Chapter 27: The Excessive Profits of Arms Dealing

The junior trading market was a very crude building containing a warehouse and a counter. On the counter sat an exquisite virtual panel, which served as the interface to view information on the trading market.

Lin Mu needed to operate through this panel, after which the system would transfer the weapons from his backpack to the market.

If a native operated it, they would simply place items or tools in the warehouse, and the system would transfer them directly upon sale.

When buying items from the trading market, they were generally placed directly into the player's backpack; if the backpack was full, they would be transferred to the warehouse.

Approaching the counter and opening the virtual panel, Lin Mu priced common iron spears at 200 copper coins, but the Yellow-tier weapons were more expensive—he priced them all at 2,500 copper coins!

Lin Mu did not put everything out at once; he only released an initial batch of nine weapons, three of each type, wanting to test the waters.

Trading markets also existed within the county towns of the Great Han Dynasty. To players, these were the legendary "System Malls"—an unavoidable evil in every game.

The government's trading markets could connect to various player territories. Once a player's local market reached a certain level, a junior trading market could connect to its respective county town; a medium-level market could connect to the entire prefecture and all the county markets and player territories within it that had reached the medium level; and a high-level market could facilitate trade within a province, which was extremely convenient. The highest level of trading market connected the entire nation, but players could not upgrade these privately; Lin Mu remembered from his past life that one had to report to the imperial court and pay for government craftsmen to perform the upgrade! The costs were astronomical, and the requirements were incredibly stringent.

However, the tax rates in the trading market were like hungry tigers, exploiting the players: the junior rate was 10%, the medium was 20%, and the high level was 30%. Lin Mu did not know the highest level, as no player in his past life had ever successfully established one.

Lin Mu remembered that in the current official mall, a common weapon cost 300 copper coins, so his price of 200 was quite cheap. As for Yellow-tier weapons, the mall sold them for 2,500 copper coins, so his price of 2,500 wasn't too expensive either. Although his weapons were mass-produced and their attributes weren't as specialized as custom-forged ones, because they were made from Grade 3 black tungsten iron ore, their attributes were very outstanding. Buying his Yellow-tier gear was more cost-effective than using the system mall.

...

The Longzhou Studio was a mid-tier studio in the Huaxia region. "Longzhou Hunter" was a support-type merchant player for the studio in Dongye County, specifically tasked with monitoring the trading market on the east side of Dongye County town. If any precious resources appeared, he would immediately notify his superiors to decide whether to purchase them. This was a highly efficient method due to the advanced communication systems.

Many studios operated like Longzhou Studio, specifically assigning players to guard the trading markets.

As usual, after completing his daily tasks, Longzhou Hunter first checked the status of the trading market. He assumed today would be no different from previous days, filled only with common weapons like wooden sticks and iron rods. To his surprise, he spotted several sharp weapons emitting a dark, lustrous black light: [Black Iron Refined Steel Spear], [Black Iron Refined Steel Saber], and [Black Iron Refined Steel Sword], ten of each, all priced uniformly at 2,500 copper coins!

He was stunned. How could such powerful weapons exist? He checked the attributes and felt an intense, overwhelming desire to obtain them!

Name: [Black Iron Refined Steel Spear] Tier: Yellow Trait: Weapon Attributes: Combat Power +600, Sharpness +10, Durability 200/200. Description: Forged a hundred times into steel, a thousand times into fine metal. A weapon crafted from tungsten iron ore through a hundred rounds of forging, surrounded by a black luster, incredibly sharp and highly durable; hence the name Black Iron Refined Steel Spear.

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Name: [Black Iron Refined Steel Sword] Tier: Yellow Trait: Weapon Attributes: Combat Power +600, Sharpness +10, Durability 200/200. Description: Forged a hundred times into steel, a thousand times into fine metal. A weapon crafted from tungsten iron ore through a hundred rounds of forging, surrounded by a black luster, incredibly sharp and highly durable; hence the name Black Iron Refined Steel Sword.

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Name: [Black Iron Refined Steel Saber] Tier: Yellow Trait: Weapon Attributes: Combat Power +600, Sharpness +10, Durability 200/200. Description: Forged a hundred times into steel, a thousand times into fine metal. A weapon crafted from tungsten iron ore through a hundred rounds of forging, surrounded by a black luster, incredibly sharp and highly durable; hence the name Black Iron Refined Steel Saber.

Recalling his leader's instructions to report any good weapons or equipment immediately, Longzhou Hunter quickly connected to his leader via the communication system: "Boss, big discovery! There are Yellow-tier weapons in the Dongye County trading market with amazing attributes: Combat Power +600, Sharpness +10, Durability 200! They are priced at 2,500 copper coins. Should we buy them?"

"What? Such weapons actually exist? Buy them immediately! Buy them all!" the boss on the other end of the communication was equally shocked.

Currently, players had very few sources for weapons. They could be bought from government shops, but those were only common weapons. To buy graded weapons, one needed high prestige, and they were exorbitantly expensive. Most players currently had low prestige and couldn't meet the requirements, leaving them to watch in frustration.

Even a common weapon cost 300 copper coins; unless one was wealthy, it took over ten days of saving just to buy one. It was a miserable existence!

To find a player selling top-tier Yellow-tier weapons on the market now was a massive opportunity—a chance to rise to power.

The boss thought of many things. If he could arm all the players in his studio with these weapons, conquering that mountain stronghold would be much easier!

Thinking of the potential profits, his heart surged with ambition, as if he could conquer the world!

"But Boss, I don't have that many copper coins left..." Longzhou Hunter whispered, sounding as if he feared he had made a mistake.

"Uh, I'll have the finance department send money to you immediately! Just keep an eye on it." The boss froze, his expression instantly turning sour. He spoke in a low voice, as if realizing his own fault.

Because he led the studio, he had been privately withholding a portion of the copper coins sent down by the higher-up owners, trading them on the black market for RMB to line his own pockets.

In the early stages of a game, in-game currency was generally very expensive.

After closing the communication, Longzhou Hunter watched the weapons on the market. Very soon, a player bought them! All nine weapons were sold out in a flash.

Longzhou Hunter panicked. Was this his failure?

He felt extremely humiliated. As a veteran procurement officer for the studio, he didn't even have any copper coins left—was he even a procurement officer? He suspected his leader had embezzled the coins. In the early stages of a virtual game, if there was no good equipment on the market, studio funds usually went unspent.

Since the money wasn't being spent, it was just sitting there uselessly, which led his leader to have these little schemes. Since the money was idle, the leader would sell some on the black market first. Currently, the exchange rate for the copper market was 1:1.5 RMB, which was a very high rate. The leader would embezzle the coins sent down, and once the exchange rate dropped, he would buy them back to replenish the funds. He had operated this way in other games before without any issues.

But this time, a problem had arisen. A player was selling such high-quality weapons, and he had no money to buy them. If this missed opportunity was discovered by the owner, his greedy leader might get fired, and as a mere pawn, he wouldn't be spared either.

To hide information was a crime, and to report above one's station was also a crime. Heh...

A leader in another location was also panicking. After careful consideration, he immediately went to the black market copper market to aggressively buy up copper coins, hoping to make up for this mistake.

...

Setting aside the others, after Lin Mu put the weapons up, he waited a while, only to find they were all bought. It seemed these Yellow-tier weapons were indeed in high demand, and there were simply too many wealthy people in the Huaxia nation.

This time, Lin Mu put up 100 of each weapon type—a grand gesture!

Like a shark smelling blood, the three hundred weapons were snatched up instantly.

This stunned Lin Mu; he hadn't expected weapons to be such a hot seller in the early stages! It seemed his plan was working.

By choosing to establish a village in the second world, he had obtained a black tungsten iron ore vein, giving him the raw materials to forge weapons. Combined with the emergence of blacksmith talents, his territory would not lack capital in its early stages!

However, having witnessed the market's hungry demand, and since he was the seller and held the initiative, it was time to raise the prices! Lin Mu listed another 300 weapons, but this time the price was 3,000 copper coins.

...

"Holy crap, why did the price jump to 3,000 copper coins!" Longzhou Hunter thought all hope was lost, only to find that the player still had weapons, and this time there were 300 of them. It looked like he might complete his task today!

But what suffocated him was that the 300 weapons vanished instantly, like dogs fighting over scraps. He felt like crying.

After waiting a while, the player actually had more for sale, but the price had risen to 3,500 copper coins. After two price hikes, the cost had increased by a full 1,000 copper coins. Was this robbery? Even a robber wouldn't be this blatant!

Longzhou Hunter was extremely depressed, yet also incredibly envious. If he had such weapons to sell, he would surely rise to General Manager, become a CEO, marry a rich and beautiful woman, and reach the pinnacle of life!

Longzhou Hunter did a quick calculation: at this price, 300 weapons would yield an extra 300,000 copper coins—that was over 300,000 RMB! In just a single moment, even a robber couldn't make money this fast!

Longzhou Hunter lamented, wishing he were the one selling the weapons.

The market reaction seemed to freeze for a moment, but soon, the wealthy players swept up the stock, and the 300 weapons were sold out quickly.

"Boss, hurry up! I don't know if there are any more weapons left!" Longzhou Hunter prayed.

...

Lin Mu's mood at this moment was absolutely fantastic!

After raising the price once and seeing the market's frenzy, he steeled his heart and raised it by another 500 copper coins. He was the seller in a seller's market; the goods were unique, and he was running a monopoly. Not raising the price would be an insult to his own wallet. He had to raise it, haha!

Seeing the endless system notifications of successful trades, Lin Mu felt a wave of refreshment, like eating ice cream in the middle of a scorching summer. He felt refreshed all day!

In this short time, he had earned 2,239,900 copper coins. After deducting the 10% tax, he was left with 2,134,900 copper coins. In an instant, he had gone from a penniless beggar to a tycoon. The joy was something that could only be felt, not described. Haha.

If there were other players, they would be stunned. They only had 89 copper coins to their names, woe is them... Many players seeing this could roughly calculate how much money Lin Mu had made.

Suppressing his wild joy, Lin Mu remained calm and composed. He walked with a swagger and listed the remaining weapons—a total of 1,891 pieces—but set the price at 3,500 copper coins. This was the way of a profiteer, and he embraced it. He felt incredibly satisfied.