Pillar of Yita

”Miss Atira, I can’t afford...” Fang Hong said in a low voice.

But Atira shook her head at him and subtly signaled with her eyes for him to keep watching.

Fang Hong had no choice but to continue watching Tianlan perform.

Tianlan moved slowly across the luxurious equipment, stopping next to an Emerald Bird α-type Magic Guided Reactor, which was also an AE-type reactor produced by the Emerald Bird Workshop of Colin Kingdom, known for its stability and mature design.

She placed her small hand on the reactor’s blue shell and said, ”Then we’ll choose this Magic Guided Reactor.”

The dwarf was taken aback, ”Wait, didn’t you say you wanted to buy—?”

At that point, he suddenly faltered.

Tianlan innocently countered, ”What did we say we wanted to buy?”

The other party was momentarily dumbfounded before realizing he had been played. Although the Emerald Bird α series were also priced in the tens of thousands, as a mature product line, they no longer carried a premium. If sold at a 20% discount, he feared he would bleed money.

”This is against the rules!” the dwarf was somewhat frantic.

”Don’t be so surprised,” the young girl shrugged. ”If you hadn’t been greedy for a small gain, it wouldn’t have come to this, and besides, this can be considered a win-win, right?”

”Win-win?”

Tianlan replied earnestly, ”As a qualified businessman, even unrealized gains must be considered part of the profits. Similarly, under the same discount, your loss compared to ’Central Nerve’ and ’Emerald Bird’ α would be much greater, and we also don’t want to bear such high unnecessary premiums. So rather than both losing, I’d prefer a win-win—”

The dwarf was stunned for a while, then nodded, ”What an inconceivable proposition, but very interesting, very interesting. Alright, you’ve convinced me, I agree to this deal.”

He then looked at Fang Hong and said, in a shrill voice, ”This piece is yours, poor boy.”

Fang Hong felt extremely uneasy. He wanted to tell Tianlan—even tens of thousands of Lysels was more than he could afford. His initial target had been an outdated Type II Magic Guided Reactor, but who knew things would turn out like this?

”If only the Type II reactor were discounted by 20%, the money I saved could go towards buying that Silver Blaze Forest eyeball...”

Fang Hong thought, quite unimpressively.

His face flushed, he didn’t know how to start speaking when, at that moment, Atira stepped forward and said, ”I’ll make the payment.”

Fang Hong was taken aback.

Before he could react, Atira had swiftly completed the transaction, and with both hands, she held up the Emerald Bird α-type Magic Guided Reactor, and with a serious tone, said to Fang Hong, ”This is team property, you must take good care of it, Ade.”

But she winked at him on the side, signaling him to come and take it.

Fang Hong opened his mouth; he knew Atira and the others’ financial situation was actually not good, otherwise, Tianlan wouldn’t have mentioned spending a bit more, and Elf Miss wouldn’t have remarked on making an exception.

Tens of thousands of Lysels was probably all of the small team’s property, which was about the price of this Magic Guided Reactor. And he wasn’t really a team member, so what team property was there to speak of?

He hesitated greatly and said, ”Miss Atira, I...”

But Atira came over, lowered her head and whispered in his ear, ”Don’t rush to refuse, this is a unanimous decision within the team.”

Fang Hong was taken aback again.

”You saved everyone’s life, this is what you deserve,” Atira looked at him, her green eyes exceptionally calm. ”I can make decisions for Parker, and no one else objected.”

”But...”

Atira handed the item to him, ”Take it, everyone faces difficult times, in the Forest a principle everyone must abide by is to help each other to survive, as taught by the Goddess—kindness and helping others.”

Fang Hong felt the weight in his hand, and asked in surprise, ”How did you...?”

”Your privacy settings are set to team visibility, Fuli and the others can see it.”

”Ah?” Fang Hong was startled and quickly opened his privacy settings to check, only to discover that it was indeed set to team visibility by default. His face flushed, thankful that not much was visible, mainly his financial status and the equipment on him.

Atira looked at him and shook her head, sighed: ”You’re just like him, all muddled up, you must be careful in the future not to show your financial status lightly.”

Fang Hong blushed and nodded his head.

But he was thinking, ”Is that ’him’ she mentioned her brother?”

...

The group gradually left the office of the Colin Commercial League.

In the end, the Emerald Bird α-type Magic Guided Reactor was sold for thirty-eight thousand Lysels—the cunning dwarf, although a little shrewd, still possessed some of the merchant’s prompt efficiency, rounding off the figures for them.

Out of a sense of reciprocity, Fang Hong also used the remaining money to buy a Silver Blaze Forest eyeball at the original price from him. This earned him high praises from the dwarf, who even gifted him a set of second-hand Core Crystals usable from level three to seven.

This annoyed Tianlan immensely, who secretly told him that those crystals were nearly scrapped and worthless. However, Fang Hong didn’t mind, as the Magic Guided Reactor he purchased didn’t include a Core Crystal, and the stranger’s unintended action actually saved him in a pinch.

After all, even the cheapest set of new crystals would cost a thousand or two.

”But I never thought you were so capable, Tianlan.” Fang Hong said.

Honestly, he was quite fond of the Emerald Bird α, although it couldn’t compare to the Imperial Workshop’s Magic Guided Reactor, but thirty-eight thousand Lysels was still the most expensive equipment he had ever used.