shops. Did you know about this?”

“Yes, I do.” Red Dust Misty Rain nodded. “Since I’m the financial administrator of the guild, there’s no way I wouldn’t. It’s right down the street opposite of the auction hall. A lot of people pass by it all the time. If someone sets up a shop there, she won’t have to worry about money anymore.”

“Really? Won’t have to worry about money anymore?” Li Huailin’s eyes lit up upon hearing this.

“Of course! With so many people visiting the auction hall everyday. If 2 or 3 out of every 10 people come to your store, and as long as 2 or 3 out of every 10 people who come to your store actually buy something, you will never have to worry about money in your life. In fact, you will never be able to spend money you’re going to make.”

“How much would it roughly be?” Li Huailin hurriedly asked her.

“That’s quite hard to say. Right now, gold coins are still very valuable, it’s already certain that they’ll depreciate in the future. It’s not that easy to calculate something like this. However, what I know for sure is that you can make a fortune out of it,” Red Dust Misty Rain then continued with a question, “Why are you asking? Don’t tell me you have a land title with you.”

“I wish I had.” Li Huailin shook his head. “I simply saw a post yesterday where a guild was looking to buy a land title at the price of 300 Gold Coins, this is why I decided to ask you.”

“300 Gold Coins? Only idiots will sell a land title for 300 Gold Coins, unless it’s a single player who cannot afford to buy the land. It’s a great loss if they do so,” Red Dust Misty Rain responded.

“300 Gold Coins isn’t enough?” Li Huailin was surprised.

“Think about it for a moment. On one hand, it’s a one-time thing and the 300 Gold Coins given to you is sure to depreciate at any time. On the other, in the long-term, you’re getting a goose that can lay the golden eggs for you everyday and you have nothing to worry about. Which will you choose?” Red Dust Misty Rain asked him.

“Well, you’re right.” Li Huailin nodded.

“If only our guild could get a land title… we can sell the Fountain of Life Potion at a lower price than the auction hall. We would be able to make a lot of money then.” Red Dust Misty Rain sighed.

“Do you have any information or idea as to where land titles come from?” Li Huailin asked them. With his abnormal stats, as long as he knew where he could find a land title, he would go without any hesitation and try to get it at any cost.

“I have no idea at all.” Red Moon shook her head. “I think no one knows. If the big guilds know, they would definitely keep it a secret. Even if someone manages to figure it out, the place will be immediately taken control by those big guilds. They won’t give other players a chance until they get a land title first.”

“Well…” Li Huailin thought about it for a while. “You’re saying that… so far, no one knows where a land title can be obtained. We should probably go to places where no one has passed through before, like an Abyss Mode dungeon…”

“Do you really need money that badly?” Red Dust Misty Rain looked at Li Huailin’s disappointed face. “I meant… in reality?”

“No. I don’t really need to worry about money in reality. In fact, I don’t really have a place to spend it.” Li Huailin shook his head. “I just want to lay the foundation for my future leveling.”

“You can run an Abyss Mode dungeon a few more times and sell equipment,” Red Dust Misty Rain suggested.

Li Huailin also knew that this was a way. To tell the truth, he believed that having his own shop was a way better option. Every time he ran an Abyss Mode dungeon, he would lose a lot of experience. He would then have to buy health potions to get his experience back. It was too troublesome.

“By the way, have you made it to medium-grade alchemy?” Li Huailin changed the topic.

“Ah, I was going to tell you about this.” Red Moon said.

“What’s the matter?”

“We seemed to have hit a problem.” Red Moon frowned. “Do you remember the recipe we got yesterday?”

“Yeah.” Li Huailin nodded.

“Little Misty learned the recipe, it turns out that she needs three ingredients in order to start making it. Thankfully, two of them are very common and can be found everywhere in the auction hall. The third ingredient, on the other hand, is called Flame Flower and it’s very hard to get,” said Red Moon.

“Why? Do we not know where to find it? Or is it really hard to get?” Li Huailin hurriedly asked her.

“There are a few places where you can get Flame Flower. I already know where they are. The problem is that the Flame Flower is also a necessary ingredient for another potion recipe that enhances fire attack. It’s a huge help for mages when they are leveling up. Actually, pioneer raiders are also using this potion to increase their damage output. Therefore, Flame Flower is in very short supply right now.” Red Moon continued, “In addition, the places where Flame Flower could be obtained are controlled by those big guilds. Other players aren’t allowed to collect the flowers, we aren’t even allowed to enter those areas.”

“Those people are so arrogant…” Li Huailin thought for a moment before asking, “Where’s the nearest spot you can get a Flame Flower from here?”

“It’s near Lava Crack in the south of the main city. About 15 minutes from here if you run,” Red Moon told him. “The problem is… it’s now occupied by the Brotherhood of World Destruction.”

“Sh*t, their name is so kickass. The Brotherhood of World Destruction?” Li Huailin broke out a sweat.

“It’s a big guild too. They should be at least in the top 10 in the server.” Red Moon explained, “They are from another game where they are called World Destruction guild. However, since they came in late this time, as a result, the guild’s name has already been registered by someone else. Because the player didn’t want to sell the name to them, they had no other choice but to take this name.”

“Oh, so it’s them.” Speaking of the World Destruction guild, Li Huailin did remember them in an online game in the past. Their guild’s rank was very high, back then, he was just a stranger and had nothing to do with the guild.

“That’s alright, I’ll talk to their leader and talk a bit, I expect that they’ll give me some face and let us go in to collect the flowers.” Li Huailin nodded with confidence.

“Do you know their leader, Ask Sky?” Red Moon asked.

“Ask Sky? No, I will soon though…” Li Huailin said with a smile.

“You… You’re going to cause trouble…” Red Moon already knew what Li Huailin was going to do.

“Don’t worry, I’m not even wearing a guild badge, see?” Li Huailin quickly assured her.

After a player joins a guild, one could buy some special items in the guild center in the main city, this also included a guild badge that only costs 1 Silver Coin. It had no real use at all and didn’t take any space as a piece of equipment.The pattern on it is chosen by the guild leader, a player could choose to wear it on his or her chest. Because of this, other players could get to know which guild the player came from by checking the guild badge on him. Usually, wearing this badge was basically a mandatory rule in a guild, and, of course, a lot of players also wanted to wear it.

Li Huailin had never visited the guild center before, mainly because he didn’t want to wear the badge. After taking a close look at the design made by Red Moon, it was not to his taste at all. The badge had lots of flowers on it and looked extremely girly. At that time, Li Huailin had made a quick decision that he was absolutely not wearing it.

“You’re definitely going to look for trouble.” Red Moon couldn’t help but sigh as she placed a hand on her forehead. “What are you going to do?”

“What am I going to do? I’ll rob them, of course.” Li Huailin smiled.

“I have to make this clear. Our guild mustn’t start a war against them. Their back-up team alone can easily kill all of us many times,” Red Moon warned Li Huailin in a worried tone.

“You don’t have to do anything. I’ll go and have a chat with the leader first. What if he’s a good man?”

Although Li Huailin said so, he was already determined to look for trouble with the guild. If he got killed, it was even better because he would gain experience. If he succeeded, he could get the needed ingredient. In other words, he wouldn’t lose one way or the other. In fact, it would even be awesome if he could piss off the entire guild and make the guild members chase after him in the entire server. It would save him a lot of money instead of buying potions.

“I’ll take it that you’ve made up your mind?” Red Moon could basically tell just from Li Huailin’s glowing face.

“Don’t worry, I know what to do,” Li Huailin said in a serious manner. “You ladies can continue leveling up, I’ll take care of the ingredient. You’ll see how I got this nickname, Kickass Brother.”