The Almighty Ring

“What sort of business are you talking about?” Jiang Fei asked. Not that he could not spare some attention to talk to him, but Jiang Fei was just not interested in any Unknown Dungeon or undiscovered dungeon. He did not have the time nor the effort to spare on them.

Right now, the war of Shadow and Light was about to end and he was shouldering the responsibility that was given to him by the Nephilim King himself. Perhaps he could, but only after the entire war was over.

“I heard rumors that you are hunting for Treasured Cauldrons,” Smart Tomato exclaimed.

“Heh. Where did you hear such rumors?” said Jiang Fei. Although Smart Tomato was not there to see his reaction, he could guess that Jiang Fei was more than happy to hear him say those words.

“I got my own sources. So, you want in?” said Smart Tomato.

“Of course! Are you holding it now?” said Jiang Fei, excited.

“Of course not! I know a guy that is willing to sell it off!”

Jiang Fei was delighted. If there was someone willing to sell their Treasure Cauldron for money, Jiang Fei would be willing to buy it with all the gold he had. After all, it was just a mere transaction that would not take too long. He could afford to take a short break from the war.

“However… I have to warn you first. The guy is selling it at a very high price!”

“As long as it’s reasonable!” Jiang Fei immediately retorted. Money was nothing but a piece of paper for him, be it in-game currency of real life paper money, Jiang Fei did not see it as anything else but a means to purchase things.

Evil Laughter, however, was just too greedy and cunning a seller. Instead of naming a price, the man wanted 40% of Empyreal Dragon’s share. If he had instead, demanded money equal or even more than what Empyreal Dragon’s 40% share worth of money, Jiang Fei would buy make a quick withdrawal from the bank and bury the man with cold hard cash.

There was a saying in Chinese culture. Money can always be earned. Time, on the other hand, had to be spent wisely. Jiang Fei had just found a way to earn his money through the Zhang Family, the potion transaction.

“Well… how about my part?” said Smart Tomato, starting to talk about his own profits as a middleman.

“Same old. As long as the transaction makes it through, you will have a nice bonus!” said Jiang Fei. When it came to cultivating friendship, money could be thrown away like flowers during a parade.

“Thanks for your patronage! I knew that big bro Verdure Glider would not disappoint!” cried Smart Tomato. The man was smart. Not only did he demanded a 10% transaction fee from the seller, he had also planned to claim 10% transaction fee from Jiang Fei, at minimum! Hence, once the transaction goes through, the man would earn his reward without putting in any effort. He had literally just pushed a few buttons, made a call, and informed Jiang Fei about it! What effort was there?

“Alright, what Cauldron is it?” Jiang Fei asked.

“It’s the Cauldron of Vitality. The seller demands 8,000,000 RMB!” said Smart Tomato, not hiding any important information to Jiang Fei. He knew that Jiang Fei was a rich man that did not care about money. That was the reason why Jiang Fei would be willing to conduct business with Smart Tomato for so long. The richer the customer was, the lesser they would care about money, only the item and the means to acquire it.

“Eight million?” Jiang Fei pretended to gasp with horror which made Smart Tomato heart sank a little. Jiang Fei did not know how much was a Cauldron worth in the beginning hence he would not know whether that price had been marked up.

Eight million RMB was not a small number. That transaction, if conducted in real life, would trigger many flags with the banks involved. They would thoroughly investigate the origin of the money and might bring some form of trouble to the seller instead of the buyer. Most importantly, eight million RMB is sum that no professional player could earn in such a short amount of time. They could, if they participate in various PvP competitions that had a large prize pool. Much like the recent game competition with a price pool of 34 million USD! With that sum of money, the seller would just retire from gaming and live his life comfortably!

So what if his name would be tainted, he gets to live comfortably with that amount of money! That was how a man could fall to the corruption of money. Some men could resist the temptation of several million but some would break immediately for just a few thousand. The despicable would fall for mere hundreds. The truly desperate would crumble for just tens of dollars. What matters was the amount, not the man.

“What do you think, bro? Is it too much?” said Smart Tomato, carefully threading on thin ice. Eight million RMB is a huge cake for someone like Smart Tomato but for Jiang Fei, eight million was but a few coins in his pocket. He did not even need to wait for the business with the Zhang family to go through, he could just use the few hundreds of million in cash that Han Tianyu gave him a long time ago!

“I’m good with it. Bring that player here quick so that we can make this happen!” Jiang Fei replied.

In no time at all, Smart Tomato and another player came to Jiang Fei and the transaction was made. What was left to do was to kill that player since the Treasured Cauldrons were character bound items. The only way for Jiang Fei to acquire that Cauldron was to kill him.

He made the first attack, hoping that it would close the transaction and secure the Cauldron. However, when Jiang Fei’s sword landed, Jiang Fei had only managed to deal 300,000 damage instead of his usual 1,700,000 damage. That player’s defense was not only strong, but his health points was so huge!

“Sheesh! The Cauldron of Vitality sure is tanky!” Jiang Fei snickered. It was a surprise but an expected one. If the player died in just one strike whilst having the Cauldron of Vitality in his possession, that would only make the Cauldron weak!

After a few consecutive strikes, Jiang Fei stacked up his Ruthless Barrage and after 10 seconds or so, the player was defeated and had dropped the Cauldron of Vitality to the ground. To think that someone could take 10 seconds worth of hits from Jiang Fei… That player was just as tank as an Overlord tier boss!

As soon as the transaction went through, and the money had entered the player’s bank account and processed smoothly, he went off his way and deleted his account immediately. With eight million RMB in his bank, he could live his life his way. Why would he still be attached to the game when he only played it to earn money?

“I do enjoy our little business!” said Jiang Fei as he transferred the agreed transaction fee to Smart Tomato.

“Thanks. The feeling is mutual. By the way, would you be interested in other Cauldrons?” Smart Tomato asked.

“You have another one?!” Jiang Fei cried. The thought of using another eight million RMB to buy another Cauldron made Jiang Fei extremely happy. He then recalled what Han Tianyu had said to him and could relate to it. Any problem that can be solved using money was not a problem at all.

“No, I don’t. I just wanted to know. So, I assume that if there’s another Cauldron in the wind, you would want to get your hands on it?” said Smart Tomato.

“Heh. If you could find me another Cauldron, I will increase your transaction fees by 10% for each successful transaction!” said Jiang Fei. Unbeknownst to Smart Tomato, Jiang Fei was actually cool with spending money like an open hydrant. Right now, there were only two Treasured Cauldrons in the open—the Strength and Agility Caudron. If Smart Tomato could think of a way to persuade People Not People and Evil Laughter to sell their Cauldrons in exchange for cold hard cash, Jiang Fei could not mind spending more than 10 million RMB for each Cauldron!

“Alright then! I’ll try my best! Hope to see you soon!” said Smart Tomato before leaving for the city. With so much money dangling in front of him, Smart Tomato was more than eager to make the transaction happen.

“Hohohoho! Never had I ever thought that you would be so easy to procure!” said Jiang Fei before placing the Cauldron in his inventory. As soon as he did that, 10,000 Vitality points was added to his main stat, increasing his health pool by a huge notch.

“Oh my god! I’m invincible!” Jiang Fei cheered happily.