Chapter 441: Chapter 380 Wandering Merchant: Xiao
Li Zheng didn’t indulge him and drew the Sheathed Sword to start parrying and responding. Next to him, Little Sakura perked up and opened her mouth, causing two pieces of Obsidian to fall from the sky.
The blue-skinned figure simply raised his arms, and with a series of strikes with his spear, easily knocked away the stones summoned by Little Sakura’s Diamond Level ability "Obsidian Fall".
"Damn it... How is this not as strong as those I’ve faced before?" Li Zheng stomped in frustration. This Old Prel is indeed unreliable!
This power surely exceeds the Star Shining Level!
"We gotta scram!"
Li Zheng unfolded his wings and flew like mad in another direction, with Little Sakura following closely and Pink Poli transforming into a transparent film to cover Little Sakura.
As they retreated, the blue-skinned figure surprisingly did not pursue, watching Li Zheng leave with a puzzled look.
"Whoa!"
Li Zheng’s heart pounded wildly like never before. He felt that the blue-skinned figure wasn’t even trying, otherwise, there was no way he would have escaped!
Seeing that the other stopped moving, Li Zheng hesitated for a moment. Instead of rushing to the exit, he also stopped.
"..."
"Could he have misunderstood my intentions?"
Li Zheng recalled carefully, realizing his movement was less like "copying language from my mind" and more like "giving my mind to you".
"Old Prelles, are you sure this guy has the ability to copy language? Don’t end up with him unable to, and me getting stabbed instead."
Li Zheng quietly asked Prelis’ Eye, but there was no response.
"... I’ll trust you one more time; if it doesn’t work, I’m out of here."
Gritting his teeth, Li Zheng risked his life and gestured a few more times in different ways.
Five minutes later, the blue-skinned finally understood what Li Zheng meant, lowered his spear, and pointed at him from afar.
A familiar yet strange sensation appeared in his mind again, as if something was being pulled out of his head.
This feeling was weird, very unsettling.
"Ahem... ahem!" The blue-skinned figure coughed twice before speaking: "So you wanted me to use the language extraction function? I thought you players were so amazing in this session, giving your minds away immediately upon meeting."
Finally able to communicate, Li Zheng felt a sudden urge to cry.
So damn touching!
Over this issue, he was nearly killed!
No, stabbed to death.
"Think logically, it’s obviously impossible!" Li Zheng was speechless, "So, what do you do?"
Without Old Prel’s hint, if another player met him, given the blue-skinned guy’s style, at least one side would end up dead.
"Me?"
The blue-skinned guy realized: "Oh right, I forgot to introduce myself. I am the recently appointed Wandering Merchant, responsible for roaming the Matrix, selling items you might be interested in."
"You can call me... Xiao."
"But are players this weak this session? I’ve been looking around this channel for two days and you’re the first customer I’ve encountered."
Ha, truly a novice on the job.
If you keep strolling around this channel, it won’t be long before you’ve dealt with all players here.
So...
Did they not train you before you started?
Why are you finding clients in possibly the channel with the fewest players in the entire Matrix?
Luckily you came to 995, because even if this number decreases by one, you might wander to death without meeting a single player.
Li Zheng rubbed his forehead: "You could try another channel, like 0000879, where the remaining player count is the highest, your business will surely boom."
"0000879?" Xiao repeated, nodding seriously: "Thank you, I’ll remember that."
"By the way, do you want to see my products? As a thank you, I can give you a special price!"
Look!
Of course I want to see!
That’s what I came for!
I almost got stabbed from behind for this, so not looking would be a huge loss!
"Alright, I hope you have something useful for me." Li Zheng feigned modesty.
"As a Terminal-certified professional Wandering Merchant, all products are top-notch, never substituting good with inferior." Xiao composed himself, his large eyes nearly bulging out.
Lifting a corner of his Cloak, he took out a USB drive and placed it in his palm, introducing: "First, let’s look at the Platinum Level item. This is a rare material blueprint, no more than five are distributed across all channels in the entire Matrix... ahem, and this is the sixth one! You know what this means, right?"
"It means this blueprint is from the Outer City?" Li Zheng squinted his eyes.
"Huh?" Xiao exclaimed in surprise: "You actually know about the Outer City? Wait! First, tell me your name?"
He seemed to have remembered something and hurriedly asked for Li Zheng’s name.
Language memory extraction does not touch on players’ privacy or other information, so Xiao didn’t know Li Zheng’s name.
"I’m Li Zheng." Li Zheng casually reported his name.
"You’re Li Zheng!?" Upon hearing the name, Xiao jumped up as if a cat had stepped on his tail, exclaiming loudly: "You’re the player designated by the Terminal to enter the Outer City early this session, Li Zheng?!"
Xiao’s reaction surprised Li Zheng. From the looks of it, he was quite famous in the Outer City?
"You’ve heard of me?"
"Heard of you? That’s an understatement! Butcher talked endlessly about you after completing a mission, telling everyone. Your designation was already widely known!" Xiao’s excitement seemed a bit over the top.
"Butcher?" Li Zheng curiously asked, "How did he praise me?"
"Him?" Xiao replied: "He praised your generosity."
...
"And then?" Li Zheng felt a bad premonition.
"That’s it! Just about your generosity, willing to give him two armored Dragon Turtles with atavistic bloodline. Do you know how many benefits he gained after gifting those two Dragon Turtles to the Kitchen God?" Xiao shook his head vigorously, "Two pots of delicious thick soup! Two pots! Do you know what two pots of delicious thick soup mean? Enough to buy a basic tier residence at the Outer City’s edge!"
Shit!
Li Zheng finally realized that Butcher’s unfounded friendliness was actually due to the two armored Dragon Turtles?
Is this what’s called being unable to refuse gifts, unable to speak against the mouth that feeds?
No!
Residence?
"Even in the Outer City, do we have to buy residences extra?" Li Zheng caught onto that word, "Aren’t players equipped with capsules? Can’t we just live in capsule residences?"
"Outer City residences must be purchased separately!" Xiao explained: "Capsule residences are currently only for emergency use, roughly equivalent to what you call... tents."
"In your terms, would a bustling city allow you to set up a tent to live in? Not to mention occupying public resources, there’s also the possibility of being penalized by the Law Enforcement Team!"
Upon saying this, Xiao lowered his voice and said to Li Zheng: "Let me tell you a secret, before entering the Outer City, be sure to collect resources as much as possible, and do your utmost, without becoming a Bloody, to expand your capsule space."
"Do as I say, and you’ll thank me in the future!"